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A Different View. "But you and I and most Americans take a different view of our peril. We know that it comes from without, not within. It must be met by quiet preparedness, not provocative speeches ... So let us not heed these counsels of fear and suspicion. Let us concentrate more on keeping enemy bombers and missiles away from our shores, and less on keeping neighbors away from our shelters. Let us devote more energy to organizing the free and friendly nations of the world, with common trade and strategic goals, and less energy to organizing armed bands of civilian guerrillas that are more likely to supply local vigilantes than national vigilance."
Concluded the President, in a plea for national maturity and national judgment in which most of the U.S. could join: "Let our patriotism be reflected in the creation of confidence rather than crusades of suspicion. The one great irreversible trend in world history is on the side of liberty—and so, for all time to come, are we."
*In a joking aside, Bob Kennedy noted that the "only Communist the John Birchers have uncovered is President Eisenhower"—a reference to the absurd charge in Birch Society President Robert Welch's Blue Book that Ike was "a conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy."