JFK's life is often overshadowed by his tragic death. While he wasn't a perfect President, he had some big ambitions that could have changed America forever.
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00:00John F. Kennedy's life is often overshadowed by his tragic death. While he wasn't a perfect
00:05president, he had some big ambitions that could have changed America forever.
00:09In January 1963, President Kennedy gave his third State of the Union address, which would
00:14prove to be his last. During the speech, he proposed a $13.5 billion tax cut, $11 billion
00:20of which would result from changing individual tax rates. The rest would have come from reducing
00:25the corporate tax rate from the rates that had been set during Eisenhower's administration.
00:29As president, JFK had consistently advocated cutting taxes across the board. But both Democrats
00:34and Republicans worried that to reduce taxes without cutting spending would lead to budget
00:39deficits. Kennedy simply said,
00:41"...a rising tide lifts all boats."
00:44It's rather interesting that the British government, which has a conservative party, put its tax
00:48cut in effect in one month, a larger tax cut than we've been talking about for a year.
00:53Republicans quote him to this day, although whether they mean the same thing Kennedy did
00:57is debatable. Kennedy's tax cut proposal was repeatedly blocked by Congress during
01:01his lifetime, but they did ultimately pass a version proposed by his successor, Lyndon
01:07Johnson.
01:08Even before the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S. had embargoed all trade with Cuba, and
01:12they continued to add additional restrictions throughout 1962. But Kennedy curiously managed
01:17to acquire over 1,000 Cuban cigars just before the embargo took effect.
01:22Castro crossed the red line. It was clear that he was on a course taking Cuba and himself
01:27into the embrace of the Soviet Union.
01:30On February 8, 1963, JFK and his administration banned travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens. Financial
01:36and commercial transactions by U.S. citizens with Cuba were also made illegal in the effort
01:40to pressure Fidel Castro into submission by severing any ties Cuba had with the outside
01:45world. At the same time, the CIA was in the midst of Operation Mongoose, a covert mission
01:51designed to remove Castro from power.
01:53Since the 1960s, the CIA had been after Castro like a coyote trying to catch a rogue rat.
01:58According to a variety of sources, the agency recruited two mafia hitmen to murder Fidel.
02:03I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.
02:05They failed miserably. In fact, Castro outlasted 10 U.S. presidents and died at the age of
02:1090.
02:12In March 1963, President Kennedy met with King Hassan II of Morocco. Establishing a
02:17foothold in Morocco was important, both in order to counter the expansion efforts of
02:21the Soviet Union and to show Algeria that the United States was invested in the future
02:25of North Africa. During this time, Kennedy also attended the Conference of Presidents
02:29of the Central American Republics in San Jose, Costa Rica. During the conference, Kennedy
02:34hoped to continue the efforts of the Alliance for Progress, whose mission was to fight the
02:38influence of socialism in Latin America.
02:41In December 1962, President Kennedy attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Federal
02:46Pavilion at the New York World's Fair, and on April 22, 1963, he activated the clock
02:51that was to count down to the fair's opening in 1964. Using the first touch-tone push-button
02:57telephone, Kennedy dialed 1-9-6-4 to start the countdown.
03:01President Kennedy announced the theme of the World's Fair, which was Peace Through Understanding,
03:05saying,
03:06"...I want the people of the world to visit this fair and all of the various exhibits
03:10of our American industrial companies and foreign companies and see what we have accomplished
03:15through a system of freedom."
03:17Tragically, JFK wouldn't live to see the fair open, though his widow Jackie Kennedy would
03:23attend.
03:24On April 9, 1963, President Kennedy conferred upon Sir Winston Churchill honorary U.S. citizenship.
03:30Kennedy was a lifelong Churchill fan. He read his work throughout his youth and frequently
03:34quoted Churchill during his 1960 presidential campaign. Due to poor health, Churchill was
03:39unable to attend the ceremony, but was represented by his son and grandson, Randolph and Winston.
03:46On the domestic front, Kennedy paid lip service to wanting to secure the voting rights of
03:48Black Americans. On February 28, 1963, he sent a special message on civil rights to
03:54Congress that outlined a series of legislative proposals on the issue. However, many civil
03:59rights advocates criticized Kennedy for the weakness of the legislation, and after he
04:04did little to promote it, the bill simply expired.
04:08The fight for civil rights in the United States had been going on in Birmingham, Alabama for
04:11several months, but in May 1963, the nation watched on television as peaceful protesters
04:16faced off against police with fire hoses, billy clubs, and attack dogs. Throughout most
04:21of his presidency, Kennedy's attitude toward civil rights was seen as noncommittal by many
04:25leaders of the movement.
04:26Each time a big issue came up, the president and the attorney general did everything they
04:32could not to have to get involved.
04:34Rather than pushing for systemic changes, Kennedy used a more case-by-case approach.
04:39One important example was the deal he made with segregationist Governor Ross Barnett
04:43to allow Black student James Meredith to register at the historically segregated University
04:48of Mississippi at Oxford. But the violent images from May 3, 1963, were unavoidable.
04:54A photograph of a German shepherd lunging at a young Black boy apparently moved President
04:58Kennedy, who is reported to have said that the picture sickened him.
05:01Neither Kennedy nor the public could continue to ignore the brutality and oppression that
05:05was rampant in American society. However, it would take another month before Kennedy
05:10addressed the nation directly on the issue of civil rights.
05:14As the National Guard tried to enforce the desegregation of the University of Alabama,
05:18President Kennedy addressed the nation on June 11, 1963.
05:22"...and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened."
05:28In addition to promising to ask Congress for legislation to end segregation in public facilities,
05:33he, at last, framed the issue of civil rights to the American public as a moral issue.
05:38According to ABC News, the shift was largely inspired by his brother, Attorney General
05:42Robert F. Kennedy, whose thoughts on civil rights had been greatly impacted after meeting
05:46novelist James Baldwin.
05:48On June 26, President Kennedy was in West Berlin, where he made his most famous anti-communist
05:53speech.
05:54As a free man, I take pride in the words, Ich bin ein Berliner."
06:03The overseas trip was an attempt to convince European leaders that an Atlantic alliance
06:07was necessary, and Kennedy's speech was intended to underline United States support for West
06:11Germany against the Soviet Union.
06:14A few weeks after President Kennedy returned from Europe, he met with delegates from Boys'
06:18Nation, a program that brought students from around the country to Washington, D.C., for
06:23seminars and meetings with government leaders and elected officials.
06:26The students held mock Senate sessions, in which they were able to sponsor legislation
06:30to be voted upon by the group.
06:32When Kennedy met with the students in the White House Rose Garden on July 24, he commended
06:36them for a civil rights resolution they passed in their mock Senate.
06:39The president compared them favorably to the National Governors Association, who, earlier
06:43that week, had been unable to come to a consensus on a similar issue.
06:48As Kennedy shook hands with some of the boys, a photographer snapped a shot of a young man
06:52enraptured at the prospect of meeting his idol.
06:54It had a very profound impact on me.
06:56I think that, you know, it's something that I've carried with me always.
07:00Afterward, the young man told everyone within earshot he would be president one day.
07:05And almost 30 years later, that young man, Bill Clinton, was indeed elected to be the
07:0942nd president of the United States.
07:13After Vietnam was divided at the 17th parallel in 1954, the United States helped install
07:18Ngo Dinh Diem as the leader of South Vietnam.
07:21Diem was praised as a champion of democracy, despite the fact that he won 605,000 votes
07:26out of 405,000 registered voters in Saigon.
07:30But as Diem began brutally suppressing South Vietnamese Buddhists, the United States grew
07:34concerned.
07:35Kennedy warned Diem that he was losing the support of his people.
07:38The country's Buddhist majority sees President Diem as a tyrant.
07:43But Diem didn't listen.
07:44Instead, he declared martial law and continued to wield unchecked power.
07:49According to the John F. Kennedy Library, Cable 243 was the single most controversial
07:54cable of the Vietnam War.
07:56The cable was sent to the U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge, on August
08:0124, 1963, urging him to encourage South Vietnamese generals to stage a coup against Diem.
08:08National Security Council staff member Michael Forrestal and other second-tier officials
08:11had heard whispers of a coup in the making and were in support of the idea.
08:15But when Forrestal called to ask the president to sign off on the cable, Kennedy told him
08:20to ask a senior official first.
08:21In doing so, however, Forrestal implied that Kennedy had already approved of the cable
08:25in order to get the senior official's permission, then went back to Kennedy with that approval
08:29in hand.
08:31Kennedy's national security team was furious, although they were more upset with the runaround
08:35than the result, since no one voted to retract the cable.
08:38Although the coup would fail, the seeds were sown for Diem's assassination in November.
08:43On September 2, 1963, the CBS Evening News expanded from 15 to 30 minutes, becoming the
08:49first half-hour nightly news broadcast.
08:51For the inaugural episode, Walter Cronkite interviewed President Kennedy outside Bramble
08:56Tide House in Hyannis Port.
08:58During the interview, Kennedy reasserted the United States' commitment to the fight against
09:01communism, describing the country's military investment in Vietnam as participation in
09:06the defense of Asia.
09:07Cronkite briefly asked Kennedy how the civil rights situation was going to affect his chances
09:11of being the Democratic nominee in 1964.
09:14Kennedy seized the opportunity to gracefully shame anti-civil rights factions into landing
09:18on the right side of history, saying,
09:20"...I would be surprised if the Republican Party, which, after all, is the party of Lincoln
09:25and as proud of that fact as it should be, I would be surprised if they did not also
09:29support the rights of every citizen to have equal opportunities and equal chance under
09:32the Constitution."
09:33Meanwhile, the civil rights situation escalated on September 15 when the KKK bombed the 16th
09:41Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young Black girls and injuring
09:4522 people.
09:46While the country wrestled with domestic terrorism, there was also the issue of the growing conflict
09:50in Southeast Asia.
09:52On September 10, President Kennedy exempted married men aged 19 to 23 from the draft,
09:57effectively excusing 340,000 young men from military service.
10:02Kennedy hoped to minimize U.S. military presence abroad, but his untimely death gave way to
10:06an administration that felt entirely opposite.
10:11In October 1963, President Kennedy met with officials to implement a plan to withdraw
10:14U.S. troops from South Vietnam.
10:17He was determined to withdraw at least 1,000 troops by the end of the year, and to have
10:20all the troops out by the end of 1965.
10:23"...the spear point of aggression has been blunted in South Vietnam."
10:28According to the South Vietnam Actions Memorandum from General Maxwell Taylor, U.S. withdrawal
10:33was meant to be low-key and fly under the radar.
10:36Unfortunately, four days after President Kennedy's assassination, President Johnson
10:40approved a plan for covert action against North Vietnam, and dramatically escalated
10:44the war.
10:45Unfortunately, the American public hadn't been told that Kennedy ordered a withdrawal
10:49of troops, and Johnson kept it quiet, wanting to maintain an air of continuity.
10:54As a result, by 1968, the United States had almost 550,000 troops in Vietnam.
11:01Two months prior to his death, President Kennedy made a speech at the United Nations General
11:05Assembly, inviting the Soviet Union to work with the United States on a joint expedition
11:09to the moon.
11:10"...we go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share."
11:17According to Presidential Studies Quarterly, many U.S. officials were alarmed at the notion,
11:22and saw it as a contradiction of the president's previous policies.
11:26Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was planning to take Kennedy up on the offer, and the two
11:30were due to meet during the proposed visit to the Soviet Union during the upcoming presidential
11:34campaign.
11:35Unfortunately, after President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, Soviet
11:40officials were too suspicious of the new Johnson administration to agree to a joint mission.
11:45Kennedy and Khrushchev had developed a rapport over the years.
11:48Starting over would take time, if it happened at all.
11:51There's no telling whether Kennedy would have been re-elected in 1964, although it seems
11:55probable.
11:56But what he would have done with a second term would only be speculation.
11:59Fortunately, LBJ saw the Kennedy brothers' campaign for civil rights signed into law.
12:05In terms of the conflict in Vietnam, the difference in policy between Kennedy and Johnson most
12:08likely cost many thousands of young Americans their lives and futures, not to mention the
12:13carnage rained down on the people of Southeast Asia.