Word: dirksen
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Searing Memory. Nor was the Senator from Illinois troubled by the fact that his constituents have besieged him with letters opposing the treaty. "I have admonished them over and over again," said Dirksen, "that, regardless of the entreaties and presentations that have been made to me, I feel that I must follow a type of formula laid down by Edmund Burke, the great parliamentarian and Prime Minister of Britain, when he said it was his business to consult with his people, but it would be a betrayal of his conscience and a disservice to them if he failed to exercise...
After also citing Chinese philosophy, Shakespeare and Abraham Lincoln, Dirksen said that what bothered him terribly was the searing memory of Hiroshima. Then, said he, "for the first time, the whole bosom of God's earth was ruptured by a man-made contrivance that we call a nuclear weapon." Continued Dirksen...
Unwanted Epitaph. The U.S.'s young President, said Dirksen, who is 67, "calls this treaty a first step. I want to take a first step, Mr. President. I am not a young man. One of my age thinks about his destiny a little. I should not like to have written on my tombstone, 'He knew what happened at Hiroshima, but he did not take a first step...
Concluded Dirksen: "This is a first, a single step. It is for destiny to write the answer. It is for history to render judgment. But with consummate faith and some determination, this may be the step that can spell a grander destiny for our country and for the world...
When it was all over, Mike Mansfield rose, faced his colleague across the aisle, and said, "I salute a great American." The debate may go on until some time next week, but after Ev Dirksen, it would surely be all anticlimax. For his support of the treaty, and his speech on its behalf, had assured its ratification...