Every invitation to address a gathering of American veterans is for me a new opportunity to express my admiration and gratitude to men and women who have served their country in the Armed Forces. Twice in my time American citizens have left the safety and friendships of home to foil the purposes of militaristic aggression. In battle and in the waging of war, they proved themselves superior to the vaunted machines fo tyranny that menaced the free world. America is rightly proud of its veterans who, on the European and Pacific battlefields of two World Wars, proved worthy of the traditions of Lexington and Concord.

Our government has attempted to make provision for the widow and orphan of the fallen, for the care of the disabled, for the education and re-integration into civil life of others. In a material way the nation has thus sought to express something of its appreciation as well as to recognize its obligations toward those who staked their lives when despotism attempted to conquer us. For 300,000 of your fellows, no earthly recompense is possible. But at this time, as they return to rest in American soil, we can rededicate ourselves to the purpose for which America sent them to war - the preservation in this country of a system that insists upon the dignity of man, upon equal rights before the law, upon the fundamental freedoms that belong to man, created in the image of his God. This purpose did not end with the cessation of hostilities; it can never end and must be backed with all or strength so long as greed for power and hope of gain lead men to the employment of predatory force to enslave others. All of us - and you veterans, not the least - have a continuing responsibility to exercise vigilance, to subordinate selves to country, if this greatest and best of all nations is to remain so until the end of time!

Now you are engaged on farm, in factory and office, at school, in the daily tasks that build a better, richer, stronger America. Having defended the structure of our democratic civilization against those who would tear it down, you now add something of yourselves - your skills and talents and knowledge - to its capacity for peaceful achievement. That is your duty as citizens, demanded of you because American citizenship - man’s rarest privilege - requires of those who enjoy it productive application of its advantages. But in addition, because you are veterans who helped win victory in two World Wars, you have a special interest and investment in the fruits of hard-won victory, and the use we make of them.

Triumph over deadly threat has given this country renewed vigor in the development and perfection of our way of life. Today we are setting new records in the production of goods for peacetime living, in the number of men and women gainfully employed, in the number of students in our schools, in almost every index that measures a nation’s devotion to the peaceful betterment of human living. Nevertheless, amidst our abundance, it can be truthfully said that we are far short of the production needed by ourselves and our world neighbors; and, although the guns are stilled, we are far from assurance that war shall not again disrupt our peaceful living.

Three hungers beset the world today: Hunger for goods - for the entire range of material production from cereals and grains to heavy machinery; hunger for stability - for the balance that assures men against political chaos fomented by the partisans of extremism; hunger for security - for liberation from the fear of the future that cripples the peaceful efforts of free men in much of the world. The menace of aggression still exists. Compounded with economic collapse, food shortage and hopelessness, it threatens an end to freedom in many nations. But reality, however stark and grim, must not make a defeatist of an American.

We realize that great goals are not easily attained. Our Declaration of Independence did not by its words alone make men free. Development of this vast continent did not eliminate poverty among the unfortunate. Our conquest of nature’s secrets did not release us from sweat and toil. But each advance - political, economic, scientific - the product of thought and effort and sacrifice, moved us a little closer to the fullness of human freedom and well-being. In like manner, our stupendous victory in the second World War did not end our problems once and for all time. But it has given us magnificent opportunity that no cynicism can deny.

The United States, joined by the nations of the Western Hemisphere - still rich in the spirit of freedom - working with all nations of the earth, that so will - can preserve democracy in the world and inaugurate an era devoted to peace and the fruitful life of peace.

With you I need not argue the fact that the disappearance of freedom in any part of the world affects our own freedom. A forest fire concerns us long before it reaches our own back yard. Always must we understand that no one nation, however powerful can exist as a single island of democracy in a world otherwise completely dominated by despotism. Our own self-interest, our own safety, physical as well as spiritual, require that we take the lead in fostering and supporting freedom where it still has opportunity to flourish and where people desire its blessings.

Because a few men widely separated began to plot the extinction of freedom when most of you were still in grade school, you had to spend years of your lives in the defense of your nation. You know that it can happen again; you realize that what goes on in Europe and even the most distant corner of Asia may, in your children’s time, erupt into a final war for the survival of civilization. It may not be clear to us, however, what measures individual Americans can now take of themselves to increase the security of the democratic way of life - in this country, in this hemisphere, in the world. Nor can anyone provide a blueprint of the steps to be taken by each of you, their order and their details. But the broad outlines of American action are evident.

Leadership demands that we provide material help, so far as we are able, to those who seek to help themselves but who have not yet recovered from the ravages of war. To abandon them to forces that would stamp out freedom with the finality of a hydraulic press is repugnant to every American principle. The outcome would be chaos for peoples bound to us by the ties of fellowship in battle and, eventually, for our children a barren existence in a dreary world.

Leadership, moreover, requires that we who possess it provide a rallying point for the free peoples who, alone and of themselves, cannot withstand ideological aggression. Should this nation permit the cause of freedom elsewhere to become the victim of hostile political force, we would eventually have to fight for assurance of its survival in this country. Our foreign policy today is a realistic attempt to prevent war in the future.

Nor can we relax our enforcement of the peace. We must maintain our occupation forces at adequate strength and continue the building of a defense establishment of professional and civilian components, buttressed by universal training. Military readiness will be a forceful stop sign to any who may plot war. Moreover we must increase our production - agricultural, industrial and mineral - because American productivity is the primary element in our strength as a nation.

It is imperative that we live and act in full awareness that man has reached a period of crisis when the freedoms he has achieved slowly through generations could, within a short span of years, be utterly lost. Fortunately, you veterans, and your gallant comrades under many flags, have provided us a breathing space in which we can assure our destiny. Undoubtedly - if we will work untiringly for it - we can make of this country a better place for men to live; we can, in cooperation with our neighbors, make of this hemisphere a solid stronghold of democracy. We can hold out a hand to all who will grasp it in friendship, well knowing that when, at long last, all are so joined together, the grim specter of war will disappear and no future forests of white crosses will mark the places of conflict.

The way will be long - discouragement and even rebuff will be encountered at every turning. But patience, firmness and strength - inexhaustible patience, firmness and strength - these will see us through.

In this noble effort, leadership - manifested by the sort of example it sets - is in the end more potent than words of command. Through such leadership every one of you, at your job, in your home, about your community, can be a builder of a better America and a better world. Every time you place the common good above you own desire or personal prejudice, that often do you make this country a finer place for American living. Every time you support the common fellowship of those who espouse the free way of life, that often you make this world a safer place for human living.

Never let us forget this truth: A unified, aroused America is the greatest spiritual and physical force the Almighty has yet established on his footstool. Each of us can be a part of an America united in the basic purpose of sustaining freedom, an America aroused to the threats and dangers that exist. If 140,000,000 of us join in such union, let no cynic tell you that world order is a myth and peace an impossible dream! If we resolutely lead, millions will follow.

At the nation’s call, all of you have given years of your lives, have dared great dangers, have lost loved ones and friends. I know that now you will not be found laggard in what must be done. The world needs the United States and the United States needs you.