It's an excellent quote. Sadly by the early 1960s the monster that would make America no longer a free and open society had already been birthed. It has been nothing but secrecy and Constitutional abuses ever since, with one piece after another of the American Republic being consumed by the military industrial complex. I suspect JFK knew what was happening, given Eisenhower's warning, and he most likely had conversation/s with Eisenhower about it. From what I recall, Eisenhower warned JFK about forces inside the government that would try to push him into a conflict in southeast Asia.

Now? Now we've got a psychotic general, among others - collectively potentially more powerful than the President given the blackmail material the NSA probably has on Obama after having illegally wiretapped him as a Senator for years - pointing his power at The People, and spouting off about how the media needs to be stopped. It has been a gradual coup against the democratic process and now secrecy reigns supreme.