Introduction
On the heels of the failed Bay of Pigs plot, the USSR under Premier Khrushchev threatened to incorporate West Berlin into East Germany and to cut off access to the United States. Premier Khrushchev saw the newly inaugurated President Kennedy as a weak adversary and used the humiliation of the Bay of Pigs to try to turn public opinion against the United States for attempting to overthrow the government of a small, sovereign nation. The following excerpt is from a July 25, 1961 televised address to the nation and illustrates how President Kennedy would prefer negotiation but would not back down from the Soviet threat. His promise to increase military spending and expand the military branches was seen as supporting his inaugural pledge to "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival of land success of liberty."
On the heels of the failed Bay of Pigs plot, the USSR under Premier Khrushchev threatened to incorporate West Berlin into East Germany and to cut off access to the United States. Premier Khrushchev saw the newly inaugurated President Kennedy as a weak adversary and used the humiliation of the Bay of Pigs to try to turn public opinion against the United States for attempting to overthrow the government of a small, sovereign nation. The following excerpt is from a July 25, 1961 televised address to the nation and illustrates how President Kennedy would prefer negotiation but would not back down from the Soviet threat. His promise to increase military spending and expand the military branches was seen as supporting his inaugural pledge to "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival of land success of liberty."
"... We are there [Berlin, Germany] as a result of our victory over Nazi Germany - and our basic rights to be there, deriving from that victory, include both our presence in West Berlin and the enjoyment of access across East Germany. These rights have been repeatedly confirmed and recognized in special agreements with the Soviet Union. Berlin is not a part of East Germany, but a separate territory under the control of the allied powers. Thus our rights there are clear and deep-rooted. But in addition to those rights is our commitment to sustain and defend, if need be - the opportunity for more than two million people to determine their own future and choose their own way of life.
Thus, our presence in West Berlin, and our access thereto, cannot be ended by any act of the Soviet government. The NATO shield was long ago extended to cover West Berlin - and we have given our word that an attack upon that city will be regarded as an attack upon us all.
For West Berlin - lying exposed 110 miles inside East Germany, surrounded by Soviet troops and close to Soviet supply lines-has many roles. It is more than a showcase of liberty, a symbol, an island of freedom in a Communist sea. It is even more than a link with the Free World, a beacon of hope behind the Iron Curtain, an escape hatch for refugees.
West Berlin is all of that. But above all it has now become - as never before-the great testing place of Western courage and will, a focal point where our solemn commitments stretching back over the years since 1945, and Soviet ambitions now meet in basic confrontation....
So long as the Communists insist that they are preparing to end by themselves unilaterally our rights in West Berlin and our commitments to its people, we must be prepared to defend those rights and those commitments. We will at all times be ready to talk, if talk will help. But we must also be ready to resist with force, if force is used upon us. Either alone would fail. Together, they can serve the cause of freedom and peace.
The new preparations that we shall make to defend the peace are part of the long-term build-up in our strength which has been underway since January. They are based on our needs to meet a world-wide threat, on a basis which stretches far beyond the present Berlin crisis. Our primary purpose is neither propaganda nor provocation - but preparation. ...
Thus, in the days and months ahead, I shall not hesitate to ask the Congress for additional measures, or exercise any of the executive powers that I possess to meet this threat to peace. Everything essential to the security of freedom must be done; and if that should require more men, or more taxes, or more controls, or other new powers, l shall not hesitate to ask them. The measures pro posed today will be constantly studied, and altered as necessary. But while we will not let panic shape our policy, neither will we permit timidity to direct our program. Accordingly, I am now taking the following steps:
(1) I am tomorrow requesting the Congress for the current fiscal year an additional $3,247,000,000 of appropriations for the Armed Forces.
(2) To fill out our present Army Divisions, and to make more men available for prompt deployment, l am requesting an increase in the Army's total authorized strength from 875,000 to approximately 1 million men.
(3) I am requesting an increase of 29,000 and 63,000 men respectively in the active duty strength of the Navy and the Air Force.
(4) To fulfill these manpower needs, l am ordering that our draft calls be doubled and tripled in the coming months; I am asking the Congress for authority to order to active duty certain ready reserve units and individual reservists, and to extend tours of duty; and, under that authority, I am planning to order to active duty a number of air transport squadrons and Air National Guard tactical air squadrons, to give us the airlift capacity and protection that we need. Other reserve forces will be called up when needed.
(5) Many ships and planes once headed for retirement are to be retained or reactivated, increasing our airpower tactically and our sealift, airlift, and anti-submarine warfare capability. In addition, our strategic air power will be increased by delaying the deactivation of B-47 bombers.
(6) Finally, some $1.8 billion - about half of the total sum - is needed for the procurement of nonnuclear weapons, ammunition and equipment....
We have another sober responsibility. To recognize the possibilities of nuclear war in the missile age, without our citizens knowing what they should do and where they should go if bombs begin to fall, would be a failure of responsibility. In May, I pledged a new start on Civil Defense. Last week, I assigned, on the recommendation of the Civil Defense Director, basic responsibility for this program to the Secretary of Defense, to make certain it is administered and coordinated with our continental defense efforts at the highest civilian level. Tomorrow, I am requesting of the Congress new funds for the following immediate objectives: to identify and mark space in existing structures public and private that could be used for fall-out shelters in case of attack; to stock those shelters with food, water, first-aid kits and other minimum essentials for survival; to increase their capacity; to improve our air-raid warning and fallout detection systems, including a new household warning system which is now under development; and to take other measures that will be effective at an early date to save millions of lives if needed...."
Thus, our presence in West Berlin, and our access thereto, cannot be ended by any act of the Soviet government. The NATO shield was long ago extended to cover West Berlin - and we have given our word that an attack upon that city will be regarded as an attack upon us all.
For West Berlin - lying exposed 110 miles inside East Germany, surrounded by Soviet troops and close to Soviet supply lines-has many roles. It is more than a showcase of liberty, a symbol, an island of freedom in a Communist sea. It is even more than a link with the Free World, a beacon of hope behind the Iron Curtain, an escape hatch for refugees.
West Berlin is all of that. But above all it has now become - as never before-the great testing place of Western courage and will, a focal point where our solemn commitments stretching back over the years since 1945, and Soviet ambitions now meet in basic confrontation....
So long as the Communists insist that they are preparing to end by themselves unilaterally our rights in West Berlin and our commitments to its people, we must be prepared to defend those rights and those commitments. We will at all times be ready to talk, if talk will help. But we must also be ready to resist with force, if force is used upon us. Either alone would fail. Together, they can serve the cause of freedom and peace.
The new preparations that we shall make to defend the peace are part of the long-term build-up in our strength which has been underway since January. They are based on our needs to meet a world-wide threat, on a basis which stretches far beyond the present Berlin crisis. Our primary purpose is neither propaganda nor provocation - but preparation. ...
Thus, in the days and months ahead, I shall not hesitate to ask the Congress for additional measures, or exercise any of the executive powers that I possess to meet this threat to peace. Everything essential to the security of freedom must be done; and if that should require more men, or more taxes, or more controls, or other new powers, l shall not hesitate to ask them. The measures pro posed today will be constantly studied, and altered as necessary. But while we will not let panic shape our policy, neither will we permit timidity to direct our program. Accordingly, I am now taking the following steps:
(1) I am tomorrow requesting the Congress for the current fiscal year an additional $3,247,000,000 of appropriations for the Armed Forces.
(2) To fill out our present Army Divisions, and to make more men available for prompt deployment, l am requesting an increase in the Army's total authorized strength from 875,000 to approximately 1 million men.
(3) I am requesting an increase of 29,000 and 63,000 men respectively in the active duty strength of the Navy and the Air Force.
(4) To fulfill these manpower needs, l am ordering that our draft calls be doubled and tripled in the coming months; I am asking the Congress for authority to order to active duty certain ready reserve units and individual reservists, and to extend tours of duty; and, under that authority, I am planning to order to active duty a number of air transport squadrons and Air National Guard tactical air squadrons, to give us the airlift capacity and protection that we need. Other reserve forces will be called up when needed.
(5) Many ships and planes once headed for retirement are to be retained or reactivated, increasing our airpower tactically and our sealift, airlift, and anti-submarine warfare capability. In addition, our strategic air power will be increased by delaying the deactivation of B-47 bombers.
(6) Finally, some $1.8 billion - about half of the total sum - is needed for the procurement of nonnuclear weapons, ammunition and equipment....
We have another sober responsibility. To recognize the possibilities of nuclear war in the missile age, without our citizens knowing what they should do and where they should go if bombs begin to fall, would be a failure of responsibility. In May, I pledged a new start on Civil Defense. Last week, I assigned, on the recommendation of the Civil Defense Director, basic responsibility for this program to the Secretary of Defense, to make certain it is administered and coordinated with our continental defense efforts at the highest civilian level. Tomorrow, I am requesting of the Congress new funds for the following immediate objectives: to identify and mark space in existing structures public and private that could be used for fall-out shelters in case of attack; to stock those shelters with food, water, first-aid kits and other minimum essentials for survival; to increase their capacity; to improve our air-raid warning and fallout detection systems, including a new household warning system which is now under development; and to take other measures that will be effective at an early date to save millions of lives if needed...."
Questions
- How does President Kennedy explain and justify the American presence in the city of Berlin?
- How does President Kennedy explain that the United States's right to control West Berlin has been confirmed?
- How does President Kennedy explain that the United States's right to control West Berlin has been threatened by the USSR?
- How does President Kennedy illustrate the importance of West Berlin?
- What actions (both alone and with Congress) does President Kennedy explain he has already taken?
Reference Sources
Engel, Jeffrey A., Mark Atwood. Lawrence, and Andrew Preston, eds.America in the World: A History in Documents from the War with Spain to the War on Terror. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2014. Print.
"Radio and Television Report to the American People on the Berlin Crisis," July 25th, 1961, in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961 (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1962), 533-536.
Engel, Jeffrey A., Mark Atwood. Lawrence, and Andrew Preston, eds.America in the World: A History in Documents from the War with Spain to the War on Terror. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2014. Print.
"Radio and Television Report to the American People on the Berlin Crisis," July 25th, 1961, in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961 (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1962), 533-536.
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