Op-ed: Remembering JFK

From National Review Online:

There is good reason why so many Americans remember our 35th president, John F. Kennedy, so fondly.

Throughout his life, as a young man in college, war hero, U.S. representative, senator, Pulitzer Prize–winning author, and president, Kennedy fully embraced the American spirit and called on us to do the same.

It’s fitting that his first words to the nation, in his inaugural address as president, were “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” Today, on the 50th anniversary of his untimely death, let’s reflect on all he did.

In 1940, the year young Kennedy graduated from college, the nation was in the throes of World War II. He could have done anything, but he wanted nothing more than to fight for his country, ultimately earning the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for acts of heroism and, owing to related injuries, the Purple Heart.

As a U.S. senator he won the Pulitzer Prize for his book, Profiles in Courage, that celebrated the service of eight U.S. senators — one of them, a personal hero of mine, former U.S. senator Sam Houston.

One particularly inspiring passage from the book reads, “In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience — the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men — each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient — they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.”

Without a doubt, Kennedy supplied his own courage.

When he came to office in 1961, the reality of the Cold War was just coming into focus as Communist threats from the Soviet Union, Vietnam, and Cuba loomed large.

He put the world on notice the moment he took office that, as president, he would never sacrifice our freedoms.

In his inaugural address he said: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

He also recognized that a strong will alone would not protect America — a strong economy was needed as well. “America’s rise to world leadership in the century since the Civil War has reflected more than anything else our unprecedented economic growth,” he told the Economic Club of New York in 1962, in a speech that made the case for aggressive tax cuts which he later achieved.

“For on the strength of our free economy rests the hope of all free nations. We shall not fail that hope — for free men and free nations must prosper and they must prevail,” he said.

Although the country was war fatigued from WWII and Korea, President Kennedy recognized the menacing threat of Communism and refused to accommodate the Soviets.

He took a momentous stand for freedom on the world stage, traveling to Germany to visit the newly constructed Berlin Wall. There, he declared solidarity with the German people saying, “Ich bin ein Berliner” — “I am a Berliner.”

That wall did not come down until another American president went to Berlin and, echoing JFK’s clarity and purpose, challenged the Soviets to “tear down this wall.”

In that speech, President Reagan said, “When President Kennedy spoke at the City Hall those 24 years ago, freedom was encircled, Berlin was under siege. And today, despite all the pressures upon this city, Berlin stands secure in its liberty. And freedom itself is transforming the globe.”

Winning the Cold War may have been Ronald Reagan’s crowning achievement, but John Kennedy laid the foundation for the victory.

President Kennedy innately understood the importance of maintaining our status as world leader, an understanding perhaps best expressed in his advocacy for a national space program.

He went to Congress in 1961 to ask members to support a five-year program to “achieve the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.”

It is a tragedy that he did not live to see the realization of that dream when a man landed on the moon, just as he wished, before the decade was out, in 1969.

While Kennedy was fighting to protect American sovereignty from outside influence, he was fighting the evil sin of racism at home.

Resolutely, he sent marshals to quell riots in Mississippi and Alabama, signed an executive order to secure fair housing rights, and helped secure the release of Martin Luther King from the Birmingham jail, where he wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

In an address to the nation he demanded support for civil rights noting that, “One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the saves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free.”

President Kennedy understood that the essence of freedom and equality transcended politics. As he said, “The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.”

We would do well to reflect on the wisdom of those words today.

As Americans, we have a God-given right to freedom that should be defended at every turn. JFK understood that, as we all should now.

Although he was only president for a mere 1,000 days, his memory lives vividly in many of our minds 50 years later.

But there is now a generation of Americans who never lived during the Kennedy era.

The nostalgia so many of us feel for that time, when our nation was united in the defense of liberty and promise of America, should be celebrated.

Honor President Kennedy by sharing those memories today.