A Lasting Peace Is in Sight 持久的和平指日可待
—— Dwight David Eisenhower 德怀特·艾森豪威尔
[00:02.67]Good evening
[00:03.32]my fellow Americans.
[00:05.63]First, I should like to
[00:06.54]express my gratitude to the radio
[00:08.37]and television networks
[00:11.15]for the opportunities
[00:12.08]they have given me
[00:13.11]over the years
[00:14.01]to bring reports and messages
[00:15.96]to our nation.
[00:17.88]My special thanks go to them
[00:19.37]for the opportunity
[00:20.75]of addressing you this evening.
[00:23.58]Three days from now
[00:25.20]after half century
[00:27.09]in the service of our country,
[00:29.06]I shall lay down the responsibilities
[00:31.11]of office as,
[00:32.98]in traditional and solemn ceremony
[00:35.78]the authority of the Presidency
[00:38.33]is vested in my successor.
[00:41.31]This evening, I come to you
[00:42.78]with a message
[00:43.54]of leave taking and farewell
[00:45.97]and to share
[00:47.24]a few final thoughts with you,
[00:49.36]my countrymen.
[00:53.43]Like every other
[00:55.40]Like every other citizen,
[00:56.72]I wish the new President
[00:58.01]and all who will labor with him
[00:59.74]Godspeed.
[01:01.10]I pray that the coming years
[01:02.64]will be blessed with peace and prosperity
[01:05.17]for all.
[01:07.40]Our people expect their President
[01:09.49]and the Congress
[01:10.51]to find essential agreement
[01:12.30]on issues of great moment
[01:14.49]the wise resolution of which
[01:16.02]will better shape the future
[01:18.50]of the nation.
[01:20.55]My own relations with the Congress,
[01:22.60]which began on a remote
[01:24.51]and tenuous basis
[01:26.16]when long ago,
[01:27.92]a member of the Senate
[01:29.36]appointed me to West Point,
[01:30.92]have since ranged
[01:32.82]to the intimate during the war
[01:34.71]and immediate postwar period
[01:37.24]and finally to the mutually interdependent
[01:41.19]during these past eight years.
[01:43.97]In this final relationship,
[01:45.80]the Congress and the Administration have,
[01:48.47]on most vital issues
[01:50.17]cooperated well,
[01:52.45]to serve the nation good
[01:54.58]rather than mere partisanship,
[01:56.77]and so have assured
[01:58.35]that the business of the nation
[01:59.85]should go forward.
[02:03.10]So, my official relationship
[02:04.52]with the Congress ends in a feeling
[02:06.58]on my part of gratitude
[02:09.32]that we have been able
[02:10.47]to do so much together.
[02:11.79]We now stand ten years
[02:16.46]past the midpoint of a century
[02:18.48]that has witnessed four major wars
[02:20.25]among great nations.
[02:22.68]Three of these involved our own country.
[02:25.77]Despite these holocausts,
[02:27.68]America is today the strongest
[02:30.67]the most influential
[02:32.56]and most productive nation
[02:34.06]in the world.
[02:36.02]Understandably proud of this preeminence
[02:39.17]we yet realize
[02:40.79]that America's leadership and prestige depend
[02:42.98]not merely upon
[02:45.16]our unmatched material progress
[02:47.31]riches, and military strength
[02:49.84]but on how we use our power
[02:52.49]in the interests
[02:53.75]of world peace and human betterment.
[02:57.69]Throughout America's adventure
[02:59.84]in free government
[03:01.47]our basic purposes
[03:02.93]have been to keep the peace
[03:04.56]to foster progress in human achievement
[03:07.05]and to enhance liberty
[03:08.92]dignity, and integrity
[03:10.89]among peoples and among nations.
[03:13.22]To strive for less would be unworthy
[03:15.31]of a free and religious people.
[03:18.04]Any failure traceable to arrogance
[03:20.98]or our lack of comprehension
[03:23.61]or readiness to saCRIfice
[03:26.50]would inflict upon us grievous hurt
[03:29.34]both at home and abroad.
[03:32.08]Progress toward these noble goals
[03:35.21]is persistently threatened
[03:36.67]by the conflict now engulfing the world.
[03:40.37]It commands our whole attention
[03:42.30]absorbs our very beings.
[03:44.72]We face a hostile ideology
[03:47.61]global in scope,
[03:49.10]atheistic in character
[03:50.77]ruthless in purpose
[03:52.68]and insidious in method.
[03:55.82]Unhappily, the danger it poses
[03:58.76]promises to be of indefinite duration.
[04:02.32]To meet it successfully
[04:04.50]there is called for
[04:06.12]not so much the emotional
[04:07.84]and transitory saCRIfices of CRIsis
[04:11.13]but rather those which enable us
[04:13.32]to carry forward steadily, surely
[04:15.65]and without complaint
[04:17.58]the burdens of a prolonged
[04:19.11]and complex struggle
[04:20.57]with liberty the stake.
[04:23.85]Only thus shall we remain,
[04:25.48]despite every provocation
[04:27.09]on our charted course
[04:29.17]toward permanent peace
[04:30.63]and human betterment.
[04:34.47]Crises there will continue to be.
[04:37.16]In meeting them,
[04:38.79]whether foreign or domestic,
[04:40.51]great or small,
[04:41.98]there is a recurring temptation
[04:44.20]to feel that some spectacular
[04:46.30]and costly action
[04:47.77]could become the miraculous solution
[04:49.75]to all current difficulties.
[04:51.77]A huge increase
[04:54.25]in newer elements of our defenses?
[04:56.59]development of unrealistic programs
[04:59.31]to cure every ill in agriculture?
[05:01.71]a dramatic expansion in basic
[05:04.65]and applied research
[05:06.22]these and many other possibilities,
[05:08.78]each possibly promising in itself,
[05:11.66]may be suggested as the only way
[05:14.09]to the road we wish to travel.
[05:17.17]But each proposal must be weighed
[05:19.24]in the light of a broader consideration:
[05:21.94]the need to maintain balance
[05:24.74]in and among national programs,
[05:28.30]balance between the private
[05:30.44]and the public economy,
[05:32.55]balance between the cost
[05:33.78]and hoped for advantages,
[05:36.69]balance between the clearly necessary
[05:39.02]and the comfortably desirable,
[05:41.60]balance between our essential requirements
[05:44.75]as a nation
[05:45.96]and the duties imposed
[05:47.44]by the nation upon the individual,
[05:49.76]balance between actions of the moment
[05:52.14]and the national welfare of the future.
[05:55.59]Good judgment seeks balance and progress.
[05:59.39]Lack of it eventually finds
[06:02.07]imbalance and frustration.
[06:05.43]The record of many decades stands
[06:07.15]as proof that our people
[06:08.87]and their Government have,
[06:09.79]in the main,
[06:10.93]understood these truths
[06:12.81]and have responded to them well,
[06:14.73]in the face of threat and stress.
[06:20.48]But threats,
[06:21.96]new in kind or degree,
[06:23.56]constantly arise.
[06:25.54]Of these, I mention two only.
[06:29.03]A vital element in keeping the peace
[06:31.62]is our military establishment.
[06:33.90]Our arms must be mighty,
[06:35.70]ready for instant action,
[06:37.79]so that no potential aggressor
[06:39.89]may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
[06:43.12]Our military organization today
[06:45.81]bears little relation to that known
[06:48.52]of any of my predecessors in peacetime,
[06:51.60]or, indeed, by the fighting men
[06:53.17]of World War II or Korea.
[06:56.15]Until the latest of our world conflicts,
[06:59.55]the United States
[07:00.87]had no armaments industry.
[07:03.90]American makers of plowshares could,
[07:06.98]with time and as required,
[07:09.06]make swords as well.
[07:12.01]But we can no longer
[07:13.02]risk emergency improvisation
[07:15.01]of national defense.
[07:17.39]We have been compelled
[07:18.68]to create a permanent armaments industry
[07:21.01]of vast proportions.
[07:23.49]Added to this, three and a half million
[07:25.82]men and women
[07:27.64]are directly engaged
[07:28.87]in the defense establishment.
[07:31.40]We annually spend on military security alone
[07:35.27]more than the net income
[07:37.14]of all United States corporations.
[07:41.28]Now this conjunction
[07:42.80]of an immense military establishment
[07:44.70]and a large arms industry
[07:47.10]is new in the American experience.
[07:49.83]The total influence
[07:51.77]economic, political, even spiritual
[07:55.53]is felt in every city,
[07:57.26]every Statehouse,
[07:58.73]every office of the Federal government.
[08:01.33]We recognize the imperative need
[08:03.77]for this development.
[08:05.31]Yet, we must not fail to comprehend
[08:07.34]its grave implications.
[08:10.52]Our toil, resources, and livelihood
[08:13.28]are all involved.
[08:15.00]So is the very structure of our society.
[08:17.70]In the councils of government,
[08:20.44]we must guard against
[08:22.66]the acquisition of unwarranted influence,
[08:25.10]whether sought or unsought,
[08:26.77]by the military industrial complex.
[08:30.46]The potential for the disastrous rise
[08:32.84]of misplaced power exists
[08:34.20]and will persist.
[08:36.91]We must never let the weight
[08:38.98]of this combination endanger
[08:40.39]our liberties or democratic processes.
[08:43.38]We should take nothing for granted.
[08:45.85]Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry
[08:48.94]can compel the proper meshing
[08:51.63]of the huge industrial
[08:53.26]and military machinery of defense
[08:55.90]with our peaceful methods and goals,
[08:58.59]so that security and liberty
[09:00.53]may prosper together.
[09:03.72]Akin to, and largely responsible
[09:06.21]for the sweeping changes
[09:07.70]in our industrial military posture,
[09:10.27]has been the technological revolution
[09:12.25]during recent decades.
[09:14.34]In this revolution, research has become central
[09:18.64]it also
[09:20.01]becomes more formalized, complex, and costly.
[09:24.21]A steadily increasing share
[09:25.79]is conducted for, by, or at the direction of,
[09:29.42]the Federal government.
[09:31.40]Today, the solitary inventor,
[09:33.83]tinkering in his shop,
[09:36.03]has been overshadowed
[09:37.34]by task forces of scientists
[09:40.04]in laboratories and testing fields.
[09:43.37]In the same fashion,
[09:45.37]the free university,
[09:48.89]historically the fountainhead
[09:51.02]of free ideas and scientific discovery,
[09:54.58]has experienced a revolution
[09:56.80]in the conduct of research.
[09:59.28]Partly because of the huge costs involved,
[10:02.33]a government contract
[10:03.74]becomes virtually
[10:05.22]a substitute for intellectual curiosity.
[10:09.99]For every old blackboard
[10:11.97]there are now hundreds of new
[10:13.95]electronic computers.
[10:16.66]The prospect of domination
[10:18.53]of the nation's scholars
[10:20.16]by Federal employment,
[10:21.58]project allocations,
[10:23.47]and the power of money is ever present
[10:25.99]and is gravely to be regarded.
[10:29.25]Yet, in holding scientific research
[10:31.95]and discovery in respect,
[10:33.76]as we should,
[10:35.35]we must also be alert
[10:37.08]to the equal and opposite danger
[10:39.19]that public policy could itself
[10:41.79]become the captive
[10:43.70]of a scientific technological elite.
[10:47.96]It is the task of statesmanship
[10:50.18]to mold, to balance, and to integrate
[10:52.71]these and other forces,
[10:54.27]new and old,
[10:55.36]within the principles of our democratic system
[10:58.34]ever aiming toward the supreme goals
[11:01.13]of our free society.
[11:05.10]Another factor in maintaining balance
[11:07.93]involves the element of time.
[11:10.51]As we peer into society's future,
[11:13.38]we you and I,
[11:16.42]and our government
[11:17.95]must avoid the impulse
[11:19.49]to live only for today,
[11:21.79]plundering for our own ease and convenience
[11:24.62]the precious resources of tomorrow.
[11:27.61]We cannot mortgage
[11:29.68]the material assets of our grandchildren
[11:32.22]without risking the loss also
[11:34.24]of their political and spiritual heritage.
[11:36.94]We want democracy to survive
[11:39.87]for all generations to come
[11:42.04]not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
[11:45.98]During the long lane
[11:48.57]of the history yet to be written,
[11:51.74]America knows that this world of ours,
[11:53.77]ever growing smaller
[11:55.39]must avoid becoming a community
[11:57.97]of dreadful fear and hate,
[11:59.69]and be, instead
[12:01.05]a proud confederation
[12:02.83]of mutual trust and respect.
[12:05.86]Such a confederation must be one of equals.
[12:08.49]The weakest
[12:09.65]must come to the conference table
[12:11.62]with the same confidence as do we,
[12:15.06]protected as we are
[12:16.47]by our moral, economic
[12:18.40]and military strength.
[12:20.38]That table
[12:21.94]though scarred by many past frustrations,
[12:25.58]cannot be abandoned for the certainty agony
[12:28.66]of disarmament of the battlefield.
[12:31.49]Disarmament
[12:32.71]with mutual honor and confidence,
[12:34.44]is a continuing imperative.
[12:36.77]Together we must learn
[12:38.55]how to compose differences
[12:40.26]not with arms
[12:41.43]but with intellect and decent purpose.
[12:45.58]Because this need is so sharp and apparent
[12:49.33]I confess that I lay down
[12:51.10]my official responsibilities in this field
[12:53.78]with a definite sense of disappointment.
[12:57.62]As one who has witnessed the horror
[12:59.64]and the lingering sadness of war
[13:02.33]as one who knows
[13:03.33]that another war could
[13:04.81]utterly destroy this civilization
[13:06.67]which has been so slowly
[13:08.54]and painfully built over thousands of years
[13:11.57]I wish I could say tonight
[13:13.34]that a lasting peace is in sight.
[13:17.08]Happily, I can say
[13:19.76]that war has been avoided.
[13:22.08]Steady progress toward our ultimate goal
[13:24.21]has been made.
[13:25.73]But so much remains to be done.
[13:29.12]As a private citizen,
[13:31.40]I shall never cease to do
[13:32.62]what little I can
[13:33.78]to help the world advance
[13:35.75]along that road.
[13:37.62]So, in this
[13:39.23]my last good night to you
[13:40.55]as your President,
[13:41.97]I thank you for the many opportunities
[13:44.19]you have given me
[13:45.36]for public service in war and in peace.
[13:49.09]I trust in that service
[13:52.23]you find some things worthy.
[13:54.41]As for the rest of it
[13:55.98] I know you will find ways
[13:57.45]to improve performance
[13:59.12]in the future.
[14:00.95]You and I
[14:02.06]my fellow citizens,
[14:04.18]need to be strong in our faith
[14:05.69]that all nations, under God
[14:07.47]will reach the goal of peace with justice.
[14:11.22]May we be ever unswerving
[14:13.28]in devotion to principle
[14:15.21]confident but humble with power,
[14:18.45]diligent in pursuit of the Nations'great goals.
[14:21.83]To all the peoples of the world,
[14:24.56]I once more give expression
[14:26.33]to America's prayerful
[14:28.31]and continuing aspiration:
[14:31.04]We pray that peoples of all faiths,
[14:34.68]all races, all nations,
[14:36.51]may have their great human needs satisfied
[14:40.24]that those now denied opportunity
[14:42.42]shall come to enjoy it to the full
[14:45.60]that all who yearn for freedom
[14:47.46]may experience its few spiritual blessings.
[14:51.31]Those who have freedom
[14:53.90]will understand, also,
[14:55.26]its heavy responsibility
[14:57.48]that all who are insensitive
[14:59.30]to the needs of others
[15:00.82]will learn charity
[15:02.89]and that the sources scourges
[15:05.17]of poverty, disease, and ignorance
[15:07.99]will be made disappear from the earth
[15:11.23]and that in the goodness of time
[15:13.30]all peoples will come to live together
[15:15.53]in a peace guaranteed
[15:17.90]by the binding force
[15:19.92]of mutual respect and love.
[15:23.01]Now, on Friday noon
[15:25.38]I am to become a private citizen.
[15:29.63]I am proud to do so.
[15:31.77]I look forward to it.
[15:34.45]Thank you, and good night.
