But before he could deliver the speech on November 22, 1963, the beloved leader was cut down by an assassin's bullets.
"We now know the real reason why President Kennedy was assassinated," declared Prof. Merrick of Cambridge, Mass.
"It appears that some individuals within our government were determined to maintain the secrecy surrounding captured UFOs -- and decided to silence the President before he could speak." Prof. Merrick says he began a search for the undelivered speech after learning the President's original handwritten notes had fallen into the hands of Texas Governor John Connally -- who was riding in JFK's death car that fateful day in Dallas.
"I was surprised to find that Kennedy handed Connally the speech, which was on note cards, to look at, shortly before the motorcade set off at 12:55 p.m.," said Prof. Merrick.
The governor was badly wounded in the gun attack.
"Connally was terrified for his own life," said the historian.
"He placed the bloodstained index cards in a safety deposit box with orders to a trusted aide that the contents not be revealed until after his death." When Gov. Connally died in 1993, the aide removed the cards and held on to them.
Last year, Prof. Merrick tracked down the aide, who passed the speech on with a guarantee of anonymity.
Prof. Merrick was flabbergasted when he read the cards. He took them to five handwriting analysts, who agreed the speech was "99 percent certain" to be Kennedy's.
Research reveals that just days before his trip to Dallas, JFK met with his predecessor President Dwight D. Eisenhower, notes Prof. Merrick.
"I believe he was seeking advice on whether to go public with the facts about UFOs," Prof. Merrick said. "But other government insiders apparently felt the truth about UFOs would cause widespread panic. And they were willing to kill to keep the information secret.
Here is what the President would have said, written on the note cards verified to written by him, to read to the public: My fellow Americans, people of the world, today we set forth on a journey into a new era. One age, the childhood of mankind, is ending and another age is about to begin.
The journey of which I speak is full of unknowable challenges, but I believe that all our yesterdays, all the struggles of the past, have uniquely prepared our generation to prevail.
Citizens of this Earth, we are not alone. God, in His infinite wisdom, has seen fit to populate His universe with other beings -- intelligent creatures such as ourselves.
