HAIL TO THE CHIEF
Inhoud van de DVD
0
The Gettysburg Address 1863 by Lincoln
0.1
Hail to the Chief, Presidential Song.
1
President Theodore Roosevelt on Liberty
1.1
President Theodore Roosevelt speech at the Naval College (Rough Riders)
1.2
The Indomitable Teddy Roosevelt
1.3
The rights of people to rule, speech by Theodore Roosevelt
2
President Woodrow Wilson
2.1
Wilson asks congress to declare war
2.2
Woodrow Wilson’s War message
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Return to Normalcy speech, by Warren G. Harding
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1st presidential Film (1924), by president Coolidge
5
Address at Madison Square Garden in NY (1932) by President Hoover
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Inauguration (1933) of President Franklin Roosevelt
6.1
FDR on the New Deal
6.2
America declares War on Japan, by president Roosevelt
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The Truman Doctrine
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Farwell address to the American people, by President Eisenhower
8.1
Campaign commercial for Eisenhower – I like Ike for President–
8.2
The Domino Theory
9.1
Inauguration (1961) of President John Kennedy
9.2
Cuban Missile Crisis Speech by President John Kennedy
9.3
I have a dream speech by Martin Luther King
9.4
Ich bin ein Berliner speech by President John Kennedy
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State of the Union ‘War on Poverty’ by Lyndon B. Johnson
1
Teksten
0 Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863)
Abraham Lincoln
Four months after the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln joined in a dedication of a national cemetery on a
portion of the battlefield. The speech he delivered that day would become one of the most famous
speeches given by a U.S. President.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived
in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and
so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that
nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this
ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor
power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can
never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish
from the earth.
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1.1 NAVAL WAR COLLEGE ADDRESS
Theodore Roosevelt
Naval War College – Newport, R.I.
June 2, 1897
A CENTURY has passed since Washington wrote "To be prepared for war is the most effectual
means to promote peace". We pay to this maxim the lip loyalty we so often pay to
Washington's words; but it has never sunk deep into our hearts. Indeed of late years many
persons have refused it even the poor tribute of lip loyalty, and prate about the iniquity of war
as if somehow that was a justification for refusing to take the steps which can alone in the long
run prevent war or avert the dreadful disasters it brings in its train. The truth of the maxim is
so obvious to everyman of really far-sighted patriotism that its mere statement seems trite
and useless; and it is not over-creditable to either our intelligence or our love of country that
there should be, as there is, need to dwell upon and amplify such a truism.
IN THIS country there is not the slightest danger of an over-development of warlike spirit, and
there never has been any such danger. In all our history there has never been a time when
preparedness for war was any menace to peace. On the contrary, again and again we have
owed peace to the fact that we were prepared for war; and in the only contest which we have
had with a European power since the Revolution, the War of 1812, the struggle and all its
attendant disasters were due solely to the fact that we were not prepared to face, and were
not ready instantly to resent, an attack upon our honor and interest; while the glorious
triumphs at sea which redeemed that war were due to the few preparations which we had
actually made. We are a great peaceful nation; a nation of merchants and manufacturers, of
farmers and mechanics; a nation of workingmen, who labor incessantly with head or hand. It is
idle to talk of such a nation ever being led into a course of wanton aggression or conflict with
military powers by the possession of a sufficient navy.
THE DANGER is of precisely the opposite character. If we forget that in the last resort we can
only secure peace by being ready and willing to fight for it, we may someday have bitter cause
to realize that a rich nation which is slothful, timid, or unwieldy is an easy prey for any people
which still retains those most valuable of all qualities, the soldierly virtues. We but keep to the
traditions of Washington, to the traditions of all the great Americans who struggled for the
real greatness of America, when we strive to build up those fighting qualities for the lack of
which in a nation, as in an individual, no refinement, no culture, no wealth, no material
prosperity, can atone.PREPARATION for war is the surest guaranty for peace. Arbitration is an
excellent thing, but
ultimately those who wish to see this country at peace with foreign nations will be wise if they
place reliance upon a first-class fleet of first-class battleships rather than on any arbitration
treaty which the wit of man can devise. Nelson said that the British fleet was the best
negotiator in Europe, and there was much truth in the saying. Moreover, while we are sincere
and earnest in our advocacy of peace, we must not forget that an ignoble peace is worse than
any war...
PEACE is a goddess only when she comes with sword girt on thigh. The ship of state can be
steered safely only when it is possible to bring her against any foe with "her leashed thunders
gathering for the leap". A really great people, proud and high-spirited, would face all the
disasters of war rather than purchase that base prosperity which is bought at the price of
national honor. All the great masterful races have been fighting races, and the minute that a
race loses the hard fighting virtues, then, no matter what else it may retain, no matter how
skilled in commerce and finance, in science or art, it has lost its proud right to stand as the
equal of the best. Cowardice in a race, as in an individual, is the unpardonable sin, and a willful
failure to prepare for any danger may in its effects be as bad as cowardice. The timid man who
cannot fight, and the selfish, short-sighted, or foolish man who will not take the steps that will
enable him to fight, stand on almost the same plane...
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THIS NATION cannot stand still if it is to retain its self-respect, and to keep undimmed the
honorable traditions inherited from the men who with the sword founded it and by the sword
preserved it.... No nation should ever wage war wantonly, but no nation should ever avoid it at
the cost of the loss of national honor. A nation should never fight unless forced to; but it
should always be ready to fight. The mere fact that it is ready will generally spare it the
necessity of fighting....
IF IN THE FUTURE we have war, it will almost certainly come because of some action, or lack of
action, on our part in the way of refusing to accept responsibilities at the proper time, or
failing to prepare for war when war does not threaten. An ignoble peace is even worse than an
unsuccessful war; but an unsuccessful war would leave behind it a legacy of bitter memories
which would hurt our national development for a generation to come......
1.3 The Rights of the People to Rule
Theodore Roosevelt
March 20, 1912
Carnegie Hall New York City
(excerpts)
THE great fundamental issue now before the Republican party and before our people can be stated
briefly. It is: Are the American people fit to govern themselves, to rule themselves, to control
themselves? I believe they are. My opponents do not. I believe in the right of the people to rule. I
believe the majority of the plain people of the United States will, day in and day out, make fewer
mistakes in governing themselves than any smaller class or body of men, no matter what their
training, will make in trying to govern them. I believe, again, that the American people are, as a
whole, capable of self-control and of learning by their mistakes. Our opponents pay lip-loyalty to this
doctrine; but they show their real beliefs by the way in which they champion every device to make
the nominal rule of the people a sham.
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2.2 Proclamation 1364
Woodrow Wilson
(April 6, 1917)
Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim
to all whom it may concern that a state of war exists between the United States and the Imperial
German Government; and I do specially direct all officers, civil or military, of the United States that
they exercise vigilance and zeal in the discharge of the duties incident to such a state of war; and I
do, moreover, earnestly appeal to all American citizens that they, in loyal devotion to their country,
dedicated from its foundation to the principles of liberty and justice, uphold the laws of the land, and
give undivided and willing support to those measures which may be adopted by the constitutional
authorities in prosecuting the war to a successful issue and in obtaining a secure and just peace;
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3 Return to Normalcy Speech
Warren G Harding
May 14, 1920
There isn’t anything the matter with the world’s civilization except that humanity is viewing it
through a vision impaired in a cataclysmal war. Poise has been disturbed and nerves have been
racked, and fever has rendered men irrational; sometimes there have been draughts upon the
dangerous cup of barbarity and men have wandered far from safe paths, but the human procession
still marches in the right direction.
Here, in the United States, we feel the reflex, rather than the hurting wound, but we still think
straight, and we mean to act straight, and mean to hold firmly to all that was ours when war involved
us, and seek the higher attainments which are the only compensations that so supreme a tragedy
may give mankind.
America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but
restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the
dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment
in triumphant nationality. It is one thing to battle successfully against world domination by military
autocracy, because the infinite God never intended such a program, but it is quite another thing to
revise human nature and suspend the fundamental laws of life and all of life’s acquirements.
The world called for peace, and has its precarious variety. American demands peace, formal as well
as actual, and means to have it, regardless of political exigencies and campaign issues. If it must be a
campaign issue, we shall have peace and discuss it afterward, because the actuality is imperative,
and the theory is only illusive. Then we may set our own house in order. We challenged the proposal
that an armed autocrat should dominate the world; it ill becomes us to assume that a rhetorical
autocrat shall direct all humanity.
This republic has its ample tasks. If we put an end to false economics which lure humanity to utter
chaos, ours will be the commanding example of world leadership today. If we can prove a
representative popular government under which a citizenship seeks what it may do for the
government rather than what the government may do for individuals, we shall do more to make
democracy safe for the world than all armed conflict ever recorded. The world needs to be reminded
that all human ills are not curable by legislation, and that quantity of statutory enactment and excess
of government offer no substitute for quality of citizenship.
The problems of maintained civilization are not to be solved by a transfer of responsibility from
citizenship to government, and no eminent page in history was ever drafted by the standards of
mediocrity. More, no government is worthy of the name which is directed by influence on the one
hand, or moved by intimidation on the other.
Nothing is more vital to this republic to-day than clear and intelligent understanding. Men must
understand one another, and government and men must understand each other. For emergence
from the wreckage of war, for the clarification of fevered minds, we must all give and take, we must
both sympathize and inspire, but must learn griefs and aspirations, we must seek the common
grounds of mutuality.
There can be no disguising everlasting truths. Speak it plainly, no people ever recovered from the
distressing waste of war except through work and denial. There is no other way. We shall make no
recovery in seeking how little men can do, our restoration lies in doing the most which is reasonably
possible for individuals to do. Under production and hateful profiteering are both morally criminal,
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and must be combated. America can not be content with minimums of production to-day, the crying
need is maximums. If we may have maximums of production we shall have minimums of cost, and
profiteering will be speeded to its deserved punishment. Money values are not destroyed, they are
temporarily distorted. War wasted hundreds of billions, and depleted world store-houses, and
cultivated new demands, and it hardened selfishness and gave awakening touch to elemental greed.
Humanity needs renewed consecrations to what we call fellow citizenship.
Out of the supreme tragedy must come a new order and a higher order, and I gladly acclaim it. But
war has not abolished work, has not established the processes of seizure or the rule of physical
might. Nor has it provided a governmental panacea for human ills, or the magic touch that makes
failure a success. Indeed, it has revealed no new reward for idleness, no substitute for the sweat of a
man’s face in the contest for subsistence and acquirement.
There is no new appraisal for the supremacy of law. That is a thing surpassing and eternal. A
contempt for international law wrought the supreme tragedy, contempt for our national and state
laws will rend the glory of the republic, and failure to abide the proven laws of to-day’s civilization
will lead to temporary chaos.
No one need doubt the ultimate result, because immutable laws have challenged the madness of all
experiment. But we are living to-day, and it is ours to save ourselves from colossal blunder and its
excessive penalty.
My best judgment of America’s needs is to steady down, to get squarely on our feet, to make sure of
the right path. Let’s get out of the fevered delirium of war, with the hallucination that all the money
in the world is to be made in the madness of war and the wildness of its aftermath. Let us stop to
consider that tranquility at home is more precious than peace abroad, and that both our good
fortune and our eminence are dependent on the normal forward stride of all the American people.
Nothing is so imperative to-day as efficient production and efficient transportation, to adjust the
balances in our own transactions and to hold our place in the activities of the world. The relation of
real values is little altered by the varying coins of exchange, and that American is blind to actualities
who thinks we can add to cost of production without impairing our hold in world markets. Our part is
more than to hold, we must add to what we have.
It is utter folly to talk about reducing the cost of living without restored and increased efficiency or
production on the one hand and more prudent consumption on the other. No law will work the
miracle. Only the American people themselves can solve the situation. There must be the conscience
of capital in omitting profiteering, there must be the conscience of labor in efficiently producing,
there must be a public conscience in restricting outlay and promoting thrift.
Sober capital must make appeal to intoxicated wealth, and thoughtful labor must appeal to the
radical who has no thought of the morrow, to effect the needed understanding. Exacted profits,
because the golden stream is flooding, and pyramided wages to meet a mounting cost that must be
halted, will speed us to disaster just as sure as the morrow comes, and we ought to think soberly and
avoid it. We ought to dwell in the heights of good fortune for a generation to come, and I pray that
we will, but we need a benediction of wholesome common sense to give us that assurance.
I pray for sober thinking in behalf of the future of America. No worth-while republic ever went the
tragic way to destruction, which did not begin the downward course through luxury of life and
extravagance of living. More, the simple living and thrifty people will be the first to recover from a
war’s waste and all its burdens, and our people ought to be the first recovered. Herein is greater
opportunity than lies in alliance, compact or supergovernment. It is America’s chance to lead in
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example and prove to the world the reign of reason in representative popular government where
people think who assume to rule.
No overall fad will quicken our thoughtfulness. We might try repairs on the old clothes and simplicity
for the new. I know the tendency to wish the thing denied, I know the human hunger for a new thrill,
but denial enhances the ultimate satisfaction, and stabilizes our indulgence. A blasé people is the
unhappiest in all the world.
It seems to me singularly appropriate to address this membership an additional word about
production. I believe most cordially in the home market first for the American product. There is no
other way to assure our prosperity. I rejoice in our normal capacity to consume our rational,
healthful consumption.
We have protected our home market with war’s barrage. But the barrage has lifted with the passing
of the war. The American people will not heed to-day, because world competition is not yet restored,
but the morrow will soon come when the world will seek our markets and our trade balances, and
we must think of America first or surrender our eminence.
The thought is not selfish. We want to share with the world in seeking becoming restoration. But
peoples will trade and seek wealth in their exchanges, and every conflict in the adjustment of peace
was founded on the hope of promoting trade conditions. I heard expressed, before the Foreign
Relations Committee of the Senate, the aspirations of nationality and the hope of commerce to
develop and expand aspiring peoples. Knowing that those two thoughts are inspiring all humanity, as
they have since civilization began, I can only marvel at the American who consents to surrender
either. There may be conscience, humanity and justice in both, and without them the glory of the
republic is done. I want to go on, secure and unafraid, holding fast to the American inheritance and
confident of the supreme American fulfillment.
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4 President on Taxes and Government Spending
Calvin Coolidge
[This] country needs every ounce of its energy to restore itself. The costs of government are all
assessed upon the people.
This means that the farmer is doomed to provide a certain amount of money out of the sale of his
produce, no matter how low the price, to pay his taxes. The manufacturer, the professional man, the
clerk, must do the same from their income. The wage earner, often at a higher rate when compared
to his earning, makes his contribution, perhaps not directly but indirectly, in the advanced cost of
everything he buys.
The expenses of government reach everybody.
Taxes take from everyone a part of his earnings and force everyone to work for a certain part of his
time for the government.
When we come to realize that the yearly expenses of the governments of this country…the
stupendous sum of about 7 billion, 500 million dollars — we get…700 million dollars — is needed by
the national government, and the remainder by local governments.
Such a sum is difficult to comprehend. It represents all the pay of five million wage earners receiving
five dollars a day, working 300 days in the year. If the government should add 100 million dollars of
expense, it would represent four days more work of these wage earners. These are some of the
reasons why I want to cut down public expense.
I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government — and more for themselves.
I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom.
Until we can reestablish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the
people, we are bound to suffer a very severe and distinct curtailment of our liberty.
These results are not fanciful; they are not imaginary. They are grimly actual and real, reaching into
every household in the land. They take from each home annually an average of over 300 dollars —
and taxes must be paid. They are not a voluntary contribution to be met out of surplus earnings.
They are a stern necessity. They come first.
It is only out of what is left, after they are paid, that the necessities of food, clothing, and shelter can
be provided and the comforts of home secured, or the yearnings of the soul — for a broader and
more abundant life gratified.
When the government affects a new economy, it grants everybody a life pension with which to raise
the standard of existence. It increases the value of everybody’s property, raises the scale of
everybody’s wages.
One of the greatest favors that can be bestowed upon the American people is economy in
government.
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5 Address at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Herbert Hoover
October 31, 1932
We are told by the opposition that we must have a change, that we must have a new deal. It is not
the change that comes from normal development of national life to which I object or you object, but
the proposal to alter the whole foundations of our national life which have been builded through
generations of testing and struggle, and of the principles upon which we have made this Nation. The
expressions of our opponents must refer to important changes in our economic and social system
and our system of government; otherwise they would be nothing but vacuous words. And I realize
that in this time of distress many of our people are asking whether our social and economic system is
incapable of that great primary function of providing security and comfort of life to all of the firesides
of 25 million homes in America, whether our social system provides for the fundamental
development and progress of our people, and whether our form of government is capable of
originating and sustaining that security and progress.
This question is the basis upon which our opponents are appealing to the people in their fear and
their distress. They are proposing changes and so-called new deals which would destroy the very
foundations of the American system of life.
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6. First Inaugural Address
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
(March 4, 1933)
President Hoover, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends:
This is a day of national consecration. And I am certain that on this day my fellow Americans expect
that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the
present situation of our people impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole
truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today.
This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me
assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning,
unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour
of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support
of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that
support to leadership in these critical days.
In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God,
only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has
fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are
frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers
find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.
More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally
great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.
Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts.
Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not
afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have
multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the
supply. Primarily this is because rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed through their
own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and have abdicated.
Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected
by the hearts and minds of men.
True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by
failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by
which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations,
pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers.
They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.
The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now
restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which
we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of
creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase
of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true
destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.
Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the
abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by
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the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking
and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish
wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on
the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it
cannot live. Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action,
and action now.
Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely
and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself,
treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this
employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of ur
natural resources.
(…)
6.1 FDR: The New Deal
Excerpts of the inauguration speech.
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6.2 America declares War on Japan (1941)
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Address to Congress Requesting a Declaration of War (December 8, 1941)
Mr. Vice President, and Mr. Speaker, and Members of the Senate and House of Representatives:
Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was
suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
The United States was at peace with that Nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in
conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the
Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American
Island of Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our
Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it
seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war
or of armed attack.
It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was
deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese
Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and
expressions of hope for continued peace.
The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and
military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition American
ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.
Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island. And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway
Island.
Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The
facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already
formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our Nation.
As Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our
defense.
But always will our whole Nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.
No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in
their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe that I interpret the will of the
Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but
will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.
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Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in
grave danger.
With confidence in our armed forces—with the unbounding determination of our people—we will
gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.
I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday,
December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.
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8 Farewell Address
Dwight David Eisenhower
(January 17, 1961)
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready
for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in
peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American
makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no
longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a
permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and
women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security
more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the
American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual--is felt in every city,
every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this
development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and
livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence,
whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise
of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.
We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the
proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods
and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been
the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and
costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal
government.
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9.1 Inaugural Address (January 20, 1961)
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
In his Inaugural Address, Kennedy pledges to support liberty, commit to allies, avoid tyranny, aid the
underprivileged throughout the world, and strengthen the Americas. Kennedy challenges Communist
nations to engage in a dialogue with the United States to ensure world peace and stability. The
speech is best known for the words: "ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do
for your country."
Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon,
President Truman, Reverend Clergy, fellow citizens:
We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom—symbolizing an end as well as
a beginning—signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the
same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago.
The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of
human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our
forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from
the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.
(…)
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending
freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it. I do
not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The
energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who
serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for
your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do
for the freedom of man.
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9.2 Cuban Missle Crisis Speech
John F. Kennedy
JFK speaks on Cuban Missile Crisis - "Soviet military buildup on the island of Cuba" - "a strict
quarantine on all offensive military equipment has been initiated" - "clandestine, reckless"
Good evening, my fellow citizens:
This Government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military buildup
on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a
series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these
bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere.
(…)
Only last Thursday, as evidence of this rapid offensive buildup was already in my hand, Soviet Foreign
Minister Gromyko told me in my office that he was instructed to make it clear once again, as he said
his government had already done, that Soviet assistance to Cuba, and I quote, "pursued solely the
purpose of contributing to the defense capabilities of Cuba," that, and I quote him, "training by
Soviet specialists of Cuban nationals in handling defensive armaments was by no means offensive,
and if it were otherwise," Mr. Gromyko went on, "the Soviet Government would never become
involved in rendering such assistance."
That statement also was false.
Acting, therefore, in the defense of our own security and of the entire Western Hemisphere, and
under the authority entrusted to me by the Constitution as endorsed by the Resolution of the
Congress, I have directed that the following initial steps be taken immediately:
To halt this offensive buildup a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment
to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation or port will, if
found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back. (…)
It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any
nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a
full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union. (…)
I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless, and provocative
threat to world peace and to stable relations between our two nations. I call upon him further to
abandon this course of world domination, and to join in an historic effort to end the perilous arms
race and to transform the history of man. (…)
Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right; not peace at the expense of
freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere, and, we hope, around the world.
God willing, that goal will be achieved. (…)
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9.3 I have a dream
M.L. King
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of
former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of
injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and
justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged
by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his
lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama
little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as
sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made
low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith,
we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of
brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together,
to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new
meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
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Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and
every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's
children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join
hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!3
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9.4 "Ich bin ein Berliner" Speech (June 26, 1963)
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
In Berlin, Germany, President Kennedy commends Berliners on their spirit and dedication to
democracy and expresses his solidarity with them through the words "as a free man, I take pride in
the words Ich bin ein Berliner! (I am a Berliner)."
I am proud to come to this city as the guest of your distinguished Mayor, who has symbolized
throughout the world the fighting spirit of West Berlin. And I am proud to visit the Federal Republic
with your distinguished Chancellor who for so many years has committed Germany to democracy
and freedom and progress, and to come here in the company of my fellow American, General Clay,
who has been in this city during its great moments of crisis and will come again if ever needed.
Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was "civis Romanus sum." Today, in the world of
freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner."
I appreciate my interpreter translating my German!
There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great
issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some
who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some
who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And
there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to
make economic progress. Lass' sich nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.
Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up
to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. I want to say, on behalf of my countrymen,
who live many miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant from you, that they
take the greatest pride that they have been able to share with you, even from a distance, the story of
the last 18 years. I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with
the vitality and the force, and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin. While the
wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of. the Communist system, for all the
world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against
history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and
brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together.
What is true of this city is true of Germany—real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as
long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free
choice. In 18 years of peace and good faith, this generation of Germans has earned the right to be
free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all
people. You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main. So let me ask you,
as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the
freedom merely of this city of Berlin, or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom
everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all
mankind.
Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can
look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent
of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West
Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.
All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride
in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!"
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10 We shall overcome (Civil Right Bill)
President Lyndon B. Johnson
March 15, 1965
All Americans must have the privileges of citizenship, regardless of race, and they are going to have
those privileges of citizenship regardless of race.
But I would like to caution you and remind you that to exercise these privileges takes much more
than just legal rights. It requires a trained mind and a healthy body. It requires a decent home and
the chance to find a job and the opportunity to escape from the clutches of poverty.
Of course people cannot contribute to the nation if they are never taught to read or write; if their
bodies are stunted from hunger; if their sickness goes untended; if their life is spent in hopeless
poverty, just drawing a welfare check.
So we want to open the gates to opportunity. But we're also going to give all our people, black and
white, the help that they need to walk through those gates. My first job after college was as a
teacher in Cotulla, Texas, in a small Mexican-American school. Few of them could speak English and I
couldn't speak much Spanish. My students were poor and they often came to class without breakfast
and hungry. And they knew even in their youth the pain of prejudice. They never seemed to know
why people disliked them, but they knew it was so because I saw it in their eyes.
I often walked home late in the afternoon after the classes were finished wishing there was more
that I could do. But all I knew was to teach them the little that I knew, hoping that I might help them
against the hardships that lay ahead. And somehow you never forget what poverty and hatred can
do when you see its scars on the hopeful face of a young child.
I never thought then, in 1928, that I would be standing here in 1965. It never even occurred to me in
my fondest dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students,
and to help people like them all over this country. But now I do have that chance.
And I'll let you in on a secret--I mean to use it. And I hope that you will use it with me.
This is the richest, most powerful country which ever occupied this globe. The might of past empires
is little compared to ours. But I do not want to be the president who built empires, or sought
grandeur, or extended dominion.
I want to be the president who educated young children to the wonders of their world. I want to be
the President who helped to feed the hungry and to prepare them to be taxpayers instead of tax
eaters. I want to be the President who helped the poor to find their own way and who protected the
right of every citizen to vote in every election. I want to be the President who helped to end hatred
among his fellow men and who promoted love among the people of all races, all regions and all
parties. I want to be the President who helped to end war among the brothers of this earth.
And so, at the request of your beloved Speaker and the Senator from Montana, the Majority Leader,
the Senator from Illinois, the Minority Leader, Mr. McCullock and other members of both parties, I
came here tonight, not as President Roosevelt came down one time in person to veto a bonus bill;
not as President Truman came down one time to urge passage of a railroad bill, but I came down
here to ask you to share this task with me. And to share it with the people that we both work for.
I want this to be the Congress--Republicans and Democrats alike--which did all these things for all
these people. Beyond this great chamber--out yonder--in fifty states are the people that we serve.
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Who can tell what deep and unspoken hopes are in their hearts tonight as they sit there and listen?
We all can guess, from our own lives, how difficult they often find their own pursuit of happiness,
how many problems each little family has. They look most of all to themselves for their future, but I
think that they also look to each of us.
Above the pyramid on the Great Seal of the United States it says in latin, "God has favored our
undertaking." God will not favor everything that we do. It is rather our duty to divine His will. But I
cannot help but believe that He truly understands and that He really favors the undertaking that we
begin here tonight.
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