Tapes: Kennedy sees nuclear missiles as deterrent, worries about falling behind in arms race

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Posted 9:05AM on Thursday, February 7, 2002

BOSTON - President Kennedy saw nuclear stockpiles as a deterrent against attack and worried that the United States would fall behind the Soviets in building its arsenal, according to newly released tape recordings. Kennedy discussed the stockpiling of nuclear weapons in a Dec. 5, 1962, meeting with Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Maxwell Taylor and other high-ranking officials. Kennedy said the nuclear buildup had a stabilizing effect, and that it would be lost if the Soviets developed the ability to annihilate the United States. "And that being true, then they will use their conventional force to take whatever they want, anyplace -- well not in this hemisphere -- but in Europe and Asia," Kennedy said. On Wednesday, the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum released the four hours of newly declassified recordings that Kennedy had taped in the Oval Office and cabinet room. In the tapes, recorded weeks after the Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy said the United States wouldn't use nuclear missiles in an offensive strike. "We have an awful lot of megatonnage to put on the Soviets sufficient to deter them from ever using nuclear weapons," Kennedy said. "Otherwise what good are they? You can't use them as a first weapon yourself, they are only good for deterring." "I don't see quite why we're building as many as we're building," he added. Seven months after Kennedy's remarks, the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union entered into the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space and under water. Timothy Naftali, director of the Presidential Recordings Project at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs, said the new recordings show Kennedy's foresight on foreign policy and arms control. He said the tapes will shape future Kennedy biographies. "These tapes will add to the developing picture of Kennedy as a thoughtful, creative, strong leader," said Naftali, co-editor of "The Presidential Recordings: John F. Kennedy: Volumes 1-3, The Great Crises." "Once again," Naftali said, "Kennedy comes off as the man you'd want in a crisis."