Original subtitles

- There is no treaty

between the United States and the Soviet Union.

The idea emerges of a nuclear test ban treaty.

- We must labor on,

not towards a strategy of annihilation,

but towards a strategy of peace.

- Change is about to occur.

- You could almost feel Kennedy understanding

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.’"

- To lead us to a fruitful America,

from the state of Massachusetts,

John F. Kennedy!

narrator: John F. Kennedy lived a life

that would help define an entire generation.

[soft sweeping music]

- 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.

narrator: 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.

narrator: 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,

picking this country of ours up and sending it into the ’60s.

♪ ♪

[cheers and applause]

[gentle orchestral music]

♪ ♪

Freedom has many difficulties,

and democracy is not perfect,

but we have never had to put a wall up

to keep our people in,

to prevent them from leaving us.

[cheers and applause]

There are some who say-- there are some who say

that communism is the wave of the future.

Let them come to Berlin.

[cheering]

♪ ♪

narrator: Two years after the rise of the Berlin Wall,

President John F. Kennedy visited Germany

to address the citizens of West Berlin.

- He said, "In this day and age,

"you all can be proud to be citizens of Berlin.

"You are at the front line

of this battle between tyranny and freedom."

- All free men, wherever they may live,

are citizens of Berlin.

And therefore, as a free man,

I take pride in the words, "Ich bin ein Berliner."

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

- "And so I, too," he said,

"I am a Berliner along with you."

narrator: The words would go down in history

as an expression of hope and solidarity

in a world threatened by the Cold War.

- He understood the iconic power of that.

I’m not with you, I am you.

He understood that these moments would matter forever.

Everyone would always remember it.

narrator: On the plane leaving Berlin,

Kennedy turned to his speechwriter

and longtime ally, Ted Sorensen, and said,

"We’ll never have another day like this one

as long as we live."

♪ ♪

From West Berlin, Kennedy visited Ireland,

where he was given a roaring welcome.

While there, he visited the home

where his ancestors had lived before coming

to the United States.

[laughter]

[cheers and applause]

- I grew up very aware that John F. Kennedy

changed things completely for Irish people.

Every house that I went to, both my grandparents’ homes

and any relative we visited, had, when you walked in,

the same picture of John F. Kennedy.

So he was the patron saint of the Irish.

- The example of someone who had risen to the very top

of the political world,

in the most important country in the world,

had its effect on attitudes in Ireland

and attitudes towards our own horizon of ambition.

- Hello, people of Ireland.

I give you President Kennedy of United States.

[cheers and applause]

narrator: Kennedy’s visit to Europe was a bright contrast

to the tensions he’d experienced during

the Cuban Missile Crisis.

- For certainly, it was a moment of reflection and--

and gratitude for what he had--

what he had achieved and the shoulders

that he had stood on to get there.

narrator: The exciting trip to Europe

was followed by important news.

- For the first time,

an agreement has been reached

on bringing the forces

of nuclear destruction

under international control.

narrator: After decades of destructive nuclear testing,

the treaty would eliminate any such activity

in the atmosphere, in space, and underwater.

- With our courage and understanding enlarged

by this achievement, let us press onward in quest

of man’s essential desire for peace.

As President of the United States,

and with the advice and consent of the Senate,

I now sign the instruments of ratification of this treaty.

narrator: Kennedy considered

the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

his greatest accomplishment

to that point of his presidency,

but it came amid personal heartache.

[somber music]

Days later, after Khrushchev agreed to the terms,

Jackie Kennedy gave birth to her fourth child,

Patrick Kennedy, by cesarean section.

He weighed less than five pounds and struggled

to breathe on his own.

Kennedy left the White House and immediately boarded

a helicopter to the hospital

at Otis Air Force Base in Massachusetts.

Arriving some 40 minutes after the baby was born,

Kennedy saw his new son for the first time.

The odds for little Patrick’s survival were grim.

After wheeling the incubator to Jackie’s bedside

so she could see Patrick,

Kennedy and his brother Bobby went with the baby

to the Boston Children’s Hospital.

They waited nervously while the doctors worked

to save Patrick’s life.

♪ ♪

Patrick Bouvier Kennedy passed away two days later,

on August 9th, 1963.

"He put up quite a fight," Kennedy said.

"He was a beautiful baby."

- He was there watching him die,

uh, holding his hand in the-- holding his little hand,

touching his little hand in the hospital,

and had to go back

and give Jackie the news and comfort her.

narrator: Over the next few weeks,

Kennedy flew to Hyannis Port several times

to be with his wife.

Together, they grieved and reportedly grew closer

than they had ever been before.

- I think after Patrick died, there is that great scene

of him holding her hand coming out of the hospital.

They never were affectionate publicly before then.

Maybe he finally realized

that he needed to be that man for her and that support

that she had always been for him.

- The people who knew him well said they had never seen him

so devastated and moved

as he had been by Patrick’s death.

And I think that set the table,

not just for his personal relations with Jackie,

but also for the kind of determination and dedication

that he brought to things,

to the understanding of how fragile life is.

♪ ♪

narrator: In August of 1963, following Patrick’s death,

Kennedy turned his attention

to a long-simmering conflict abroad.

In 1954, the French colonial rulers of Vietnam

were defeated by Vietcong forces

under Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.

The country was divided in two,

a Communist north and an American-supported south.

Afraid that communism would gain strength

throughout Indochina, the U.S. gradually increased funds

and military advice to South Vietnam.

It was a policy JFK had inherited from Eisenhower.

- He heard the warnings about what can happen,

domino theory warnings,

where if one small country falls to communism,

others would follow.

But he was not all-in

in sending U.S. troops there.

narrator: Kennedy would do what he thought necessary

in order to contain communism.

He sent thousands of military advisors there,

hoping to stabilize the conflict.

These military personnel were sent to train,

support, and advise South Vietnamese forces,

but not participate in combat.

However, by 1962, some American advisors had begun

to engage in combat operations.

In early 1963, the situation in Vietnam was worsening.

The United States had more than 14,000 military advisors

in Vietnam,

but Kennedy was still opposed to sending combat troops.

- The idea that there would be

a military solution for Kennedy was something

that he was trying to avoid, as many others

in his administration were trying to avoid,

because it wasn’t a military problem.

It was a political stability problem, and, you know,

it’s hard enough managing your own government.

Try managing another government halfway across the world

that’s having a civil war going on.

narrator: South Vietnam was led

by self-proclaimed President Ngô Dinh Diem.

Diem was backed by many anti-communist countries,

including the United States.

In 1963, Diem began persecuting

South Vietnam’s Buddhist population.

On June 11th, the same day Kennedy navigated the stand

at the schoolhouse door in Alabama,

he saw the grisly image

of the Buddhist monk Quang Duc,

who had set himself on fire in Saigon

to protest the Diem administration.

Now more than ever, Kennedy knew that Diem’s hold

on South Vietnam was falling apart.

[people yelling]

[somber music]

♪ ♪

narrator: Throughout 1963,

Kennedy tried to impress upon Diem

the necessity for major reforms,

but his suggestions were ignored.

- I think, as I’ve said, the events

of the last two months have not helped that struggle.

We’re anxious to see the situation develop there

so that the struggle will be aided.

- May we reduce some of our aid to South Vietnam?

- We would reduce it only if we felt

that such a reduction would aid the struggle there.

As of today, we have not made that judgment.

We’ve not decided to reduce it as of yet.

narrator: As the possibility of a coup

in South Vietnam became more apparent,

Kennedy met with his advisors to discuss

how the United States should react.

While Kennedy had reservations about U.S. support

for a military coup, on August 24th, 1963,

a cable was dispatched to the U.S. ambassador

to South Vietnam, giving the coup

the administration’s tacit approval.

♪ ♪

On November 2nd, 1963,

Diem and his brother, Ngô Dinh Nhu, were overthrown

by a group of South Vietnamese soldiers.

After being captured,

Diem and Nhu were executed by their own men.

In the end, Kennedy had agreed to the idea of a coup,

but after seeing photos

of Diem and Nhu’s lifeless bodies

in the back of a van, brutalized and shot,

he was appalled.

- One of his senior advisors, after he ran out of the room

when he heard the details,

whispered softly, "Well, what did he expect?"

♪ ♪

narrator: After the coup, Kennedy asked an aide,

Michael Forrestal, to organize a study

of every option in Vietnam, including withdrawal.

The coup had sent Kennedy a clear message--

the chaos in Vietnam would need to be dealt with.

However, to avoid hurting his chances

for reelection in 1964,

he decided he would address it upon entering a second term.

- He really wasn’t sure what he was going to do,

but at least something in him told him

that Vietnam was an enormous threat to history,

to his history, to his administration,

to the future of the country.

- Kennedy saw the insurgency as a anti-colonial, essentially

nationalist movement feeding on social discontent.

You try to remove the causes of social discontent,

and you try to build nationalism.

You can’t use Americans

to build Vietnamese nationalists.

Vietnamese must do it, or it cannot be done.

That’s what Kennedy meant when he used to say,

"It is their war. They must win it or lose it."

[gunfire]

[somber music]

♪ ♪

narrator: As autumn fell on Washington,

Kennedy set out on a new campaign.

At this stage, he was thinking about the support he needed

for the 1964 election.

His administration had arguably

the most significant legislative record

of any president since Roosevelt decades earlier.

But there was still substantial work to be done.

The Civil Rights Act had stalled in Congress.

On August 28th, 1963,

more than 200,000 people gathered

to participate in the March on Washington

for jobs and freedom,

in support of civil rights legislation.

On that day, Martin Luther King Jr.

delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech.

The demonstration stressed the need

for Kennedy to build support for the bill

and his 1964 campaign.

- I think the bill we put in is a reasonable bill.

My judgment is that we will not divide

this country politically into Negroes and whites.

That’d be a fatal mistake for society as, uh--

which should be as united as ours is.

narrator: During the 1964 campaign,

Kennedy wanted to focus on the South,

where he was deeply resented by many.

He felt that if he campaigned there early enough,

he could secure the support and finances he needed

for the upcoming election.

- He became, perhaps, more sober and serious

as the burdens of the office weighed upon him,

but he never lost his basic sense of humor

and his ability to laugh at himself

and to take the world seriously

but not take himself too seriously.

narrator: Before Kennedy left to speak in Florida and Texas,

he played with his children on the floor of the Oval Office.

His secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, asked him what

people would think if they saw the President rolling

on the floor like he was.

He responded, "After all, Mrs. Lincoln,

I’m also a father."

"There’s no doubt about that," she said.

- There is one very poignant conversation.

The President, actually, is dictating his recollections

of what happened in Vietnam.

It’s a very sad recollection for him.

And uh, John-John and Caroline enter the Oval Office,

and you can hear him stop

while he’s describing tragic events in Saigon,

and stop and then suddenly start playing with the kids.

Now, his initial reaction was not, "Get outta here, kids."

It was to stop and shift immediately to them.

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

narrator: Many staffers were uneasy

about Kennedy campaigning in the South,

but they knew it was necessary

if Kennedy was to win reelection the following year.

With the trip approved,

White House Appointments Secretary Kenneth O’Donnell

made the final preparations

for the two-day, five-city tour of Texas.

[propellers whirring]

[melancholic piano music]

♪ ♪

Kennedy was scheduled to visit San Antonio, Houston,

Fort Worth, Dallas, and Austin.

- Growth has meant new opportunities for this state.

Progress has meant new achievements,

and we dare not look back now.

In 1990, the age of space will be entering its second phase,

and our hopes in it to preserve the peace,

to make sure that in this great new sea,

as on Earth,

the United States is second to none.

Your old men shall dream dreams,

your young men shall see visions, the Bible tells us.

[bird chirping]

[soft uplifting music]

narrator: On the morning of November 22nd,

Kennedy and his wife were awakened

by their valet, George Thomas.

Thomas had worked for Kennedy since 1947,

waking him up each day.

Today in Fort Worth, Texas, it was no different.

- President Kennedy is flanked by--

narrator: With Jackie at his side,

Kennedy boarded Air Force One at Carswell Air Force Base

for the brief flight to Dallas.

It had been raining,

but just before the plane landed,

the sun broke through the clouds

onto the city below,

bringing a sense of hope and promise.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

narrator: On November 22nd, 1963,

Air Force One landed at Love Field in Dallas,

where both Kennedy and Jackie disembarked directly

onto the tarmac, waving at the hundreds of observers.

[cheers and applause]

- It was an event.

It was closest thing to royalty

I thought that we had.

♪ ♪

- There were no particular doubts left

about his leadership.

He was not the callow 40-year-old playboy senator.

He was the guy who guided the country through

the most dangerous period, perhaps, of its existence.

So I think there was a stronger sense

of him as a leader.

- We were all shocked

that Dallas had turned out this way,

with a crowd that big at Love Field.

And that wasn’t even the downtown.

♪ ♪

They got off and they walked over to the fence,

and people were at the chain-link fence,

putting their hands over the fence or through the fence

to try to touch Jackie and shake her hand.

And she was enjoying it.

She was shaking hands with all these people,

I’d say 2,000 or 3,000 people, right there at the gate.

narrator: Jackie received a bouquet of roses,

which she carried with her into the waiting limousine.

The President and First Lady were joined

by Governor Connally of Texas and his wife.

Finally, the procession departed from Love Field.

[wistful music]

♪ ♪

- Dallas, at the time, probably had

600,000 population.

There were probably 200,000 people

in the streets.

And if you looked at the people,

a mélange from very young to very old.

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

narrator: The cloudy skies had cleared,

and the beautiful Dallas sun shined on Kennedy’s motorcade.

♪ ♪

[heart thumping]

[radio feedback crackles]

- Give me all available information on President,

over.

- All available information on President follows:

He and Governor Connally of Texas have been hit

in the car in which they were riding.

We do not know how serious the situation is.

[siren wails] We have no information.

[high-pitched ringing]

[beeping]

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- I saw parents lying on top of their kids,

because they heard the gunfire

and they’re protecting their kids.

- Parkland Hospital, there has been a shooting.

Parkland Hospital has been advised to stand by

for a severe gunshot wound.

- The motorcade now-- [siren wails]

The motorcade now perhaps two or three blocks ahead of me.

They’re approaching the entrance now

to Parkland Hospital, traveling

at a high rate of speed.

Ready police cars converging on Parkland from every angle,

from every point.

[chilling music]

- He and another priest tell me that the pair of men

have just administered the last rites

of the Catholic Church to President Kennedy.

♪ ♪

- From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official,

President Kennedy died

at 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time,

2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.

Vice President Lyndon Johnson has left the hospital

in Dallas, but we do not know, uh, to where he has proceeded.

Presumably, he will be taking the oath of office shortly

and become the 36th president of the United States.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- The procession was not anything out of the ordinary,

except that we walked.

We walked slowly all the way to the Capitol.

♪ ♪

- I remember the strength and courage of Mrs. Kennedy,

and how she--how she held up during all that.

♪ ♪

- I don’t think I’ll ever forget

when the caisson passed with the coffin

and little John-John stepped out and saluted.

- And here at the Capitol, all those kids

that I’d been in college with, and we had--

had idolized Kennedy so.

They’re lined up blocks.

And they drove... from Utah,

California, Texas...

Just to pass by the casket.

[cries]

♪ ♪

I’d talk to them, and they--

they would say what I suspected,

that our whole life was ahead of us with Kennedy,

and... we lost it.

[sniffles, exhales heavily]

- "We must always consider," he said,

"that we shall be as a city upon a hill.

The eyes of all people are upon us."

I ask for your help and your prayers

as I embark on this new and solemn journey.

Thank you. [applause]

- This acre of English soil is now bequeathed in perpetuity

to the American people in memory

of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy,

who in death my people still mourn,

and whom in life they loved and admired.

♪ ♪

- Our nation is bereaved.

The whole world is poorer because of his loss,

but we can all be better Americans because

John Fitzgerald Kennedy has passed our way.

And now that he is relieved

of the almost superhuman burden we imposed on him,

may he rest in peace.

[sweeping orchestral music]

♪ ♪

- There is an appointed time for everything,

and a time for every affair under the heavens,

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot the plant,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance.

- "When he shall die,

"take him and cut him out in little stars,

"and he shall make the face of heaven so fine

"that all the world will be in love with night

and pay no worship to the garish sun."

"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

"but I have promises to keep

"and miles to go before I sleep

and miles to go before I sleep."

- It wasn’t supposed to end with bullets in Dallas,

and I think the last 60 years has been

America wishing they could rewrite that history.

[gentle music]

- The Eternal Flame is the promise

of what might have been,

which I think is probably the biggest part

of the Kennedy legacy.

Not necessarily what he accomplished

or what was accomplished in his name

or memory afterwards, but it’s--

it’s the loss of who we all were,

of a nation that might have looked very different in 1964

had those shots not been fired in Dealey Plaza.

♪ ♪

[melancholic piano music]

[cheering]

narrator: His was a story of victory and defeat,

of joy and despair,

of triumphs in judgment and missteps in action.

It was a story of maturation, personal challenges, mistakes,

recklessness, courage, and relentless ambition.

[applause]

- 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,

because that goal will serve to organize and measure

the best of our energies and skills,

because that challenge is one that we’re willing to accept,

one we are unwilling to postpone,

and one we intend to win and the others too.

- Of course, he didn’t live to see it,

but he did do it.

- Sequence start.

Six, five, four, three, two, one, zero.

All engine running.

Liftoff. We have a liftoff.

32 minutes past the hour.

Liftoff on Apollo 11.

[sweeping orchestral music]

- That’s one small step for man...

one giant leap for mankind.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

- We’re traveling along that river of history

from the past towards a future,

and the only way to have some idea

of where we’re going in that future

and how we can plot our little ships

is to understand where we’ve been,

where we’re coming from.

History is absolutely critical

for an understanding of who we are, where we are,

and where we’re going.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy is a unique character

in U.S. and world history.

- I saw the First World War,

at age 21 in 1963, as ancient history.

Today I look back on the Kennedy era

as something that is still present in my mind.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- It’s--it’s a testament

to how much John F. Kennedy inspired people

and motivated them and delighted them

that all these many, many, many, many, many years later,

we’re still talking about him and trying to figure out,

what was it about that guy?

What did he have? It’s very fascinating.

narrator: John F. Kennedy left the world

that day in November 1963, but his words still remain,

ingrained in the very fabric of our national conscience.

They echo through every room in the White House,

every chamber in the Capitol Building,

from Brookline to the Solomon Islands

and to Washington back home to Hyannis Port.

♪ ♪

- With a good conscience our only sure reward,

with history the final judge of our deeds,

let us go forth to lead the land we love,

asking his blessing and his help,

but knowing that here on Earth,

God’s work must truly be our own.

- That’s what I think of when I think of JFK’s legacy.

You know, that every man can make a difference

and everyone should try.

narrator: As we continue to grow and evolve as a nation,

his words are not diminished by time.

They remind us who we are,

where we came from, and what we can become.

Kennedy said, "There is no doubt

it is a difficult and dangerous adventure

and that sacrifice and self-discipline

will be needed ahead,

but the greatest danger

is that we sit back and do nothing."

"The cost of freedom is always high,

but we have always paid it."

♪ ♪