This speech has to be counted among the most important and brilliant in history. It sets the stage world-wide to end the crisis peacefully by taking the moral high ground and yet prescribing action with restraint. Amazing how well Kennedy and his administration handled such a catastrophically dangerous situation.
Pretty much everyone in Kennedys administration opposed his approach, especially the military. They all thought he was being weak and suggested immediate airstrikes. The fact that Kennedy maintained against the grain and kept his cool is something else.
@@haroldbrown5308 another NO FACTS comment ???? - - - The Bay of Pigs invasion turned out to be a disaster for the Kennedy administration. Kennedy realized it too late. The Cubans did not rise up against Castro, and the small, CIA-trained army was quickly defeated by Castro’s forces. The men were either killed or taken prisoner. All of this made Kennedy look weak and inexperienced. A short time later, Kennedy went out to a golf course with his old friend, Charles Bartlett, a journalist. Bartlett remembered Kennedy driving golf balls far into a distant field with unusual anger and frustration, saying over and over, “I can’t believe they talked me into this.” The entire episode undermined the administration and set the stage for a difficult summit meeting between Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev two months later. It also exacerbated the administration’s rocky relationship with the Joint Chiefs, who felt the military was unfairly blamed for the fiasco in Cuba.
He may have been the most important person to have ever lived. The man did everything in his power to avoid complete annihilation despite being pressured from all sides of his cabinet. Anyone else in his position would’ve broke and the world today destroyed. Probably
This speech is the scariest and bravest that has ever been made. The finest of men or women. I remember this at 12 years old. My father set up our basement with water and food. The schools had drills. Can you imagine being president for 1 year and having to do the right thing to save the world from nuclear distruction? This is John F Kennedy at his finest.
Whoever wrote President Kennedy's Speeches, (probably himself), knew how to make him shine. But the really impressive thing is, he knew what he was talking about. A highly intelligent man and a great President.
Frank Graham, oh, for fuck's sake. You Trump supporters just can't help but bring his name into anything you fucking can. Take your meds and shut up, please.
His speeches were always so eloquent and encompassing that it makes me think he wrote (at least ) most of it himself. There’s no way he speaks someone else’s words with such conviction. This was a time when ppl actually listened and leaders had something of substance to say. Not like today’s soundbite happy “news” outlets.
President Biden has delivered a wonderful speech about democracy, and what America stands for. Considering the entirely new dangers that we face, this is important.
I remember as a child hearing my parents hushed whispers during this speech, and their "hand wringing" in the following days. Though young, it was a defining moment in my childhood, and stays with me today at 66 years old.
@@markharrison2544 I remember the day. You might as well have stated that you are also "so glad" that Sept. 11 , 2001 happened. You're probably one of the millions of turds that voted for Biden.
@@justisolated5621I think he is underrated by a lot of people. His assassination by the 3 letter agency was a turning point in history. It was an internal coup of the U.S. government on behalf on the MIC that Eisenhower warned us about, and it’s been under their control ever since
This Speech is a Model for me, a Benchmark for all Journalists, esp. on RU-vid. The Correct; Tone, Speaking Cadence, Organization, Use of Correct English, No Repeating Himself, No Minutia and Total Length for Retention. Organized thought at the right cadence, No Rambling, the way presentations should be.
11:05: "It shall the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere, as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union." This is the most memorable political line ever expressed by a political leader.
Rainier7777 it saddens me to look upon the eloquence and grace with which our leaders of old communicated their positions and the to turn and see things like "I have the best words" or "failing New York Times published this VERY unfair fake news about me; they're being very mean". Obama was a powerful orator and the best we've had in a great while, but now we're left with "Bing bing, bong bong bong, bing bing"
If by "Bing bing, bong bong, . . ." you are referring to Donald Trump, I agree with you that Trump is a complete failure as an orator. It also saddens me the lack of eloquence and grace of the current US political leadership, including Hillary "Rotten" Clinton. I believe it is a sign of the times of America, there is so much corruption in America. As for Obama I would disagree with you that he was a "powerful" orator; he was a very skillful orator., with a keen ability to elicit passionate and irrational emotions among many Americans. If by powerful you mean his pent for braggadocio, they I must disagree. In fact for a Black orator, I would say that Obama was more b.s. than substance. If you compare him to Jesse Jackson, Jackson was great black orator, without the Obama b.s. However, in light the atrocious state of skills of current American political leaders, Obama may be the "best" that they U.S. has had to offer in the past 17 years, which speaks volumes of the complete tragedy that is engulfing the USA.
Intelligent, intellectually curious, informed, serious, and attempting to accomplish something unselfish and beyond his own personal interests. We are becoming incapable of electing those with these traits to high office here any more. Need to return to this.
Now you see why so many people loved and trusted Kennedy. His murder was one of the most tragic and harmful events of the 20th century. His legacy was one of a truly dedicated public servant and an American to be remembered forever.
Having a Ted Sorensen is always helpful, though in these times, it seems as if stable Presidential locomotion and proprioception -perhaps in a return to FDR-like press protection- has ceased to be of any importance. The stakes are no less, but the world has changed, even if human nature has not. Note also that "The Cuban Missile Crisis" was not immediately resolved via rhetoric alone and that the domestic status quo on that island remains tragically unchanged.
My mom and dad made a good by toast after we watched this speech. I said to my father "Dad the man in Moscow is not crazy enough to punch the button." He looked at me and said " It's the idiots on the ground that have their fingers actually on the trigger" 40 yrs later it was revealed that the Soviets had short range tactical nukes also in Cuba and the field commander had discretionary authority to use them without Moscow's approval. We were a hell of a lot closer than people had even been thinking. There have been other close calls since. We made it through the 20th century without the nukes being launched, I doubt if we make it through the 21st. Human history is against us.
This nation is bleeding and yearning so much for a leader such as Kennedy. All we get now are men who seem to be going through the motions. He represented a time when there was a "new frontier" and a shifting of the generations towards global leadership for peace and freedom among all men! I was only 5 years old when he gave this speech. Even at that age, I could sense something was wrong and could see and feel the worry of my parents and my family. Thank you JFK and may you RIP.
@@haroldbrown5308 STILL NO FACTS HEE HAW ????- - - here is an example of the DEMOCRAT LIE ... The most famous collision in U.S. Navy history occurred at about 2:30 a.m. on August 2, 1943, a hot, moonless night in the Pacific. Patrol Torpedo boat 109 was idling in Blackett Strait in the Solomon Islands. The 80-foot craft had orders to attack enemy ships on a resupply mission. With virtually no warning, a Japanese destroyer emerged from the black night and smashed into PT-109, slicing it in two and igniting its fuel tanks. The collision was part of a wild night of blunders by 109 and other boats that one historian later described as “the most screwed up PT boat action of World War II.” Yet American newspapers and magazines reported the PT-109 mishap as a triumph. Eleven of the 13 men aboard survived, and their tale, declared the Boston Globe, “was one of the great stories of heroism in this war.” Crew members who were initially ashamed of the accident found themselves depicted as patriots of the first order, their behavior a model of valor. The Globe story and others heaped praise on Lieutenant (j.g.) John F. Kennedy, commander of the 109 and son of the millionaire and former diplomat Joseph Kennedy. KENNEDY’S SON IS HERO IN PACIFIC AS DESTROYER SPLITS HIS PT BOAT, declared a New York Times headline. It was Kennedy’s presence, of course, that made the collision big news. And it was his father’s media savvy that helped turn an embarrassing disaster into a tale worthy of Homer.
@@haroldbrown5308 In a eulogy loaded with racist dog whistles, here's what Bill Clinton said at the grave of his mentor, Sen. J. William Fulbright: "We come to celebrate and give thanks for the remarkable life of J. William Fulbright, a life that changed our country and our world forever and for the better. . . . In the work he did, the words he spoke and the life he lived, Bill Fulbright stood against the 20th century’s most destructive forces and fought to advance its brightest hopes.[246] So spoke President William J. Clinton in 1995 of a man who was among the 99 Democrats in Congress to sign the “Southern Manifesto” in 1956. The Southern Manifesto declared the signatories’ opposition to the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education and their commitment to segregation forever. Fulbright was also among those who filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That filibuster continued for 83 days. Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton confronted by Black Lives Matter protesters in 2016. In a 1993 Senate floor speech, Sen. Joseph Biden warned of "predators on our streets" who were "beyond the pale" and said they must be cordoned off from the rest of society because the justice system did not know how to rehabilitate them.
@@haroldbrown5308 KLANOCRAT Rep. Rashida Tlaib supports the BDS movementTlaib made a bigoted tweet accusing Jewish-Americans of having divided loyalties, an attack frequently made by anti-Semites.[314] She wrote at least one op-ed on Louis Farrakhan's website.[315] Tlaib did a selfie with a Hezbollah-praising activist to also denied Israel's right to exist.[316] New York Magazine named her one of 10 activists who may become the future of the Democratic Party as the "new Obama. Tlaib was sworn in surrounded by a group that included Sarsour and Nihad Awad as her special guests. Rep. Ilhan Omar is known for her anti-Semitism, insensitivity and mocking remarks about Christians, and homophobic comments directed against colleagues. Omar tweeted "Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel." Omar supports BDS. Omar claims congressional support for Israel is "All about the Benjamins baby," a reference to the Ben Franklin $100 bill, implying members of Congress are paid off by AIPAC. Despite this, Democrats gave her a seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, defended Tlaib and Omar as "thoughtful colleagues." Tlaib is a member of a Facebook group that posts anti-Semitic videos and memes. The Daily Caller reported that a key fundraiser for Tlaib posted a Holocaust denial video
Most presidents don't write all there speeches (mostly they just don't have the time). This speech was written by an almost legendary speechwriter Ted Sorensen who i agree really made Kennedy shine.
@@robertsvorinich890yeah don’t forget that the 3 letter agency and men around kennedy wanted to bomb and invade China and Vietnam, something Kennedy was oppressed to, and he paid for it with his life
@@haroldbrown5308 keep riding the NO FACTS DEMOCRAT DONKYE, HEE HAW - -- April 1961, the United States launched a failed invasion of Cuba. Relations had worsened between the two nations after the revolution, with US sugar and oil companies falling under Cuban control. KLANOCRAT John F. Kennedy’s government armed and trained a band of anti-Castro Cuban exiles. The US-backed force landed in the Bay of Pigs in southwest Cuba on 17 April 1961. Due to the ineptitude of the cowardly Kenndy disregard and recklessness, Castro’s Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces swiftly crushed the assault. But fearful of another US-led attack, Castro turned to the Soviet Union for support. At the height of the Cold War, the Soviets were more than willing to oblige.
If you look through the comment sections of virtually every JFK video on RU-vid, you will find the same fake accounts cropping up again and again, vehemently casting dispersions on any idea that the 3 letter intelligence agencies might have been involved, and slurs on his character. These are same 3 letter agency ministry of truth’s propaganda pushers, and you will recognise the pathological extremism in their copy and paste comments as you read their ‘plausible’ denials. The fact that they go to such effort to challenge every idea of their conspiracy on every video on RU-vid and elsewhere online just goes to show that the cover up is still ongoing. Why would they bother if it wasn’t true?
Let's not forget that if it wasn't for a Communist man, the entire human race could potentially have been wiped out. His name was Vasili Arkhipov (Commander of the Fleet and on board one of the 4 Soviet Submarines heading for Mariel, Cuba. He persuaded Savitsky not to launch the nuclear weapon and in doing so prevented a nuclear war. Thank god Defcon 1 has never been called for.
He kept his cool under so much stress and conflict. There will never be another President like John Kennedy. He tried to keep the peace and yet was surrounded by wolves. ( Our Government.)
I wish the Millenials, and not a few Gen-Xers, would view this, and realize its significance. To think that, in October 1962, the world was just one harsh word away from a nuclear war.
The closest we have ever come to nuclear war. As a college student I watched this at night in the Fall of my 4th year. A firm... resolute decision made by JFK and his advisors. Some felt we should invade immediately but Kennedy wanted a step approach with increased action if necessary. This was on Monday night... it was not until the following Sunday morning that the Soviets backed down and said they would withdraw the offensive missions. Kennedy at his best.. we were very fortunate to have had him at that time.
"THIS......IS.......the way a LEADER does it! he sets out his/the CASE, explains it and finally, tells 'the PEOPLE' WHAT he is going to do and WHY!" WHERE did we lose these simple concepts.....?" LOL!
I went to the us army a couple weeks after he was elected and i was discharged a couple Weeks after he was murdered. He was my commander . I have always admired him as our leader, even with his personal behavior. The fear i and my fellow soldiers felt was horrible and we felt standing guard during the cuban missle crisis. We were locked in our bases and unabled to call our wives and family. He stood for Americans its country, and the right for us to fight if necessary to protect ourselves. The Russians learned this and still 60 years later remember! Rip mr president.
@@JamesRichards-mj9kw if you call refusing to invade Cuba and ordering troops out of Vietnam surrendering, then yeah I guess he was. I know LBJ and Dulles made millions from the Vietnam war.
He was elected when I entered High School and the President when I graduated. All Presidents in the 60 years since I have compared to him. Class of '63.
He didn't tell you that a) he had in the previous year approved an armed invasion of Cuba (which due to US incompetence, failed) and b) the Soviet installation of missiles in Cuba was in response to the US installing missiles in Turkey, which bordered on what was at the time part of the USSR. The Cuban missile crisis ended when Khrushchev got Kenedy to remove the missiles from Turkey and publicly promise never to attack Cuba ever gain, and Khrushchev in turn then removed the missiles from Cuba. The Cuban missile crisis was thus a problem that was the USA's and Kennedy's own making, and was a lesson that Khrushchev taught them. Kennedy repeatedly said that the Soviet Foreign Minister lied to him. Perhaps he did - but Kennedy lied too. At 6:33 he said that the USA had never done anything to upset nuclear deployment status quo - the deployment of US missiles in Turkey near the then border of the USSR did exactly that. And at 6:43 he said that the USA had not transferred nuclear weapons so as to make a threat - again the deployment in Turkey was exactly that. He said that a statement by the USSR that they had no need to transfer weapons to outside the USSR (as they had global reach from with USSR borders) was false. Actually it was more or less correct, but not particularly relevant to the Cuban missile crisis.
It is true. However, the missiles in Turkey were rather obsulete, as they took longer than average to deploy, and the chances of exploding were rather low. So even in a potencial strike against the Soviet Union, they would prove rather frustrating to use, and could do not much.Meanwhile, the missiles shipped to Cuba were all newly and improved than in Turkey. It's also worth taking in consideration that Castro (a crazy man and the dictator of Cuba) would strike the US with missiles even against Soviet orders, unlike Turkey. Giving Castro missiles next to US is like giving Ted Bundy a knife next to a young woman. In conclusion, both were at fault of the crisis. I still find it good that despite their mistakes, they still agreed to avoid a nuclear apocalypse
@@justisolated5621 You have assumed that Cuban personnel were able to launch the missiles and without authorisation from the USSR. The US and the USSR were able to agree because Khruschev got what he wanted. Removal of US missiles on his borders was all he wanted. Neither actually wanted war. I wish I could say the same about the US and Russia today.
You're all missing the most important point. The invasion of Cuba by the USSR had started years before the October Crisis. The struggle of the Cuban People to rid itself of the previous Dictator was hijacked by the USSR and its agents spies, thus bringing, by trickery and deceit, the forced implementation of communism to the Island, through the persons that were helped in the national hijacking. We all know their names: the Castro brothers and the band of Cuban traitors to the National Cause. The so called "revolution" was to enact the overthrow of Batista, the reactivation of the trampled Constitution of 1940 and the call to General Democratic Elections (The Sierra Maestra Accord). Only the overthrow of Batista was accomplished, then the hijacking of a Nation happened. This was confirmed in 1961 when the de facto new Dictator went on public record stating: Why Elections? Why Weapons in the People's hands? Then came the factual Soviet Communist take over of the Cuban Nation.
the invasion failed as part of Allen Dulles plan to force JFK into sending US planes and troops to reinforce the failing exiles invasion at the Bay of Pigs. JFK refused to do that and also fired Dulles immediately after. Dulles then covertly directed JFK''s asssination and the Warren Commision cover up.
Just for those of you who aren't familiar with this part of US history beyond what was made public at the time of this speech: "On October 27, after much deliberation between the Soviet Union and Kennedy's cabinet, Kennedy secretly agreed to remove all missiles set in southern Italy and in Turkey, the latter on the border of the Soviet Union, in exchange for Khrushchev removing all missiles in Cuba."
That was minuscule compensation compared to getting the missiles out of Cuba. The US agreed to that tiny sacrifice so the Soviet Union could save a little face. But what the US pulled out of Italy and Turkey was NOTHING compared to the missiles in Cuba.
Ex-Comm was: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, George Ball under Sec. of State McGeorge Bundy national security advisor, C. Douglas Dillon Treasury Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Attorney General, Gen Arthur Lundahl director National Photo Interpretation Center, Gen. Maxwell Taylor chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, John McCone director CIA, Robert McNamara Defense Secretary, Dean Rusk Secretary of State, Llewellyn Thompson special adviser on Soviet affairs and other unidentified participants
I was five years old. My brother's school had air raid drills that involved walking home within a set amount of time. My mother would leave the house to meet him after putting me under a heavy table in the basement and telling me that my job for the drill was to stay there until she got home. I was too young to comprehend anything about the danger.
@thedeathmetalpanda well that is your opinion but a vast majority of historians view him as a great president simply because he insisted on keeping the union together. Even when the south wanted to leave and the North didn't care for the south. When the whole world was watching and waiting to see what was the democratic nation's expiration date, he showed the true light of a democracy and how it can stay together. Which encouraged more countries to become democratic themselves.
One can only imagine the kind of catastrophic event that would have occurred if we would have had this uninformed and threatening talking person in the White House back then... ...
Some facts about the Cuba left by the tyrant Fulgencio Batista In 1958, 8% of the owners owned more than 70% of the land, including the Yankee landowners. Upon triumphing, the Revolution found a foreign debt amounting to 788 million dollars. An unfavorable trade balance with the United States that reached 603.4 million dollars. This permanent crisis of the Cuban economy was reflected in the 549,000 unemployed out of a work force estimated at 2,204,000. The numbers of unemployed are higher if the temporarily unemployed are included, as well as those who performed occasional piece-rate jobs, as is the case of nearly 700,000 casual sugar workers who suffered from hunger and misery during the terrible "dead time" while working barely three months during the sugar harvest. In 1958, the Cuban population amounted to 6 million 547 thousand inhabitants. Public spending on social security that year was 114.7 million (today, with the latest decisions, it is more than 4.5 billion). In 1958, 8,209 workers provided Public Health services (now there are more than 500,000) and public spending, for Public Health, was 22.7 million pesos (today, that is the cost of an average municipality). A single indicator: the infant mortality rate was higher than 60 dead children for every 1,000 live births (now with almost double the population it is 5.3). Life expectancy did not exceed 55 years (now it is 77 for men and 78 for women). In 1958, there were three million illiterates and semi-literates, a third of the then population. The population over 15 years of age had an average educational level of less than 3 grades. Only 15% of young people between the ages of 15 and 19 received some type of education. More than 600,000 children were without schools. Public spending for Education was 77 million pesos (that is what an average municipality spends today).
The only chance. The *only* chance we have at having another president like JFK, is RFK Jr. He's really reminding the American people who/what kind of president JFK was. You can like Trump and even....Biden.....but, the most genuine, trustworthy, and truly kind candidate for 2024 is RFK Jr.
@Willsturd You're comparing other presidents as mentioned above vs. Kennedy, who did not even complete a full term. He is up in my book in the two years and ten months that he did serve. Yet, he deeply cared about his country and wanted to do everything he could as you mentioned holding our nation together. Its more important to look what he did accomplish as stated otherwise. Same could be said of Lincoln, although his assassination was set up differently.
I believe all his intel stated here turned out to be correct, nothing exaggerated. I know privately the intel on the number of stationed Russians on Cuba was underestimated by a lot.
Kennedy had ignored numerous warnings from \Senators Keating and Capehart about the growing Soviet presence in Cuba. He may have resolved the crisis, but he must also bear the responsibility for bringing it into existence in the first place.
soviet ops in Cuba were discovered months earlier but so what? US had missile bases right on the Soviet border in Turkey. The US does not own the World.
Very few presidents write their own speeches. They have professionals do it. Of course the speech writers are given the facts to be used by the POTUS staff. The info gathered for the Cuban speech was from U2 fly-overs, recon flights of VFP-62 and many hours of meetings of Ex-Comm,(the Executive Committee of the National Security Counsel) a group of political leaders who seldom agreed on what to do. The ultimate decision of course lay with the President. Who was Ex-Comm? See my next post.
This was an unnecessary situation that Kennedy had to get himself out of, as from their initial meeting in Vienna Kruschev saw JFK as weak. All the same for all of their saber rattling aggressors almost always back down when directly confronted with the threat of an equal amount of force.