Khrushchev, Kennedy, WW III, & the Great Address -- Part 2

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New World Notes News
Volume 1, Number 23 -- December 16 , 2008

Miss Porter's School (just a few miles from here) teaches that pearls
are always appropriate. I guess. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy
(left, with John Jr.) was Class of '47. Portrait by Richard Avedon.

This week in New World Notes, #43 -- December 16 & 19:

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Khruschev, Kennedy, World War III, and the
Great Address at American University -- Part 2
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This week NWN presents less analysis and more story, and Jim Douglas tells the story well. From the inauguration to the Bay of Pigs invasion . . . to Kennedy's secret correspondence with Khrushchev, his secret negotiations with Castro, his escalating battles against powerful war-hawks, the Cuban Missile Crisis, . . . and the stunning address at American University, June 10, 1963. And we'll also hear the second half of this address.

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For nearly eight years the United States has suffered under a pair of rulers, each with a screw severely loose somewhere in his cranium. Somewhat disconcertingly, many of the loudest voices calling for injecting some reason, logic, and caution into the state's foreign policy have come from the upper ranks of the military establishment.

So it's hard to imagine a time when the situation was the opposite. When the President could pass any sanity test yet devised, and the rest of whole "national security state"--the Top Brass of the Pentagon, the National Security Council, the higher-ups at the CIA--was demonstrably crazy. Legally, clinically, and for all practical purposes.

Unless you think it's sane to fear communism and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics so much that you do everything you can to start a "preemptive" nuclear war with the USSR. Sure, the Soviets had atomic bombs and the ability to drop them on the USA. But don't you see? We have more atomic bombs than they do! We can win the Cold War! Once and for all! Now is the time! God bless America!

Kennedy addresses the nation on the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I'm making this up, right? I wish! Seriously, they "reasoned" that the US could destroy nearly all of the USSR's industrial capacity and kill 150 million Soviet citizens at the cost of only 40 million American dead. I'm not sure if they factored the effects of radioactive fallout into their equations. Probably not.

They thought that they could trap or trick the young and inexperienced President into touching off this war, which would begin with the bombing of Cuba and escalate into nuclear war with the Soviet Union. They came extremely close to trapping him during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. The world was saved (I guess) by the Celtic stubbornness of Kennedy--with a surprising and huge amount of help from his nominal enemy and secret pen-pal, Nikita S. Khrushchev.

Had Truman or Clinton or The Little Cowboy been President in 1962, instead of Kennedy, today we'd all be speaking Cockroach.

"US, Russia Now Facing Test of Will," reads one headline.

How the government & Corporate media wanted us to see the crisis.
The truth was much more interesting--and improbable--than this.

Long before the missile crisis, Kennedy had become estranged from his national security state. Now he declared all-out war on them. He announced this "war" to the world in his great commencement address at American University, June 10, 1963.

Here's my version of what happened next. The national security state reminded Kennedy of who's in charge with three assassination attempts in November. The third one worked. The powers-that-be of the Soviet Union removed Khrushchev from his dual office (Premier of USSR and Chairman of the Communist Party of the USSR) in October 1964.

The speech at American University touched on civil rights (hear this week's
excerpt). The next day, Kennedy spoke to the nation on that subject.. Early in
his term, Kennedy was not an especially strong civil rights advocate. Later
he came to realize that disarmament and world peace were impossible
without civil rights. Conversely, Martin Luther King, Jr., came to realize
that civil rights were impossible without disarmament.

Catch New World Notes . . .
Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford) & http://wwuh.org/
Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs) & http://www.whus.org/
Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New%20World%20Notes

Trivia (?) :

On January 28, 2008, Sen. Edward Kennedy (JFK's brother), Rep. Patrick Kennedy (nephew) and Caroline Kennedy (daughter) formally endorsed Barack Obama to be the Democratic candidate for President. They chose American University as the place to make their announcement. Just coincidence or symbolic statement?

Khrushchev, Kennedy, WW III, & the Great Address

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New World Notes News

Volume 1, Number 22 -- December 9 , 2008

http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com/

Jacqueline & John F. Kennedy, January 1961; proof sheet by Richard Avedon

This week in New World Notes, #42 -- December 9 & 12:

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Khruschev, Kennedy, World War III,
and the Great Address at American University
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I had never even heard of John F. Kennedy's Commencement address at The American University (June 10, 1963) until this past year. I first listened to a recording of the address only two or three months ago. I was stunned. In my judgment, this is the greatest speech made by a U.S. President since the Gettysburg Address.

This week and next, New World Notes will broadcast nearly all of this address, coupled with very useful commentary by Jim Douglas. Douglas is writer, historian, and theologian--and author of the recent JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters.

Douglas explains the surprising and profound historical events to which this equally surprising and profound speech is a response. He also charts JFK's transformation--by these events--from a typical Cold Warrior to a crusader for peace and disarmament.

So how come--if you're at all typical--you've never heard of the American University address, let alone heard of Kennedy's conversion to an advocate of global disarmament? After all, you’re plenty familiar with parts of his First Innaugural Address. Ask not what your country can do for you. . . .

Well, ask not me. Rather, ask the corporate-controlled mass media and the corporate-controlled school textbook industry. While you're at it, ask them why you can recite Martin Luther King's Establishment-friendly "I have a dream" speech forwards and backwards, but you hear almost nothing about the anti-Vietnam-War and anti-military-industrial-complex speeches he made in the last year of his life.

To many Europeans, the USA ca. 1961 looked less like Camelot than like Hell's
own lunatic asylum. Police brutality, racial strife, sexual license, radioactive
"fallout," and a President of dubious competence with his finger on The Button:
Gerald Scarfe was having none of it.

Funny how powerful popular leaders keep ending up dead soon after they begin denouncing the U.S. War Machine. . . . And did somebody just mention Malcolm X?

Those darn' Crazed Lone-Gunmen Acting Alone! They really ought to unionize and fight for better wages and working conditions. For example, the retirement benefits they've been getting are even worse than Wal-Mart's. James Earl Ray’s were almost as bad as Lee Harvey Oswald’s.

Arch-warmonger Gen. Curtis LeMay--head of the Strategic Air Command
and a leading advocate of preemptively attacking the USSR--discusses U.S.
responses to the Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962.

For a wonderful brief review of the scary, surprising, and strange historical events that transformed Kennedy, came this close to touching off World War III, and brought about the great American University address--and Kennedy‘s death--see the previous blog entry: “The Story Behind the Greatest Speech You Never Heard” ( http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com/2008/12/story-behind-greatest-speech-you-never.html ). This page offers concise written history plus no fewer than eight super graphics from the period, including photographs, magazine covers, and political cartoons.

Catch New World Notes . . .

Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford) & http://wwuh.org/
Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs) & http://www.whus.org/
Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New%20World%20Notes

Essential graphics:

Nothing attached to the newsletter this week, but do check out the 8 graphics on the Blog page that gives the historical background. It’s OK--honestly!--if you skip the history lesson and just look at the pictures & captions. See the citation, above.

Still more graphics to come next week!

On January 28, 2008, during the presidential Primary campaigns, Sen. Edward
Kennedy (JFK's brother), Caroline Kennedy (daughter), and Rep. Patrick
Kennedy (nephew) chose American University as the venue to announce their
endorsement of Barack Obama. Was this a symbolic statement or just coincidence?