Free Listening In by Ted Widmer

trouble whatsoever.”
    And I said, “We know that.” And I said, “But we’re not worrying about that.” And I said, “I’ll tell you, I don’t propose to fight a conventional war.” If you declare, if you bring out war, bring on a war of global character, there are going to be no conventional, nothing conventional about it.” And I told him flatly. And he said, “Well.” He said, “That’s a relief. Neither one of us can afford it.” “Yes,” I said that, and I said, “OK, so I agree to that, too.” [laughter]
    JFK: Right, right.

    PRESIDENTS KENNEDY AND EISENHOWER, SEPTEMBER 10, 1962
    EISENHOWER: But you see, what these people are afraid of, I mean the essence of his argument was, if you try to fight this thing conventionally from the beginning, when do you start to go nuclear? And this will never be until you yourselves in other words become in danger and he said, “That means all of Europe is again gone.” And that …
    JFK: But of course, we’ve got all these nuclear weapons, as you know, stored in West Berlin. All we are … what they are really concerned about is that the Russians will seize Hamburg, which is only a few miles from the border, and some other towns, and then they’ll say, “We’ll negotiate.” So then Norstad 26 has come up with this whole strategy. I think the only difficulty is that no one will … that if we did not have the problem, as I say, of Berlin and maintaining access through that autobahn authority, then you would say that any attempt to seize any part of West Germany, we would go to nuclear weapons. But of course, they never will. But it’s this difficulty of maintaining a position 120 miles behind their lines.

    PRESIDENT KENNEDY ADDRESSES THE PEOPLE OF WEST BERLIN, RUDOLPH WILDE PLATZ, JUNE 26, 1963

Ish bin ein Bearleener (Ich bin ein Berliner/I am a Berliner),
kiwis Romanus sum (civis Romanus sum/I am a Roman citizen),
Lust z nach Bearlin comen (Lass’ sie nach Berlin kommen/Let them come to Berlin)
    PRESIDENT KENNEDY’S SPEECH CARD FROM BERLIN, SPELLED PHONETICALLY TO IMPROVE HIS PRONUNCIATION OF GERMAN AND LATIN WORDS
    EISENHOWER: Mr. President, I’ll tell you, here’s something. I can’t document everything. But Clay 27 was there. Poor, poor old Smith 28 is gone. We begged our governments not to go into Berlin. We … I asked that they build a cantonment capital, a cantonment capital at the junction of the British, American, and Russian zones. I said, “We just don’t, we can’t do this.” Well, it had been a political thing that had been done first in the advisory council, European Advisory Council, in London. And later confirmed and … but Mr. Roosevelt said to me this twice—I’m talking about my concern. And he said, “Ike,”—and he was always very, you know, informal—he said, “Ike,” he said, “quit worrying about Uncle Joe. I’ll take care of Uncle Joe.” 29 That’s exactly what he told [me]. Once in Tunis and once when I came over here about the first or second or third of January of ’44. That’s the last time I ever saw him. Now he just wouldn’t believe that these guys were these tough and really ruthless so-and-sos they were.

MEETING WITH VICE ADMIRAL HYMAN RICKOVER, FEBRUARY 11, 1963

    Hyman Rickover had one of the most storied military careers of the twentieth century. Born in Poland in 1900, he emigrated with his family in 1905, at the time of anti-Jewish pogroms, and grew up in New York and Chicago, where he graduated from John Marshall High School and won admission to the United States Naval Academy. So began a remarkable naval career encompassing sixty-three years of active duty, marked by administrative ability, tireless work, and extremely independent judgment. Rickover served on submarines in particular and over the course of the 1940s and 1950s became the legendary “Father of the Nuclear Navy,” known for his technical expertise, his strategic wisdom, and his personal interest in interviewing thousands of