John F.Kennedy Speaks

U.S. News - Secret tapes of JFK's last days released

 After all these years,John F.Kennedy speaks to us,
from the past.  More than 260 hours of private recordings of meetings and conversations JFK made before his assassination on that hot Dallas day
November 22, 1963.

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum today announced that it has declassified and made available the final 45 hours of White House recordings that were secretly taped during President John F. Kennedy’s time in office. In all, President Kennedy recorded over 248 hours of meeting conversations and 12 hours of dicta belt telephone conversations on a system that remained a closely held secret even from his top aides. Today’s release encompasses meetings held during the three months leading up to the end of the Kennedy Administration.

“The Library has been systematically reviewing and opening these secretly recorded tapes since 1993,” Kennedy Library Director  Tom Putnam remarked,

 “We are thrilled to have completed the process and know researchers will be fascinated with these recordings from John F. Kennedy’s final days as President.”

9/17/63 Foy Kohler and President Kennedy on US-USSR Space Cooperation

President Kennedy: The other thing I talked to him about was space. I don’t know whether we could ever.............
Foy Kohler: They were very intrigued by this, Mr. President. I mentioned this when I talked to Gromyko before I left and it was obvious that they were intrigued but a little puzzled by this. I referred to it as a very imagining thing and asked whether they had given any thought to it. He said, well, they agreed it was imaginative. (pause) They’re obviously interested in this – by implication, they are clearly concerned about the cost of these damn things – about a race in space. So Gromyko said, well, it’s a very interesting idea and we would like you to come up with something more definite which we can take a look at. So far, I haven’t been able to consult with all the right people here to see whether anything can be developed.
President Kennedy: I would like to have an agreement on when we both try to go to the moon, then we wouldn’t have this intensive race –I don’t know whether they are going to the moon. Lovell says not.
Kohler: I think maybe he’s right. They have got – you think you have a serious resource distribution problem but believe me, Mr. Khrushchev has a more serious one. The pressure of the claims on a very limited budget must be enormous there and he does refer to it occasionally. Well my military people say one more, my scientist are always wanting more – the pressures must be great when resources are very limited.