John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Let us renew the spirit of the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving, lonely in an inscrutable wilderness, facing the dark unknown with a faith borne of their dedication to God and a fortitude drawn from their sense that all men were brothers.

Let us renew that spirit by sharing the abundance of this day with those less fortunate, in our own land and abroad.

It is fitting that we give our thanks for the safety of our land, for the fertility of our harvests, for the strength of our liberties, for the health of our people.

Progress is now being made towards the restoration of peace in the Caribbean, and it is our firm hope and purpose that this progress shall go forward.

The United States intends to follow closely the completion of this work through a variety of means, including aerial surveillance, until such time as an equally satisfactory international means of verification is effected.

The Soviet missile bases in Cuba are being dismantled, their missiles and related equipment are being crated, and the fixed installations at these sites are being destroyed.

I AM pleased to witness the signing of the contract between the Agency for International Development and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which will enable us to assist underdeveloped countries in realizing the benefits…

Judge Jessup's scholarship has enriched his field.

We are gratified that Chairman Khrushchev has agreed to withdraw these weapons from this hemisphere.

What we have done can be done in a great many other countries with this organizational arrangement and with stimulation from both their national governments and their local communities.

The fact that he sits on the International Court of Justice with the unique twin heritage of the American common lawyer and the international lawyer holds out to all of us the promise that he will contribute strongly to the effectiveness…

In other words, we've done a good deal here.

He teaches us to see international law not as a series of abstract rules, but as the product of experience in operating actual institutions of the international community.

So I think this can be very important, in fact one of the most significant actions taken by the AID agency.

Judge Jessup has come to the International Court of Justice with the understanding that a regime of international law must be achieved by the efforts of men engaged in the daily work of regulating practical relations among states.

I deplore this further instance of armed aggression by Communist China and hope that that state can be persuaded to abandon its flagrant violation of the territorial integrity of its neighbors.

Hence, we have as great an incentive as any state to do all in our power to preserve this peace.

I hope that today's action is only the beginning of a very concentrated cooperative effort.

I think that we take the REA so much for granted that we ignore the extraordinary and really revolutionary increase in the electrification of American farms which occurred in almost a decade.

I think this is going to be very helpful.

When some saw what could be done, then all wanted to do it.

His involvement in the actual practice of international law has lent particular realism to his theoretical work in the field.

I'm hopeful that the United States Government and the AID agency will follow this up immediately, and will particularly concentrate their first efforts, as I've said, on Latin America, will concentrate their attention there on several…

The obligation of the 180 million Americans to you and those like you in dozens of pursuits is unlimited.

Your work protects private property, which is the basis of our social life and our family life.