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Even if there were only one communist
in the state department,

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that'd still be one communist too many.

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Everywhere I look around the world,
the question is,

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what -maybe- we gonna lose next?

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This is the first intercontinental conference

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of so-called colored people

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We have been compelled to create
a permanent armaments industry

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of vast proportions.

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Do you want a man for president
who's seasoned through and through

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but not so doggone seasoned that
he won't try something new?

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A man who's old enough to know
and young enough to do

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Well, it's up to you, it's up to you
it's strictly up to you.

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The 1960 presidential election was
fought primarily on the issue of

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communism.

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Above everything else, the American
people want leaders

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who will keep the peace without
surrender for America and the world.

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Positioning himself like Barack Obama in 2008

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as the candidate of change

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young challenger John F. Kennedy
was able to take the strongly

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anti-communist republican Richard Nixon
to task for failing to prevent

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a missile gap and for permitting the
establishment of a communist regime

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only 90 miles from the Florida
coast line.

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It certainly appears that the 34th man
to occupy the white house will be

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43 year old John Fitzgerald Kennedy

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to those nations who would make
themselves our adversary,

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we offer not a pledge, but a request

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that both sides begin
anew the quest for peace

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before the dark powers
of destruction unleashed by science

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engulf all humanity in planned
or accidental self-destruction.

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Kennedy, America's first catholic president,
won a narrow and, perhaps a stolen, election.

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But he did take Washington and the
world by storm with his wits and

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graceful elegance.

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His administration was nicknamed
Camelot, after king Arthur's mythical

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round table of peace.

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His opportunistic but politically astute
choice of Lyndon Johnson of Texas as

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vice-president confirmed the liberal
wing of the party's distrust of him.

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Elected to the senate in '52, Kennedy
had been a cold war liberal who had

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avoided criticizing Joseph McCarthy,
an old family friend.

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His younger brother, Robert, had even
served on McCarthy's staff.

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Alluding to the title of his Pulitzer prize
winning book Profiles in Courage,

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Eleanor Roosevelt said she wished that
Kennedy had had a little less profile

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and a little more courage.

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His team, a combination of insiders
from foundations, corporations and

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Wall St. firms as well as progressives
and intellectuals, was labeled the

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best and the brightest for their intelligence,
achievements and can-do spirit

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typified by national security advisor
McGeorge Bundy, the first applicant

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to get perfect scores on all 3
Yale entrance exams.

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At defense, Kennedy brought in a
civilian outsider, Robert McNamara

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renowned for his computer-like
mind in leading the Ford Motor Co.

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he quickly earned the immediate
distrust of his generals by putting

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the Pentagon under microscopic
scrutiny.

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A devastating nuclear war plan
had been handed down to them

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from Eisenhower. McNamara was
appalled by what he found:

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a culture of paranoid,
worst case scenarios.

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When Kennedy asked the
statistically minded McNamara

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to ascertain just how big the
missile gap really was, it took

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3 weeks to confirm that there was
no gap, and several months to

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find out that there was quite
a huge difference:

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The US had approximately 25,000
nuclear weapons, the Soviets 2,500

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the US 1,500 heavy bombers 1,000 of
them in Europe within Soviet range

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the Soviets, 192.

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the US 45 ICBM's
the Soviets 4.

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This is Cuba, where communism has
established its first rich head in the

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western hemisphere. It provides
communism with a convenient

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arsenal of planes, tanks and modern weapons
just 90 miles from American shore,

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only 7 minutes by jet.

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Kennedy was briefed on Eisenhower's
invasion plan for Cuba by Allen Dulles

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who assured "off-led, the Cuban people
would rise in support".

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Several civilian advisors took sharp
issue with the plan.

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but the inexperienced president
feared blocking an operation backed

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by Eisenhower and the Joint Chiefs.

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3 days before the operation, in April 1961,
8 US B-26 bombers flown by Cuban exiles

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incapacitated half of Castro's
air force.

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The US has committed no aggression
against Cuba and no offensive has been

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launched from Florida or from any
other part of the US.

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Ambassador Adlai Stevenson, in an
embarrassing prequel to Colin Powell's

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performance at the UN over Iraq
in 2003, showed a photograph

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of a plane supposedly flown by a
Cuban defector, but quickly exposed

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as belonging to the CIA.

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The assault has begun on the
dictatorship of Fidel Castro.

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Almost 1600 Cuban exiles arrived at
the Bay of Pigs in 7 ships, 2 of them

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owned by United Fruit.
But Cuban troops were ready.

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And no popular uprising
ever occured.

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The invaders begged for direct US support,
and much to the shock of the CIA,

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Kennedy refused this support, as he warned
he would, fearing a Soviet counter move

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against west Berlin.

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At a midnight meeting military leaders and
the CIA's chief of clandestine services

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pressed Kennedy for 3 hours to send
ground and air support. They expected it.

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Eisenhower would've done it.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

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said it was reprehensible, almost
criminal, to pull the rug out.

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But Kennedy stood his ground.

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The 114 rebels were killed, roughly
1200 captured.

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It was to be a chilling beginning to
one of the most turbulent decades of

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whatever changed the world in 1960s.

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Heads up America
Let's stand, be brave, keep our defenses high

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Heads up America
A land that is prepared can never die

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There's an old saying that, a victory has
a 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan

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through the statements, detailed discussions
on not to conceal responsibility,

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because I'm the responsible officer
of the government

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The entire sordid affair had a profound
effect on the president, who told

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an influential journalist friend:
The first advice I'm going to give

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my successor is to watch the generals
and to avoid feeling that, just because

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they were military men, their opinions
on military matters were worth a damn.

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He seemed to begin to understand what
Eisenhower was warning about, but his

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learning curve would need to be a sharp one
to escape the steel trap of cold war thinking.

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Publicly, Kennedy took full responsibility
for the fiasco, privately he was furious at

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the Joint Chiefs sons of bitches and
those CIA bastards, threatening to

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Incredibly, he fired Allen Dulles, albeit
diplomatically, and two other top officials

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and all CIA overseas personnel were placed
under state department control

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Kennedy's growing mistrust of his military
and intelligence advisors made it easier to

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rebuff their pressure to send troops in 1961
into the tiny landlocked Asian nation of Laos

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something that Eisenhower had warned him
might be necessary to defeat the communists.

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Laos, strategic buffer state between
the red block and free Asia is watched

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with concern by all the world.

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The Joint Chiefs wanted Kennedy to give
prior commitment to a large scale

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invading force. Arthur Schlesinger, an
aide and respected historian, later said:

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After the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy had contempt
for the Joint Chiefs. He dismissed them as

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a bunch of old men. He thought
Lemnitzer was a dope.

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And as a result, Kennedy opted for a
neutralist solution which angered the Pentagon.

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It would come back to haunt him.

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The mood was dark when Kennedy
travelled to Vienna to meet Khrushchev

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at their first summit conference
at June of '61

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Khrushchev berated the young president
for America's global imperialism:

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We in the USSR feel that the revolutionary
process should have a right to exist

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The major issue for Khruschev was
Germany.

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What terrified him was the prospect of
west Germany finally getting control

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over US nukes deployed so close
to the Soviet union.

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And also by 1961, approximately 20% of
east German population, some 2.5 million people

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had fled through the open borders
seeking a better life in west Germany.

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It was an open sore humiliation
for the Soviets who now wanted

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a treaty recognizing 2 separate Germany's
and the withdrawal of western forces

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from west Berlin.

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Khruschev explained to an
american journalist:

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We have a much longer history with
Germany. We have seen how quickly

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governments in Germany can change, and
how easy it is for Germany to become

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an instrument of mass murder.
You like to think...

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we have no public opinion.
Don't be sure about this.

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We have a saying here:

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Give a German a gun, sooner or
later he will point it at Russians,

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that we could crush Germany, in
a few minutes.

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But we fear the ability of Germany
to commit the US to start a war,

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an atomic war.

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How many times do you have to be
burned before you respect fire?

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Kennedy's parting comment to Kruschev was:
I see it's going to be a very cold winter.

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We have wholly different views of
right and wrong,

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of what is an internal affair and
what is an aggression.

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And above all, we have wholly different
concepts of where the world is

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and where it is going.

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Later that summer, Kennedy intensified
the crisis with a sabre-rattling speech

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The source of world troubling tension
is Moscow, not Berlin.

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And if war begins it will have
begun in Moscow, and not Berlin.

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increasing the army by 300,000 men
tripling the draft, and called for a

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national program to construct public
and private fallout shelters,

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he reminded citizens:
In the thermonuclear age,

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00:12:51,350 --> 00:12:55,190
any misjudgements on either side
about the intentions of the other

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could rain more devastation in
several hours than has been wrought

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00:13:00,980 --> 00:13:03,740
in all the wars of human history.

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The Warsaw pact nations responded
in dramatic fashion.

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On August 13, east German troops began
erecting barricades and road blocks

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all across Germany to shut off
the stream of escaping east Germans.

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00:13:28,350 --> 00:13:31,060
The barb wire was soon replaced
with concrete.

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Kennedy, in defiance, sent 1500 US troops
by road from west Germany into

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00:13:38,190 --> 00:13:42,110
west Berlin where they were met by
vice-president Johnson.

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That's a month Khrushchev
resumed nuclear testing.

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When Kennedy learned of this
he erupted,

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fucked again.

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Despite the US's nuclear superiority
the Air Force wanted to increase

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the missile count to 3,000

169
00:14:00,380 --> 00:14:04,840
McNamara fought them down to 1000
as the compromised number.

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00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:11,220
The Soviets by October were
detonating a 30 mega ton bomb

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the biggest yet exploded.

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00:14:14,180 --> 00:14:19,520
And the next week, a 50+ mega ton
bomb, over 3,000 times as powerful

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as the one dropped on Hiroshima.

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00:14:23,780 --> 00:14:27,950
Kennedy had inherited by now the
full route of Dulles' brinksmanship.

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To an outside observer, it might have seem
that Americans had taken leave of their senses

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in the summer and fall of '61 as the
nation conducted an extended conversation

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00:14:39,750 --> 00:14:45,340
on buidling fallout shelters in their homes,
as well as the ethics of killing neighbors

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00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:48,300
or friends to protect their shelter.

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00:14:51,180 --> 00:14:53,930
You got a bunch of your neighbors
outside who want to stay alive

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00:14:54,350 --> 00:14:56,980
keep on doing what you're doing
and we'll bust out where you're now

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00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:08,700
Despite media pressure, surprisingly few
people actually built shelters

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00:15:09,110 --> 00:15:13,830
either out of a sense of non-resignation
or the recognition of the difficulties of a

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meaningful survival.

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00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:26,380
In hindsight, the construction of the
monstrous Berlin wall actually diffused

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the immediate threat of war, enabling
Khrushchev to appease his hard liners.

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00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:39,180
Kennedy confided: it's not a very nice solution
but a wall is a hell of lot better than a war.

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00:15:42,270 --> 00:15:46,070
In another part of the world however,
Kennedy had given his commitment

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00:15:46,650 --> 00:15:50,240
to the politically important Cuban exile
community in Florida

189
00:15:50,780 --> 00:15:53,410
to overthrow the Castro goverment.

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00:15:53,870 --> 00:15:57,450
This would spark significant tensions
with the Soviet union.

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00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:13,890
In early November he unleashed
operation Mongoose,

192
00:16:14,300 --> 00:16:20,560
a terror campaign overseen by his brother
Robert and run by Edward Lansdale,

193
00:16:21,310 --> 00:16:26,020
designed to wreck Cuba's economy and,
among other things, secretly continue the

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00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:29,610
up-to-now bungled assasination attempts
on Castro.

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00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:35,950
Seeking a pretext for military action, the
Joint Chiefs approved operation Northwoods

196
00:16:36,830 --> 00:16:41,370
which included a Remember the Maine incident
modeled on the ship sinking that triggered

197
00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:45,130
the Spanish-American war in 1898.

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00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:52,090
Girls delightful in Cuba. stop.
Could send you prose poems

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00:16:52,550 --> 00:16:55,300
about scenery but don't feel right
spending your money. stop.

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00:16:55,720 --> 00:16:58,220
There is no war in Cuba.
Signed Wheeler. Any answer?

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00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:02,600
Yes. Dear Wheeler: You provide
the prose poems, I'll provide the war.

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00:17:06,940 --> 00:17:12,400
This plan included staging a Cuban
government hijacking, shooting down of a

203
00:17:12,860 --> 00:17:17,660
civilian airliner, sinking boatloads of
Cubans escaping to Florida,

204
00:17:18,120 --> 00:17:20,490
and blaming the communist government.

205
00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:25,210
Kennedy rejected the plan, but
US actions throughout 1962

206
00:17:25,960 --> 00:17:30,250
convinced the Soviets that a
Cuban invasion was imminent.

207
00:17:31,340 --> 00:17:35,380
In january, the US coerced Latin
American countries to suspend

208
00:17:36,260 --> 00:17:38,760
Cuba's membership in the OAS.

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00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:44,690
The US conducted a series of large scale
military execises in the Caribbean in the

210
00:17:45,100 --> 00:17:47,730
spring, summer and fall of '62

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00:17:48,270 --> 00:17:53,650
one involving 79 ships, 300 aircraft
and more than 40,000 troops.

212
00:17:54,190 --> 00:18:02,830
The last one in october with 7500 marines
set to participate was codenamed Ortsac

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00:18:03,370 --> 00:18:07,210
a mock invasion of an island replete
with the overthrow of its government.

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00:18:09,630 --> 00:18:11,380
The message was clear.

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00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:25,890
Kennedy was equally intent on standing up
to the communists in Vietnam.

216
00:18:27,190 --> 00:18:29,940
But as a student of history, he
must have harbored doubts about

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00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:32,360
another land war in Asia.

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00:18:36,610 --> 00:18:41,200
As a young congressman he'd visited
Vietnam in 1951 during the debacle

219
00:18:41,660 --> 00:18:46,580
of the Korean war, and advised against
aiding the French colonialists, and

220
00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:50,710
later spoke broadly of needing to win
the support of the Arabs, Africans

221
00:18:51,170 --> 00:18:52,460
and Asians who

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00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:01,220
he had already pointed out the
contradiction of supporting the

223
00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:08,440
French empire in Africa and Asia while
opposing Soviet moves in Hungary and Poland

224
00:19:10,100 --> 00:19:14,020
But he was now president, and was soon
defending a corrupt south Vietnamese

225
00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:20,700
government that was banning public assembly,
some political parties and even public dancing

226
00:19:21,370 --> 00:19:25,540
Embracing Eisenhower's dominoe theory
Kennedy was now insisting that Vietnam

227
00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:30,540
represented the cornerstone of the free
world in south east Asia:

228
00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:32,630
the finger in the dike.

229
00:19:33,290 --> 00:19:38,090
Lyndon Johnson went to Vietnam in May
of '61 and annointed Ngo Dinh Diem

230
00:19:41,390 --> 00:19:46,100
and painting a bleak picture pressed
for a much larger US involvement.

231
00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:51,230
The generals and even McNamara agreed that
only US combat troops could forestall a

232
00:19:51,900 --> 00:19:53,190
communist victory.

233
00:19:53,860 --> 00:20:00,070
However Kennedy, a decorated veteran of
WW2, resisted sending in combat troops.

234
00:20:00,860 --> 00:20:02,490
He said to Arthur Schlesinger:

235
00:20:02,950 --> 00:20:07,950
The troops will march in, the bands
will play, the crowds will cheer, and

236
00:20:08,620 --> 00:20:12,540
in 4 days everyone will have forgotten.
Then we will be told we have to send in

237
00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:16,710
more troops. Well, it's like
taking a drink: the effect wears off

238
00:20:17,460 --> 00:20:18,800
and you have to take another.

239
00:20:19,550 --> 00:20:24,390
But he was an admirer of guerilla warfare
in WW2, where British and Americans had

240
00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:27,970
fought behind the lines in places
like the Burma jungle.

241
00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:33,440
And he did approve his generals' other
recommendations expanding military involvement

242
00:20:34,650 --> 00:20:39,360
The US personnel in Vietnam jumped from
800 when Kennedy took office

243
00:20:40,110 --> 00:20:43,740
to over 16,000 advisors in 1963.

244
00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:49,410
He also allowed a growing army of
CIA and numerous American civilian

245
00:20:49,950 --> 00:20:53,460
contractors to flock to this new
honeypot of enterprise.

246
00:20:54,540 --> 00:21:01,550
Under Kennedy's 3 year watch CIA
launched 163 major covert operations

247
00:21:02,010 --> 00:21:08,010
worldwide. Only 7 fewer than had been
conducted under Eisenhower in 8 years.

248
00:21:09,310 --> 00:21:14,690
Vietnam in its early stages was sometimes
referred as a CIA war.

249
00:21:15,650 --> 00:21:21,150
At West Point, Kennedy reinforced this by
saying: it was another type of war

250
00:21:21,780 --> 00:21:28,990
new in its intensity, ancient in its origins
war by ambush, eroding and exhausting

251
00:21:29,580 --> 00:21:31,620
the enemy, instead of engaging them.

252
00:21:32,290 --> 00:21:37,330
History knows the contrary proved
to be true in Vietnam.

253
00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:42,260
Under Kennedy, and mostly unknown
to the American public, the US began

254
00:21:42,670 --> 00:21:46,720
resettling villagers at gun point in
barbwire-enclosed compounds

255
00:21:47,260 --> 00:21:51,310
guarded by unreliable south Vietnamese
government troops, and

256
00:21:51,770 --> 00:21:56,140
using herbicides to defoliate
guerilla areas

257
00:21:56,690 --> 00:22:01,400
the long term environmental and health
effects would turn out disastrously

258
00:22:01,940 --> 00:22:04,900
for Vietnamese and Americans alike.

259
00:22:05,860 --> 00:22:13,000
But, it would be the Cuban missile crisis in
Oct 1962 that trully impressed upon Kennedy

260
00:22:13,410 --> 00:22:19,000
the potentially disastrous repercussions
of his hardlined cold war policies.

261
00:22:19,710 --> 00:22:25,590
On a sunday Oct 14th, a U2 surveillance
plane brought back photographic evidence

262
00:22:26,050 --> 00:22:30,970
of Soviet medium range ballistic missiles
in position in Cuba.

263
00:22:31,310 --> 00:22:32,180
It was quite a shock.

264
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:36,980
Khrushchev had lied to him, promising
no offensive weapons in Cuba.

265
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:39,940
But he was making a blunder of
epic proportions.

266
00:22:40,810 --> 00:22:47,360
The last thing Soviets wanted in 1962 was
a direct military confrontation with the US

267
00:22:48,700 --> 00:22:53,740
With little more than 10 ICBMs that could
reliably reach US soil and fewer than 300

268
00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:59,420
nuclear warheads, they stood no change
against the US's 5000 deliverable

269
00:23:00,170 --> 00:23:04,130
nuclear bombs and nearly 2000 ICBMs
and bombers.

270
00:23:04,550 --> 00:23:06,090
Why did Khrushchev do this?

271
00:23:06,630 --> 00:23:08,590
The American public never understood.

272
00:23:09,050 --> 00:23:13,720
The media presented Soviet actions in Cuba
as a case of outright Soviet aggression.

273
00:23:15,390 --> 00:23:19,310
But from the Soviet point of view,
it was a reasonable response to

274
00:23:20,060 --> 00:23:26,110
repeated signs at the US was preparing a
first strike against the Soviet union.

275
00:23:27,610 --> 00:23:31,780
The missiles might also deter the...
invasion of Cuba,

276
00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:35,490
which in a sense had now
become a pawn in the game.

277
00:23:35,830 --> 00:23:40,620
The missiles would make US think
twice before attacking, as Khrushchev said

278
00:23:40,710 --> 00:23:42,130
giving the Americans

279
00:23:45,750 --> 00:23:50,010
There was also no question that
Khrushchev genuinely admired Castro

280
00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:54,260
who had come to power on his own
without outside help,

281
00:23:54,810 --> 00:23:58,520
and had enormous symbolic value
in the third world.

282
00:24:00,390 --> 00:24:05,860
Finally, the missiles were an inexpensive
way for Khrushchev to placate those who

283
00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:09,700
questioned his leadership
in the communist world.

284
00:24:10,450 --> 00:24:12,780
But it was so dangerous what he did.

285
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:14,530
So dangerous.

286
00:24:15,490 --> 00:24:20,540
In his thinking, Khrushchev had intended
to announce the presence of

287
00:24:20,500 --> 00:24:25,090
the nuclear missiles on Nov 7th
at the 45th anniversary of the

288
00:24:25,540 --> 00:24:27,170
Bolshevik revolution.

289
00:24:27,420 --> 00:24:29,800
But as military analyst Daniel Ellsberg

290
00:24:30,130 --> 00:24:34,510
has pointed out, by keeping secret the
fact that he had delivered tactical

291
00:24:34,850 --> 00:24:38,350
cruise and ballistic missiles along
with their nuclear warheads,

292
00:24:38,770 --> 00:24:44,350
Khrushchev had transformed a potentially
effective means of deterring a US invasion

293
00:24:44,810 --> 00:24:48,940
into a destabilizing provocation
that backfired.

294
00:24:49,940 --> 00:24:54,070
The US never understood the warheads
had already arrived.

295
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:57,910
The whole point of the doomsday machine

296
00:25:00,830 --> 00:25:01,790
is lost, if you keep it a secret

297
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:03,870
why didn't you tell the world, eh?

298
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:07,880
It was to be announced at the
party congress on monday

299
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:11,260
as you know, the premier loves surprises.

300
00:25:12,930 --> 00:25:17,510
Even today, few realize the gravity of
the Cuban missile crisis, and

301
00:25:17,930 --> 00:25:21,020
even fewer seem to grasp
its enduring lessons.

302
00:25:22,230 --> 00:25:25,400
Dulles' legacy of brinksmanship of
going to the edge had

303
00:25:26,020 --> 00:25:28,770
finally spawned its Frankenstein monster.

304
00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:32,820
Two days later, Kennedy met with
his key advisors in a top secret

305
00:25:33,360 --> 00:25:37,070
meeting hoping to stop the missiles
before they were fully installed.

306
00:25:37,950 --> 00:25:42,120
3 days later on Oct. 19th
he met with his Joint Chiefs.

307
00:25:42,870 --> 00:25:47,920
They pushed for a surgical airstrike
without warning to remove the missiles

308
00:25:48,250 --> 00:25:50,750
followed by an all-out
invasion of Cuba.

309
00:25:51,510 --> 00:25:55,130
Lemay assured Kennedy that the
Soviets would not respond.

310
00:25:56,130 --> 00:25:59,640
Lemay welcomed nuclear war as
inevitable, and a war that

311
00:25:59,970 --> 00:26:02,600
his country was currently in
a position to win.

312
00:26:02,890 --> 00:26:04,980
There might not be a second opportunity.

313
00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:07,810
He fulminated against the
Russian bear:

314
00:26:08,360 --> 00:26:11,230
Let's take his leg off, right up
to his testicles

315
00:26:11,980 --> 00:26:14,070
at second thought, let's take
his testicles too.

316
00:26:15,030 --> 00:26:18,120
After the meeting, Kennedy remarked to
his aide Kenneth O'Donnell:

317
00:26:18,780 --> 00:26:21,370
If we listen to them and do what they
want us to do, none of us

318
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:24,540
will be alive later to tell them
that they were wrong.

319
00:26:25,210 --> 00:26:31,000
With US missiles in Turkey, so close
to the Soviet union, McNamara contended

320
00:26:31,460 --> 00:26:34,630
that the strategic balance of power
was not changed.

321
00:26:35,170 --> 00:26:37,050
Kennedy agreed. But,

322
00:26:37,340 --> 00:26:41,510
understanding the political symbolism,
said that allowing the missiles to stay

323
00:26:42,510 --> 00:26:45,640
would weaken the perception of the US
across the world, and

324
00:26:46,020 --> 00:26:47,980
especially in Latin America.

325
00:26:48,730 --> 00:26:52,570
He confided to his brother Robert
that if he didn't take strong action now

326
00:26:52,980 --> 00:26:56,280
after what he did at the Bay of Pigs,
he'd be impeached.

327
00:26:56,950 --> 00:27:00,780
This moment became a crucial test
of Kennedy's character.

328
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:04,370
In the context of building that
character, he'd fought bravely and

329
00:27:04,790 --> 00:27:08,330
saved men's lives as a Naval lt.
in the south pacific

330
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:13,130
and now was no longer as intimidated
by uniformed generals.

331
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,170
In the coming days, he would reject
the advice of such older men

332
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:22,850
as well as Paul Nitze, Dean Acheson
and even Dwight Eisenhower

333
00:27:23,390 --> 00:27:28,310
He opted instead for a blockade, which
he referred to as a quarantine

334
00:27:28,770 --> 00:27:32,060
to downplay the fact that this too
was an act of war.

335
00:27:33,150 --> 00:27:38,070
on Oct. 22, 8 days after the pictures
were taken, Kennedy solemnly informed

336
00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:39,700
the American people:

337
00:27:40,490 --> 00:27:42,660
All ships of any kind bound for Cuba

338
00:27:43,620 --> 00:27:44,950
from whatever nation or port

339
00:27:45,950 --> 00:27:49,870
will, if found to contain cargoes of
offensive weapons, be turned back.

340
00:27:50,620 --> 00:27:55,550
He portrayed the US as an innocent
victim of unprovoked Soviet aggression

341
00:27:55,880 --> 00:28:01,340
not revealing that we've been fighting a
terrorist war against Cuba since late 1959.

342
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:05,220
I know that some action
should be taken, but

343
00:28:05,970 --> 00:28:08,930
he's gonna have to tread
very lightly, short of war.

344
00:28:09,390 --> 00:28:14,520
I think it's high time we stop Russia
and have things our own way.

345
00:28:15,270 --> 00:28:17,030
The temperature of the world shut up

346
00:28:17,690 --> 00:28:21,070
People were on edge, transfixed to
their TVs and radios

347
00:28:21,740 --> 00:28:24,450
children watched the news with
their parents full of fear

348
00:28:25,330 --> 00:28:29,710
that same day the Strategic
Air Command went to Defcon 3

349
00:28:30,460 --> 00:28:33,750
2 days later, for the first time
in history, to Defcon 2

350
00:28:34,290 --> 00:28:36,840
prepared to strike targets
in the Soviet union.

351
00:28:37,250 --> 00:28:40,760
The decision to go to the precipice
of nuclear war was made under

352
00:28:41,220 --> 00:28:46,430
the authority given by Eisenhower, by
SAC commander Gen. Thomas Power

353
00:28:46,890 --> 00:28:48,180
without consulting the president.

354
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:54,100
Thereafter, the SAC fleet remained airborne
refueled by aerial tankers.

355
00:28:56,320 --> 00:28:59,940
It was Power who, in 1960, told a
defense analyst:

356
00:29:00,570 --> 00:29:02,530
the whole idea is to kill the bastards

357
00:29:02,990 --> 00:29:06,910
look, at the end of the war if there are
2 americans and 1 russian, we win

358
00:29:07,830 --> 00:29:08,870
the analyst reponded:

359
00:29:09,330 --> 00:29:12,080
well, you better make sure
there are a man and a woman.

360
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:16,880
The series of heroine incidents occured,
anyone of which could have triggered

361
00:29:17,210 --> 00:29:18,420
a holocaust.

362
00:29:18,750 --> 00:29:23,130
The SAC test missile was launched from US
towards the Marshall islands, and officials

363
00:29:23,550 --> 00:29:27,470
mistakenly reported that Tampa
and Minnesota were under attack.

364
00:29:32,390 --> 00:29:38,190
on Oct. 25 the Soviet leaders decided that
they would have to remove the missiles

365
00:29:38,650 --> 00:29:43,780
but still hoped to trade them in Cuba
for US Jupiters in Turkey.

366
00:29:44,110 --> 00:29:48,160
Before they could act on that decision,
Khrushchev received faulty information

367
00:29:48,580 --> 00:29:51,540
that the invasion of Cuba was beginning.

368
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:57,460
By the 26th of Oct. american planes
were flying over Cuba at tree-top level

369
00:29:58,090 --> 00:30:03,130
250,000 troops were assembled off the
Florida coastline ready to move

370
00:30:03,470 --> 00:30:05,760
2000 bombing sorties were planned.

371
00:30:06,090 --> 00:30:09,390
Castro predicted a US strike
within 72 hours.

372
00:30:09,810 --> 00:30:14,390
The 42,000 strong Soviet force,
commanded by a Stalingrad veteran,

373
00:30:15,270 --> 00:30:17,480
and backed by 100,000 Cubans

374
00:30:18,020 --> 00:30:24,780
possessed, unknown to American int.,
approx. 100 battlefield nuclear weapons.

375
00:30:27,070 --> 00:30:29,830
Khrushchev was losing control
of the situation.

376
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:34,000
In amazing moment he asked his generals
if they could guarantee that holding

377
00:30:34,410 --> 00:30:38,710
this course would not result in
the death of 500 million people:

378
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:42,300
What good would it have done me
in the last hour of my life to know that

379
00:30:42,750 --> 00:30:48,550
though our great nation and the US were
in complete ruin, the national honor of

380
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:51,140
the Soviet union was intact?

381
00:30:51,810 --> 00:30:53,810
In what McNamara described as the

382
00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:01,440
Khrushchev sent Kennedy an urgent
letter asking simply for a promise

383
00:31:01,770 --> 00:31:03,400
not to invade Cuba.

384
00:31:03,730 --> 00:31:07,360
He warned that the 2 countries were
heading inextricably towards war:

385
00:31:07,780 --> 00:31:10,070
It would not be in our power to stop that

386
00:31:10,620 --> 00:31:16,210
war ends when it has ruled through cities
and villages everywhere sowing death

387
00:31:16,540 --> 00:31:18,500
and destruction.

388
00:31:19,170 --> 00:31:23,420
on Oct. 27th an incident occured that
Schlesinger described as:

389
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,800
not only the most dangerous moment
of the cold war, it was

390
00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:34,010
the Russian ships were heading toward
the quarantine line

391
00:31:34,470 --> 00:31:39,190
one of four Soviet submarines sent to
protect the ships was being hunted all day

392
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:41,810
by the carrier USS Randolf

393
00:31:42,900 --> 00:31:48,030
More than 100 miles outside the blockade
the Randolph began dropping depth charges

394
00:31:48,700 --> 00:31:52,070
unaware the sub was carrying nuclear weapons:

395
00:31:52,740 --> 00:31:57,450
The explosion rocked the submarine
which went dark, except for emegency lines

396
00:31:58,210 --> 00:32:03,340
The temp. rose sharply, the CO2 in
the air reached near lethal levels

397
00:32:03,670 --> 00:32:05,090
and people could barely breathe.

398
00:32:05,750 --> 00:32:07,710
Men began to faint and fall down.

399
00:32:08,010 --> 00:32:12,590
The suffering went on for 4 hours.
Then, the americans hit us

400
00:32:13,050 --> 00:32:16,560
with something stronger.
We thought that's it, the end.

401
00:32:16,970 --> 00:32:20,140
Panic ensued.
Commander Valentin Savitsky tried

402
00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:25,400
without success to reach the general staff.
He assumed the war had already started,

403
00:32:25,940 --> 00:32:29,110
and that we were gonna die in
disgrace for having done nothing.

404
00:32:29,780 --> 00:32:32,740
He ordered the nuclear torpedo
to be prepared for firing.

405
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:35,240
He turned to the other 2 officers aboard.

406
00:32:35,780 --> 00:32:42,250
Fortunately for mankind, the political officer
Vasili Arkhipov was able to calm him down

407
00:32:42,790 --> 00:32:44,880
and convince him not to launch,

408
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:49,130
probably single-handedly preventing
nuclear war.

409
00:32:51,550 --> 00:32:55,930
In the midst of this heroine confrontation
the break point came when the national

410
00:32:56,390 --> 00:33:01,190
security council received word that a
U2 plane had been shot down over Cuba.

411
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:03,810
Khrushchev had not authorized this.

412
00:33:04,900 --> 00:33:10,150
The Joint Chiefs wanted to act immediately
and take out all the firing sites and missiles.

413
00:33:11,780 --> 00:33:13,740
Kennedy said: no.

414
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:17,450
The shooting down of the U2 made both
Kennedy and Khrushchev realize

415
00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:21,750
they were losing control of their
enormous military machines.

416
00:33:22,500 --> 00:33:27,290
Americans receiving continual TV
broadcasts were paralyzed in the grip

417
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:30,380
of something they had only dreamed about.

418
00:33:31,380 --> 00:33:35,640
Robert McNamara later said, as he
watched the sunset come over the

419
00:33:36,180 --> 00:33:41,180
saturday night the 27th of Oct:
It was a beautiful fall evening

420
00:33:41,980 --> 00:33:43,190
height of the crisis

421
00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:46,230
and I went up into the open air
to look and to smell it

422
00:33:46,900 --> 00:33:49,610
because I thought it was the last
saturday I would ever see.

423
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:53,990
Soviet diplomats were burning their
files in Washington and New York

424
00:33:54,450 --> 00:33:59,700
Washington insiders had begun to quietly
evacuate their families from the capital

425
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:04,500
telling wives and children to drive as
far south as quickly as possible.

426
00:34:05,370 --> 00:34:09,630
In a last desperate effort, Kennedy sent his
brother to meet with the Soviet ambassador

427
00:34:10,090 --> 00:34:15,220
Anatoly Dobrynin on that saturday
to tell him the US was about to attack

428
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:20,890
unless it received an immediate Soviet
commitment to remove its bases from Cuba.

429
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:26,480
the US will pledge to never invade
Cuba or aid others in that enterprise.

430
00:34:27,150 --> 00:34:30,190
If your Jupiter missiles in Turkey
were removed also

431
00:34:30,730 --> 00:34:32,940
such an accommodation could be reached

432
00:34:34,030 --> 00:34:35,030
That's not possible

433
00:34:38,530 --> 00:34:41,790
The United States cannot agree
to such terms under threat

434
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:45,830
Any belief to the contrary
was in error

435
00:34:47,580 --> 00:34:49,330
You want war?

436
00:34:59,970 --> 00:35:03,470
However, while there can be
no quid pro on this issue

437
00:35:04,430 --> 00:35:06,850
the United States
can offer a private assurance

438
00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:11,650
Our Jupiter missiles in Turkey
are obsolete

439
00:35:12,190 --> 00:35:14,940
and have been scheduled
for withdrawal for some time

440
00:35:15,490 --> 00:35:18,990
This withdrawal should take place,
within,say, six months

441
00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:23,990
Of course, any public disclosure of
this assurance would negate the deal

442
00:35:24,580 --> 00:35:27,830
and produce the most stringent
denials from our government

443
00:35:28,620 --> 00:35:32,880
This private assurance represents
the word of the highest authority?

444
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,260
Dobrynin conveyed the urgency
to Khrushchev

445
00:35:37,050 --> 00:35:39,760
who claimed in his memoirs that
Robert Kennedy's message was

446
00:35:40,090 --> 00:35:44,470
even more desperate, that the president
is not sure that the military will not

447
00:35:44,930 --> 00:35:47,100
overthrow him and seize power.

448
00:35:53,650 --> 00:35:58,780
The next morning, a sunday
Oct. 28th dawned with mercy

449
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:04,030
Soviets announced they would withdraw
the missiles.

450
00:36:04,370 --> 00:36:08,620
The world breathed as if there was
only one collective breath for all

451
00:36:09,830 --> 00:36:13,340
The crisis would actually continue
behind the scenes for 3 more weeks

452
00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:19,470
and finally ended on Nov 22 when the
Soviets were able to regain control of

453
00:36:20,220 --> 00:36:22,970
their battlefield nuclear weapons
from the Cubans.

454
00:36:23,390 --> 00:36:25,720
The weapons would actually
leave Cuba.

455
00:36:26,810 --> 00:36:30,940
It's interesting to note in hindsight
that during the entire crisis

456
00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:35,650
Soviet missiles were never fueled,
Red Army reservists were not called up

457
00:36:36,190 --> 00:36:39,280
and no threats were made against Berlin

458
00:36:41,780 --> 00:36:46,910
30 years later in 1992, McNamara
was shocked when told that

459
00:36:47,580 --> 00:36:49,200
if american troops had invaded,

460
00:36:49,540 --> 00:36:53,040
not only were there 4 times as many
armed Soviets in Cuba as reported,

461
00:36:53,500 --> 00:36:56,750
but 100 battlefield nuclear weapons
would likely have been used.

462
00:36:58,130 --> 00:37:01,090
Realizing that 100,000 americans
would probably have died,

463
00:37:01,970 --> 00:37:05,800
McNamara said the US would have
responded by wiping out Cuba with the

464
00:37:06,430 --> 00:37:10,810
high risk of an all-out nuclear war
between the US and the Soviet union.

465
00:37:11,350 --> 00:37:14,100
hundreds of millions of people
might have perished.

466
00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:16,190
Possibly all mankind.

467
00:37:16,820 --> 00:37:19,110
It is recently been discovered that
on the island of Okinawa

468
00:37:19,690 --> 00:37:23,410
a large force of missiles with
megaton nuclear warheads and

469
00:37:23,950 --> 00:37:26,910
F-100 fighter bombers armed with
hydrogen bombs

470
00:37:27,450 --> 00:37:29,080
were preparing for action.

471
00:37:29,410 --> 00:37:33,330
Their likely target was not
the Soviet union, but China.

472
00:37:34,670 --> 00:37:39,590
Military leaders were furious when the
crisis ended without an attack on Cuba

473
00:37:40,340 --> 00:37:42,010
McNamara recalled their bitterness:

474
00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:45,590
The president invited the Chiefs in
to thank them for their support

475
00:37:46,050 --> 00:37:48,560
during the crisis.
It was one hell of a scene.

476
00:37:49,310 --> 00:37:50,520
Curtis Lemay came out saying:

477
00:37:51,180 --> 00:37:54,900
We lost. We ought to just go in there
today, and knock him off.

478
00:37:57,060 --> 00:38:00,650
It was Khrushchev, even more than
Kennedy, who deserves the

479
00:38:01,110 --> 00:38:03,610
lion's share of credit for
having avoided war.

480
00:38:04,150 --> 00:38:07,780
And for this, he was villified, as
Mikhail Gorbachev would be

481
00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:13,000
3 decades later when he democratically
presided against his will over the

482
00:38:13,540 --> 00:38:15,960
disillusion of the
Soviet union.

483
00:38:16,500 --> 00:38:19,460
The Chinese charged Khrushchev
with cowardess for caving in

484
00:38:20,460 --> 00:38:23,630
Russian hardliners said he
had shit his pants.

485
00:38:24,300 --> 00:38:25,930
Much of the Pentagon however

486
00:38:26,470 --> 00:38:30,930
believing that its willingness to go to
war had forced Soviets to back down

487
00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:35,020
determined that superior force
would also work elsewhere

488
00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:39,360
especially in Vietnam, where it was
necessary once more to make a

489
00:38:39,690 --> 00:38:41,570
stand against communism.

490
00:38:42,230 --> 00:38:45,950
The Soviets drew the oppposite lesson
determined never again to be

491
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:50,080
so humiliated and forced to
capitulate for weakness.

492
00:38:50,530 --> 00:38:55,870
They began a massive buildup of nuclear
weapons to achieve parity with the US

493
00:38:56,750 --> 00:39:00,250
Weakened by the crisis, Khrushchcev
would be forced out of power

494
00:39:00,590 --> 00:39:02,340
the following year.

495
00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:05,630
But first he wrote Kennedy
a long letter:

496
00:39:06,050 --> 00:39:09,470
Evil has brought some good.
People have felt more tangibly

497
00:39:09,890 --> 00:39:13,600
the breathing of the burning flames
of thermonuclear war.

498
00:39:14,140 --> 00:39:17,440
In light of this, he made a series
of bold proposals for eliminating

499
00:39:17,980 --> 00:39:23,780
everything in our relations
capable of generating a new crisis.

500
00:39:24,110 --> 00:39:28,910
He suggested a non-aggression treaty
between Nato and the Warsaw pact nations.

501
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:32,530
Why not, he said,
disband all military blocs

502
00:39:32,990 --> 00:39:37,790
seize testing all nuclear weapons
in the atmosphere, in the outer space

503
00:39:38,460 --> 00:39:41,500
under water, and also underground?

504
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,300
He proposed solutions to conflicts
over Germany and China.

505
00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:52,890
It's interesting to note that
there was a remarkable revival of

506
00:39:53,430 --> 00:39:57,270
christianity at the same time,
with the short lived papacy of

507
00:39:57,810 --> 00:40:01,190
Pope John 23rd, one of the
most popular popes ever.

508
00:40:02,060 --> 00:40:06,780
He called to gather the 2nd Vatican
council which issued a new encyclical

509
00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:11,370
that shook up the catholic world
that was called Pacem in Terris

510
00:40:11,910 --> 00:40:12,910
peace on earth

511
00:40:13,330 --> 00:40:15,080
and ushered in a change in thinking

512
00:40:15,490 --> 00:40:19,460
particulary in latin america where its
priests, nuns and lay persons took the

513
00:40:19,790 --> 00:40:24,840
message of the gospels to the poor
and the persecuted, encouraging them

514
00:40:25,130 --> 00:40:30,050
to take their fate into their own hands
to overcome the misery of their existence.

515
00:40:31,050 --> 00:40:33,680
What became known as
liberation theology

516
00:40:34,350 --> 00:40:37,600
led to many ensuing problems
with Kennedy's successors

517
00:40:37,930 --> 00:40:41,350
in the backyard of the US.

518
00:40:43,060 --> 00:40:47,320
Although more tepid to Khrushchev
in his response, Kennedy's thinking

519
00:40:47,650 --> 00:40:50,950
was evolving, and in the year
following missile crisis

520
00:40:51,360 --> 00:40:53,780
underwent a remarkable transformation.

521
00:40:54,240 --> 00:40:59,710
He bagan to see Vietnam as one place to
step back from the east-west confrontation,

522
00:41:00,580 --> 00:41:02,210
but he knew it would not be easy.

523
00:41:03,290 --> 00:41:06,800
The debate over Kennedy's true
intentions in Vietnam has

524
00:41:07,500 --> 00:41:11,720
at times been quite acromonious
and his own contradictory statements

525
00:41:12,180 --> 00:41:14,760
and mixed signals have added
to the confusion.

526
00:41:15,220 --> 00:41:17,930
Clearly, he was under enormous pressure
to stay at the course

527
00:41:18,390 --> 00:41:23,310
and as late as july 1963, Kennedy
told a new conference

528
00:41:24,060 --> 00:41:28,650
for us, to withdraw would mean a
collapse of not only south Vietnam

529
00:41:29,530 --> 00:41:31,280
but south east Asia.

530
00:41:32,610 --> 00:41:34,660
in private however he was voicing doubts.

531
00:41:35,240 --> 00:41:38,740
in late '62 he asked influential
senator Mike Mansfiield to

532
00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:41,250
go there and evaluate the situation.

533
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:44,630
Mansfield returned with a
highly pessimistic assessment

534
00:41:45,420 --> 00:41:47,590
recommending the US withdraw
its forces

535
00:41:48,340 --> 00:41:51,300
aide Kenny O'Donnell described
Kennedy's reaction:

536
00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:55,680
the president was too disturbed
by the senator's unexpected argument

537
00:41:56,140 --> 00:41:58,760
He said to me when we later
talked about it:

538
00:41:59,180 --> 00:42:02,560
I got angry with Mike for disagreeing
with our policy so completely

539
00:42:03,350 --> 00:42:08,690
and I got angry with myself, because
I found myself agreeing with him.

540
00:42:09,230 --> 00:42:13,070
on 11th of June '63 in an image
that shocked the world

541
00:42:13,740 --> 00:42:17,870
Vietnamese Buddist monk Thich Quang
Duc burned himself to death at a

542
00:42:18,530 --> 00:42:23,790
busy Saigon intersection to protest the
corrupt south Vietnamese government

543
00:42:28,040 --> 00:42:33,090
McNamara began pressing the Joint
Chiefs for a plan of phased withdrawal

544
00:42:33,630 --> 00:42:38,550
Kennedy approved the plan in May '63
but could not formalize it.

545
00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:43,270
The first 1000 man were set to
depart at the end of that year.

546
00:42:44,020 --> 00:42:47,860
In september he sent McNamara and
his trusted new chief of staff

547
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:53,650
general Maxwell Taylor on a 10 day
fact finding expedition to Vietnam

548
00:42:54,190 --> 00:42:57,570
They gave the president their report
on Oct 2, that called for

549
00:42:58,120 --> 00:43:00,330
withdrawing troops before the end of '63

550
00:43:00,870 --> 00:43:03,620
and completing it by the end of '65

551
00:43:05,040 --> 00:43:09,380
Kennedy now formalized his commitment
in his national security action memorandum

552
00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:14,760
263, which he signed on Oct 11th
then released to the press

553
00:43:15,550 --> 00:43:17,180
Kennedy no doubt was torn

554
00:43:17,930 --> 00:43:20,430
He'd explain to his close aide
Kenny O'Donnell:

555
00:43:21,100 --> 00:43:25,350
in 1965 I'll become one of
the most unpopular presidents

556
00:43:25,930 --> 00:43:30,400
in history. I'll be damned everywhere
as a communist appeaser. But I don't care.

557
00:43:31,060 --> 00:43:34,440
If I try to pull out completely now
from Vietnam, we'd have another

558
00:43:35,110 --> 00:43:39,700
Joe McCarthy red scare on our hands.
But I can do i after I'm re-elected.

559
00:43:40,570 --> 00:43:43,410
So, we better make damn sure
I am re-elected.

560
00:43:44,490 --> 00:43:46,040
The republicans were after his scalp.

561
00:43:46,790 --> 00:43:50,960
NY governor Nelson Rockefeller charged
that he was soft on communism,

562
00:43:51,630 --> 00:43:56,220
naively believing the Soviet leaders
were reasonable and desirous of

563
00:43:56,880 --> 00:43:58,930
reaching a fundamental settlement
with the west

564
00:43:59,720 --> 00:44:02,010
Rockefeller, who was a moderate republican,
said

565
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:09,440
Kennedy hadn't stopped communist aggression
in Laos, he had failed to provide

566
00:44:10,100 --> 00:44:12,400
air support during the Bay of Pigs
and stood

567
00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:22,570
Coming up behind Rockefeller was
extremist republican senator

568
00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:26,750
Barry Goldwater who would actually win
the nomination in '64

569
00:44:28,370 --> 00:44:33,500
as late as Oct 1963 in the hope
that the situation in south Vietnam

570
00:44:34,170 --> 00:44:37,880
could improve, Kennedy supported
the overthrow, but not the assasination

571
00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:41,390
of the oppressive Dinh Diem regime

572
00:44:42,050 --> 00:44:45,100
When the Vietnamese president and
his brother were killed by the

573
00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:51,020
south Vietnamese military, Kennedy
was visibly and extremely upset.

574
00:44:51,980 --> 00:44:54,400
Nonetheless, his mindset did not change.

575
00:44:55,190 --> 00:44:59,990
Among those who later came forward
confirmation of Kennedy's intention to

576
00:45:00,990 --> 00:45:04,030
withdraw were Robert McNamara,
Arthur Schlesinger,

577
00:45:04,450 --> 00:45:09,290
senate majority leader Mike Mansfield,
and asst. secretary of state Roger Hilsman

578
00:45:09,710 --> 00:45:16,380
Daniel Elsberg later in 1967 interviewed
Rober Kennedy, prior to the shift in

579
00:45:16,840 --> 00:45:18,460
public opinion on the war.

580
00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:20,090
Kennedy said his bother was

581
00:45:24,260 --> 00:45:28,850
Elsberg asked him, would his brother
have accepted defeat at the hands of

582
00:45:29,390 --> 00:45:33,230
the communists, and Robert Kennedy
replied: we would have... it up,

583
00:45:33,650 --> 00:45:36,190
we would have gotten the government in
then asked us out

584
00:45:37,070 --> 00:45:39,150
or that would have negotiate it with the
other side

585
00:45:40,030 --> 00:45:41,740
we would have handled it like Laos.

586
00:45:43,410 --> 00:45:47,450
Elsberg asked him why his brother was
so clear headed when most of his

587
00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:53,040
senior advisors were still committed to
prevailing, Robert responded emotionally:

588
00:45:53,580 --> 00:45:58,710
because we were there, we were there in
1951, we saw what was happening to the

589
00:45:59,250 --> 00:46:04,510
French, we saw it. My brother determined,
determined never to let that happen to us.

590
00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:11,310
During the remarkable last few months
of his life, Kennedy even contemplated

591
00:46:11,810 --> 00:46:14,100
a course reversal on Castro's Cuba,

592
00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:18,360
a relationship in which his policies
were consistently wrong headed.

593
00:46:19,020 --> 00:46:21,860
But just as he clung to the hope of
victory in Vietnam, while

594
00:46:22,530 --> 00:46:26,240
taking steps towards withdrawal
he endorsed a new round of

595
00:46:26,700 --> 00:46:29,080
CIA sabotage in Cuba

596
00:46:29,540 --> 00:46:35,540
while exploring... of discreet
contact with Castro himself

597
00:46:36,210 --> 00:46:39,710
He told Jean Daniel, an influential
french journalist who was about

598
00:46:40,130 --> 00:46:43,170
to meet Castro: I believe that
there's no country in the world

599
00:46:43,970 --> 00:46:49,560
where economic colonization, humiliation
and exploitation were worse than in Cuba

600
00:46:49,890 --> 00:46:54,020
in part owing to my country's policies
during the Batista regime.

601
00:46:55,890 --> 00:47:00,900
Daniel finally met with Castro
2 days before Kennedy's assasination

602
00:47:01,480 --> 00:47:07,160
Castro expressing criticism of US behaviour
but admiring Kennedy's potential

603
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:11,620
also held out hope for a new departure.

604
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:21,420
Kennedy in the heart of the cold war
was facing the abiding truth of

605
00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:23,050
American politics:

606
00:47:23,710 --> 00:47:27,840
one must be strong, and if one
is perceived as soft or weak

607
00:47:28,430 --> 00:47:29,600
one does not endure

608
00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:33,560
and that is the confusing thing
about power

609
00:47:34,850 --> 00:47:38,020
Kennedy himself was quite ill
from Addison's disease and

610
00:47:38,350 --> 00:47:42,070
effects of spinal operations from
WW2 injuries

611
00:47:42,940 --> 00:47:46,360
addicted to pain killers in his own
ravenous appetites

612
00:47:46,990 --> 00:47:52,240
finding himself in a cocoon of deceits
not only to himself but to his wife

613
00:47:52,780 --> 00:47:56,830
to his Cuba and Vietnam policies
and to the country

614
00:48:00,880 --> 00:48:05,260
John Kennedy, yet, seemed aloof
from fear

615
00:48:06,260 --> 00:48:13,220
like Roosevelt, he embodied a grace that
forgave much in the new era of TV reality

616
00:48:15,430 --> 00:48:20,350
in june of 1963 in a commencement
address at American University,

617
00:48:20,770 --> 00:48:24,530
without input from the Joint Chiefs,
the CIA or the state department

618
00:48:24,940 --> 00:48:30,200
Kennedy gave one of the most extraordinary
presidential speeches of the 20th century

619
00:48:30,950 --> 00:48:35,790
encouraged his listeners to think
about the Soviet people in human terms

620
00:48:36,540 --> 00:48:38,620
and called for an end to the cold war

621
00:48:39,920 --> 00:48:43,540
What kind of a peace do I mean, and
what kind of a peace do we seek?

622
00:48:44,420 --> 00:48:50,430
not a Pax Americana, enforced on
the world by american weapons of war

623
00:48:53,050 --> 00:48:55,810
let us re-examine our attitude
towards the Soviet union

624
00:48:56,770 --> 00:48:59,730
it is sad to realize the extend
of the gulf between us

625
00:49:00,810 --> 00:49:04,650
and if we cannot end now our
differences, at least we can help

626
00:49:04,980 --> 00:49:08,280
make the world safe for diversity

627
00:49:08,690 --> 00:49:14,030
For, in the final analysis, our most basic
common link is that we all inhabit

628
00:49:14,620 --> 00:49:21,370
this small planet. We all breathe the same air.
We all cherish our children's future.

629
00:49:22,040 --> 00:49:23,670
And we are all mortal.

630
00:49:27,500 --> 00:49:32,300
in september of that year, the senate
passed the partial nuclear test ban treaty

631
00:49:32,630 --> 00:49:35,260
by a vote of 80 to 19.

632
00:49:35,800 --> 00:49:39,430
presidential speech writer Ted Sorenson
believed that no other accomplishment

633
00:49:39,770 --> 00:49:42,850
in the white house ever gave
Kennedy greater satisfaction.

634
00:49:43,980 --> 00:49:48,780
this treaty is for all of us
it is particularly for our children

635
00:49:49,320 --> 00:49:53,360
and our grandchildren, and they
have no lobby here in Washington

636
00:49:54,110 --> 00:50:00,370
According to the ancient Chinese proverb
a journey of a 1000 miles must begin with

637
00:50:00,700 --> 00:50:05,500
a single step. My fellow americans,
let us take that first step.

638
00:50:07,380 --> 00:50:11,840
and in another stunning reversal,
Kennedy called for replacing the

639
00:50:12,510 --> 00:50:16,220
space race, perhaps his most
signature initiative, with joint

640
00:50:16,890 --> 00:50:21,350
US-Soviet exploration of space and
an expedition to the moon.

641
00:50:21,810 --> 00:50:27,610
He said: international law, and the UN
charter will apply. Why should man's

642
00:50:28,150 --> 00:50:30,980
first flight to the moon be
a national competition?

643
00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:39,410
By the time John Kennedy drove into
downtown Dallas to begin his

644
00:50:40,160 --> 00:50:43,870
re-election campaign for '64
he'd made powerful enemies

645
00:50:44,250 --> 00:50:48,710
in the upper echelons of the intelligence,
military and business commmunities

646
00:50:49,460 --> 00:50:52,090
not to mention the mafia,
southern segregationists and

647
00:50:52,550 --> 00:50:55,380
both pro- and anti-Castro Cubans.

648
00:50:55,800 --> 00:50:59,760
in their minds, he was guilty of not
following through on the Bay of Pigs

649
00:51:00,850 --> 00:51:04,230
disempowering the CIA,
firing its leaders,

650
00:51:04,560 --> 00:51:08,610
resisting involvement in Laos,
concluding the test ban treaty,

651
00:51:09,150 --> 00:51:10,900
planning to disengage from Vietnam,

652
00:51:12,570 --> 00:51:14,400
abandoning the space race,

653
00:51:15,950 --> 00:51:18,370
encouraging 3rd world nationalism,

654
00:51:18,990 --> 00:51:23,160
flirting with ending the cold war,
and perhaps most damningly

655
00:51:24,160 --> 00:51:28,080
accepting a negotiated settlement
in the Cuban missile crisis.

656
00:51:33,550 --> 00:51:34,970
The rage towards him
was visceral.

657
00:51:38,930 --> 00:51:44,600
Kennedy had read the best selling
1962 novel Seven Days in May, which

658
00:51:45,270 --> 00:51:49,060
portrays a coup d'etat by a
Joint Chiefs of Staff furious

659
00:51:49,650 --> 00:51:53,780
over a liberal president's new
nuclear treaty with the Soviets.

660
00:51:54,650 --> 00:51:56,740
Your course of action in the past year
has bordered on criminal negligence

661
00:51:57,280 --> 00:52:00,030
this treaty with the Russians is
a violation of any concept of security

662
00:52:01,330 --> 00:52:02,530
You're not a weak sister, Mr. President.

663
00:52:03,290 --> 00:52:05,040
You're a criminally weak sister.

664
00:52:05,500 --> 00:52:09,420
He told a friend: it's possible, it
could happen in this country.

665
00:52:10,080 --> 00:52:13,590
If there were a 3rd Bay of Pigs,
it could happen

666
00:52:16,220 --> 00:52:17,630
This is Walter in our newsroom

667
00:52:19,640 --> 00:52:23,350
there has been an attempt that perhaps you
know now on the life of president Kennedy

668
00:52:23,760 --> 00:52:27,940
he was wounded in an automobile driving
from Dallas airport into downtown Dallas

669
00:52:30,770 --> 00:52:34,150
A dark page on the annals of America
has been written to the crack of an

670
00:52:34,610 --> 00:52:38,320
assassin's bullet.
A nation mourns, the world grieves.

671
00:52:38,990 --> 00:52:43,240
The man who became 35th president
less than three years ago, is dead.

672
00:52:49,160 --> 00:52:53,420
The Warren commission, strongly
influenced by ex-CIA director Allen Dulles,

673
00:52:54,500 --> 00:52:58,220
later concluded that Lee Harvey
Oswald was the lone assassin

674
00:52:58,760 --> 00:53:04,260
although, unlike most single assassins
with a cause, he firmly denied his guilt.

675
00:53:05,010 --> 00:53:08,850
The case against him was made
effectively by the national media

676
00:53:09,730 --> 00:53:13,440
but 4 of the 7 Warren commission
members expressed doubts.

677
00:53:13,860 --> 00:53:17,820
Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy,
governor John Connely who'd been wounded

678
00:53:18,360 --> 00:53:20,530
also questioned the findings.

679
00:53:21,320 --> 00:53:23,950
The public found the report unconvincing.

680
00:53:25,240 --> 00:53:30,080
We may never know who was responsible
or what their motive was, but we do know

681
00:53:30,620 --> 00:53:35,000
that Kennedy's enemies included some
of the same forces who would cut down

682
00:53:35,630 --> 00:53:40,470
Henry Wallace in 1944 when
he was trying to lead United States

683
00:53:40,880 --> 00:53:43,180
down a similar path of peace.

684
00:53:45,470 --> 00:53:48,890
Khrushchev would suffer an equally
ignominious though less bloody

685
00:53:49,430 --> 00:53:54,560
fate, as he was ousted by Kremlin
hardliners the following year.

686
00:53:55,020 --> 00:53:59,280
He became a critic of the Soviet
government and smuggled his memoirs

687
00:53:59,820 --> 00:54:02,780
out of the country to be published
in the west under the title

688
00:54:03,530 --> 00:54:05,280
Khrushchev Remembers

689
00:54:05,950 --> 00:54:07,450
became a best-seller.

690
00:54:08,240 --> 00:54:13,580
When he died in 1971, he was buried in
a corner of a Moscow cemetery.

691
00:54:14,580 --> 00:54:16,880
No monument was erected for years.

692
00:54:18,500 --> 00:54:22,880
Future generations owe an enormous debt
and possibly their very existence

693
00:54:23,760 --> 00:54:27,800
to these two brave men, who
stared into the abyss, and

694
00:54:28,350 --> 00:54:30,220
recoiled from what they saw.

695
00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:35,020
And they owe a special debt to an
obscure Soviet submarine commander

696
00:54:35,350 --> 00:54:40,280
who single-handedly blocked the start
of a nuclear war.

697
00:54:49,790 --> 00:54:52,960
With the ascension of vice-president
Lyndon Johnson, there would be

698
00:54:53,540 --> 00:54:56,460
important changes in many of
Kennedy's policies

699
00:54:57,330 --> 00:55:00,960
particularly toward Soviet union
and Vietnam.

700
00:55:01,510 --> 00:55:06,840
I will do my best, that is
all I can do.

701
00:55:07,720 --> 00:55:13,850
In his inaugural address, in the
morning of that decade in jan 1961

702
00:55:14,390 --> 00:55:21,070
let the word go forth from this time
and place, to friend and foe alike,

703
00:55:22,070 --> 00:55:26,860
that the torch has been passed to
a new generation of Americans

704
00:55:28,070 --> 00:55:33,120
but with his murder, the torch was
passed back to an old generation,

705
00:55:33,870 --> 00:55:38,920
the generation of Johnson, Nixon,
Ford and Reagan; leaders, who would

706
00:55:39,330 --> 00:55:42,840
systematically destroy the promise of
Kennedy's last year,

707
00:55:43,510 --> 00:55:46,880
as they returned the country to war
and repression.

708
00:55:48,050 --> 00:55:53,430
Though the vision Khrushchev and Kennedy
had expressed would fall with them,

709
00:55:53,970 --> 00:55:55,270
it would not die.

710
00:55:55,350 --> 00:55:58,310
The seeds they had planted would
germinate and sprout again

711
00:55:58,850 --> 00:56:00,520
long after their deaths.

712
00:56:02,480 --> 00:56:07,280
For those of us who lived through the
1960's, the Cuban missile crisis

713
00:56:07,950 --> 00:56:13,540
coming on the heels of the war scare
over Berlin, was a terrifying event.

714
00:56:14,830 --> 00:56:17,120
It was one of many nightmares, call it

715
00:56:17,660 --> 00:56:21,290
punches to the stomach of a new
generation of American people

716
00:56:21,630 --> 00:56:26,630
who had never seen history unfold so
quickly, so dramatically and in such a

717
00:56:27,090 --> 00:56:28,720
violent fashion.

718
00:56:34,310 --> 00:56:37,890
It would soon be followed by the
invasion of Vietnam, a blood bath

719
00:56:38,690 --> 00:56:43,270
a nightmare of America's own making
that would eat Vietnamese and Americans

720
00:56:43,820 --> 00:56:45,570
alive for almost a decade.

721
00:56:46,570 --> 00:56:49,950
More horrifying things were to come
by the end of that decade.

722
00:56:50,910 --> 00:56:56,700
But in hindsight, it was on that afternoon
in Dallas when John Kennedy's head was

723
00:56:57,160 --> 00:57:03,170
blown off in broad daylight. It was as if
a giant, horrific Greek medusa had

724
00:57:03,920 --> 00:57:07,210
unearthed its hideous face to
the American people,

725
00:57:07,760 --> 00:57:14,560
freezing us with an oracle of
things yet to come.