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1960 State of the Union Address

speech by US president Dwight D. Eisenhower

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ18155586 ↗
Source-derived summary

The 1960 State of the Union Address was given on Thursday, January 7, 1960, by Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, to a joint session of the 86th United States Congress. He said, "We must strive to break the calamitous cycle of frustrations and crises which, if unchecked, could spiral into nuclear disaster; the ultimate insanity." It was the height of the Cold War, and both the Soviet Union and the United States had a responsibility to the world.

Key statements

On my recent visit to distant lands I found one statesman after another eager to tell me of the elements of their government that had been borrowed from our American Constitution, and from the indestructible ideals set forth in our Declaration of Independence.

So dedicated, and with faith in the Almighty, humanity shall one day achieve the unity in freedom to which all men have aspired from the dawn of time.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “1960 State of the Union Address” is speech by US president Dwight D. Eisenhower. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through State, Union and Address, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1960—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, State, Union and Address is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “speech by US president Dwight D. Eisenhower” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18155586. Authority coordinates are 38.890, -77.009. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1960.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “1960 State of the Union Address”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 1960 State of the Union Address primary sources, 1960 State of the Union Address archive and State research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “1960 State of the Union Address” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.