JFK State of the Union Address (1963) (Part 1)

January 14, 1963 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002PTVMWO?ie=UTF8&tag=doc06-20&link... Watch the full speech: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/08/john-f-kennedy-state-of-union-add...

The Eighty-eighth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1963 to January 3, 1965, during the last year of the administration of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and the first administration of his successor, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson. The apportionment of seats in this House of Representatives was based on the Eighteenth Census of the United States in 1960, and the number of members was again 435 (had temporarily been 437 in order to seat one member each from recently-admitted states of Alaska and Hawaii). Both chambers had a Democratic majority.

The extent of Kennedy's involvement in Vietnam remained classified until the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971. In Southeast Asia, Kennedy followed Eisenhower's lead by using limited military action as early as 1961 to fight the Communist forces led by Ho Chi Minh. Proclaiming a fight against the spread of Communism, Kennedy enacted policies providing political, economic, and military support for the unstable French-installed South Vietnamese government, which included sending 16,000 military advisors and U.S. Special Forces to the area. Kennedy also authorized the use of free-fire zones, napalm, defoliants, and jet planes. U.S. involvement in the area escalated until Lyndon Johnson, his successor, directly deployed regular U.S. forces for fighting the Vietnam War.

By July 1963, Kennedy faced a crisis in Vietnam: despite increased U.S. support, the South Vietnamese military was only marginally effective against pro-Communist Viet Minh and Viet Cong forces. Regarding Ngo Dinh Diem, the Roman Catholic President of South Vietnam, as insufficiently anti-Communist, the U.S. gave secret assurances of non-interference for an impending coup d'état. On November 1, 1963, South Vietnamese generals overthrew the Diem government, arresting and soon killing Diem (though the circumstances of his death were obfuscated). Kennedy sanctioned Diem's overthrow. One reason to support the coup was a fear that Diem might negotiate a neutralist coalition government which included Communists, as had occurred in Laos in 1962. Dean Rusk, Secretary of State, remarked "This kind of neutralism...is tantamount to surrender."

During his time in office, Kennedy increased the number of U.S. military in Vietnam from 800 to 16,300. It remains a point of some controversy among historians whether or not Vietnam would have escalated to the point it did had Kennedy served out his full term and been re-elected in 1964. Fueling the debate are statements made by Kennedy and Johnson's Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara that Kennedy was strongly considering pulling out of Vietnam after the 1964 election. In the film "The Fog of War", not only does McNamara say this, but a tape recording of Lyndon Johnson confirms that Kennedy was planning to withdraw from Vietnam, a position Johnson states he strongly disapproved of. Additional evidence is Kennedy's National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 263, dated October 11, 1963, which ordered withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963. Nevertheless, given the stated reason for the overthrow of the Diem government, such action would have been a policy reversal, but Kennedy was generally moving in a less hawkish direction in the Cold War since his acclaimed speech about World Peace at American University the previous June 10, 1963. According to historian Lawrence Freedman, regarding Kennedy's statements about withdrawing from Vietnam, it was, "less of a definite decision than a working assumption, based on a hope for stability rather than an expectation of chaos."

After Kennedy's assassination, the new President Lyndon B. Johnson immediately reversed his predecessor's order to withdraw 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963 with his own NSAM 273 on November 26, 1963.

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[AmazingArchive]

Interesting that the audio for the tax cut part of the speech is missing. "This net reduction in tax liabilities of $10 billion will increase the purchasing power of American families and business enterprises in every tax bracket, with greatest increase going to our low-income consumers. It will, in addition, encourage the initiative and risk-taking on which our free system depends--induce more investment, production, and capacity use--help provide the 2 million new jobs we need every year..."

[mrbrandon71]

I don't notice any sweat. But what I notice is the last REAL PRESIDENT this country had or will ever have again:-)

[TakeBackAmerica2012]

@mrbrandon71  Amen to that!!

[firmingitup]

Wow, look how close Johnson is sitting to the guy next to him. I mean, he is right on top of him!

[TakeBackAmerica2012]

@mrbrandon71 OMG you said it........................this is where I go when I want to try and remember what a real leader looks and sounds like.

[TheJasonDR]

@heartlessvietboy Their is a great Documentary named Che ...which is amazing ...but I dont know where they got the weapons but they had this revolution supported by the Soviets...and after the cuban Missile Crisis we placed an embargo on Cuba as a punishment and still we have an embargo against them..oo and JFK prepared the military and all the Nukes to end the world during the Cuban missile crisis but he agreed to remove the Nukes from Turkey if the Soviets removed the Nukes from Cuba thats it

[heartlessvietboy]

I asked you how did they have the power? Were they part of Batista's Military? How did they have guns?

[TheJasonDR]

@heartlessvietboy Che was the most famous revolutionist in history...you will see him on T shirts...and stuff...he does have the most famous picture of the 20th century... look up Che on Google....but Cubans have suffered because of him ...although he does represent Revolution ... but in reality JFK was glorified because of the assassination ...

[heartlessvietboy]

Who was Che and Fidel and how did they have the power?

[TheJasonDR]

@heartlessvietboy well...it seems you dont know the history here...look we freed the cubans from the Spaniards...and they had their little nation ....then Che and Fidel came along and overthrew the cuban govt that was supported by the U.S....and placed a communist govt over cuba....and Nixon was planning an invasion of cuba....but JFK won ...then the Soviets came to cuba and Placed Nukes their and they were capable of blowing up NYC and that was the cuban missile crisis..we prepared everything

[heartlessvietboy]

If we freed Cuba from the Spanish Government, how come then there were still problems? President Kennedy was elected because the Catholic Irish voted for him?

[TheJasonDR]

@heartlessvietboy we freed the Cubans from the Spaniards you know ....and times have not changed much since then ....if you watch a debate between Nixon and JFK ...you will notice that they talk about the same thing we are talking about today....except they had less to worry about...Nixon talked about anti Govt which is a republican core Idea...and Kennedy talked about how great democrats were....even though he only got elected because of the catholic Irish ..