THE PRESIDENT AND THE PRESS: ADDRESS BEFORE THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOC., APRIL 27, 1961

THE PRESIDENT AND THE PRESS: ADDRESS BEFORE THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOC., APRIL 27, 1961

JFK had only been in office for three months when he gave one of the most important speeches of his shortened presidency. The night was intended to be light and casual — just another forgettable political and social event — but Kennedy seized the opportunity to warn the country about a “grave danger” facing the country that had only been previously discussed in whispers. Speaking to the American Newspapers Publishers Association on April 27th 1961, John Kennedy shines his light on the inherent dangers that are present with the concepts of secret societies in our midst and censorship, going so far as to call them “repugnant.”

Today we are all confronted with the dangers that President Kennedy was warning us all for. Now it is time for all, to face the ultimate threat to life on this planet, and stop it, before it stops us all.

"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."

"For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence — on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day.”