60TH ANNIVERSARY OF JFK'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Today we begin with a quote from an email from the JFK Library in Boston...
"Delivered sixty years ago (January 20 1961) and widely viewed as one of the most enduring inaugural messages in United States history, John F. Kennedy's speech was meticulously crafted...by the President-elect and his close advisor, Ted Sorenson*.
The speech redefined what it means to be an American and awakened the highest aspirations of citizenship for decades to come."
JFK's Inaugural address, fourteen minutes in length, was seen on television by 60 million Americans and heard around the globe. We were 12 years old watching on a 25" black and white television in the cafeteria of our elementary school.
In what is described as "one of the best remembered inaugural addresses in U.S. history," President Kennedy said...
"We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom--signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forbears prescribed a century and three-quarters ago."
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History says that JFK's inaugural address focused mainly on the role of the United States in world affairs...in the grips of the Cold War.
Unlike today's Inaugural ceremonies of President Joseph R. Biden, JFK's were held on the East Front of the Capitol. Also, although it is not exactly a warm day in Washington, D.C. today, it was bitterly cold on January 20, 1961 following a major snowstorm the day before.
*Theodore Chaikin Sorenson (1928-2010) was born in Lincoln, NE. TCS earned his B.A. at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln and graduated 1st in his class at UN Law School.
TCS was JFK's chief aide and speechwriter (1953-1963). The President called him his "intellectual blood bank."
SOURCES
"John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, 1961," The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, www.gilderlehrman.org/
"Sixty Years Ago President Kennedy asked us...," John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston, January 20, 2021, www.jfklibrary.org/
"Transcript of President John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address (1961), www.ourdocuments.gov/
