Pres. Eisenhower's State of the Union speeches: on Foreign Policy


Mutual security means mutual cooperation against Communism

Since the victory of 1945, we anticipated a world of peace and cooperation. The calculated pressures of aggressive communism have forced us, instead, to live in a world of turmoil. This administration has, therefore, begun the definition of a new, positive foreign policy. This policy will be governed by certain fixed ideas. They are these:
  1. Our foreign policy must be clear, consistent, and confident.
  2. The policy we embrace must be a coherent global policy.
  3. Our policy, dedicated to making the free world secure, will envision all peaceful methods and devices--except breaking faith with our friends.
  4. The policy we pursue will recognize the truth that no single country, even one so powerful as ours, can alone defend the liberty of all nations threatened by Communist aggression from without or subversion within. Mutual security means effective mutual cooperation.
  5. Our policy will be designed to foster the advent of practical unity in Western Europe.
Source: Pres. Eisenhower's 1953 State of the Union message Feb 2, 1953

The world has shrunk; interests now interdependent worldwide

The world has so shrunk that all free nations are our neighbors. Without cooperative neighbors, the US cannot maintain its own security and welfare, because:
  1. America's vital interests are world-wide, embracing both hemispheres and every continent.
  2. We have community of interest with every nation in the free world.
  3. Interdependence of interests requires a decent respect for the rights and the peace of all peoples.
These principles motivate our actions within the UN. There, before all the world, by our loyalty to them, by our practice of them, let us strive to set a standard to which all who seek justice can rally.

May we at home, in all the cities & farmlands of America, support these principles in a personal effort of dedication. Thereby each of us can help establish a secure world order in which opportunity for freedom and justice will be more widespread, and in which the resources now dissipated on the armaments of war can be released for the life and growth of all humanity.

Source: Pres. Eisenhower's 1957 State of the Union message Jan 10, 1957

  • The above quotations are from Pres. Eisenhower's State of the Union messages to Congress, 1953-1960.
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Page last updated: Feb 24, 2019