This past Nov. 22 marked the 59th anniversary of the assassination of America’s 35th president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
He was gunned down by an assassin’s bullet in Dealey Plaza, in Dallas Texas.
The 46-year-old commander in chief was taken from us way too soon.
Many have opined on what a second JFK term would have looked like.
Would the outcomes of the Vietnam War and other global — as well as domestic — affairs turned out differently?
There is one area this writer is convinced would be vastly different: the threat America and the free world face today from Communist China.
As a young Democratic congressman in the late 1940s, Kennedy saw the threat of Communist China early on.
He had the guts to stand up to his own party and blamed Democratic presidents, bureaucrats, and State Department officials for helping free China; efforts in this regard being too little, too late.
In 1949, then U.S. Congressman John F. Kennedy spoke on "The tragic story of China whose freedom we once fought to preserve."
Kennedy went on to say, "What our young men have saved, our diplomats and our presidents have frittered away."
Today, Communist China poses the greatest threat to the free world.
With its increasing belligerence, cyber warfare activities, intellectual property theft, and thumbing its nose at The Hague on keeping the South China Sea open to the free flow of trade and commerce, the Pepole's Republic of China (PRC) poses the greatest threat globally.
And, let’s not forget its genocide against the Uyghurs, as well as its failure to be more forthcoming to the global community on COVID-19.
In 1959, then-U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy saw the future threat that America and the free world would face in Communist China.
He expressed concern then that China would soon launch its first satellite and could eventually reach nuclear power status.
Senator Kennedy believed that India could be a great counterweight to the threat posed by China. He saw a "struggle between India and China over leadership in the East, for the respect of all Asia, for the opportunity to demonstrate whose way of life is the better."
As a result, Kennedy worked with other senators to propose legislation to help ensure the stability and competitiveness of India on the Asian continent.
As president, JFK put first lady Jacqueline Kennedy to work.
He sent her to visit India in March, 1962.
The purpose of that "goodwill tour" was to improve relations between the U.S. and India.
B.K. Nehru, then India’s ambassador to the United States, wrote in his memoirs that President Kennedy sought his advice on how to make the greatest "public impression in India for American friendship and appreciation of India."
Ambassador Nehru recommended, among other things, that Mrs. Kennedy travel by Air India, which she did. The intense, 10-day trip took her all over India, meeting with the people. This journey was well received.
We now know that during the Sino-Indian War that JFK intervened to help India counter Chinese advances along its shared border in the fall of 1962.
Communist Chinese dictator Mao Tse-tung knew the young president was being tested with the Cuban Missile Crisis, so he decided to make his move.
Declassified documents from India’s then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (a cousin of Ambassador Nehru and father of future Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi) reveal how India reached out to JFK for help — and how he responded.
Secretly aiding India militarily, America’s president, with ice water in his veins, stared down both Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev and the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party simultaneously when Mao withdrew his forces.
President Kennedy once noted, "In the Chinese language, the word 'crisis' is composed of 2 characters — one represents danger, and one represents opportunity.
"The danger now is clear. But let us also make the most of the opportunities. For, if they are lost now, they may never come again."
If President Kennedy had lived, we may not have had to deal with the Chinese Communist threat today, and certainly not at the level it is now!
He understood the threat early on as a young congressman and saw India as a counterweight to China. As a senator, he worked to strengthen India on the Asian continent. And as president, he came through and stood up to China during what Prime Minister Nehru called India’s "hour of our trial . . . [and] . . . fight for survival and for the survival of freedom and independence in this sub-Continent as well as the rest of Asia."
Today, the threat China poses to the free world is more dire than it was during the Kennedy era. But we can still dust off JFK’s playbook, work more closely with India to counter-balance China, and show the world what real American leadership looks like.
The hour is late, but let us make the most of the opportunity while we still have it.
Van Hipp is Chairman of American Defense International, Inc. He is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Army and author of "The New Terrorism: How to Fight It and Defeat It." He is the 2018 recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Sept. 11 Garden Leadership Award for National Security. Read Van Hipp's Reports — More Here.
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