JFK

Newsweek's July 2 edition ran a series of articles on John Kennedy. So as not to let it slip lightly by, here are some memorable bits from them:

- He was known to refrain from the Soviet-bashing of his time. His inauguration speech extended an invitation to the enemy to join us in a new "quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all of humanity."

- "All war is stupid," he wrote home from his PT boat in the Pacific battleground of WWII. "There is nothing inevitable about us."

- "We're not going to plunge into an irresponsible action just because a fanatical fringe in this country puts so-called national pride above national reason."

- When Khrushchev got the news that JFK had been shot in Dallas in November 1963, he broke down an sobbed in the Kremlin, unable to perform his duties for days. Such was the level to which their mutually respectful quest for peace had grown.

- His famous "Peace Speech" humanized the enemy, basically pointing out that we're on the same team. "We all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."

- He felt that the most effective way to demonstrate America's strength was not to threaten its enemies, but rather to live up to the country's democratic ideals and "practice what it preaches about equal rights and social justice."

- No Catholic had ever been elected President. He stood before a rally of the Greater Houston Minsterial Association and said "I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me." So laid to rest were the misgivings that the Roman papacy might in some way rule America.