Earlier presidents spoke memorably of the elusive dream of peace. Abraham Lincoln culminated his stirring second inaugural speech with his “Prayer for Peace.’’ Franklin Roosevelt affirmed the goal of a just and lasting peace as a focal point of his fourth inaugural in 1945. Richard Nixon pledged he would bring “peace with honor’’ during Vietnam, and George H.W. Bush called for a “democratic peace’’ following the end of the Cold War.
In perhaps the most eloquent evocation of peace by an American president, John F. Kennedy described it this way to students at American University in 1963: “Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children . . . not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.’’
Why are we so hesitant to place peace on such a high mantle?
We live in a strikingly martial time in American history. During the last 16 years, we have fought four wars - Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan - and suffered the shock of the 9/11 attacks and seemingly endless conflict with global terrorist groups. Unlike previous generations of Americans, we live with a nightmare scenario: the possibility that depraved terrorists might unleash nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons in our cities.
Yet not even the prospect of a nuclear 9/11 fully explains why peace is so absent in our public discussions. After all, Americans lived through much bloodier times - the Civil War, the two World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam. Earlier American leaders summoned bursts of idealism and self-confidence after harrowing conflicts and declared peace possible even after witnessing the very worst of human nature.
