 that the assassin took careful aim at the president of the United States. It was true that at the precise moment the assassin waited for, the trigger was pulled, and it was true the president was killed. But it was also true that the assassin missed his target, for he wanted John Kennedy to die, and that he was unable to do. For no man could take away years of lightning with a single day of drum, was John Kennedy. In the early snow of 1961 an avalanche of people came through the streets of Washington with expectation and joy. They would come again in the autumn of 1963, the same streets to the same building. They would come again in 1963 without smiles, without cheers. For death like a thief in the afternoon would place a casket in the rotunda of the capital, the same room in which he had walked to his inauguration. Preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. It wishes us well shall pay any price, bear a hardship, support any friend to assure the survival and the success of liberty. Huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them, help themselves. For whatever, not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich, to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house. Pennsylvania Avenue was a proud host. Cutting across Washington, the Avenue was no stranger to processions and eager crowds. It assumed its role of importance like a professional without competition. And with blinking lights and Hollywood boulevard could boast of movie stars, but Pennsylvania Avenue had none of these and had no want of them. Its memories were of Jefferson and Lincoln, of Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower. And today, President John Fitzgerald and Kennedy. On the 20th of January 1961, Pennsylvania Avenue was a host to a new president, a new face, a new waving hand, and a new frontier, where Pennsylvania Avenue ended the White House took over. Maybe it was only imagination, but the house seemed to change its outward appearance with the presence of each new occupant. Without a stroke of a paintbrush or the movement of a brick, it told every passerby who it was who was now living inside. Within the last 30 years, it had reflected the strength and warmth of the Roosevelt's the courage and fire of the Truman's, the security and dignity of the Eisenhower's. And now, to those who passed by 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the house would have a new meaning, the youth, the intellect and the vigor of the Kennedys. The sights and sounds of this administration would be new. In the Rose Garden, there would be children. In the President's office, there would be a rocking chair. In the hallway, there would be paintings. And in the evening, there would be music. The wave of the arts and creativity that bred in the White House on those first evenings spread over Washington, and the political capital of the country was transformed into a cultural capital at night. On the streets, the daylight discussions of McNamara, Harriman and Rusk were replaced by Grieg, Chopin and List. Daytime and pickets are synonymous outside the White House. And if nothing else, they confirmed that the world of 1961 was not one of peace, happiness and freedom. But no line of pickets could tell the story to the President, for the world was far more complex than their signs. The pickets numbered 40 or 50. But upon the floating globe called the world, there were three billion people, and most of them were not happy or free or at peace. There were fires burning in the Congo. There was a city split in half in Germany. There was a war in Laos. There was a foreign dictated government in Cuba. There was bitterness between Pakistan and India, Israel and Jordan, Portugal and the United Nations, Indonesia and the Netherlands, France and its allies, South Vietnam and North Vietnam, South Korea and North Korea. And there was starvation for one-third of the world. But this was the world John Kennedy had elected to face, and the people of his country had elected him to face it. And so the pickets marched and Washington DC could see them. And as they marched, the President was drafting the six faces of the new frontier inside the gates of the White House. The Peace Corps, the conquest of space, an alliance for progress, civil rights, freedom and peace, were the six faces of the new frontier. There can be no greater service to our country and no source of pride more real than to be a member of the Peace Corps of the United States. And this generation does not intend to found her in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it. We mean to lead it. That's what the alliance for progress means, to provide progress, revolutionary progress through peaceful democratic means. I think it can be done. I think we set out on an important journey in too many parts of the country. Wrongs are inflicted on Negro citizens and there are no remedies at law. Unless the Congress acts, their only remedy is the street. That no free nation can retain any illusions about the nature of the threat and that no free nation can remain indifferent to the steady erosion of freedom around the globe. We do not believe that war is unavoidable or that negotiations are inherently undesirable. We do believe that an end to the arms race is in the interests of all. But there were those who disagreed with the president, those who laughed at the Peace Corps, those who said there was no reason to go to the moon, those who said the alliance for progress would fail, those who said there could be no integration of the races, those who said communism could not hurt freedom and those who said there was no hope of a lasting peace. But perhaps man is at times dominated by the things he could see the clearest and hear the loudest. While the uncommon man is not so preoccupied with sight and sound, instead he thinks in terms of the invisible and silent. He thinks of compassion which is invisible and silent. He thinks of peace which is invisible and silent, not war with its bright flames and explosive roars. He thinks of freedom which is invisible and silent, not oppression with uniforms and the hammering together of a wall. John Kennedy was that uncommon man and so he built his new frontier in an uncommon manner around the conference tables of the United Nations on the streets of Alabama beside the citizens of West Berlin in the villages of Tanganyika under the towers of Cape Canaveral and through the halls of Congress. Each was given a part of two years and ten months. The first face of the new frontier spoke of an enemy that lived on the streets of overpopulated cities and under developed countries. Its name was starvation and poverty and illiteracy and disease. The ruins this enemy left behind did not smolder or smell of charred buildings but there were the cries of infants and the parched lips of old men and women. In the streets of cities and the huts of villages misery was a common bond that grew tighter through the years. And so economists added but populations multiplied. As a road was built to one village two new villages had formed. As a disease became controlled in one community an epidemic broke out in another. The new president of the United States knew well that his people had parted with over 100 billion dollars of foreign assistance. Now he proposed two additional burdens on their economy and conscience. An alliance for progress to help build the economy of all Central and South America and a Peace Corps to be transported and supplied wherever people were at need. The United States entered the president and accepted the two new burdens he proposed. As the alliance for progress was starting the president requested to speak to the first Peace Corps volunteers at the Rose Garden of the White House. I feel a particular satisfaction because this is the most immediate response the Peace Corps that I think the country has seen to the whole spirit which I tried to suggest in my inaugural about the contribution which we could make to our country. The fact that you've been willing to volunteer you've gone through very detailed demanding tests that you were willing to go to Ghana and Tanganyika and other countries as time goes on. Americans who are without great compensation all of you with special skills which could mean that if you stayed home you could pursue your own private interest with a good deal of assurance of success. The fact that you're willing to do this for our country and in the largest sense as the name suggests for the cause of peace and understanding I think should make all Americans proud and make them all appreciative. Thank you. And so the Peace Corps volunteers were to leave their country to go any place in the world that needed them and requested them and the first group went to the Philippines to Ecuador and to Tanganyika without uniforms not to destroy but to build not to demand but to teach not to take over the weak but to leave behind the strong to teach others to teach themselves so that in the future there would be no need for a Peace Corps anywhere on earth so in the future every country could develop its own resources without him and while the Peace Corps was starting in Africa and Asia the alliance for progress was mushrooming in Latin America. The advances that have been made in this short space of time a peaceful revolution is underway in Latin America one that gives promise of bringing a better life throughout the continent. The alliance is a cooperative effort of unparalleled dimensions it seeks to destroy the ancient enemies of poverty and disease and hunger and ignorance and bring about by peaceful and democratic means a new climate of hope and opportunity. The advances made in these first two years are only a start some 140,000 housing units have been constructed slum currents projects have begun. There are 8,200 new classrooms more than four million school books have been distributed more than nine million children are being fed in 18 Latin American countries under a food for peace program. Road construction especially in some agricultural areas is proceeding at a rapid pace. All this is a beginning it's my hope that the governments of this hemisphere including the government of the United States all of us will continue to work closely together to provide a better life for all of our people. I think it's a journey that must be finished to the completion of that journey. I pledge the people of the United States Central and South America were visited by the president as he brought the alliance to the doorstep of their countries express the thanks of all of us to you for having us here today occasionally universities are regarded as dangerous places for presidents and we are grateful to you for your warm welcome to all of us on this occasion every one of us will go home with a most profound impression of what a strong vital people can accomplish and I think that this journey this journey to Costa Rica has illuminated the minds of 180 million people of what a great opportunity and privilege we have to be associated together in our common cause. Progress had been planted and its fruits were beginning to be seen. The Peace Corps was born and had matured at an early age but no longer would the alliance or the Peace Corps see their inventory but the president would never again stand on the soil of Latin America and not die with John Kennedy they grew as president Johnson reinforced them as he would also do in the field of civil rights how much time would it take how many years to complete equality almost a hundred years before president Kennedy's inauguration a civil war had been fought and president Lincoln had signed a proclamation granting freedom to all Negroes in the United States when the war was won amendments to the constitution guaranteed the Negro's equality why then was this still a matter of discontent a hundred years later in the 11 southern states there were still segregated schools reserved for one race only where Negroes attended with Negroes there were still segregated housing with large districts restricted to one race only where Negroes live next door to Negroes the Negro had only one third the opportunity of a white american to become a doctor one third the opportunity for a negro to become a lawyer or to become a business executive only one third the opportunity for him to become a candidate for public election why in the autumn of 1957 did president Eisenhower have to send troops to Little Rock to ensure the safe entrance of Negroes into a white and rolled school why was it necessary for soldiers to accompany them inside the doorways why was all this true states rights was a voice from the south the federal government can't tell the states how to run their business and a voice said Negroes don't have the education for an equal job and still another voice said some of my best friends are Negroes but you can't force me to go to school with them and so it went for a hundred years a hundred voices with a hundred excuses but the word that very few spoke and the word with perhaps the greatest truth was the word prejudice and most of the united states knew there was prejudice and wanted it to end but even as the signs came down the prejudice did not end and so in 1962 president kennedy had to call on federal troops this time to mississippi to ensure the admittance of a qualified negro james meredith to the state university above violence and disorder james meredith was admitted if an american because his skin is dark cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place now the time has come for this nation to fulfill its promise the events in birmingham and elsewhere have so increased the cries for equality that no city or state or legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them the fires of frustration and discord are burning in every city in demonstrations parades and protests which create tensions and threaten violence and threaten lives a great change is at hand and our task our obligation is to make that revolution that change peaceful and constructive for all name the freedom riders must loads of negro and white citizens headed south to have their voices in their very presence heard state to state there would be no segregation in the terminals all the waiting rooms whether in new york state or louisiana there was no pay for a freedom rider and there were no heroes or heroines aboard the buses their names were as unimportant as their creed or color they were most important of all citizens of the country the buses rode day and night with their destinations of birmingham or jackson or firedville promised by morning on august 28 1963 the buses had a new destination with the morning sun would come the image of the washington monument the lincoln memorial and the white house the destination washington dc constitution guaranteed the right of peaceful assembly and 200 000 people from all over the country poured into washington on august 28 president canadi met on that day with their organization's leaders to encourage the completion of the revolution a revolution for complete equality in education employment and housing throughout the united states north and south to do nothing are inviting shame those who act boldly are recognizing right next week i shall ask the congress of the united states to act to make a commitment to the proposition that race has no place in american life or law but 1964 the congress voted into law president kennedy's civil rights bill it was president linden johnson who guided it through its last months of legislation and he had requested the congress to pass the bill as a continuing monument to president kennedy 1950s the ocean of space roared from the impact of soviet successes but the united states had barely gotten off the beach the rockets watched one failure follow another lines of disappointment came a voice of optimism and a voice of promise but we do not intend to stay behind and in this decade we shall make up and move ahead new successes and under the commitment of president kennedy new and more powerful spacecraft were erected in the towers of cape canaveral as space vehicles became proven man flight started and from the white house the president with vice president johnson watched the first man launched to be viewed around the world the launch of allen shepherd ladies and gentlemen i want to express uh on behalf of us all the great pleasure we have in welcoming commander shepherd and mrs shepherd here today i know that the uh other members of this team who are astronauts know uh that our pride in them is equal they have been part of this effort from the beginning and i think it does uh credit to him that he is associated with such a distinguished group of americans when we're all glad to honor today his companions in the uh flight to outer space so i think we'll give them all a hand yeah the tanned and healthy ones the others are washington uh employees i also want to again express my congratulations uh to allen shepherd we're uh very proud of him and i speak on behalf of the vice president who is chairman of our space council and who bears great responsibilities in this field the members of the house and senate space committee who are with us today and uh this decoration which has gone from the ground up yeah communication satellites and tyros weather satellites followed the success of allen shepherd as well as other astronauts heard and grissom came before him carpenter shira and cooper were to come after him and their mercury capsules but on february the 20th the name was john glenn and the capsule was friendship seven because there is new knowledge to be gained and they must be one progress of all people and all people came as the world was once more invited to keep canaveral to watch success or failure george mallory who was to die was asked why did he want to climb it he said because it is there well space is there and we're going to climb it and the moon and the planets are there and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there and therefore as we set sail we ask god's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked away from the beaches off cape canaveral the lone pilot traveled at 17 500 miles an hour in last year the shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decision that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the presidency for the eyes of the world now look into space to the moon and to the planets beyond even though i realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision for we do not now know what benefits await us rocketry which 20 years ago was used to fly in war from pinamoon to germany across the english channel was soon to fly in peace to the stars not from cape canaveral but from cape kennedy 15 years before the inauguration of president kennedy world war two was over the axis powers celebrated the victory and the peace guaranteeing the surrendered and occupied countries a government of their own choosing by free election that is those celebrations faded into history a new chapter was being written in the countries of eastern europe for the free elections promised were not held and people went past the borders of their country tens not by the hundreds not by the thousands but by the millions their homes and possessions were left behind they brought only their families and their freedom while refugee centers were built in western europe communism had taken over china and tibet and new borders were crossed in the quest for freedom the north invaded the south the united nations sent troops to protect the freedom of south korea the police action continued for years until a truce was signed guaranteeing the south its own elected government as it had before the invasion in latin america a man of the seara maestra of cuba was fighting his own war to rid his country of a dictatorship the united states and other countries of the west were in sympathy with fidel castro if he won he promised there would be free elections and an end to dictatorship in cuba but when the war was won the elections were not held and cuba had a new dictator it was january 1961 the united states president kennedy and vice president johnson had barely been inaugurated when berlin once more needed protection against a new soviet threat the threat that would strip away all western rights to aid west berlin and west berliners asked for american troops to protect their city we will at all times be ready to talk if talk will help but we must also be ready to resist with force if force is used upon us either alone would fail together they can serve the cause of freedom and peace the new preparations that we shall make to defend the peace are part of the long term built up in our strength which has been underway since january they are based on our needs to meet a worldwide threat on a basis which stretches far beyond the present berlin crisis our primary purpose is primary purpose is neither propaganda nor provocation but preparation the world is not deceived by the communist attempt to label berlin as a hotbed of war there is peace in berlin today the source of world trouble and tension is Moscow not berlin and if war begins it will have begun in Moscow and not berlin for the choice of peace or war is largely there not ours it is they who have opposed free elections it is the soviets who have stirred up this crisis to sum it all up we seek peace but we shall not surrender that is the central meaning of this crisis and the meaning of this government's policy may the 15th 1962 president kennedy sent troops to thailand to protect it from aggression in laos but the threat was within miles of the laos thailand border american military advisors were already in south vietnam as almost all of southeast asia was erupting from aggression but the biggest problem and the largest risk of the kennedy years was not southeast asia but the island of cuba the president was set back at the bay of pigs in 1962 he could not be set back or it could mean war and a hushed and awestruck world listened to every word of the president unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island acting therefore in the defense of our own security and of the entire western hemisphere i have directed that the following initial steps be taken immediately a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to cuba is being initiated all ships of any kind bound for cuba will have found to contain cargos of offensive weapons be turned back we are not at this time however denying the necessities of life as the soviets attempted to do in their berlin blockade of 1948 it shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launch from cuba against any nation in the western hemisphere as an attack by the soviet union on the united states requiring a full retargetory response upon the soviet union let no one doubt that this is a difficult and dangerous effort on which we have set out but the greatest danger of all would be to do nothing the path we have chosen for the president 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 our goal is 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 it was 11 days before the world heard the news it was waiting for my fellow citizens the soviet missile bases in cuba are being dismantled their missiles and related equipment are being created and the fixed installations at these sites are being destroyed we will continue to keep the american people informed on this vital matter in berlin during the kennedy years there had been a new kind of blockade not to keep out missiles but to keep in humans east germans had been fleeing into west berlin at the rate of 10 000 a week two million of their population was gone to prevent others from leaving a wall was constructed taller and taller it became but never higher than the will of the people to leave while the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the communist system for it is an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity separating families dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters and dividing up people who wish to be joined together many difficulties and democracy is not perfect but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in or say they don't what is the great issue between the free world is an evil system but it permits us to make economic progress lost the not our citizens of berlin and therefore as a free man i take pride in the words ish bin ein bielina within a few months the square would be still and silent and would be renamed in his memory it's millions of faces that watched the cortege move from the church to arlington there was one that watched without a movement without a sound when the washington bit he loved was the sixth face of the new frontier the quest for an end to all wars and the beginning of a true peace on the date of his inauguration the city that was a voice to him before was silent and waited for his words and so my fellow america what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country and the world that was a voice to him before was silent and waited for his words 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 in the life of this administration nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet but let us begin and he did begin and asked his nation for approval of a nuclear test ban agreement with the soviet union and the nation agreed for a people tired of threats greeted a hopeful step towards peace what kind of a piece do i mean and what kind of a piece do we seek not a pax americana enforced on the world by american weapons of war not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave i am talking about genuine peace the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living the kind of peace that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and build a better life for their children not merely peace for americans but peace for all men and women too many of us think it is impossible but that is a dangerous defeatist belief it leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable that mankind is doomed that we are gripped by forces we cannot control we need not accept that view our problems are man made therefore they can be solved by man and man can be as big as he wants no problem of human destiny is beyond human beings man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable and we believe they can do it again peace is not a word of easy definition it comes to each man separately and differently for some there is a place of peace to go to and return to when the world's demands have asked much of united states presidents there has always been a hide park or an independence or a gettysburg or a hyena sport and to this president there was a land across the sea from which his ancestors came ireland toward the green hills and smiling faces of ireland it wasn't the family album of john kennedy that made striking headlines across the world but it was the personal john kennedy and his family that made america fall in love for two years and ten months remember the 22nd began without a hint that it would be remembered the country awoke without knowing its president was to sleep the morning came but the sun would set in midday the assassin lee harvey oswald was waiting for the president in daus politically he had been a marxist but psychiatrically and more important he preferred to be alone and secretive and hostile to all leadership on the 22nd he had positioned himself in the texas school book depository building on the root of the president's motorcade through the city it was over in one blurred motion of history the crime was done he will pick up its cold pen and book and write in chronological order the events of the day with the date the time and the city but history will be wrong for there wasn't one date one time or one city outside the embassies of the united states and to their places of worship and for a section of time in the life of earth there was one common thought on the minds of three billion people and so pictures were displayed eulogies and epitaphs were written memorials were built bridges were renamed books were published records were pressed speeches were reprinted and his name was permanent in the process of thinking throughout that day in november each person of the earth was drawn to a thought even more personal than the memory of the president in seeing that respected man who had everything passed from life in a single unsuspecting instant there was the thought of each person's own mortality their own straight lines that began with birth that would end with death and the length between so unknown the president who was able to have so much under control was not master of the length of that line and perhaps his message to the world was exactly that for everyone in the world received that message no matter what language they spoke no matter what god they worshiped in 1960s will someday be a long time ago the shock will be gone and the persistence of the president will force memories to the background of our thoughts the drums will be muffled and the breeze of harbington will be covered by spring and snow and snow and spring again but there will always be those moments in the lives of the ones who lived through that time when snow and spring will stop and will hear the boston accented voice left the word go forth from this time and place to friend and for life that the torch has been passed to a new generation of americans born in this century and unwilling to witness or permit to which we are committed today at home and around the world the day of drums is over but the years of lightning glow in everyone he touched and in everyone he continues to touch today capabilities and invisible but so is peace and freedom and so is love and faith and so are memories and dreams