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The Strategy Of Peace
New Harper & Brothers, 1960, 1960. Hardcover. Dust Jacket Included. Hard Cover. Ex Library with pocket Stated First Edition. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Written by Senator John F. Kennedy (before he became President) author of "Profiles in Courage." Edited by Allan Nevins. The foreigh policy speeches and statements on defense, peace, National security and related domestic issues of a leading Presidential candidate are here edited by an eminent historian, who has also contributed an introduction. The book includes the Senator's annotations and an interview with him by John Fischer. Very unusual to find this book
233 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1960
11 people are currently reading
249 people want to read
About the author
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
362 books439 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A Democrat, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress prior to his presidency.
Born into the prominent Kennedy family in Brookline, Massachusetts, Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in 1940, joining the U.S. Naval Reserve the following year. During World War II, he commanded PT boats in the Pacific theater. Kennedy's survival following the sinking of PT-109 and his rescue of his fellow sailors made him a war hero and earned the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, but left him with serious injuries. After a brief stint in journalism, Kennedy represented a working-class Boston district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953. He was subsequently elected to the U.S. Senate, serving as the junior senator for Massachusetts from 1953 to 1960. While in the Senate, Kennedy published his book, Profiles in Courage, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Kennedy ran in the 1960 presidential election. His campaign gained momentum after the first televised presidential debates in American history, and he was elected president, narrowly defeating Republican opponent Richard Nixon, the incumbent vice president.
Kennedy's presidency saw high tensions with communist states in the Cold War. He increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam, and the Strategic Hamlet Program began during his presidency. In 1961, he authorized attempts to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and Operation Mongoose. In October 1962, U.S. spy planes discovered Soviet missile bases had been deployed in Cuba. The resulting period of tensions, termed the Cuban Missile Crisis, nearly resulted in nuclear war. In August 1961, after East German troops erected the Berlin Wall, Kennedy sent an army convoy to reassure West Berliners of U.S. support, and delivered one of his most famous speeches in West Berlin in June 1963. In 1963, Kennedy signed the first nuclear weapons treaty. He presided over the establishment of the Peace Corps, Alliance for Progress with Latin America, and the continuation of the Apollo program with the goal of landing a man on the Moon before 1970. He supported the civil rights movement but was only somewhat successful in passing his New Frontier domestic policies.
On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. His vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, assumed the presidency. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination, but he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby two days later. The FBI and the Warren Commission both concluded Oswald had acted alone, but conspiracy theories about the assassination persist. After Kennedy's death, Congress enacted many of his proposals, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Revenue Act of 1964. Kennedy ranks highly in polls of U.S. presidents with historians and the general public. His personal life has been the focus of considerable sustained interest following public revelations in the 1970s of his chronic health ailments and extramarital affairs. Kennedy is the most recent U.S. president to have died in office.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A Democrat, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress prior to his presidency.
Born into the prominent Kennedy family in Brookline, Massachusetts, Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in 1940, joining the U.S. Naval Reserve the following year. During World War II, he commanded PT boats in the Pacific theater. Kennedy's survival following the sinking of PT-109 and his rescue of his fellow sailors made him a war hero and earned the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, but left him with serious injuries. After a brief stint in journalism, Kennedy represented a working-class Boston district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953. He was subsequently elected to the U.S. Senate, serving as the junior senator for Massachusetts from 1953 to 1960. While in the Senate, Kennedy published his book, Profiles in Courage, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Kennedy ran in the 1960 presidential election. His campaign gained momentum after the first televised presidential debates in American history, and he was elected president, narrowly defeating Republican opponent Richard Nixon, the incumbent vice president.
Kennedy's presidency saw high tensions with communist states in the Cold War. He increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam, and the Strategic Hamlet Program began during his presidency. In 1961, he authorized attempts to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and Operation Mongoose. In October 1962, U.S. spy planes discovered Soviet missile bases had been deployed in Cuba. The resulting period of tensions, termed the Cuban Missile Crisis, nearly resulted in nuclear war. In August 1961, after East German troops erected the Berlin Wall, Kennedy sent an army convoy to reassure West Berliners of U.S. support, and delivered one of his most famous speeches in West Berlin in June 1963. In 1963, Kennedy signed the first nuclear weapons treaty. He presided over the establishment of the Peace Corps, Alliance for Progress with Latin America, and the continuation of the Apollo program with the goal of landing a man on the Moon before 1970. He supported the civil rights movement but was only somewhat successful in passing his New Frontier domestic policies.
On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. His vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, assumed the presidency. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination, but he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby two days later. The FBI and the Warren Commission both concluded Oswald had acted alone, but conspiracy theories about the assassination persist. After Kennedy's death, Congress enacted many of his proposals, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Revenue Act of 1964. Kennedy ranks highly in polls of U.S. presidents with historians and the general public. His personal life has been the focus of considerable sustained interest following public revelations in the 1970s of his chronic health ailments and extramarital affairs. Kennedy is the most recent U.S. president to have died in office.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 2, 2021
I have been fascinated with President John F. Kennedy's life and personality for some time, and I never miss the opportunity to deepen my knowledge of this remarkable man with yet another book. Right now, I am researching Kennedy's involvement in Vietnam, and I picked THE STRATEGY OF PEACE, a collection of his senate speeches, because surely nothing can offer me a better insight into his thoughts than his own writings. Unfortunately, the limited time I have for my research allowed me to read only the chapter most pertinent to my work – Indochina and Vietnam. However, the clarity with which the President expresses his views on foreign policy impressed me so much I vowed to read the rest of the book as soon as I can spare the time. For now, I am reviewing only the chapter I studied.
When JFK visited Indochina in 1951, he realized that his country had allied itself with a colonial regime that had no real support among the Vietnamese people and that the French Army was being wasted in jungle warfare since 1946 without any positive results. Kennedy also saw that the only cause worth pursuing was to offer support to the Indochinese people in their struggle for genuine independence. In 1953, when the situation deteriorated further and US aid to the French amounted to over one billion dollars, he argued on the Senate floor that the war would never be won unless the Vietnamese people are won over with guaranteed post-war independence. He proposed building a strong native non-Communist force that would oppose the Viet Minh instead of helping the French save "the remnants of empire," and emphasized that in Indochina America should defeat Communism not for economic or political gain, but for the security of the free world and for the values of democracy.
As I learned from his speech, Kennedy was an ardent supporter of Diem, whom he praises for his courage and for his ability to release "the latent power of nationalism" and create an independent, anti-Communist Vietnamese state. The future President laments the fact that news about Vietnam had disappeared from American newspapers in the late 1950s. His description of the character of US foreign policy is remarkably precise and astute. With a tinge of irony, he calls it "the volunteer fire department for the world" because whenever and wherever "fire" breaks out – in Indochina, in the Middle East, in Guatemala etc. – American "firemen" rush in with their heavy equipment and extinguish it by resorting to every known method and then rush off to the next "fire," leaving the shocked native population to clean the mess and rebuild their homes with whatever (if any) resources are available. Although this role is useful, the fire department halts, but does not prevent, fires, warns Kennedy; it deals with present, but not with future, problems.
According to JFK, the only way to help Vietnam withstand a Communist overtake is to offer the Vietnamese a sweeping aid program that would revolutionize the political, economic, and social life of the country in a far more peaceful, democratic, and controlled way than Communism. America would have to replenish the capital of the country that had been drained by decades of exploitative French colonialism; train those segments of the population that had been deliberately kept illiterate and guide the nation towards a republican form of government. Then, the people of Vietnam would not be tempted by the glittering but ultimately superficial revolution the Communists were trying to seduce them with. "...[I]f this nation demonstrates that it has not forgotten the people of Vietnam, the people of Vietnam will demonstrate that they had not forgotten us," concludes Kennedy his call for action. His words never provoked the American government to react as constructively as he had hoped it would.
When JFK visited Indochina in 1951, he realized that his country had allied itself with a colonial regime that had no real support among the Vietnamese people and that the French Army was being wasted in jungle warfare since 1946 without any positive results. Kennedy also saw that the only cause worth pursuing was to offer support to the Indochinese people in their struggle for genuine independence. In 1953, when the situation deteriorated further and US aid to the French amounted to over one billion dollars, he argued on the Senate floor that the war would never be won unless the Vietnamese people are won over with guaranteed post-war independence. He proposed building a strong native non-Communist force that would oppose the Viet Minh instead of helping the French save "the remnants of empire," and emphasized that in Indochina America should defeat Communism not for economic or political gain, but for the security of the free world and for the values of democracy.
As I learned from his speech, Kennedy was an ardent supporter of Diem, whom he praises for his courage and for his ability to release "the latent power of nationalism" and create an independent, anti-Communist Vietnamese state. The future President laments the fact that news about Vietnam had disappeared from American newspapers in the late 1950s. His description of the character of US foreign policy is remarkably precise and astute. With a tinge of irony, he calls it "the volunteer fire department for the world" because whenever and wherever "fire" breaks out – in Indochina, in the Middle East, in Guatemala etc. – American "firemen" rush in with their heavy equipment and extinguish it by resorting to every known method and then rush off to the next "fire," leaving the shocked native population to clean the mess and rebuild their homes with whatever (if any) resources are available. Although this role is useful, the fire department halts, but does not prevent, fires, warns Kennedy; it deals with present, but not with future, problems.
According to JFK, the only way to help Vietnam withstand a Communist overtake is to offer the Vietnamese a sweeping aid program that would revolutionize the political, economic, and social life of the country in a far more peaceful, democratic, and controlled way than Communism. America would have to replenish the capital of the country that had been drained by decades of exploitative French colonialism; train those segments of the population that had been deliberately kept illiterate and guide the nation towards a republican form of government. Then, the people of Vietnam would not be tempted by the glittering but ultimately superficial revolution the Communists were trying to seduce them with. "...[I]f this nation demonstrates that it has not forgotten the people of Vietnam, the people of Vietnam will demonstrate that they had not forgotten us," concludes Kennedy his call for action. His words never provoked the American government to react as constructively as he had hoped it would.
October 26, 2011
This collection of Congressional addresses and speeches by JFK was published during his run for the Presidency in 1960. The speeches were delivered between 1956 and 1959, and the topics range from the nuclear arms race to Vietnam to the Middle East to China to domestic issues.
These speeches reveal the complexity of JFK’s opinions. He was a hawk who argued we had fallen behind the Russians on missile deployment, while also arguing for peace talks with the Russians on nuclear disarmament. He was for an increase in the size of the armed forces, while recognizing the limitations of the military. His stance on the Middle East reveals the complexity of our relationships with countries in that region was as challenging then as it is today.
JFK would be troublesome to both parties today. His bellicose language would upset liberals, while his call for more financial aid to developing countries would upset conservatives. He maintained that we should have pride in our nation, and be willing to demonstrate that pride with paying more taxes. The parallels between 1960 and 2011 are striking.
Growing up in the post-Kennedy era in Massachusetts, I would often hear people mourn how much we lost when Kennedy was killed. After reading JFK’s words, I better understand those laments.
These speeches reveal the complexity of JFK’s opinions. He was a hawk who argued we had fallen behind the Russians on missile deployment, while also arguing for peace talks with the Russians on nuclear disarmament. He was for an increase in the size of the armed forces, while recognizing the limitations of the military. His stance on the Middle East reveals the complexity of our relationships with countries in that region was as challenging then as it is today.
JFK would be troublesome to both parties today. His bellicose language would upset liberals, while his call for more financial aid to developing countries would upset conservatives. He maintained that we should have pride in our nation, and be willing to demonstrate that pride with paying more taxes. The parallels between 1960 and 2011 are striking.
Growing up in the post-Kennedy era in Massachusetts, I would often hear people mourn how much we lost when Kennedy was killed. After reading JFK’s words, I better understand those laments.
November 9, 2017
The bad thing about this book is it is old and kind of dated.
There are parts that simply don't apply to modern times.
That being read, there are some amazing parts where Kennedy predicts actions or lack of actions will cause x. Particularly in the Mideast, he was more than right.
There are parts that simply don't apply to modern times.
That being read, there are some amazing parts where Kennedy predicts actions or lack of actions will cause x. Particularly in the Mideast, he was more than right.
September 8, 2024
To be fully honest I will never read this book again. But I did find it interesting and I love learning more about jfks politics and having confirmation that he was in fact progressive for his time
own-need-to-read
March 26, 2008The copy I have is actually a paperback. It reads on the cover,
"The foreign policy speeches and statements on defense, peace, national security and related domestic issues of a leading presidential candidate are here edited by an eminent historian (Allan Nevins), who has also contributed an introduction. The book includes the Senator's annotations and an interview with him by John Fischer."
"The foreign policy speeches and statements on defense, peace, national security and related domestic issues of a leading presidential candidate are here edited by an eminent historian (Allan Nevins), who has also contributed an introduction. The book includes the Senator's annotations and an interview with him by John Fischer."
February 8, 2016
While parts of this book are dated others could not be more relevant. A modern reader could swap the word Communism with Terrorism and Soviet Union with ISIS and find the words of wisdom JFK shares 50 years ago just as sound today.
March 27, 2009
Kennedy wrote this book while in England. Not sure how much of it Ted Sorenson wrote.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews