John F. Kennedy: Inaugural Address

Context

Although the country was not fighting an actual battle when Kennedy was elected, it was at war. The cold war was a direct result of World War II and a major concern to the incoming president. Soon after the end of the war in Europe, the enemy became the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and Kennedy predicted that the United States could be at war with the Soviets within fifteen years. His forewarnings about the growing power of the Soviet Union proved true, and by 1960 the Soviet Union had extended its influence in Asia and Europe. In his speech of January 2, 1960, announcing his candidacy for president, Kennedy said, “I have developed an image of America as fulfilling a noble and historical role as the defender of freedom in a time of maximum peril” (qtd. in Clarke, p. 35).

Indeed, relations with the Soviet Union were not cordial, as evidenced by various unpleasant encounters during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower with the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. When the Soviets captured an American U-2 surveillance plane flying over Soviet territory on a spy mission in May 1960, trust between the two countries was destroyed. In September 1960, at the United Nations, Khrushchev's aggressive attitude toward the United States took the form of his removing a shoe and pounding it on the table to make his point. Khrushchev saw the United States as a declining power. Two weeks before Kennedy's inauguration, Khrushchev proclaimed the imminent triumph of Communism through the Soviet support of “national liberation wars” in third-world countries (qtd. in Clarke, p. 33).

Kennedy had no illusions about America's need and ability to engage in world problems, such as those in Laos, Vietnam, and the Congo. In Laos, a Communist-backed insurgency was fighting the U.S.-backed regime; in South Vietnam, the Viet Cong had the U.S.-supported government on the defensive; and in Africa, in the newly independent Congo, Soviet supporters were moving into positions of power. The Communist regime in Cuba was also a threat.

Another concern that grew directly out of World War II was the use of nuclear weapons. In 1945, after the atomic bombs dropped on Japan by the United States ended the war in the Pacific, Kennedy stated, “Humanity cannot afford another war” (qtd. in Silvestri, p. 3). The Soviets, in fact, not only had nuclear weapons but also were winning the space race. The Soviet launch of the first man-made satellite, Sputnik I, on October 4, 1957, and other developments indicated that the United States was no longer first in the world in armaments, in science, or in technology. Kennedy stressed in his campaign that the United States needed to recommit to a strong sense of national purpose. President Eisenhower, however, continually denied that the United States was falling behind the Soviet Union.

As far as civil rights were concerned, the government seemed oblivious to the developing movement, but the increasing numbers of sit-in, stand-ins, and other activist activities could not be ignored. Consequently, Kennedy, on August 2, 1960, formed a committee to work on the civil rights section of his campaign, not to secure the votes of African Americans for the election but to focus on the civil rights of all people. During the campaign Kennedy repeatedly stated that if he were elected, he would use presidential power to promote equality for African Americans and support the strong civil rights position in the Democratic Party's 1960 platform. When Martin Luther King, Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was jailed in Atlanta, Georgia, for an alleged minor traffic infraction (he was actually trying to integrate a department store) in October 1960, Kennedy called King's wife, Coretta Scott King, offering help in securing her husband's safe release. After Robert Kennedy successfully pressured the judge for the case to release King, Kennedy's presidency was endorsed by King's father. As a result, the African American vote went solidly for Kennedy (at over 70 percent), providing a winning edge in several key states.