US Presidency
1961

But the great question which confronted this body in 1945 is still before us: whether man's cherished hopes for progress and peace are to be destroyed by terror and disruption, whether the foul winds of war can be tamed in time to free the cooling winds of reason, and whether the pledges of our Charter are to be fulfilled or defied pledges to secure peace, progress, human rights and world law. In this Hall, there are not three forces, but two. One is composed of those who are trying to build the kind of world described in Articles I and II of the Charter. The other, seeking a far different world, would undermine this organization in the process. Today of all days our dedication to the Charter must be maintained. It must be strengthened first of all by the selection of an outstanding civil servant to carry forward the responsibilities of the Secretary General- a man endowed with both the wisdom and the power to make meaningful the moral force of the world community.