IN MY Inaugural Address I pledged to the members of this great organization "the loyalty of faithful friends."
     In the three weeks since I became President I have been increasingly impressed by the magnitude of the perils which confront the United States and free nations everywhere. But I have also been increasingly convinced that we can face down those perils, if we mobilize the unified strength and will of the nations of the Atlantic Community. .
     We of the Atlantic Community are the single most effective obstacle between tyranny and its desire to dominate the world. Our historic bonds of friendship have been strengthened by common values and a common goal - the creation of a world where free men can live at peace and in dignity, liberated from the bonds of hunger, poverty and ignorance. If we act together, this goal is within our grasp. If we falter, then freedom itself will be in mortal danger.
     Therefore I pledge the United States, and my own unremitting efforts, to the support of the principles which guide our effort, to the basic concept of unity which gives us strength, and to the institutions we have created to give working life to our common intent.
     Effective collective defense is the first mission of our great alliance in NATO. Our task here is to convince any aggressor that an attack on the territory of NATO members would be met with swift and punishing resistance. While relying also on the growing strength of all, the United States will continue its full participation in the common defense effort. I am convinced that the maintenance of U.S. military strength in Europe is essential to the security of the Atlantic Community and the free world as a whole. Strength in Europe, like strength here in the United States, is an essential condition of peace.
     But the interests of NATO, and the Atlantic Community as a whole, are not military alone. The dangers to our security and the challenges to our enterprise take many forms - economic, ideological and political. Through its various instruments the Atlantic Community must equip itself to respond with speed and unity of purpose on every front - by improving our processes of consultation - by expanding the area of our cooperation to include common problems of trade and money, and by uniting in the effort to construct a sound, growing economy for the entire non-Communist world.
     This last undertaking - the task of economic development - is vital to the preservation of freedom in the turbulent, emerging continents of Asia, Africa and Latin America; it is also a duty which the strong owe to the weak. It is an undertaking unmatched in scope, in difficulty, and in nobility of purpose.
     It is an important and heartening fact that the adventure of assisting the underdeveloped areas has captured the imagination and the idealism of the young on both sides of the Atlantic. This undertaking will require the efforts of all of us - and other nations too. In accomplishing all our economic tasks we must work together in a new intimacy in the OECD, and I hope that through the OECD we shall come firmly to grips with this fundamental problem of aid.
     Although the technical task here is economic, our ultimate purpose transcends material considerations. The challenge is to create a new partnership between the old nations in the north and the new nations to the south. In the end, we must build that partnership not merely on a common interest in economic growth, but on a common commitment to the principles of political freedom.
     The United States, because of its larger resources, is prepared to bear a heavy share of this burden. But I am confident that the nations of Western Europe will wish to commit an equitable proportion of their own growing resources to the common effort of economic development, as well as to the tasks of the common defense. Without that willingness our effort will surely fail. In all our common enterprises we must establish principles, clearly understood by our governments and our peoples, on which burden-sharing can be based.
     We shall also continue to support and encourage the movement toward European integration. This movement is a powerful and unifying force which can multiply free Europe's strength and prestige, can assure increased security and progress for European peoples, and can contribute greatly to meeting the goals of the broader Atlantic Community.
     The years ahead will be difficult and dangerous for the friends of freedom. There will be setbacks as well as gains. But if we face candidly the agenda that confronts us, our natural differences will fade and assume tolerable proportions. If we summon to the real tasks we face our resources of mind and will and material strength - if we never lose sight of our common goals - then we will have carried forward in our time the old task of our community: to preserve and extend the values of a civilization which has lighted man's way for more than 2500 years.