The Chance for Peace speech, also known as the Cross of Iron speech, was an address given by U.S. President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

on April 16, 1953, shortly after the death of

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

leader

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

. Speaking only three months into his presidency, Eisenhower likened arms spending to stealing from the people, and evoked

William Jennings Bryan William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator, and politician. He was a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running three times as the party' ...

in describing "humanity hanging from a cross of iron." Although Eisenhower, a former military man, spoke against increased military spending, the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

deepened during his administration and political pressures for increased military spending mounted. By the time he left office in 1961, he felt it necessary to warn of the military-industrial complex in his final address.

Background

Eisenhower took office in January 1953, with the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

in a stalemate. Three and a half years prior, the Soviet Union had successfully detonated the

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...

named

RDS-1 The RDS-1 (), also known as Izdeliye 501 (device 501) and First Lightning (), was the nuclear bomb used in the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test. The United States assigned it the code-name Joe-1, in reference to Joseph Stalin. It was de ...

, and appeared to reach approximate military parity with the United States. Political pressures for a more aggressive stance toward the Soviet Union mounted, and calls for increased military spending did as well. Stalin's demise on March 5, 1953, briefly left a

power vacuum In political science and political history, the term power vacuum, also known as a power void, is an analogy between a physical vacuum to the political condition "when someone in a place of power, has lost control of something and no one has replac ...

in the Soviet Union and offered a chance for

rapprochement In international relations, a rapprochement, which comes from the French word ''rapprocher'' ("to bring together"), is a re-establishment of cordial relations between two countries. This may be done due to a mutual antagonist, as the German Empire ...

with the new regime, as well as an opportunity to decrease military spending.

The speech

The speech was addressed to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, in

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, on April 16, 1953. Eisenhower took an opportunity to highlight the cost of continued tensions and rivalry with the Soviet Union. While addressed to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the speech was broadcast nationwide, through use of television and radio, from the Statler Hotel. He noted that not only were there military dangers (as had been demonstrated by the Korean War), but an

arms race An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more State (polity), states to have superior armed forces, concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and ...

would place a huge domestic burden on both nations:

Legacy

Eisenhower's "humanity hanging from a cross of iron" evoked

Cross of Gold speech The Cross of Gold speech was delivered by William Jennings Bryan, a former United States United States House of Representatives, Representative from Nebraska, at the 1896 Democratic National Convention, Democratic National Convention in Chicag ...

. As a result, "The Chance for Peace speech", colloquially, became known as the "Cross of Iron speech" and was seen by many as contrasting the Soviet Union's view of the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

world with the United States' cooperation and national reunion view. Despite Eisenhower's hopes as expressed in the speech, the Cold War deepened during his time in office. His farewell address was "a bookend" to his Chance for Peace speech. In that speech, he implored Americans to think to the future and "not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow", but the large peacetime military budgets that became established during his administration have continued for half a century.

References

External links

Text of the speechRecording of the speech
{{Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953 speeches 1953 in Washington, D.C. Speeches by Dwight D. Eisenhower Cold War speeches 1953 in the United States April 1953 in the United States