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Seventeen year old John Ian Wing, founder of the first International Peace March. He thought the closing ceremony of the 1956 Olympic Games was an ideal venue to stage his march. Surprisingly, the president of the IOC Avery Brundage agreed to his request.

The 1956 Olympic Games was held in Melbourne Australia during the height of the Cold War. Throughout the world, there was much global tension and political unrest because of the Suez Crisis, the invasion of Hungary by Russia, tension between East and west Germany and between main-land China and Taiwan. A decade earlier, World War Two shook the foundations of human civilization. It should have served a lesson for future generations that aggression and violence was not the way to win world peace.

A number of countries boycotted the 1956 Games as a protest, whilst others wouldn't allow their athletes to mix with other athletes in the Village. The final straw came for the organizers, when Russian and Hungarian players fought each other during the water polo match. The police had to separate the players and the match was cancelled because there was so much blood in the pool. The IOC and the Organizing committee had by now given up all hope of saving the Games from ending in failure. That was, until they received an anonymous hand written letter from a 17 year old Chinese student. The boy had an 'idea' that turned the Games into a success and the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games became officially known as the Friendly Games.

This website commenced on 10/01/2008.