SUMMARY - Commencement Address at American University - President John F. Kennedy - Washington, D.C. June 10, 1963 PDF

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SUMMARY - Commencement Address at American University - President John F. Kennedy - Washington, D.C. June 10, 1963

Kennedy says he wants peace. But not a Pax Americana enforced by the American army or the peace of the grave. He wants a genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life worth living. JFK expresses his opinion that war makes no sense in modern days, when a bomb can is ten times as explosive as all the bombs dropped by the USA in WWII. He believes that spending so much in weapons helps to maintain peace, but also that it is not the most effective method to achieve this. JFK believes that peace with the USSR is possible and desirable. He holds the view that those who see the world doomed are pessimistic as well as dangerous. Putting it in his famous words; “Our problems are manmade-therefore, they can be solved by man”. Kennedy understands peace as a process, as something that has to be achieved as a result of a gradual process. The key for peace is, according to him, not mutual love but mutual tolerance. He is aware of the fact that there is a gulf between communism and capitalism and that American detest the former. However, he says that this is not a reason for not admiring Soviet culture and science, for example. JFK stresses that the fact that both the USSR and the USA detest war and they have never fought each other. He also points out that the money employed in weapons could be better employed in another field but distrust makes both countries produce more and more arms. He stresses the common features of the American people and the Soviet people and pronounces his famous words; “We all inhabit this small

planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal”. He thinks that if the USSR refrains from intervening in other states ’ affairs peace would be much easier. He concludes his speech promising that the USA do not want a war and will never start one....