humanity reached a new age with the advent of nuclear weapons. harry truman loved the power of the a-bomb and the military industrial complex shared in his excitement. kennedy did not share in this vision, instead turning toward a vision of peace. this became the notorious “nuclear dilemma,” the idea of destroying the world in order to save it from the evils of communism. a series of maladies had plagued kennedy throughout his life, yet he maintained a youthful exuberance in his life and work. “you’ve got to live every day like it’s your last day on earth. that’s what i’m doing.” his own war experiences taught him what it felt like to be killed and he learned the preciousness of life, his own and those of his comrades. in certain death during wwii, kennedy did not give up hope while he struggled to save the lives of his crew in the south pacific.
kennedy went into politics because it was the one arena where he could make the most difference in pushing the world toward peace. even running for senate in 1946, his visions of peace were evident, “what we do now will shape the history of civilization for many years to come. we have a weary world trying to bind the wounds of a fierce struggle that is dire enough. what is infinitely far worse is that we have a world which has unleashed the terrible powers of atomic energy. we have a world capable of destroying itself. the days which lie ahead are most difficult ones, but above all, day and night, with every ounce of ingenuity and industry we possess, we must work for peace. we must not have another war.”
despite his goals of peace, kennedy did vote for and campaign for an arms build up to not allow a missile gap to develop. that is, until he learned that the u.s. was way ahead of the rest of the world in the arms race. kennedy became more committed to peace as his military commanders became more committed to crushing the enemy. pushing things further, kennedy supported the algerian revolution, which brought disgust from virtually every american for “attacking the unity of NATO,” but which also made him loved in europe and africa.
that the power brokers were against kennedy seemed no surprise to him. a note he had written once on the matter took abe lincoln to heart, saying that a storm was coming and he believed he was ready. around the same time, he had been in a discussion about the book “seven days of may” with friends in which he said that a coup d' etat would not happen in washington on his watch, but that he knew a couple people who wished they could pull such a thing off. kennedy pointed out that the conditions for such a change were possible, but would require precisely the right conditions. apparently, he offered up the correct conditions in his policy making...
first, was the botched bay of pigs invasion. kennedy rejected the military plan, but the CIA went over is head anyway to try to pull him into a trap, thinking that when the turmoil got bad enough that he would have no choice but to give in and go along with a plan he didn’t agree with. but as he said, “they had me figured all wrong.” kennedy, of course, was heavily villainized after the failed attack that saw 1000 troops captured. kennedy came unglued and said he wanted to “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the wind.” he certainly tried by moving to cut their budget and reduce their military capabilities. he had the director, allen dulles, and two deputy directors fired. curiously enough, after JFK’s assassination, dulles was brought back and appointed by LBJ to direct the warren commission, an investigation that was pointed directly at himself!
second, JFK further alienated the CIA during the cuban missile crisis by ignoring requests from his joint chiefs for a pre-emptive strike. in the media, kennedy played tough. he demanded immediate withdrawal of the provocative soviet missiles and set up a naval quarantine of soviet ships getting into cuba. kruschev’s own militant stand was based on castro’s warning that another bay of pigs was eminent, so kruschev sought to restrain u.s. forces while equalizing the balance of power that the u.s. had provoked by putting their own missiles in turkey. kruschev said the missile placement was a direct response and that “now they would learn just what it feels like to have the missiles pointed at you.” privately, however, kennedy was having secret correspondence with kruschev so as to be “free from the polemics of the cold war debate.” kruschev duly did not wish for “backward glances from the press” and wanted to cast politics out the door without having them come back in the window. they both impressed upon each other the need to find peace rather than try to win the last war on earth. they both had the same dilemma of insiders pressuring them into acting, generals eager for a fight. through their dialog, they agreed to a peace. kruschev removed the cuban missiles and, in response, the u.s. removed their missiles from turkey six months later. such trading was unorthodox politics and compromise was regarded as treason. the joint chiefs saw the armistice as JFK’s lack of will. they felt the need to strike first and quick and did not believe russia would have a reprisal to any attack. kennedy’s response was that the military was mad and told his brother in another lincoln reference that “this is the night i should go to the theatre.” bobby kennedy replied that, “if you go, i want to go with you.”
third, in the aftermath of the crisis, kennedy gave a speech at american university which was the mark of his turn away from the military’s imperialism toward peace. he asked for a peace “not a pax americana peace…but a genuine peace.” he disregarded the military industrial complex that was new in the american experience and held “total influence, political, economical, spiritual.” kennedy told the graduating class in his speech that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence whether sought or unsought by the military industrial complex. the potential for misplaced power exists and will persist…self examination is the beginning of peace…a way out of the cold war and into a new human possibility.”
kennedy seemed to support the russian cause more than what would seem acceptable. he asked “what about our own attitude that doesn’t get beyond ‘what about the russians?’” he always advised people to not concern about the speck in your neighbors eye more than the log in your own. he pitied the russians as having suffered more during wwii than any other civilization in history. his feelings such as “when we feel the enemy’s pain...peace is necessary” were not taken well in the u.s. on the contrary, however, the speech at american university was broadcast in the u.s.s.r. despite their history of jamming u.s. broadcasts. within a year, they would stop jamming all broadcasts and even allow the atomic energy agency into the country for inspections. kruschev hailed the speech as “the best from a u.s president since roosevelt.” meanwhile, the u.s. media ignored the speech and didn’t promote it all. in other words, kennedy’s speech more censored in the u.s. than it was in russia!
at the same time that kennedy was making enemies with the CIA and the military, the trappist monk thomas merton was upsetting his superiors by publishing works calling for peace. he was reduced to writing to friends (in high places) about the suicidal moral evil of the inconceivable destruction of nuclear war. the new warfare, and perhaps even wwii, he thought was based on affluence and big business. the people were reduced to passivity, blinded by mass media, which served only to come up with slogans to “engineer consent,” making people unaware of the real situations and that problems were “nine tenths our own fabricated illusion.” merton was not a believer in JFK initially and dreaded that he was “in a position so impossible as to be absurd.” merton did not believe any one in government had the depth, humanity and totality to serve the greater good. he thought the use of such destructive weapons force us into corners and we live by their powers. “we excel at getting ourselves into situations where we have to push the button.” merton certainly had no faith in the military watching radar screens 24/7 for any sign of attack, noting “you know what happens when you keep your eyes fixed on something? you begin to see things that aren’t there.” merton came to believe kennedy really did have his heart in the right place, but consented that we “need special graces from god if humanity were to survive.”
the final part of chapter one looks at an ex-marine that would be used as a pawn as “an assassin in the making for years.” lee harvey oswald had went to the u.s. embassy in moscow saying he wanted to renounce his u.s. citizenship and pledge allegiance to the u.s.s.r. he said he would make known radar information he had obtained in his higher than top secret position in the marine corps. he then went to work at a factory in minsk for a year before coming back to the u.s. to open arms by the state department. he was given a loan and job, quickly issued a u.s. passport, and connected with many important anti-bolsheviks in the dallas area. in other words, despite his supposed allegiance to the u.s.s.r., he was given prodigal son treatment by the u.s. it turns out that the u.s. had sent many disenfranchised youths to russia to act as spies. oswald’s former roommate, james botelho – a future california judge – admitted as much and said that oswald had always been very anti-communist and suspected that he had been on an intelligence assignment. shortly after oswald’s “defection” the russians shot down a u2, rumored to be with information he had supplied. however, in questioning for the warren report, neither oswald nor anyone connected with him, was ever asked anything about the u2 incident. instead, the warren commission omitteed many facts and made oswald’s character look like a megalomaniac.
oswald was a pawn in a game that kennedy himself didn’t even believe in anymore. kennedy was “turning faster than was safe for a cold world leader.” kennedy pulled off a miraculous public campaign to get a test ban treaty supported within the u.s. his rhetoric pictured 300,000,000 people killed in the opening exchanges and that “the survivors would envy the dead.” JFK wanted to stop the arms race and was killed in 1963. kruschev wanted to stop the arms race and was removed from power in 1964. the cold war continued until the late 1980s and defense contractors profited accordingly.
to read more, check out the book, or tune in for the next chapter “kennedy, castro and the CIA” next week. for airing times, check back on the facebook page.
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