I was looking for something that would click in my mind, like when you just know puzzle pieces fit together… and, no, I haven’t heard anything like that yet.

Thanks, apology accepted. Thanks also for the link, saved it.

In his entire speech, he never mentions Russia in any form. Meanwhile, he does refer to some enemy in plural form, that is advancing from around the globe, i.e. “those who make themselves our enemy are advancing around the globe”, and “this nation’s foes”, etc. He also warned against religious involvement in politics in a different speech, which I think has gone mostly ignored at our own peril. People scoff at religion if they themselves aren’t religious, ignoring the fact that the leaders of the world are mostly very religious people (whether sincere in their religion or not). I mention this because I suspect these two were somehow connected in JFK’s mind.

For the sake of objectivity and truth, I’m trying to take into account my lack of any firsthand perspective. I just honestly cannot see how he was talking about the Soviet Union alone when I read what he said and how he said it. It honestly seems to me he had to be talking about something far greater.

Logical fallacy, how so?

So you don’t even believe his assassination was planned/plotted (by some group that felt threatened by him)?

I can see that… it would be an easy mistake for anyone to make. Still, there are an awful lot of coincidences between what he said, what we see in fact taking place today, and that he was ultimately assassinated. Because of all that, I can’t help but believe a lot of what he said.

That’s amazing to me, that you were there to hear him and remember it. He’s one politician I would have loved to listen to firsthand. He seemed to say a lot of very controversial things, like when he spoke out against religious involvement in politics and named the religious groups very specifically… he was either really dumb or very brave… I imagine the latter. So do you think in this case he was maybe a bit too paranoid, or just mistaken?

What I’m trying to get at is 1) Exactly what this thing is that JFK was talking about; and 2) Whether this precise thing has continued to exist since JFK’s time up to today. With the very elaborate way JFK was speaking, it sounds to me like it had to involve more than just the Soviets, and not like something that would have easily and suddenly died off. But I suspect you must be right, that the Soviets were and obviously are significantly involved still. Maybe I’m just asking an impossible question.

Sorry, do you mean you disagreed with what JFK was saying, that you didn’t believe him?

If he was talking about nothing more than the Soviet Union, why didn’t he simply say ‘we are opposed around the world by the Soviet Union’? Seems like a very complicated way of saying Soviet Union. And no, the schools I went to didn’t teach about covert global conspiracies, the likes of which John F. Kennedy was clearly warning us against.

So you’re saying JFK was referring to the CIA when he talked about a “monolithic and ruthless conspiracy” from around the world?

Bookmark worthy, thanks!

The world suddenly seems so much smaller.

Otherwise they’d be spineless floppy people.

I guess mine would have to be a pineapple pizza.

Cool, my stress level wasn’t high enough today.

I’m getting tired just imagining it.

I’ve never even heard of taco trucks, that would be cool.

It was mostly before my time, so I don’t have that kind of insight. When I read it, it sounds to me a lot like what we see happening in the U.S. today.

Ok, I didn’t know that. I was too young still to remember most of it.

Makes sense, I was too young to remember most of it. Still, does his description not strike you as resembling what we see happening in the U.S. today?

He makes reference to it, but also speaks of some kind of opposition from “around the world” that was working on “expanding its sphere of influence”. He also described this thing as operating in secret, not out in the open. Was Russia operating secretly? (I don’t know much about the Cold War.)