Early in his presidency and at the height of the Cold War, Kennedy had to navigate the aftermath of the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba in April 1961 and the subsequent Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 that brought us to the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union.
Those events were a sobering reminder to the young president of the horrors of war he personally experienced in the Solomon Islands as a PT boat commander during World War II.
Kennedy made it his mission to achieve peaceful coexistence with the Soviet Union, reduce both countries’ nuclear arsenal, and reach out to the Soviet leadership to improve relations and de-escalate the Cold War.
Knowing full well he’d been sandbagged by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Bay of Pigs debacle, Kennedy knew he couldn’t trust the national security establishment to support his initiatives for peace.
On June 10, 1963, at American University in Washington D.C., JFK made one of his more memorable speeches, one known now as the “Peace Speech.”
In the speech, Kennedy announced that he was bringing an end to the Cold War and the mindset of hostility toward Russia and the rest of the Soviet Union that the U.S. national-security establishment had inculcated in the minds of the American people ever since the end of World War II.”
The president knew that his opposition would label his actions a threat to “national security.” From his Peace Speech, he moved on to begin negotiations with the Soviet Union on a treaty to ban above-ground nuclear testing. By mobilizing public opinion, he was successful in achieving the treaty.
Becoming very leery of getting bogged down in an Asian land war, Kennedy also began a partial withdrawal of troops from South Vietnam. He signaled to his aides he would move to completely pull out after winning re-election in 1964.
Worst of all, from the standpoint of the national-security establishment, Kennedy began secret personal negotiations with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Cuban leader Fidel Castro to bring an end to America’s Cold War against them. That was considered to be a grave threat to ‘national security’ as well as a grave threat to all the military and intelligence largess that depended on the Cold War.”
Just prior to his fateful visit to Dallas in November 1963, newspaper ads and fliers appeared accusing Kennedy of treason and appeasement of the Russians.
Ever since then, some people have tried to make it seem like the advertisement and flier expressed only the feelings of extreme right-wingers in Dallas. That’s nonsense. They expressed the deeply held convictions of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, the conservative movement, and many people within the mainstream media and Washington establishment.”
What we’re witnessing today with the Democrats and Never Trumpers derangement over President Trump’s stated desire to work with Russia to fight terrorism and improve relations is eerily similar to what President Kennedy endured in the months just before his brutal murder in Dallas.
God help us if we head down that path again.
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
Poor Randy, he lost his freebees.