Chris Hedges & Jeffrey Sachs Discuss What JFK Tried to Achieve Before Assassination, and How Modern American Presidents Have Lost Lesson Kennedy Learned

 

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. 

~ John F. Kennedy

Watching programs and clips dating back to the days of the presidential administration of John F. Kennedy, you really get a feel for how the country must have felt good and confident about a bright present and a brilliant future.

Simply put, the early 1960's were John F. Kennedy's moment in the sun. The country seemed to be in a good place, and Kennedy was a leader who inspired, both domestically and internationally. 

In this video, Jeffrey Sachs, the author of  "To Move the World: JFK's Quest for Peace," talks with Chris Hedges about the hard lessons that Kennedy learned following the extremely dangerous Cuban Missile Crisis, where we came closer to World War III, and possibly nuclear holocaust, than most people realize. 

Kennedy was being pressured by war hawks within the military industrial complex, who were pining for a very aggressive stance towards the Soviet Union and Cuba. This even included the possibility of a nuclear strike on Cuba, which was an option that was taken seriously at the time. Fortunately, Kennedy pulled back a little, and began to understand just how extremely dangerous and ill-advised the aggressive stance by the hawks who surrounded him actually was. 

After that experience, Kennedy decided that this was too dangerous not to address. To that end, he drafted a foreign policy speech that humanized the people of the Soviet Union, trying to make Americans understand that Russians did not want nuclear holocaust anymore than Americans did. That they were legitimately interested in peace, and that since we have this in common, we can work with them to negotiate a pace.

One of the key aspects of this was something that Kennedy had come to understand after the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was simply not to back a nuclear power into a corner, and not to humiliate them. Demonizing them does not work, nor does humiliating them.

Yet this lesson has been lost with more recent American leaders, who seem intent on once again trying to humiliate Russians and demonize Putin. Some feel that Putin is just so evil, that there should be no negotiating with such a monster. But this is a very dangerous policy in a world that feels less stable than ever before.

Personally, I always felt that the general American attitude following the Cold War was foolish and arrogant. That whole "we won and you lost" approach is unfortunate, but it is particularly dangerous when it comes from our own leaders. Ironically, the Democrats - often known for softer stances on foreign policy - have been the ones who have been the blindest in their hawkish stance towards Russia in the post-Cold War world. From Clinton's backtracking on the promise by George H.W. Bush not to expand NATO one inch closer to Russian territory, to Hillary Clinton falsely blaming Putin's Russia for her election loss, to the stance of the Biden administration which effectively demonizing Putin and Russia in the present day, it appears that the Democrats have lost sight of the lesson that Kennedy learned the hard way back in October of 1962. 

We could do worse than to learn the lesson the Kennedy learned the hard way over six decades ago now. 

Take a look at this video, with this fascinating discussion between Hedges and Sachs. 

What JFK tried to do before his assassination w/Jeffrey Sachs | The Chris Hedges Report