“When we speak of peace, we must speak also of justice. For peace is not only the absence of war. Peace must be more. We cannot, as Tacitus said, create a desert and call it peace. Peace must mean not only the absence of war among governments, but also the creation of social justice among peoples. Peace must mean mutual respect and harmonious interchange. Peace must mean removal of the causes which move men to war. Peace must mean furthering the dignity of man and the sanctity of life.”
Sargent Shriver spoke these words while he was candidate for Vice President in the 1972 US Presidential election. Running on the George McGovern ticket, he laid out a vision for a values-based administration that would lead with purpose, embarking on an international “quest for peace,” as the title of the speech indicates.
He is first and foremost focused on foreign policy, asking a question that is, unfortunately, relevant for us today:
“Almost 200 years [after the country’s founding], we must ask how it is that this nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to justice, finds itself allied with repressive regimes all over the world?”
He then proposes a foreign policy that must change in fundamental ways:
“The quest for [...] peace will require two fundamental changes in America’s approach to the world. We must get away from an obsession with power which excludes attention to peoples’ lives. And we must reform a foreign policy bureaucracy which is a mechanism for war instead of a ministry for peace.”
He also emphasizes that embarking on a “quest for peace” is not only about creating a more diplomatic, humane foreign policy:
“What I am describing, of course, is not just foreign policy. What we do abroad is only a reflection of what we are at home. That is why the great chapters in American foreign policy—under Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman —have all coincided with decency at home. And that is why, too, the Nixon inhumanity abroad mirrors our terrible failures at home. I have talked of suffering children in Bengal. You don’t have to go very far from where we meet today to find American children who are hungry, whose lives are stunted by poverty, who have forgotten how to hope. I have talked of refugees in the world. Millions of Americans are refugees in their own land from a Nixon Administration that doesn’t care about people. George McGovern and I pledge also to end the outrages here at home, because we will never be secure in the world until we secure the hope and future of our own citizens. Because we will never find peace in the world until we find peace with ourselves.”
From a 2026 perspective, it is extraordinary to think about a presidential platform based on building peace. But as we look around us, we see that that is exactly what is needed. From the armed conflicts in Europe and the Middle East to the citizen protests, some violent, we’ve seen in the US, in France and other European countries, we are reminded that in dealing with others we cannot lead through force, coercion, exploitation, or corruption. We must seek leaders who treat others with respect, dignity, and justice—and we must strive to behave in the same way ourselves.
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