And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your
country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. I pledge you that we shall neither commit
nor provoke aggression. That we shall neither flee nor invoke the
threat of force. That we shall never negotiate out of fear
and we shall never fear to negotiate. Terror is not a new weapon. Throughout history, it has been used by those
who could not prevail either by persuasion or example. But, inevitably, they fail, either because
men are not afraid to die for a life worth living, or because terrorists themselves came
to realize free men cannot be frightened by threats, and that aggression would meet its
own response. And it is, in the light of that history, that
every nation should know - be he friend or foe - that the United States has both the
will and the weapons to join free men in standing up to their responsibilities. All free men, wherever they may live, are
citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride
in the words ich bin ein Berliner. The path we have chosen for the present is
full of hazards, as all paths are. But is is the one most consistent with our
character and courage as a nation, and our commitments around the world. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans
have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose and that
is the path of surrender, or submission. We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade
and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and
measure the best of our energies and skills. Because that challenge is one that we're willing
to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others too. I believe in an America where the separation
of church and state is absolute. Where no Catholic prelate, would tell the
president, should he be Catholic, how to act. And no Protestant minister would tell his
parishioners for whom to vote. Where no church or church school is granted
any public funds or political preference. And where no man is denied public office merely
because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him, or the people who might
elect him. I have therefore chosen this time and place
to discuss a topic upon which ignorance too often abounds, and the truth too rarely perceived,
and that is the most important topic on earth, peace. What kind of a peace do I mean and what kind
of a 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 slayed. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind
of peace that makes life on Earth worth living. The kind that enables men and nations to grow
and to hope and build a better life for their children. Not merely peace for Americans, but peace
for all men and women, not merely peace in our time, but peace in all time. We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear
as the American constitution. The heart of the question is whether all Americans
are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities. Whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans
as we want to be treated. If an American, because his skin is dark,
cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to
the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent
him, if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life that all of us want, then who
among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would then be content with the
councils of 'patience' and 'delay'? 100 years of delay have passed since President Lincoln
freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice,
they are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this nation, for all its hopes and all
its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free. The very word secrecy is repugnant in a free
and open society. And we are as a people inherently and historically
opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive
and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited
to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing
the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring
the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced
need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning
to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent
that it is within my control.
