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Kennedy had campaigned as a fierce anti-communist, but the humiliating Bay of Pigs invasion in the early months of his presidency began to open his eyes. Furious, he excoriated 鈥渢hose CIA bastards鈥� and Joint Chiefs 鈥渟ons of bitches鈥� and threatened to 鈥渟hatter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.鈥� His contempt for the military and intelligence community was reinforced by their pressure on him during the 1962 crisis to bomb missile sites in Cuba, invade the island, and topple the Castro government, advice we now know would have triggered World War III. 听

Realizing, as did Kennedy, that they had averted war as much by luck as by statesmanship, Nikita Khrushchev reached out to Kennedy with an appeal to halt the madness. 鈥淓vil has brought some good,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淭he good is that now people have felt more tangibly the鈥� burning flames of thermonuclear war and have a more clear realization of the threat looming over them if the arms race is not stopped.鈥� He daringly proposed eliminating 鈥渆verything in our relations capable of generating a new crisis.鈥� He offered a nonaggression treaty between the Warsaw Pact and NATO but even better, he said, why not 鈥渄isband all military blocs?鈥� He called for an end to all nuclear tests, as a step toward complete disarmament, encouraged resolution of differences over Germany and China, and urged Kennedy to offer his own counterproposals. But Kennedy鈥檚 lukewarm response dashed Khrushchev鈥檚 hopes for real progress. 听

A visit to Moscow in early December by Saturday Review editor and antinuclear activist Norman Cousins broke the impasse. Kennedy had asked him to help convince Khrushchev that Kennedy also wanted to improve relations and negotiate an arms control treaty. Cousins and Khrushchev met for over three hours, during which Khrushchev said something that remains haunting in its simplicity and incontrovertible truth: 鈥淧eace is the most important goal in the world. If we don鈥檛 have peace and the nuclear bombs start to fall, what difference will it make whether we are Communists or Catholic or capitalists or Chinese or Russians or 艾可直播s? Who could tell us apart? Who will be left to tell us apart?鈥� 听

Cousins revisted Moscow to speak with Khrushchev in April 1963 and, upon return, conveyed Khrushchev鈥檚 frustration with Kennedy鈥檚 thus far tepid response. Kennedy asked what he could do to reassure the Soviet leader of his sincerity. Cousins urged Kennedy to deliver a stirring speech calling for ending the Cold War and starting a new era of US-Soviet comity. He even submitted a draft, which Ted Sorenson and other close Kennedy advisors built upon without any input from the CIA, State Department, or Joint Chiefs of Staff. 听

On June 10, Kennedy proffered his vision for world peace to 艾可直播 University students, faculty, and guests. He said he had 鈥渃hosen this time and place to discuss鈥he most important topic on earth: world peace.鈥� 鈥淲hat kind of peace do we seek?鈥� he asked. 鈥淣ot a Pax 艾可直播a enforced on the world by 艾可直播 weapons of war but the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living鈥� that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children鈥攏ot merely peace for 艾可直播s but peace for all men and women鈥攏ot merely peace in our time but peace for all time.鈥� War, he insisted, makes no sense 鈥渋n an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost 10 times the explosive force delivered by all of the allied air forces in the Second World War鈥� when 鈥淎ll we have built, all we have worked for, would be destroyed in the first 24 hours.鈥澨�

He then went even further: 鈥淟et us re-examine our attitude toward the Cold War,鈥� he said. As if speaking to 艾可直播 and Russian leaders 60 years into the future, he wisely advised, 鈥淣uclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy鈥攐r of a collective death-wish for the world.鈥� And embedded in the speech is one passage whose poignance has haunted listeners for generations, much like Martin Luther King鈥檚 prescient and unforgettable speech the night before his assassination. Kennedy said, 鈥淎nd if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children鈥檚 future. And we are all mortal.鈥澨�

But it was the prospect of improving relations with the Soviet Union that excited him the most. 鈥淚t is sad,鈥� he admitted, to 鈥渞ealize the extent of the gulf between us. But it is also鈥 warning to the 艾可直播 people not to鈥ee only a distorted and desperate view of the other side, not to see conflict as inevitable, accommodations as impossible, and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.鈥� 听

Khrushchev called it 鈥渢he greatest speech by any 艾可直播 president since Roosevelt.鈥� Although Kennedy would barely survive another four months before being cut down in Dallas, and the old Cold Warrior in him would occasionally again raise its head, it was clear that Kennedy was intent upon changing the course of history, as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and others confirmed. He proudly achieved the first nuclear arms control agreement and intended to withdraw US troops from Vietnam. He took steps to replace the space race with joint exploration and even contemplated a much-needed course correction on Cuba. He told friends that he would conclude another arms control agreement and then become the first sitting president to ever visit the communist heartland, where he would receive a hero鈥檚 welcome. That this never occurred was a tragedy of unspeakable proportions鈥攐ne from which the world has still not recovered as today鈥檚 proxy war between Russia and NATO in Ukraine makes sadly and dangerously apparent.听