John F. Kennedy is well spoken, persuasive and bold as witnessed in this speech from April 1961.
The speech known in some circles as the “Secret Societies” speech is listed on his library site as “The President and the Press: Address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association” and was given at the Waldorf-Astoria in NY.
The era was the Cold War. The timing of the speech is following the Korean War, during the Vietnam War and just before the Berlin Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis. He specifically mentions the events of recent weeks.
Tensions were high, fear in the air and conflict brewing throughout the world. (sound familiar?) At this time, President Kennedy obviously felt a need to speak to the Press on a responsibility to balance “freedom of the press” with “national security”.
This full version of the speech, gives an understanding of what President Kennedy was talking about.
There is a another shorter version of the speech with some great editing. It leaves the viewer or listener with a different impression of what was said and frankly takes things out of context.
Had we been in attendance, we would understand that the there were (are) two main threats being spoken of…
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
- The Risk of Surrendering Liberty for Safety
Some excerpts from President Kennedy’s speech:
The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.
Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it.
And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment.
That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know.
Later in the speech -
For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.
Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match.
I add this quote from Benjamin Franklin:
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
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