To Move The World: JFKs Quest for Peace

But the year before JFK came to Ireland was unforgettable for very different reasons. This book is a timely reminder that the Kennedy presidency had another watershed moment — in — which was unforgettable both for Ireland and the rest of the world because it could have meant the end of civilisation itself.

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The last great campaign of John F. To Move the World recalls the extraordinary days from October to September , when JFK marshaled the power of oratory and his astonishing political skills to set more peaceful relations with the Soviet Union and a dramatic slowdown in the proliferation of nuclear arms. Kennedy and his Soviet counterpart Nikita Khrushchev led their nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis, as the two superpowers came eyeball to eyeball at the nuclear abyss.

This nuclear near-death experience shook both leaders deeply.

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Together they would pull the world away from the nuclear precipice, forging a path for future peacemakers to follow. In this incisive account, Jeffrey Sachs shows how Kennedy emerged from the Cuba crisis with the determination and prodigious skills to forge a new and less threatening direction for the world. During his final year in office, Kennedy gave a series of speeches in which he pushed back against the momentum of the Cold War to persuade the world that peace with the Soviets was possible.

The oratorical high point came on June 10, , when Kennedy delivered the most important foreign policy speech of the modern presidency. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, and the kind that enables men and nations to grow, and to hope, and to build a better life for their children--not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women, not merely peace in our time but peace in all time.

Throughout the speech, Kennedy reminded Americans and Russians of the crushing costs of the current Cold War itself. His point was clear and overwhelming: Both the United States and the Soviet Union abhor war.

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They have never fought each other. They were allies in war. They can admire each other's virtue and valor. They risk mutual annihilation. They are squandering their wealth in an arms race.

To Move the World: JFK's Quest for Peace

Therefore, they also share a common interest in peace In reaching this conclusion, Kennedy's rhetoric soared with empathy and insight, in what to my mind are the most eloquent and important words of the speech, and perhaps of his presidency:. So let us not be blind to our differences, but let us also direct attention to our common interests and the means by which those differences can be resolved.

And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.

For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air.

To Move the World: JFK's Quest for Peace by Jeffrey D. Sachs

We all cherish our children's futures. Good evening, my fellow citizens, I speak to you tonight in a spirit of hope.

Eighteen years ago the advent of nuclear weapons changed the course of the world as well as the war. Since that time, all mankind has been struggling to escape from the darkening prospect of mass destruction on earth.

By the time the Treaty had reached the U. Senate on September 9, , ninety countries had signed it. The Treaty was finally ratified by the U. Senate on September 24, , by a vote of 80 to Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, His quest for peace, however, lived on.

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There were several subsequent disarmament treaties that were negotiated as a result. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan created yet another security dilemma, and it was withdrawn from Senate consideration by U. After the Soviet Union dissolved in the late s, the U. At over seven billion people, the current global population is more than double what it was when Kennedy was president. The challenges we face in our time impact over twice as many people as they did then.

Also, our world is vastly more interconnected due to globalization of trade, markets, and technology, including social networks and social media fueled by instantaneous communication via the internet. These countries are basically ignored until they erupt into violence, due to economic hardship, and then they are treated as threats to global security and dealt with militarily. Kennedy initiated several programs to address poverty in the developing world: However, his focus on poverty is not supported by U. Kennedy pursued a vision of peace through international cooperation and economic development.

It is a book that made me proud to be an American, and also reminded me to be cognizant of the full weight of that responsibility. She then studied Russian Language and Literature in a year-long, multi-level course. The security dilemma holds that a defensive action by one side will often be viewed by the other side as an offensive action. The preamble stated two purposes:.