Tags: John F Kennedy, John F Kennedy Secret Societies Speech

John F. Kennedy’s Iconic Speech on Secret Societies

By Paul Short on 07/08/2012

John F. Kennedy’s Speech on Secret Societies

While researching for a book I’m writing, I ran across a transcript of the speech John F. Kennedy gave before the American Newspaper Publishers Association at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on April 27, 1961 just a few weeks before he was assassinated. I already posted a video of Kennedy’s speech here, but I think it’s important to highlight what he says again, especially given the current state of the media and public denials that any sort of coverups are going on, when we’re uncovering government secrets almost daily now.

But what’s most important for people, especially Americans to understand is that more than 50 years ago we were all warned by some of the most powerful people on the planet that a group of people were trying to pull the strings of governments and societies behind the scenes. For those of you who don’t think secret societies have any power or that the media is there to inform us, just look at how the press has kept think-tanks like the Bilderberg Group and Bohemian Grove off the pages of their newspapers and TV screens, and when called out, they say it’s just a bunch of rich no-names having fun.

But here’s a stark message to all of you who take what the mainstream press says as the undisputed truth. When the shit hits the fan, don’t say you weren’t warned:

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. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.

Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match.

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed– and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First (emphasized) Amendment– the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution– not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and sentimental, not to simply “give the public what it wants”–but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.

…

This means greater coverage and analysis of international news– for it is no longer far away and foreign but close at hand and local. It means greater attention to improved understanding of the news as well as improved transmission. And it means, finally, that government at all levels, must meet its obligation to provide you with the fullest possible information outside the narrowest limits of national security…

…

And so it is to the printing press–to the recorder of mans deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news– that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.

~ John F. Kennedy’s speech given at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on April 27, 1961, to the American Newspaper Publishers Association.