General, gentlemen:
I want to express our great satisfaction in your presence here in the United States. This kind of joint community effort, the community of free nations, would have been regarded as impossible 2 decades ago, but now we take it very much for granted.
We are glad you're here. The effort that we and you are making in common is to defend our countries, defend our peace, defend the vital interests of the free world in the strong belief that in time the disease of liberty, as Thomas Jefferson called it, will be catching in all parts of the world.
You're here on a most important mission, and that is one which is greatly identified with the traditional and present and future aspirations of free men and women.
We are glad you're here, and we're confident that you will teach us as much as you will learn. Gentlemen, we're proud to have you in the United States.
Note: The President spoke at the Redstone Army Airfield. In his opening words he referred to Maj. Gen. Francis McMorrow, Commanding General, Army Missile Command at Redstone Airfield, where 472 troops representing 13 foreign countries were engaged in a training program.
John F. Kennedy, Remarks to Allied Students at the Army Guided Missile School, Huntsville, Alabama Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/236774
