Grolier Encyclopedia: on War & Peace
John F. Kennedy:
Any Cuban missile launched anywhere is an attack on the US
[On Oct. 22, 1962, President Kennedy reported on TV that the Soviet Union was deploying nuclear missiles in Cuba:I have directed that the following steps be taken immediately:- A strict [naval] quarantine on all offensive military equipment under
shipment to Cuba.
- Increased close surveillance of Cuba and its military buildup.
- It shall be the policy of this Nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union
on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response.
- As a necessary military precaution, I have reinforced our base at Guantanamo
- We are calling for an immediate meeting of the Organization of American States, to consider this threat to
hemispheric security.
- We are asking that an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council be convoked.
- Finally: I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to world peace.
Source: Grolier Encyclopedia article on JFK
Nov 8, 2016
John F. Kennedy:
1963: Negotiated first, limited Nuclear Test Ban
[On July 26, 1963, President Kennedy delivered a TV address on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty]:Since the advent of nuclear weapons 18 years ago, all mankind has been struggling to escape from the darkening prospect of mass destruction on earth. Both
sides have come to possess enough nuclear power to destroy the human race several times over.
Yesterday, negotiations were concluded in Moscow on a treaty to ban all nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water. For the first time,
an agreement has been reached on bringing the forces of nuclear destruction under international control--a goal first sought in 1946.
The treaty is a limited treaty which permits continued underground testing and prohibits only those tests that we
ourselves can police, [in the air or under water]. It requires no control posts, no onsite inspection, no international body. Nevertheless, this limited treaty will radically reduce the nuclear testing which would otherwise be conducted on both sides.
Source: Grolier Encyclopedia article on JFK
Nov 8, 2016
Lyndon Johnson:
OpEd: Military escalation in Vietnam was Johnson's undoing
While the nation became deeply involved in Vietnam, racial tension sharpened at home, culminating in widespread urban race riots between 1965 and 1968. It was the policy of military escalation in Vietnam that proved to be Johnson's undoing as president.
It deflected attention from domestic concerns, resulted in sharp inflation, and prompted rising criticism, especially among young, draft-aged people. Escalation also failed to win the war. The drawn-out struggle made Johnson even more secretive and
hypersensitive to criticism. His usually sure political instincts were failing.The N.H. primary of 1968, in which the antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy made a strong showing, revealed the dwindling of Johnson's support. Some of Johnson's closest
advisors now counseled de-escalation in Vietnam. Confronted by mounting opposition, Johnson made two surprise announcements: he would stop the bombing in most of North Vietnam and seek a negotiated end to the war, and he would not run for reelection.
Source: Grolier Encyclopedia article on LBJ
Nov 8, 2016
Lyndon Johnson:
We are in Vietnam to fight for freedom, like in WWII
[On July 28, 1965, President Johnson announced a major increase in US troop commitments to the Vietnam War. His words were later published as a pamphlet entitled "Why We Are in Vietnam."]Why must young Americans toil and suffer and sometimes die in
such a remote and distant place? The answer, like the war itself, is not an easy one, but it echoes clearly from the painful lessons of half a century. Three times in my lifetime, in two World Wars and in Korea, Americans have gone to far lands to fight
for freedom. We have learned at a terrible and a brutal cost that retreat does not bring safety and weakness does not bring peace.
It is this lesson that has brought us to Viet-Nam. There are great stakes in the balance. Most of the non-Communist
nations of Asia cannot, by themselves and alone, resist the growing might and the grasping ambition of Asian communism. If we are driven from the field in Viet-Nam, then no nation can ever again have the same confidence in American protection.
Source: Grolier Encyclopedia article on LBJ
Nov 8, 2016
Lyndon Johnson:
Must fight in Vietnam to keep promise from three presidents
If we are driven from the field in Viet-Nam, then no nation can ever again have the same confidence in American promise, or in American protection. We are in Viet-Nam to fulfill one of the most solemn pledges of the American Nation. Three Presidents--
President Eisenhower, President Kennedy, and your present President--over 11 years have committed themselves and have promised to help defend this small and valiant nation.Strengthened by that promise, the people of South Viet-Nam have fought for
many long years. Thousands of them have died. We just cannot now dishonor our word, or abandon our commitment, or leave those who believed in us and who trusted us to the terror and repression and murder that would follow.
This, then, is why we are in
Viet-Nam. We must have the courage to resist, or we will see it all, all that we have built, all of our dreams for freedom--all, all will be swept away on the flood of conquest. So, too, this shall not happen. We will stand in Viet-Nam. .
Source: Grolier Encyclopedia article on LBJ
Nov 8, 2016
George Bush Sr.:
Invaded Panama in 1989 to force Noriega from power
Bush relied on force to settle accounts with Panama’s strongman Gen. Manuel Noriega. In December 1989 Bush ordered troops into Panama and forced Noriega from power.
Noriega surrendered, was brought to trial in a U.S. court, and was convicted of a series of charges.
Source: Grolier Encyclopedia on-line, “The Presidency”
Dec 25, 2000
Ronald Reagan:
Grenada invasion: deter Soviets & Cubans
Several times Reagan took military action, either as an instrument of foreign policy or as a possible deterrent to terrorism. In October 1983 he ordered the invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada, declaring that Americans there were in jeopardy and
that the country had become a potentially dangerous Cuban-Soviet military base. The Grenada operation occurred just two days after a terrorist attack on the U.S. Marine peacekeeping contingent in Lebanon caused the death of 241 servicemen.
Source: Grolier Encyclopedia on-line, “The Presidency”
Dec 25, 2000
Page last updated: Feb 16, 2019