I remember reading about this speech and the more conciliatory tone it took toward the Soviet Union but I'd never actually read the speech itself. Here's a link -
http://americanrhetoric.com/...
Comparing the rhetoric of today's politicans to those of the past is sort of eerie. In our current case, the past is both an inspiration of what the United States can be and a depressing indicator of how far we've fallen.
As I understand Kennedy's administration, Kennedy felt like he looked very weak when he met with Khrushchev in 1961 and felt like he had to prove his strength, which partiallly contributed to the Cuban Missile Crisis. This speech in 1963 was supposed to be a new, confident Kennedy, strong enough to make peace and reconciliation the centerpiece of the address. It was delivered a little more than 5 months before he was assassinated.
Some choice quotes below the fold.
I have, therefore, chosen this time and place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth too rarely perceived. And that is the most important topic on earth: peace. What kind of peace do I mean and what kind of a peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, and the kind that enables men and nations to grow, and to hope, and build a better life for their children -- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women, not merely peace in our time but peace in all time.
And later...
And second, let us reexamine our attitude towards the Soviet Union. It is discouraging to think that their leaders may actually believe what their propagandists write. It is discouraging to read a recent, authoritative Soviet text on military strategy and find, on page after page, wholly baseless and incredible claims, such as the allegation that American imperialist circles are preparing to unleash different types of war, that there is a very real threat of a preventive war being unleashed by American imperialists against the Soviet Union, and that the political aims -- and I quote -- "of the American imperialists are to enslave economically and politically the European and other capitalist countries and to achieve world domination by means of aggressive war."
Truly, as it was written long ago: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth."
Now, how does Kennedy frame these comments? Think about what Bush (or Bill Kristol) might say about Khamenei or Ahmadinejad uttering similar comments. It's proof of the aggressive danger of Iran! We have to take them seriously when they state their intentions! Remember Munich! But Pres. Kennedy takes a different route in his speech:
Yet it is sad to read these Soviet statements, to realize the extent of the gulf between us. But it is also a warning, a warning to the American people not to fall into the same trap as the Soviets, not to see only a distorted and desperate view of the other side, not to see conflict as inevitable, accommodation as impossible, and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.
No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue. As Americans, we find communism profoundly repugnant as a negation of personal freedom and dignity. But we can still hail the Russian people for their many achievements in science and space, in economic and industrial growth, in culture, in acts of courage.
Wow. It sounds totally shocking because ideas like that seem to have been banished from our national discourse, but how powerful could those ideas be today, if they found the right messenger?
Among the many traits the peoples of our two countries have in common, none is stronger than our mutual abhorrence of war. Almost unique among the major world powers, we have never been at war with each other. And no nation in the history of battle ever suffered more than the Soviet Union in the Second World War. At least 20 million lost their lives. Countless millions of homes and families were burned or sacked. A third of the nation's territory, including two thirds of its industrial base, was turned into a wasteland -- a loss equivalent to the destruction of this country east of Chicago.
These thoughts are a little more common today, but I certainly can't remember Bush ever declaring that we have a common interest with some of our enemies. Iran wants chaos in Iraq he ludicrously asserts. Democrats are a little better are pointing out our common interests often.
Here's something that might shock you -
To secure these ends, America's weapons are nonprovocative, carefully controlled, designed to deter, and capable of selective use. Our military forces are committed to peace and disciplined in self-restraint. Our diplomats are instructed to avoid unnecessary irritants and purely rhetorical hostility. For we can seek a relaxation of tensions without relaxing our guard. And, for our part, we do not need to use threats to prove we are resolute. We do not need to jam foreign broadcasts out of fear our faith will be eroded. We are unwilling to impose our system on any unwilling people, but we are willing and able to engage in peaceful competition with any people on earth.
Now it seems almost obligatory that all presidential candidates note that "all options are on the table" to prove they are resolute (and on the subject of jamming foreign broadcasts, if only we had had that same confidence when we shut down Moqtada Al-Sadr's newspaper, turning him into a national hero).
We have also been talking in Geneva about our first-step measures of arm[s] controls designed to limit the intensity of the arms race and reduce the risk of accidental war. Our primary long range interest in Geneva, however, is general and complete disarmament, designed to take place by stages, permitting parallel political developments to build the new institutions of peace which would take the place of arms. The pursuit of disarmament has been an effort of this Government since the 1920's. It has been urgently sought by the past three administrations. And however dim the prospects are today, we intend to continue this effort -- to continue it in order that all countries, including our own, can better grasp what the problems and possibilities of disarmament are.
Today we are developing new nuclear weapons.
Now, here's the saddest part at the very end-
The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough -- more than enough -- of war and hate and oppression.
We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we must labor on--not towards a strategy of annihilation but towards a strategy of peace.
Hopefully we can forgive Pres. Kennedy for that faulty prediction.