Remarks in New York City to Staff Members of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations.

NO ONE should have to listen to two speeches, or even give them in the same morning, so I will be very brief.

Mr. Bunche, Governor Stevenson: I want to express a very warm sense of appreciation which all of us feel to you for the work that you are doing. You wear two hats with distinction, being citizens of the United States and also members of an International Secretariat. The United Nations has been criticized, has been under attack, for a good many years, but as Mr. Frost has said about not taking down a wall until you know why it is put up, if there wasn't a United Nations we would certainly have to invent one. Even in the comparatively brief time that I have been President of the United States, on four or five occasions I really think the United Nations has come between, if not war, the direct confrontation of major powers.

The United Nations has served as the buffer, but more than the buffer, as a means by which great and small powers can adjust their differences in a peaceful way. I hope that we can strengthen the United Nations.

I really came here today not to make any particular proposals, but to indicate my strong feeling that the United Nations must be supported by the United States, and that other countries must not only support it verbally, but must support it financially, must commit their fortunes to strengthening it. And I can't think of any group of Americans who have a better chance to make a contribution to peace, to order, to justice, than you. To be able to be citizens of a country and yet to be members of an international body, to be able to maintain your loyalty to your country which you feel, but in a sense to find a higher loyalty in an international order and body, really makes you a very special group of citizens.

We admire what you are doing. We appreciate what you are doing. But I think most importantly, you must feel that in the 1960's, if you are ever asked what contribution you made to the advancement of mankind, I think you can say with a good deal of pride, "I worked at the United Nations. I was faithful to the Charter. I was loyal to my country. But in a larger sense, I was loyal to the concept of mankind living on a small planet and, in a way, which puts us closer and closer together."

So I express my thanks to all of you. I hope you stay here, and I want you to know that in Washington we are strongly behind you and we are very grateful that you are here and that the United States Delegation to the United Nations is led by our distinguished friend, Governor Stevenson. So we are going back to Washington with a strong feeling of confidence in you all. Most importantly, a strong feeling of confidence in the United Nations.