"ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY"

JFK INAUGURATED 65 YEARS AGO, YOUNGEST ELECTED POTUS

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Sixty-five years ago today, January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy was inaugurated 35th President of the United States at the East Front of the Capitol Building here in Washington, D.C.

JFK's 14 minute Inaugural Address, according to the JFK Library, is "widely viewed as one of the most enduring inaugural messages in U.S. history."

Written by President Kennedy with assistance from his close advisor and speech-writer, Theodore Sorenson*, "the speech defined what it means to be an American and awakened the highest aspirations of citizenship for decades to come."

The most memorable line from the address (which appears on JFK+50's every post) is...

"My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

Sixty million Americans (I was one of them) watched the ceremonies on black and white television sets.

*Theodore Chaikin Sorenson (1928-2010) was born in Lincoln, Nebraska & earned his B.A. at the University of Nebraska & was 1st in his class at the University of Nebraska School of Law.  TCS was JFK's aide & speech writer 1953-1963.

SOURCES

"Sixtieth Anniversary of JFK's Inaugural Address," JFK+50, January 20, 2021, www.jfk50.blogspot.com/

"Sixty Years Ago President Kennedy asked us...," January 20, 2021, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston, www.jfklibrary.org/

JFK Delivering Inaugural Address

January 20 1961

Photo by CWO Donald Mingfield USA

JFK Presidential Library

"WE OBSERVE TODAY...A CELEBRATION OF FREEDOM"

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/ 

   

 

President Kennedy's Inaugural Address

Jan 20 1961

Photo by CWO Donald Mingfield, USA

JFK Library

ASK NOT WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU

ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-four years ago today, January 20, 1961, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy spoke the words which would be the hallmark of his presidency and would be forever associated with the youngest elected chief executive in the history of the nation...

"And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

JFK Inaugural Address

January 20, 1961

US Army Signal Corps
JFK Library Image

Richard J. Tofel's Sounding The Trumpet, The Making of John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address (2005) gives us great insight into the speech's background, writing and delivery.  Let's take a look what he writes about the most famous line.

First, Mr. Tofel describes the speech as a collaboration between JFK and his primary speech writer Theodore Sorenson.

In Sorenson's first draft, the words appeared as... "So ask not what your country is going to do for you..."

And, as a work in progress, by January 10th, it became...

"My fellow Americans, ask not what your country WILL do for you, ask rather what you can do for your country."

And in what Mr. Tofel identifies as "The Penultimate Draft" of January 17th...

"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country WILL do for you, but what you can do for your country."

That is exactly as the phrase appears on JFK's  reading copy.  Richard Tofel tells us that it was  "only on delivery"  that the new President of the United States spoke it as..

"And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country CAN do for you ask what you can do for your country."

Ted Sorenson would later write that President Kennedy...

"believed in the power and glory of words--both written and spoken--to win votes, to set goals, to change minds, to move nations..."

That belief was most evident 54 years ago today and most explicitly in setting the goals of the presidential administration of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.  His words electrified the Nation and inspired my generation.  

SOURCE

"Sounding The Trumpet, The Making of John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address," by Richard J. Tofel, Ivan R. Dee Publisher, Chicago, 2005.