"WE COME AS GOOD NEIGHBORS & FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF...FDR"

KENNEDYS WELCOMED TO MEXICO

Mexico City, Mexico (JFK+50) On June 29, 1962, President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy arrived here in Mexico City.  The Kennedys were welcomed by a million and a half people who lined the streets for a nine mile long motorcade through the city.

JFK was greeted by President Adolfo Lopez Mateos*. The two national leaders later conferred at Los Pinos, the residence of the Mexican president.

Upon arrival at the airport, President Kennedy said...

"We come as good neighbors and follow in the footsteps of one of my most distinguished predecessors, Franklin Roosevelt, who prophesied  that the day would...come when Presidents of Mexico and the United States would freely meet and freely communicate upon their common responsibilities and common opportunities."**

*Adolfo Lopez Mateos (1909-1969) was born in Ciudad Lopez Mateos, Mexico & educated at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.  ALM served as president of Mexico 1958-1964.

**FDR's Good Neighbor Policy's main principle was non-intervention in Latin American affairs & encouragement of reciprocal exchanges with countries of Latin America.

SOURCE

"Remarks Upon Arrival at the Airport in Mexico City, June 29, 1962," Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, John F. Kennedy, January 1 to December 31, 1962, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1963.  

Jackie Speaks in Spanish in Mexico

June 30, 1962

Photo by Robert Knudsen

JFK Library Image

A NEW ERA OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN U.S. & MEXICO

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 1885

JFK PROPOSED ALLIANCE FOR PROGRESS 55 YEARS AGO 

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-five years ago today, March 11, 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked Congress to appropriate $500 million to promote economic development, social progress and political freedom in Latin America.  

The ten year program, called the Alliance for Progress, was designed to assist the people of Latin America to..."build a hemisphere where all men can hope for a suitable standard of living and all can live out their lives in dignity and freedom."

Contrast JFK's proposal with that today of Republican presidential candidates, notably Donald J. Trump, who call for a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the United States.

Eight years ago, Rodolfo F. Saenz wrote..."The people of Latin America remember with nostalgia the days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and its 'Good Neighbor Policy,' and the days of President John F. Kennedy and its 'Alliance for Progress.'"

Mr. Saenz, writing in 2008, said the United States was in the process of expanding the 88 mile fence on the southwestern border with a 700 mile fence but that there were many who wanted more walls.  He concluded...

"Many Latin Americans now see the United States of America as the Country that is building a wall because it does not like us."

Back in 1961, however, the Kennedy administration hoped to reverse the steadily deteriorating relations between the United States and Latin America. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library calls the Alliance... "the largest United States aid program created for the developing world."

President and Mrs. Kennedy made a goodwill visit to Mexico City in late June 1962.  Mexico's president, Adolfo Lopez Mateos "hailed (JFK's) visit...as the opening of a new era of understanding between the two nations." 

Unfortunately, that new era has passed into history.

SOURCES

"Alliance for Progress (Alianza para el Progreso)," www.jfklibrary.org/

"America's Crisis:  At the Beginning of the Third Millennium," by Rodolfo F. Saenz, AuthorHouse, 2008.

"Looking Back:  The Alliance for Progress and Its Legacy," by Lauren Monsen, www.iipdigital.usembassy.gov/

"Mexican Chief Hails JFK's Visit," September 3, 1962, Eugene Register Guard.

Mrs. John F. Kennedy & the President

Mexico City

June 30, 1962

Photo by Robert Knudsen

JFK Library Image

JFK VISITS MEXICO CITY

JFK AND 1ST LADY VISIT MEXICO CITY

Mexico City, Mexico (JFK+50) President John F. Kennedy and First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, arrived here in Mexico City 52 years ago today, June 29, 1962.

The Kennedys were welcomed by a million and a half people who lined the streets for the nine mile long motorcade through the city.

JFK was greeted by President Adolfo Lopez Mateos. The two national leaders conferred at Los Pinos, the residence of the Mexican president.

JFK said:

"Our two country's revolutions have now been joined as one, one great effort, one great continent, in one great Alianza para el Progreso.  Viva Mexico!"

Jackie Speaks in Spanish in Mexico

June 30, 1962

Photo by Robert Knudsen

JFK Library Image

JFK VISITED GALWAY 51 YEARS AGO TODAY

Galway, Ireland (JFK+50) President John F. Kennedy arrived here in Galway 51 years ago today, June 29, 1963.

The President, who was not accompanied on the European trip by his wife,  was greeted by 320 children from the Convent of Mercy School.

The children, dressed in green, white and gold sang "Galway Bay" for President Kennedy.

"If you ever go across the sea to Ireland
There maybe at the closing of your day
You will sit and watch the moon rise over Claddagh
And see the sun go down on Galway Bay."

Ballyknow Quay

River Corrib

Galway, Ireland

Photo by Greg O'Beirn (1999)

Later, speaking at Eyre Square, now John F. Kennedy Memorial Park, JFK said:

"If the day was clear enough and if you went down to the bay and looked west and your sight was good enough, you would see Boston, Massachusetts."

John F. Kennedy Memorial Park Marker
                 Galway, Ireland

The President was presented with "The Key to the City".

JFK bade farewell at Shannon Airport where he spoke from his heart:

"Last night somebody sang a song...

'Come back to Erin....come back aroun' to the land of thy birth. Come back with the shamrock in the springtime....'

This is not the land of my birth, but it is the land for which I hold the greatest affection, and I certainly will come back in the springtime."

As the President boarded Air Force One, a choir sang "Come Back to Erin"

 

John F. Kennedy would be unable to make good on his promise to return "in the springtime."

Presidential assistant and part of the "Irish Mafia," Lawrence O'Brien said later...

"If there was a dry eye at the airport, I missed it."*

SOURCE

"One of Ourselves, JFK in Ireland" by James Robert Carroll (2003)

Limerick, Ireland on the River Shannon
         Photo by Santiperez (2007)