Speech

made

by

Vlneent

J'

SaLandnia

on June

,

1958

in

Central-

Park,

Nevu

ork

CltY.

People,

how can

it

be that

dlverse

madmen,

such

as

ttu

candidates

we

are

asked

to

accept

as the

murderers

of the

four

martyrs

whom

we

honor

today,

are

so

focused

in thelr

madness

that"they

only

those

great

men who

are

iolned.wlth

one

common

hread---dedicabion

to

spari-ng

manklnd

from the

oppres-

slon and

vlolence

vis l ted

upon 1t

ny

our

war lords?

One

would

expect

madrnen---lf

they

are

the

random

products

of

a

generally

sfct

society--* to

be

rn6re

diversi f ted

in

thetr

cholee

of

tar-

gets.

Frlen-ds,

human

affalrs

are

not

gulded

by

ravaglng

streams

of diverse

and

melancholy

madness

such

as serve

the

unvarying

purpo$e

of

kil l lng

the

most

lmportant

enemles

of

our

military'

ff

tfre

motj-vatl-on

be

madness,

then

it

ls

the

madness

of

our

mil l tary.

A

Reuters

Dispatch

from

Moscow

on

June

B

states:

"The

Soviet

press

is

bui ld ing

a

pleture

of the k l l l lng

of

Senator

Robert

F.

Kennedy

as

pait

oi

a

plot

to elLmlnate

all

serious

oppositlon

to

presen

Wasir ington

pol ic ies.

A

f lood

of

art lc les

and

reports

ln

newspapers

on

the

assassination

have

llnked

it

openly

with

the

murber

of

Presldent

John

F.

Kennedy

|n

1963

and

of

the

Rev.

DIt. Martln

Luther

King, JP.,

in

Memphls,

Tennessee

in

Apr i l .

"

Now,

long

befone

the

Russlans

saw

flt

to

voi"ce

this

vlew,

&7-

most

all the

people

who

have

lnveetigated

the

assassination

of President

ion?:

f

.

Kennedy

reeognized

Lhab

the

kil l- ing

was

mstlvatea

ny.tile

d€st?e

to

perpetuate

t4e

Cold

War

whtch

Presldent

Kennedy

$ought

to-

end.

We

feel

that

the

shootlng

of

Presldent

Kennedy

was

a

forelgn

pol1cy

ki1l1ng

done

at

the

behest

of m11itairy

ci rc les

in- the Unl ted

States

and

executed

by operatives

undLr

the

control

and in

the

employ

of

the

Central

Intel l igence

AgencY.

What

changed

following

the

assassination

of

Presldent

KennedSr

was

our

fofelgn

policy

and

our

fornr of

govennment.

Three

weeks

after

the

asslssinatfbn

iunta

]eaders

in Sa$.gon

were

told

that

the

United

States

was

prepared

to

help

as

long

as

ai-d

wa$

needed.

He

had

made

the

cr i t ical

decls lon

to

reverse

the

pol lcy

announced

at

the

end

of

the

Kennedy

adminlstration

to

wlth-

draw

U.S.

troops

from

Vletnam.

fn

Latin

Amerlca,

the Johnson

government

tmmbOtately

s1gna1led

the

end

of

Kennedylsm

by

,

Iupporti.ng

the

rnilttai 'y

regines

ln

the

Dominican

Republlc

and

'erl l i f .

T[e Gu]f

o l

fonktn

lncident

was

generated

by

the

roi l l -

tary

as

a monumental

fraud---perpetrated

on

an

all-too-unskep-

Congress-- to

provide excuse for

further

escalat ion

in

Vletnam.

So

presideir t

Kennedyts

courageous

effor ts

to end

the

Cold

War:

were

shot

down

wlth

hlm,

and

the

Cold

War

then

grew

in

intensity

and

the

democratle

processes

in

Unlted

States

eroded

ln

favor

of

more

power

to ' the

m11ltary '

Thanks

to

a

b111

whleh

became

law over

the

objections

of

McNamara,

&$

of January

1, L969,

our

Jolnt

Chlefs

will

enjoy

a

four-year

tenn,

and

th6

Presldent wi l l

no- longer

pe

able

to

f ire

them,

as

in

the

past,

at

hls

discret lon'

Such

a

law

re-

verse$

thA

tradltional

constitutlonal

pattern

j"n

the Untted

States

of

c iv l l ian

control

over

the

mll l tary

'

-Artllrrlr-$chle$tag.qr

,

JY.

has

stated

the

sharp

difference

ln

 

c

mi l l tary

posi t ion

fol lowing

the

assasslnat ion

of Presldent

Kennedy.

"There

is nothing

infal l ib le

about

the

Joint

Chiefs

of

Staff.

I know

what

they recommendedduring

great

crlses

of

the

Kennedy

Adminlst i :at ion. , .and

in each

case

their recommen-

dat ions

were

plaln ly

wrong.

Presid.ent

Kennedy

took

their

advice

on

hls

great

decls ions

once---before

the Bay

of

Plgs. He

dld

not make that

mj-stake

again. . .Th1s

sudden

worshlp

of the

rnil itary

is not

in

the

American tradltion.

WhrenGeneral

Mac-

Arthun car.ried

hls

carnpaign

for

the escalation

of the

Korean

li iar to

Congress

and the

pub11c,

President

Truman

fired him."

1

subnrib

that the

military

flred

John

F.

Kennedy. Is

such

an

idea arary? Presldent

Kennedy

dld

not

consider

a

take-over an absurd

idea. fn

Paul

B.

F&y,

Jr .

rs

book,

The

Pleasure of

His

Company,

President

Kennbdy was

quoted

as saying

ossible.

I t could

haPPen

n

this

country, but the condl t ions

would have

to be

just

r ight.

I f ,

for exampl€,

the muntry

had

a

young

Presldent,

and he

had

a

Eay of Pigs. . .Then

if there Brere

another Bay

of

Pigs,

the

react ion of the

country

would

be,

t Is

he

too

young

and

inexper-

ienced? The mi l i tary

weuld

alnost

feel

that

i t

was

threir

patr i-

ot lc

obl igat ion

to stand

ready

to

preserve

the integr i ty

of

the

nat lon. . .Then,

i f

there

were a

third

Bay

cf Pigs,

i t

could

happen.

But i t wontt

happen

on

my

watch.

"

There

was

a Bay

of

Pigs

in whi"ch

the CIA

betrayed

President

Kennedy.

There

aas

a

detente

with

Russla,

fo l lowed by a

test

ban

treaty which

encountered

heavy

milltary

reslstance. And when

Kennedy

sought

to

ehange the Vletnam

pollcy,

he was

himself

f lred

by

the

nr i l l taqy---k i11ed

on his watch.

Upon

hls

death,

the mll i tar11

becane thre $ominant

fo: :ce

in

our

Ecvernrnent.

C:a; ' tc :

i : t : : :e; '

said this on

December

10,

7967:

"ffrere's

also

much

talk

about

McNamarats

eslgnat ion

bej .nq

an nrnl"nous

rn€h

of whatrs

ahead.

Aetual ly

1t

1s

morer 'of 'a

conf i , rmS.t i .on,of

wh&t:

a ' } r :eady

happened.

His departure

nob

mean

tnai

bne mi l i tary

are

goi4g

to

gain

the ascendancy.

I t

means

they already

have. ' '

f t

is

my

content i

on

ihat

the

guns

of

Dal las

v{ere

designed

to

accom-

:l ish this mil i tary

consol ldat lon of

powen

in

the

lJni ted

States.

In

the

afternoon

of November

22,

1963

the

first

announcement

that Lee

Harvey

Oswald

was

the

lone assassin

of , t resident

Kennedy came

from the

Pentagon's

Situation

Room

o{

the l,rhite

House.

The communlcat ion

was

sent

by ml l l tary

radio

to

the

Presn.dential

Party i,thich

was

flying

back

from Dal1as

to Uash-

ingtan. Now,

before

there was

any

evldence

agalnst

Oswald,

and

before the rni l i tary

could

possibly

know

(unless

he was

agent) t frat

Oswald

had no

accompl ices, the

Pentagon was

pre-

pared

to

assert

finally

that

Oswald

was

tire

man ivho

had fired

el l

those

guns

from

all

those

dlfferent

cross-f i re

dlrect ions

in

Dal" las.

So

fhen,

ls i t

not reasonable

to infer

that

the

American mllltary

invented

the

Oswald hoax?

The kll l lng

of Senator

Kennedy, when

the

tr{hlte

House

i:recame

his

real lst ic

alm, was

no

Kennedy

Assassinat ion

invest igators.

John

Kennedy's

enemles had

bo

be Robert

Kennedyrs

enemles,

and they

had

to act

at

th is

er i t ical

Juncture

to

assassinate

him

before.he

becane Presldent,

at

which

polnt

he

would

have been

able to

do

batt le

with

those

forces in our

government

which

kil led

hls

brother and

are mj-l j-tarizing

and

brutal iz ing

our society.

Fascist-ml l l tary

assasslnat ion

is

not

a new

phenomenon n

 

hlstory.

Benl to

Mussol ln i 's

{ascLsts,

tn f lght ing

their

way to

dlctator ia l

power

over arr

of

rtary,

lCI l -gz4

asslsslnated

bra-

,

como Matteott ir-

the

dist tngulshed

social is t

Matteott: . ,

i

l lke

bhe

Kennedys,

was a mlll ionalre,

and

like

the-

Kennedys

hls

great

wealth.

dld

not spare

him

from

the

bullets

of

th;)

brutes.

Matteott l ,

] ike

the Kennedys,

hated

war, and

this

made

him

the

enemy

of the

mllttary.

Matteotti,

l lke

the Kennedys,

was assasslnated

by

Faseist-mll i tar lsts

ln his

government- .

Thls

mil l tary

type assassinat ion

had

i ts

paral le l

ln the

gov-

ernment

of

Japan in

193j,

when

14oo

offlcers

and men

of

the

Japanese

mll l tary

eommlt ted

bloodthtrsty

deeds

of assasslnat lon

agialnst

thei . r

c lv i l lan

pol i t lcal

opponents.

These

assassinat lons

helped

pave

the

way

,for

Japanese

mllitary

ascendency

to

power..

, ,-

itK E;

{x-Pt

qhy

the

kil l ing

of.,Mal-com

X

e.d

Dr.

Martln

Luther

Ktng,

Jr.?

V*yy

These good

men

hrere

F"?f{+gl4d

uorlt

reading

their

peop16'and

e'*a

preventlng

their

oppo$Xfiiciru

rn order

to-make

trrb mirrtary

3

apparatus

of

the

united

states

reLevant

to

our

population,

disorder

and

chaos

among

the

blacks

are

deslred-

by

the

crA

and

the

m1l1 +"y.

rf the

mit i tary

can

f lght

racla l

gubrr l l la

wars

in

our

cl t les,

as

they are

planning

to

do, then-the. . , 'can

parade

under

the

gulse

of whi te

civ i lpt lon

proteet lng

the

society

from

black

unclvt l ized

hoardJ.

To

depr lve the

black

populat ion

of i ts

f inest

leaders,

leaves

the

black eommunity

confused

and

prey

to agent

provoeateurs.

The

crA and

FBr anb

other

u.s.

intel l lgence

ageneles

would cause

the

black

people

 g

enter violent

adventuristlc

enter"prlses

deslgned

to bnd- 1n ,

the destr .uct ion

of

our

blaek

pcpulat ton

Ler

us

join

toe"t;;ffi;,

ro

fnrfiT{

on

the

w6r}r

I

of

our four

martyrs.

Let us

buird

on

that

work.

Let

us

rebui ld

th is

societ ; r

sparked by

lnspi : :at ion provided

by

these

coura-

geous

men.

Let us

not delay

in

this

eoning

together.

Tlme

ls

short .

The

guns

d,re

quick.

Those

assassins '

guns

smashed

through

black skul ls

and

white

skul ls

and

sp6wed

out a

slngle

red

eolcr

which shows the

ki-nship

of all

rnankind.

rf we do-not

quiekly

jo in

together,

brother$

the

guns

wi l l

p iek

us

off

one

by

one,

and

joln

us

together--.- in

oeatrr.

Thls

is

the

lesson

to

be

learned from

the

kl l l lng

of

presldent

Kennedy,

Malcolm

x,

Dr.

Ktng

and

Senator Kennedy.