Rare and significant TLS as President, two pages, 7.25 x 10.25, White House letterhead, July 6, 1962. Kennedy writes to Edwin P. Fifielski, National Commander of the American Veterans of World War II. In full: “I am happy to extend my best wishes to the American Veterans of World War II on the occasion of your eighteenth national Convention. Today we live in a world totally different than that ever experienced before. This is the age of the orbit, the atom, and the intercontinental ballistic missile; the age when a single explosive device may contain more destructive power than all the explosives used in World War I and II. We must meet our foreign commitments in a cool and responsible fashion; and we must show the world—particularly the uncommitted peoples—that we accept and act upon the great principles of democracy in a responsible fashion. Hence, we must attend to the unfinished business of democracy—our school needs, the health of our senior citizens, the need to assure a vigorous economy—in a way that leaves no gap between what we say, and what we do. Though the age may be uncertain, the problems hitherto unknown, there are many resources that I am sure we can count on. The outstanding record of AMVETS proves that one of our major resources is the skill and dedication of our veterans, who have demonstrated under fire that they possess responsibility in abundance.” The month in which JFK wrote this letter was an eventful one: on the following day, July 7, the U.S. detonated the largest-ever nuclear explosion on American soil in an underground test in Nevada; on July 10, the U.S. detonated another bomb over Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean that was said to light the skies from Hawaii to New Zealand. Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev soon responded with typical (and perhaps in this case warranted) belligerence, announcing the existence of a Soviet anti-missile missile that could “hit a fly in outer space” and announcing the resumption of Soviet nuclear testing in the wake of America’s own tests. U.S./Soviet relations continued to heat up throughout the summer and nearly reached the breaking point in October with the Cuban Missile Crisis—the event that brought the world to the brink of war, but which, through deft and decisive political maneuvering, proved to be the greatest foreign-policy triumph of JFK’s administration. Kennedy letters with this caliber of content, touching on so many central issues of his presidency—let alone examples in this virtually unsurpassed state of preservation—occupy a very select place among the rarest and most coveted examples of presidential autograph material. Staple holes at upper left corner, otherwise crisp, never folded, very fine condition. COA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
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