News: The Ethical Dimension; John C. Bennett on "President Kennedy" 1963-01-22

it's been it's b news the ethical dimension each week at this time reverse time radio presents essays by some of the most eloquent spokesmen of our day showing how ethical principles can be applied to major issues in the news tonight

we're john c barnett dean of the faculty of union theological seminary in new york and chairman of the editorial board of christianity and crisis a christian journal of opinion being done and will comment on the first two years of president kennedy's administration here is dr bennet this is an editorial about the president it was stimulated originally by the hour long interview with three television commentators richard through such favorable comment but midterm it is appropriate to speak of him as a man leader as a national asset we were impressed first of all by his call intelligence which is not only that of a man who knows and loves the game of politics but also has intelligence someone who has mixed broader understanding of public issues the vast funded detailed information and a grasp of the immediate answer a good for this nation and for the world he has been characterized by some as a

political animal but this does great injustice to his commitment to those bands that which he believes though he may be cool the president is also concerned we can never speak long without showing its determination to overcome the injustice and deprivation from which people suffer and to preserve peace it had known as well often he speaks of the plate and opportunity of children poverty and lack of opportunity which are so alien to his own experience seemed to offend his intelligence as much of the trouble is conscience that icann is not by nature a crusader nor is he the kind of leader who can easily arouse the emotions of the public it he can express his concern about the dangers to humanity in international situation and about neglected needs at home with great clarity and sometimes with eloquence yet occasionally for a comment on the president's remarkable combination of firmness and restraint

is cool this is a great advantage in a crisis he is convinced the soviet union of his commitment to defend the security both of our own country and the other nations that are now free from communist control but he also has full knowledge of a nuclear war would mean to everyone and he often expresses in patients with americans who press him to run greater risks of war that he is willing to accept in the killing crisis he chose limited objective is unlimited means is objective was to get the missiles out of cuba not at that time to destroy castro he used means especially the the quarantine rather than an air strike or an invasion means it did not prevent his taking other steps to counteract some of their facts and above all he kept writing letters to premier khrushchev he never allowed his indignation or

here's a concern to have to close the door to continuous negotiations as president he has had to be very cautious in what he says about developments in the communist bloc but he has long supported aid to poland as well as to yugoslavia and now he stresses the differences between russia and china we wish that he would emphasize more than it does the significance in the long run but the changes that have already taken place in soviet union for american attitudes toward the cold war if what he says about our capacity to destroy russia is true he maybe tomorrow a stick about russia's effort to change the power balance and in that in connection with the cuban episode from her point of view she was seeking initially to correct a power

situation that was very much against her is not strained it so long as we emphasize are overwhelming superiority the russians would try to close the missile gap which is unfavorable to them it remains to be seen whether the president will be willing to tell the american people that they must be content with a party of power instead of insisting on this greats appear e arctic and this acceptance of the parody of a parody of power will grow to be of great importance for his arm we will never be able to get this ominous we are willing to make concessions at this point just as we asked the russians to make concessions in regard to inspections indeed i think i'm as the sky and the president can be criticized for telling too few hard truths to the people except in some crisis situations kennedy is obviously where am fearful of being

deceived the seed that is by the commerce nations he does avoid be a diatribe and we're not allowed at a logical differences to prevent better relations with the soviet union if he is convinced that it is going back from efforts to impose its system on other nations this has been implicit in us policy for some time there with mr kennedy it comes out with great clarity we often hear it said that the president is a conservative and less is worried to be rescued from our own write his movements from for example senator gore there goldwater to the right of him the county be misleading in british terms he doubts is a conservative and unlike many american liberals as mines reform in the nineteen thirties he

does not have any deep suspicion of the inherent moral and structural weakness of capitalistic institutions is obviously content with additions to the present welfare programs and to the forms of public economic initiatives that are already generally accepted in principle as a leader in international affairs president kennedy as the head of a conservative nation it is not a concerted inhibitions against accepting the social and economic revolution needed and other countries in fact in connection with the alliance for progress you willing to encourage economic and social revolution he will be forced to accept the have socialistic experiments in other countries which it will have to be supported by us that is if he remains consistent regard to the alliance for progress he strikes a balance between his more

liberal or more conservative economic advisors but this keeps him to the left of the business community is yale address which renounced the mets prevent economic growth places in a different world from american conservatives in both business and politics i think it can be said however the president has not substituted for these popular myths in a symbol of our goals that can generate much enthusiastic we therefore welcome efforts that are made by such moments as americans for democratic action to keep pushing him in this area off and the president will need to be pushed from the liberal side if for no other reason to counteract pressures from the right and it may well be that he will need great help in the next period or from the more liberal community if for example he does succeed in arriving at agreements though with the soviet union

on a test them or on his arm and it would take a great deal of pressure to get the congress to accept these agreements chris daggett crisis have much to say in nineteen sixty about the role of the president's religion in the campaign at this point we can say that we have been proved right you're thinking a protestant president might will be more vulnerable roman catholic president to special pressures or distinctively catholic objectives i think it a protestant president would be more likely to be accused of bigotry if he stood out strongly against the catholic hierarchy has not improved the catholic women can be the president of a whole people in the interview the estimated this editorial was not one word reflected a catholic viewpoint rollout of any wise and humane than it might've been better if distinctive religious

convictions had shown through perhaps because he is a catholic is less tempted and some presidents to use the symbols of a vague common denominator religion his commitments and his restraint that was held behind them religious influences that no man could be more reticent about the way in which they affect him there have been persistent rumors that to the effect of that to the president may make important changes in his administration for example one rumor has it that every stevenson will soon leave his post at the united nations and in that perhaps dean rusk who was said to be losing influence that may take his place there it's reporter based in part of the assumption that kennedy has come to be too sure of his effectiveness in using power you've now inclined to

surround himself with men were more eager to share and a tough power oriented approach to world affairs would take a less complicated view of the cold war and we're not very sensitive and doing even with our closest allies now i'm speaking in town had to have pathetically and these rumors maybe quite true but if they are true then they are either and favorable sign a shift of advisers would not necessarily there'd be am an answer any objectionable but turned this particular kind of shift with i say be unfavorable single baby reports are planted in order to bring pressure on the president to do what they suggest that he plans to do there's all the more reason to speak out against them you are listening to a

commentary by john c bennett dean of the faculty of union theological seminary chairman of the editorial board of christianity and crisis a christian journal of opinion for further information about this publication right to the station to which you were listening or to christianity and crisis wypr your twenty seven dr bennett's commentary appeared in the january seventh issue of christianity and crisis you know nina the

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