I appreciate the honor that you have given me by placing this bust in this building.

May we prove worthy of the honor that you and your comrades in arms are bringing to this great land of ours.

It is a grenade that is thrown from a rooftop into a crowded marketplace.

Good men must sometimes leave their homes and their loved ones, to take arms against the agents of oppression.

It will be matched equally by the funds provided by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Their sons have joined a conflict as difficult and demanding, against an enemy as tough and resilient, as any American arms have ever faced in our long past history.

The most cruel irony I know is that men require force to serve peace.

Hundreds of thousands of their fellow Americans have died to bring us to the point where nations will look for other ways than war to settle their differences.

We ought to ask ourselves: What obligation do we have to their sacrifice?

So I am very proud to be here with you this morning.

General George C. Marshall is a great American soldier.

I am proud that you wear my country's uniform.

I speak to you now as the Commander in Chief of the best military force our Nation has ever placed on the field of battle.

But I am coming back.

You only have to be with them a few minutes and you know what real courage is.

Despite the enemy's advantages--despite the alien character of the struggle--our brave fighting men have now turned the tide of battle.

And if it succeeds where open aggression has failed, then men in our time will not turn from war as the means to their end.

The initiative is no longer with the enemies of freedom. The initiative is with us.