A blast from the past: JFK’s Inaugural Address

I recently started watching The Kennedys mini-TV series.

The story of JFK is a story of bravery and controversy with a sad ending. A story still talked about, and debated heavily today.

As you know, and as I have stated before, I truly believe PR and communications professionals need to know a little bit about everything in this world, from politics, to history, to celebrity news, to fashion. Being cultured and knowledgable about everything helps us advize our clients in a variety of situations. Like telling our client that his/her non-news story may not get published on the same day Prince William and Kate got married. Or letting your client know that having an event on a Wednesday afternoon around 2 p.m. doesn’t work if you want to invite politicians (because of question period).

Therefore, my friends, today you shall get a history and politics lesson. Your homework is to listen to, what I think, is one of the best inaugural speeches in the Unites States History. On January 20th, 1961, John F. Kennedy addressed the nation and took his pledge to be the best president he could be. Unfortunately, the world was not ready for JFK and his strong opinions to do things differently in the White House were not welcomed. JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963.

Enjoy the video, and take a moment to learn a little bit about some of the big moments in JFK’s history, like the bay of pigs and the Cuban missile crisis.

Leave a Reply