There have been numerous comparisons made between John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama. In simple terms, some speak of the charismatic presence both men presented to those around them. Others are content to focus on the description of the brilliant oratorical skills both presidents have demonstrated. And others concentrate on the two leaders handsome looks. But Richard Reeves; no stranger to the many ethereal depiction's of presidential persona's whether of the Kennedy pedigree or of the Obama genus would rather concentrate on the circumstances Kennedy faced when his inaugural address was given and how both presidents Kennedy and Obama looked to the words delivered by our sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln to find the inspiration that words can deliver to the human heart and mind.
Reeves summons his thoughts from the vast storehouse of his memories of times past to present a tableau of one particular moment that occurred on the twenty-first day of January, 1961. Reeves provides us with a glimpse at the thoughts and events that engaged America's collective consciousness back then by reminding us:
"It was an anxious time, the beginning of 1961. In the eight years before Jan. 20, 1961, the Soviet Union had tested a hydrogen bomb and had put in orbit the first satellite, Sputnik, which passed over the United States for months. Central Intelligence Agency analysts estimated the the Soviet economy was growing at a rate of between 6 percent and 10 percent a year, compared with the United States’ growth rate of between 2 percent and 3 percent. Unemployment in America was at 7 percent and the country had gone into recession early in 1960.
Mr. Reeves proclaims: "Now, this day, the youngest man and the first Catholic ever elected, 43-year-old John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, was to be inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States."
Reeves recalls that: "Kennedy had defeated Vice President Richard Nixon in one of the closest of national elections, but the country was united — by fear. For the first time since early in the 19th century, the United States mainland seemed vulnerable to foreign invasion. Nearly 20 new countries, most of the former colonies in Asia and Africa, joined the United Nations in 1960 and most of them were looking for guidance not to the Americans but to the Soviets." Mr. Reeves recites Kennedy's signature statement of his presidential campaign: “We’ve got to get this country moving again!”
America's once thought of impervious boundary against the unpredictable forces of aggression had seemingly disappeared over the course of a few short years. The world that had less than just a decade ago, seemed poised for U.S. economic, political and military domination; had been lost amid countless obstacles and dangers. This was the shape of the world soon to be presided over by a young, inexperienced president, whose brief career in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate was short and consequently had failed to produce any remarkable actions or legislation.
"So" Reeves reminisces: ",... it was not surprising that the new President would give an inaugural speech that was essentially a cold war battle cry. Only two words in Kennedy’s speech even touched on domestic affairs. Those words were “at home,” and they were added by Kennedy and his gifted speechwriter, Theodore Sorensen, at the very last minute." Kennedy was determined to show the world that America would be no pushover against the gathering threat posed by nation's whose goals and ideologies placed them squarely against U.S. ambitions and policies.
Mr. Reeves points out that Kennedy also faced domestic threats when "The new president’s civil rights adviser, a young man named Harris Wofford, complained to Kennedy, pointing out that 24 hours before the inauguration, 23 Negro students had begun a sit-in at segregated lunch counters in Richmond, Va., the old capital of the (sic) Confederacy, 100 miles south of the Capitol of the United States."
Kennedy uttered a simple response to Wofford, according to Reeves: “Okay,” said Kennedy, who added the words so that one sentence declared that Americans were: “unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed and to which we are committed to at home and around the world.”
Mr. Reeves recalls that Washington provided an immaculate backdrop for Kennedy's moment in history: "The ceremony was in a city sparkling like a diamond. Eight inches of snow had fallen during the night and and the sky was perfect cold wintry blue. The temperature was 10 degrees below freezing. The young President made his first statement by not wearing an overcoat as he sat next to his 70-year old predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenower, who was bundled in a great coat, scarf and top hat."
Kennedy issued his bold proclamation to the assembled, huddling crowd: “Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans … Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.”
Kennedy had provided his listeners with a clarion call in which Reeves remembers: "The words rang, still do in television excerpts and classrooms. Kennedy was a man who knew that in his new job, words were often more important than deeds. Few people would remember whether he balanced the budget. Almost all Americans would remember his lines, particularly, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”
Reeves recounts that: "The speech was bellicose and conciliatory at the same time:" As Kennedy announced that: “Now the trumpet summons us again — not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not a call to battle, though embattled we are — but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out …”
Kennedy continued by issuing a challenge that demonstrated America's proud self assuredness: “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate …”
Mr. Reeves reflects on Kennedy's choice of words by explaining that: "Paradoxically, one of Kennedy’s worries that day was that he would be overshadowed by another speaker, the poet Robert Frost. When Frost, who was 86, asked to speak, Kennedy’s first reaction was: “He’s a master of words I have to be sure he doesn’t upstage me …” The President-elect suggested he recite an old poem, but Frost insisted on writing a new one. The day’s sun and the wind made it impossible for the old man to handle his papers and, in the end, he did recite from memory an older poem titled “The Gift Outright.”
Instead of diminishing the importance of the words Kennedy chose for his address, Frost's poem blended perfectly with Kennedy's speech. Frost's poem told the long, rich history of the development of American culture from our very beginnings when we were ruled by England as colonists to the time when we rose to gain independence from England and establish our own government that celebrated freedom and grew by moving ever westward. Frost's poem recounted how the growth of our country was gained through the bravery we displayed throughout many wars; our never ending work to commit ourselves to the betterment of our nation; and our firm commitment to expand the territory of our nation while we worked to increase it's power. Frost's poem served as not only a recitation of past deeds; but laid out a plan to continue expanding American culture into the future because it afforded us with the only means for our nation to achieve it's full potential. Frost's words did not diminish the words used by Kennedy, instead Frost provided the justification for Kennedy's bold declaration.
Richard Reeves concludes his analysis by disclosing the connection that now exists among presidents Kennedy, Lincoln, and Obama that follows a clear expression of American thought when Reeves explains: "So, it was Kennedy’s day and Kennedy’s words that are remembered. Like the 44th president, Barack Obama, the 35th read and re-read the inaugural addresses of the 16th, Abraham Lincoln, who had said exactly 100 years before: “In your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.”" To which Kennedy added in his conclusion; to his audience a time honored refrain: “Let us begin. In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course.” The truth spoken by Kennedy's words provide a truly American expression that conveys the real hope for our nation's days to come lies not as much in it's leaders hands, as it does in it's citizens' collective actions to work toward creating a better future for generations to come. And thus Reeves exposes for us, the words that close the circle that connects Lincoln to Kennedy to Obama that recognizes that the continuation of our nation's course into an unknown future can best be guided by the courage and resolve of the American people.
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