John F. Kennedy - Address to the United Nations General Assembly - delivered 25 September 1961

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio]

"Mr. President, Honored Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen:

We meet here in an hour of grief and challenge. Dag Hammarskjold is dead, but the United Nations lives. His tragedy is deep in our hearts, but the tasks for which he died are at the top of our agenda. A noble servant of peace is gone, but the quest for peace lies before us.

The problem is not the death of one man; the problem is the life of this organization. It will either grow to meet the challenges of our age, or it will be gone with the wind, without influence, without force, without respect. Were we to let it die, to enfeeble its vigor, to cripple its powers, we would condemn our future.

For in the development of this organization rests the only true alternative to war -- and war appeals no longer as a rational alternative. Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes. It can no longer concern the Great Powers alone. For a nuclear disaster, spread by winds and water and fear, could well engulf the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the committed and the uncommitted alike. Mankind must put an end to war -- or war will put an end to mankind."

continued: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkunitednations.htm