The Library and Museum, located at Columbia Point, right on the water just next to the University of Massachusetts at Boston campus, offers the perfect setting for learning and reflection.
Light streams in through the glass atrium walls, boasting a view of the Boston skyline and shoreline as it curves around Old Harbor.
It was there, among the photographs and artifacts, the re-created Oval Office and White House hallway, the video clips and speech transcripts, that a new sense of JFK emerged: Kennedy the visionary. At one point, the most stunning exchange takes place. General Curtis LeMay, the Air Force chief of staff, tells Kennedy that a failure to invade Cuba would be almost as bad as the appeasement at Munich before World War II and that the blockade tactic Kennedy had chosen to pursue - not taking an aggressive approach, but blocking additional Russian vessels from reaching Cuba - would be perceived as weak.
According to historians, JFK was furious with the General, but he held his anger and simply replied, "You're in there with me. JFK knew that the situation was much bigger than him and Khrushchev, bigger than ExCom, bigger than the US, the USSR, and Cuba, and he did everything in his power to de-escalate the world from the brink of nuclear war - successfully. As the exhibit on the debates reveals, Nixon was urged by his team, including President Eisenhower, to decline the offer; but he accepted, confident in his ability and experience.
Nixon turned his gaze to the reporters watching on the sidelines, whereas Kennedy stared directly into the camera, addressing the viewers at home. Once in office, Kennedy continued to use this medium to connect with the American people, giving the first live televised press conferences.
He held his first one - live, with no delays - on January 25, , shortly after his inauguration, and it attracted 65 million viewers. From then until his death, he averaged one press conference every 16 days, with an average of 18 million viewers each. The Kennedy years saw landmark progress in civil rights and religious freedom. With the former, Kennedy was accused of reacting too slowly in his campaign and first two years in office, but would ultimately become the first president to address civil rights as not only a legal issue but also a moral one.
On June 11, , Kennedy gave a live televised address to the American people on civil rights, which lay the groundwork for the Civil Rights Act. The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. President Kennedy wanted the United States to move forward into the future with new discoveries in science and improvements in education, employment and other fields.
He wanted democracy and freedom for the whole world. One of the first things President Kennedy did was to create the Peace Corps. Through this program, which still exists today, Americans can volunteer to work anywhere in the world where assistance is needed.
They can help in areas such as education, farming, health care, and construction. Many young men and women have served as Peace Corps volunteers and have won the respect of people throughout the world.
President Kennedy was also eager for the United States to lead the way in exploring space. The Soviet Union was ahead of the United States in its space program and President Kennedy was determined to catch up. He said, "No nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space.
President Kennedy had to deal with many serious problems here in the United States. The biggest problem of all was racial discrimination. The US Supreme Court had ruled in that segregation in public schools would no longer be permitted. Black and white children, the decision mandated, should go to school together. This was now the law of the land. However, there were many schools, especially in southern states, that did not obey this law.
There was also racial segregation on buses, in restaurants, movie theaters, and other public places. Thousands of Americans joined together, people of all races and backgrounds, to protest peacefully this injustice.
Martin Luther King Jr. The President believed that holding public protests would only anger many white people and make it even more difficult to convince the members of Congress who didn't agree with him to pass civil rights laws.
By June 11, , however, President Kennedy decided that the time had come to take stronger action to help the civil rights struggle. He proposed a new Civil Rights bill to the Congress, and he went on television asking Americans to end racism.
On November 21, , President Kennedy flew to Texas to give several political speeches. The next day, as his car drove slowly past cheering crowds in Dallas, shots rang out. Kennedy was seriously wounded and died a short time later. Within a few hours of the shooting, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald and charged him with the murder.
On November 24, another man, Jack Ruby, shot and killed Oswald, thus silencing the only person who could have offered more information about this tragic event. The Warren Commission was organized to investigate the assassination and to clarify the many questions which remained.
President Kennedy's death caused enormous sadness and grief among all Americans. Most people still remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington for the President's funeral, and millions throughout the world watched it on television. As the years have gone by and other presidents have written their chapters in history, John Kennedy's brief time in office stands out in people's memories for his leadership, personality, and accomplishments.
Many respect his coolness when faced with difficult decisions--like what to do about Soviet missiles in Cuba in Others admire his ability to inspire people with his eloquent speeches.
Still others think his compassion and his willingness to fight for new government programs to help the poor, the elderly and the ill were most important.
Like all leaders, John Kennedy made mistakes, but he was always optimistic about the future. He believed that people could solve their common problems if they put their country's interests first and worked together. Skip past main navigation. Life of John F. Kennedy Fast Facts: John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy Quotations Life of Jacqueline B. Growing Up in the Kennedy Family Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was a very disciplined and organized woman, made the following entry on a notecard, when her second child was born: John Fitzgerald Kennedy Born Brookline, Mass.
Identifier Accession. Rights Access Status. Relation Is Part Of Desc. Subject Geog. Type Category. Boston Office Speech Files, Aid to Italy, 20 November John F.
Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Senate Files. Speeches and the Press. Speech Files, Indo-China speech of , 6 April Emrich, Eugenia Gusev, Kristen E. Gwinn, and Bryan D. Peery Columbia, S. Electronic version based on unpublished letters. February 19, Kennedy before the Senate, Washington, D. Washington, D. January 18, JFK vs.
President-elect John Kennedy, Abbie Rowe. White House Photographs. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. Roosevelt Library archives.
October 11, Congressman John Kennedy. The Congressman In Congress, leadership roles were not available for the Democratic minority. The Senator In , after three terms in the House, Kennedy won election to the Senate, hoping to have more of an impact on decisions than he could have in the House.
Profiles in Courage Kennedy endured two more back surgeries in and life-threatening complications. While he was alive, the many women, the Secret Service agents, and the others who knew of his philandering kept it a secret. Still, now that the stories of his sexual activities are widely known, they have done little to tarnish his reputation. It also reflects the historical moment in which he emerged.
Schlesinger Jr. Kennedy helped give urgency to the idea of pursuing a national purpose—a great American mission. In the 15 years since World War II, ideological momentum had been slowly building in the United States, fueled by anxieties about the rivalry with the Soviet Union and by optimism about the dynamic performance of the American economy.
When Kennedy won the presidency, the desire for change was still tentative, as his agonizingly thin margin over Richard Nixon suggests. But it was growing, and Kennedy seized the moment to provide a mission—or at least he grasped the need for one—even though it was not entirely clear what the mission was.
Early in his tenure, a Defense Department official wrote a policy paper that expressed a curious mix of urgent purpose and vague goals:. Those who knew him realized, however, that he was more cautious than his speeches suggested. John F. Kennedy was a good president but not a great one, most scholars concur. A poll of historians in ranked him 13th out of the 36 presidents included in the survey.
Thirteen such polls from to put him, on average, 12th. Richard Neustadt, the prominent presidential scholar, revered Kennedy during his lifetime and was revered by Kennedy in turn. His allure—the romantic, almost mystic, associations his name evokes—not only survives but flourishes. And thus a lyric became the lasting image of his presidency. White, in his memoirs, recalled the reverence Kennedy had inspired among his friends:. Friends were not the only ones enchanted by the Kennedy mystique.
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