Kennedy...Quote help?

Position:Home>History> Kennedy...Quote help?

Question:

"It shall be 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!."
~John F!. Kennedy

1!. What does this quotation mean!?
2!. What is its context!?
3 !.What are conclusions about how these words led to actionsWww@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

1!. That the medium range nuclear missiles that the USSR, under Khrushchev, had installed in Cuba had to go or if they were used the USA would consider that to be an attack on the USA!. At that point we would have followed our policy of "Massive Retaliation" and launched our ICBM's and our
planes to attack the USSR!. Khrushchev, at best knew he had only 35 missiles he could fire at the USA!. The USA had over 130 ICBM"s we could launch at the USSR!. 130 cities gone to maybe 30, their missiles were not the most reliable on the ground!. This Kennedy knew thanks to alll of that spying done by the U-2 aircraft done by president Eisenhower and the new spy satellites!.

2!. The missiles the USSR installed in Cuba and our quarrentine of Cuba to force those missiles out in October of 1962 was known as the Cuban Missile Crisis!. The USSR put those missiles there along with medium range bombers to protect Fidel castro from attack, and also to strengthen the USSR strategically!. If those missiles had statyed the whole East coast could be nukee din about 15 minutes -30 minutes!.

3!. Khrushchev realized that the USA was serious about maybe starting World War 3 and the USSR cpould not win it!.
a!. The Russians would/did withdrawal the missiles if
1!. we would stop trying to overthrow Castro!., which we
agreed to, sort of!.
2!. We would withdraw some mid range missiles from
Turkey, which we eventually do!.
b!. Castro loses his missiles and his planes and hates
Khrushchev!.
c!. Hardliners in the Kremlin are embrassed at these
results and work to overthrow Khrushchev, which they
do in 1964 and make the USSR equal in missiles!.
Which they do by 1970!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Since Cuba was and still is a Communist country and at that time Russia was still Communist, JKF said that if Cuba or Russia attacked us or any of the other free countries, especially our Allies, that he would do what we did to Japan to them! The context is an underlying threat of retaliation from the USA and the conclusion that came to be was that Russia backed down and "said" they dismantled the nucs, if there were any to begin with!.!.!.!.!.I don't think there were!. JFK basically called Russia's bluff and Russia backed down!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

he is saying that if the USSR launches it's weapons from cuba!. That America will immediately fire back!. However america had it's own weapons pointed at USSR in Turkey!. So in a way it was both the USA and USSR puffing up their chests showing their big guns!. These words started the nuclear arms race between these two nations!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

1!. meant war!.
2!. Context was a pretext to war!.
3!. Could have been war and that's the end of the story!.

The end!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

~The context is complicated and, if you are interested in the real history of the event, don't look in your text!. It ain't there!.

After the end of WWII, the US, through the CIA, had overthrown several democratically elected, reform governments around the world and had replaced them with ruthless dictators and had prevented free and independent elections which would have resulted in the elections of anti-American leaders!. The most notable CIA sponsored coups are the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953, followed by the installation of Shah Reza Pahlavi on the Peacock Throne and the organization and training of SAVAT by CIA (Operation TP/Ajax) and Operations PB/Success, PB/History and PB/Fortune in 1954, wherein Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán was ousted and Castillo Armas was installed!. Although the assets of Anglo-Iran Oil and The United Fruit Company were preserved (for the time being), the Iranian and Guatemalan people were murdered wholesale, their human rights and personal freedoms and liberties were extinguished and the rising tide of anti-Americanism swelled to unprecedented proportions!. There were dozens of such coups and US sponsored repressions around the globe, especially in South and Central America, in Korea and in Vietnam!. It was during this period that CIA trained Saddam Hussein and made him one of the members of the six man hit squad organized to murder Abdul Karim Qassim!. The assassination failed but the Baath Party gained prominence with CIA help and eventually CIA would put Saddam in power in Iraq!.

At the same time, Ike and JFK had stationed nuclear missiles in Turkey, within range of and aimed at Moscow and other prime targets, military as well as industrial and civilian!. Khrushchev first requested, then demanded, that those missiles be withdrawn!. The US refused to pull them out!.

Drunk with the successes of so many successful coups, CIA put Cuba on the hit list!. Relations with Castro had been civil, if not friendly, when he first took over!. In those days, Castro was not a communist!. He was a reform nationalist!. To finance his intended reforms, he talked of nationalizing various industries!. The assets of The United Fruit Company were thus at risk!. (Check into the stakes that Allen and John Foster Dulles had in United Fruit as well as their positions in the government and CIA)!. Richard Nixon, as Ike's veep, devised a plan to invade Cuba (after a number of failed attempts to assassinate Castro)!. Ike signed off on it!. Kennedy was elected!. Kennedy was briefed in and approved the plan!.

CIA estimates projected that the invasion attempt would fail unless the rebels were given massive support from the US Navy and US air power!. CIA neglected to tell Kennedy that little tidbit!. When JFK approved the invasion, he made it clear that he would not commit US military forces to the cause!. CIA had proof that Moscow, and therefore Castro, was aware of the invasion plans, including the landing sites, troop strengths and the projected date and time of the invasion!. CIA neglected to inform Kennedy of that little tidbit, too!. The fiasco of the Bay of Pigs Invasion followed!. Kennedy kept his word and he refused to authorize US air or naval forces to intervene!. The US came closer to a military coup by CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff at this time than at any other time in US history!. That is why Kennedy pushed John Frankenheimer to produce "Seven Days in May"!.

Kennedy also imposed embargoes on Cuba!. As a result, the Cuban economy went into the sewer and the Cuban people started to starve!. Castro was thus driven into the arms of Moscow, who was only too happy to have an ally in the Western Hemisphere!. Given the missiles still in Turkey, the botched invasion and the numerous failed assassination attempts, plus the US history and reputation for overthrowing free and independent governments around the world, Castro and Khrushchev put their heads together and came up with a plan!. It was agreed that the USSR could install nukes in Cuba for the mutual protection of both nations!.

That is the context!. What followed is called the "Cuban Missile Crisis"!. You won't find the actual details of the unfolding and end of the affair in your text either!. At the time, Kennedy was afraid of a military coup at home!. He was hooked on several drugs, some legal some illegal!. Max "Dr!. Feelgood" Jacobs was at his beck and call to keep him supplied with speed and steroids!. Jack was dropping acid that he scored through Timothy Leary with at least one of his girlfriends!. Bobby warned him that his drug abuse was having detrimental effects on his physical and mental health!. Jack told his brother, "I don't care if it's horsepiss, it works" and he continued to use whatever he could get his hands on!. At the time of the crisis, he was taking nine different prescriptions meds!. The US Air Force would not allow anyone taking even one of the nine to talk in a supervisory capacity on the radio to a pilot in flight, but the Commander-In-Chief was sitting there in the White House with his finger on the button and the Joint Chiefs urging him to push it while JFK was under the influence of all 9, plus the illegal drugs and even his closest aides were commenting on his diminished cognitive abilities!.

Khrushchev and Bobby had established back-channel communications!. Khrushchev offered to pull the missiles out of Cuba immediately and publicly on the condition that the US pull the missiles out of Turkey within six months (secretly) and to promise not to invade Cuba and to stop trying to kill Castro!. The Khrushchev deal was accepted, much to the chagrin of CIA and the Joint Chiefs!. (To the day he died, Bobby believed that the Joint Chiefs, the CIA and the Cuban rebels were involved in Jack's murder and that they were so involved because of the handling of the missile crisis, the Bay of Pigs and Kennedy's refusal to try to murder Castro and/or to take over Cuba after the deal was struck!.) For his efforts, Khrushchev was deposed by a coup a few months later!.

The quote is Kennedy bluster warning Moscow not to launch and promising retaliation if a launch came!. In spite of Kennedy's campaign rhetoric about the "Missile Gap", Kennedy and the Soviets knew that the US had a missile superiority of almost 10 to 1 and that US missiles were more accurate and the US warheads were far more lethal!. Kennedy was threatening full scale nuclear war!. He and Robert McNamara had designed, under false pretenses, the most expensive, extensive and dangerous arms race in human history (Mutually Assured Destruction: MAD) and the boys in uniform with all the brass wanted to play with their new toys - especially Gen!. Curtis Lemay!. Neither Kennedy nor Khrushchev wanted to use the weapons, and each knew it but each also knew that the other only had tenuous control over his respective military machinery!. Kennedy had to let the Politburo know he wasn't the wimp they thought he was!. The Soviet military was chomping at the bit to roll the tanks through Berlin and perhaps to reunify Germany, but Khrushchev was keeping them in check!.

Save the thumbs down!. Everything in this answer is supported by declassified US government documents, declassified CIA documents and the memoirs and personal papers of those closest to the Kennedy Administration and the Kennedy brothers!. Maybe it don't support the myth of Camelot and the party line about the martyrs, but it IS factual!. As JFK himself said, "The greatest enemy of truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and dishonest - but the myth - persistent, persuasive and unrealistic!." --JFK, June 11, 1962 Do yourself a favor and get past the myth and look for the truth!. With very little effort, it's out there for you, begging to be heard, and told!.Www@QuestionHome@Com