President Kennedy warned against secret societies A speech given to the press in 1961

[kpete]

President Kennedy warned against secret societies A speech given to the press in 1961



"The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know.


http://www.michaeljournal.org/kennedy.htm

[frazzled]

1. Pretty funny given that Kennedy admin. secret papers were only released a few weeks ago

Fifty years later, shedding light on the administration's foreign policy.

JULY 25, 2013

Stamped “Top Secret,” the Defense Department memo set forth a bold and risky course — a plan to prevent communist domination of South Vietnam. In stark terms, it warned President John F. Kennedy that quick action was needed. More than half the country, it stated, was already under some degree of communist control.

“The Viet Cong over the past two years have succeeded in stepping up the pace and intensity of the attacks to the point where South Vietnam is nearing the decisive stage in its battle for survival,” the April 27, 1961, memo stated.

Calling the situation critical but “not hopeless,” defense officials called for a strong show of US support, a sense of urgency that would “impress on our friends, the Vietnamese, and on our foes, the Viet Cong, that come what may, the US intends to win this battle.”

The document was among some 7,500 pages of records released Wednesday from Robert F. Kennedy’s tenure as US attorney general in the 1960s, long-contested documents that scholars have been anticipating for years.

“It’s invaluable,” said Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst at the National Security Archive at George Washington University, which has pressed for the documents to be made public.

Kornbluh said the trove of documents should shed light on the Cuban Missile Crisis and US involvement in Vietnam, among other topics.
“The mosaic is finally being completed on the Kennedy administration’s foreign policy,” he said.

Researchers have sought the records for years, but the documents remained sealed under a controversial agreement between the National Archives and Ethel Kennedy, Robert Kennedy’s widow, that gave the Kennedy family control over the papers’ fate.

Critics have argued the public deserves to view the archives, which include many top secret government documents, and accused the Kennedy family of resisting their release.


http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/07/25/release-robert-kennedy-archives-sheds-light-kennedy-administration/J42I9qFt0QdfmKAHPFDPqN/story.html

[Bucky]

2. Jefferson held slaves. Washington lied. Lincoln suspended the Bill of Rights.

Nixon was a very bad Quaker. The point is the moral weight of the words of a person in a position to know.

[yurbud]

3. exactly.

[bobthedrummer]

4. Yep, and then THEY killed him...and SOLD US to the NWO masters and mistresses of the world

[bobthedrummer]

5. .

http://www.newamericancentury.org