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Remind me... did he give that speech before or after the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis and his escalation of the Vietnam War?
Since the Bay of Pigs happened early in his Presidency - after. Cuban Missle Crisis - after. What Vietnam escalation he did - before. I believe, by the tennor of those questions you really don't understand. JFK was a WWII war hero, and was President during the cold War. This speech has more to do with massaging the Soviet Union than anything.
I understand that someone who gives a speech promoting peace when they almost destroyed the fucking planet in 1962 is pretty damn rich.
You have no idea what happened in 1962. Wouldn't you agree that the promotion of peace at any time is worthwhile? JFK did.
I don't? Well, you know me better than I do.
It's obvious.
Then I'm sure you can explain what makes it obvious based on the very limited things I have said about the Cuban Missile Crisis so far.
Seems like you have an idea that the missle crisis was two sided. It was not. Khrushchev, who had acted irrationally on the world stage, was found to be placing nuclear missles in Cuba. This would result in mere seconds between launch and detonation on US soil. Military age men in the US were packing up to go to war as their fathers did just 20 years earlier. Kennedy put a blockade on the island. Khrushchev moved his navy to the blockade. Kennedy reached a deal with Khrushchev whereby the Soviets would remove its missles and Kennedy wouldn't place missles in eastern European countries. These 13 days brought us close to nuclear war for no better reason than the Soviet yearn for world wide conquest.
Well as you said, I clearly know nothing about it, but I was pretty sure Khrushchev put R-12 and R-14 missiles in Cuba in 1962 because the U.S. put Jupiter missiles in Turkey and Italy in 1961. But you are the expert here. I'm completely ignorant about it.
Actually, missles weren't in Turkey or Italy yet. The intent was there, though. Glad I could help.
You better edit Wikipedia then, because it says:
In 1961, the US government put Jupiter nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis
I'm sure Wikipedia editors will appreciate the contribution of your expert knowledge on this subject.
While you're at it, definitely write to Harvard:
The emergency was resolved peacefully after Kennedy ordered a naval “quarantine” of Cuba — a blockade under a less bellicose name — and then made a deal with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev: Soviet missiles out of Cuba and U.S. nuclear missiles out of Italy and Turkey.
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/10/jfk-and-the-cuban-missile-crisis-a-new-assessment/
And the authors of this published journal article: https://repository.bilkent.edu.tr/server/api/core/bitstreams/4c42854a-aac5-4ba7-b7f6-7587873fa643/content
And Foreign Policy magazine: https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/10/26/still-secret-after-all-these-years/
Frankly, the world needs to know your expertise on this matter they're all getting so wrong.