Original subtitles

- James Meredith had talked about taking on

this whole barrier of white supremacy,

but it's a whole nother thing different,

going through this entire process

to integrate the University of Mississippi.

- So a full-scale riot breaks out.

- Kennedy was very hesitant to take bold action.

- We've discovered missiles in Cuba.

- The Joint Chiefs of Staff are unified

that we should bomb and we should invade.

- Kennedy was not convinced that a blockade would lead

to the Soviets withdrawing their missiles,

but he recognized that he had no better options.

- Good evening, my fellow citizens.

Unmistakable evidence has established the fact

that a series of offensive missile sites

is now in preparation on that imprisoned island.

- To lead us to a fruitful America,

from the state of Massachusetts,

John F. Kennedy!

- John F. Kennedy lived a life

that would help define an entire generation.

- Together we shall save our planet,

or together we shall perish in its flames.

- What was it about that guy?

- Looks, style, empathy.

He was incredibly charming.

- Intellectual and progressive.

- He was the future. He was next.

President for just over 1,000 days,

Kennedy navigated events and crises

that changed the world.

- Kennedy is feeling the pressure

from civil rights activists.

- This was a country on nuclear war footing.

- This could be the last mistake

that anybody makes, politically.

- He changed us in the process of his own growth.

- We choose to go to the moon in this decade

and do the other things, not because they are easy,

but because they are hard.

60 years after his assassination,

we are still fascinated by the triumphs and flaws

of the youngest president ever elected.

- I ask you to join us

in all the tomorrows yet to come,

in building America, moving America,

taking this country of ours up and sending it into the '60s.

- Having now confirmed and completed our evaluation

of the evidence and our decision

on a course of action, this government feels obliged

to report this new crisis to you in fullest detail.

The purpose of these bases can be none other than

to provide a nuclear strike capability

against the Western hemisphere.

On October 22nd, 1962,

President Kennedy addressed the waiting nation

about the Soviet arms buildup in Cuba.

People listened around the country

and across the globe.

All eyes were now on Cuba,

and nuclear war was on the world's doorstep.

- I thought he was nervous.

I wouldn't say scared, but I could tell.

I just, uh... his tone of voice.

And I was sitting five feet from him.

- Several of them include medium-range ballistic missiles

capable of carrying a nuclear warhead

for a distance of more than 1,000 nautical miles.

Each of these missiles, in short, is capable

of striking Washington, D.C., the Panama Canal,

Cape Canaveral, Mexico City, or any other city

in the southeastern part of the United States.

- That's the only time I felt as though I could...

it could be over.

But everybody in the country was feeling that.

That kind of absence of air in the room

was all over the world.

And I remember our parents being given the option to,

when the sirens went off, to have us run home

and be with them for the end

or to take cover at the school.

- Kennedy really threatens nuclear war in that speech.

He says that we will regard any attack from Cuba

as an attack by the Soviet Union

on the United States,

and we will respond quickly and forcefully.

So it's... he now has upped the ante.

The temperature's really gone up.

With Kennedy's go-ahead,

United States Naval vessels made their way

to form a wall-like blockade around the island of Cuba,

intending to force out the Soviet troops and missiles

and stop additional weapons from arriving.

- Kennedy and his advisors were trying to be careful

in the language that they were choosing.

In particular, they called the blockade a "quarantine,"

because "blockade"... this is a declaration of war

in the international law.

But everyone got the message,

"Okay, probably the war is coming."

It wasn't long before Kennedy received

a new threat from Khrushchev.

With the massive blockade now in effect,

if Soviet ships were sunk,

or the Americans attempted an invasion,

it would be war.

- Khrushchev ordered all his ships

with military equipment that were not yet close

to Cuba, turn back.

On the Cuban shores closest to Florida,

waves of missile sites and nuclear-armed submarines

were at the ready.

- We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the course

of worldwide nuclear war, in which

even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth.

But neither will we shrink from that risk

at any time it must be faced.

- When I think about Kennedy and the Missile Crisis,

I think about a president who, frankly,

is really good at stalling, who's really good at delaying,

trying to hope that a solution will arise

that will not lead to being boxed into a nuclear box.

- I have directed the armed forces to prepare

for any eventualities.

It shall be the policy of this nation

to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba

against any nation in the Western hemisphere

as an attack by the Soviet Union

on the United States,

requiring a full retaliatory response

upon the Soviet Union.

Local Soviet commanders in Cuba had been

given approval to fire nuclear weapons if necessary.

- Nikita Khrushchev had not only deployed

nuclear weapons into Cuba,

he had actually deployed operational control

of those weapons down to the battlefield commanders.

What does that mean in English?

That means the first moment that marines hit the beach,

mushroom clouds start going off.

Total annihilation.

Every time I study the Cuban Missile Crisis,

I get more afraid.

Tensions had come to a head.

- I don't want to be critical, but the problem is,

when you say further action's gonna be taken,

then they all say, "What action?"

And it moves this escalation up

a couple of days when we're not ready for it.

- Yeah. I-I'm sorry...

- So therefore, you have to be goddamn careful.

We gotta get this under control.

On October 27th, at the height of the Crisis,

American U-2 pilot Major Rudolf Anderson was

shot down and killed over Cuba

while on a surveillance mission.

The order was given by a Soviet lieutenant general,

without the authorization of his commanding general.

Anderson's death signaled a turning point...

a turn for the worse.

- And once an American pilot has been shot down,

American blood has been spilt, you know,

that changes the nature of the calculations

for American politicians.

- Against his orders, Khrushchev's commanders

ordered to shoot down a U-2 plane over Cuba.

That is another layer of complexity and danger

associated with the Crisis like that.

There is also people on the ground

who very often make their own decisions.

And they become, at the end,

deciders of whether there would be a conflict or not,

whether there would be a nuclear war or not.

That same day, a group

of U.S. Navy destroyers were positioned above

the Soviet submarine B-59.

To force the submarine to the surface

for identification,

the navy began dropping small explosives

called signaling depth charges.

The captain of the Soviet submarine,

Valentin Savitsky, mistook the depth charges for bombs.

- So they could have been forgiven for thinking

that the... the real conflict had begun.

What the Navy did not know at the time

was that the B-59 had nuclear weapons on board.

Thinking that the war had started,

Savitsky gave the order

to launch one of the nuclear torpedoes.

Black Saturday, October 27th, 1962.

While Kennedy was deciding how to respond

to Major Rudolf Anderson's death,

Russian submarine B-59 prepared

to fire a nuclear torpedo,

believing the war had started above them.

However, in order to fire the weapons,

the decision had to be unanimous

between all officers.

- They all three had to say, "Yes, let's fire back."

All on board were in favor of the nuclear attack,

except for the second-in-command officer

named Vasili Arkhipov...

who convinced the B-59 crew to halt the launch

of the nuclear missile.

The submarine rose to the surface

and would soon head back to the Soviet Union

without incident, thanks to Arkhipov.

- He talks the captain out of that decision,

which surely would have led to a nuclear war.

- The real risk of war, I think,

during the Missile Crisis, came from the fact

that neither side really understood

what the other side was doing,

and there was a lot of room for misinterpretation

and miscommunication between the two sides.

On the 27th of October, which was widely regarded

as the most dangerous day of the Crisis...

it was later called Black Saturday...

the two sides were very close

to the early stages of a nuclear war.

- One of my best friends is Clint Hill.

He was Mrs. Kennedy's agent.

And he went to Mrs. Kennedy, and he said, "Mrs. Kennedy,

I've gotta take you down to see the bomb shelter."

And she said, "No, I won't use it, Mr. Hill."

And he said, uh, "At some point you're gonna have to go inside,

and you're gonna have to take the children there."

And she said, "Mr. Hill,

"if it comes to that,

"I will take little John-John and Caroline,

"and we'll go out to the South Lawn,

"and we will face the music.

We'll face the danger along with the American people."

- On that day, when an American U-2 is shot down,

it looks like this crisis is spiraling out of control.

Kennedy decides this is the time for diplomacy.

- Truly, only the president can make a major decision.

And no matter how many advisors he has in the room

or out of the room, only he can make that final decision.

And in that sense, it's a very lonely process,

no matter how crowded the environment may be.

Behind closed doors, negotiations were conducted

between the White House and the Kremlin.

Khrushchev presented his final terms for withdrawal

to the Kennedy administration.

He declared that in order for the Soviets

to remove their weapons, the United States must pledge

to never invade Cuba again.

Khrushchev also demanded the American Jupiter missiles

aimed at the Soviet Union be removed from Turkey.

- Kennedy decides, if I have to,

I'm gonna trade away the security of Turkey.

I'm gonna trade that away briefly

and give the Soviets what they want to end this.

We can't have this continue,

because we're not any longer in control of the situation.

And there, Kennedy leads.

In fact, most of Kennedy's advisors

are against the trade, trading Turkish missiles

for the Soviet missiles in Cuba.

And you can hear on tape John Kennedy saying to them,

"How can I explain to the American people

"that I didn't take this offer?

"If they ever learn that it was on the table,

"that I could have avoided what happens next,

"how could I ever explain to them, or history,

that I couldn't take this deal?"

That's where Kennedy is the leader.

The United States agreed to both terms,

but insisted that it be allowed to remove

the Jupiter missiles covertly over the next few months.

As Kennedy had stated days before,

he was determined that peace would prevail.

- Our goal is not the victory of might,

but the vindication of right,

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.

Thank you and good night.

With nuclear weapons aimed at Washington, D.C.

and ready to fire,

the night of October 27th was fraught with tension.

While eating dinner in the White House

with his friend David Powers, Kennedy commented,

"Anybody would think that it was your last meal."

- Probably one of the most tense evenings of the...

of the Cuban Missile Crisis, because it's a big unknown.

Having responded to Khrushchev's terms,

the United States could only wait for a final decision

from Moscow.

On October 27th, 1962,

Kennedy had agreed

to Khrushchev's terms for withdrawal.

The fate of the country was uncertain as Kennedy awaited

the final response from Moscow.

After 13 days of tense negotiations,

Khrushchev finally conceded on October 28th.

It was 6:00 p.m. in Moscow

and 9:00 a.m. in Washington, D.C.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was over.

In standing firm against engaging the Soviets

militarily and choosing to deliberate,

Kennedy helped bring the world back

from the brink of nuclear war.

- No matter how many advisors you have,

frequently they are divided,

and the president must finally choose.

No easy matters will ever come to you as president.

Those that come to you as president are always

the difficult matters, the matters which carry

with them large implications.

- John Kennedy had an ability during

the Cuban Missile Crisis

to not just get swept up in the passion of the moment,

but to step back and to see the risks

and the opportunities.

- So in the spring of 1963, the Cuban Missile Crisis

having happened about eight months earlier,

John F. Kennedy is thinking about the great scourge

that faces mankind in the proliferation

of nuclear weapons.

And he thinks, "What can I do to find a way through?

How can I change the channel?"

Kennedy decided to address the Cold War

in a way he had never done before.

- There is no treaty of any sort

between the United States and the Soviet Union.

And so the idea emerges of a nuclear test ban treaty.

That spring, Kennedy wants to give

that idea public expression in a formal, eloquent way.

The speech as an instrument of public policy

is very important to JFK, and he has in Ted Sorensen

about the finest speechwriter a president could have.

They have worked together since 1953.

They've been together ten years.

They want to make an overture to Khrushchev.

On June 10th, 1963,

Kennedy would pour his experience

navigating the chaos of the Bay of Pigs,

neutralizing the Cuban Missile Crisis

and the friction in Berlin,

into a commencement address for American University.

- What's important to know about the peace speech is,

it doesn't get any kind of exposure

in the arteries of government.

Kennedy does not want what he's going to say to get out,

because he is going to speak to the Russians

with a generosity and a sense of conciliation

that no president has shown the Russians

since Franklin Roosevelt was an ally of Joseph Stalin.

Suddenly, it was showtime.

- I have therefore chosen this time and place

to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds,

and the truth too rarely perceived.

And that is the most important topic on Earth, peace.

- He has been a cold warrior,

and important to note, between 1961 and 1963,

has presided over the largest military buildup

in American peacetime history.

So when Kennedy is coming around

to speaking about peace, what does it mean?

- I am talking about genuine peace,

the kind of peace that makes life on Earth worth living,

and the kind 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,

not merely peace in our time, but peace in all time.

He was a different leader

than the man newly elected in January 1961,

who asked the country to bear any burden

against Soviet and Communist might.

The speech he delivered now was grounded in stark reality,

examining America's moral responsibility

to support a strategy of peace.

- First, examine our attitude towards peace itself.

Too many of us think it is impossible.

Too many think it is unreal.

But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief.

It leads to the conclusion 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.

Kennedy announced the United States would stop

atmospheric nuclear testing

if a treaty could be agreed upon with the Soviets.

In the Soviet Union, a full translation

of Kennedy's speech was broadcast

and printed in the press.

Khrushchev himself was deeply impressed.

Soon after, American diplomat Averell Harriman traveled

to Moscow to negotiate a test ban treaty.

Kennedy said this was not his ideal solution of disarmament,

but it was a step toward achieving it.

- And within six weeks,

he's in the situation room in the White House

and getting drafts of the agreement.

- Our most basic common link

is that we all inhabit this small planet.

We all breathe the same air.

We all cherish our children's future.

Confident and unafraid,

we must labor on,

not towards a strategy of annihilation,

but towards a strategy of peace.

In the summer of 1963,

while Kennedy was focused on working towards

international arms control and diplomacy,

a fire was smoldering in the American South.

Soon it would once again burst into raging flames.

In May 1963, the city of Birmingham, Alabama,

called the most segregated city in the country

by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,

became the new epicenter of the civil rights movement.

Hundreds of Black students,

some as young as seven years old,

were recruited to join a series

of nonviolent demonstrations promoting racial equality.

- Being a teenager at the time,

I was just learning.

I wanted to be a part of the change, yeah,

because we can't keep on living like this.

It's got to be better.

- ♪ Who's that writing? ♪

In a courageous effort, activists emerged

from the 16th Street Baptist Church

and took to the streets for two days,

marching shoulder to shoulder through downtown Birmingham

and singing songs like "We Shall Overcome."

As the children marched peacefully

through the streets, the Birmingham Commissioner

of Public Safety, Bull Connor, decided to respond.

- Connor snapped.

Just turned out the full force of the police

with fire hoses and dogs,

attacking these young protesters.

- ♪ Oh, who's that writing? ♪

- Somebody started singing, "We are not afraid."

That gave me the... the encouragement that I needed

to remain in the line and to be arrested.

When Kennedy saw the photos

coming out of Birmingham, he was disgusted.

Robert Kennedy sent

Assistant Attorney General Burke Marshall

to facilitate negotiations between

civil rights protesters

and Birmingham city business leaders

to desegregate businesses and end the demonstrations.

- John Kennedy, he had the type of heart

that when he saw all of this happening to children,

he said, "No more," and I... for that, I respect him.

On May 10th, an agreement was reached.

The demonstrations were a success and led

to new efforts in Birmingham to integrate

and improve job opportunities

for African-American residents.

But Kennedy's involvement wasn't enough.

The violence in Birmingham brought worldwide attention

and scrutiny to the Kennedy administration's response

to the civil rights movement.

- Those images are spread internationally.

So Kennedy is feeling the pressure

from internally, from the civil rights activists,

and then externally from his allies around the world.

As protests and violence continued

in the South, pressure mounted on Kennedy

to take decisive legislative action

in support of the civil rights movement.

Now it was June 11th, 1963, just one day after

Kennedy's peace speech at American University.

The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa was one

of only a handful of universities yet

to be desegregated.

The civil rights group the NAACP,

the National Association for the Advancement

of Colored People, tried to arrange

for two Black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood,

to integrate the university.

Filmmaker Robert Drew was given the rare opportunity

from the Kennedy administration to capture

the behind-the-scenes events of the attempted integration.

- Why do you want to go to the University of Alabama

specifically, and not some other university?

- The school that I was previously attending

became unaccredited in December of 1961,

and the University of Alabama is accredited.

The governor of Alabama,

staunch segregationist George Wallace,

wanted to show his opposition on a public stage.

- And I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow,

and segregation forever.

- So Wallace says, "The federal government"...

he made them the bad guys...

"Come down here and tell us how to live our lives,

"tell us what to do.

I will stand in the schoolhouse door."

- The Kennedys see him as a pugnacious, theatrical,

jumped-up Southern politician

who is going to force his day

onto the national stage with his stunt.

Well, eight months before, the University of Mississippi

has gone through the same thing,

and Kennedy had to order in 25,000 troops

to put down a riot that went on 26 hours,

killed two people, injured hundreds.

The Kennedys had lost control of that situation

and Kennedy said, "That's never gonna happen again."

This time, they would be adequately prepared.

Anything that could have been used as a weapon

was removed from campus.

- Every rock on campus was removed.

Every Coke bottle

in the Coke machine was removed.

There were sharpshooters on all the buildings.

When Malone and Hood arrived at the university

for their first day, on June 11th, 1963,

they were escorted to the school

by Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach,

who reported directly

to the Attorney General Robert Kennedy

throughout the day.

- He's had this opportunity and should let 'em go through.

Or otherwise, we're gonna have to take other steps,

because these students are going to attend

the University of Alabama.

George Wallace blocked the entrance

to the school, flanked by Alabama state troopers.

- He says, "I will bar the admission

"of James Hood and Vivian Malone,

if I have to do it physically,"

from this citadel of white supremacy,

the University of Alabama.

- Governor George Wallace of Alabama has stood

in the schoolhouse door.

On June 11th, 1963, Governor George Wallace

stood firmly in the schoolhouse door,

blocking Malone and Hood

from entering the University of Alabama.

On orders from Attorney General Bobby Kennedy

to resolve the situation,

Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach

approached the governor and demanded he step aside.

- And I've come here to ask you now

for an unequivocal assurance

that you will permit these students, who, after all,

merely want an education at the great university...

- Now you make your statement, but we don't need

for you to make a speech.

Interrupting,

Wallace pulled out a written statement,

which he delivered to the crowd.

- The unwelcomed, unwanted, unwarranted,

and force-induced intrusion upon the campus

of the University of Alabama

today of the might of the central government

offers frightful example

of the oppression of the rights, privileges,

and sovereignty of this state

by officers of the federal government.

Back at the White House,

Kennedy listened attentively

while Bobby briefed him on the situation.

- They were ready to carry Wallace away if they had to.

- Then, uh, if he still doesn't move,

then we'll try to get by him.

- Pushing?

- Pushing a little bit.

Uh, or just having somebody... - Trying to walk around him.

- And try to walk through the three doors.

We're gonna try to have somebody inside

who will open up the other... one of the other doors,

so they can't cover all three doors,

and just have the girls and the boys just try

to go through another door.

Anyway, that's gonna be up to Nick Katzenbach,

as to how far we can go with that.

- Governor, I am not interested in a show.

I don't know what the purpose of this show is.

I am interested in the orders of this court being enforced.

That is my only responsibility here.

When Wallace announced

he wasn't going to step aside,

the president federalized the Alabama National Guard,

calling upon them to enforce federal law.

Kennedy was now their commander, over Wallace.

- They were so worried about the thing exploding

at the University of Alabama,

as it had at the University of Mississippi.

In Tuscaloosa, 100 guardsmen arrived

and thousands more stood at the ready

if violence broke out.

Marching up to the door, one of the guardsmen,

General Henry V. Graham, demanded

that Governor Wallace step aside.

Bobby and his team at the Justice Department

in Washington listened in anticipation

over a telephone line from the scene.

- It was, in effect, a single defiant man

holding with strength to the weak mores of the past.

- Change is about to occur, and we can feel the ground.

Uh, it's trembling.

After a tense buildup,

the governor finally stepped aside,

allowing the students to register at the university.

- The stand at the schoolhouse door

was an important event because it finally got Kennedy to say,

"I'm not gonna be afraid of the issue of race in America.

I'm gonna speak out on it. I'm gonna speak out on it."

The question on Kennedy's mind was

whether or not he would deliver an address

on civil rights that evening, using Birmingham

and the University of Alabama integration as a backdrop.

- There have been demonstrations and riots

in a number of American cities since Birmingham,

and Kennedy understands that.

- Across the United States, pressures are rising

for the president to speak out for racial equality

as a moral issue.

But a strong speech could cost the president Southern support

for new civil rights legislation

he would like to have.

- Okay, let's get started now.

- The president must decide whether or not

to speak out anyway in a nationwide TV address.

- I think it's a reason to do it.

I think you could talk about the legislation

and talk about employment and talk about education.

Kennedy, like the presidents before him,

had never addressed civil rights as a moral issue.

Most of Kennedy's inner circle was opposed

to a televised address about civil rights

on the evening of June 11th.

They felt the time wasn't right

and would push too far, too quickly,

alienating the South from the administration.

The only person on Kennedy's side

was his brother Bobby.

Together they decided that enough was enough.

Kennedy chose to speak to the nation that evening,

against the recommendation of his trusted advisors.

- That's the big decision that John Kennedy makes,

um, that is really the basis for his reputation as someone

who, in the end, supported civil rights

in a legitimate and a real way.

- And it's then that JFK turns to Ted Sorensen,

who never had a speech he couldn't write for JFK,

and says, "It's time tonight to give that speech."

And Sorensen says, "What speech?"

JFK says, "And by the way,

I've booked the networks for 8:00 p.m."

There was little time to draft a speech.

At air time, it was incomplete.

Kennedy went forward nonetheless,

improvising the final portion.

At last, with Kennedy positioned at his desk

in the Oval Office, the cameras turned on.

- Ladies and gentlemen,

the president of the United States.

- Good evening, my fellow citizens.

This nation was founded by men

of many nations and backgrounds.

It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal,

and that the rights of every man are diminished

when the rights of one man are threatened.

We are confronted primarily with a moral issue.

It is as old as the scriptures

and is as clear as the American Constitution.

The heart of the question is whether all Americans are

to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities,

whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans

as we want to be treated.

- At the 11-minute mark, if you watch it,

you see that Kennedy is beginning to ad-lib.

He's speaking extemporaneously.

- We have a right to expect that the Negro community

will be responsible, will uphold the law,

but they have a right to expect that the law will be fair,

that the Constitution will be colorblind,

as Justice Harlan said at the turn of the century.

This is what we're talking about,

and this is a matter which concerns this country

and what it stands for, and in meeting it,

I ask the support of all of our citizens.

Thank you very much.

Kennedy's speech marked

a historic turning point in American history.

However, racial hatred continued to haunt America.

Hours later,

prominent NAACP Mississippi field secretary

Medgar Evers was assassinated outside of his home.

His murder shocked the nation

and illustrated the urgent need

for civil rights legislation.

Within a week, Kennedy sent his sweeping civil rights bill

to Congress.

The bill would unilaterally ban racial discrimination

in public places, including restaurants,

hotels, and stores.

Another provision would increase

the attorney general's speed and ability to assist

with the integration of public schools.

- It's robust.

It directly forces the state to not adhere to states' rights,

that the federal government will intervene

if you do not actually enforce federal law,

things that folks have been asking him to do for years.

Kennedy's administration began a series

of private White House meetings and conferences

with more than 1,000 people from around the country,

representing education, women's organizations,

the South, and religious institutions.

The goal was to discuss the proposed civil rights bill

and Kennedy's expectations for how these groups

could responsibly adhere to the bill

and reliably carry out its values.

- He really had no choice.

Morally and politically, he had no choice

but to introduce a civil rights bill.

With talks underway about the Civil Rights Act,

Kennedy embarked on the eighth trip

of his presidency in late June 1963.

His travel schedule included a visit to West Berlin,

a meeting in England with his good friend,

British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan,

and a long-awaited visit

to his ancestral home of Ireland.

This would be Kennedy's final international trip.

When Kennedy arrived in Germany,

he made his long-awaited visit to the Berlin Wall

on June 26th, 1963.

- He sees the Berlin Wall for the first time.

You could almost feel Kennedy finally understanding,

on a whole different, deep level,

what the Cold War meant

by seeing the Berlin Wall.

And so he said, "For people who don't understand what is

this Cold War conflict, come here, come look at this."

Nearly half a million Berliners

stood outside to hear Kennedy speak.

It was a larger crowd than he had ever seen.

- Thank you.

There are many people in the world

who really don't understand, or say they don't,

what is the great issue between the free world

and the Communist world.

Let them come to Berlin.

- As a free man, I take pride in the words

"Ich bin ein Berliner."

- There were no doubts left about his leadership.

- The last 60 years has been America wishing

they could rewrite sad history.

- Parkland Hospital has been advised to stand by

for a gunshot wound.