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1960.10.21.
演讲者简介：
1960年、参议员约翰肯尼迪和副总统理查德尼克松都非常成功地进行了总统竞选，但前者的四次电视辩论助了他一臂之力。最终，43岁的肯尼迪以微弱多数，击败尼克松，成为美国最年轻也是第一位罗马天主教总统。
" Mr. Howe, Senator Kennedy, my fellow Americans,
Since this campaign began, I have had a very rare privilege: I have traveled to 48 of the 50 states, and in my travels, I’ve learned what the people of the United States are thinking about. There is one issue that stands out above all the rest, one in which every American is concerned, regardless of what group he may be a member and regardless of where he may live. And that issue very simply stated is this: how can we keep the peace? Keep it without surrender. How can we extend freedom? Extend it without war.
Now in determining how we deal with this issue, we must find the answer to a very important, but simple question: who threatens the peace? Who threatens freedom in the world? There is only one threat to peace, and one threat to freedom: that which is presented by the international Communist movement. And therefore, if we are to have peace, if we are to keep our own freedom and extend it to others without war, we must know how to deal with the Communists and their leaders. I know Mr. Khruchev, I also have had the opportunity of knowing and meeting other Communist leaders in the world, I believe there are certain principles we must find in dealing with him and his colleagues, principles if followed, will keep the peace and that also can extend freedom.
First, we have to learn from the past, because we cannot afford to make the mistakes of the past. In the seven years before this administration came into power in Washington, we found that six hundred million people went behind the Iron Curtain, and at the end of that seven years, we were engaged in a war in Korea, which caused over thirty thousand American lives. In the past seven years, in President Eisenhower’s administration, this situation has been reversed. We ended the Korean War. By strong firm leadership, we have kept out of other wars, and we have avoided surrender of principle or territory at the conference table.
Now, why were we successful, as our predecessors were not successful? I think there are several reasons. In the first place, they made a fatal error in misjudging the Communists, in trying to applying to them the same rules of conduct that you would apply to the leaders of the free world. One of the major errors they made was the one that led to the Korean War. In ruling out the defense of Korea, they invited agGREssion in that area, they thought they were going to have peace, it brought war.
We learned from their mistakes, and so in our seven years, we find that we have been firm in our diplomacy. We have never made concessions without getting concessions in return. We have always been willing to go the extra mile to negotiate for disarmament or in any other area, but we have never been willing to do anything that in effect surrender freedom anyplace in the world. That is why President Eisenhower was correct in not apologizing or expressing regrets to Mr. Khruchev at the Paris conference, as Senator Kennedy suggested he could have done, that is why President Eisenhower was also correct in his policy in the Formosa Straits where he declined and refused to follow the recommendations, recommendations which Senator Kennedy voted for in 1955, again made in 1959, again repeated in his debates that you have heard, recommendations with regard to again slicing off a piece of free territory, and abandoning it, if in effect, to the Communists.
Why did the President feel that this was wrong, and why was the President right and his critics wrong? Because again, this showed a lack of understanding of dictators, a lack of understanding particularly of Communists, because every time you make such a concession, it does not lead to peace, it only encourages them to blackmail you, it encourages them to begin a war. And so I say, that the records show that we know how to keep the peace, to keep it without surrender. Let us move now to the future.
It’s not enough to stand on this record, because we are dealing with the most ruthless, fanatical leaders that the world has ever seen. That is why I say that in this period of the Sixties, America must move forward in every area. First of all, although we are today, as Senator Kennedy has admitted, the strongest nation in the world militarily, we must increase our strength, increase it so that we will always have enough strength that regardless of what our potential opponents have, if they should launch a surprise attack, we will be able to destroy their war-making capabilities. They must know, in other words, that it’s national suicide if they begin anything. We need this kind of strength because we are the guardians of the peace.
In addition to military strength, we need to see that the economy of this country continues to grow. It has grown in the past seven years. It can, and will grow even more in the next four. And the reason that it must grow even more is because we have things to do at home, and also because we are in a race for survival, a race in which it isn’t enough to be ahead, it isn’t enough simply to be complacent, we have to move ahead in order to stay ahead. And that is why in this field, I have made recommendations which I am confident will move the American economy ahead, move it firmly and soundly so that there will never be a time when the Soviet Union will be able to challenge our superiority in this field.
And so we need military strength, we need economic strength, we also need the right diplomatic policies. What are they? Again, we turn to the past: firmness, but no belligerence, and by no belligerence I mean that we do not answer insult by insult. When you are proud and confident of your strength, you do not get down to the level of Mr. Khruchev and his colleagues, and that example that President Eisenhower has set, we will continue to follow.
But all this by itself is not enough. It’s not enough for us simply to be the strongest nation militarily, the strongest economically, and also to have firm diplomacy, we must have a great goal, and that is not just to keep freedom for ourselves, but to extend it to all the world. To extend it to all the world because that is America’s destiny. To extend it to all the world because the Communist aim is not to hold their own, but to extend Communism.
And you cannot fight a victory for Communism or a strategy of victory for Communism with a strategy simply of holding the line. And so I say that we believe that our policies of military strength, of economic strength, of diplomatic firmness first will keep the peace, and keep it without surrender. We also believe that in the great field of ideals, that we can lead America to the victory for freedom, victory in the newly developing countries, victory also in the capitalist countries, provided we have faith in ourselves, and faith in our principles."
