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JFK Negotiated (and Got His Butt Kicked)

1961 summit with Khrushchev holds lessons for Obama

By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff

Posted May 22, 2008 12:55 PM CDT

(Newser) – On the campaign trail, Barack Obama often invokes a JFK maxim—"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate"—to back up his commitment to talk to America's enemies. But in a Times op-ed, two writers observe that Kennedy learned a tough lesson when negotiating with Nikita Khrushchev: Meeting with the enemy gives him the opportunity to kick you.

"He beat the hell out of me," JFK told a reporter after the 1961 Kennedy-Khrushchev meeting in Vienna. The Soviet premier left the summit emboldened—he dismissed the youthful president as “too intelligent and too weak”—and by next spring had deployed missiles to Cuba, beginning the most dangerous episode of the Cold War. For the authors, JFK should remind Obama that negotiation, even by a smart and eloquent president, can be "self-destructive."

John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev met at a 1961 meeting in Vienna.
John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev met at a 1961 meeting in Vienna.   (Magnum Photos)
President John F. Kennedy greets Soviet premier Nikita Khruschev in front of the American embassy at the beginning of a summit in Vienna in 1961.
President John F. Kennedy greets Soviet premier Nikita Khruschev in front of the American embassy at the beginning of a summit in Vienna in 1961.   (Magnum Photos)
Barack Obama listens to questions at a town hall meeting in Kissimmee, Fla., Wednesday, May 21, 2008.
Barack Obama listens to questions at a town hall meeting in Kissimmee, Fla., Wednesday, May 21, 2008.   (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Barack Obama speaks at a town hall meeting in Kissimmee, Fla., Wednesday, May 21, 2008.
Barack Obama speaks at a town hall meeting in Kissimmee, Fla., Wednesday, May 21, 2008.   (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
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