Interview · moment 5 of 20
JFK's Peace Speech and the Military Industrial Complex
from Slumbering Herds of Cattle · #12
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
3 minGuest
Talbot explains JFK's turn toward peace after the Cuban Missile Crisis, his American University 'peace speech,' and his theory that the military industrial complex had JFK killed for challenging its power; discussion of Dulles's outsized role creating the CIA.
- 10:59Historians portrayed JFK as a cold war hawk, but he was actually always looking for peace and trying to untie the nuclear knot with the Soviet Union.
- 11:43After the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, JFK becomes determined to achieve peace and delivers the American University speech in summer 1963.
- 11:56JFK's peace speech challenges Americans to see Russians as fellow human beings and fellow citizens of the planet rather than enemies to hate and fear.
- 12:23Tim believes JFK's effort to extricate the country from the Cold War is what got him killed, because the military industrial complex is too powerful to tolerate a president challenging it.
- 13:02Allen Dulles shaped the past hundred years more than most people realize—he was essentially the godfather of the modern American intelligence system.
- 13:29Dulles single-handedly pushed through the law creating the CIA in 1947 and lobbied to transform it from a simple intelligence-gathering agency into an aggressive militaristic one that overthrew governments.
John F. Kennedymilitary-industrial complexNikita KhrushchevCIAChris MatthewsCold WarAllen Dulles