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A brief web search turned up”Now, in regard to the statement of the Vice President, I'm quite aware that Berlin is, from a military point of view, untenable, if it were subjected to a direct attack by the Soviet Union. What we hope will prevent that direct attack is the awareness of the Soviet Union that we mean to defend our position in West Berlin, and that American troops, who are not numerous there, are our hostage to that intent. “from a press conference 08/30/1960And his father's famous line that “my wife an I have given nine hostages to fortune.”But I believe I recall a speech from JFK on US/Soviet brinksmanship containing the phrase in the topic, or something similar. Can anyone tell me how to find the speech, if it exists?The two examples of this use of the word 'hostage' above are puzzling to me individually, but looking at them together gives me some ideas on the meaning. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
That's a tough one. I couldn't find anything, but I think your best bets would be to scrape through this site:http://cstl-cla.semo.edu/renka/modern_presidents/kennedy_speeches.htmor to go to the JFK library site and contact a researcher there to see if anything rings a bell. Otherwise, it might be a chore to mine through each speech individually.
Thank you very kindly. Have been nibbling away at the first link and collecting thoughts, and am starting to think I may take your second suggestion. Will report here if I learn anything that others might find interesting.
No problem. :)I found another site with search capabilities of JFK-related items, and the only reference to “hostage” was the one that you already mentioned in your first post. Perhaps if there's another word to use in the search, rather than “hostage”, it will bring up better results.Anyway, do let us know what you find.
