1、 Atoms for PeaceMadam President and Members of the General Assembly: When Secretary General Hammarskjolds invitation to address this General Assembly reached me in Bermuda, I was just beginning a series of conferences with the Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers of Great Britain and of France. Our
2、 subject was some of the problems that beset our world.During the remainder of the Bermuda Conference, I had constantly in mind that ahead of me lay a great honor. That honor is mine today, as I stand here, privileged to address the General Assembly of the United Nations.At the same time that I appr
3、eciate the distinction of addressing you, I have a sense of exhilaration as I look upon this Assembly. Never before in history has so much hope for so many people been gathered together in a single organization. Your deliberations and decisions during these somber years have already realized part of
4、 those hopes.But the great tests and the great accomplishments still lie ahead. And in the confident expectation of those accomplishments, I would use the office which, for the time being, I hold, to assure you that the Government of the United States will remain steadfast in its support of this bod
5、y. This we shall do in the conviction that you will provide a great share of the wisdom, of the courage, and the faith which can bring to this world lasting peace for all nations, and happiness and well-being for all men. Clearly, it would not be fitting for me to take this occasion to present to yo
6、u a unilateral American report on Bermuda. Nevertheless, I assure you that in our deliberations on that lovely island we sought to invoke those same great concepts of universal peace and human dignity which are so cleanly etched in your Charter. Neither would it be a measure of this great opportunit
7、y merely to recite, however hopefully, pious platitudes.I therefore decided that this occasion warranted my saying to you some of the things that have been on the minds and hearts of my legislative and executive associates, and on mine, for a great many months - thoughts I had originally planned to
8、say primarily to the American people.I know that the American people share my deep belief that if a danger exists in the world, it is a danger shared by all; and equally, that if hope exists in the mind of one nation, that hope should be shared by all.Finally, if there is to be advanced any proposal
9、 designed to ease even by the smallest measure the tensions of todays world, what more appropriate audience could there be than the members of the General Assembly of the United Nations. I feel impelled to speak today in a language that in a sense is new, one which I, who have spent so much of my li
10、fe in the military profession, would have preferred never to use. That new language is the language of atomic warfare.The atomic age has moved forward at such a pace that every citizen of the world should have some comprehension, at least in comparative terms, of the extent of this development, of t
11、he utmost significance to everyone of us. Clearly, if the peoples of the world are to conduct an intelligent search for peace, they must be armed with the significant facts of todays existence.My recital of atomic danger and power is necessarily stated in United States terms, for these are the only
12、incontrovertible facts that I know. I need hardly point out to this Assembly, however, that this subject is global, not merely national in character.On July 16, 1945, the United States set off the worlds first atomic explosion.Since that date in 1945, the United States of America has conducted forty
13、-two test explosions. Atomic bombs today are more than twenty-five times as powerful as the weapons with which the atomic age dawned, while hydrogen weapons are in the ranges of millions of tons of TNT equivalent.Today, the United States stockpile of atomic weapons, which, of course, increases daily
14、, exceeds by many times the total explosive equivalent of the total of all bombs and all shells that came from every plane and every gun in every theatre of war in all the years of World War II.A single air group, whether afloat or land based, can now deliver to any reachable target a destructive ca
15、rgo exceeding in power all the bombs that fell on Britain in all of World War II. In size and variety, the development of atomic weapons has been no less remarkable. The development has been such that atomic weapons have virtually achieved conventional status within our armed services.In the United
16、States, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marine Corps are all capable of putting this weapon to military use. But the dread secret and the fearful engines of atomic might are not ours alone.In the first place, the secret is possessed by our friends and allies, Great Britain and Canada, who
17、se scientific genius made a tremendous contribution to our original discoveries and the designs of atomic bombs.The secret is also known by the Soviet Union.The Soviet Union has informed us that, over recent years, it has devoted extensive resources to atomic weapons. During this period the Soviet U
18、nion has exploded a series of atomic devices, including at least one involving thermo-nuclear reactions. If at one time the Unites States possessed what might have been called a monopoly of atomic power, that monopoly ceased to exist several years ago.Therefore, although our earlier start has permit
19、ted us to accumulate what is today a great quantitative advantage, the atomic realities of today comprehend two facts of even greater significance.First, the knowledge now possessed by several nations will eventually be shared by others, possibly all others.Second, even a vast superiority in numbers
20、 of weapons, and a consequent capability of devastating retaliation, is no preventive, of itself, against the fearful material damage and toll of human lives that would be inflicted by surprise aggression. The free world, at least dimly aware of these facts, has naturally embarked on a large program
21、 of warning and defense systems. That program will be accelerated and expanded. But let no one think that the expenditure of vast sums for weapons and systems of defense can guarantee absolute safety for the cities and citizens of any nation. The awful arithmetic of the atomic bomb does not permit o
22、f any such easy solution. Even against the most powerful defense, an aggressor in possession of the effective minimum number of atomic bombs for a surprise attack could probably place a sufficient number of his bombs on the chosen targets to cause hideous damage.Should such an atomic attack be launc
23、hed against the United States, our reactions would be swift and resolute. But for me to say that the defense capabilities of the United States are such that they could inflict terrible losses upon an aggressor, for me to say that the retaliation capabilities of the Unites States are so great that su
24、ch an aggressors land would be laid waste, all this, while fact, is not the true expression of the purpose and the hope of the United States.To pause there would be to confirm the hopeless finality of a belief that two atomic colossi are doomed malevolently to eye each other indefinitely across a tr
25、embling world. To stop there would be to accept helplessly the probability of civilization destroyed, the annihilation of the irreplaceable heritage of mankind handed down to use generation from generation, and the condemnation of mankind to begin all over again the age-old struggle upward from sava
26、gery toward decency, and right, and justice. Surely no sane member of the human race could discover victory in such desolation.Could anyone wish his name to be coupled by history with such human degradation and destruction? Occasional pages of history do record the faces of the “great destroyers,” b
27、ut the whole book of history reveals mankinds never-ending quest for peace and mankinds God-given capacity to build.It is with the book of history, and not with isolated pages, that the United States will ever wish to be identified. My country wants to be constructive, not destructive. It wants agre
28、ements, not wars, among nations. It wants itself to live in freedom and in the confidence that the people of every other nation enjoy equally the right of choosing their own way of life.So my countrys purpose is to help us to move out of the dark chamber of horrors into the light, to find a way by w
29、hich the minds of men, the hopes of men, the souls of men everywhere, can move forward towards peace and happiness and well-being.In this quest, I know that we must not lack patience. I know that in a world divided, such as ours today, salvation cannot be attained by one dramatic act. I know that ma
30、ny steps will have to be taken over many months before the world can look at itself one day and truly realize that a new climate of mutually peaceful confidence is abroad in the world. But I know, above all else, that we must start to take these steps now.The United States and its allies, Great Brit
31、ain and France, have, over the past months, tried to take some of these steps. Let no one say that we shun the conference table. On the record has long stood the request of the United States, Great Britain, and France to negotiate with the Soviet Union the problems of a divided Germany. On that reco
32、rd has long stood the request of the same three nations to negotiate an Austrian peace treaty. On the same record still stands the request of the United Nations to negotiate the problems of Korea.Most recently we have received from the Soviet Union what is in effect an expression of willingness to hold a four-Power meeting. Along with our allies, Great Britain and France, we were pleased to see that his note did not contain the unacceptable pre-conditions previously put forward. As you already know from our joint Bermuda communiqu, the United States, Great Britain, and Fra
