JFK describes "The Unthinkable" -- "The High Cabal"

[Jan Klimkowski]

Read in full, the speech is framed as an appeal to newspapers to tow the line in the Cold War.

Its first significant anecdote is:

You may remember that in 1851 the New York Herald Tribune under the sponsorship and publishing of Horace Greeley, employed as its London correspondent an obscure journalist by the name of Karl Marx.

The theme is picked up with:

And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know.
But I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every newsman in the nation to reexamine his own standards, and to recognize the nature of our country's peril. In time of war, the government and the press have customarily joined in an effort based largely on self-discipline, to prevent unauthorized disclosures to the enemy. In time of "clear and present danger," the courts have held that even the privileged rights of the First Amendment must yield to the public's need for national security.
Today no war has been declared--and however fierce the struggle may be, it may never be declared in the traditional fashion. Our way of life is under attack. Those who make themselves our enemy are advancing around the globe. The survival of our friends is in danger. And yet no war has been declared, no borders have been crossed by marching troops, no missiles have been fired.
If the press is awaiting a declaration of war before it imposes the self-discipline of combat conditions, then I can only say that no war ever posed a greater threat to our security. If you are awaiting a finding of "clear and present danger," then I can only say that the danger has never been more clear and its presence has never been more imminent.

This all reads as a stereotypical Cold War speech by a western political leader.

The passage excerpted by Greg in the original post is not, in my judgement, akin to Eisenhower's military-industrial-complex moment.

My point is simply this: I'm not certain that at the time he made the speech JFK fully understood what you, I, and a handful of others now acknowledge to be true -- which is to say, the nature of the Unthinkable.

Wasn't it RFK who, some time after his brother's murder, said words to the effect of, "I thought I knew how the world worked, but I didn't"?

I agree with Charles' interpretation here.