The Warning - Death Of An Era

President John F.

Kennedy

Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City

April 27, 1961

Speech

The very word «secrecy» is repugnant in a free and open society;

and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies,

to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.

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.

That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to

shrink from controversy.

but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the

American people.

confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be:

free and independent."