On July 25, 1961, President Kennedy and Prime Minister Khrushchev ordered a massive increase in military spending. In a televised speech tonight to the nation, Kennedy said the U.S. plans to increase the Pentagon¡¯s budget by $3.5 billion. It was noted that this figure was almost the same as that of Khrushchev. Kennedy also said that he would double the number of recruits and add 217,000 to the armed forces, and that we did not want to fight against the Soviet ¡°global¡± military threat.