John F. Kennedy: Inaugural Address

Impact

The immediate impact of the speech was applause; Kennedy was interrupted by such appreciation fourteen times during his delivery. Another result of the speech was tears from many of those attending. The event was also a graphic signaling of the change that the election ushered in, as Kennedy, standing in freezing weather without a topcoat, with his tanned face and his youth, symbolized a new generation of Americans.

Both Democrats and Republicans praised the speech, and many of those who had not voted for Kennedy changed their opinion of him following the address. In fact, shortly after the inauguration, a poll showed his approval rating at 72 percent. Newspapers praised the speech, particularly his “olive branch” approach to engaging with the Soviet Union. After hearing the speech, Nikita Khrushchev sent Kennedy a conciliatory telegram, setting the tone for a series of positive steps in working cooperatively toward a number of issues. By the time of his death, Kennedy had achieve detente with the Soviet Union and had negotiated the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Through the speech, Kennedy conveyed a sense of hope and purpose that made an impression on the public, particularly on the young. With its stress on American involvement in bettering the world, it was a literal call to action, and soon after, through Executive Order 10924, Kennedy would direct the creation of the Peace Corps. Kennedy had originally suggested such an organization on October 14, 1960, at a speech at the University of Michigan. The first Peace Corps class numbered five hundred. By Kennedy's death, the number of volunteers had grown to nine hundred. As early as 1965, Peace Corps volunteers numbered some twelve thousand, and twenty-three other countries had developed their own peace corps. A future member of President Bill Clinton's cabinet, Donna Shalala, credited Kennedy's Inaugural Address with inspiring her to pursue a career in public service.

Millions of people across the world heard the address, either in English or translated into their own languages. For many of these people, Kennedy became a legend, and bridges, schools, and roads were named for him. The words with which he announced to every nation the commitment “to assure the survival and the success of liberty” are inscribed on a plaque in Runnymede, England, the site of the signing of the Magna Carta.

As Arthur Schlesinger stated in A Thousand Days (1965), his memoir of the Kennedy administration, “The energies Kennedy released, the purposes he inspired, the goals he established would guide the land he loved for years to come” (qtd. in Clarke, p. 7). The sense of idealism extolled by Kennedy in his opening address as president of the United States—of what was possible for individuals to accomplish in attempting to bring freedom from tyranny and from want to others—created an atmosphere of hope for millions of Americans of that generation and for generations to come.