DeRosaWorld

A Week In The Presidency: JFK - May 1-7, 1962

The JFK Presidency, as reported by the New York Times, 50 years ago.

I bolded some eyebrow-raising bits.

May 1, 1962

London sources said yesterday that Secretary of State Rusk would canvass French and West German views on the status to be accorded East Germany in case his negotiations with Moscow approach a Berlin settlement. Mr. Rusk intends to raise the topic at the NATO meeting this week in Athens. Washington and London have already agreed that no trace of legality should be conferred on the East German regime, but Mr. Rusk wants to work out a full Allied position on East Germany before negotiating the subject with the Russians.

President Kennedy got a cool response when he addressed the annual meeting of the United States Chamber of Commerce and told the business men that his Administration did not want to set prices. In an effort to ease bitterness aroused by the steel price episode, he said he hoped it would mark a turn for the better in Government-business relations. But the only time he was interrupted by applause was when he said: "We in the National Government have a large stake in your profits." And the chamber's president, Richard Wagner, said pointedly that both business and labor must be free to make decisions without Government intervention.

The Atomic Energy Commission has become the first Federal unit to give its employees and job applicants the right to confront their accusers in security cases. The step could lead to revised security policies in other agencies.

The Justice Department brought its first action to have a Southern voting official held in contempt for failing to register qualified Negroes despite a court order barring discrimination.

A belief is growing within the Administration that the United States should not hold further atmospheric nuclear tests after the current series. These tests are expected to have a total explosive force equal to about one-fifth of all the nuclear energy unleashed by American blasts since 1945.

Maj. Gherman S. Titov, a man of relatively few words, directed some of them at earth-bound diplomats, frantic stockbrokers and New York traffic. The Soviet astronaut visited the United Nations, where Adlai E. Stevenson asked him whether it would be feasible for the Security Council to tour outer space. "Have you got things settled here on earth?" Major Titov countered. At the Stock Exchange (where he was both cheered and booed) he commented: "Everything was very clear in outer space. Here, nothing is clear."

May 2, 1962

The East Germans, displayed some new military equipment as their troops goose-stepped in Berlin's Marx-Engels Platz. The parade included a squad of ground-to-air missiles said to be of the type that allegedly downed Francis Gary Powers' U-2 plane. This was the first indication that Moscow had given such arms to a satellite state.

The Yugoslavs sprang a surprise, too, by parading twenty new Soviet-made T-54 tanks. Belgrade sources suggested they had been purchased in a straight commercial deal.

The West made an arms deal of its own. Britain, West Germany, and the United States will finance the development of Britain's revolutionary P-1127 strike and reconnaissance plane, which would be able to take off and land vertically.

President Kennedy's Advisory Committee on Labor-Management Policy recommended greater Government activity, influence and power in collective bargaining. The panel proposed rewriting a section of the Taft-Hartley Act to give the President more authority and flexibility to deal with industrial conflicts that threaten national interests. Specifically, an emergency dispute board would be empowered to recommend settlement terms and the President would be allowed to require a resumption of work for eighty days without going to court.

President Kennedy's relations with the American Medical Association were less than harmonious. He and seven A.M.A. leaders discussed the best way to finance old-age medical care, but both sides agreed later that neither had made the slightest dent in the other's views.

Mr. Kennedy signed a bill authorizing $32,000,000 for expanded educational television.

Mayor Wagner called at the White House to give President Kennedy a list of suggested Democratic nominees for New York's fall election.

Thurgood Marshall finally gets Senate hearing.

May 3, 1962

India accused Communist China of creating conflict and tension among Asian nations. It was believed to be the first time in the Chinese-Indian Himalayan border dispute that India had openly criticized Chinese relations with other Asian nations. An Indian note to Peiping sharply rejected the often-repeated contention by the Chinese that they were non-aggressive.

President Kennedy's free trade proposals created a heated debate and a policy reversal at the United States Chamber of Commerce convention in Washington. A resolution on the domestic-relief provisions of the President's bill was killed by protectionist-minded delegates, but then reinstated.

The first megaton-range explosion was set off by the United States in the current Pacific nuclear tests. The Atomic Energy Commission said that a detonation in the "low megaton yield range" took place at about 2 P.M. (E.D.T.) in the vicinity of Christmas Island. A megaton is equivalent to the explosive force of 1,000,000 tons of TNT. It was believed that the explosion had the force of a few megatons. The two previous explosions were of less than a megaton.

Stahr quits Army post to head Indiana University.

Kennedy intervenes in fight over food agency.

Kennedy farm bill stalled again in committee.

Titov and Glenn to call on Kennedy today.

May 4, 1962

The dispute between the United States and West Germany over American talks with the Soviet Union appeared to be nearing a solution. Secretary of State Dean Rusk insisted at Athens, that the West Germans must agree to negotiate with East Germans. They agreed it would be "well worth exploring."

President Kennedy ordered the military to cut back orders for nuclear warheads by several thousands, according to Pentagon sources. Existing stockpiles will not be altered and the reduction will mostly affect small, battlefield-type weapons.

A Presidential emergency board recommended wage increases for 500,000 non-operating employees of the nation's railroads. It classified the increases as "non-inflationary." It also asked for a change in the spirit with which railroads and non-operating unions had been facing labor problems.

Major Gherman S. Titov and Lieut. Col. John H, Glenn, Jr. discussed their space experiences in Washington before a group of international scientists. Major Titov provided some new details of his twenty-five-hour flight.

Congressional Republican leaders called for a Congressional investigation of the Department of Agriculture. The Billie Sol Estes scandal of Texas was mentioned prominently. Senator Everett Dirksen told a news conference that the Estes scandal was only a symptom of a basic sickness in the department.

Senator John Tower of Texas gave the Peace Corps its first blast on Capitol Hill since the Nigeria post-card incident eight months ago. He charged that a 65-year-old constituent, Mrs. Janie F. Clethcer, had been subjected to abuse and dropped without justification from training in Puerto Rico.

President hears Gorbach on Austria's aims.

Kennedy moves to quiet Reserve-cut fears.

Kennedy urges stronger attack on school segregation.

May 5, 1962

The United States fired a middle-size nuclear device, its fourth in the Pacific tests.

New Orleans gave President Kennedy an enthusiastic welcome on his arrival to deliver two addresses. Almost a quarter million people cheered him. Fears that his civil rights policies might provoke hostility proved groundless.

The President chose the ceremonial opening of a huge New Orleans wharf as a dramatic setting to promote his plans for liberalized trade. He said the country was moving toward full trade partnership with all free nations. To facilitate this, he urged Congress to pass the Trade Expansion bill intact. The United States, he warned, faced an economic choice: "trade or fade."

An Agriculture Department employee confronted his superiors at a news conference and charged that officials had shown "favoritism" to the indicted Texas financier, Billie Sol Estes. To the employee's face, a key official immediately branded the story "a complete lie." The department had called the conference to let the employee speak.

United States ordered G.I.ís in Vietnam to lie.

U. S. worried by reports of India's buying MIG's.

May 6, 1962

The United States committed five fully equipped Polaris missile-firing submarines to the North Atlantic alliance yesterday. At a secret session of the NATO Council meeting in Athens, Secretary of Defense McNamara also said that the entire Atlantic Polaris force--expected to total forty-one submarines--would be pledged to NATO. The five already committed carry eighty nuclear missiles. The immediate effect of the Administration's action was to create a NATO nuclear deterrent.

American military sources supported Laotian charges that Communist Chinese troops temporarily invaded northern Laos last week to help Pathet Lao forces capture Muong Sing.

A leading House Republican said that the Administration's Trade Expansion bill must be revised "in many details" to win broad bipartisan support. Representative John W. Byrnes of Wisconsin said he believed the Ways and Means Committee--of which he is the second-ranking G.O.P. member--would go a long way toward making needed changes. President Kennedy called Friday for passage of the bill undiminished by crippling amendments in order to forge a true trade partnership among free nations.

John B. Connally, Jr., former Secretary of the Navy in the Kennedy Administration, led a field of six Democrats in the Texas gubernatorial primary. Former Major General Edwin A. Walker was running last.

Kennedy to name W.C. Battle envoy to Australia.

May 7, 1962

The United States yesterday exploded the nuclear warhead of a Polaris missile fired by a submarine in the Pacific. It was the fifth test in the current series and the first time this country had set off an atomic warhead carried by a long-range missile. Its force was not disclosed, but a regular Polaris is said to have the explosive power of 500,000 tons of TNT.

Americans at the NATO talks in Athens said France, which has been at odds with Washington on nuclear policy, would share fully in a new system of Allied consultations on the uses of American atomic forces in Europe. French acceptance of United States proposals for sharing nuclear information was called one of the meeting's major results.

At the NATO parley, it was disclosed that American World War II Victory ships loaded with tanks and other arms had been stationed off Southeast Asia, where they could give support to any United States action in South Vietnam.

In Laos, royal troops were reported quitting the provincial capital of Nam Tha after major attacks by pro-Communist units.

Mr. Santorum, I Knew JFK and You, Sir, Are No Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.

Tom Wicker - A Shame He Got It All Wrong

...On Nov. 22, 1963, Mr. Wicker, a brilliant but relatively unknown White House correspondent who had worked at four smaller papers, written several novels under a pen name and, at 37, had established himself as a workhorse of The Times’s Washington bureau, was riding in the presidential motorcade as it wound through downtown Dallas, the lone Times reporter on a routine political trip to Texas.

The searing images of that day — the rifleman’s shots cracking across Dealey Plaza, the wounded president lurching forward in the open limousine, the blur of speed to Parkland Memorial Hospital and the nation’s anguish as the doctors gave way to the priests and a new era — were dictated by Mr. Wicker from a phone booth in stark, detailed prose drawn from notes scribbled on a White House itinerary sheet. It filled two front-page columns and the entire second page, and vaulted the writer to journalistic prominence overnight....

It is apparently good men like Tom Wicker that frustrate me most and I can not understand... over time, they had to know what they reported about the Assassination of President Kennedy was wrong... but they never said anything... and I understand if they were fed false info, etc... but at some point... they had to look in the mirror and admit that the officail story just does not work...

Wicker's reporting for the New York Times on 11/22/63 was what he hung his reputation on... I know it was not his entire life... but his life was certianly lived in the shadow of that day... as all of our lives have been... so in the end... he did more harm that good with his reporting.

 

11/22/63 : A JFK Assassination Conspiracy Video

Here is a multi-part documentary about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Carl Oglesby Has Died. It Is A Shame We Didn't See Him On TV Every Sunday At Our Pundit Roundtables.

"Carl Oglesby, who led Students for a Democratic Society as it publicly opposed the Vietnam War but who was later expelled by a radical faction that became the Weather Underground, died on Tuesday at his home in Montclair, N.J. He was 76...

“He was the great orator of the white New Left,” Todd Gitlin, a Columbia University professor who was the president of S.D.S. from 1963 to 1964, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “His voice was a well-practiced instrument.”

...Mr. Oglesby’s speech “Let Us Shape the Future,” delivered at an antiwar rally in Washington on Nov. 27, 1965, is considered a landmark of American political rhetoric. In it, he condemned the “corporate liberalism” — American economic interests disguised as anti-Communist benevolence — that, he argued, underpinned the Vietnam War...

“For all our official feeling for the millions who are enslaved to what we so self-righteously call the yoke of Communist tyranny,” Mr. Oglesby said that day, “we make no real effort at all to crack through the much more vicious right-wing tyrannies that our businessmen traffic with and our nation profits from every day.”

He bet the ranch on the movement,” he said. “He transplanted his world, radically. I think part of his power as an orator was that you could sense that he was bringing his whole self into this. He was at stake. It wasn’t a role; it was a life.”

His book The Yankee and Cowboy War was a major influence on my conspiracy theory worldview.

Here is a link to Olgelsby's famous LET US SHAPE THE FUTURE speech as SDS President from 1965.

Attention: Teachers, Historians, So-Called Journalists

Not sure what the conundrum has been. If you simply take about 1/2 hour and listen to the actuall tapes of President John Kennedy and his advisers discussing the withdrawal options from Vietnam in 1963... it is pretty clear what JFK was going to do... withdrawal from Vietnam... if there is a debate, it is over 1964 (pre-Election) or 1965 (post-Election).

Could someone please call Texas... that's where our history books are written.

50 Years Ago Today: The Berlin Crisis of 1961 - Conrad Schumann Takes The Leap To Freedom

From The New York Times archive: August 15, 1961 -

"As an uneasy quiet prevailed on the border between East and West Berlin, the East German Communists tightened their squeeze on the Western sectors early today. The East German Interior Ministry announced that vehicles from West Berlin must have permits to cross into the Communist zone. (pg. 1:8)

Adenauer said the West might have to decide on a total trade embargo of the Soviet bloc if Moscow did not agree to reasonable negotiations with NATO. (1:7)

President Kennedy was said to have decided on vigorous protests and propaganda on Berlin. But extreme countermeasures were ruled out as too likely to lead to war. (1:6-7)"

In Other Words: Defending JFK's Leadership During The Berlin Crisis In The Face of Corporate Media's Rewriting American History

It is the 50th anniversary of what has become know in the history books as The Berlin Crisis of 1961. As part of the terrorist-corporate media's rewriting of those American history books, we have lots of badly researched and false analysis in the Press (TV, radio, books, websites) of President Kennedy's handling of the political crisis. This weekend, our conservative pundists are slobbering all over the latest revisionist histoy book by Frederick Kempe.

President Kennedy faced crisis after crisis in the early 1960's as the military industrial complex fought to take hold of the reigns of power in America. By 1963, JFK was a different man, a different President than he was on his Inauguration Day. He had been through the fire of handling these crisis and by 1963, had become the great President we still honor today... just listen to his speeches from 1963... it would have been a very different America if he had not been assassinated in Dallas in November of that year.

Here is a post on The Berlin Crisis of 1961 by David Lifton (you can follow the comments thread by clicking here to Lifton's 50th anniversary post.)

Posted 21 June 2011 - 11:34 PM
This thread concerns Kennedy's "Berlin policy," and the recently published book by Frederick Kempe, "Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth." The Kempe book revives a very important issue, one that author Richard Reeves analyzed in depth 18 years ago in his book, "President Kennedy: Profile of Power." I thought I'd start this thread, to put the matter in context.

In my opinion, understanding what happened in Berlin in the "summer of '61" (and in what is called "the Berlin Crisis") is critical to understanding what followed in the Kennedy administration in the area of JFK's foreign policy towards Cuba and--consequently--Berlin figures as another marker on the road to Dallas.

I have not read Kempe's book (just yet) but those interested in this subject should be aware that the basic situation JFK was facing in Berlin is narrated (and analyzed, in considerable detail), in author Richard Reeves' 1993 book "President Kennedy: Profile of Power." What is known as the Berlin crisis began on 6/4/61, when JFK met Khrushchev in Vienna (at what is sometimes referred to as the "Vienna Summit"), and Khrushchev delivered an ugly, fist-banging ultimatum: that he was going to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany, that access to Berlin (located over 100 miles inside East Germany) would then be controlled by East Germany (and the Communist regime of Walter Ulbricht) and the west be damned.

Kennedy was faced with this ugly ultimatum and the problem of what to do about it. For a brief while, what actually happened in Vienna, and the full extent of Khrushchev's ultimatum was not made public.

What happened next: The hawks in JFK's administration clustered around former Secretary of State Dean Acheson who, on 6/28/61, wrote a critical memo that defined the parameters of the situation. Acheson decided that Berlin was the place to face down the Soviets,once and for all. Acheson's memo instructed Kennedy to "prepare for war. . .nuclear war." Siding with Acheson were the JCS AND Vice President Johnson--yes "and Vice President Johnson". Moreover, the JCS sought authority to use tactical nukes to defend West Berlin (can you believe that? Well, its true).

Kennedy sought to find a way to avoid war, and to maneuver around this dangerous situation, and convince Khrushchev that he meant business. His brain trust consisted of Sorenson, Schlesinger, Mansfield---and a young MIT whiz named Thomas Schelling, an expert in game theory. (You can buy his books on game theory on Amazon).

As events unfolded, Kennedy learned (to his distress) that Khrushchev did not care what Kennedy said--only what he did. So: Kennedy basically had to bluff Khrushchev--publicly--but the stakes were huge and the risks were terrible. A strategy had to be devised that projected the credible appearance that Kennedy would in fact go to war over Berlin, without actually going to war. For Kennedy, it was touchy, scarey, and just plain awful. He had to tread a very fine line.

JFK went on TV on July 25, 1961, calling for increased money, calling up reserves, increasing draft calls, etc. There were also very serious (and secret) back channel communications, involving Bobby Kennedy and the Russian spy Bolshakov.

The bottom line: Kennedy made the decision that what counted (i.e., what he ultimately wanted) was Western access to West Berlin--that he could not be responsible for what East German did in its zone (i.e., the Soviet Zone). In other words, JFK made the decision that the U.S. would not go to war to protect the "freedom" of East Berlin--just the freedom of West Berlin. That's where he drew the line.

Most important: JFK was able to "walk in the other guy's shoes." He understood that East Germany was hemorrhaging at the rate of 2,000 per day. So he understood that the East German government was going to have to do something about that.

Kennedy was (apparently) hoping that the East German government would simply seal off their own border, and solve their political problem that way. And in fact, Senator Fulbright, in a national TV appearance on "Issues and Answers," signaled that that would in fact be acceptable to the U.S.

The public response to JFK's 7/25/61 speech was very positive. Hugely positive, in fact.

Behind the scenes, much of JFK's strategy was dictated by his conferring with Thomas Schelling. (All this is spelled out in Reeves).

During this very dangerous period, after the July 25, 1961 nationwide TV address (but before the Wall went up [8/14/61] which marked "the end" of the Berlin Crisis ), Bobby Kennedy thought the chances of a major nuclear war were one in five. Yes, one in five. It was that serious.

The "resolution" of the crisis was the erection of the Berlin Wall on 8/14/61. As explained by Reeves, that avoided a nuclear war in Europe. No question about it.

Its all spelled out in Richard Reeves; and you've got to read BOTH the text, AND the footnotes.

The Berlin Crisis --starting on 6/4/61 and ending on 8/14/61--is every bit as hair raising as the Cuban Missile Crisis the following year. But Kennedy played it down, after it was over. No proclamations were made. Just two key news stories--one in the NY Times and the other in the Washington Post--explaining the "real-politik" of the situation, and that the Wall marked the end of what had been a dangerous situation.

From a memo in my files that I wrote three years ago. . .:

QUOTE: I've read through Reeves' chapters (and all the footnotes) very carefully, and now have a much greater understanding of what happened between June 4 and August 14 (1961) It seems clear to me that "the Berlin Crisis" is almost as dramatic as the Cuban Missile Crisis, but the details are not known because many of the most fundamental documents (including the official record of the JFK-Khr meeting of June 4, 1961) were not available until the 1990s, and both Schlesinger AND Sorenson hid the true nature of the frightening way Khrushchev behaved on June 4, in delivering his ultimatum. (So did Hugh Sidey, who also--apparently--had access to the official notes of the meeting.) Again, Reeves' book was not written until 1993, and the other key sources on which he relies. . .. UNQUOTE

Here's another passage:

QUOTE:

Anyway, nuclear war was avoided because of some very sophisticated maneuvering by JFK (and Sorenson, and Schlesinger, and probably RFK, too) that was on a par with-and completely equivalent to--the strategic maneuvering and tactical thinking that JFK again employed during the much more well known Cuban missile crisis, which commenced fourteen months later, and lasted for the famous period known as "13 days." UNQUOTE

And another:

QUOTE: "However, in the lead-up to the climax--which extended through must of June, and into July (and which ended with a major nationwide TV address by JFK on the address of 7/25)--former Secretary State Dean Acheson (who was called in as an adviser) weighed in with a critical memo (6/28/61)--a very hawkish document recommending that JFK prepare for nuclear war over Berlin. The JCS wanted to use nukes, too. In the key meetings, LBJ sided with Acheson and the JCS.

In this [memo], I cannot possibly adequately summarize the complex situation, but the story of how JFK maneuvered through this diplomatic and military minefield is all laid out in Reeves' 1993 book--IF you not only read the text, but also the footnotes.

What I learned from this is that its not possible to understand how JFK/RFK approached Cuba (with Mongoose, starting in October/Nov 1961) if one does not understand what happened in the 10-week period between June 4 and August 14, and which must have been a thoroughly terrifying experience (and a prelude, of course, to what happened in October 1962, when the Soviets put missiles in Cuba). UNQUOTE

Here's some more background. During the crisis (and apparently as part of the strategy), JFK authorized Joseph Alsop to air his personal views in a Saturday Review article. The headline of the Alsop Saturday Review article: "The Most Important Decision in U.S. History—And How the President is Facing It"

Now, focus this language (QUOTING ALSOP, reporting Kennedy's thinking):

* * * The decision, as Alsop phrased it, was “Whether the United States should risk something close to national suicide in order to avoid national surrender.” UNQUOTE

Kennedy knew he had to avoid appeasement, or even the appearance of it. "What he said to insiders: If he wants to rub my nose in it. . its over."

"It's over" meant just that--that if, after all JFK did, Khrushchev insisted on "taking" Berlin (via the use of its proxy, the East German government) there would indeed be war.

From my notes on JFK's 7/25/63 Berlin Speech:

JFK addresses the nation—and played his hand, to show how serious he was, designed to make Khrushchev "pay attention":

--tripled draft calls
--Personal sacrifice neccessary
--fallout shelters
--More $ for military (put in details)

I don't know how this data is treated in Kempe's book (my copy is on order from Amazon). What I'm laying out here is how author Richard Reeves dealt with this remarkable situation in his really excellent 1993 book--and remember, that was 18 years ago.

There's little question in my mind that the prospect of nuclear war was very serious--as I said above, Bobby Kennedy estimated the chances at 1 in 5.

There's also no question that JFK's key adversary, politically, was former Secretary State Dean Acheson (supported by the JCS AND Vice President Johnson). Acheson, in the aftermath, viewed Kennedy as an "uninformed" young man, who was "out of his depth," etc. When Kennedy navigated the dangerous Cuban Missile Crisis, 14 months later, he (Acheson) called the positive outcome "pure dumb luck."

(If you want to understand the nature of "political forces" that were allied against Kennedy, it wasn't just people like Lyman Lemnitzer and Curtis Lemay. One cannot ignore Acheson.)

So much for what you will find in Reeves book. . now, here are some of my own views.

DSL PERSONAL VIEWS ON RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BERLIN CRISIS AND SUBSEQUENT CUBA POLICY

FIRST: Kennedy's failure to "knock down the wall" (and other such crazy ideas) was viewed, by the top political/military leadership, as on a par with his failure to send in the Marines in connection with the Bay of Pigs. So to those people, by August, 1961, Kennedy was an out and out appeaser, and it looked this way:

--March 1961: Kennedy failed to go into Laos with troops, as advocated by Sec State Dean Rusk

--April 1961 Kennedy failed at the Bay of Pigs

--August 1961 Kennedy failed to knock down the Berlin Wall

To me, this kind of "analysis" is sheer lunacy, but. . and here's where I am heading. .

SECOND: when it came to Cuba, and the fall of 1961. . I don't believe that John Kennedy was going to risk another brush with thermonuclear war because of what he viewed as a revolutionary out-of-control Marxist in the Caribbean, whose associate, Che Guevara, was fomenting revolution in South America.

Consequently--and this is just my opinion--understanding what happened in Berlin (circa 6/4/61 - 8/14/61) is essential to understanding the "moral calculus" or "ethical calculus" that motivated Kennedy in deciding --if necessary--to treat Castro (personally) as a military target and overthrow his regime, rather than risk a rerun of the frightening experience he (and brother Robert) had just had in Berlin. (And can you blame them?)

So that, imho, explains his calling in Tad Szulc, and asking: "What would you say if I gave the order to assassinate Castro?" etc. He simply had no intention of losing his presidency by being "tolerant" of a Marxist regime 90 miles off the coast of Florida.

What's amazing to me, once you read Reeves, is how Sorenson played it down, in his book, and even in Counselor, his recently published memoir published just a year or so prior to his death. I think that he simply didn't want to let the world know that Kennedy had played nuclear poker. Again, that's my opinion.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading Kempe's book, but I don't think I will agree with his conclusions, at all.

There's little question in my mind that, as historian Robert Dallek correctly has said (and Dallek probably has pored over all the same documents that Reeves had, and to which Kempe had access) that this was THE single most dangerous crisis (other than the Cuban Missile Crisis).

I really do not believe that how JFK viewed the "world stage" and the rapidly evolving events, and the problem posed by his own recalcitrant military can be properly understood without appreciating the super-charged Berlin crisis (6/4-8/14/61), and how it ended without a war (on 8/14/61) BECAUSE OF "the wall."

As JFK said on 8/14/61: "Better a wall, than a war" (from memory).

I agree. We're here today, and the map of Europe looks the way it does, because of how that crisis was handled.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE

Kempe talks of his visit to East Berlin, and his traverse through Checkpoint Charlie. I had the same experience, but at a much earlier time. As I write this post, I have in front of me my passport from 1961, when I was briefly living in Paris, and in general, was touring Europe in a VW "bug" that I purchased when I first arrived. The Wall was big news--all over the world--and I and a companion, a Fulbright Scholar, set out from Paris and went to Berlin. We entered East Germany on August 30, 1961 (at Helmstedt) and were in Berlin in a few hours. As U.S. citizens, we had the right to go into the "eastern zone," and that's what we did. I have some vivid memories of that day--just two weeks after the Wall went up. Checkpoint Charlie--the crossing point on the Frederichstrasse, looked exactly as it did in the movie "The Spy That Came in from the Cold." Parked nearby were the U.S. tanks, that had been involved in the famous standoff. As we passed through Checkpoint Charlie, off to one side were men with microphones, taking down everyone's license number. We spent several hours in East Berlin (which was akin to a poor section of Brooklyn) with some buildings emblazoned with large posters of Soviet astronaut Yuri Gargarin, and then returned to the glass and steel beauty of West Berlin. It was a memorable experience.

Of course, at the time I had no idea of the behind the scenes policy debates that were going on. Or how close the world had come to the outbreak of a nuclear war in Europe.

DSL
6/21/11 5:45 PM PDT
Los Angeles, CA

50 Years Ago Today: JFK and The Berlin Crisis - East Germany Shuts The East/West Border Crossings

From the New York Times Archives:

August 13, 1961: To halt the exodus of East Germans to the West, Communist party brigades and East German soldiers early today blocked the border between East and West Berlin. All means of exit roads, subways and elevated lines, were closed. East German commuters who work in West Berlin will be barred from reaching their jobs tomorrow. East German troops took up guard posts at the Brandenburg Gate and elsewhere. (pg. 1:1)

The Kennedy Administration believes that the Berlin dispute can be talked out peacefully later this year. But there is concern for the cohesion of the Western alliance in the coming weeks, when pressures for a quick settlement are expected to increase. (1:2-3)

-----

From the BBC Archives:

August 13, 1961: Berliners wake to divided city.

Troops in East Germany have sealed the border between East and West Berlin, shutting off the escape route for thousands of refugees from the East.

Barbed wire fences up to six feet (1.83 metres) high were put up during the night, and Berliners woke this morning to find themselves living in a divided city.

Train services between the two sectors of the city have been cut, and all road traffic across the border has been stopped.
   
Thousands of angry demonstrators quickly gathered on the West Berlin side of the divide. At one crossing point, protesters tried to trample down the barbed wire, only to be driven back by guards with bayonets.

The West German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, appealed for calm, saying in a broadcast to the nation this evening: "Now, as always, we are closely bound to the Germans of the Russian zone and East Berlin.

"They are and remain our German brothers and sisters. The Federal Government remains firmly committed to the goal of German unity."

There has been outrage from the international community at the abrupt decision to cut off one side of the city from the other.

A Foreign Office spokesman in London said the restrictions were contrary to the four-power status of Berlin, and therefore illegal.

The American Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, called it a "flagrant violation" of East-West agreements, and said there would be a vigorous protest to Russia.

The tide of people fleeing East Germany has grown to a flood in recent days, as the Soviet Union has taken an increasingly hard line over breaking away from the three Allied powers and forming a separate peace treaty with East Germany over Berlin.

Nearly 12,500 people left East Germany this week - over 2,000 more than the previous week.

The East German government has been taking desperate measures to stem the flow. Yesterday, border guards were intercepting trains near Berlin and interrogating passengers. Those who arrived in Berlin said only one in 10 was allowed through.

There had been rumours of a decisive crackdown on refugees since the East German parliament met yesterday and approved new, unspecified measures against them.

The rumours provoked an even more frantic exodus. Just before the borders were closed, the numbers more than doubled, with some 3,000 East Germans fleeing to the West in just 24 hours.

Is That A Smoking Gun In Your Hand, Sir?

I am often asked when discussing the President Kennedy Assassination, why after all these years isn't there more proof...

Proof like maybe the government knew more than it was saying, or that the government was covering something up?

So here is proof that the F.B.I. and Richard Nixon knew Ruby and that Ruby was an informant... in the employ of Richard Nixon at one time...

 

A Different View On Venezuelan and U.S. Relations... And Revolutions

Audio of a speech by President John Kennedy, 50 years ago today, commemorating Venezuelan Independence Day and linking it to our own Independence Day celebrations.

Quite a different view of Venezuela than our current leaders.

JFK's views on Latin American revolutions are interesting.

When Democrats Acted Like Democrats...

June 30, 1961

-President signs bill extending Social Security benefits to five million people and permitting people to retire with benefits at age 62.

-President signs most comprehensive Housing Bill in history, initiating aid to middle income families and mass transportation users, and increasing urban renewal and elderly housing.

How It's Done...

50 Years ago, President Kennedy held a news conference... everyone, the press, the President... seemed smarter...

Why He Was Better Than Those That Followed After...

1961 is the 50th anniversary of the JFK Presidency.

Here is the audio track of President John F. Kennedy speaking at the 8th annual Conference on International Economic and Social Development held at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. on June 16, 1961.

In his speech the President addresses the new foreign aid program and the need to overturn communist regimes in order to end social and economic injustice.

Kennedy's take on how to win the world over to our side had more to do with social and economic justice than bombers and troop deployments.

Following his assassination in 1963, America did not continue to follow along his path...

If you want the short version... skip to 12 minutes in.

The Cleansing Tide of History

The publication comes 40 years after parts were leaked to the New York Times, showing that the administration at the time had lied to the public.

The real hilarity with the Pentagon Papers and Daniel Ellsberg's leaking them to the press, is they caught the Nixon White House in the middle of forging and changing some documents to obfuscate the Kennedy Years.

And they weren't the only ones, try and piece together the NSAM trail from JFK's White House... it is riddle wrapped in an enigma.

50 Years Ago: Khrushchev and Kennedy at The Vienna Summit... A Saturday Musings Special

50 years ago today, Premier Nikita Khrushchev and President John Kennedy sat down for a face-to-face summit in Vienna, June 4, 1961.

History records that Khrushchev spoke and stormed and hollered. There may have even been some shoe banging. Kennedy listened and squirmed and wondered what the hell was going on with this guy.

The meeting was behind closed doors, like so many things back then. The perception from the meeting was Khrushchev perceived JFK as young, inexperienced and weak, weak enough to build a wall in Berlin and send missiles to Cuba.

Kennedy’s experience was one I think Americans aren’t used to, he listened, he didn’t like what he heard, but he too, took the measure of his man, and the egalitarian statesman Kennedy was raised to be came to the surface. He did not bang his shoe on the Viennese table tops, but when it came time for the sound bite over the future of Berlin:

Khrushchev:  “Force will be met by force. If the US wants war, that's its problem." "It's up to the US to decide whether there will be war or peace."
Kennedy: "Then, Mr. Chairman, there will be a war. It will be a cold, long winter."

And a long cold winter it was.

But as we have learned from our history, the leaders of the two most powerful nations on earth were not calling all the shots. By 1964, both man was no longer on the world stage. JFK was assassinated in 1963 and Khrushchev was removed from power a year later.

The Vienna Summit is a fascinating study for students of history and diplomacy and for politicians.   How did both men approach the summit?  How did both men handled themselves and each other?  What were the results?

History is still being written, new books and new archive documents are coming out every year. What I find interesting is that the two men did not blow up the world as some thought possible, instead they managed to bring a lasting peace and a road map to future peace between Soviet Union and the United States.

Khrushchev wept upon hearing the news of JFK’s assassination... Maybe he knew that forces larger than him and the young leader he met in Vienna were on the move and in the end, neither man was the maker of his final destiny… or that of his nation.

I could think of a lot worse scenarios if these two men were not at the helm of their nations in 1961.

50 Years Ago Today: JFK (and Jackie) In Paris

It is the 50th Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's first Presidential year... 1961.

Here is a nice piece of history from 50 years ago today, June 2, 1961: President Kennedy speaks to the French Press (and even takes some questions in french).

Audio Track Here: 

Audio recording of President John F. Kennedy’s remarks at a Press Club luncheon held at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France. In his address the President thanks the French people for their hospitality during his visit and famously introduces himself, stating, “I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris—and I have enjoyed it!”

President Kennedy then acknowledges three major changes in the world since World War II: economic growth and reconstruction in Europe, increasing concerns about nuclear warfare, and new global threats to human liberty and economic stability.

The President’s speech is followed by a press question and answer session on various topics, including the President’s scheduled meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, mutual security between European nations and the United States, and the strengths of the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Part of the question and answer session takes place in French.

The recording cuts off abruptly during one speaker and contains some distortion.

50 Years Ago Today: JFK Explains Why 'We Choose To Go To The Moon'

It is the 50th Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's first Presidential year... 1961.

Here is his inspiring We Choose To Go To The Moon speech delivered at Rice University on May 25, 1961.

The stuff dreams are made of...

And here is a fascinating historical addendum to this speech released by the John F.Kennedy Presidential Library today... a declassified White House conversation JFK had with NASA Administrator James Webb discussing the future of the US space program.

The meeting was held in the White House on September 18, 1963 and reveals President Kennedy’s private concerns over waning public support for space exploration.

This is great stuff, real, true history, not tainted by bias... the real audio recordings of President Kennedy in the White House.

50 Years Ago Today: JFK and NSAM #52 - 'Before the game is afoot, thou still let'st slip.'

The Kennedy Administration begins to leave its paper trail of National Security Action Memorandum that will twist through the dark forest of American foreign policy in the 1960s.

On May 11, 1961 we get NSAM #52.

There are clues in these NSAMs and what becomes of them... including how they are preresented in history... that can lead us back to 11/22/63... if we dare to look.

 

America's Manned Space Exploration Began 50 Years Ago Today

"At 9:34 on the morning of May 5, 1961, as America watched on black-and-white TV, the Redstone blasted off, cleared the pad and rushed skyward. Seconds later, Shepard radioed down, "Ah, Roger liftoff, and the clock is started." 

Two minutes and 42 seconds later, the engine burn ended, and Shepard was traveling faster than any American before him: 5,134 mph. The capsule separated from the booster rocket, and he was weightless. He took control, firing retrorockets on NASA's commands, adjusting the Mercury's position on all three axes."

50 Years Ago: And The Hits Just Keep Coming For The Kennedy Administration: May 4, 1961...The Freedom Riders Start Their Ride

"...James Farmer, national director of CORE, and thirteen volunteers left Washington on 4th May, 1961, for Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. Governor James Patterson commented that: "The people of Alabama are so enraged that I cannot guarantee protection for this bunch of rabble-rousers." Patterson, who had been elected with the support of the Ku Klux Klan added that integration would come to Alabama only "over my dead body."

The Freedom Riders were split between two buses. They travelled in integrated seating and visited "white only" restaurants. When they reached Anniston on 14th May the Freedom Riders were attacked by men armed with clubs, bricks, iron pipes and knives. One of the buses was fire-bombed and the mob held the doors shut, intent on burning the riders to death..."

In These Heady Times...Remember, Beware The Military Industrial Complex

The Admirals, Generals and Intelligence Chiefs sometimes have a different agenda...

50th Anniversary of the JFK Press Confrence: Post Bay of Pigs Invasion... A Long, Hard Day At The Office... The Game Is Afoot

President John Kennedy stepped before the press April 21, 1961.

see the entie press conference here:

“Further statements…are not to conceal responsibility because I am the responsible officer of the government, and that is quite obvious…”

“There's an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.”

JFK Speaks On The Bay of Pigs Invasion 4/20/61

Audio file of President Kennedy speaking to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 20th, 1961.

“On that unhappy island, as in so many other areas of the contest for freedom, the news has grown worse instead of better.”

“I have emphasized before that this is a struggle of Cuban patriots against a Cuban dictator.”

Tweets From The Kennedy Administration Show This Was Not A Good Day At Camelot

Kennedy1961 (April 19, 1961)

NYTIMES: “The forces of Premier Castro…have apparently mounted a major counter-offensive with Soviet-built tanks...”

And for our 21st century readers: from Wikipedia

Operation 40 was a Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored undercover operation in the early 1960s, which was active in the United States and the Caribbean (including Cuba), Central America, and Mexico.

It was created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in March 1960, after the January 1959 Cuban Revolution, and was presided over by Vice-president Richard Nixon.

The group included Frank Sturgis (who would later become one of the Watergate burglars); Felix Rodriguez (a CIA officer who later was involved in the capture and summary execution  of Che Guevara); Luis Posada Carriles (held in the US in 2010 on charges of illegal immigration, he is demanded by Venezuela  for his key role in the execution of the 1976 Cubana Flight 455  bombing); Orlando Bosch (founder of the counterrevolutionary  Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, CORU), that organized the 1976 murder of Chilean former minister Orlando Letelier); Rafael 'Chi Chi' Quintero; Virgilio Paz Romero; Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz; Bernard Barker; Porter Goss; and Barry Seal.

Members took part in the April 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion directed against the government of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

50th Anniversary of The Bay of Pigs Invasion: 'It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma!'

It is the 50th Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's first Presidential year... 1961.

"On the night of 16-17 April 1961, when the relatively young President needed the advice of the armed forces as the Bay of Pigs invasion was turning into an unmitigated fiasco, the tension between President Kennedy and Admiral Burke was palpable.

As told by Admiral Burke’s biographer, the late E.B. Potter, in the early-morning hours of 17 April, President Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, in white tie and tails, along with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Lyman Lemnitzer and Admiral Burke, in dress uniforms with medals, left the East Room, where the annual Congressional Reception had just concluded, headed for the Oval Office.

There, Richard M. Bissell of the CIA informed President Kennedy that although the situation was bad, it "could still take a favorable turn if the President would authorize sending in aircraft from the carrier."

"Burke concurred," wrote Potter. "Let me take two jets and shoot down the enemy aircraft," he urged. But President Kennedy said "No," and reminded them that he had said "over and over again" that he would not commit U.S. forces to combat. Apparently, he did not want the world to find out what it already knew, that the whole expedition had been conceived, planned, and armed by the United States.

According to Potter, "Burke suggested sending in a destroyer. Whereupon Kennedy explodes. ‘Burke.’ He snapped, ‘I don’t want the United States involved in this.’ ‘All in all, Mr. President,’ Burke snapped back, ‘but we are involved."’

All in all, not a pleasant exchange.

Admiral Burke continued as Chief of Naval Operations for three-and-a-half more months. On 1 August 1961, having completed an unprecedented third term, he relinquished his office to Admiral George W. Anderson. The change of command took place at the U.S. Naval Academy, where Admiral Burke had begun his naval service 42 years earlier."

 If it is not simply ignored, it will be interesting to see how the 21st century American media report on the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion. This Republican Party inspired debacle that festered and grew in the anticipation that Richard Nixon would be President of the United States in 1961, introduces to the world stage all the main players in the eventual assassination of President Kennedy in 1963.

If anyone is still interesting in the who and the why President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas, I won't say look no further than, but I will say start by looking at the above exchange from E.B. Potter's biography of Admiral Burke and at the Taylor Commission.

Here are two interesting links about the 50th anniversary of Bay of Pigs invasion:

Eisenhower’s trip to Latin America gave birth to Bay of Pigs secret plan

and

Honor the men who risked all in dark days of 1961

 

Too Little, Too Late. The President As Lobbyist In Latin America

President Obama's current visit to Latin America is widely seen as a move to counteract the rising influence of China, which is in the midst of an unprecedented energy grab in the oil- and mineral-rich region.

America grew used to exploiting Latin America.

Republican politicians reversed any progress made by President Kennedy's Alliance for Progress and stopped democratic, progressive governments by any means necessary, creating even more revolutionary, anti-American fervor... leading of course to whatever the hell happened during the Ronald Reagan years.

So now we are sending President Obama, hat in hand to try to compete with the Chinese... or worse, lobby for the nuclear energy industry.

We weren't there for Latin America when they needed us and we had something to offer... so what makes us think that they are willing to listen to us now... when we have nothing.

If the nations of Central and South America had any sense at all, they would turn their backs on the United States once and for all, before we infest their countries with our cancerous, corporate fascism. I hope they don't buy whatever snake oil President Obama is trying to sell them... and if he really is just down there as a salesman for the American nuclear energy industry... well, I wouldn't be surprised.

Some Health Care Fun Facts... February 13, 1961

As I posted before, JFK's Presidency is on Twitter... @Kennedy1961

The John F Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston has begun chronicling the former US president's 1,000 days in office on the micro-blogging website Twitter.

Today's tweet is about Social Security and the JFK Administration's attempts to bring what will become Medicare (after his assassination)into the Social Security System.

Here is a little run down of health care events going on in February of 1961 as President Kennedy attempts to bring that evil socialized medicine to the elderly.

February 4, 1961 The American Medical Association established its Political Action Committee (AHPAC). Its purposes included information to be provided physicians and others regarding Government activities affecting the medical profession. It especially involved a drive to prevent the passage of a health insurance program as then being advocated.

February 9, 1961 The President's Health Message was the first of its kind ever to be devoted exclusively to the need for a health care program.

February 13, 1961 H.R. 4222, the Health Insurance Benefits Act of 1961, proposing a program along the lines set forth by the President, was introduced by Representative King of California. S. 909, a companion bill, was introduced in the Senate by Senator Anderson. The House bill was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

February 20, 1961 President Kennedy submitted draft proposals to Congress for improvements in old-age, survivors and disability insurance programs.

(And just for good measure... let's check in on Lee Harvey Oswald in 1961... remember folks, Oswald had defected to the Soviet Union, but on February 13, 1961, started writing to the U.S. Embassy asking about coming back to America...)

JFK On Twitter... No, Really...

The John F Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston has begun chronicling the former US president's 1,000 days in office on the micro-blogging website Twitter.

The account @Kennedy1961 began posting tweets on Thursday about the former president's actions and words as they unfolded 50 years ago.

I wonder how far they are going to go with this... will we get tweets from The Warren Commission after the assassination?

I would think following the Lee Harvey Oswald time-line during the Kennedy Administration would be helpful, too.

For example, that curtain rod' carrying son-of-a-bitch was in Minsk when Kennedy gave his Inaugural Address.

Our little, home grown, lone-gunman, ex-Marine was getting home sick after defecting to the Soviet Union and he began taking the steps that would bring him back into the United States.. no questions asked... and on a collision course in Dallas, Texas.

Follow a Lee Harvey Oswald timeline here:

January 4, 1961: LHO rejects Soviet citizenship, but asks that his residence permit be extended. In his diary, he confides thoughts of leaving Russia for the first time.

Why Sargent Shriver Mattered

A good obituary posted by John Nichols in The Nation on Sargent Shriver.

"In the Wisconsin primary campaign—the critical first test—the senator from Massachusetts faced Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey, a hero of liberals going back to the 1948 Democratic National Convention speech in which he declared: "The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states' rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights."

As his friend, ally and aide Harris Wofford recalled, "[Shriver] badly wanted Kennedy’s nomination to come through liberal support, not through an alliance with Southern conservatives.” While the young senator was being pulled to the right by many of his allies, “Shriver hoped Kennedy would find himself responding to a convention and a campaign in which the liberal wing gave him decisive support.”

To achieve this end, Shriver came to Madison as his brother-in-law Jack’s campaign’s coordinator in the critical 2nd Congressional district. Well aware that Humphrey was a favorite in the region—especially with the liberal community that clustered around the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison—Shriver set out to build Kennedy’s credibility as a liberal."

People like Shriver and Harris Wofford were the true promise of JFK's Camelot. They were trying to forge a new America during the second half of the 20th century.  They blazed a parth and made a lot of gains and left a wonderful legacy, but America didn't continue to follow.

50th Anniversary: President John F. Kennedy - Inaugural Address

50 years ago today, John Kennedy took the oath of office of President of The United States.

He tried very hard to put America on a safe and sure coarse. The forces of evil that eventually took over America moved in decisively. He was assassinated before his first term ended.  America never recovered.

50th Anniversary - President-elect Kennedy's "City Upon A Hill" Speech

It is the 50th Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's first Presidential year... 1961. Here is his farewell address to Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Address of President-Elect John F. Kennedy Delivered to a Joint Convention of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: (audio available at this link).

  I have welcomed this opportunity to address this historic body, and, through you, the people of Massachusetts to whom I am so deeply indebted for a lifetime of friendship and trust.

     For fourteen years I have placed my confidence in the citizens of Massachusetts--and they have generously responded by placing their confidence in me.

     Now, on the Friday after next, I am to assume new and broader responsibilities. But I am not here to bid farewell to Massachusetts.

     For forty-three years--whether I was in London, Washington, the South Pacific, or elsewhere--this has been my home; and, God willing, wherever I serve this shall remain my home.

     It was here my grandparents were born--it is here I hope my grandchildren will be born.

     I speak neither from false provincial pride nor artful political flattery. For no man about to enter high office in this country can ever be unmindful of the contribution this state has made to our national greatness.

     Its leaders have shaped our destiny long before the great republic was born. Its principles have guided our footsteps in times of crisis as well as in times of calm. Its democratic institutions--including this historic body--have served as beacon lights for other nations as well as our sister states.

     For what Pericles said to the Athenians has long been true of this commonwealth: "We do not imitate--for we are a model to others."

     And so it is that I carry with me from this state to that high and lonely office to which I now succeed more than fond memories of firm friendships. The enduring qualities of Massachusetts--the common threads woven by the Pilgrim and the Puritan, the fisherman and the farmer, the Yankee and the immigrant--will not be and could not be forgotten in this nation's executive mansion.

     They are an indelible part of my life, my convictions, my view of the past, and my hopes for the future.

     Allow me to illustrate: During the last sixty days, I have been at the task of constructing an administration. It has been a long and deliberate process. Some have counseled greater speed. Others have counseled more expedient tests.

     But I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates on the flagship Arbella three hundred and thirty-one years ago, as they, too, faced the task of building a new government on a perilous frontier.

     "We must always consider," he said, "that we shall be as a city upon a hill--the eyes of all people are upon us."

     Today the eyes of all people are truly upon us--and our governments, in every branch, at every level, national, state and local, must be as a city upon a hill--constructed and inhabited by men aware of their great trust and their great responsibilities

     For we are setting out upon a voyage in 1961 no less hazardous than that undertaken by the Arabella in 1630. We are committing ourselves to tasks of statecraft no less awesome than that of governing the Massachusetts Bay Colony, beset as it was then by terror without and disorder within.

     History will not judge our endeavors--and a government cannot be selected--merely on the basis of color or creed or even party affiliation. Neither will competence and loyalty and stature, while essential to the utmost, suffice in times such as these.

     For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each one of us--recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state--our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:

         First, were we truly men of courage--with the courage to stand up to one's enemies--and the courage to stand up, when necessary, to one's associates--the courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed?

         Secondly, were we truly men of judgment--with perceptive judgment of the future as well as the past--of our own mistakes as well as the mistakes of others--with enough wisdom to know that we did not know, and enough candor to admit it?

         Third, were we truly men of integrity--men who never ran out on either the principles in which they believed or the people who believed in them--men who believed in us--men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust?

         Finally, were we truly men of dedication--with an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and compromised by no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest.

     Courage--judgment--integrity--dedication--these are the historic qualities of the Bay Colony and the Bay State--the qualities which this state has consistently sent to this chamber on Beacon Hill here in Boston and to Capitol Hill back in Washington.

     And these are the qualities which, with God's help, this son of Massachusetts hopes will characterize our government's conduct in the four stormy years that lie ahead.

     Humbly I ask His help in that undertaking--but aware that on earth His will is worked by men. I ask for your help and your prayers, as I embark on this new and solemn journey.

In November, 1963 They Won The World... Then Proceeded To Devour It.

On November 25, 1963 President John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington Cemetery. The forces of evil had won the day. They also won the world... what have they down with their victory?

The words from this scene from Oliver Stone's JFK ring true today... instead of the assassination of a President in 1963, they could be talking about the state of politics in America, 2010.

The Beginning of The End. 11/22/1963

Here is an opposite angle from the Zapruder Film version of President Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963.

Neither the Democratic Party nor the United States of America ever recovered... in fact, it has been all down hill from here.

50 Years Ago Senator John F. Kennedy Became President-Elect Kennedy

The 50th Anniversary of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy is approaching.  He announced his candidacy on January 2, 1960, so every campaign speech is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Election Day, November 8, 1960 saw a close race and the winner wasn't announced until November 9th. JFK waited until Nixon conceded before declaring victory.

Acceptance Speech by John F. Kennedy, Hyannis Armory, Hyannis, Massachusetts, November 9, 1960:

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have received the following wire from Vice President Nixon. In that wire he says, "Senator John F. Kennedy, Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. I want to repeat through this wire the congratulations and best wishes I extended to you on television last night. I know that you will have
united support of all Americans as you lead the nation in the cause of peace and freedom during the next four years." I reply to the vice president-- I sent him the following wire: "Vice President Nixon, Los Angeles, California. Your sincere good wishes are gratefully accepted. You are to be congratulated on a fine race. I know that the nation can continue to count on your unswerving loyalty in whatever effort you undertake, and that you and I can maintain our long-standing cordial relations in the years ahead. Sincerely, John Kennedy."

I received also a wire from President Eisenhower which says, "My congratulations to you for the victory you have just won at the polls. I will be sending you promptly a more comprehensive telegram suggesting certain measures that may commend themselves to you as you prepare to take over next January the responsibilities of the Presidency. Signed, Dwight D. Eisenhower.: And I have sent to President Eisenhower the following wire:  "I am grateful for your wire and good wishes. I look forward to working with you in the near future. The whole country is hopeful that your long experience in the service of your country can be drawn upon further in the years to come. With every good wish, signed, John Kennedy."

May I say in addition to all citizens of this country, Democrats, independents, Republicans, regardless of how they may have voted, that it is a satisfying moment to me and I want to express my appreciation to all of them and to Mr. Nixon personally. I particularly want to thank all of those who worked so long and so hard in this campaign on our behalf and who were generous to me in my visits throughout the country and who were generous enough to support me in the election on yesterday. To all Americans I say that the next four years are going to be difficult and challenging years for all of us. The election may have been a close one, but I think that there is general agreement by all of our citizens that a supreme national effort will be needed in the years ahead to move this country safely through the 1960s. I ask your help in this effort and I can assure you that every degree of mind and spirit that I possess will be devoted to the long-range interests of the United States and to the cause of freedom around the world. So now my wife and I prepare for a new administration and for a new baby. Thank you."

Interesting that this 50th anniversary got so little attention from the American Press. Have we forgotten JFK 50 years on? His historic Democratic Party campaign did not play in this year's campaign. I don't remember any Kennedy quotes, inspiration or stories from candidates in 2010.

The Golden Age of the Democraic Party, a friend of my called that era.

JFK did not get to serve his four years, but his prediction that the 1960s would require a supreme national effort...came true... an effort that we failed at as I look back 50 years... the promise... the promise of the Democratic Party. It is always so bright and strong and is always pulled down and stomped on by the Republican Party... that is the history of my political life time, anyway.

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.  - John F. Kennedy

History Turns... Ted Sorensen Has Died

One of the great American political speechwriters, Theodore Sorensen has died. In the age of mass communication, Sorensen helped President Kennedy define a vision for America that burned bright long after JFK was assassinated.

His words inspired future Presidents like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama... and haunted many a Republican politician.

Time marches on.

What better tribute to Sorensen and JFK on the Election Eve 2010... than to go out and vote for a Democrat.

"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

Saturday Musings: On The Campaign Trail

"In the Constitutional Convention, in your suburb of Philadelphia, there was a painting of a sun behind the desk of General Washington low on the horizon, and many of the delegated wondered whether it was rising or a setting sun. And at the conclusion, Benjamin Franklin stood up. He said, "We now know. It is a rising sun, and the beginning of a great new day." - Senator John F. Kennedy on the eve of his elecion to the Presidency 1960

I find ot a bit odd that the Democratic candidates this year totally ignored President Kennedy, who 50 years ago ran his victorious and very close campaign for the Presidency. Some of the Congressional candidates today could learn a lot from his wit, intelligence, charm and bravery on the campaign trail.

We will shortly see if the Democrats are going to stay on top in Washington, DC this election year as America is still trying to battle back the same forces of Republican evil that killed JFK. The same issues are at stake. There is clearly a choice between the progressives and the conservatives... the middle ground is still a killing field of trench warfare. It is time to take a side.

50 Years Ago Today, Senator John F. Kennedy Was On The Campaign Trail... And Speaking at NYU and Having A Great Time

The 50th Anniversary of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy is approaching.  He announced his candidacy on January 2, 1960, so every campaign speech is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

On October 27, 1960 Senator Kennedy was on the move in the industrial Northeast in Michigan and stopping in New York City and Brooklyn before heading the next day to Pennsylvania.

He is having a lot of fun in this speech and so is the audience.

Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at New York University, Washington Square, New York, New York, October 27, 1960

"...Let me say to you young Nixonites - all eight of you - (response from the audience) - let me say this: In this 20th Century both of our candidates, both parties have put up various candidates, and I believe that where we stand now and where we are going in the future can best be judged by where we have been. Hear the Republican slogans, Stand Pat with McKinley, Return to Normalcy with Harding, Keep Cool with Coolidge, A Chicken in Every Pot with Herbert Hoover, Repeal Social Security with Alf Landon, and "Had Enough?" with Thomas E. Dewey. (Applause)

Who have we run in the 20th century? Woodrow Wilson and the New Frontier, Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal - (applause) and Harry Truman and the Fair Deal - (applause) - and every one of their domestic programs had their counterpart in the international policy. The 14 points of Woodrow Wilson was the counterpart of the New Freedom. The Four Freedoms of Franklin Roosevelt were the international counterpart of the New Deal. Technical Assistance, Point IV, The Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, were all the international counterpart of the Fair Deal. Now, in 1960, the choice lies between the candidate who in this most revolutionary time runs on the slogan "You've never had it so good", versus the candidate and a party that runs on the slogan of the New Frontiers of the future. (Applause)"

 

50 Years Ago Today, Senator John F. Kennedy Was On The Campaign Trail... And Spoke To Students At The University of Michigan In What Is Considered The First Proposal of A Peace Corps.

The 50th Anniversary of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy is approaching.  He announced his candidacy on January 2, 1960, so every campaign speech is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

On October 14, Senator Kennedy had already spent the day campaigning throughout Michigan when he arrived late at night to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and made an impromptu speech to students on the steps of their Student Union building.

His short remarks are considered the germ of the Peace Corps.

Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at the University of Michigan, Student Union Building Steps, Ann Arbor, Michigan October 14, 1960:  (this link also contains the audio recording of the entire 3 minute speech).

[There is a very funny moment near the end of the speech... worth a listen.]

"I think in many ways it is the most important campaign since 1933, mostly because of the problems which press upon the United States, and the opportunities which will be presented to us in the 1960s. The opportunity must be seized, through the judgment of the President, and the vigor of the executive, and the cooperation of the Congress. Through these I think we can make the greatest possible difference.

How many of you who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world? On your willingness to do that, not merely to serve one year or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can! And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past.

Therefore, I am delighted to come to Michigan, to this University, because unless we have those resources in this school, unless you comprehend the nature of what is being asked of you this country can't possibly move through the next ten years in a period of relative strength..."

50 Years Ago Today, Senator John F. Kennedy Was On The Campaign Trail...And Was Barnstorming Across Ohio

The 50th Anniversary of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy is approaching.  He announced his candidacy on January 2, 1960, so every campaign speech is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

On September 27th he gave five speeches across Ohio. In Akron, he discussed the differences between Democrats and Republicans... still rings true today.

Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at Armory, Akron, Ohio, September 27, 1960:

"...The difference between Mr. Nixon and myself is the same difference that has existed for many years between the Republican and the Democratic Parties. I said on Sunday in Cleveland that I could not think of a single idea which the Republican Party had produced that constituted major new legislation on behalf of the people. The Cleveland paper today attempted to correct the record, and they mentioned the child labor work that President Taft had done 50 years ago.

They mentioned the antitrust suits that had been brought in at the time of Theodore Roosevelt. I think Theodore Roosevelt was a great Republican President. But I want to know what they have done in the last four years that has been of benefit to the people. (Applause) I don't mean that they have not come up with new legislation. The fact of the matter is that every piece of major legislation which is the hallmark of Franklin Roosevelt's administration from social security to minimum wage, from the Securities and Exchange Act to TVA, every one of those pieces of legislation was opposed - at the time they were written - by the Republican Party. They say our goals are the same. Of course, the goals of all Americans, since the beginning of this country, has been the same; a better life for our people. But it is a question of the means by which we achieve those goals. I am not satisfied, and I don't think it is significant to say our goals are the same. Our goals were the same in the Thirties and in the Twenties, and before that, and in the Fifties. What counts in a country, what counts in a system, what counts in political parties is the means by which you achieve those goals, and I think it is on that basis that the people of this country are going to select the Democratic Party once again..."

50 Years Ago Today, Senator John F. Kennedy Was On The Campaign Trail...And Spoke Before Ministers In Houston About Religious Intolerance.

(a portion of this speech is captured on this video)

The 50th Anniversary of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy is approaching.  He announced his candidacy on January 2, 1960, so every campaign speech is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Religious intolerance has been a part of American history and continues to be. As Senator Kennedy says in this speech to the Texas Ministers... the finger of suspicion will point again and again, if we are not dilegent. HE was right. This year, the finger is pointed at Islam.

Address of Senator John F. Kennedy to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association at the Rice Hotel, Houston, Texas.  September 12, 1960:     (The audio track of the entire speech is included in this link.)

"...For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew--or a Quaker--or a Unitarian--or a Baptist. It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim- -but tomorrow it may be you--until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril.

     Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end--where all men and all churches are treated as equal--where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice--where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind--and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.

     That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe--a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.

     I would not look with favor upon a President working to subvert the first amendment's guarantees of religious liberty. Nor would our system of checks and balances permit him to do so--and neither do I look with favor upon those who would work to subvert Article VI of the Constitution by requiring a religious test--even by indirection--for it. If they disagree with that safeguard they should be out openly working to repeal it.

     I want a Chief Executive whose public acts are responsible to all groups and obligated to none--who can attend any ceremony, service or dinner his office may appropriately require of him--and whose fulfillment of his Presidential oath is not limited or conditioned by any religious oath, ritual or obligation.

     This is the kind of America I believe in--and this is the kind I fought for in the South Pacific, and the kind my brother died for in Europe. No one suggested then that we may have a "divided loyalty," that we did "not believe in liberty," or that we belonged to a disloyal group that threatened the "freedoms for which our forefathers died."

50 Years Ago This Week, Senator John F. Kennedy Was On The Campaign Trail... And Celebrated The 25th Anniversary of The Signing of The Social Security Act

The 50th Anniversary of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy is approaching.  He announced his candidacy on January 2, 1960, so every campaign speech is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

At Hyde Park, with Eleanor Roosevelt, the Democratic Party Nominee for President spoke of the achievement of signing the Social Security Act and how the struggle in America for the Democratic Party in 1960 was still how to clean up after the mess the Republican Party made of the nation and how best to lead and take care of its citizenry.

Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at Memorial Program for 25th Anniversary of Signing of Social Security Act, Hyde Park, New York, August 14, 1960:

"Standing on this quiet lawn - this spacious and soothing scene - it is difficult to recall the furious battles which were fought by the man who lies here in honored glory - the conflicts which he waged - the victories which he won.

Yet we who lived while he governed can, here at Hyde Park, still hear the echoes of those heroic struggles: the struggle to rescue America from poverty and economic collapse - the struggle to build a new America where all could live in dignity - the struggle to secure freedom against the ominous armed advance of tyranny and oppression - and the last, the most arduous, the unending struggle - the struggle which his wife still steadfastly carries on - the struggle to build a world of free and peaceful nations.

If these battles were nobly fought - if the America of Franklin Roosevelt had a rendezvous with destiny - it met that rendezvous only because it was guided to its destination by a great leader of men.

Today we commemorate one of those battles - the passage of the Social Security Act of 1935 - the most important single piece of social welfare legislation in the history of this country. It was 25 years ago this very day that Franklin Roosevelt could say, after a long and arduous struggle: "Today a hope of many years standing is in large part fulfilled"; and with that he signed his name and social security became law.

For millions of Americans, with that one stroke of the pen, their insecurity and fear were transformed into hope - their poverty and hunger were transformed into a decent life - their economic degradation was transformed into a chance to live out their days in the dignity and peace they had so richly earned.

But the job which Franklin Roosevelt set out to do in 1935 is not yet done. That opening battle was won - but the war against poverty and degradation is not yet over. And no one realized this more than Franklin Roosevelt himself. "This law," he said, 25 years ago today as he signed it, "represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built, but which is by no means complete." We are here at Hyde Park today - not merely to commemorate the cornerstone - but to help complete the edifice...

...This story is a living story, not merely statistics. It is deeply burned into every city and town, every hospital and clinic, every neighborhood and rest-home in America, wherever our older citizens live out their lives in want and despair under the shadow of illness. You have seen it in your state - I have seen it in my travels across all fifty states. It is a sight engraved upon our minds and hearts - but it is a sight which, together, we can wipe from the face of this great rich land forever.

First, we must enact immediately an adequate, comprehensive plan to enable our older citizens to meet their pressing medical needs. Such a plan, a soundly-financed program - without a destructive, degrading means test - based on the tried and tested operation of the social security system, is now before Congress; and it can - and should - and must be enacted this year!

But I also say to you that this bill will be - like the original social security law - only a single stone in an unfinished structure. It is an important start toward meeting the health problems of our older citizens - but it is only a start. And the coming years will require even more of us...

...And social security is just one of the many, vital battles for human welfare which are now being waged. I come to you from a Congress where we are fighting to secure a decent, minimum wage for millions of Americans. This too is an important and arduous struggle. And many other such struggles lie ahead...

...And this is why we have gathered here at the home of enduring greatness - not merely to pay tribute - but to re-freshen our spirits and stir our hearts for the tasks which lie ahead. We celebrate the past to awaken the future..."

50 Years Ago Today, Senator John F. Kennedy Accepted the Democratic Nomination For President

The 50th Anniversary of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy is approaching.  He announced his candidacy on January 2, 1960, so every campaign speech is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

On July 15, 1960, in Los Angeles, California the Senator accepted the Democratic nomination for President.

Address of Senator John F. Kennedy Accepting the Democratic Party Nomination for the Presidency of the United States:  (this link also contains the audio of the acceptance speech)

"...Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom promised our nation a new political and economic framework. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal promised security and succor to those in need. But the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises--it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It appeals to their pride, not to their pocketbook--it holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security.

     But I tell you the New Frontier is here, whether we seek it or not. Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus. It would be easier to shrink back from that frontier, to look to the safe mediocrity of the past, to be lulled by good intentions and high rhetoric--and those who prefer that course should not cast their votes for me, regardless of party.

     But I believe the times demand new invention, innovation, imagination, decision. I am asking each of you to be pioneers on that New Frontier. My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age--to all who respond to the Scriptural call: "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed."

50 Years Ago Today, Senator John F. Kennedy Was On The Campaign Trail... He Delivered Two Speeches, One to a NAACP Rally and the Other to the DNC

The 50th Anniversary of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy is approaching.  He announced his candidacy on January 2, 1960, so every campaign speech is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

With the primary season over, Senator Kennedy was the apparent Democratic Presidential nominee. Conventions were different in 1960, but five days later... Senator Kennedy was accepting his Party's nomination.

On July 10, 1960, he spoke before a NAACP rally and later that evening, he spoke to the Democratic National Committee.

Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at NAACP Rally, Los Angeles, California, July 10, 1960:

"...Our job is to turn the American vision of a society in which no man has to suffer discrimination based on race into a living reality everywhere in our land. And that means we must secure to every American equal access to all parts of our public life - to the voting booth, to the schoolroom, to jobs, to housing, to all public facilities including lunch counters.

Let us trust no one who offers slick and easy answers - for the only final answer will come from the work of thousands of individual answers, large and small, in the Congress, the courts and the White House, in states and cities all over America, in the actions of brave and wise public servants, and in the reactions of determined private citizens such as yourselves.

What we are seeking, after all, is really very simple. It's merely a recognition that this is one nation and we are all one great people. Our origins may be different but our destiny is the same, our aspirations are identical - there can be no artificial distinctions, no arbitrary barriers, in securing these rights...

To be sure, there will be protest and disagreement - but if the end result is to be permanent progress instead of frustration, there must be more meetings of men and minds. And the place to begin is the White House itself, where the Chief Executive, with his prestige and influence, should exert firm and positive leadership.

Let us bear in mind that this is not merely a regional problem - it is not merely a national problem - it is international in scope and effect. For the average American of Caucasian descent does not realize that it is he who is a member of a minority race - and a minority religion - and a minority political system - and that he is regarded with some suspicion, if not hostility, by most of that restless, envious, surging majority. The tide of human dignity is world-wide - and the eyes of that world are upon us.

It is not enough to restate our claim to the Declaration of Independence. It is not enough to deplore violence in other lands. It is up to us to prove that our way - the way of peaceful change and democratic processes - can fulfill those goals better than any other system under the sun. It is up to us to rebuild our image abroad by rebuilding our image here at home.

The time is short - but the agenda is long. Much is to be done - but many are willing."

The young Senator's words on the minority status of the Caucasian race globally, was quite the statement for 1960 America to hear.

Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at Democratic National Committee Dinner, Los Angeles, California, July 10, 1960:

"...For we are all Democrats - not Northern or Southern Democrats, not Liberal or conservative Democrats - but Democrats by birth, conviction and choice. We know it is neither the party of war nor the party of appeasement - our only war is against injustice, hunger and disease - and in that war there can be no appeasement...

And we know that there is only one legitimate issue of health in this campaign - and that is the anemic health of the American economy today.

There is only one legitimate issue of age in this campaign - and that is the tragic failure of this Administration to meet the needs of our older citizens, and particularly their needs for medical care.

There is only on legitimate issue of creed in this campaign - and that is our devotion to the public good ahead of private interests - a creed the Republicans call creeping socialism - but FDR called it "A New Deal."

173 years ago, in another dark and uncertain house, an earlier national convention was called - its delegates undertook to draft a new constitution. May your work as delegates here this week stand the test of time as well as theirs. May your decisions - like theirs - have meaning for the future generations to come, and ignite a beacon light for all the world to see."

"Our devotion to the public good over private interests... a creed the Republicans call creeping socialism"... pretty interesting considering this is what they were fighting over 50 years ago.

Some Thoughts On Government Spending and Job Creation... from President Kennedy

"...If you realize what this State and other States like it went through in the 20 years from 1919 to 1939--the depression of the early twenties, the depression of 11 years, of the thirties, the stagnation on the farms and in the cities--and then realize how this State has boomed relative to the rest of the Nation in the last 5 or 10 years, we realize a good deal of this was due to the wise decisions taken in the thirties when the framework was laid with great opposition to those who objected to what was being done in Washington, great opposition to the efforts which Franklin Roosevelt and the Congress made in those days. And yet, when we look from 1945 to now, almost 20 years, we have had a gradual rising tide of prosperity throughout our entire country.

Those two records--that contrast between what we saw then between the wars and what it meant to this State, and others like it, and what we have seen since 1945 should make, it seems to me, a deep impression upon those who seek to end a partnership between the National Government and this State and others which develop the resources of the State and improve the life of the people.

This State is one great country and it seems to me incumbent, north and south, east and west, that we take those decisions now which will provide for a gradually increasing tide of life for the people of this State over the next 20 and 25 years. And those who think it can be left to chance are wrong. It was left to chance for 20 years between the two wars and as a result of the deliberate decisions made since then, it seems to me, this State is a fine product and example of what can be done by the people here, working together, working hard, and working with the support of intelligent national policies. And those people who say it is "pork barrel"--which is more wasteful: the waste of life and property and hope or a multi-purpose project which can be used by all of our people? Which is more wasteful: to fail to tap the energies of that river, to let that water flood, to deny this chance for the development of recreation and power, or to use it and to use it wisely? Which is more wasteful: to let the land wash away, to let it lie arid, or to use it and use it wisely and to make those investments which will make this a richer State and country in the years to come?

These projects produce wealth, they bring industry, they bring jobs, and the wealth they bring brings wealth to other sections of the United States. This State had about 200,000 cars in 1929. It has a million cars now. They weren't built in this State. They were built in Detroit. As this State's income rises, so does the income of Michigan. As the income of Michigan rises, so does the income of the United States. A rising tide lifts all the boats and as Arkansas becomes more prosperous so does the United States and as this section declines so does the United States. So I regard this as an investment by the people of the United States in the United States.

Therefore, I take pride in coming here today. I know that 10 years from now, if we come back again, flying as we did over the land, that we will see an even richer State, and I think you can take pride and satisfaction in what you have done..."

Remarks in Heber Springs, Arkansas, at the Dedication of Greers Ferry Dam... October 3, 1963

(more pictures)

50 Years Ago, Senator John F. Kennedy Was On The Campaign Trail... He Spoke Briefly of Presidential Power and The Military

The 50th Anniversary of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy is approaching.  He announced his candidacy on January 2, 1960, so every campaign speech is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at 1st Congressional District Democratic Dinner, Camden, New Jersey, June 22, 1960: (It continually amazes me as this series unfolds, how much of what John F. Kennedy did and said is relevant to today's world and Presidency.)

"I have premised my campaign and my candidacy on a central issue – the issue of the Presidency itself - its powers, their use and their decline. I have spoken about this nation's critical need for a creative dynamic President in the White House - a President in the great tradition of Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson - a Democratic President.

And nowhere is this need more critical than in the conduct of our foreign affairs. For Pennsylvania Avenue is no longer a local thoroughfare. It runs through Paris and London, Ankara and Tehran, New Delhi and Tokyo. And if the soul of a journey is liberty, as Hazlitt has said, then the road from the White House that encircles the globe is freedom's way - the artery that makes all the Free World neighbors as well as allies.

And if Washington is the capital of the Free World, the President must be its leader. Our constitution requires it - our history requires it - our very survival requires it. In foreign affairs, said the Supreme Court, "the President alone has the power to speak or listen as the representative of the nation."

"The President alone. . ." And he is alone - at the top - in the loneliest job in the world. He cannot share this power, he cannot delegate it, he cannot adjourn. He alone is the Chief of State, not the National Security Council, Vice President and all. He alone decides whether to recognize foreign governments, not his Senate minority leader - even when that minority leader was a distinguished Westerner. He alone must decide what areas we defend - not the Congress or the military or the CIA, and certainly not some beleaguered Generalissimo on an island."

50 Years Ago Today, Senator John F. Kennedy Was On The Campaign Trail... He Spoke of The Outgoing Administration and the Future

The 50th Anniversary of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy is approaching.  He announced his candidacy on January 2, 1960, so every campaign speech is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

A speech President Obama must have read. A thoughtful look at looking back at the mistakes of the outgoing Republican Administration and the need to look ahead at the work to be down to correct it.

Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at the New Mexico State Democratic Convention, New Mexico, June 4, 1960:

"It is well to look at the record of this administration over the past seven years. The basic problems which confront us go back seven years - not seven weeks when the current crisis began. And their correction will be many years in coming.

But at the same time I hope we do not concentrate our efforts on investigating the past - or belaboring what cannot now be undone. There are too many crises in the future to blind our eyes weeping over the crises of the past. There are too many things that can be done to waste our efforts on events we can no longer affect...

...-- And finally, here at home, we must strengthen our own resources - expand our economy at a faster rate - improve our education and research - enlarge our horizons with equal opportunity for all Americans - and give our people a sense of National purpose and National determination."

50 Years Ago Today, Senator John F. Kennedy Was On The Campaign Trail... And Spoke Of Disarmament

The 50th Anniversary of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy is approaching.  He announced his candidacy on January 2, 1960, so every campaign speech is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

After his primary victory in West Virgina on May 10, 1960, Senator Kennedy spoke on the subject of disarmament. There are some prescient words about the Cold War that echo down through history to us today...

Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at Washington College, Chestertown, Maryland, May 11, 1960:

"...Yet, despite these difficulties, I believe that today's international climate, more than ever before, holds out the possibility for an effective start on arms control. For the Russians realize, as we ourselves realize, that the spread of nuclear weapons to other nations may upset the balance of power and increase the danger of accidental war - that a war of mutual destruction would benefit no one nation or ideology - that funds devoted to weapons of destruction cannot be used to raise the living standards of their own people or to help the economies of underdeveloped nations.

The Soviets will not, in the sixties, or as far as we can foresee, give up their ambitions for world communism. But the historian Toynbee reminds us that the cold and hot wars waged by a fanatic Islam and crusading Christendom gradually transformed themselves into centuries of perpetual truce, although both parties retained their universal goals...."

50 Years Ago Today, Senator John F. Kennedy Was On The Campaign Trail... And Barnstormed Indiana With Three Speeches

The 50th Anniversary of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy is approaching.  He announced his candidacy on January 2, 1960, so every campaign speech is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Senator Kennedy made three speeches in Indiana on April 29, 1960.

Here is a link to his Food For Peace speech from that day:

"The greatest domestic challenge facing the next President will be the challenge of agriculture. The greatest challenge he faces abroad will be, of course, the challenge of peace - of strengthening the underdeveloped world against the instabilities that lead to either communism or war.

These two great challenges merge into a single challenge - at one point at least - summed up in three powerful words:  Food for Peace...

...These are some of the ways in which we can begin to use more effectively our abundant food for peace. Norman Cousins has written that "when I enter my home I enter with the awareness that my table is only half set, for half the men on this earth know the emptiness of want..." Tonight all the tables in America are only half set in this sense - and they remain half set until we can begin to use our richness, our abundance and our great resources to drive want away from the tables of men everywhere."

Saturday Musings: Guest Blogger - President John F. Kennedy 'How The Federal Government Must Act When States Act Badly' Edition

President Obama is not eliminating the right to call out the troops because the State of Arizona can not carry out its civic duty.

The right wing Republicans and Media are trying to maneuver President Obama into having to call out Federal Troops to stop State abuses in Arizona. The American Conservative Chess Game is in play.

President Kennedy gives a clear example of when and how the Federal Government had to step in on the side of fairness, legality and not only civil rights, but human rights.

Part One Part Two