Remarks Marking the Opening of National Civil Defense Week.

[Recorded on film and tape]

My fellow citizens:

Our second National Civil Defense Week begins today. I hope that this week all of us will be impressed with the truth that civil defense is as important to our national welfare as is military defense.

Your government is devoted to the search for an enduring peace. In that search, an immediate and constant effort is to reach with others a safe accord for ending the threat of nuclear warfare.

The atom can be made to work usefully for mankind, for the good of all, instead of growing as a menace to our very existence. But until it is made so to work, and until the possibility of nuclear destruction is removed, it is of the utmost importance to all of us that we create and maintain a total national defense readiness.

We cannot permit weakness in either military or civil defense to tempt a reckless aggressor. Total readiness is the greatest deterrent to any aggression in the uncertain time that must endure until we can turn our atomic effort exclusively to the welfare of mankind. We must reach that state of readiness.

Every one of us has a personal duty to help develop and maintain the non-military part of our nation's defense. The Federal Civil Defense Administration shows us many ways we can help. Two are of the greatest importance.

One is to build into every agency of government the capacity to function effectively in any kind of disaster. As you know, the departments of the Federal government have been for some years developing programs to this end. It is my hope that our state and city authorities will take similar common sense precautions.

The second way in which we can ready ourselves for unforeseen emergencies begins right in our own homes. Through family and community civil defense preparedness, in such things as first aid, home firefighting, and mass feeding, we will be better able to cope with every kind of emergency, including the natural disasters that each year take their tolls of life and property. In the home, at work, in schools, in all community affairs, we can make great contributions to the preparedness we should have.

Oppressed people everywhere hold this nation as a hope for mankind. You are this nation. Your strength helps keep bright the world hope for peace for generations to come.

I urge you to take a responsible part in National Civil Defense Week.