Speeches | Documents | Library Resources

The Candidate:

Launching what he called the "New Frontier," Massachusetts
Senator John F. Kennedy accepted the Democratic party's
nomination for president at the National Convention in Los Angeles,
July 15, 1960.

Kennedy/Nixon Debates

 As President:

JFK Inaugural Address, 1961

Civil Rights

JFK Library Speeches of President Kennedy

Commencement Address at American University Washington, D.C., June 10, 1963

Radio And Television Address to the American People on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty The White House, July 26, 1963

Remarks Prepared for Delivery at the Trade Mart in Dallas,
November 22, 1963

 Links to more JFK Speeches:

JFK Link
The American Experience: JFK

Documents

NSAM 55: JFK Assigns Paramilitary Ops to the Joint Chiefs after The Bay of Pigs JFK says the Military must oversee all paramilitary actions and operations.
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty download JFK's shining achievement.
NSAM 57: JFK Subordinates CIA to Defense in Covert Ops
NSAM 263: Kennedy Begins Troop Withdrawal from Vietnam
NSAM 273: President Johnson Commits the U.S. to the Vietnam War
The John F. Kennedy National Security Files: When John F. Kennedy died in 1963, he left an uncertain legacy in the area of foreign policy. Kennedy had taken office committed to pursuing the cold war more vigorously than had the Eisenhower administration. During his first year he launched a major military buildup, enlarged American foreign aid programs, and undertook new foreign policy commitments in various parts of the world. This Kennedy offensive dramatically worsened relations with the Soviet Union and helped bring about the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. In the aftermath of that frightening confrontation, Kennedy seemed to shift from the militant approach that had marked his first years in office and began taking the first steps toward what would later be called détente. It can never be known how far Kennedy might have gone in this direction had his presidency not been cut short by an assassin's bullet.

Candidate Kennedy on Exporting Values

JFK Inaugural Address, 1961 Part 1

JFK Inaugural Address, 1961 Part 2