Dear CCI Friends,

In solidarity with peace activists throughout the United States on the anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, CCI is posting the complete content of his commencement address given at American University in June, 1963. His words that day have become an enduring inspiration to those who engage in the work for peace between our country and Russia. It is a powerful message from the past and, perhaps, an even more relevant message to our world today.

In peace and solidarity,
The Center for Citizen Initiatives

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Dear CCI Friends,

During this dangerous moment in the history of our planet, truth and knowledge are absolutely critical.

We have very few experts who stand out among knowledgeable persons in US and World politics. Jeffrey Sachs is unique and is choosing to speak the truth at this moment.

Sachs has dealt with American and world leaders for the whole of his long career. He has made the decision to be open at this time about the good and not so good about our US history, wars, intentions and the cost of trying to lead a unipolar world endlessly.

The first video provides Sachs’ unvarnished concerns. We will not get such honesty from others.

The second video is historic: Sachs covers the history of President Kennedy’s eloquent and famous speech. He provides firsthand experience regarding the insights of Kennedy’s era dealing with Khrushchev. Together, they give us a roadmap to avoid a Nuclear War that could destroy all life on our planet.

PLEASE watch these videos:

Jeffrey Sachs on John F. Kennedy and his Quest For Peace

In Conversation with Jeffrey Sachs

Send us your brief comments, we will share them with our nationwide and international readership without attribution.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Dear CCI Friends,

We’ve been silent during this horrific period in world history; however, seems to us that the gravity of combined disasters are educating everyone concerning the devastating international circumstances ahead … unless current Democratic leaders are stopped in their tracks. We among many, many Democrats will not be voting our party in the nearest future.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

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Dear CCI Readers,

Sixty years ago the world lived through a crisis that brought humanity to the very brink of nuclear war. Even after 6 decades the terror and fear still resonates with anyone who lived through this crisis. Today, even although nuclear weapons are much more advanced and lethal than they were in the 1960’s, the fear of nuclear war is strangely absent. In 1962 the name calling we hear today did not exist and both sides treated each other with mutual respect. Perhaps this was because both leaders had experienced the horror of the second world war and understood the need to work together to avoid a direct confrontation. Today, mutual respect is absent and there is little diplomacy or communication despite the fact that a shooting war has broken out between Russia and Ukraine and the USA is providing weapons and financial support to Ukraine.

Like all of us who are paying attention, Tony Cox sees “Echos of a brush with Armageddon” in today’s events.

Center for Citizen Initiatives
info@ccisf.org

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Cuban Missile Crisis 2.0 Over Ukraine?

It is safe to assume that any use of nuclear weapons could quickly lead to an escalation of a local or regional conflict into a global one.

National Interest
September 28, 2022
By Anatoly Antonov, Russian Ambassador to the United States

As Henry Kissinger wrote in 2014, “The demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one.”

I have commenced my work on this article for two reasons. Firstly, this October will mark sixty years since the Cuban Missile Crisis when the USSR and the United States were on the verge of a nuclear conflict. This is an occasion to look closer at the foreign policy lessons that the two great powers have learned from that dramatic time. I believe that any American will see eye-to-eye with me that we must not allow the explosive situation of the 1960s to repeat. It is important that not only Russia and the United States, but also other nuclear states, confirmed in a common statement that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.

Secondly, we are witnessing a surge of concern from the international community and U.S. experts about the possibility of a nuclear conflict between Moscow and Washington. This issue has become even more acute in recent days when senior officials of the U.S. administration began sending us direct signals warning against the use of nuclear weapons in the Russian special military operation in Ukraine. Moreover, threats against us have started to be heard from the official establishment.

Princeton University has even made predictions that millions of Americans and Russians would perish in the exchange of nuclear strikes. Sometimes it feels like we are returning to the years of McCarthyism in this issue. One hardly can forget former U.S. secretary of defense James Forrestal who jumped out of the window yelling “the Russians are coming.”

The U.S. media is abounding in publications by pseudo-experts who are ignorant of history and misinterpret the current state of affairs. They erroneously compare today’s situation with the Cuban Missile Crisis.

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