that no Maryland boy, going to Fort McHenry today to hear a recital
of the glorious defense of this city in 1814, ever thinks of his heroic
ancestors as having fired upon the English, or of the English as having
assaulted our shores. In his mind, the battle, rather, was between two
mythical forces, far removed from any reality.

The sterling lesson in all this to me is that such friendship as we
have been able to build is possible between all nations, and that there-
fore a lasting world peace is an attainable end. It is true that the
peoples of our two nations are bound together by a common language,
a common culture and common heritage, and that these factors have
played an important part in the good relationship we now enjoy. But
there are even stronger ties—the ties of mutual trust, a singularity of
purpose, a common belief in the inherent dignity of man. There has
never been an instance in all of recorded history when two nations
worked together in such complete accord as did the United States and
Great Britain in World War II. This experience, with the two countries
engaged in a life-or-death struggle for their own preservation and for
the preservation of the freedom of mankind, is assurance to us that
enmity between us in the future is unthinkable.

Wars will end and the world will find peace when other nations of
the world develop the kind of friendship and the kind of understanding
that Englishmen and Americans now enjoy. Let us pray fervently that
that day will come soon.

GREETING, CUBAN LIBERATED WAR PRISONERS
ANNAPOLIS

August 22, 1962

It is a pleasure to me as Governor to welcome to Maryland and to our
Capital City, Annapolis, you courageous men who so gallantly risked your
lives to restore freedom to your homeland.

This State House here, which is older than our Republic, is to
Americans a shrine of freedom. It was in a chamber just below us here
that the treaty was signed with Great Britain, formally ending our War
of Revolution and guaranteeing independence to the thirteen English
Colonies which a few years before had broken their ties with the Mother
Country.

It was in the same chamber that George Washington resigned his
commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Army following the surrender
of the British in Yorktown.