As we explore the reaches of space, let us go to the new worlds
together--not as new worlds to be conquered, but as a new adventure to
be shared.

With those who are willing to join, let us cooperate to reduce the
burden of arms, to strengthen the structure of peace, to lift up the
poor and the hungry.

But to all those who would be tempted by weakness, let us leave no doubt
that we will be as strong as we need to be for as long as we need to be.

Over the past twenty years, since I first came to this Capital as a
freshman Congressman, I have visited most of the nations of the world.

I have come to know the leaders of the world, and the great forces, the
hatreds, the fears that divide the world.

I know that peace does not come through wishing for it--that there is no
substitute for days and even years of patient and prolonged diplomacy.

I also know the people of the world.

I have seen the hunger of a homeless child, the pain of a man wounded in
battle, the grief of a mother who has lost her son. I know these have no
ideology, no race.

I know America. I know the heart of America is good.

I speak from my own heart, and the heart of my country, the deep concern
we have for those who suffer, and those who sorrow.

I have taken an oath today in the presence of God and my countrymen to
uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. To that oath I
now add this sacred commitment: I shall consecrate my office, my
energies, and all the wisdom I can summon, to the cause of peace among
nations.

Let this message be heard by strong and weak alike:

The peace we seek to win is not victory over any other people, but the
peace that comes "with healing in its wings"; with compassion for those
who have suffered; with understanding for those who have opposed us;
with the opportunity for all the peoples of this earth to choose their
own destiny.

Only a few short weeks ago, we shared the glory of man's first sight of
the world as God sees it, as a single sphere reflecting light in the
darkness.

As the Apollo astronauts flew over the moon's gray surface on Christmas
Eve, they spoke to us of the beauty of earth--and in that voice so clear
across the lunar distance, we heard them invoke God's blessing on its
goodness.

In that moment, their view from the moon moved poet Archibald MacLeish
to write:

"To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that
eternal silence where it floats, is