the finest moment of kennedy was reversing that and making khrushchev back down. as you say, giving him a horse that he could ride away on. >> two points on that. president kennedy said after the bay of pigs, ironically, two more weeks to let this, and we will have real elections. i do think john kennedy's experience in combat saved him from having to prove his anhood during the missile crisis. there was the sense that he could walk up to him and give khrushchev a way out to avoid nuclear confrontation. >> let's move to civil rights. >> it is all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of , and weand injustice shall overcome. [applause] background, june 11, 1963, president kennedy for does the nation to consider passage of the civil-rights bill. protests in sioux in birmingham, alabama, in which police turn attack dogs and water cannons on children. five days after president kennedy's assassination, lyndon johnson goes to congress and ask for the passage of the civil- rights bill. despite opposition, johnson makes it happen. what is the lesson for the current

conventional wisdom at that time was that president kennedy had stood down the soviets and forced nikita khrushchev to withdraw the missiles. a few months later, however, the u.s. missiles in turkey were also quietly withdrawn in what is now confirmed as an explicit trade off. so in that case, aggressive communist behavior managed to first provoke a crisis, then cool it down by appearing to back off, while extracting a significant concession that was not able to get otherwise. china sees the recent north korean crisis as an opportunity to reverse not only the u.s. actions of the past few weeks, but also the pivot that actually begin in the last two years of the bush administration and accelerated under president obama. beijing is convinced that washington is reacting not going to north korea's explicit threats, but to the perceived threat from china itself. missile defense systems that can shoot the north korean missiles can do the same with chinese missiles. russia has parallel concerns about u.s. missile defense systems that are intended to protect against the threat from iran, but can also destr

i distinctly remember nikita khrushchev in the 1960's taking his shoe often banging the heel at the united nations. the united nations in new york city threatened thermonuclear war against the united states, we are going to wipe you out. yet just a month and a half ago, he now calls himself the supreme leader of north korea, he said he will destroy the u.s. with thermonuclear war. i have not heard rhetoric like that since the 1960's. that is just the highlights. there are territorial tensions and lots of things going on around the world. i was in the u.k. last week speaking to command staff and talking with some of my french brothers about mali and what is happening there. a very courageous stance from my perspective on what the french have done. sooner or later, the international community is going to have to address some of these thorny, nasty, tacky little things going on around the world. we may think we are done with them, but they don't necessarily the -- they are not necessarily done with us. let me switch from that and talk a little bit about what we do with this environment. now w

conventional wisdom at that time was that president kennedy had stood down the soviets and forced khrushchev to withdraw the missiles. a few months later, however, the u.s. missiles in turkey where also quietly withdrawn in what is now confirmed as an explicit trade-off. in that case, aggressive coming this behavior manage the first provoke a crisis, then cool it down by appearing to back off while extracting a significant concession it was not able to get otherwise. china sees the recent north korean crisis as an opportunity to reverse not only the u.s. actions of the past few weeks, but also the pivot that actually began in last two years of the bush administration and accelerated under obama. beijing is convinced washington is reacting not only to north korea must explicit threats,, but to the perceived threat from china itself. this -- missile defense systems that can shoot down north korean missiles can do the same with the chinese missiles. russia as parallel concerns with systems that are intended to protect against the threat from iran, but can also destroy a rougher car -- a russian

being an underground church and the persecutions became more and more severe, peeking under the khrushchev era. here alls sitting praised and rejoiced at the way that john paul the great, ronald great, and are correct thatcher helped to bring down communism. rolewe do not know is the that the christian church played. in 1988 it was the millennial year. mikhail gorbachev and all those things were at play, and decided it would be a good thing to lift the lid off at least for one years. guess what -- it was not going back. this is not ancient history for us. this is very recent history. only since the early 1990s have we christians been able to find our voice once again and become players. in what are often called the old countries among we also recognize that in america we are numerically small, but we are growing, moving in the right and we are finding both the confidence to be players in our society among but also we are anxious to share our story and to seek with all of you the religious liberties that protect our right to worship god as we please. we are anxious to protect religious libe