President Kennedy said that world affairs, in a not very resounding phrase, were entering into "a rather climactic period." Secretary of State Dean Rusk, appearing before the Foreign Policy Association in Manhattan, put it another way. "I suspect that we are," he said, "on the front edge of significant and perhaps unpredictable events, a period in which some of the customary patterns of thought will have to be reviewed and perhaps revised."
Pressed for specifics, both Kennedy and Rusk wandered off into generalities. Yet, for all their inadequacy in verbalizing their feelings, both men were, in fact, reflecting a growing...
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