By Donald Ramotar, Former President of Guyana

On Saturday November 22, 1963, most of us who were living at that time still remember that date. More specifically, we recall where we were when we received the shocking news of the assassination of the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. The news left the world in shock and total disbelief.
Kennedy was a new type of leader that emerged in the U.S., and indeed the world after World War II. He brought to the international arena a fresh approach to life’s problems and even though his time in office was relatively brief, his impact still reverberates 60 years after his brutal killing on the streets of Dallas, Texas.
During his period in the White House, he was confronted with many knotty issues, some of which he inherited and others that surfaced during his stay.
For instance, when he assumed power, the plans to invade Cuba to overthrow the revolution was well advanced. He found it almost impossible to stop the CIA misadventure. That operation was a disaster and a blow to his administration.

However, that event led to a serious international crisis that took the world to the brink of a nuclear catastrophe.
The Cuban and Soviet Governments decided that the only way to protect the Cuban Revolution and deter another invasion of Cuba was to put nuclear armed missiles in Cuba.
The Soviet Union had another reason for doing so. They saw it as countering the threat that U.S. nuclear missiles, which were installed in Turkey, posed to the Soviet State.
President Kennedy saw that as an existential threat and demanded their removal. Those days were dangerous times. Eventually, agreements were reached in which the Soviet Union withdrew the weapons on the commitment that the U.S. would not attack Cuba and that it would remove its missiles from Turkey.
That event had a profound impact on President Kennedy. He must have shuddered to contemplate how close we were to destroying our world.
Another factor that shaped his view and influenced his conduct was the fact that he was an active participant in the second World War. That gave him a deep appreciation of the miseries wars cause. Those two events made him into a champion of world peace.

In the course of his quest for world peace, he brought his considerable intellect to bear on the issue.
He was not just an ordinary politician. He was a deep thinker rooted in a humane philosophy. He believed that the problems in the world was caused by man and as such, man must be courageous to work for their solution.

These came out clearly in his speeches after October 1962. Two speeches in particular, which must be considered as two of the most important addresses by any world leader down the corridors of time, were his address to the American University on June 10, 1963, and his last speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 20, 1963. I urge all people interested in working for world peace to read and re-read those two interventions, they should become your constant companion.
In those speeches, President Kennedy thoughts on world peace and other global problems such as environmental issues were very clear and deeply refreshing. In his address to the American University this is how he introduced the topic, he said, “I have… chosen this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived-yet it is the most important topic on earth; world peace.”

He went on to elaborate, “What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek?” Then he answered: “Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children – not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women – not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.”
How clear and how brilliant he was.

He advocated seeking an understanding of each other and implied that arrogance of one state towards another or others must be done away with. After criticizing some attitudes of the Soviet Union, he added: “I also believe that we must re-examine our attitude – as individuals and as a Nation – for our attitude is as essential as theirs….”
Here he was being self-critical, which is a great strength, and which is so lacking in our world today. It’s hard to imagine hearing this from a U.S. president today; since then, we have not seen such modesty in a U.S. president or the total lack of arrogance which JFK displayed.
Throughout his speech, he advocated the need to talk to each other. He was high in praise of the establishment of a direct telephone line established between Washington and Moscow. He saw these as helping to foster trust and avoiding misunderstanding.
That speech had a great impact in the Soviet Union and was welcomed in Moscow, which was constantly advocating the same principles, perhaps not as elegant as President Kennedy but an unmistakably genuine desire for lasting world peace.

The US president recognised that when he told his audience: “…no nation in the history of battle ever suffered more than the Soviet Union suffered in the course of the Second World War. At least 20 million lost their lives. Countless millions of homes and farms were burned or sacked. A third of the nation’s territory, including nearly two thirds of its industrial base, was turned into a wasteland – a loss equivalent to the devastation of this country east of Chicago.”
It was that speech and the positive and welcomed response from Moscow that led to the first major agreement on limiting nuclear weapons with the view of their eventual abolishment. Kennedy and the Soviet leader Khrushchev found in each other partners for establishing a lasting peace in the world.
This allowed President Kennedy to report great progress in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 20, 1963. Here is how he expressed his views on the progress made: “…we meet today in an atmosphere of rising hope and at a moment of comparative calm…” He went on to add that we must not relax our efforts for peace.
He said: “Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures. And however, undramatic the pursuit of peace, that pursuit must go on.”

Those words mean more today than when he uttered them 60 years ago. It was as if Kennedy had a premonition of his own assassination and wanted to urge us to work unceasingly for peace.

Today, the world has not lived up to hopes that President Kennedy had. Indeed, we have slipped back into the kind of dangers that existed in 1962. The war imposed on Russia by the insistence of NATO to expand to Russia’s borders has created a very dangerous situation.
So too are the barbaric and genocidal killings that are taking place against the unarmed civilian population of Gaza. This has brought us to the threshold of the destruction of international laws and institutions.

All of these can easily spin out of control and threaten the whole world. The attitude of the U.S. leaders to world peace is at a 180 degree shift away from that of John Kennedy.
Tragically, the leaders of the two countries that possess the most nuclear weapons, the United States and Russia, are not speaking to each other. Instead of talks, insults are thrown around and leaders are described as “killers” and “dictators”. We, the masses, must force a change in this attitude, we need world leaders at this time in the West with the wisdom and vision of John F. Kennedy.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy died much too soon. However, he has left us a considerable amount of his thoughts on many of the most important global issues that face us today. We will do well to learn the lesson he sought to impart to his people and the peoples of the world.
On this 60th anniversary of his tragic assassination we salute the memory of the great man.