West Papua Information Kit

Woodrow Wilson

22/Jan/1917 from Peace without victory speech to US Senate

"No peace can last, or ought to last, which does not recognize and accept the principle that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists to hand peoples about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were property."

Australian politicians

22/Feb/1950 Bruce Graham

"the thin end of the wedge will be inserted into Australian security" ... "strategic and political reasons it is impossible for us to permit New Guinea to fall under the domination of any country."

23/Feb/1950 Arthur Calwell

"Any Government that did not immediately indicate to the Javanese that if they intend to walk into Dutch New Guinea we shall walk in there before them, does not deserve to last five minutes. ... We can no more let the Indonesians into Dutch New Guinea than we can let them into Darwin. ... If we allow the Indonesians into Dutch New Guinea there will be no hope of our holding the northern portion of Australia and the fate of this country would then be sealed and certain."

John F Kennedy

Senator John F Kennedy 2/Feb/1956 at Rockhurst College in Kansas City

"If we are to secure the friendship of the Arab, the African and the Asian, we cannot hope to accomplish it solely by means of military pacts and assistance. Neither can we purchase it through extensive programs of economic grants and subsidies. We cannot win their hearts by making them dependent upon our handouts. We cannot keep them free by selling them free enterprise. Describing the perils of Communism or the prosperity of the United States will be to no avail. No, the strength of our appeal to these key populations - and it is rightfully our appeal, and not that of the Communists - lies in our traditional and deeply felt philosophy of freedom and independence for all peoples everywhere. Whatever restraints may have been imposed upon this philosophy in our foreign policy pronouncements during the past decade, there can be no doubt that it still represents the basic attitudes of the overwhelming majority of the American people. Today this issue confronts us in Algeria, Cyprus, West New Guinea and elsewhere. Tomorrow it may be in Portugese Goa or Singapore - and the next day it may be in Togoland or Tanganyika."

Dag Hammarskjöld

The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others.

Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Farewell address of President Eisenhower 17 January 1961

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.