Kennedy's Peace Speech

Everyone Should Take The Time To Listen

It's easy to lionize and mythologize JFK because he was killed in his first term in office. He was young, handsome, funny, dapper and well-spoken. We wondered what more he could have done. We can pin our hopes and dreams and fantasies to him and imagine a second term.

But he wasn't merely smart. He was absolutely brilliant. His anti-war speech at the height of the cold war was astonishing in its foresight, bravery and kindness toward the Russian people. So keen was his mind. Such tremendous oratory might. He had written a book about WW2 that was quite insightful: Why England Slept. It’s a good read.

He was a WW2 war hero of the most dramatic kind, especially considering his many health issues. He called his predecessor, President Eisenhower, General, because he was Kennedy's commanding officer in WW2. The men had a relationship of respect and collaboration. Kennedy was a Philosopher King hiding in plain sight. The depth and breadth of his knowledge was absolutely necessary for the moment in history in which he served.

Many wanted him to make Civil Rights his first order of business, but the Cold War was levels of magnitude more important and more deadly, from Kennedy’s vantage point. He sensed the need for an order of operations: manage the existential threat to the planet first, then work on our internal wounds. Our civil rights issues were of tremendous magnatude and import but Russian missiles in Cuba were just more urgent.

There is no other President with this combination of savvy, vision and intellect, bar none. I say Dr King was his only intellectual equal and obviously his oratory better.

We have seen nothing approaching this man occupying the White House since. Our nation is poorer because of this.

Please watch this video below: