On
November 22nd, 1963, my uncle, president John F. Kennedy, went to
Dallas intending to condemn as "nonsense" the right-wing notion that
"peace is a sign of weakness." He meant to argue that the best way to
demonstrate American strength was not by using destructive weapons and
threats but by being a nation that "practices what it preaches about
equal rights and social justice," striving toward peace instead of
"aggressive ambitions." Despite the Cold War rhetoric of his campaign,
JFK's greatest ambition as president was to break the militaristic
ideology that has dominated our country since World War II. He told his
close friend Ben Bradlee that he wanted the epitaph "He kept the peace,"
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