John F. Kennedy: “Now the time has come to make the most of our gains--to translate the renewal of our national strength into the…”

Members of the Congress: The United States did not rise to greatness by waiting for others to lead.

For together we face a common challenge: to enlarge the prosperity of free men everywhere--to build in partnership a new trading community in which all free nations may gain from the productive energy of free competitive effort.

But as an institution, it should have in the future, as it has had in the past since its inception, no stronger or more faithful member than the United States of America.

These various elements in our foreign policy lead, as I have said, to a single goal--the goal of a peaceful world of free and independent states.