Kennedy’s Vision (4) The Race to the Moon

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Frank DeMarco

Did you ever wonder why Kennedy proposed a race to the moon?

Oh, we wanted to win what was called “the space race.” There was worry about the relative prestige of the communist and non-communist worlds. Communist societies had been thought to be hopelessly backward – until the Sputnik satellites of October and November, 1957, and until Lunik became the first vehicle to reach the moon two years later. Did this mean that communism really might be the wave of the future?

But already, by 1962, America’s scientific and technical, industrial and economic resources, had put it far in the lead in terms of missions of scientific value. Yuri Gagarin circled the earth in 1961, nearly a year before John Glenn made his historic three orbits in February, 1962. But we were clearly catching up.

Putting men on the moon by the end of the decade of the 1960s was going to cost a fortune, and the benefits to be gotten from it were speculative. Yet Kennedy made a strategic decision to commit the country to do just that, and he got the Congress to vote the money, back when $5 billion a year was real money.

Why?

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Kennedy’s Vision (3) The Third World

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Frank DeMarco

In the 1950s and 1960s, people divided the world into the industrially developed West, the Communist bloc, and the non-Western countries, including many recently freed European colonies — respectively, the First, Second and Third Worlds. In practice, use of the terms First World and Second World soon disappeared, but Third World persisted until it was replaced by the (inaccurate) term Developing Nations.

Third World nations, except Latin America, had mostly been freed from European control as a result of the two world wars. First the Turkish, then the German, Italian, French, Belgian, and British Empires were freed either as the result of defeat in war, or of economic exhaustion, or of pressure from the American government. In the post-World War II world, these new countries became Cold War pawns. Many Third-World intellectuals flitted with the idea of communism, or at least socialism, as the way to industrial and social development. Western governments naturally responded with alarm.

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Kennedy’s Vision (2) The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Frank DeMarco

John F. Kennedy knew that in his time we stood at a crossroads. He knew where he wanted us to go, and he knew some of the steps to take, and he knew how to lead so that the people would follow.

And then – and therefore – he was murdered, in cold blood, in broad daylight, in front of the crowds that were cheering him, and everything changed.

What didn’t happen can’t be mapped. But if we look at what he said, and did, in his short 34 months in office, we can get a sense of where he wanted us to go, and we can get a sense of how far ahead of nearly everyone else he was, and we can see what his murder cost us, and our children, and their children. And we can see what was saved from the wreckage. For one thing, he saved us all from being poisoned.

The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

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Kennedy’s Vision (1) — Civil Rights

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Frank DeMarco

Kennedy’s Vision

It was the worst day in American history. For almost three years, we had had a man with a unique historical perspective, with an independent place to stand, in a position to make real changes. We stood at the crossroads of two very different paths, and he knew where he wanted to take us, and he knew how to do it, and he knew how to bring the people along with him. And then – and therefore – he was murdered, in cold blood, in broad daylight, in front of the crowds that were cheering him, and everything changed.

I’m not going to write about the fact that he was killed by a conspiracy, nor who the members were, nor their motives. It’s all on the record, for any who want to know. If I pieced it together by long widespread and judicious reading, you can too. Instead on this 50^th anniversary of the crime, I want to look at Kennedy’s vision for the United States and for the world, as it can be deduced from his words and actions.

What didn’t happen can’t be mapped. But if you look at what he did in his short time, the man’s course can be plotted., and we can get a sense of what the nation and the world lost as a result of a criminal conspiracy to murder him, followed by another conspiracy to cover up the truth of who was responsible.

Civil Rights

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