The cost of freedom is always high -- but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission.

John F. Kennedy used this line in his televised address during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when U.S. reconnaissance revealed Soviet nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba. Speaking to a tense nation and an anxious world, Kennedy announced a naval “quarantine” of Cuba and warned that any missile launched from Cuba would be regarded as an attack by the Soviet Union. The phrasing framed the confrontation as a test of national resolve and of the credibility of U.S. commitments in the Cold War. It was meant to justify the risks of escalation while signaling that the United States would not accept coercion or a strategic fait accompli in the Western Hemisphere.

The quotation links liberty to sacrifice: freedom is not a costless inheritance but something repeatedly defended through material expense, danger, and moral resolve. Kennedy’s contrast between paying a “high” price and refusing “surrender or submission” casts compromise under duress as dishonor, aiming to stiffen public support for a perilous policy. In Cold War terms, it also asserts deterrence—if adversaries believe the U.S. will yield, they will press harder. The rhetoric elevates the immediate crisis into a broader national narrative: Americans endure hardship to preserve self-determination, and capitulation is presented as the one unacceptable option.