The Legacy of John F. Kennedy

The following is a special program in memoriam produced by the University of Michigan broadcasting service on November 22nd 1963 at 2 p.m. in the city of Dallas Texas. The thirty fifth president of the United States died the victim of an assassin's bullet. That hour of that day which brought the death of the president gave birth to a legacy the legacy of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was the youngest man ever elected to the office of the presidency. He was the first man of his religious persuasion ever elected to the office of the presidency and he was the first man to invite a poet to participate in his inauguration to the office of the presidency. Robert Frost the unofficial poet laureate of the United States dedicated a poem and thereby his own legacy was passed on to President elect John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The Gift Outright the land was ours

before we were the lab's. She was more than a hundred years before we were people. She was out in Massachusetts in Virginia. But we were England's still Colonials possessing what we still possessed by possessed by what we now in our mob possess something we were withholding made this week until we found out that it was I was withholding from my land of living and forthwith found salvation and surrender such as we were. We gave us the deed of gift. It was many deeds to the land vaguely realizing westward but still one storied Atlas and enhance such as she was such as she would become for President Kennedy. The gift out right signaled a beginning. A rifle report

signaled the end and the nation and its leaders move on. It is not only a tragedy for. The nation which he so ably represented. But is I think also holds. A mark upon the respectability and responsibility of some of our citizens. It's harassed man who had so much on his shoulders and received from some people so little in the way of support in return. This man has now gone to his reward and I will miss him as a personal friend. The nation will miss him as a great president. And the world will miss him as a great leader.

The tragedy of this day has been beyond instant comprehension. All of us who knew him will bare the grief of his death to the day of our lives and all men everywhere who love peace and justice and freedom will bow their head. And such a moment we can only turn to prayer or prayer to comfort our grief to sustain Mrs. Kennedy and his family to strengthen President Johnson and to guide it in time to come. May God help us such as he was he gave himself right and with his passing the legacy of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on forwards and history will be its judge. I do not believe that any of us change places with any other FIFO or any other generation.

The energy the faith the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will eye doc country on all who serve it and the glow from that fire can truly like the world. And so my fellow Americans ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world not what America will do for you but what together we can do for the freedom of man. Finally whether you are citizens of America are citizens of the world ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you without good conscience our only sure reward

with history the final judge of our day. Let us go forth to leave the land we love asking his blessing and his help but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own. History will be the judge and this is altogether fitting for John F. Kennedy author of statesman war hero politician intellectuals was imbued with a deep sense of history. Speaking of members of the 88 Congress. I congratulate you all not merely on your electoral victory but on your selected role in history. But you and I have privileged to serve the Great Republic in what could be the most decisive decade in its long history. The choices we make for good or ill will

affect the welfare of generations yet unborn little more than 100 weeks ago I assumed the office of the president of the United States and seeking the help of the Congress and our countrymen. I pledge no easy answers. I pledge today asked only toil and dedication these the Congress and the people have given in good measure. And today having witnessed in recent months a heightened respect for our national purpose and power. Having seen the courageous calm of a united people in a perilous out and having observed a steady improvement in the opportunities and well-being of our citizens I can report to you that this state is old but useful union is good. Will allow and the world beyond our

borders. Steady progress has been made in building a world of order. The people of West Berlin remain free and secure. Al the sentiment though still precarious has been reached in Laos. The spear point of aggression has been blunted in South Vietnam. The end of the agony may be in sight in the Congo. The doctrine of troika is dead and while danger continues a deadly threat has been removed from Cuba. Will. I am home the recession is behind us. Well over a million more men and women are working today than were working two years ago. The average factory work week is once again more than 40 hours. Our industries are turning out more goods. Than ever before well. And more hot Inhofe of the manufacturing capacity that lay

silent and wasted 100 weeks ago is humming with activity. In short both at home and abroad they may now be a temptation to relax. For the road has been long the burden heavy and the pace consistently urge. But we cannot be satisfied to rest here. This is the side of the hill not the top. The mere absence of war is not peace and we are absence of recession is not growth. We have made a beginning but we have only begun. For John F. Kennedy history meant not only a respect for the past and an insight into the future for him. The president also had a meaning and in the face of clear and present danger he was quick to respond. My fellow citizens let no one doubt that dance is a difficult and dangerous effort on which we have set out. No one can

foresee precisely what course it will take or what costs or casualties will be incurred. Many months of sacrifice and self-discipline lie ahead months in which both our patience and our will will be tested months in which many threats and denunciations will keep us aware of our dangers. But the greatest danger of all would be to do nothing. The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards as all paths are but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world. 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. Aagot is not the victory of might but the vindication of right not peace at the expense of freedom but both peace and freedom

here in this hemisphere. And we hope around the world. God willing that goal will be achieved freedom justice and peace. These were the passions of a president who deeply believed in a world in which reason triumphs over prejudice and tyranny bows to Universal. So that world assembly of sovereign states the United Nations our last best hope in an age where the instruments of law and fire outpace the instruments of peace we renew our pledge of the fall and to prevent it from becoming merely a forum. Frank back to you. Do shrink then a chief of the new in the week and two in the area in which it is written they run finally that those nations who would make themselves our adversary. We often are not a

pledge but a request that both sides begin anew with a quest for peace made for the dock powers of destruction unleashed by science in golf. All humanity and planned are accidental self destruction. We Dan not tempt them with weakness for only when our alms sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed but neither can too great and powerful groups of nations take output from LA present calling both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons. Both rightly a law aimed by the steady spread of the deadly atom. Yet both racing to all death that on certain balance of Terra that

stays the hand of mankind. Final long. So let us begin a new remembering on both sides. Nobody it's not a sign of weakness and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear but let us never fear to negotiate. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of the laboring those problems which divide us. Let both sides for the first time formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of alms and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations. Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrorism. The ghetto Let us explore the stot conquer the deserts

eradicate disease tap the ocean depths and encourage the arts and commerce. Let both sides unite to lead in all corners of the earth the command of ICAO to undo the heavy burden and let the oppressed go free. And yeah I think the chance of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion. Let both sides join in creating a new endeavor not a new balance of power but a new world of law where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved. All this will not be finished in the first 100 days nor will it be finished in the first 1000 days nor in the life of this administration

nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us speak in a sense of history a passion for peace. But not at any price. Neither the United States of America nor the world community of nations can tolerate deliberate deception and often see threats on the part of any nation large or small. We no longer live in a world where only the actual firing of weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation security to constitute maximum peril. Nuclear weapons are so destructive and ballistic missiles are so swift that any substantially increased possibility of their use or any sudden change in their deployment may well be regarded as a definite threat to peace. For many as both the Soviet Union and the United States recognizing this fact have deployed strategic nuclear weapons with great

care never upsetting the precarious status quo which ensured that these weapons would not be used in the absence of some vital challenge our own strategic missiles have never been transferred to the territory of any other nation under a cloak of secrecy and deception. And our history unlike that of the Soviet since with the end of World War 2 demonstrates that we have no desire to dominate or Cauca any other nation or impose our system upon its people. Nevertheless American citizens have become adjusted to living daily on the bull's eye of Soviet missiles located inside the USSR or in submarines. In that sense missiles in Cuba and to an already clear and present danger although it should be noted the nations of Latin America had never previously been subjected to a potential

nuclear threat. But this secret swift extraordinary build up of communist missiles in an area well known to have a special and historical relationship to the United States and the nations of the Western Hemisphere in violation of Soviet assurances and in defiance of American hemispheric policy. This sudden clandestine decision to stations for teaching weapons for the first time outside of Soviet soil is a deliberately provocative and unjustified change in the status quo which cannot be accepted by this country. If our courage and our commitments are ever to be trusted again by either friend or foe the 1930's taught us a clear lesson. Aggressive conduct if allowed to go unchecked and unchallenged ultimately leads to wrong. This nation is opposed to war. We are also true to our word our unswerving objective therefore must be to

prevent the use of these missiles against this or any other country and to secure their withdrawal or elimination from the Western Hemisphere. Our policy has been one of patience and restraint as befits a peaceful and powerful nation which leads a world wide alliance. We have been determined not to be diverted from our central concerns by mere irritants and fanatics but now further action is required and it is underway and these actions may only be the beginning. We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth. But neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced. He was the leader of the free world. A realization which struck early and struck hard.

No man entering upon this office regardless of his party regardless of his previous service in Washington could fail to be stag. Upon learning even then in this brief 10 day period the Hosh enormities of the trials to which we must pass in the next four years. Each day the crises multiply each day their solution grows more difficult. Each day we draw nearer the hour of maximum danger as weapons spread and hostile forces grow stronger. I feel I must inform the Congress that our analysis over the next last 10 days make it clear that in each of the principal areas of crisis the tide of events has been running out and time has not been our friend in Asia. The relentless pressures of the Chinese communist menace the security of the entire area from the borders of India and South Vietnam to the jungles of Laos struggling to protect

its newly won independence we seek in Laos what we seek in all Asia and indeed in all of the world. Freedom for the people and independence for the government and this nation shall person be in our pursuit of these objectives. That was 10 days after his inauguration two years later John F. Kennedy was still the leader of the free world. And in a precedent shattering conversation with television newsman the chief executive of the United States demonstrated that the pressures of his office would not subside. I would say that the problem is more are difficult than I imagine to be their responsibilities placed in the United States a greater than I imagined to be. And there are greater limitations upon our ability to bring about a favorable reach out than I had imagined it would be. And I think that's probably true of anyone who becomes president because there is such a difference between those who advise or speak or

legislate and be true and between the man who must make select from the various alternatives proposed and say that this should be the policy of the United States. It's much easier to make speeches than it is to finally make a judgment. Responsibility to the people of the free world. Responsibility to the people of the United States responsibility to their elected representatives. The Constitution and the development of the Congress. Give advantage to delay. It's very easy to defeat a bill and the Congress is much more difficult to pass to go through a committee say the Ways and Means Committee of the House subcommittee and get a majority vote for full committee get a majority vote go to the rules committee and get a rule go to the floor of the house and get a majority. Start over again in the Senate subcommittee in full committee and in the Senate there is unlimited debate so you can never bring the matter to a vote. If there's enough determination on the part of the opponents even if they're a minority to go through the

Senate with the bill and then unanimously get a conference between the House and Senate to adjust the bill or one member objects to have it go back to the Rules Committee back to the Congress and have this done on a controversial piece of legislation where proper groups are opposing it. That's an extremely difficult task. So that the. The struggle for a president who has a program to move it through the Congress particularly when the seniority system may place particular individuals in key positions who may be wholly unsympathetic to your program may be even though the members of your own party and political opposition to the president this big is a struggle which every president has tried to get a program through which had to deal with. After all Franklin Roosevelt was elected by the largest majority in history 936 and he got his worst defeat a few months afterwards in the Supreme Court there. So that they had two separate offices and two separate powers the Congress and the presidency. But bound to be conflict. We can but they must cooperate to the degree that possible. But that's why no president programs

ever put him there any time present program is put in quickly and easily is when the program is in significant. But if it's significant effects important in trash and is controversial therefore there's a fight and then the president is never wholly successful. But difficult though the task may be a program to be passed must first be presented on January 30th 1961. John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivered his first State of the Union address to his former colleagues in Congress. It is a pleasure to return from whence I came. Ah. You are among my oldest friends in Washington and this house is my oldest home. It was here. It was here more than 14 years ago that I first took the oath of office. It was here for 14 years and I gained

both knowledge and inspiration from members of both parties in both houses. For me a wise and generous leaders and from the pronouncements which I can vividly recall sitting where you now stand including the programs of two great presidents the undie and eloquence of Churchill the soaring idealism of narrow the steadfast words of General de Gaulle to speak from this same historic rostrum is a sobering experience to be back among so many friends is a happy one. I am confident that that friendship will continue. Our Constitution wisely assigns both joint and separate roles to each branch of the government and a president and a Congress who hold each other in mutual respect will neither permit nor attempt any trespass. For my part I

should withhold from neither the Congress nor the people any factual report asked present or future which is necessary for an informed judgment of our conduct. And has it. Ah. I shall not have to shift the burden of executive decisions to the Congress nor avoid responsibility for the outcome of those decisions. Ah. I speak today in an hour of national peril and national opportunity before my term has ended. We shall have to test a new whether a nation organized and governed such as ours can and the outcome is by no means certain. The answers are by no means all of us together. This administration this Congress this nation must forge

those answers. Even as John F. Kennedy presented the case for his program from the rostrum of the House of Representatives. So did the American press report his case to the people. And as no president before him John F. Kennedy was aware of the unique power of the press. I think it's an invaluable even though it may cause you or some. It's never pleasant to be reading things frequently that are. Not agreeable news but I would say that it's an invaluable of the presidency as a check really on what's going on in an administration and more things come to my attention that could cause me that concern to give me information. So I would think that Mr. operating a totalitarian system which has many advantages if I'd be able to move in secret in all the rest is a terrific If advantage not having me abrasive quality of the press applied to you

daily to an administration when you have even though we never like it even though we don't know even though we wish they didn't write it and even though we disapprove there still is there isn't any doubt that we couldn't do the job at all in a free society without a very very active press now on the other hand the press has a responsibility not to distort things for political purposes not to just take some news in order to prove a political point seems to me their obligation is to be as tough as they can on ministration but do it in a way which is directed towards getting as close to the truth as they can get and not merely because of some political motivation. Not only can the press be powerful it can also be sadly prophetic. The final question put to President Kennedy during his first televised press conference as chief executive posed the problem of succession to the office of the president in the event of incapacitation or death. A question not yet considered by the new president.

I haven't developed at this present time though I do think that President Eisenhower decision was a good one and I think would be a good president. I want to be happy but I think it would be a good night in which we have difficulties with Congress difficulties with the press difficulties at home and abroad. Well there are two a president who believed as John Fitzgerald Kennedy believed in the destiny of his nation. To war it is the fate of this generation of you in the Congress and the president to live with a struggle we did not start in a well we did not make. But the pressures of life are not always distributed by choice. And while no nation has ever faced such a challenge no nation has ever been so ready to seize the bird and the glory of freedom. And in this I endeavor. May God watch over the United States of America

at every turn. A reminder of the tasks that we as Americans must accept and endure. For President Kennedy articulated a philosophy which held that leadership goes hand in hand with responsibility. This week we begin a new joint and separate effort to build the American future. But sadly we bailed without a man who blinked a long past with the present and look strongly to the future.