John F. Kennedy Speech Plaza - Washington, D.C. - John F. Kennedy on Waymarking.com

The American University speech, titled "A Strategy of Peace", was a commencement address delivered by United States President John F. Kennedy at the American University in Washington, D.C., on Monday, June 10, 1963. Delivered at the height of his rhetorical powers and widely considered one of his most powerful speeches, Kennedy not only outlined a plan to curb nuclear arms, but also "laid out a hopeful, yet realistic route for world peace at a time when the U.S. and Soviet Union faced the potential for an escalating nuclear arms race." In the speech, Kennedy announced his agreement to negotiations "toward early agreement on a comprehensive test ban treaty" (which resulted in the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty) and also announced, for the purpose of showing "good faith and solemn convictions", his decision to unilaterally suspend all U.S. atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons as long as all other nations would do the same. Noteworthy are his comments that the United States was seeking a goal of "complete disarmament" of nuclear weapons and his vow that America "will never start a war". The speech was unusual in its peaceful outreach to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, and is remembered as one of Kennedy's finest and most important speeches.

Plaque Text:
Site of the American University Address
Commencement June 10, 1963
Delivered by
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
President of the United States 1961-1963
This address contained the policy declarations which led to the treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, outer space, and under water signed in Moscow August 5, 1963....Approved by the United States Senate September 24, 1963, and entered into force October 10, 1963 with the signatures of one hundred seven nations.
From the Address:
"I have, therefore, chosen this time and this place to discuss... the most important topic on earth: world peace...The United States...will never start a war...this generation of Americans has already had enough war and hate and oppression....confident and unafraid, we labor on...not toward a strategy of annihilation but toward a strategy of peace."