Ladies and gentlemen, I appear before such an audience with mixed emotions. Among it are so many of my friends that on the personal side I feel like I was coming to sort of a family gathering with all of the enjoyments we normally feel on such occasions. But when I look at the cross-section of American brains and ability here, some of you experienced widely in the fields of which I expect to talk, I must say I'm very diffident, if not to say embarrassed. But I am emboldened to talk because the purpose of this meeting is a most worthwhile purpose there is in the world today: To help build the road to peace. Help build the road to an enduring peace. And a particular part of the work that we expect to do is based upon the assumption that no people as such wants war. That all people want peace. We know this to be a true assumption, but we know also that in certain portions of the world it is not understood as such. Because some people are taught, and they are captive audiences, that others including ourselves, want war. That we are war-like, that we're materialistic, that we are in fact hoping for cataclysms of that kind so that a few a may profit. They say odds are the misery of the world. For my part, and I have been around a long time and therefore more or less acquainted with all the wars United States has fought, to the glory of the American businessman I've never heard one single one ever refer to war in any terms except those of regret and a hope that it will never occur again. Now if we are going to have, take advantage of the assumption that all people want peace, then the problem is for people to get together, to leave governments if necessary, to evade governments, to work out not one method, but thousands of methods by which people congratulate, learn a little bit more of each other. The problem is: how do we dispel ignorance? How do we present our own case? How do we strengthen friendships? How do we learn of others? These are the problems. The communist way, of course, is to subject everything to the control of the state and to start off with very great propaganda program. All are laid out in its details and everybody conforms. They do this in every walk of life in everything they do. And for a while, it seems to score spectacular successes. Of course, its great weakness is that in times of stress. Whenever the love of freedom, for example, grows greater in  a population than is their fear of the gun at their backs, then dictatorships fall. And indeed, in war, when the fear of the machine gun in front grows greater than that of the machine gun behind, then dictatorship's armies begin to disintegrate. Our way is a different. We marshal the forces of initiative, independent action, and independent thinking of 168  million people. Sometimes it appears slow and awkward, weak. But the fact is, that since all crises are met and action taken is according to the will of the great majority, the tougher the going gets, the tighter is bound the whole. And the more effective becomes the whole. Today we have this problem that I have stated, that of creating understanding between peoples. Here are people that we will hope will lead us. Governments can do no more then point the way, and cooperate, and assist the mechanical details. And they can publish certain official documents. But I am talking about the exchange of professors and students and executives. The providing of technical assistance and the ordinary traveler abroad. About doctors helping in the conquering of disease. Our free labor unions, showing people, other peoples, how they work, what they earn, how they achieve their pay, and their real take-home pay that they get. In short, what we must do is to widen every possible chink in the Iron Curtain and bring the family of Russia, or of any other country behind that Iron Curtain, that is laboring to better the lot of his children, as humans do the world over, to bring it closer into our circle, to show how we do it, and then to sit down between us to say, "Now, how do we improve the lot of both of us?" In this way I believe is the truest path to peace. All of the other things that we do are mere palliatives or they are holding the line while constructive forces of this kind take effect. Every bomb we can manufacture, every plane, every ship, every gun, in the long run, has no purpose other than negative. To give us time, to prevent the other fellow from starting a war since we know we won't. The billions we pour into that ought to be supported by a great American effort that we call a positive, constructive path that leads directly toward what we all want: a true and lasting peace. So, in calling upon a group like this, I wanted to come before in spite of the diffidence of which I spoke to tell you that in the opinion of this administration there is no more important work than that in which we are asking you to participate. Because there is no problem before the American people, indeed before the world, that so colors everything else we do, so colors our thinking, our actions, as does the problem of preserving the peace and providing for our own security. Whether it be the Suez problem of today or another one of tomorrow, there is nothing else that so affects our daily lives. It dictates almost the level of our taxes. It colors every problem of which we deal at home. So, as you start this work, as you have before you the governmental officials who will be the ones cooperating with you, you will understand that it is something that lies very close to the hearts of the administration and we believe to every man, woman, and child in America and indeed we believe the world, except for those few who want, unjustly and improperly, to rule others. Thank you very much for your time. [Applause]