Even the grain of an old newsreel can’t mask the grave countenance. Even the scratchy analog audio can’t disguise the seriousness of purpose in that New England accent.

This was President Kennedy in his archived glory. A lot of the popular images preserved show him in familial or playful or artfully pensive moments. This footage is all business.

The History Channel featured a show about JFK, and this particular segment included his televised speech to the nation after the 1961 Vienna summit with the Soviet Union’s Nikita Khrushchev.

The Cold War got no colder than this. The Soviet leader posed no threat of war because he believed “the world will move his way without resort to force.” He also made clear that Americans “no longer have a nuclear monopoly.”

A bit more than a year later, the United States would confront Soviet ships on the high seas about putting nuclear weapons in Cuba. In Vienna, Mr. Khrushchev insisted communism had its best days ahead.

A weary President Kennedy returned to Washington and, five months into his term, went on television to detail the “sober” discussions.

Part of what he said stuck with me.

There was no discourtesy, no loss of tempers, no threats or ultimatums by either side; no advantage or concession was either gained or given; no major decision was either planned or taken; no spectacular progress was either achieved or pretended.

The speech contained a lot of meat and an interesting perspective on a World War II veteran’s view of freedom.

And for a president raised in mansions and educated in private schools, Mr. Kennedy described America’s dilemma with blunt words rather than soaring rhetoric. The oratory could be understood in a South Boston union hall.

But something about the tone struck me. It seemed unique compared with much of what we hear today.

It must have been the line about progress at the summit not being “achieved or pretended.”

The sentence — in fact, the whole speech — seemed short of spin.

Leaders just returned from important gatherings these days couch their reporting in the language of self-enhancement.

Nothing of substance might have occurred, but that won’t do for a sound bite. That won’t do for bloggers who treat the slightest verbal misstep like the loss of a nuclear launch code in a game of Texas Hold ’Em.

And that won’t do for political opponents who see any lack of positive result as a sign of weakness to be exploited in some future campaign ad.

So, the modern officeholder puts the best face on every situation, not for having worn rose-colored glasses but for having seen a price paid for naked truths delivered.

When President Bush went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina devastated that city three years ago, he said these words: “You need to know that our whole nation cares about you.” The speech came a couple of weeks after the world learned the whole nation did not care, at least not the part capable of supplying timely assistance.

In campaign season, at least, the rationale for buffed-up speechifying appears understandable. But elected leaders give themselves too much liberty these days to fudge life’s harshness in exchange for political gain.

Ken Newton’s column runs on Tuesday and Sunday.