Today Is the Anniversary of JFK’s Declaration of War

June 10, is the anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s declaration of war against the national-security branch of the U.S. government. To be sure, he didn’t call it that. He simply was delivering a speech at the June 10, 1963, commencement exercises at American University. The speech has gone down in history simply as JFK’s “Peace Speech,” but in essence it was a declaration of war against the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA.

JFK delivered his speech at the height of the Cold War, the period ...