Fifty years ago this week, organizers at the Dallas Trade Mart had to solemnly pack up tables and chairs that they had set up in anticipation of a guest that would never arrive, as well as read over the haunting words of a speech that a President would never live to speak. It was the evening of Nov. 22, 1963, and hours had passed since Walter Cronkite broke down in tears on CBS news while notifying the nation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A sunny Dallas afternoon turned dark, and in the course of a few seconds the American Exceptionalism and limitless future that President Kennedy had so long spoken of seemed to vanish from the American psyche forever.
It’s very easy for Americans to remember JFK for that sunny afternoon drive through Dealey Plaza and the infamous Zapruder film that showed the last few seconds of President Kennedy’s life; however, it is important to remember that the Kennedy Presidency and legacy reaches far beyond the tragic events of Nov. 22, 1963.
While half of the globe was engulfed by the Iron Curtain of the Soviet Union, President Kennedy committed the United States to be stewards of liberty and hope to the rest of the world. His administration saw the creation of the Peace Corps, a program that continues to this day to show young Americans the importance of being not only good citizens of the United States but also good citizens of the world.
Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress program sent aid to hard-hit countries throughout Latin America on the condition that they committed themselves to better human rights standards, and he traveled to the newly constructed Berlin Wall and stood in defiance of the Soviet Union when he loudly proclaimed