Stacey Abrams: 'You need to know what you believe', American University School of Public Affairs - 2019

11 May 2019, American University School of Public Affairs, Washington DC, USA

[Excerpt, full transcript to come]

Stacey Abrams: Thank you. You guys are too nice to me, I may not go home. To President Burwell, to Provost Meyers, Dean Wilkins, trustees, faculty administration, family, friends, and the graduating class of 2019, thank you for having me here today. You're welcome.

As a fellow graduate in the work of public affairs, I've had more than 20 years to think about what I intended to do with my degree and where I am today. And to cut to the chase, I had no idea this is what was going to happen. I didn't imagine any of the outcomes of the last six months and I knew precious little about the proceeding 20 years, and that's entirely okay. I certainly thought I knew what was to come.

Some of you may know from my book, Lead From the Outside, when I was 18, I had a very bad breakup with a very mean boy. He said nasty things about me and how I was not going to find love because I was too committed to doing other things. I possibly said inappropriate things back to him, I don't remember that part of the conversation, but what I do remember was the sense that I was going to show him. I was going to accomplish many things and I was going to control the world and make his life very, very difficult.

And so I took myself to the computer lab at Spelman College. Thank you. This is back in 1992, so when I turned on the computer, I did not log onto the internet. I logged onto Lotus 1-2-3. I began to type out all of the things I intended to accomplish for the next 40 years. I wanted to be mayor of Atlanta. I wanted to be somewhere near Oprah. I wanted to be a writer. I knew that the way I could get those things done was to write it down, and over the last 20 years, I have tended my spreadsheet like Gollum tends his precious.

I have looked at it and cultivated it. I've made changes and edits. I've erased things and ignored others. And along the way I realized I had no idea what I was talking about. Because, you see, I made a plan for my life, but what I was trying to do was prepare to succeed. And that's what I want to talk to you about today. Because you don't have to plan your life the way I did, but in the process we have to prepare to succeed, and we do that by knowing what we believe, knowing what we want, and knowing that sometimes it might not work. First you need to know what you believe.

Our ambitions, our decisions, our responses are shaped by what we hold to be true. Beyond the easy labels of party and ideology are the deeply held convictions that shape those labels. But too often adherence to conservative or progressive, to liberal or moderate, to Democrat or Republican or Independent, to being pro this or anti that becomes an excuse for lazy thinking. It becomes an excuse for hostile action. And for today, at least, I urge you to set aside your labels and explore what your principles say about the world you wish to serve.

Because beliefs are our anchors. If they aren't, we run the risk of opportunism making choices because others do so not because we should. But those anchors should never weight us down. They shouldn't weight on our capacity for thoughtful engagement and reasonable compromise. For seven years, I served as the democratic leader in the House of Representatives and they told me about my ability to be successful because my title was minority leader. There was to be no confusion that I wasn't going to get there by myself. What they wanted me to understand, what the system is designed to do, is force compromise and force our beliefs to be lived.

And that's why I was able to work with a Republican governor to push forward the strongest package of criminal justice reform in Georgia history, and I would argue in American history. Because my belief said ... Thank you. Because my belief said that I had to set aside labels for the work that we were going to do together, and it worked. We also have to understand that it's critical to know what you believe because public policy is complicated. We're balancing the needs and desires and the arguments of many a cacophony of demands that all seem to have merit. And as leaders, you represent not only those who share your core values, but people who despise all that you hold dear. Therefore, your beliefs, your principles must be concrete and fundamental and you have to know what they are.

Be willing to distinguish between a core belief and an idea you just like a lot or it sounded good when you read it on Twitter. As public servants, you will impose your beliefs through policy and through action. So take the time to deeply examine those notions that you would call your own. Be certain you would ask others not only to share those principles, but as leaders that you would deny access or restrict someone's freedom to enforce that belief because fundamentally that's what we do. And no ancestral teachings or religious tendencies are not sufficient cause for belief. You can clap for that, it's okay.

As provost Meyers pointed out, I'm the daughter of not one but two United Methodist ministers, and one of the darkest days of my life was the day my parents said they weren't taking us to heaven with them. It was really harsh. We were coming back from church and we made some comment and my mom turned around and said, "Look, you've got to figure out what you believe because we can't take you with us." What she was telling us, what my father said even less kindly, was that we had to examine what we wanted to be true and how we were going to live our lives. That they were there as guideposts, but they were never going to be able to make our decisions for us. They wanted us to understand that we needed to hold our core beliefs because our beliefs would shape the world we would bring forth.

So if you believe something, make sure you mean it. Once you know what you believe, try not to believe in too much. I am loathe to follow folks who are absolutely certain they know everything. The ones who have a definite opinion about every headline, every decision, and they can give you the answer before you ask the question. And if you can't figure out who in your circle is that person, it might be you. But you see, beliefs shouldn't be on everything. Public policy usually isn't good or evil. Sometimes it's not even that interesting.

It's mundane and routine and it cuts across neighborhoods and nations and ideologies. But when your lens only allows for a single myopic focus, when you've already made your decision before you know the question, then you do not have the capacity to be a leader. Because you leave no room for debate and you miss the true role of government and public policy and you miss the chance to learn and become a better public servant.

Now, I do have core beliefs, but I don't have an unshakable position on every issue. I do not believe that taxes are good or evil. I do believe that poverty is an abomination and that freedom of speech must be held sacrosanct and that we have to restore justice to criminal justice. I believe climate change is real, but I don't believe there's one answer to solving the problem. And I understand most of all that I have to accept that I may not know enough about an issue to actually render judgment, which is why I have to study and read everything I can, especially counterarguments to my own position.

That's why we must always seek to understand what others believe and why. I had a good friend in the state legislature, his name was Bobby Franklin. Bobby and I both agreed that we were from Georgia. That was about it. Bobby introduced legislation every year that I would have opposed every year. But we sat together and we talked together and we learned about one another. And in the process we were able to aid one another and work together on a bill. It was about civil asset forfeiture, which is a deeply scintillating topic.

But when Bobby and I introduced an amendment together, it was so startling and surprising to the body that the speaker actually called it up without falling the process and we think it passed just because people were too stunned to say no. But it was because I listened to Bobby's concerns and he listened to mine that we were able to figure out how to address an issue that affected his rural white community and my urban black community. We were able to move beyond our positions and hear each other's arguments and find a solution together.

The truest road to good decision making is acknowledging that the other guy might have a point, even if it's not yours. And if it turns out that the new information alters your thinking, the terrifying reality may be that you are accused of flip-flopping. I know, that's the death sentence to any ambition. But as a society that seeks to champion knowledge, we must accept that a person can change where he or she believes as long as that change is authentic and grounded in a true examination of philosophy and reality. Changing who you are to accommodate others or to advance your career, that is craven and is not worthy of real leaders.

But hear me clearly in this day and age, when evolution is based on investigation and interrogation, when people are willing to admit they made a mistake and are willing to write their wrongs, then that should be celebrated and welcomed. It makes us smarter. It makes us better. It makes us stronger. As you enter the world of public affairs for the first time, or on a return ticket, be careful to know if you are evolving or caving in because the internet will never let you forget. And whether you leave here destined to be an administrator or a policy maker or an active citizen, always keep clear in your mind the difference between principle and policy between belief and behavior.

Policy is what we should do. Principle, belief is why we do it. So know what you believe, know why you believe it, and be willing to understand the other side. So know what you believe and the next, know what you want. Some of you may have heard that in 2018, I ran for governor of Georgia. And the first few weeks after I announced my candidacy, I did what you're supposed to do in politics, which is reach out to your friends and your family to start to raise the absurd amounts of money it takes to try to become an elected official.

My family has no money, so I was mostly calling friends. And in the course of this process, I raised over $42 million, the most raised by any candidate in Georgia history. But it didn't start out that way. You see, I started calling friends, people who'd invested in me when I ran legislature in 2006, people who invested in me when I stood to become minority leader, people who supported the new Georgia project and organization I started to register more than 300,000 people of color in the state of Georgia. People who stood with me at every turn. But over and over again I would call and I would hear, "Stacey, we think you're so talented. Stacey, I think you're so qualified, but you're a black woman."

I was like, "I know." But they whispered it to me as though they were giving me a terminal diagnosis. Because you see, they had decided what I was capable of based on what they saw, not based on what they knew. People I'd known for years kept telling me that I wasn't ready for this. In fact, it was suggested that I support the other person running and just ask for a role in her administration. That didn't work for me then and it doesn't work for me now. I was told that I needed to wait until Georgia was ready for me. I was told to wait my turn.

And after a while listening to people who supported me for so many years, I started to wonder if they were correct. If maybe I was pushing too far too fast, if maybe what I wanted wasn't real or possible. I listened to their doubts and I started to internalize their diminution of my capacity until I reminded myself that I knew what I wanted and I had a plan to get it. Because when you aim high, when you stretch beyond your easiest conceptions, the temptation to pare back your ambitions will be strong, especially when there are those who don't share them. Hear me clearly. Do not edit your desires.

You are here in this space. You are entering this world to want what you want regardless of how big the dream. You may have to get there in stages. You may stumble along the way, but the journey is worth the work. And do not allow logic to be an excuse for setting low expectations. You know, this occurs when we allow ourselves to be less because we think if it were possible someone would've done it before, but the fact is no one ... The fact is no one can tell you who you are, and the fact that no one has done it before doesn't mean it can't be done. I became the first black woman to be a major party nominee for governor in our nation's 242 year history.

Now, let's be clear. I realize I am not the governor. That's a topic for another day. But what I do not ask is why hasn't anyone else done it? What I ask is how do I get it? Because if we have the ambition to save our world, we have to ask how we do it, not why it hasn't been done before. That's why you're here and that's what you're going forth to do. How? By writing it down and making a plan. If it's simply an idea in your head, it's easy to forget. It's easy to let it float away in a femoral idea that doesn't have concrete meaning and doesn't have concrete action.

If you just see a title on a roster, but you don't make a plan to get there, you'll be regretting it for the rest of your life. If you know what you want, force the question by plotting how you get there. By knowing what you believe, you have the reason and by knowing what you want, you can start to draw the map. But if you know what you believe and you know what you want, you need to be prepared to know it might not work. Otherwise, known as Stacey 2019. Because the thing is our beliefs may close off avenues that are available to others. Our ambitions may be too audacious or too different for traditional paths, and our very persons may challenge the status quo more than the quo is ready to accommodate. Plus, you might just screw it up and have to try again. But opportunity is not a straight road, and to take full advantage, we must be prepared to fail, to stumble, or to win in a way that looks nothing like you imagined.

For those of us who are not guaranteed access, we must realize that not all worlds operate the same. We are required to discover the hidden formulas to success and too often opportunity looks nothing like we expected. But to hack this very real possibility, look for unusual points of entry. I began my career by learning how to do the various jobs it would take to get me to my ultimate goals. I needed to know how to manage a team, how to raise money, how to make tough choices. So, I volunteered to fundraise when no one else wanted to. I showed up in places I wasn't expected and I asked to do the jobs that others avoided. Each of you harbors a dream that seems outsized, maybe even too big to admit to yourself. You see, I've talked about my dreams publicly and I've been discouraged for doing so that I wanted to be the governor of Georgia, that one day I intend to be the President of the United States and that in between-

But in between my responsibility is to do the work to make those things real, not only for myself, but for the person who was sitting there thinking, "I want that too," but they're afraid to say it aloud. We lead not only for ourselves, we lead for others and our stumbles are opportunities to lay a path for others to follow. And we have to that knowing what we believe in, knowing what we want means that sometimes there are going to be obstacles to us getting there. But I will tell you that if you are willing to put in the effort to accept the grunt work that lets you prove your mettle to dare to want more than you previously imagined, it will come. It may not be in the form, in the shape that you expected, but sometimes it leads you to standing on a stage addressing a group of people you didn't know you'd have a chance to meet because your stumble led you into falling into new opportunities.

To get there, I need you to utilize your networks. You are joining an extraordinary community of graduates from the American University. While you may not know everyone, most of the help you need is only a few degrees away. Ask for it. And if you don't get what you need, ask for it again. Broaden your understanding of who knows whom and who can help, and broaden your understanding of where power actually lies. Don't ignore the IT guy or the administrative assistant, the housekeeping staff or that mid-level associate you haven't quite figured out what they do.

Because the thing of it is, it's the administrative assistant who can squeeze you on to that calendar when you're trying to get in to see someone. It's the janitor who can open that office when you forgot to do something that needs to be done before anyone notices. And it's the person, the intern that you ignore who can help you finish that last minute project. Regardless of status, those who share our space are part of our networks. Show them respect and they can show you the way. But when you learned that it might not work, embrace the fail and search for new opportunities.

In the wake of my campaign for governor, for about 10 days, I wallowed in my despair and then I reminded myself of why I got into this in the first place. I grew up in poverty in Mississippi, a working class poverty my mom called the genteel poor. We had no money, but we watch PBS and we read books. I grew up in a family where my parents would wake us up on Saturdays to go and serve, to take us to soup kitchens and homeless shelters, to juvenile justice facilities and nursing homes. And when we would point out that the lights were off at home, that we didn't have running water, my mother would remind us that no matter how little we had, there was someone with less and our job was to serve that person. My dad would just say having nothing is not an excuse for doing nothing.

I ran for governor of Georgia because I believe in a better world. I believe that we can educate our children and guarantee economic security. I believe that we can provide access to justice and a clean environment. I believe more as possible for all of us. I believe you can center communities of color and acknowledge the marginalized and not exclude those who have opportunity and access. I believe that we can be an inclusive society without relegating ourselves to notions of identity as a bad thing, but instead, using identity to say we see one another, we see your obstacles and we will make you better and stronger because of it. That is why I ran.

And so, in the wake of not becoming governor of Georgia, I had the opportunity to sit back and wallow, to worry and to fret, or to simply be angry. But instead I decided to found Fair Fight Action because I believe voter suppression is real and the threat to our democracy and we will fight for voter rights and for electoral integrity because I believe in the United States of America. That is what we're going to do. I also launched Fair Count because I know the 2020 census is the story of America for the next decade and we have to make certain everyone is counted because if they're not, they will not count. That is our opportunity.
Neither role is where I expected to be today and there are other roles that wait for me. Maybe before 2020 and maybe after, but for me the responsibility is to act as though today is the last day. To do the work I know needs to be done, not because of the position I hold, but because of the work that awaits us. And that is your charge. That is your calling. That is your obligation. When life doesn't work, when the fail seems permanent, acknowledge the pain but reject the conclusion.

Our principles, our beliefs exist to sustain us. Our ambitions are there to drive us, and our stumbles exist to remind us that the work endures. Public service is a passion play. It's the drama of how we shape the lives of those around us, how we allocate resources and raise hopes and ground our dreams in robust reality. You stand as the architects of our better lives. Those who don't fret and worry, who don't just stand on the sidelines and watch but get into the scrum and make it work. You are here because you believe that more is possible and you have been trained to make more a reality. You are here today because you have accepted your destiny as public servants, as leaders for our current age.

Our nation is grappling with existential questions, and our allies and our enemies watch to see how we respond. The tension of elections pull against the urgency of governance and we cannot forget that they are not the same thing. You might be tempted to harden yourself, to cast your lot with what you know ,and to wall yourself off from people and ideas that challenge your direction. But you are here in this school because you understand the deeper calling of our obligations. To serve the grace that is our social contract. To build a better, stronger, more resilient world.

And you are the embodiment of the most deeply held belief of everyone here. That American University, that the school of public affairs, that your friends and your family and your classmates and I all hold today, a singular belief that she'll illuminate us today and forward. We believe in you. Thank you. And congratulations.

John F Kennedy: 'Not merely peace in our time but peace for all time', American University Speech - 1963

10 June 1963, American University, Washington DC, USA

President Anderson, members of the faculty, Board of Trustees, distinguished guests, my old colleague, Senator Bob Byrd, who has earned his degree through many years of attending night law school, while I am earning mine in the next 30 minutes, ladies and gentlemen:

It is with great pride that I participate in this ceremony of the American University, sponsored by the Methodist Church, founded by Bishop John Fletcher Hurst, and first opened by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. This is a young and growing university, but it has already fulfilled Bishop Hurst's enlightened hope for the study of history and public affairs in a city devoted to the making of history and to the conduct of the public's business. By sponsoring this institution of higher learning for all who wish to learn whatever their color or their creed, the Methodists of this area and the nation deserve the nation's thanks, and I commend all those who are today graduating.

Professor Woodrow Wilson once said that every man sent out from a university should be a man of his nation as well as a man of his time, and I am confident that the men and women who carry the honor of graduating from this institution will continue to give from their lives, from their talents, a high measure of public service and public support.

"There are few earthly things more beautiful than a University," wrote John Masefield, in his tribute to the English Universities - - and his words are equally true here. He did not refer to spires and towers, to campus greens and ivied walls. He admired the splendid beauty of the University, he said, because it was " a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see."

I have, therefore, chose this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is to rarely perceived - - yet it is the most important topic on earth : world peace.

What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace - - the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living -- the kind that enables man and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children - - not merely peace for Americans by peace for all men and women - - not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.

I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all of the allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by the wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations unborn.

Today the expenditure of billions of dollars every year on weapons acquired for the purpose of making sure we never need to use them is essential to keeping the peace. But surely the acquisition of such idle stockpiles - - which can only destroy and never create - - is not the only, much less the most efficient, means of assuring peace.

I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war - - and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task.

Some say that it is useless to speak of world peace or world law or world disarmament - - and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But I also believe that we must re-examine our own attitude - as individuals and as a Nation - - for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every graduate of this school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward - - by examining his own attitude toward the possibilities of peace, toward the Soviet Union, toward the course of the Cold War and toward freedom and peace here at home.

First: Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many of us think it is unreal. But that is dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable - - that mankind is doomed - - that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.

We need not accept that view. Our problems are manmade - - therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable - - and we believe they can do it again.

I am not referring to the absolute, infinite concept of universal peace and good will of which some fantasies and fanatics dream. I do not deny the values of hopes and dreams but we merely invite discouragement and incredulity by making that our only and immediate goal.

Let us focus instead on a more practical, more attainable peace - - based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions - -on a series of concrete actions and effective agreements which are in the interest of all concerned. There is no single, simple key to this peace - - no grand or magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process - - a way of solving problems.

With such a peace, there will still be quarrels and conflicting interests, as there are within families and nations. World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor - - it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement. And history teaches us that enmities between nations, as between individuals, do not last forever. However fixed our likes and dislikes may seem the tide of time and events will often bring surprising changes in the relations between nations and neighbors.

So let us persevere. Peace need not be impracticable - - and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly - - by making it seem more manageable and less remote - - we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it.

Second: Let us re-examine our attitude toward the Soviet Union. It is discouraging to think that their leaders may actually believe what their propagandists write. It is discouraging to read a recent authoritative Soviet text on Military Strategy and find, on page after page, wholly baseless and incredible claims - - such as the allegation that " American imperialist circles are preparing to unleash different types of wars…that there is a very real threat of a preventive war being unleashed by American imperialists against the Soviet Union…(and that) the political aims of the American imperialists are to enslave economically and politically the European and other capitalist countries…(and) to achieve world domination.

Truly, as it was written long ago: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth." Yet it is sad to read these Soviet statements - - to realize the extent of the gulf between us. But it is also a warning - - a warning to the American people not to fall into the same trap as the Soviets, not to see only a distorted and desperate view of the other side, not to see conflict as inevitable, accommodations as impossible and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.

No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue. As Americans, we find communism profoundly repugnant as a negation of personal freedom and dignity. But we can still hail the Russian people for their many achievements - - in science and space, in economic and industrial growth, in culture and in acts of courage.

Among the many traits the peoples of our two countries have in common, none is stronger than our mutual abhorrence of war. Almost unique, among the major world powers, we have never been at war with each other. And no nation in the history of battle ever suffered more than the Soviet Union suffered in the course of the Second World War. At least 20 million lost their lives. Countless millions of homes and farms were burned or sacked. A third of the nation's territory, including nearly two thirds of its industrial base, was turned into a wasteland - - a loss equivalent to the devastation of this country east of Chicago.

Today, should total war ever break out again - - no matter how - - our two countries would become the primary targets. It is an ironical but accurate fact that the two strongest powers are the two in the most danger of devastation. All we have built, all we have worked for, would be destroyed in the first 24 hours. And even in the Cold War, which brings burdens and dangers to so many countries, including this Nation's closest allies - - our two countries bear the heaviest burdens. For we are both devoting massive sums of money to weapons that could be better devoted to combating ignorance, poverty and disease. We are both caught up in a vicious and dangerous cycle in which suspicion on one side breeds suspicion on the other, and new weapons beget counter-weapons.

In short, both the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union and its allies, have a mutually deep interest in a just and genuine peace and in halting the arms race. Agreements to this end are in the interests of the Soviet Union as well as ours -- and even the most hostile nations can be relied upon to accept and keep those treaty obligations, and only those treaty obligations, which are in their own interest.

So, let us not be blind to our differences - - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

Third: Let us re-examine our attitude toward the Cold War, remembering that we are not engaged in a debate, seeking to pile up debating points. We are not here distributing blame or pointing the finger of judgment. We must deal with the world as it is, and not as it might have been had history of the last eighteen years been different.

We must, therefore, preserve in the search for peace in the hope that constructive changes within the Communist bloc might bring within reach solutions which now seem beyond us. We must conduct our affairs in such a way that it becomes in the Communists' interest to agree on a genuine peace. Above all, while defending our vital interest, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy - - or of a collective death-wish for the world.

To secure these ends, America's weapons are non-provocative, carefully controlled, designed to deter and capable of selective use. Our military forces are committed to peace and disciplines in self-restraint. Our diplomats are instructed to avoid unnecessary irritants and purely rhetorical hostility.

For we can seek a relaxation of tensions without relaxing our guard. And, for our part, we do not need to use threats to prove that we are resolute. We do not need to jam foreign broadcasts out of fear our faith will be eroded. We are unwilling to impose our system on any unwilling people - - but we are willing and able to engage in peaceful competition with any people on earth.

Meanwhile, we seek to strengthen the United Nations, to help solve its financial problems, to make it a more effective instrument of peace, to develop it into a genuine world security system - - a system capable of resolving disputes on the basis of law, of insuring the security of the large and the small, and of creating conditions under which arms can finally be abolished.

At the same time we seek to keep peace inside the non-communist world, where many nations, all of them our friends, are divided over issues which weaken western unity, which invite communist intervention or which threaten to erupt into war. Our efforts in West New Guinea, in the Congo, in the Middle East and in the Indian subcontinent, have been persistent and patient despite criticism from both sides. We have also tried to set an example for others - - by seeking to adjust small but significant differences with our own closest neighbors in Mexico and in Canada.

Speaking of other nations, I wish to make one point clear. We are bound to many nations by alliances. These alliances exist because our concern and theirs substantially overlap. Our commitment to defend Western Europe and West Berlin for example, stands undiminished because of the identity of our vital interests. The United States will make no deal with the Soviet Union at the expense of other nations and other peoples, not merely because they are our partners, but also because their interests and ours converge.

Our interests converge, however not only in defending the frontiers of freedom, but in pursuing the paths of peace. It is our hope - - and the purpose of Allied policies - - to convince the Soviet Union that she, too, should let each nation choose its own future, so long as that choice does not interfere with the choices of others. The communist drive to impose their political and economic system on others is the primary cause of world tension today. For there can be no doubt that if all nations could refrain from interfering in the self-determination of others, then peace would be much more assured.

This will require a new effort to achieve world law - - a new context for world discussions. It will require increased understanding between the Soviets and ourselves. And increased understanding will require increased contact and communications. One step in this direction is the proposed arrangement for a direct line between Moscow and Washington, to avoid on each side the dangerous delays, misunderstandings, and misreadings of the other's actions which might occur at a time of crisis.

We have also been talking in Geneva about other first-step measures of arms control, designed to limit the intensity of the arms race and to reduce the risks of accidental war. Our primary long-range interest in Geneva, however, is general and complete disarmament - - designed to take place by stages, permitting parallel political developments to build the new institutions of peace which would take the place of arms. The pursuit of disarmament has been an effort of this Government since the 1920's. It has been urgently sought by the past three Administrations. And however dim the prospects may be today, we intend to continue this effort - - to continue it in order that all countries, including our own, can better grasp what the problems and possibilities of disarmament are.

The one major area of these negotiations where the end is in sight- - yet where a fresh start is badly needed - - is in a treaty to outlaw nuclear tests. The conclusion of such a treaty - - so near and yet so far - - would check the spiraling arms race in one of its most dangerous areas. IT would place the nuclear powers in a position to deal more effectively with one of the greatest hazards which man faces in 1963, the further spread of nuclear arms. It would increase our security - - it would decrease the prospects of war. Surely this goal is sufficiently important to require our steady pursuit, yielding neither to the temptation to give up the whole effort nor the temptation to give up our insistence on vital and responsible safeguards.

I am taking this opportunity, therefore, to announce two important decisions in this regard.

First: Chairman Khrushchev, Prime Minister Macmillan and I have agreed that high-level discussions will shortly begin in Moscow looking toward early agreement on a comprehensive test ban treaty. Our hopes must be tempered with the caution of history - - but with our hopes go the hopes of all mankind.

Second: To make clear our good faith and solemn convictions on the matter, I now declare that the United States does not propose to conduct nuclear tests in the atmosphere so long as other states do not do so. We will not be the first to resume. Such a declaration is no substitute for a formal binding treaty - - but I hope it will help us achieve one. Nor would such a treaty be a substitute for disarmament - - but I hope it will help us achieve it.

Finally, my fellow Americans, let us examine our attitude toward peace and freedom here at home. The quality and spirit of our won society must justify and support our efforts abroad. We must show it in the dedication of our own lives - - as many of you who are graduation today will have a unique opportunity to do, by serving without pay in the Peace Corps abroad or in the proposed National Service Corps here at home.

But wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together. In too many of our duties today, the peace is not secure because freedom is incomplete.

It is the responsibility of the Executive Branch at all levels of government - - local, state and national - - to provide and protect that freedom for all of our citizens by all means within their authority. It is the responsibility of the Legislative Branch at all levels, wherever that authority is not now adequate, to make it adequate. And it is the responsibility of all citizens in all sections of this country to respect the rights of all others and to respect the law of the land.

All this is not unrelated to world peace. "When a man's ways please the Lord," the Scriptures tell us, "he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter human rights - - the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation - - the right to breathe air as nature provided it - - the right of future generations to a healthy existence?

While we proceed to safeguard our national interests, let us also safeguard human interests. And the elimination of war and arms is clearly in the interest of both. No treaty, however much it may be to the advantage of all, however tightly it may be worded, can provide absolute security against the risks of deception and evasion. But it can - - if it is sufficiently effective in its enforcement and if it is sufficiently in the interests of its signers - - offer far more security and far fewer risks than an unabated, uncontrolled, unpredictable arms race.

The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough - - more than enough - - of war and hate and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we labor on - - not toward a strategy of annihilation but toward a strategy of peace.

This speech is mentioned by JFK biographer and Pulitzer Prize winning author Fredrik Logevall in podcast about inaugural address.