President John F. Kennedy's First Televised News Conference of January 25, 1961

In the afternoon, he sees them. I have several substantive stews. Do

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. I have a statement on the Geneva negotiations for a ban on atomic testing. These negotiations, which you know are scheduled to begin in early February, are of great importance and we will need more time to prepare. a clear American position, so we are consulting with other governments and they are asking for it to be postponed until the end of March, as you know, mr. John McCloy is my principal advisor in this field and has organized a distinguished panel of experts headed by dr. James Fisk of Bell Laboratories Mr.

Salinger will have a list of names at the end of the

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who will study previous positions we have taken in this field and also recommend Mr. McCloy, from my guidance, what opposition will we have at the end of March, when we expect testing to resume? Second, the United States government has decided to substantially increase its contribution to famine relief in the Congo. This will be done by increasing the supply of corn flour and milk powder by adding contributions of rice and by airlifting one thousand tons of food, seeds and hospital supplies from several African nations to the Congo, the intention of the United States government is to fully satisfy Congo's emergency rice needs. corn, milk powder and other foodstuffs in our surplus stocks, we have received assurances from the United Nations that with the help of this program the flow of supplies will be adequate to alleviate the distress.

The United States Government will cooperate fully to assist the United Nations in preventing famine in the Third Congo I am pleased to announce that Captain Freeman B Olmstead and Captain John McCone are members of the United States Air Force crew , our B-47 aircraft, we have been detained by the Soviet authorities since July 1. 90 60 have been released by the Soviet government and are now on their way to the United States. The United States government is satisfied with this decision of the Soviet Union and considers that this action of the Soviet government removes a serious obstacle to the improvement of Soviet-American relations.

Our deepest condolences and understanding to the families of the man from RB 47 who gave his life in the service of his country at the same time. I am sure that all Americans join me in rejoicing with the Olmstead and Macomb families, the families as well as The men conducted themselves in these difficult times in a manner that is truly in the best traditions of the United States military services. . Restraining yourself under these conditions is obviously not easy, but you can rest assured that you have contributed greatly to the final achievement. of the objective that we all saw the liberation of the men, yes, our B-47 case was considered by the Russians as an overflight, although we took different positions in light of this announcement, what will be your general policy on overflights and things like In the case of YouTube, YouTube flights, do you conceive of circumstances that could justify the resumption of things such as YouTube flights?

The Soviet Government is fully aware of the views of the United States Government regarding the distinction between the issue of the United States Air Force RB 47 and the incident that occurred over Soviet territory on May 1, 1960 with an American aircraft u-2 type flights of American aircraft that penetrated the airspace of the Soviet Union have been suspended since May 1960 I have ordered that they not be resumed could reach the United Nations General Assembly for the resumption of the debate on the stage of disarmament sometime in March, if this were to happen, would you like him to observe it?

I have not officially heard any proposal from mr. Khrushchev to come to the United States. I just saw reports in the

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papers and I think it would be more appropriate to wait until we had some indication with mr. Khrushchev was planning to come to the United Nations. Yes, can you tell us anything about what his role would be if he had won the release of these Flyers? This occurred as a result of some action that you yourself took. Well, this matter has been discussed by the American ambassador and mr. Khrushchev on one occasion and representatives of the Soviet Foreign Ministry since this weekend the Flyers were released at 2:00 in the morning yesterday but on the plane that was taking off there was a tire that was burst and therefore the plane did not take off our latest information is that it took off at five pm our time, it will fly to Amsterdam and then we expect the Flyers to be brought to the United States tomorrow afternoon.

Yes sir. President Lawrence, one of the members of his working group, recommended that he resist any early steps toward general disarmament negotiations until a firm and fixed American policy is established that resolves what his reaction to that report is and for how long. you think you could take to reach a firm decision. He arranged the position for us so mr. McCloy has the responsibility in the field of disarmament and nuclear testing and, as I said, he has the responsibility of creating this committee, Advisory Committee on Nuclear Tests, we hope that the American position is also clear, general disarmament, there is not the same deadline we have.

We have been dealing with nuclear testing that we were supposed to resume in early February, but I can say that this war is an issue that was discussed earlier this week by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State and Mr. McCloy and We are preparing a clarification of American positions on Parliament. I think mr. Morgan had stood up to Mr. Morgan and then not the conversation the conversation was as friendly as the messages. I would say that the tone was friendly and as a result of the conversations, as I said, the decision was made to release the Flyers, but the conversations were carried out in an atmosphere of civility, could you give us some indication on what other topics were addressed in addition to the release of the RV 47 Flyers?

No, I think the position in my statement above is that Congress, of course, enacted legislation that places very clear responsibility on the executive branch to protect the right to vote. I am extremely. I supported that legislation. I am extremely interested in ensuring that every American has the right to cast his vote without prejudice to his rights as a citizen and, therefore, I can affirm. that this administration will address the issue of providing that protection with all possible vigor so that you can do by executive order what mr. Benson always showed us that it was impossible for him to do without further legislation.

I am referring to the order that expands food distribution to the unemployed and gives more variety in the day. Well, i wouldn't try to make a comment about mr. Benson I don't think there's any question about our rights to issue the executive order under the authority given to us by the Constitution and legislative action. I think we are within our rights, it is a judgment on what is the best use for how to take advantage of the available funds the funds are quite limited the diet that is provided to unemployed people remains inadequate, however we have used the available funds to the maximum and I don't think there was any doubt that we were within our rights, yes, how when you learn to be acquired, I found out as a result of conversations that Ambassador Thompson had with Soviet officials and therefore we were informed of the date in which they would be published, yesterday at the time of the instant transmission of the

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At press conferences like this, the argument is that an involuntary statement, whitewashed as in old age, could cause serious consequences. Do you think there is any risk? Could you give us an idea about it? Well, my understanding is that if the statements made by President Eisenhower were on the record, they could have been a clarification that could have been issued later, but it still would have been proven that it would still have been on the record as a clarification, so I don't think the interests It seems to me that our country is as well protected under this system as it was under the system followed by President Eisenhower and this system has the advantage of providing more direct communication.

Yes, I miss real diplomatic relations with Cuba and are you considering taking the lost part

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, we are not considering such a step at this time. I can say that the United States is interested and I think this administration is extremely interested in movements in Latin America or in Central America or the Caribbean that provide a better life for the people and whether American interests can be harmed by those movements or revolutions or any Whatever term you want to use, we believe that this should be an issue that should be negotiated, what of course concerns us is when these movements are taken advantage of. by external forces and directed not at improving the well-being of the people involved but at an ideology foreign to this hemisphere that is a cause for concern, particularly when that intervention takes the form of military support that threatens security and peace in the Western Hemisphere now I am hopeful that governments will be established throughout Latin America and that the governments that are established will do so and I believe that almost all of them share the same opinion that we have to give this hemisphere a better life.

For the people involved, we are interested in that, we are concerned that American policy is moving towards that end, but we are also concerned that in the name of that peaceful revolution, when it is exploited by aliens for their purposes, it will be very difficult. for the United States to maintain good relations with those countries, so in answer to your question we do not have any plans at this time to resume diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and with Cuba because of the factors that are involved in that island after That, the

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should be in the heat of the political battle and I wanted you, sir, to tell us what role you are playing in the effort to expand the Rules Committee and whether you believe that your internal program depends in part on the expansion of the governs well The Constitution establishes that each chamber will be the judge of its own rules and therefore Mr.

The Speaker of the House, Mr. Wrayburn, has been extremely anxious for the House to be allowed to resolve this matter in its own way, but it is no secret that I firmly believe that members of the House should have the opportunity to vote themselves. about the programs we will present. I think that's why the people selected them to go to the House of Representatives and the Senate and elected me as president so that we could present programs, consider programs and vote on programs that are presented there for the benefit of the country. I am hopeful that whatever decisions House members make will allow members to vote on these bills.

This is a very difficult moment in the life of our country. Many controversial measures will be introduced that will be in controversy and will be debated but in the end the majority of the members of the House, the majority members of the Senate, I hope that they will have the opportunity to exercise their will and that a small group of men will not try to prevent the members. finally let their sentences be known, for example, we have a housing bill coming before Congress this year, we have an eighth education bill, we have legislation that will affect farmers' incomes, shouldn't they do the members of the House?

They themselves and not only the members of the Rules Committee have the opportunity to vote on those measures, but the responsibility lies with the members of the house and I would not in any way attempt to infringe that responsibility. I am simply giving my opinion as an interested citizen. Yes, plans are being made to implement the recommendations contained in your report on the human refugee problem. Secondly, do you plan to appoint anyone to continue the voice work? We are considering the recommendations of mr. Boies and the whole Cuban refugee problem, but I don't have any statement to make on that at this time, yes, sir.

President, what is the government's official position regarding the seized Portuguese ship? Can the Navy board it if and when it makes contact? Well, I think the location of the ship and the pressure we could put on its location have been determined. and at the moment the instructions are for the Navy to continue with its accompaniment to the ship Santa María, it has been located by Navy p2v aircraft and the position is approximately 600 miles north of the mouth of the Amazon River, it is heading on a course of 117 accelerate a launch a speed there 15 knots in the exact position at 10 minutes after 4:00 it was 10 - 35 North 45-42 west we followed it by plane and - picked up by the destroyers of our African task force now there are Americans involved and their lives are at stake, but we have not given any instructions to the Navy to carry out any abortion operations, although of course we are concernedfor the lives of the Americans involved and also because we are concerned because the ship belongs to a country with which the United States has splendid relations as a result of the Lord.

Bush gave the current indication last weekend that he was willing to release the American Flyer, so I sent him any communication through Ambassador Thompson or else I sent him a message from the release of the Flyers from his communication with us the ambassador, but we have had several. I don't think there have been any exchanges with the Soviet authorities since the release of the prisoners, but that is partly because there has been a delay in their departure from Moscow; Now a national group of agricultural and industrial labor is meeting here that wants to abolish or restrict their reciprocal trade agreements.

They say it steals our gold, it steals jobs from American workers. What is your position on such a proposal? Well, I think your meeting here is well within your rights and citizens of the United States and I think we should listen to your views, this is a matter of great concern. I think we should be aware of the fact that, of course, the balance of trade has been substantially in our favor. over the last year, but we are continually concerned about those imports that negatively affect an entire industry or negatively affect the employment of a substantial number of our citizens.

Current laws point out the danger. An escape clause. Of course, everyone takes those issues into consideration, but I'm glad to have you here. Glad to have you expressing your views. I think Congress should consider their views carefully and I hope that in that consideration they will consider the whole problem of trade and I think we must realize that the balance of trade has been in our favor and the flow of gold would have been substantially worse if we hadn't had this favorable trade balance here. The administration has ordered a reduction in the number of American military and civilian dependents stationed abroad in the so-called United States. hard currency nation the day before his inauguration, the alkaline ventilation secretary's advice to his incoming secretary of defense on an urgent relief matter should be requested as soon as possible because the outgoing secretary draws the adverse effect of the order on the military family morale.

Did you have a chance or did you decide on an emphasis mr. McNamara and mr. Dhillon has discussed the effect of this order on military morale, on military strength, the rate of re-enlistment, it is really a question of determining what alternative steps can be secured, which would be less damaging but which would protect the flow of gold. I hope to make some reference. to this matter of the gold outflow in the State of the Union address, I will send within a period of two weeks after the State of the Union address a message to the Congress regarding the gold outflow and our recommendations for dealing with it and At that time we will do it.

It is time to come to a judgment as to whether a more satisfactory method of protecting our gold could be secure than providing for the return of the families of Americans serving in the military abroad. I will say that our study so far convinces us that the dollar must be protected at its current value, exchange controls are not essential, but it is a very serious problem and will be the subject of a message to Congress on the status of this part. gave him one of his most beautiful majorities in the 1960 elections, but now ER Corrado's Democrats are divided at the federal level over leadership as leader of the Democratic Party at the national level, is he going to take some steps to try to heal well the people in New York, to the Democratic organizations in New York who are interested in the success of the Democratic Party and have to decide what kind of party they want to build there.

I have asked mr. Bailey to the new chairman of the Democratic Party to lend a hand and try to alleviate some of the anguish. Yes sir, he has some federal aid plan for the unemployed. I will send a message to Congress immediately after the State. of the Union speech on what measures we think the government could probably take profitably to provide protection for the unemployed and also to stimulate the economy on the immediate issue that I will discuss in Monday's State of the Union address that were published 47 flyers If you estimate for us the chances of them meeting, yes, there is no rough relationship nor have there been any discussions between the two matters and therefore there has been no change in my previous statement that there are no plans in this time to meet. with mr.

Will Khrushchev tolerate the continued abuse of executive privilege to suppress information that Congress needs, for example now that you are president? Will you order USIA to turn over to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee those front-page surveys that you are urging the previous administration to make available? During the campaign, let me say that I would have no objection to the Poles or the Leech publishing the poll results and I will be happy to check it out and see what we can do to make them available to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of the House of Representatives if you would like them, that's a statement, it's not really a question at all, that's why I said I thought it would be good to release these polls and that's why I said I'd be happy. publish these polls now, if other issues arise, we will have to judge whether this is an abuse or whether it is within the constitutional protections afforded to the executive and I hope that, within the limits of national security, we can make information available to the press and to the people and I think it would be useful to publish the polls that were discussed last fall, Secretary Salinger said today, indicated that today it may be necessary to strengthen national security information, is not the policy of Deterrence requires that the enemy has knowledge of our screen and the capacity of our intentions, the ability to carry them out and risk a possible miscalculation by adjusting inflation well.

I believe the enemy is aware of our strength. I think mr. Salinger in his statement today over lunch indicated his judgment based on his experience thus far that very ample information had been provided for the enemy to make a determination about our strength. I'm anxious that we have a maximum flow of information, but they Obviously there are some issues involving the security of the United States and it is a matter on which the press and the executive should try to reach a responsible decision. I couldn't make a prediction as to what those issues would be, but I think all of us here are aware that there are some issues that would not be appropriate to discuss at certain times, so we will have to wait and try to work together and see if we can provide as much information as we can within the confines of national security I don't think the national security stamp should be put on administration mistakes that don't involve national security and this administration would appreciate any time any member of the press feels we are artificially invoking that coverage, but I have to say that I don't think that all the issues and all the information that is available to executives should be available at all times, which and I don't think any member of the press, so it's about trying to find a solution.

In relation to a delicate matter, in the last two days Secretary of State Dean Rusk received statements, one of them with his name, to the effect that this country wants to return to silent and private applause. Could you give us an idea of ​​the meaning behind this mr. President, is he trying to suggest who you should write the job to to resort to this for the time being without offending them or making them cordially angry? Taffy's right now, would you do the last part of that? What are you trying to suggest to mr. Khrushchev, from the tone of these, from what he says in these statements, does not want a summit meeting, now he would like to use private channels and try to do it without offending and we are taking him off the course of Pappy's are now fine.

I would just say that without accepting the question entirely as a premise, I would say that the Secretary of State is keen to explore with interested countries what possibilities we have of lowering the global tension which in some areas of the world is quite high tonight. and therefore there are occasions when the traditional exchanges between diplomats in the countries involved are of national interest and I think that is what mr. Rusk is directing his attention and I am hopeful that from those more traditional exchanges perhaps we can find a more common suggestion that we send, Mr.

Possible, to China. Well, I would say it's two things first: the Red China that the Chinese communists are exporting. food right now some of them to Africa some of them have gone, I think, to Cuba and therefore that is a factor in their needs for food from abroad; Secondly, we have received no indication from the Chinese Communists that they would welcome any offer of food. I am not eager to offer food if it is considered simply a propaganda effort on the part of the United States if there is a desire to food and a need for food, the United States would be happy to consider that need regardless of the source.

If people's lives are involved as a desire for food, the United States will consider it carefully. I say that in this case, however, there are examples of food being exported during the present or recent history and, secondly, a rather belligerent attitude has been expressed towards us in recent days by the Chinese communists and there is no indication direct or indirect private or public that they would respond favorably to any action on the part of the United States report on fainting and criticizing parties and opinions there have also been criticisms of all kinds were made without any contact it is not official without any attempt to link during the period of transition and there is concern that so far no one has been appointed to head the agency clicking on comments well I don't know, the attached forces were free to make the kind of report that in their prime In the light of events , the working group was made up of men with extensive experience in this field.

I think it was really a top panel where they presented their views. I don't think anyone is suggesting that their views are necessary in all cases. correct views I am hopeful that we have appointed an acting director and I am hopeful that before the week is out we will have a director of yes, Director Park, heads covered, take another look at the Eisenhower budget. I wonder with indication that I may have some. partial renovations, but can he say now that he expects to live within the 80.9 billion that he spent on his predecessor? I would like the budget study to be ongoing and I couldn't give you an answer yet, we haven't done that.

Once our study was finished, his inaugural speech was unusual and don't tell them just with an emeritus position in the world why Mr. President, did you narrow it down well to this global issue because it involves the issue of war and peace and the survival of perhaps the planet, possibly our system, and therefore this is a matter of primary concern to the people of the The United States and the people of the world, secondly, I represent a new administration. I think the views of this administration are quite well known to the American people and will become better known next month.

I think, however, we are new when it comes to the world scene and therefore I felt that it would be useful to inform countries around the world about our general view on the issues facing the world and dividing the world. . President, you have spoken about the situation in which there is a crisis in the world. Now one of these places is Laos. Do you have any hope that a political agreement can be reached, as you know, the British government has submitted to the Soviet Union and, as I understand it, the British have not received a response on a proposal to reestablish the International Control Commission that we should to know or shortly if there is any hope that this commission can be reestablished in terms of the general opinion on what this matter allows, we are very concerned about the United States, they are anxious that a peaceful country, an independent country, should be established in Laos. is dominated by neither party but by concern for the lives of the people within the country, we are anxious for that situation to arise and the United States is using its influence to see if that independent country, peaceful country, uncommitted country, can be established under current conditions. very difficult circumstances as president discussing with the Soviet Union the release of the RV 47 Flyers, we also spoke with mr.

Khrushchev of the fading of Francis Gary Powers a father of youtube and the 11 Flyers who were missing from the c-130 thatwe shot down in the test inside Armenia in 1958 the matter of the 11 Flyers was discussed and mr. Khrushchev and the Russians have rather claimed that their previous public statements about these Flyers represent their view on the matter that the

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paper's magazine story written by an East German did not represent the facts, so that would be about the matter of Mr. powers we have not discussed it because at this moment because it is in a different category and the Flyers that were released one was an overflight and the other was a flight of a different nature yes, the Russians asked for some quid pro quo or did we make any concessions to them to change in the release of these viruses they did not make.

How do you explain this notable change in their relationship? We did not make the statement that I have made is the statement that the United States government presented on this matter that I read to you earlier in the god... about the overflights. I wouldn't try to judge why the Soviet Union decided to release them at this time. I said it in my statement to mr. Our Smith said that this had removed a serious obstacle in the path of peaceful relations between the Soviet Union and the United States, and I would judge that they wished to remove that serious obstacle.

They accepted in exchange the guarantee of no more overflights. It is a fact. I have audited that flights will not be resumed, which is a continuation of the order given by President Eisenhower in May of this year that encouraged the renewal of electoral reform proposals. Do you have any objection to changing presidents? Is he in favor of any of the proposals? m I have some ideas about this: first of all, having gone through the experience of '56, it was an attempt to substantially change the electoral college. In my opinion, no change of this type can secure the necessary support and the House, the Senate and the States of the Union, the area in which I think perhaps we could achieve some improvement would be by establishing that the electors would be subject to the results of state elections, I think that would be a useful step forward.

Elections after all the people vote, assume that the votes will be cast in a way that reflects the judgment of a majority of the people of the state and so I think it would be useful to have that automatic and not create this independent group that could vote for the candidate who won it or not depending on your personal views which would be first, secondly, I am hopeful that Congress will consider the suggestions made, I believe, first by President Theodore Roosevelt and then by Senator Richard Neuberger, of having the national government participate in the financing of national campaigns because the current system is not satisfactory, perhaps he would do it.

It would be useful to go into this in more detail later and because I think it is the most important issue, but I would say for the moment that this issue of electors would be an area where I think we could usefully move mr. Roberts on a related topic without the same orbit, have you given any consideration to the problem with President Eisenhower resolved with his vice presidents, that is, the problem of succession in case of injury, illness or incapacity? He thought about some agreement with two vice presidents, yes, well. I have not been gay, I have not developed it at this time, although I think President Eisenhower's decision was a good one and I think it would be a good precedent.

Nothing has been done about it yet, but I think it would be a good matter for us to proceed on thank you no, I appreciate it