An inspiring look at the historic foreign policy triumph of John F.
Kennedy's presidency--the crusade for world peace that consumed his
final year in office--by the "New York Times" bestselling author of
"The Price of Civilization, Common Wealth, "and" The End of
Poverty"
The last great campaign of John F. Kennedy's life was not the
battle for reelection he did not live to wage, but the struggle for
a sustainable peace with the Soviet Union. "To Move the World"
recalls the extraordinary days from October 1962 to September 1963,
when JFK marshaled the power of oratory and his remarkable
political skills to establish 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, when the two superpowers
came eyeball to eyeball at the nuclear abyss. This near-death
experience shook both leaders deeply. Jeffrey D. Sachs shows how
Kennedy emerged from the Missile crisis with the determination and
prodigious skills to forge a new and less threatening direction for
the world. Together, he and Khrushchev would pull the world away
from the nuclear precipice, charting a path for future peacemakers
to follow.
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, 1963, when Kennedy delivered
the most important foreign policy speech of the modern presidency.
He argued against the prevailing pessimism that viewed humanity as
doomed by forces beyond its control. Mankind, argued Kennedy, could
bring a new peace into reality through a bold vision combined with
concrete and practical measures.
Achieving the first of those measures in the summer of 1963, the
Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, required more than just
speechmaking, however. Kennedy had to use his great gifts of
persuasion on multiple fronts--with fractious allies, hawkish
Republican congressmen, dubious members of his own administration,
and the American and world public--to persuade a skeptical world
that cooperation between the superpowers was realistic and
necessary. Sachs shows how Kennedy campaigned for his vision and
opened the eyes of the American people and the world to the
possibilities of peace.
Featuring the full text of JFK's speeches from this period, as
well as striking photographs, "To Move the World" gives us a
startlingly fresh perspective on Kennedy's presidency and a model
for strong leadership and problem solving in our time.
Praise for "To Move the World"
" "
"Rife with lessons for the current administration . . . We cannot
know how many more steps might have been taken under Kennedy's
leadership, but "To Move the World" urges us to continue on the
journey."--"Chicago Tribune"
" "
"The messages in these four speeches seem all too pertinent
today."--"Publishers Weekly"
"From the Hardcover edition."
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