:02:00
"Ich bin ein Berliner!"
:02:03
He inherits a secret war against the
Communist Castro dictatorship in Cuba...
:02:08
...a war run by the CIA
and angry Cuban exiles.
:02:11
Castro is a successful revolutionary...
:02:14
...frightening to American business
interests in Latin America.
:02:17
This war culminates in the disastrous
Bay of Pigs invasion...
:02:21
...in April, 1961...
:02:23
...when Kennedy refuses to provide
air cover for the exiled Cuban brigade.
:02:27
Kennedy takes public responsibility
for the failure.
:02:31
He privately claims the CIA lied to him...
:02:34
...and tried to manipulate him into ordering
an American invasion of Cuba.
:02:39
In October, 1962...
:02:42
...the world comes to the brink
of nuclear war...
:02:44
...when Kennedy quarantines Cuba...
:02:46
...after announcing the presence
of offensive Soviet nuclear missiles...
:02:51
...90 miles off American shores.
:02:53
Soviet ships with more missiles
sail towards Cuba...
:02:56
...but at the last moment they turn back.
:02:58
The world breathes with relief.
:03:01
In Washington, rumors abound
that JFK has cut a secret deal...
:03:05
...with Russian Premier Khrushchev...
:03:07
...not to invade Cuba in return
for a Russian withdrawal of missiles.
:03:11
Suspicions abound that Kennedy
is soft on communism.
:03:16
Kennedy also finds himself embroiled
in Laos and Vietnam.
:03:20
We've got our difficulties there.
:03:22
Unless a greater effort is made
by the government...
:03:25
...to win popular support,
I don't think the war can be won there.
:03:29
Is their war. They're the ones
who have to win it or lose it.
:03:33
Early that fateful summer...
:03:34
...Kennedy speaks of his new vision
at the American University.
:03:38
What kind of peace do I mean?
:03:39
What kind of peace do we seek?
:03:41
Not a Pax Americana...
:03:43
...enforced on the world
by American weapons of war.
:03:47
We must re-examine our own attitudes
towards the Soviet Union.
:03:51
Our most basic, common link...
:03:54
...is that we all inhabit...
:03:56
...this small planet.
:03:58
We all breathe the same air.