The Oxford Dictionary has an elegantly simple definition of “a system in which one country controls other countries, often after defeating them in a war.”
John F. Kennedy was an anti-imperialist in word and deed, and thus the purpose of this to make five speeches and one telegram available in book form that shine a light on this fundamental, but strangely overlooked, element of his nature and worldview
Was Kennedy a member of the establishment? Yes, of course, he was, but he was a member of the establishment who used his position, first as a Senator from Massachusetts and then as the President of the United States, to publicly articulate over and over again an alternative vision of how the United States could use its power and wealth in the world peacefully and in a way that supported the independence and development of poorer, weaker nations.
One may object that speeches are “just words” and that “talk is cheap”, but speeches consume political capital and they come at a cost. Kennedy’s speeches did indeed cost him and may have, along with his actions, materially contributed to his murder. He could easily have chosen less controversial subjects and opted instead for bland crowd-pleasers and empty “bread and circuses” promises that fit safely into the confines of consensus, but he did not. Instead, he chose to promote a picture of America that enraged very powerful forces.
Time Magazine (March, 2014) credited Ken McCarthy with being the person who had the fundamental insight that made it possible to transform the Internet from a non-commercial technical platform to the world's biggest marketplace and publishing platform.
His insight? That clicks had a commercial value and that their value was variable depending on audience. This insight is literally the foundation that made online businesses like Google and Facebook and millions of others possible.
In addition to this contribution, Ken was also:
1) the first to publish an article about email as a marketing tool in a marketing industry publication (1994)
2) one of the primary pioneers of the banner ad (1994)
3) early pioneer of auto-responder marketing (1996)
4) early pioneer of pay-per-click marketing (2001)
5) introduced "push button" audio to the Internet (2002), the foundation of the podcasting industry
6) early pioneer of practical online video marketing (2005), though he published the first article on the subject in 1994, and
7) early pioneer of mobile marketing (2008)
When Brian Kurtz picked the top living marketing people on the planet to honor the memory of Direct Marketing Hall of Fame legend Marty Edelson, he chose Jay Abraham, Gary Bencivenga, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, Greg Renker and Ken, along with Ken's student Perry Marshall, to represent the very best of the best in all mediums - direct mail, infomercials, catalog sales and Internet.
All that and a phenomenal educator too.
Ken organized and sponsored the first conference ever held on the subject of business on the World Wide Web, way back in 1994.
In 2002, when everyone else in the market had shut down after 9/11, and the Dotcom Crash, and declared that opportunities on the Internet "over", Ken launched the most important and influential Internet marketing seminar series of all time: The System Seminar.
Thousands of students attended over the years from twenty-three countries and five continents and many went on to become leaders in the industry.
In the System Seminar, Ken laid down the fundamentals of Internet marketing still used today: opt-in, email follow up, A/B split testing, knowing your conversion rates, multiple forms of media (text, photos, audio, video), "virtual" seminars, and high quality ad copy.
Mr. Book just finished John F. Kennedy Anti-Imperalist: His Character And Intentions Revealed In Five Speeches And One Telegram, by Ken McCarthy.
This book was published in June 2024.
This book shows how President Kennedy was opposed to American imperialism and nuclear weapons, by giving the text of five speeches and a telegram while in office. The first two speeches were when he was a member of the Senate. Most of them also included a brief section giving the historical background to the speech. Among the speeches were his famous American University speech on peace and his speech on the nuclear weapon test ban treaty.
As the author correctly pointed out, Kennedy’s opposition to imperialism and desire for peace very likely resulted in his assassination.
I give this book an A.
Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
This review has been posted at Mr. Book’s Book Reviews, and Goodreads.