Statement by the President on the Reopening of the Geneva Disarmament Conference.

THIS MORNING in Geneva, Switzerland, the 18-Nation Committee on Disarmament resumed its work.

There is only one item on the agenda of that Conference--it is the leading item on the agenda of mankind--and that one item is peace.

In my message to Geneva today, I expressed pride in the gains we have made and prayed that the tide has turned--that further and more far-reaching agreements lie ahead--and that future generations will mark 1964 as the year the world turned for all time away from the horrors of war and constructed new bulwarks of peace.

Agreement on the control, the reduction, and the ultimate abolition of weapons and war is not impossible, as it seemed for so many years.

We now have a limited nuclear test ban treaty.

We now have an emergency communications link--a "hot line"--between Washington and Moscow.

We now have an agreement in the United Nations to keep bombs out of outer space.

These are all small steps--but they go in the right direction--the direction of security and sanity and peace.

Now we must go further. Just as we are determined to do whatever must be done to defend our freedom and deter aggression, so must we be equally determined to reduce the risks of another worldwide war, a war in which the first hour might be measured is terms of how many hundreds of millions are killed.

If we have the genius to create these terrible weapons of destruction, then we have the genius to create the means of their destruction.

There will be risks--there will be doubts and delays and disappointments. But the pursuit of peace must continue.

Today we return to the conference table at Geneva with new momentum and hope. Based on continuing discussions with our Allies and effective safeguards, the United States is asking the world to take further steps toward peace--enforceable steps which can endanger no one's safety and enlarge everyone's security.

First, we are proposing new agreements to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to nations not now possessing them. Today's uncertain and unsatisfactory balance of terror will be all terror and no balance if dozens of nations, large and small, have their own nuclear trigger.

Second, we are proposing that both sides accept observation posts on their own territories as a safeguard against miscalculation and misunderstanding and the fear of surprise attack.

Third, we are proposing that both sides stop all production of the fissionable material that is used in nuclear weapons. This country and the Soviet Union already have produced enough explosive force to equal 10 tons of TNT for every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth. We have already announced that we are cutting back our production. We are willing to shut down more plants if and when the Soviet Union does the same, plant by plant, with inspection on both sides.

Fourth, as stated in my letter to Chairman Khrushchev yesterday, we are proposing practical measures to ban the threat or use of force--direct or indirect force--to change boundaries, demarcation lines, the control of territory or access to it.

In short, we are going beyond Mr. Khrushchev's New Year's declaration against the use of force in territorial disputes and asking him to join us in applying that principle on a broader basis.

Finally, we are proposing that a way be found to stop the ominous increase in strategic nuclear forces. To this end, let both sides explore freezing the numbers and kinds of their strategic nuclear vehicles--whether planes or missiles, whether offensive or defensive.

Each one of these five proposals is important to peace. No one of them is impossible of agreement. The best way to begin disarming is to begin--and we shall hear any plan, go any place, make any plea, and play any part that offers a realistic prospect of peace.

Disarmament is not merely the Government's business. It is everyone's business. It is the concern of every parent and teacher, every public servant, and every private citizen.

I ask your support for these measures-and I ask your prayers for peace.

This world has had its fill of war. We want a just and lasting peace--and with God's help, we shall achieve it.