Video: 'JFK'S "PEACE" SPEECH AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN WASHINGTON, D.C. (JUNE 10, 1963) (VIDEO VERSION)'

(Monday, June 10, 1963, 10:31 a.m. EDT; during Kennedy’s American University speech, part of the Cold War) — U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced today that he was suspending all atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons and work towards a nuclear test-ban treaty with the Soviet Union and other atomic powers during his commencement address — titled “A Strategy of Peace” — at American University in Washington, D.C.

Delivered at the height of his rhetorical powers and widely considered one of his most powerful speeches, Kennedy 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.”

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.”