Message to the Second Conference of Nonaligned Nations Meeting in Cairo.

PEACE in our troubled world is the hope of all men of good will. All governments that would faithfully serve their people, that would strive to realize their dreams, must have the unwavering quest of peace as a primary concern. So the delegations gathered in Cairo have an opportunity in their deliberations to help advance this great common cause of mankind.

You have recognized this opportunity-and this challenge--by making the safeguarding and the strengthening of world peace your first order of business. Every positive step taken to settle international disputes peacefully--or to eliminate their causes before they reach crisis proportions-brings us all closer to the goal we share.

As you all know, the United States has been in the forefront of those seeking to strengthen world peace through sensible and safeguarded measures of disarmament. We pledge ourselves anew to this great task.

The United States enjoys friendly relations with nearly all nations represented at your conference. The United States shares with all your peoples the same basic values and aspirations--for human rights and the dignity of the individual, for freedom from all forms of exploitation or domination by outside forces, for the right of each nation, in every area of the world, to develop political and economic systems of its own choosing, and to realize its own dreams in its own way.

Unfortunately, these legitimate national aspirations are still denied to many peoples. Unfortunately, aggression often masks itself in new forms of imperialism while attacking the imperialism of the past. Unfortunately, the centuries-old problems of poverty, illness, and illiteracy continue to afflict a high percentage of the human race.

The United States has joined with most of you in the past in trying to deal with these difficult and complicated problems by peaceful means. We hope to continue and expand this cooperation.

A year ago this week, one of our most important accomplishments--the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty--went into effect. We Americans are proud of the role that President Kennedy and the United States Government played in obtaining that treaty. It was a great step forward but it was not enough. We will not be satisfied until the awesome power of the atom is harnessed for peace alone, and men can live out their lives with assurance that they will not be suddenly obliterated in the night.

John F. Kennedy is no longer with us. We mourn his loss, and work to make real his dreams for a better world. Another great peacemaker, Jawaharlal Nehru, has also been taken from us, but his visions for a better world were never more alive.

We Americans live in a diversified society. We are a nation of many minority groups-from almost every land. For this reason, we cherish as a guiding principle the right of men and of groups to hold diverse views so long, of course, as the expression of those views does not interfere with the security or the welfare of others.

We defend that principle among ourselves. We support and respect its application in our relations with all responsible governments.

Finally, we greet you as fellow members of the United Nations, which has done so much to guard the peace and to point the way to a better world order. There we join together in a parliament in which the strong and the weak, the rich and the less prosperous, the old and the new nations share the floor, the platform, and the responsibility in common cause. These are rights to be cherished by us all as we sustain and strengthen our organization to better serve us all this year, next year, and into our common future.