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KENNEDY, John. F. Typescript address entitled, "The Khrushchev Visit," KENNEDY'S REVISED READING COPY, containing some 150 words of holograph corrections in JFK's hand, plus notes and additions on several blank versos. N.p., delivered 1 October 1959. 21 pages, 4to, on versos only, text in large type for reading, in a quarter morocco clamshell case.
"IT IS FAR BETTER THAT WE MEET AT THE SUMMIT THAN AT THE BRINK": "LET MT. KHRUSCHEV TRY TO SURPASS THE UNITED STATES IN THE PRODUCTION OF BUTTER, HOMES AND TV SETS..."
JFK's important 1959 speech on Nikita Khrushchev's recent visit contains a broad but pointed statement of his views on U. S. - Soviet relations. Kennedy warns his countrymen not to underestimate the Soviet chief. In the aftermath of Khrushchev's shoe-pounding performance at the United Nations, some Americans were inclined to think that the Soviet dictator was merely a "vodka-drinking...buffoon, alternately scheming and screaming inside the Kremlin's walls." But Kennedy saw Khrushchev up close, during a session with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and he was greatly impressed: "Mr. Khrushchev is no fool...he is shrewd, he is tough, he is vigorous, well-informed and confident....I think it is important that we realize what we are up against. And I think it is important also that Mr. Krushchev recognize what he is up against..." The American and Soviet systems were fundamentally incompatible, but this did not mean they had to go to war: "It is far better that we meet at the summit," Kennedy says in the speech's most quoted line, "than at the brink..."
"IT IS FAR BETTER THAT WE MEET AT THE SUMMIT THAN AT THE BRINK": "LET MT. KHRUSCHEV TRY TO SURPASS THE UNITED STATES IN THE PRODUCTION OF BUTTER, HOMES AND TV SETS..."
JFK's important 1959 speech on Nikita Khrushchev's recent visit contains a broad but pointed statement of his views on U. S. - Soviet relations. Kennedy warns his countrymen not to underestimate the Soviet chief. In the aftermath of Khrushchev's shoe-pounding performance at the United Nations, some Americans were inclined to think that the Soviet dictator was merely a "vodka-drinking...buffoon, alternately scheming and screaming inside the Kremlin's walls." But Kennedy saw Khrushchev up close, during a session with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and he was greatly impressed: "Mr. Khrushchev is no fool...he is shrewd, he is tough, he is vigorous, well-informed and confident....I think it is important that we realize what we are up against. And I think it is important also that Mr. Krushchev recognize what he is up against..." The American and Soviet systems were fundamentally incompatible, but this did not mean they had to go to war: "It is far better that we meet at the summit," Kennedy says in the speech's most quoted line, "than at the brink..."