Remarks Upon Announcing the Nomination of Arthur J. Goldberg as U.S. Representative to the United Nations

Mr. Justice, Mr. Secretary, ladies and gentlemen:

One week ago we, and the world, lost Adlai Stevenson.

For all who knew him, and for all whose lives were touched by his rare gifts of inspiration, the world will seem forever poorer for his death. Yet we know that the world will be forever richer for his life.

None can fill the void that his passing leaves in our hearts. But the vacancy left at the council tables of the United Nations must be filled.

Our yearning for peace and for justice on this earth, and our quest for the dignity of all mankind, are not the yearning and quest of one heart but of 190 million. Where men and where nations come together to seek these goals, the voice of all America must be heard.

It is, therefore, my responsibility to select a successor to Ambassador Adlai Stevenson as the special Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations.

Since the birth of the United Nations 20 years ago, each President has faced the same responsibility. Each President has reflected the faith and the firmness of our commitment to the United Nations by always calling upon distinguished citizens of very high achievement to serve in this honored office.

As an example, President Truman called upon Senator Warren Austin of Vermont.

President Eisenhower called upon an out, standing American, who serves his country faithfully and selflessly still, Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts.

President Kennedy called upon the great Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois.

To assume these responsibilities now I have called upon a member of the Supreme Court of the United States, and a former member of the Cabinet--Justice Arthur Goldberg.

At the insistence of the President of his country, he has accepted this call to duty.

Justice Goldberg, like Governor Stevenson, is a son of Illinois. Where Governor Stevenson was descended from some of America's oldest settlers, Justice Goldberg was born of some of our newest. He rose from the city streets to Cabinet office, and then to the highest court in this land. His life embodies the story of our open and free society as a fulfillment of the opportunity that we want all mankind to share with us.

A counselor of the American trade union movement, Justice Goldberg won the esteem of both labor and business. His appointment to the Cabinet of the late, beloved President Kennedy drew bipartisan approval and drew praise from leaders of widely divergent philosophies. His nomination to the Supreme Court was warmly welcomed by all who knew him as a lawyer of exceptional ability, a student and a thinker of original and profound capacity, and, above all, a man of courage, and independence, and conviction, and generous humanitarian compassion.

But Justice Goldberg is a man of international reputation, too. Before entering public service he was an articulate and very forceful champion of the effort within the international labor movement to preserve and to extend the democratic institutions of the free world. In the Cabinet he represented the President on missions to Europe, and Africa, and Asia, and was continuously concerned with the affairs of the United Nations' International Labor Organization. Since becoming a member of the Supreme Court, he has traveled extensively in the world, speaking in many lands about the problems and the issues which all men share.

At different periods, over the past 20 years, we have had varying concerns in our constant and continuous efforts for world peace. But always--and really never more than now--we strive for a world where all men may live in peace with the hope of justice under the rule of law over the conduct of nations.

Committed as we are to this principle and this purpose, it is fitting that we should ask a member of our highest court to relinquish that office to speak for America before the nations of the world.

And finally, let me say that Justice Goldberg is an old and trusted friend of mine, a counselor of many years. He will sit in our Cabinet. He will always have direct and ready access to, and the full and respectful confidence of, the President of the United States and the Secretary of State. In this new office he will speak not only for an administration but he will speak for an entire Nation, firmly, earnestly, and responsibly committed to the strength and to the success of the United Nations in its works for peace around the world.

Now, if Justice Goldberg would say a word we would all be very pleased.

Thank you very much.