US Presidency
1961

If the self discipline of the free can not match the iron discipline of the mailed fist in economic, political, scientific and all the other kinds of struggles as well as the military then the peril to freedom will continue to rise. Secondly, it is clear that this Nation, in concert with all the free nations of this hemisphere, must take an ever closer and more realistic look at the menace of external Communist intervention and domination in Cuba. The American people are not complacent about Iron Curtain tanks and planes less than 90 miles from their shore. But a nation of Cuba's size is less a threat to our survival than it is a base for subverting the survival of other free nations throughout the hemisphere. It is not primarily our interest or our security but theirs which is now, today, in the greater peril. It is for their sake as well as our own that we must show our will. The evidence is clear- and the hour is late.