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Nov. 23, 1995 - Bill Cooper
56:45
Kennedy #1
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Time Text
Light power of the hour, is the power of the time.
Light power for the purpose of purifying society.
You're listening to the Hour of the Time.
You're listening to the Hour of the Time.
I'm William Cooper.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first of the series of taped broadcasts that I discussed with you last night.
Amen.
So, tomorrow night, you will hear me wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, because this tape was supposed to have run last night, and tomorrow night's tape was supposed to have run tonight.
Tonight I begin a series of broadcasts covering the life, the election of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, his years in the White House, the assassination at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, the Warren Commission investigation and cover-up, the years of controversy that followed,
And some of the answers to some of the questions that we have all asked ourselves since that faithful day.
This story will run every night on the hour of the time, on consecutive nights, until it is finished.
The End
Thank you.
Thank you.
A few men in public life have ever displayed such wit in their writings and speeches as the late John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
This broadcast presents a collection of the very best of that famous wit.
Here is the late President, with his delightful humor and a selection of speeches and remarks taken from the 1960 campaign, his televised press conferences, his years in the White House.
David Brinkley brings his own famous style to the narration, and when you listen to the material on this broadcast, you will recall once again that the Kennedy wit was an essential ingredient of the Kennedy personality.
Adlai Stevenson expressed it best when he said this, To hear his voice again is to bring tears and smiles together as close as they can ever be.
Long ago I was struck by the mighty irony of Lincoln's words, with the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh, I should die.
Laughter could not save Lincoln from the ultimate tragedy, nor could it protect John Kennedy.
There is nothing more to say, except that this broadcast leaves us with a fitting and warm portrait of a great American who enjoyed, above all, the sound This is David Brinkley.
The material in this album came from the campaign speeches, ad-lib remarks, press conferences, and formal addresses of John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States.
All of it gives us an insight into his mind, heart, vitality, and an essential ingredient of his personality, the Kennedy wit.
You will hear words from his 1960 campaign, his televised press conferences, his trips to France and Ireland.
There are talks before labor unions and big business, remarks about his family and his political opponents.
You will hear Mr. Kennedy before a graduating class at West Point, telling a funny story about his Secretary of Labor, and one about a Democratic Senator from Florida.
And here, then, is the very best of the Kennedy humor.
A portrait of a man gifted with the ability to make people laugh at himself and at themselves.
A picture of a president who had wit and style as few in public life ever had before.
This is the Kennedy Wit, and we begin with the 1960 campaign.
Usually, a presidential candidate avoids appearing with his opponent in the same place at the same time.
But during the 1960 campaign, candidates Kennedy and Nixon did appear together.
They both accepted an invitation from New York's Cardinal Spelman to address the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria.
In listening to this speech, you'll recall two facts from the 1960 campaign.
One was the coolness between Nixon and Rockefeller, and the other was a statement made by former President Harry Truman that, as far as he was concerned, he knew exactly where all the Republicans could go.
In one of the Nixon-Kennedy television debates, Nixon criticized Truman's choice of language.
With that background, here's Kennedy as he spoke in New York in October 1960.
Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, Governor Rockefeller, Mayor Wagner, Mrs. Warner, members of the Senate, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I am glad to be here.
I'm glad to be here at this notable dinner once again, and I'm glad that Mr. Nixon is here also.
Now that Cardinal Thelma has demonstrated the proper spirit, I assume that shortly I will be invited to a Quaker dinner honoring Herbert Hoover.
Cardinal Stallman is the only man so widely respected in American politics that he could bring together, amicably, at the same banquet table, for the first time in this campaign, two political leaders who are increasingly apprehensive about the November election, who have long eyed each other and who have disagreed so strongly, both publicly and privately, Vice President Nixon and Governor Rockefeller.
Mr. Nixon, like the rest of us, has had his trouble in this campaign, At one point, even the Wall Street Journal was criticizing his tactics.
That's like the observatory Romano criticizing the Pope.
But I think the worst news for the Republicans this week was that Casey Stengel had been fired.
It just shows that fact experience doesn't count.
On this matter of experience, I had announced earlier this year that if successful, I would not consider campaign contributions as a substitute for experience in appointing ambassadors.
and Ever since I made that statement, I haven't received one single cent from my father.
One of the inspiring notes that was struck in the last debate was struck by the vice president in a very moving statement warning the children of the nation and the candidates against the use of profanity by presidents and ex-presidents when they're on the stump.
And I know after 14 years in the Congress of the Vice President that he was very sincere in his views about the use of profanity.
But I am told that a prominent Republican said to him yesterday in Jacksonville, Florida, Mr. Vice President, that was a damn fine speech.
And the Vice President said, I appreciate the compliments, but not the language.
And the Republican went on, yes sir, I liked it so much that I contributed a thousand dollars to your campaign.
And Mr. Nixon replies, the hell you say.
However, I would not want to give the impression I'm sorry.
But I'm taking former President Truman's use of language lightly.
I have sent him the following wire.
Dear Mr. President, I have noted with interest your suggestion as to where those who vote for my opponent should go.
While I understand and sympathize with your deep motivation, I think it is important that our side try to refrain from raising the religious issue.
When the Democrats met in Los Angeles for their 1960 convention, Kennedy's strongest opponent for the nomination was Lyndon Johnson.
When Hubert Humphrey withdrew from the race after his defeat in West Virginia, sentiment for Johnson, especially in the South, began to grow.
What you will hear now are Mr. Kennedy's remarks before a joint meeting of the Texas and Massachusetts delegations, assembled to hear the views of the two leading candidates, Kennedy and Johnson.
I'm glad we're not going to put these speeches to a vote after looking at Massachusetts and its effective delegates today.
Let me just say that I appreciate what Senator Johnson has to say.
He made some general references to perhaps the shortcomings of other presidential candidates, but as he was not specific, I assume he was talking about some of the other candidates and not about me.
I have found it extremely beneficial serving in the Senate with Senator Johnson as leader.
I think if I emerge successfully in this convention, it will be the result of watching Senator Johnson proceed around the Senate for the last eight years.
I have learned the lesson well, Lyndon, and I hope it may benefit me in the next 24 hours.
It is true that Senator Johnson made a wonderful record in answering those forum calls, and I want to commend him for it.
I was not present on all those occasions.
I was not Majority Leader.
As Linda knows, I never criticized.
In fact, on every occasion I said that I thought Senator Johnson should not enter the primaries, that his proper responsibility was as Majority Leader, and that we were He would like you and Wayne and I to sell this now.
We could, uh, come to a safe cut decision.
The Liberal Party is important in New York politics.
The Democratic candidate for president usually gets the Liberal Party endorsement as well.
And in September 1960, John F. Kennedy went to New York to accept it.
I accept your nomination, and I am proud of it.
I am proud to be the only candidate in 1960 with a nomination of two political parties, although I'm not certain how many tickets are now headed in how many states by Senator Goldwater. although I'm not certain how many tickets are now headed Thank you.
Thank you.
We had an interesting convention at Los Angeles, and we ended with a strong Democratic platform which we called the Rights of Man.
The Republican platform has also been presented.
I do not know its title.
but it has been referred to as the power of positive thinking.
I do not redob the title of liberal as an honorary degree.
I regard it as a license to preach the gospel of liberalism across this country.
But I think you know why this title could be conferred on my candidacy.
Just before you met, a weekly news magazine, with wide circulation, featured a section entitled, Kennedy's Liberal Promises, and described me, and I quote, as the Father South, Liberal Democrat around, unquote.
While I am not certain of the beatnik definition of Father South, I am certain that this was not intended as a compliment.
And lastly, as further proof of my credentials, a noted American surgeon, Which COVID is saying that our society may survive in the event of my election, but it certainly won't be what it was.
I would like to think he was complimenting me, but I'm not sure he was.
Prior to the 1960 convention, former President Truman said at a press conference, Senator Kennedy was not his first choice for the nomination.
Here's Mr. Kennedy's comment.
The last conversation to which he referred, an independent, was less decisive than that.
He said we must all join together Secure the best man.
I did not feel that on that occasion he was asking me to step aside.
Most Americans first became aware of the Kennedy wit in his televised press conferences.
It was there he displayed to the nation his quick, ready wit.
Many of President Kennedy's funniest remarks were in answer to reporters' questions.
Here is a selection of some of his most humorous quips, gathered from his sessions with the nation's press.
It seems in some quarters, sir, that big business is using the stock market slump as a means of forcing you to come to terms with business.
One reckonable columnist, after talking to businessmen, obviously, reported this week their attitude is, now we have you where they want you.
Have you seen any reflection of this attitude?
I can't believe I'm where big business wants me!
Mr. President, now that the U.S.
image is being transmitted instantaneously overseas by a telestar, do you think the U.S.
networks should make a greater effort to do something about the vast wasteland?
I'm going to leave Mr. Minow to argue the wasteland issue, I think.
Mr. President, the practice of managed news is a privilege of your administration.
Mr. Challenger says you don't have to decline.
Will you give us your definition and ask us why you find it necessary to practice it?
You are charging us with something, Miss Graydon, and you're asking me to define what it is you're charging me with.
I think you might... Let me just say that we've had very limited success in managing the news, if that's what we've been trying to do.
Why don't you tell us what it is that you get to in our people in the news?
Are you asking me?
Yes.
Well, I don't believe in managed news at all.
I thought we ought to get everything we want.
I think we should, yes.
I'm for that.
I'm for that.
Bold, bald, belled, bunched, and no record.
Well, he has a fondness for alliteration and for bees.
And I would not add Congressman Berry to that list.
I have a high regard for him and for the gentleman that he named.
But the Congressmen are always advising Presidents to get rid of Presidential Advisors.
That's one of the most constant threads that run through American history.
And Presidents ordinarily do not pay attention, nor do they make mistakes.
Two books have been written about you recently.
One of them by Hugh Sidey has been criticized as being too uncritical of you, and the other by Victor Lasky is being too critical of you.
How would you review them?
Would you read them?
I thought that, uh, I thought Mr. Seidey was quite critical, but, uh, uh, I haven't read, uh, all of Mr. Lasky except I've just gotten a flavor of it.
I've seen it highly praised by Mr. Drummond and Mr. Crock and others, so I'm, uh, I'm looking forward to reading it because the part that I read, uh, was not, uh, as, uh, brilliant as, uh, as I gather the rest of it is and what they say about it.
Senator Goldwater accused your administration today of the falsification of the news in order to perpetuate itself in office.
Would you care to comment on what was he referring to?
I'm making a speech here at the Women's National Press Club, and the point was that you and your administration are mismanaging the news and using it to perpetuate yourself in office.
Well, as I've said before, I think it would be Unwise at this time to answer or reply to Senator Goldwater.
I'm confident that he'll be making many charges even more serious than this one in the coming months.
And in addition, he himself has had a busy week selling TVA and giving permission to suggesting that military commanders overseas be permitted to use nuclear weapons.
Attacking the President of Bolivia while he was here in the United States, involving himself in the Greek election.
So I thought that it really would be not fair for me this week to reply to him.
President, would you give us your view of the elections Saturday and yesterday, whether they may reflect public reaction to your administration or to the part that you and Mr. Eisenhower took of them?
Can this election be a critical barometer?
Well, I'm always reluctant to claim that what happens in one election with one set of candidates necessarily means it will happen again at a later date with a different set of candidates.
But as I believe if Mr. Gonzalez and Mayor Wagner and Judge Hughes had lost, that it would have been interpreted as a stunning setback for this administration.
They won because they were effective candidates, but they all ran as Democrats.
And I believe that it indicates that the American people believe That the candidates and parties in those areas, as well as nationally, are committed to progress, and that's what they're committed to.
So I'm, uh, uh, happy, and, uh, I suppose someday we'll lose, and then I'll have to eat those, uh, worse.
You and your wife and other members of your family have been trying to go to private clubs and take part in other functions, even women's benefits and services, whether it was racial segregation, Now, I wonder if you don't think it's simply fair that the President of the United States, members of this Cabinet, U.S.
Ambassadors, and other officers of this government should decline to speak out and participate in functions where women newspaper reporters are barred?
I feel that I have many responsibilities and the press has Less, and I would think that the press should deal with that problem, and I'm sure that I think it would be most appropriate if the members of the press club had a meeting and permitted you to come and present your views to them.
And I will say that, as we are expected as presidents to comment on everything, I will say that in my judgment when a official visitor comes to speak to the press club that all working reporters should be committed here on a basis of equality.
That is not a social occasion, but a working occasion.
That happens to be my personal view and the members of the press club will have to decide it in the way they want.
They are entitled to have any arrangement they would want in regards, I could think, for social occasions.
But I would think that when there is an official visitor here as a part of a guest of the people of the United States and as a meeting held, that all reporters should come on a basis of equality.
At that, I'm not a member of the Press Club, except honorary, and therefore, what I give my view is an honorary member, not a President of the United States.
I guess we, uh, this, uh, chimpanzee who was flying in space, uh, took off at 10.08.
He reports that everything is perfect and working well.
Mr. President, in line, sir, with your statement a moment ago that you hoped that the relations between the United States and Russia would improve, Admiral Arnie Burke is quoted in some newspapers today in an interview in which he makes some rather sharp comments on American and Russian relations
And among other things, says that the United States Navy would sail into the Black Sea if it so chose.
I'm asking, sir, is this in line with your administration policy that all high officials should speak with one voice?
I have been informed, and perhaps Mr. Townsend can correct me, that that interview was given on January 12th, which was before the administration took over on January 20th, and before we gave any indication that we would like all statements to be Dealing with national security, to be coordinated.
I would say that this makes me happier than ever that such a directive has gone out.
Mr. President, your brother Ted recently on television said that after seeing the cares of office on you that he wasn't sure he'd ever be interested in being the president.
I wonder if you could tell us whether if you had it to do over again you would work for the presidency and whether you can recommend it down to others.
The first is yes, and the second is no.
I don't recommend it for us.
At least for a while.
Speaking of Valentine's Day, sir, do you think it might be a good idea for you to call Senator John Thurman of South Carolina down to the White House for a heart-to-heart talk?
Do you have an agreement over the censorship for military speeches and what he calls your defeated foreign policy?
Well, I think that That meeting should be probably prepared at a lower level, and then we'll get it done.
Perhaps in this connection you would tell them for us on the present general as you sit, speaking of your administration and speaking of the issue today.
Well, I can be more enjoying it less and so on, but I have not complained, nor do I I don't plan to make any general complaints.
I just, I read and talk to myself about it, but I don't plan to issue any general statements of the press.
I think that they're doing their task as a political branch, a fourth estate, and I'm attempting to do mine, and we're going to live together for a period, and then go our separate ways.
Mr. President, at the time of your controversy with the steel industry, You were quoted as making a rather harsh statement about businessmen.
I'm sure you know which statement I had in mind.
Oh, yes.
You would want to identify with him.
Did I want to comment on it?
Yes.
Oh, well, the statement, which I've seen repeated as it was repeated in one paper, is inaccurate.
It's a quote, my father, having expressed himself strongly to me, and in this, I quoted what he said and indicated that he had not been, as he had not been in the education, wholly wrong.
Now, the only thing that wrong with the statement was, but as it appeared in a daily paper, it indicated that he was critical of the business community.
I think the place was all businessmen.
That's obviously an error because he was a businessman himself.
Mr. President, you have said, and I think more than once, that heads of government should not go to the summit to negotiate agreements.
But only to approve agreements negotiated at a lower level.
Now it's being said and written that you're going to eat those words and go to a summit without any agreement at a lower level.
Has your position changed, sir?
sir.
Well, I'm going to have a dinner for all the people who've written it, and we'll see who he's, uh, what, uh...
Mr. President, there have been public reports that some high-paid Republican people have been making overtures to your Secretary of Defense for him to be their 1968 candidate for President.
Yes, sir.
Mr. President, if you thought that Mr. McNamara were seriously considering these overtures, would you continue him in your Cabinet?
I have too high a regard for him to launch his candidacy right now.
Mr. President, in the 1960 campaign, you used to say that it was time for America to get moving again.
Do you think it is moving?
And if so, how and where?
The reason I ask you the question, Mr. President, is that the Republican National Committee recently adopted a resolution saying you were pretty much a failure.
I sure was passed unanimously.
None of the cases proposed at a watchdog committee be created to look into these, sir.
If you'd like some kind of consent, I'd be fine.
Mr. President, the democratic platform in which you ran for election promises to work for equal rights for women and putting equal pay, to wipe out job opportunities and discriminations.
Now you have made efforts On behalf of others, what have you done for the women according to the promises of the platform?
Well, I'm sure we haven't done enough, and...
I must say I am a strong believer in equal pay for equal work, and I think that we ought to do better than we're doing, and I'm glad that you reminded me of it.
Thank you.
America, people come.
America, people come.
There's a song in the dust of a country road, on the wind it comes to call.
And it sings in the farms and the factory towns, and it's clear you'd think there'd be no song at all.
And the words are the words that our fathers heard as they whistled down the years.
And the name of the song is the name of the dream and it's music to our ears.
America!
America!
And the dreams go on!
America!
America and the dream goes on.
That we reach on a torch house for the fruits that make us free.
The more we remember the way we did, the closer we get to the best we can be.
Was there ever a time we forgot his word for the snuggled animal's car?
If we gave to the children a sky full of hope and a tank is filled with stars.
America, America, and the green gold.
We're happy with the voice of the sun and the sun's on the sea.
If you take advantage of the children a little home, America.
If it's hell to live in the new years, come for you, come to me.
America, America, America.
In the dust of a country road, a country lost recall.
There's things in the heart and a country thousand.
There's things that need no song at all.
And the words of the words that our fathers heard as they whistled down the years, and the name of the song is the name of the people and the music who are here.
America!
America, America, America.
It's a call to the best enemy and the most of the king.
And the way they thank the call of America.
It's a call to the way they go with heaven and it's asking us to be.
America, America.
My voices are changing the phone the same as the singers see the scene.
And as long as the music is strong and clear, we know that the Bible will always be free.
America, America.
America, America.
America.
To Bell Harbor, Florida to address the AFL-CIO convention.
He was accompanied by Arthur Goldberg, then Secretary of Labor.
When Goldberg sat down to listen to the President's speech, he soon found himself the subject of one of his funniest stories.
I, uh, want to express my pleasure at this invitation as one who has, uh, whose, uh, work and, uh, continuity of employment has depended in part upon the, uh, union movement.
I want to say that I have been on the job, training, for about 11 months and feel that I have some seniority rights.
I'm delighted to be here with you and with the Secretary of Labor, Ralph Goldberg.
I was up in New York stretching physical fitness.
And in line with that, Arthur went over with a group to Switzerland to find some of the gods there.
They got all up at about five, and he was in bed.
He got up to join them later, and when they all came back at four o'clock in the afternoon, he didn't come back with them.
So they sent out search parties, and there was no sign that afternoon.
The night, the next day, the Red Cross went out.
out and around.
It's going, Goldberg.
Goldberg.
It's the Red Cross.
And this boy came down the mountain.
I gave you the office.
Thank you.
One of the dangers of inviting a president to be the guest of honor at a dinner is that you're not always sure when he will show up.
At a fundraising dinner for the Eleanor Roosevelt Cancer Foundation in New York in May 1961, Mr. Kennedy came an hour and a half late I recognize that tonight I bear a heavy responsibility of having kept a distinguished group of Americans who paid $125 for this dinner, from that dinner, for an hour and thirty minutes.
especially in his reference to the distinguished guests on the bay.
I recognize that tonight I bear a heavy responsibility of having kept a distinguished group of Americans who paid $125 for this dinner from that dinner for an hour and 30 minutes.
But I will say that if I may quote an old deep side expression that what you have lost on the bananas you are going to make up on the apples.
Because this could have been one of the longest dinners in the history of these occasions.
Lyndon is good for 45 minutes when he or she is in the tent.
Ambassador Stevenson has been known to go for a very long time.
Frank Case has a long story to tell, and Bob Hope really is called upon.
So this might have gone to one or two in the morning, but because of My eminent journey to Paris will be out hungry, rather unhappy, because we will be home early tonight.
It is now 1.30 in Paris, and I am due there at 10.30, and I do not believe it would be a good start to keep the General waiting, so I shall be brief.
A few days after astronaut Alan Shepard came down to Earth from his historic flight into space, he was honored at the White House.
These ceremonies usually are cut and dried, but the President enlivened this one with these remarks, beginning with this one.
We have with us today the nation's number one television performer, who I think on last Friday morning secured the largest rating of any morning show in recent history.
Commander Shepard has pointed out from the time that this flight began and from the time this flight was a success, that this was a common effort in which a good many men were involved.
And I think it does credit to him that he is associated with such a distinguished group of Americans, whom we are all glad to honor today, his companions in the flight to outer space.
So I think we'll give them all a hand.
They are the tanned and healthy ones.
The others are Washington employees.
I am.
I also want to pay a particular tribute to some of the people who worked on this Flight, Robert Gilruth, who's Director of the Space Task Force Group at Langley Field, Walter Williams, the Operations Director of Project Mercury, the NASA Deputy Administrator, Dr. Hugh Dryden, Lieutenant Colonel Glenn, Jr., and of course, Jim Webb, who's Head of NASA.
Most of these names are unfamiliar.
If this flight had not been an overwhelming success, these names would be very familiar to everyone.
Senator George Smathers of Florida was one of President Kennedy's closest friends, dating back to when they were both members of the House of Representatives.
The President recalled their friendship in a speech at a Democratic fundraising dinner honoring Senator Smathers in Miami in March 1962.
Here is the President talking about Senator Smathers.
I was 32 when I was thinking about running for the United States Senate.
I went to them, Senator Smathers, and said, George, what do you think?
He said, don't do it.
Taunt wet.
Thank you.
In 1956, I got the Democratic Convention, and I said, I didn't know whether I'd run for vice president or not.
So I said, George, what do you think?
This is it.
They need a young man.
George Hamm.
So I ran.
I'm lost.
In 1960, I was wondering whether I ought to run in the West Virginia primary.
Don't do it.
That thing would run awfully fast.
And actually, the only time I really got nervous about the whole matter at the Los Angeles was just before the balloting.
Joyce came up and said, I think it looks pretty good for you.
President Kennedy was in rare form when he addressed the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 1962, shortly after his famous clash with the steel industry over the increase in the price of steel.
The increase was eventually canceled, but only after the President went on national television to take his case to the people.
In his speech before the Correspondents, he satirized his own television address.
I have a few opening announcements.
First, the sudden and arbitrary action of the offices of this organization in increasing the price of dinner tickets by $2.50 over last year constitutes a wholly unjustifiable defiance of the public interest.
This increase is not descended but is imitated by the gridiron, radio, TV, and other dinners.
It will have a serious impact on the entire economy of this city.
In this serious hour in our nation's history, when newsmen are awakened in the middle of the night to be given a front page story, when expense accounts are being scrutinized by the Congress, when correspondents when expense accounts are being scrutinized by the Congress, when correspondents are required to leave their families for long and lonely weekends at Congress, when correspondents are required to leave their families for long and lonely weekends at Palm Beach,
the American people will find it hard to accept this ruthless decision made by a tiny handful of executives. the American people will find it hard to accept this Whose only interest is the pursuit of pleasure?
All right.
I am hopeful that the Women's Stress Club will not join this bright rise, and will thereby force a rescission.
I'm, uh, sure.
I speak on behalf of all of us in expressing our thanks and very best wishes to Benny Goodman and his group, Miss Gwen Verdon and Bob Force, Miss Sally Ann Howes, Mr. Reed, who has some talent, but...
And Mr. Peter Sellers.
I have arranged for them to appear next week on the United States Steel Hour.
Thank you.
Actually, I didn't do it.
Bobby did it.
Like members of Congress, Congress, I have been during the last few days over the Easter holiday back in touch with my constituents and seeing how they felt.
And frankly, I've come back to Washington from Palm Beach, and I'm against my entire program.
Thank you.
A president, if he wanted to, could spend half his time accepting honorary degrees and making commencement speeches.
Mr. Kennedy was in great demand, especially in June when it was graduation time.
Not every college or university was lucky enough to get him, but two that were were Yale and West Point.
It was not unusual for the President to address the West Point class since he was the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
Yale, however, was a different situation since John F. Kennedy was one of the more illustrious graduates of Harvard.
Here are excerpts from Mr. Kennedy's speeches at Yale and West Point.
It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds, a Harvard education and a Yale degree.
I am particularly glad to become a Yale man because, as I think about my troubles, I find that a lot of them have come from other Yale men.
I would also like to announce at this time that as Commander-in-Chief, I am exercising my privilege of directing the Secretary of the Army and the Superintendent of West Point to remit all existing confinements and other cadet punishments.
and I hope that it will be possible to carry this down.
General Westmoreland was slightly pained to hear that this was intending in view of the fact that one cadet who I'm confident will someday be the head of the army has just been remitted for eight months and is about to be released.
But I'm glad to have an opportunity to participate in the advancement of his military career.
I want to say that I wish all of you the greatest success.
While I say that, I'm not unmindful of the fact that two graduates of this academy have reached the White House.
And neither was a member of my party.
Until I'm more certain that this trend will be broken, I wish that all of you may be generals and not commander-in-chief.
Here are examples of the Kennedy wit taken from speeches he made on three separate occasions.
The first before an AFL-CIO convention in New York City, then some remarks in 1962 at the University of California, And finally, one of the speeches he made on his first trip to Paris in 1961.
The other day I read in a newspaper where Senator Goldwater asked for labor support before 2,000 cheering Illinois businessmen.
Three years ago and one week, by a landslide, the people of the United States elected me to the presidency of their country.
Mr. President, Governor Brown, Dr. Pauley, Mr. Chandler, members of the Board of Regents, members of the faculty and fellows, students, ladies and gentlemen, the last time that I came to this stadium was 22 years ago when I visited it in November of 1940 as a student at a nearby small school for the game at Stanford.
And we've got a much, I must say, I had a much warmer reception today than I did, or my coach, Franz, did on that occasion.
In those days, we used to fill these universities for football, and now we do it for academic events, and I'm not sure that this doesn't represent a rather dangerous trend for the future of our country.
This city is no stranger to me.
Parisian design, the city of Washington, Pierre Lancar, who laid out our broad boulevard after living here in this community.
When he had finished these generous designs, he presented a bill with the Congress for $90,000, and the Congress of the United States, in one of those gross economic favors, for which they are justifiably famous, awarded him the magnificent sum of $3,000. for which they are justifiably famous, awarded him the magnificent Some people have been so unkind to suggest that your faux designers have been collecting his bill ever since.
Why?
One of the necessary chores for any president is to raise money for his political party.
Usually, after an election, dinners are held around the country to raise money and pay the party's debts, and the president is the star attraction.
After the 1960 campaign, the Democrats had no money, and President Kennedy dutifully appeared at numerous dinners to help raise some.
I spoke a year ago today to take you in order, and I'd like to paraphrase a couple of statements I made that day by saying that we are reserved tonight not a celebration of freedom, but a victory of party.
For we are sworn to pay off the same party debt our forebears ran off nearly a year and two months ago.
Our deficit will not be paid off in the next hundred days.
Nor will it be paid off in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this administration, nor perhaps even for our lifetime on this planet, but let us begin.
Remembering that generosity is not a sign of weakness, and that ambassadors are always subject to sending confirmations.
Well, if the Democratic Party cannot be helped by the many who are poor, it cannot be saved by the few who are rich.
So let us begin.
During the 1960 campaign, the majority of American newspapers supported the Republican candidate, Richard Nixon.
Mr. Kennedy was well aware that he was not the choice of most of the people in the audience as he made these remarks to a gathering of newspaper publishers a few months after his inauguration.
I appreciate very much your Generous invitation to be here tonight.
You bear heavy responsibilities these days, and an article I read some time ago reminded me of how particularly heavily the burdens of present-day events bear upon your profession.
You may remember that in 1851, the New York Herald-Tribune, under the sponsorship and publishing of Horace Greeley,
Employed as its London correspondent, an obscure journalist by the name of Karl Marx, we are told that foreign correspondent Marx, stone-broke and with a family ill and undernourished, constantly appealed to Greeley and managing editor Charles Diener for an increase in his munificence salary of five dollars per installment, a salary which he and Ingalls ungratefully labeled as the lousiest petty bourgeois cheating.
But when all his financial appeals were refused, Marsh looked around for other means of livelihood and fame, eventually terminating his relationship with the Tribune and devoting his talent full-time to the cause that would bequeath to the world the seeds of Leninism, Stalinism, Revolution, and the Cold War.
If only this capitalistic New York newspaper had treated him more kindly.
Right?
If only Marx had remained a foreign correspondent, history might have been different.
And I... I hope all publishers will bear this lesson in mind.
The next time they receive a poverty-stricken appeal from a small increase in expense account, an obscure newspaper man.
I have selected as the title of my remarks tonight, the president of the press.
Some may suggest that this would be more naturally worded, the President versus the Press, but those are not my sentiments tonight.
It is true, however, that when a well-known diplomat from another country Demanded recently that our State Department repudiate certain newspaper attacks on his colleagues.
It was unnecessary for us to reply that this administration was not responsible for the press, for the press had already made it clear that it was not responsible for this administration.
Nevertheless, my purpose here tonight is not to deliver the usual assault on the so-called one-party press.
On the contrary, in recent months, I have rarely heard any complaints about political bias in the press, except from a few Republicans.
Nor is it my purpose tonight to discuss or defend the televising of presidential press conferences.
I think it is highly beneficial to have some 20 million Americans regularly sit in on these conferences To observe, if I may say so, the incisive, the intelligent, and the courteous qualities displayed by your Washington correspondents.
Nor, finally, are these remarks intended to examine the proper degree of privacy which the press should allow to any President and his family.
If, in the last few months, your White House reporters and photographers have been attending church services with regularity, That has surely done them no harm.
On the other hand, I realize that your staff and wire service photographers may be complaining that they do not enjoy the same green privileges the local golf courses which they once did.
It is true that my predecessor did not object, as I do, to Whenever he addressed a meeting of the National Association of Manufacturers, President Kennedy knew he was not before the friendliest of audiences.
ever being a Secret Service man.
Whenever he addressed the meeting of the National Association of Manufacturers, President Kennedy knew he was not before the friendliest of audiences.
Here he is in December 1961 speaking to an NAM convention.
I understand that.
The End
The End
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