American University speech

This article is part of a series about John F. Kennedy
Military service in WWII Electoral history Why England Slept Profiles in Courage A Nation of Immigrants Family 35th President of the United States Presidency timeline Transition Inauguration Tenure Executive actions New Frontier Foreign policy Doctrine "A Strategy of Peace" Bay of Pigs Cuban Missile Crisis Civil Rights Address Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Clean Air Peace Corps "We choose to go to the Moon" Space programs Mercury Gemini Apollo Appointments Cabinet Judges Presidential campaign 1960 campaign primaries convention debates election Assassination and legacy Assassination timeline media coverage reactions State funeral dignitaries Eternal Flame Memorials Library Legacy Cultural depictions
v t e

World Peace Speech

Speech from American University by John F. Kennedy, June 10, 1963. Duration 26:47.

---

Problems playing this file? See media help.

The American University speech, titled "A Strategy of Peace", was a commencement address delivered by United States President John F. Kennedy at the American University in Washington, D.C., on Monday, June 10, 1963.^[1] Widely considered one of the most powerful speeches Kennedy delivered,^[2] he not only outlined a plan to curb nuclear arms, but also "laid out a hopeful, yet realistic route for world peace at a time when the U.S. and Soviet Union faced the potential for an escalating nuclear arms race."^[3] In the speech, Kennedy announced his agreement to negotiations "toward early agreement on a comprehensive test ban treaty" (which resulted in the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty) and also announced, for the purpose of showing "good faith and solemn convictions", his decision to unilaterally suspend all U.S. atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons as long as all other nations would do the same. Noteworthy are his comments that the United States was seeking a goal of "complete disarmament" of nuclear weapons and his vow that America "will never start a war".

The speech was unusual in its peaceful outreach to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, and is remembered as one of Kennedy's finest and most important speeches.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev liked this speech so much that he ordered its full Russian translation published in Pravda and Izvestia, which was unprecendented at that time.^[4]