Guest Blog - JFK's Presidency

On a bitterly cold January day in 1961, while standing in the snow, John F Kennedy’s inaugural address was a world changing moment. At 43 the youngest ever president of the United States had won the election by the most slender of margins. He needed to establish his place on the world stage and among his own still wary countrymen, he needed to be both strong and magnanimous, he needed to unite not divide. What he called the passing of the torch of leadership to a new generation was marked here by a statement of values in a brief but imposing address. Here was laid the vision of a future that seemed to promise so much more than could ever be fulfilled in the short 1000 days left until his shocking and untimely death.

President Kennedy spent less than 3 years as President. His first year was a disaster, as he himself acknowledged. The Bay of Pigs invasion was a monumental failure and the first in a series of failed efforts to destroy Castro’s regime. JFK took full responsibility for the fiasco in a televised address to the nation. In the June that same year his much anticipated meeting with Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna was a humiliating experience; in fact Kennedy told a New York Times reporter it was the “the worst thing in my life. He savaged me.” However in the same year one of President Kennedy’s best known legacies was created. The Peace Corps. It was described as an organisation that was devoted to alleviating poverty and disease across the globe. Kennedy said the Peace Corps was a vehicle for youthful idealism. Since it was founded in 1961 more than 160,000 Americans have served in it experiencing first hand conditions in developing worlds.

In 1962 in the second year of his presidency Kennedy had no shortage of challenges to welcome and no lack of crises to manage. The most significant event of 1962 was the Cuban missile crisis. The crisis put the U.S. and Soviet Union near the brink of nuclear war. It was one of the most difficult periods of JFK’S presidency. Many have the opinion that Kennedy handled the crisis with a combination of power and flexibility, thanks in part to lessons he’d learned during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion the previous year. In June Kennedy delivered one of the most famous speeches of his presidency at Rice University on the subject of the nation’s plans to land humans on the Moon. He announced his continued support for increased space expenditures. A speech that continues to inspire generations.

John. F Kennedy entered 1963 without much in the way of legislative achievements. He remained popular however, and as the year began he was still basking in the flow of his successful handling of the Cuban missile crisis. Civil rights issues demanded much of Kennedy’s time in his last year in office as well as a new priority. He sought to lower the temperature of the conflict with the Soviet Union. Early in the summer saw one of the highlights of his short presidency, a tour of Europe that included a stop in West Berlin. Hundreds of thousands cheered him as a champion of their freedom when he remarked “Ich bin ein Berliner”. The speech was raw and impolitic. But it made Kennedy a hero in a nation that had been America’s enemy 20 years earlier. From the very beginning of his administration, President Kennedy sought to persuade the Soviet Union to join the U.S in banning tests of nuclear weaponry. On July the 26th 1963 Washington and Moscow agreed in a treaty to outlaw nuclear testing in the atmosphere, in outer space and under the ocean. It marked an important victory not just for JFK but for peace. As JFK prepared for his re-election he flew to Texas. There in Dallas on November 22, 1963 Kennedy’s life came to an end.

Kennedy was the youngest man ever elected to the presidency. He symbolized as he knew himself at the time, a new generation and its coming of age. Kennedy’s image of youth and energy has echoed down the years. His charisma comes through, even in black and white photos. He was and still remains a president Americans believe stood for real hope and change. During his presidency JFK brought boundless American confidence during which it was believed that anything could be accomplished and that no task was too great for not just Americans but for all nations to achieve. President Kennedy inspired generations to take political and social action, he fought to ensure equal rights for all Americans, he encouraged Americans to lift up those less fortunate than themselves. He challenged the nation to reach the near impossible task of landing a man on the moon before the end of the decade, he set new directions for international diplomacy by seeking better relations with other countries and he reduced the near threat of nuclear war. In the world’s popular memory he still commands fascination as a compelling, charismatic leader during a period of immense challenge to America. In death he became a cultural icon.