In our research into Bhadshah Khan's Nonviolence Movement we discovered that his foundational idea was very similar to JFK's American University speech. Rather than focusing on British oppression as the first step towards nonviolence, Khan chose to reform the ancient Pashtun tribal code that sanctioned killing to resolve family feuds. It happens that JFK promoted a similar idea. In what became known as the "Peace Speech" Kennedy asked Americans to reflect first on and reform their own concepts of peaceful coexistence before expecting the "enemy" to change.
The path that led to the creation of that Speech began with JFK's major reason to run for president in the first place. He feared that a nuclear war could still break out regardless of world leaders' best intentions. Within the first six months of his presidency Kennedy's relationship with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had started off badly on that very issue. His impression was formed during a meeting in Vienna regarding Laos when Khrushchev was shockingly unresponsive to Kennedy's stated concerns about the human costs of a nuclear war. JFK's opinion changed when Khrushchev initiated a secret correspondence with him three months later in September that was kept hidden from the Kremlin due to hardliners in his government. Kennedy would soon learn that the same problem with hardliners would overtake in his administration too.
Khrushchev's first letter was 25 pages long and expressed his deep regret that distrust interfered with their ability to develop a positive working relationship from the start. The Premier compared there dilemma with "Noah's Ark where both the 'clean' and the 'unclean' found sanctuary regardless of who is 'clean' and who is 'unclean.' The message was clear to Kennedy, either we live in peace so that the Ark continues to float, or else we all sink. Kennedy sent a letter back agreeing with Khrushchev's metaphor emphasizing, "Whatever our differences collaboration to keep the peace is more urgent than our collaboration to win the last world war." Thus began a very special exchange between two adversaries now becoming friends for the sake of world peace.
The first test of their evolving relationship came by October of 1961 when a standoff between American and Soviet tanks at the Berlin Wall broke out. Before rushing to judgement, Khrushchev sensed it was brought about by elements of the U.S. government without JFK's knowledge or approval. When Kennedy did became aware of the standoff he utilized the already set up back channels to work out a withdrawal plan with Khrushchev.
But the next test was far more challenging. There were times when Kennedy had to appease the Cold War hawks around him. And one of those opportunities arose in March of 1962. Kennedy made this statement during an interview, "Khrushchev must not be certain that, where its vital interests are threatened, the US will never strike first. In some circumstances, we might have to take the initiative." Khrushchev interpreted that last statement as a first-strike threat, which resulted in a Soviet military alert. When Kennedy's press secretary tried to reassure Khrushchev months later, he was still not convinced and began to review his military options in Cuba. It was then decided that placing missiles would not only deter an invasion of Cuba, it would fix the imbalance created by the U.S. regarding its nuclear missiles in Turkey that were on the USSR's border.
By October of 1962, Khrushchev's decision to place missiles in Cuba became a full-blown crisis that threatened a nuclear holocaust. During the darkest moment when Soviet ships were approaching Cuba and nuclear war seemed imminent Robert Kennedy summarized his brother's fear that the crisis would get out of his control, "What most haunted the President was the fate of all the children who'd had no say in what was happening and would have no chance to grow up and make something of the world."
Transcripts reveal that during the crisis he was constantly being pressured to bomb and invade Cuba while catastrophic consequences were dismissed. Calls for a nuclear first strike on the Soviets continued including one meeting where his advisors causally discussed the estimated deaths of 130 million Soviets and 30 million Americans. He was so committed to deescalating the situation; Kennedy withstood the pressure and refused to approve any of these ill-conceived plans.
The crisis finally ended after Robert Kennedy visited Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin to deliver the President's message that his military advisors were pressing for escalation and things could quickly spiral out of control. That's when Khrushchev ordered the Soviet ships to stop immediately in the water before breaching the U.S. blockade. Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles in Cuba ending the most terrifying standoff of all time. Kennedy followed with a secret promise to remove U.S. nuclear missiles from Turkey that were on the Soviet Union's border. Those missiles were removed within six months.
In December of 1962 journalist Norman Cousins asked Khrushchev how it felt to be so close to letting nuclear war break out. His response was illuminating, "I was frightened about what could happen to my country - or your country and all the other countries that would be devastated. If being frightened meant that I helped avert such insanity then I'm glad I was frightened. One of the problems today is that not enough people are sufficiently frightened by the danger of nuclear war."
Despite progress being made between Kennedy and Khrushchev they had reached an impasse on the nuclear test ban treaty. The Soviets feared inspections were an opportunity for espionage and had agreed to three. Kennedy realized that Congress would not approve any treaty with less than eight. The president sensed that Americans had drawn the same conclusion that he and Khrushchev had from the Cuban Missile Crisis; we need to turn toward peaceful co-existence, disarmament, and cooperation. Kennedy was becoming aware that the neocons in his government would constantly undermine his peace policies. In an effort address that fact, he asked Theodore Sorenson to write a speech that would outline his vision of peaceful co-existence. That became the basis for his American University speech in which he explained that peace becomes far more accessible when it is broken down into manageable and concrete steps, acknowledged the shared humanity of the Soviet people despite differences, and encouraged Americans to self-reflect on their own attitudes that could impede progress toward peace.
On June 10, 1963 President Kennedy delivered the speech that challenged Americans to think outside the box about war and peace and to empathize with the Soviets rather than distrusting them. Kennedy had gotten word to the Soviets ahead of time that he would be giving this speech. In response, the Soviet's' allowed the full text to be published across the USSR. And that was followed with an unexpected move. After fifteen years of almost uninterrupted jamming, the Soviets stopped jamming Western broadcasts.
Suddenly the outlook for a test-ban agreement turned from hopeless to promising as Kennedy and Khrushchev agreed to the principle of inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. This became the first nuclear treaty of the Cold War. Khrushchev then proposed that Kennedy consider a treaty banning nuclear testing in the air, space and water, eliminating the need for inspections, as well as a non-aggression pact between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Unfortunately the speech was largely ignored in Washington.
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