On This Day: Kennedy’s Cuba Speech
Below is the text of the address delivered by U.S. President John F. Kennedy to the American people You must Subscribe or log in to read the rest of this content.
Below is the text of the address delivered by U.S. President John F. Kennedy to the American people You must Subscribe or log in to read the rest of this content.
17 comments
That’s “Cuber” to you
Good thing Johnson and the CIA contracted with the mob to kill this peacenik. He should have kept Bobby on a tight leash. Thankfully Marcello was able to clean the whole mess up.
You do realize that the “peacenik’s” “…pay any price, bear any burden,
meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to
assure the survival and success of liberty.” was partly directed at a funny little country in SE Asia called Vietnam right?
While he initially opposed inserting large numbers of conventional ground forces, he had no problem at all authorizing the covert war that marked the early 60s. A staunch supporter of the Special Forces (he’s the guy who authorized the Green Beret) – he authorized the growth the Army’s capabilities as fast as possible and had no problem at all throwing them into the fray.
His CIA killed Diem when Deim wouldn’t do what they wanted him to do. He ultimately began the insertion of conventional forces in large numbers to “…win hearts and minds…”. One of his none to bright ground commanders, General Harkins, predicted “… victory by Christmas 1963….
Come on man, I’m just trolling. Nice write up anyway though.
Ya caught me, hook line and sinker – when I’m not playing Army, I teach history and happened to be reading about this this week…
:)
I believe half my trolls(or half of half of them) anyway. It’s fun mixing stuff up and watch people go batshit crazy over it.
The best kind of trolling is a weird mix of truth & sarcasm.
His [JFK’s] CIA…
Was the CIA really “his”, though?
Shortly after Kennedy’s assassination, former POTUS Harry S Truman weighs in.
Yes and no. Eisenhower kept the CIA at arms length and managed them much like a general would his intelligence officer: don’t do anything unless I tell you to and don’t bug me unless it is real important (Intell officers are generally junior members of the staff allowed to do analysis but take no action without coordination).
Kennedy let the CIA run the “Bay of Pigs” and in one of the worst covert actions of all times, they fumbled the ball miserably – part of the reason he had such an interest in Army Spec Ops was his irritation with the CIA. However, The CIA’s DDI, Hegerson said the relationship was good – probably better than most other president’s since. There is plenty of evidence that Kennedy knew what the CIA was for and didn’t feel bad about using it. Kennedy’s uberliberal staff had no use for any of it though, the CIA or Spec Ops.
Kennedy let the CIA run the “Bay of Pigs” and in one of the worst covert actions of all times, they fumbled the ball miserably…
Didn’t many (most?) in the military and (one assumes) the CIA , blame JFK for the BoP failure (not providing air support etc). My father was in the SCANG at the time…and that is assuredly what he thinks!
Once again, yes and no. There was air support available and utilized throughout the whole three day period – the Alabama Air Guard even got involved in it. Most of the aircrews were CIA contracted exile Cubans (half the Cuban Air Farce defected during the “Revolution”). A/B-26s participated as did T-33s. A4 Skyhawks off the Essex also participated. 20 Airman were killed (a mix of exiles and Americans).
I fault poor planning mostly combined with poor logistics and the lack of coordinated Air and Naval gun fire. There were multiple DDGs and at least two carriers available as well as a helicopter assault ship (a fairly new tactical technology innovation)
Interesting times. Scary as they were, there was more hope for this country then than we now have.
We weren’t allowed to take baths in the bathtub for weeks as my parents kept them filled with water “just in case”.
You just aged yourself. Early to mid 50’s?
I like to say “plentynine” – 53
Thanks for running this Will. It brought back a lot of memories.
We had a Jaycee meeting that night and since we knew the President was going to speak, we brought a TV set to the meeting. It was a pretty sober bunch of guys. The next day there was a run on the supermarkets as everyone was stocking up on canned goods etc.
Different times!
D
I was in the 6th grade. Don’t remember any other teacher mentioning it, but our English teacher must have been absolutely terrified because she worked as hard as she could to pass it on too us.
Strange days,they were.With all the conspiracy books written since JFK’s assassination,the most compelling,IMO,was a novelization,everyone should read,no matter their political persuasion: http://www.amazon.com/Libra-Contemporary-American-Fiction-DeLillo/dp/0140156046