Burdened with the tensions of the cold war and plagued with the residue of terror from the McCarthy Era as well, Kennedy and the Democrats chose to answer intimidation by bravely publishing the following plank in the Democratic platform of 1960:
THE UNITED NATIONS
TO ALL OUR FELLOW MEMBERS OF THE UNITED NATIONS, We shall strengthen our commitments to this, our great continuing institution for conciliation and the growth of a world community. Through the machinery of the United Nations, we shall work for disarmament,the establishment of an international police force, the strengthening of the World Court, and the establshment of world law.
We shall propose the bolder and more effective use of the specialized agencies to promote the world's economic and social development.
Great Democratic Pesidents have taken the lead in the effort to unite the nations of the world in an international organization to assure world peace wth justice under law.
The League of Nations, conceived by Woodrow Wilson, was doomed by Republican defeat of United States participation.
The United Nations, sponsored by Franklin Roosevelt, has become the place where representatives of the rival systems and interests which divide the world can and do maintain continuous contact.
The United States adherence to the World Court contains a so-called "self-judging reservation" which, in effect permits us to prevent a Court decision in any particular case in which we are involved. The Democratic Party proposes its repeal.
To all these endeavors so essential to world peace, we, the members of the Democratic Party, will bring a new urgency persistence and determination, born of the conviction that in our thermonuclear century all of the other Rights of Man hinge on our ability to assure man's right to peace.
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3 comments:
I applaud this new blog as a voice of one crying in the wilderness. I well remember the days reflected in the Kennedy proposal that Joe posts. To me, that was a core belief of the Democratic party--unthinkable in today's atmosphere of international paranoia, nationalistic arrogance, and personal greed. Somewhere between then and now visionary idealism has become eclipsed. Is there hope for re-emergence? Yes, I believe there is but it is unlikely. A reponse to a global emergency more pervasive than the thermonuclear threat of the latter half of the 20th century may be the cause. I refer to the looming ecological catastrophe. A terrible price to pay for what we could have pursued by choice 45 years ago.
Thanks, Joe, for the forum to consider the issues of world peace.
Thanks for your post, Terry
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