According to film producer Oliver Stone, a nuclear confrontation is possible if things do not change very quickly in terms of geopolitical tensions. Oliver Stone explained last week in an interview he gave on the Tucker Carlson Network how Americans and Europeans maintain a climate of paranoia towards Russia. This kind of climate does not bring anything positive in the resolution of conflicts and creates more tensions.
In his interview, Stone reminds us that things have not always been like this and that in the middle of the Cold War, after the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 which brought the world to the brink of the nuclear abyss, President John F Kennedy, through American emissaries, decided to launch a dialogue on disarmament with the Soviet leader of the time Nikita Khrushchev. According to Stone, Khrushchev asked Kennedy to demonstrate his willingness to disarm. Thus on June 10, 1963, President Kennedy proposed his vision of peace in order to humanize American representations towards the Soviet Union. Stone recalls that his speech was not revised by presidential security, the CIA or by the Pentagon, as required by presidential protocol.
Listening to Kennedy’s speech I realized that this man was coming from the future and not from the past like most American presidents that came in power after him.
Summary of Kennedy’s speech on June 10, 1963 – American University
I have chosen this place to begin a conversation on a topic that many ignore because the truth is rarely revealed. “Peace,” the kind of peace that we need and to which I refer is not the PAX Americana peace, nor the peace imposed by American weapons of war, or a peace linked to the new face of war. In an age where the great powers maintain a nuclear arsenal makes no sense to peace. I am talking about peace as the only means of maintaining a form of rationality for a rational man. But too often peace remains alone in the desert.
I believe we must review our own personal attitude and our attitude as a nation toward peace, toward the Cold War, and toward the Soviet Union. Too many people, too many people in positions of power believe that peace is unattainable and impossible. But this vision is dangerous and leads to the conclusion that war is irreversible since man is condemned and dominated by forces that we cannot control. We must reject this vision of the mind.
I am not referring to this universal and fanciful peace of the realm of reverie. The human mind is capable of overcoming many obstacles. We must focus our efforts on a series of actions between institutions. The production of peace is a process. We must clarify our objectives. We must review our attitude towards the Soviet Union. It is discouraging to see that the Soviet leaders and their military stratagems are spreading propaganda that speaks of a form of American imperialism which is preparing world domination through the imposition of war. But in this way of doing things, I perceive a warning for us, Americans, so we do not fall to the other side and believe that negotiations are impossible and believe that communication is only possible through an exchange of threats.
As Americans we have a repugnance towards communism and the denial of individual freedoms. But we are able to see the efforts of the Soviets people in many areas, in the economy, space, culture, we are able to see their acts of courage. We shared the same effort and our disgust during the 2nd World War. We have never been at war with the Soviet Union which suffered the most during the 2nd World War. With more than 20 million dead, a third of its territory was destroyed, it is the equivalent of the American territory at the east of Michigan.
(…)
In this current moment we must convince the Soviet Union that imposing a political system on another state is the main cause of the geopolitical tensions. We will continue our efforts and move forward with our common interests. Do not be blinded by our differences but rather focus your attention on our common interests and on the means to resolve our differences.
Watch the video for full details of Kennedy’s speech on June 10, 1963 a few months before he was assassinated.
