In 1960, Kennedy ran for office on the premise that he was just as much a Cold Warrior as those who came before him. Being a liberal, he had to show that he was tough on Communism. He said in a speech, “Freedom and Communism are in a deadly embrace; the world cannot exist half slave and half free.” He also ran on the idea of a developing missile gap; in other words, the Russians were developing more nuclear weapons than we were and that he would close the gap.
Historically Speaking 