Truman tells armed forces world must preserve peace
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Truman told members of the armed services in a V-J broadcast Sunday night that “with the destructive force of war removed from the world we can now turn to the grave task of preserving the peace which you gallant men and women have won.”
The President asserted that we must collaborate with our Allies and other nations in this task.
“They are as determined as we are that war must be abolished from the earth, if the earth, as we know it, is to remain. Civilization cannot survive another total war.”
Speaks from White House
Speaking from the White House on a V-J Day program which originated in Hollywood, Mr. Truman told the armed forces:
The high tide of victory will carry us forward to great achievements in the era which lies ahead. But we can perform them only in a world which is free from the threat of war.
We depend on you, who have known war in all its horror, to keep this nation aware that only through cooperation among all nations can any nation remain wholly secure.
The President said the people at home, though thousands of miles away from most of the armed forces, “are close to you in deep gratitude and in a solemn sense of obligation.”
“They remember – and I know they will never forget – those who have gone from among you, those who are maimed, those who, thank God, are still safe after years of fighting and suffering and danger.”
President Truman was introduced from Hollywood by Pfc. Alton Bouchard of San Francisco, who 60 hours ago was on Okinawa where he was wounded while serving the 381st Infantry Regiment of the 96th Division.
Master of ceremonies for the Armed Forces Radio Service broadcast was Bing Crosby. Bob Hope read a eulogy to war correspondent Ernie Pyle. Bing sang “White Christmas,” and Orson Welles read a prayer written by a Navy enlisted man, Yeoman Third Class William Welch. There were songs, too, by Frances Langford and Frank Sinatra.