I am not here to justify the past, gloss over the problems of the present, or propose easy solutions for the future.
I am here to state what I believe to be right and what I believe to be wrong; and to propose action for correcting what I think wrong! I.
There are two tasks confronting us that so far outweigh all other that I shall devote this year’s message entirely to them. The first is to ensure our safety through strength.
As to our strength, I have repeatedly voiced this conviction: We now have a broadly based and efficient defensive strength, including a great deterrent power, which is, for the present, our main guarantee against war; but, unless we act wisely and promptly, we could lose that capacity to deter attack or defend ourselves.
My profoundest conviction is that the American people will say, as one man: No matter what the exertions or sacrifices, we shall maintain that necessary strength!
But we could make no more tragic mistake than merely to concentrate on military strength.
For if we did only this, the future would hold nothing for the world but an Age of Terror.
And so our second task is to do the constructive work of building a genuine peace. We must never become so preoccupied with our desire for military strength that we neglect those areas of economic development, trade, diplomacy, education, ideas and principles where the foundations of real peace must be laid. II.
The threat to our safety, and to the hope of a peaceful world, can be simply stated. It is communist imperialism.
This threat is not something imagined by critics of the Soviets. Soviet spokesmen, from the beginning, have publicly and frequently declared their aim to expand their power, one way or another, throughout the world.