Light Before Darkness Descended

Serendipitously, on the day I received Western Friend's editor’s list of topics for 2026, I reached the point in JFK and the Unspeakable where the May 1, 1962, meeting between President Kennedy and six Quaker peace advocates is recounted.

The six—biblical scholar and Quaker historian Henry Cadbury (who gave the 1947 Nobel Peace laureate address for the AFSC), Dorothy Hutchinson, Edward Snyder, George Willoughby, Samuel Levering, and David Hartsough (the youngest at 22)—met privately with JFK. They spoke for what Friends Journal reported as 800 Friends who had demonstrated for "peace and world order outside the White House and the State Department" over the previous two days.

Sitting in his rocking chair, President Kennedy listened attentively and talked seriously. The six presented him with an epistle advocating a foreign policy focused on achieving peace, rather than on testing and stockpiling nuclear weapons for a war with only losers. Kennedy was receptive. Nine months earlier, he had already conceived of and voiced such a shift by calling for a "peace race" at the United Nations’ General Assembly. However, he was stymied by widespread opposition within the government, the ruling class, and the perception that peaceful coexistence lacked popular support.

Accounts differ on whether Kennedy sua sponte brought up "letters from Quakers objecting" to naming a nuclear missile-carrying Polaris submarine for William Penn, or was challenged about the announced name. But all agree that the President said, "I can assure you that this will not be done."

The author recounts JFK having written to a PT boat friend a prophetic understanding that "could have come straight from the Quakers: 'Things cannot be forced from the top… War will exist until … conscientious objectors enjoy the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.'"

The six urged bold action, such as providing surplus food to the Red Chinese. President Kennedy is quoted as saying, "Do you mean you would feed your enemy when he has his hands on your throat?" To which Sam Levering pointedly responded, "As Quaker Christians, we know that Jesus said, ‘If your enemy hungers, feed him.’ As a Catholic, you know that." Politically, however, even the profitable sale of American farmers’ plentiful wheat to the communist Chinese was impossible at the time.

The Friends contended for genuine steps toward disarmament. Kennedy had not appointed anyone known to support disarmament to the relevant advisory board. But Kennedy reasoned that if known non-supporters changed into supporters, it would be more likely to move others in government to change. Echoing Franklin Roosevelt’s "make me do it" advice, JFK advised, "You’ve got to get much more organized, to put pressure on the government" towards this goal.

President Kennedy was isolated within his administration and estranged from those who controlled the Pentagon, the CIA, other nodes of power, and even "his" ambassador in Saigon, Henry Cabot Lodge, who favored escalation. The Friends sensed that JFK was institutionally constrained. Douglass opines that "the plain-speaking Quakers... paradoxically made JFK feel less alone."

Dorothy Hutchinson found the President "positively friendly" and delightfully informal. Sources differ on whether the meeting lasted twenty to twenty-five minutes, or significantly longer. But they agree that when JFK was told it was time for his next appointment, he responded, "Tell him to wait. I’m learning something from these Quakers."

Edward Snyder, the executive secretary of Friends Committee on National Legislation, felt there had been genuine listening and dialogue. George Willoughby, a non-violence activist who had been arrested as one of the crew that sailed into the exclusion area to protest nuclear testing, felt they were treated as equals by the President, who remained "friendly and warm to us" even when Willoughby interrupted him.

Though the course of world events would suddenly turn dark a year and a half later, with Kennedy’s assassination giving the green light for war in Vietnam, this meeting was a baby step toward peace and disarmament. A movement towards what Friends of that era meant by "world order"—presumably, a system of international law and a peaceful enforcement process involving dialogue and potential sanctions.

"I think most important to me was, first, that he listened," Hartsough added. "He wasn’t just pontificating as if he was the president and we were lowly peons. And, second, we were speaking truth to power in the White House, and Kennedy wasn’t just rejecting it as hogwash." He noted, "Here’s the president of the United States, sitting in his rocking chair, listening to a bunch of Quakers. And he was listening at least as much as he was talking."

Within seven weeks, David Hartsough joined a silent vigil outside the White House's front gate. Two in the small group were forty-day fasters; David and another bicycled almost daily from Howard University to provide encouragement. On the twenty-seventh day, those fasting and another who joined them in foregoing food to resist nuclear armament were arrested.

Kennedy’s shift toward disarmament continued, and given his aloneness on that front, the words the six spoke must have been a sparkle of light. The following year, when the Soviet Union direly needed food, JFK authorized the sale of wheat to our widely perceived enemy. Kennedy and Khrushchev had navigated a path through the Cuban Missile Crisis and, by doing so, came to understand that each was boxed in by hardliners and would have to struggle toward mutual understanding, trust, ending nuclear testing, and a durable peace.

Yet, before darkness descended, a growing worldwide anti-nuclear movement enabled President Kennedy and General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, together with the United Kingdom, to sign the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963. At the time, this left France as the sole non-signatory nuclear power. Initially testing in the Sahara Desert, France followed America’s example and moved its nuclear testing to the South Pacific, where it continued until January 27, 1996.

As we live in times of descended authoritarian darkness, I recall Phil Ochs, who sang, "when I’ve something to say, sir I’m gonna say it now." In dark times, timely words and actions are requisite. Delay risks that no one brave enough will be left to voice resistance and act for humanity, freedom, conscience, and their nation’s redemption. Speaking truth to power takes faith and courage. No doubt there was trembling upon entering the Oval Office.

Lanny Jay is a member of Appleseed Meeting Monthly Meeting. He lives in Sonoma Country with his husband DJ. He is a current member of the Western Friend Board.

Historical Note: The Assassination of JFK

The thesis of James W. Douglass’s well-sourced work is that John Kennedy’s turn toward peace got him killed. According to Douglass, "Kennedy’s declaration of peace at American University, his successful negotiation of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, his opening to Fidel Castro, and his decision to withdraw from Vietnam" made his continued presidency repugnant. The CIA allegedly organized the undertaking, using organized crime for shooters, anti-Castro Cuban exiles for confusion, and others—including the FBI, Pentagon, and Secret Service—to handle the coverup the Warren Commission signed off on.

A reliable account of JFK’s assassination is finally available. I highly recommend "Deathbed Whistleblowers, Historical Documentary, Spies, Hoods, and the Hidden Elites," released on YouTube on August 29, 2025, which is Chauncey Holt’s 1997 telling of his involvement, recorded eight days before his death. He was one of the "three tramps" arrested in Dallas on November 22, 1963. His words ring true, detailed, authoritative, and firsthand.

Additionally, during the May 20, 2025, House Oversight Committee hearing, Douglas Horne, a member of the Assassination Records Review Board staff who served as Chief Military Records Analysis, testified that "two highly qualified and respected MDs... both agree that the extant JFK skull x-rays reveal unambiguous and clear evidence of two headshots fired from in front of the president contrary from the findings of the Warren Commission and the HSCA. The JFK skull x-rays actually reveal a total of three headshots. One fired from behind and two from the front." His testimony and other credible evidence establish that at least five bullets were fired. Truth is coming to light.