September 20, 2014 is the 51st anniversary of President Kennedy calling off the nuclear arms race and for converting the Moon race to a global cooperative effort at the United Nations (Sept. 20, 1963).
What would the world be today if the trillions of dollars, scientific talent and physical resources invested in endless warfare had been shifted toward peaceful purposes? We might have been more proactive on the ecological overshoot issues if the military industrial complex had not overthrown the elected government two months after this speech.
www.jfkmoon.org/un.html has the full text and audio (half hour). I am grateful that President Kennedy stood up to the Generals and the "Intelligence" agencies and refused to launch a nuclear war in October 1962, it's likely none of us would be here if he had taken their advice. A primary reference for this hidden history is from peace activist James Douglass whose book "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why he died and why it matters" is the best book of US history it has been my pleasure to read. A few reviews are at www.jfkmoon.org/unspeakable.html - including the recommendation from Robert Kennedy Jr that every American should read the book. If we're going to shift course as a civilization toward cooperative survival we would need to understand the wrong turns we made.
www.jfkmoon.org/american-university.html has the June 10, 1963 JFK speech at American University calling for a shift away from the Cold War, it's a little better known than the UN speech. Krushchev was so impressed with it that he had it printed in the Soviet media, but the US media wasn't so inclined to promote it. Both speeches are of primary importance for understanding what happened to our country and the wrong turn we took.
Mark Robinowitz
Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations - President John F. Kennedy New York - September 20th 1963 [excerpts]
.... Today the clouds have lifted a little so that new rays of hope can break through. The pressures on West Berlin appear to be temporarily eased. Political unity in the Congo has been largely restored. A neutral coalition in Laos, while still in difficulty, is at least in being. The integrity of the United Nations Secretariat has been reaffirmed. A United Nations Decade of Development is under way. And, for the first time in 17 years of effort, a specific step has been taken to limit the nuclear arms race. I refer, of course, to the treaty to ban nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space, and under water--concluded by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States--and already signed by nearly 100 countries. It has been hailed by people the world over who are thankful to be free from the fears of nuclear fallout, and I am confident that on next Tuesday at 10:30 o'clock in the morning it will receive the overwhelming endorsement of the Senate of the United States. The world has not escaped from the darkness. The long shadows of conflict and crisis envelop us still. But we meet today in an atmosphere of rising hope, and at a moment of comparative calm. My presence here today is not a sign of crisis, but of confidence. I am not here to report on a new threat to the peace or new signs of war. I have come to salute the United Nations and to show the support of the American people for your daily deliberations. For the value of this body's work is not dependent on the existence of emergencies--nor can the winning of peace consist only of dramatic victories. Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures. And however undramatic the pursuit of peace, that pursuit must go on. Today we may have reached a pause in the cold war--but that is not a lasting peace. A test ban treaty is a milestone--but it is not the millennium. We have not been released from our obligations--we have been given an opportunity. And if we fail to make the most of this moment and this momentum--if we convert our new-found hopes and understandings into new walls and weapons of hostility--if this pause in the cold war merely leads to its renewal and not to its end--then the indictment of posterity will rightly point its finger at us all. But if we can stretch this pause into a period of cooperation--if both sides can now gain new confidence and experience in concrete collaborations for peace--if we can now be as bold and farsighted in the control of deadly weapons as we have been in their creation--then surely this first small step can be the start of a long and fruitful journey. ....
Finally, in a field where the United States and the Soviet Union have a special capacity--in the field of space--there is room for new cooperation, for further joint efforts in the regulation and exploration of space. I include among these possibilities a joint expedition to the moon. Space offers no problems of sovereignty; by resolution of this Assembly, the members of the United Nations have foresworn any claim to territorial rights in outer space or on celestial bodies, and declared that international law and the United Nations Charter will apply. Why, therefore, should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition? Why should the United States and the Soviet Union, in preparing for such expeditions, become involved in immense duplications of research, construction, and expenditure? Surely we should explore whether the scientists and astronauts of our two countries--indeed of all the world--cannot work together in the conquest of space, sending someday in this decade to the moon not the representatives of a single nation, but the representatives of all of our countries. ....
The effort to improve the conditions of man, however, is not a task for the few. It is the task of all nations--acting alone, acting in groups, acting in the United Nations, for plague and pestilence, and plunder and pollution, the hazards of nature, and the hunger of children are the foes of every nation. The earth, the sea, and the air are the concern of every nation. And science, technology, and education can be the ally of every nation. Never before has man had such capacity to control his own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and massive human misery. We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world--or to make it the last. ....
But peace does not rest in charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people. And if it is cast out there, then no act, no pact, no treaty, no organization can hope to preserve it without the support and the wholehearted commitment of all people. So let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper; let us strive to build peace, a desire for peace, a willingness to work for peace, in the hearts and minds of all our people. I believe that we can. I believe the problems of human destiny are not beyond the reach of human beings. Two years ago I told this body that the United States had proposed, and was willing to sign, a limited test ban treaty. Today that treaty has been signed. It will not put an end to war. It will not remove basic conflicts. It will not secure freedom for all. But it can be a lever, and Archimedes, in explaining the principles of the lever, was said to have declared to his friends: "Give me a place where I can stand--and I shall move the world." My fellow inhabitants of this planet: Let us take our stand here in this Assembly of nations. And let us see if we, in our own time, can move the world to a just and lasting peace.
-- President John F. Kennedy, September 20, 1963 speech to the UN calling for an end to the Cold War and converting the Moon Race into an international cooperative effort, two months and two days before he was removed from office.
the speech was immediately after the signing of the Limited Test Ban Treaty, the first agreement between the United States and Soviet Union to start scaling back the arms race. www.jfkmoon.org/test-ban.html
JFK waged a successful political effort to get it ratified, including speaking in Utah (downwind of the test site). No President before or since has had similar advocacy for nuclear arms control or disarmament. The Cuban Missile Crisis scared Kennedy and Krushchev to the point they cooperated in scaling back the arms race, although that didn't last after they were removed from office.