Circle 016: Edward M. Kennedy and Henry Cabot Lodge, Americans for SALT treaty, August 26, 1979

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"We, as a people who are concerned about the future of our children...should be tireless until the roll is called and until we have the two thirds of the U.S. Senate necessary to pass this agreement." With this statement of commitment Senator Kennedy concluded as afternoon at Dunfey's Hyannis, which saw the most influential members of the disarmament community gather to advocate passage of the SALT II treaty.

The mood was hopeful and the politics bi-partisan as speaker after speaker related the need to slow the arms race in the face of an increasingly lethal international environment. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Senator Thomas McIntyre, Nancy Ramsey of the Americans for SALT, and newly named commissioner of the National Peace Academy, Jack Dunfey, all expressed the need for a concerted effort to help secure peace and stability for the future.

An air of intrigue was added to the proceedings as talk of a presidential candidacy swirled through the crowd and speculation was heightened by the attendance of Rose Kennedy and many members of the family.

The importance of Senator Kennedy's appearance was doubly significant; as an indication of his support for peace through arms control and as a hint that his position might some day effectively be carried into the White House.

In all, it was an event which might best be described by Henry Cabot Lodge's quote from Spinoza that "Peace is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind......" for a few hours in Hyannis there was hope that this state of mind might soon become a reality.

by Paul Fitzgerald (Host/Producer, WXNE TV 25, "Watchworks," Boston, MA)

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