John F. Kennedy Quotes
Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place.
Kennedy, John F. Quoted in The Best and the Brightest, by David Halberstam, Random House, 1972, p. 76.
Most experts believe that this objective was sustained all through the Afghanistan War in the early 21st century.
Chamberlain’s military assessment of Russia’s military ability was yet another example of his faulty judgment. He was not alone however in that many British military experts and American as well, thought that Stalin and Russia could not hold out against Hitler and any military aid given to Russia would just fall into German hands. It was FDR assistant Harry Hopkins who went to Russia, toured the front, met with Stalin and other Russian leaders and observed the Russian people and then recommended to FDR that we send arms to Russia. It was a critical judgment. In the end, the Germans suffered more casualties on their Russian front than any other part of the war and it was the Russians who took Berlin though they suffered large casualties themselves.
Other nations had nuclear weapons but were not regarded as threats to national and world security. The problem was that Iran was the ONLY nation which was a theocracy in which the leadership strongly advocated death (martyrdom) to defend Islam; had for years had a population that on frequent occasions publically called for “Death to the Untied States”; Iran’s President is the only national leader and member of the United Nations that has called for the obliteration of another member state—Israel; has continuous supported the worst of the non state terrorist organizations by giving them arms and money. A small nuclear bomb smuggled into the US by terrorist organizations could make 9-11 look like a minor problem.
This quotation illustrates the derogatory and disrespectful attitude that many high level American officials then had towards Arab leaders. No one objected to or reprimanded Symmes for his use of the word “mongrels”. And he was the State Departments leading expert on the Middle East and Arab Cultures. In the photo, Symmes is the gentlemen on the right.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, often referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his work as president concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A Democrat, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the U.S. Congress prior to becoming president.
