In fact, the chief of intelligence of the 'Chinese People's Volunteer Army' in North Korea had written a memorandum to his superiors in Beijing in which he fairly gloated. 'Based upon our observations of American soldiers and their officers captured in this war,' this intelligence officer wrote, 'the following facts are evidenced.' Among other things, 'There is little knowledge or understanding, even among United States university graduates, of American political history and philosophy; of federal, state, and community organizations; of states rights and civil rights; of safeguards to freedom; and of how these things supposedly operate within [their] own system.'

Out of the development of these bodies of principle there grows what we call civilization; and when these bodies of principle are weakened, and a people lose faith in the ideas by which they live, civilization decays. When these bodies of principle are increasing in strength and richness, we say a people are progressive; but when those bodies of principle are decaying in their influence upon men and women, we call such a people decadent. It is by the healthiness of our principles that we measure the success or failure of any society.

In essence, then, the Christian faith is this. God exists, a stern judge but a loving father to all mankind. Man has been made in God's own image; but man, an imperfect image of God, torments himself by his tendency to sin. The world is always a battleground between good and evil in human nature. All men are brothers in spirit, because they have a common spiritual father, God; and they are enjoined to treat one another as brothers. Because they are made in the image of God, and are brothers in Christ, they possess human dignity. From this human dignity comes rights peculiar to man which no one is morally free to violate. The revelations by God establish the way in which men are to live with one another. Justice and peace and charity all flow from God's commandments, given in a spirit of love. Christ will redeem from sin the man who accepts him as savior. The reward of loving obedience to God is eternal life, perfection beyond this world. The self-punishment of defiant sin is never to know God, and thus to lose immortality. Human nature and society never will become perfect in the course of history. Yet God's love rules the world; and happiness, if we are to find it at all in this life, comes from God's will. As the essence of man is more than merely mortal, so the destiny of man is more than merely human. The spirit will survive the flesh, and when the end of all earthly things arrives, those who love God shall find a peace that the mortal world never knows. Men who expect to create a heaven upon earth, in defiance of the laws of man's nature and the revelation of God, can create only hell upon earth.

Such is the Christian creed. Whether one subscribes to this religious faith or not, indisputably this is the religious framework upon which American society is built. Christian morality is the cement of American life; and Christian concepts of natural law, natural rights, and necessary limitations to human ambitions all govern our politics and even our economic system.

[I]n the political beliefs of what we call 'Christian civilization' or 'Western civilization'--of which American civilization is a part--there are three cardinal ideas: the idea of justice, the idea of order, and the idea of freedom. [...] They make possible the ordered liberty that is among the chief justifications of the American cause.

'Justice' is the principle and process by which each man is accorded the things that are his own--the things that belong to his nature. [...] It is the principle and the process that protects a man's life, his property, his proven rights, his station in life, his dignity. It is also the principle and the process that metes out punishment to the evildoer... [...]

'Order' is the principle and the process by which the peace and harmony of society are maintained. It is the arrangement of rights and duties in a state to ensure that a people will have just leaders, loyal citizens, and public tranquility. It implies the obedience of a nation to the laws of God, and the obedience of individuals to just authority. Without order, justice rarely can be enforced, and freedom cannot be maintained.

'Freedom' is the principle and the process by which a man is made master of his own life.

All men ought to be equal before the law; but law is not intended to force upon them an artificial equality of condition. Justice does not exist in order to change men's natures; rather justice's purpose is to help men fulfil the particular natures to which they were born. [...] In one thing only ought men to be equal, here on earth: equally subject to the operation of just laws.

[I]n the economic realm, what is the American cause? It is the defense of an economic system that allows men and women to make their own principal choices in life; which reinforces political liberty; which adequately supplies the necessities of life; which recognizes and guides beneficently the deep-seated human longing for competition and measurable accomplishment. What we call the 'free-market economy' does these things.

For two important reasons--and those of equal weight in the minds of most citizens of the United States--America has set her face against every totalist ideology, stationed her troops on foreign soil, built an immense air force and an immense fleet, poured out her national wealth in aid of the defense and the welfare of the free world. One reason is that Americans believe in the dignity of man, made in an image more than human; and the revolutionary ideologue threatens to destroy that dignity wherever he finds weakness, The other reason is that Americans know that they themselves cannot be secure unless the civilization of which they are a part is secure. They do not hesitate to oppose by strength the armed doctrines of ideologues. Their cause, they believe, is the cause of true human nature, of enlightened order, regular justice, and liberty under law. For this they have made some sacrifices; they will make more.

Americans do not aspire to make the world into one vast uniform United States, for they cherish diversity at home and abroad. That our elaborate civilization and our delicate civil social order may not fall victims to the revolutionary movements at home and abroad: this is the end to which American policy is directed. And if Americans have valor in them still, theirs will not be a losing cause.