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“I appreciate the distinction of addressing you, I have a sense of exhilaration as I look upon this room. Your deliberations and decisions will shape this century possibly more than anyone else’s. But the great tests and the great accomplishments still lie ahead. I would be loath to use this great opportunity 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 my mind as defense papers cross my desk. I know that the American people and this party 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. 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 life in the military profession, both recognize and find foreign. That new language is the language of atomic warfare. With this new development, we enter a new age, not just of warfare, but of policy making. And so, if the all the members of this room are to be tasked with designing the modern statecraft and the modern strategy, they must be armed with the significant facts of today's existence. My recital of atomic power is necessarily stated in military terms, for these are the only terms that I know, I need hardly point out to this body, though,that this is not just a military issue, but a diplomatic one, and a domestic one. Today, the United States' stockpile of atomic weapons, which, of course, increases daily, exceeds by many times the total 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 the Second World War. A single air group whether afloat or land based, can now deliver to any reachable target a destructive cargo exceeding in power all the bombs that fell on Britain in all the Second World War. This fact must not frighten us though, it must only serve to enlighten use to the power of this new weapon. Many in this room, many in America fear this power. We wish, desperately, to be a nation at peace, not at arms. We desire grand sweeping agreements, not wars, among nations. We want 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. But we know that against our current enemies, we cannot guarantee that all men are free. We know that our freedom, nor the freedom of our allies cannot be guaranteed. From Korea to Germany, the rights of man are threatened by the Communist powers. It is against this foe that we cannot shrink from the deployment of our atomic power. Do not think that means war. Was it war when I deployed tanks in Berlin? Was it war as American planes flew over the city? The answer is clear, no it was not. It was confrontation, plain and simple, it was standing up to an aggressor, it was refusing to back down. If it is a nuclear deterrent that is needed to stand up against aggressors, we cannot fear it’s use there either. Though we may desire peace, we cannot flee blindly into it. I do not stand here before you to urge the use of a nuclear first option, I stand before you to urge to use this atomic power to secure peace, to secure a peace for man, for our nation, a peace that can only be secured by a stalwart defense and an iron will.

It is our job to stand up to the powers that threaten us, under the circumstances of today, only we have that power. Only we have the strength, the power, to halt and meet the aggression of our foes. To the making of these fateful decisions, I pledge, as a politician and countryman, before you—and therefore before the nation- my determination to protect the peace, even if that means the use of the atomic power or any other power at my disposal. Because I will not shrink from the ability to use atoms for peace."


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