In February 1965, twenty two hundred scholars, clergy, statesmen, and peace activists descended on the United Nations to open the Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth) conference based on the encyclical from Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, Pope John XXIII. it was organised by Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. This recording is a discussion between participants at that conference.

The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) brought together many of the most capable and distinguished minds of the times to discuss vital issues facing American society of the day. Political and academic leaders, scientists, social scientists, legal scholars, journalists, theologians, labor and community leaders focused on topics such as peace and war, democracy, dissent, community action, ecology and the environment, elections and the electoral process, immigration, international relations, law and order, the media, race and ethnicity, and religion. Prominent participants included Senator Alan Cranston, Upton Sinclair, Milton Friedman, Mortimer Adler, Cesar Chavez, Aldous Huxley, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Sander Vanocur, and Gunner Myrdal among many others.