On this day, 20th January 1961: John F Kennedy sworn in as US president; Was he US's best president?

[MenInG]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/20/newsid_2506000/2506929.stm

The Democrat John F Kennedy has been sworn in as the youngest ever elected president of the United States.

The 43-year-old Roman Catholic was inaugurated as the 35th president on a snow-covered Capitol Hill in Washington. He takes over from the oldest president in American history, General Dwight Eisenhower, who is bowing out aged 70.

The president's Republican rival, Richard Nixon, who came a close second in the race for the White House, also attended the inauguration ceremony.

Millions watched the swearing-in of the new president on television. He chose to wear formal dress, including a top hat, for the occasion.


Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country

President John F Kennedy

President Kennedy began his speech by addressing "my fellow citizens" - the term first used by President George Washington but rejected by later presidents in favour of the less formal "my fellow Americans".

His ten-minute address appealed to Americans to unite in the fight against the common enemy of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

For the people of the world struggling against the "bonds of misery", the president pledged, "our best efforts to help them help themselves".

He continued: "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."

He also appealed to the Soviet Union to begin a new quest for peace.

"Let both sides for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations," he said.

President Kennedy closed his speech with the words: "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

His words were greeted with rousing applause.

 

[Savak]

JFK is a bit over rated, what did he do exactly that qualified him to be America's best president?

 

[MenInG]

JFK is a bit over rated, what did he do exactly that qualified him to be America's best president?

His handling of the CUBA crisis?

 

[Savak]

His handling of the CUBA crisis?

Roosevelt led the US during the Great Depression and the Second World War.

 

[Robert]

He was an inspirational and charismatic leader. But not around long enough to have much impact, sadly.

I would say the best Presidents were Lincoln and FDR as both overcame great crises.

 

[Varun]

His handling of the CUBA crisis?

Also took steps to put man on the moon didn't he?

 

[Hitman]

Also took steps to put man on the moon didn't he?

He lit the fire under NASA's backside. And when he was assassinated, it was about NASA and America's pride for them to accomplish what JFK desired them to accomplish before 1970.

 

[Markhor]

I know he only had two years but what exactly did JFK achieve to be lauded as this great progressive martyr ? He ran to the right of Nixon on anti-Communism.

As horrible as this was, I'd consider RFK's assassination in 1968 a bigger blow to progressivism.

LBJ was a better President on the domestic front - he accomplished Civil Rights, Medicare and Medicaid. His foreign policy is obviously scarred by Vietnam but he's underrated as a President despite the raft of Great Society legislation he got passed.

 

[James]

Surely Lincoln would rank as the best and then it would be FDR. JFK is mid-table.

Trump meanwhile is currently competing for rock bottom with the likes of Andrew Johnson and Nixon.

 

[English August]

All US presidents are sworn-in on 20th Jan. Why pick only on JFK?

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Everybody knows which country was behind him
====

CIA had ‘ties with Oswald’ before JFK assassination: WaPo

THE Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) withheld information about its knowledge of Lee Harvey Oswald’s activities before the assassination of John F Kennedy in November 1963, and lied about a covert officer who monitored Oswald for months, newly released documents reveal.

According to The Washington Post, the documents confirm that George Joannides, a CIA officer in Miami, had financed and managed an anti-Castro Cuban student group that had direct contact with Oswald at least three months before Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas.

For decades, the CIA had denied any connection to the group, or knowledge of Oswald’s activities.

The agency told both the Warren Commission in 1964 and House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978 that the operative known as “Howard” didn’t exist. Joannides also served as a liaison to the latter committee.

But documents released on July 3 reveal Joannides had a fake DC driver’s license under the name “Howard Mark Gebler”.

“This confirms much of what the public already speculated: that the CIA was lying to the American people, and that there was a cover-up,” Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida), who chairs the task force, said in an email.

Luna’s House Oversight Committee task force pushed the CIA to search its archives after holding hearings on the assassination this spring.

Luna said she believes “there was a rogue element that operated within the CIA” that “knowingly engaged in a cover-up of the JFK assassination”.

“They did not like his foreign policy, and that’s why they justified turning a blind eye to his assassination and those involved,” she said.

Win for the CIA

Three months before JFK’s assassination, the CIA-backed group known as DRE (short for Student Revolutionary Directorate) confronted Oswald in New Orleans in August 1963, after he publicly promoted pro-Castro policies. The group then challenged him to a radio debate.

DRE records show a tape of that debate was sent to “Howard”.

Later, Oswald approached the group offering to help, possibly as a mole within his Fair Play for Cuba Committee, according to Jose Antonio Lanuza, a former DRE member.

Lanuza, now 86, recalled receiving a “ranting” two-page letter from Oswald offering his services. Lanuza filed it away.

“Lee Harvey Oswald was trying to get in the good graces of the CIA,” Lanuza said in an interview. “He said ‘I’ll do whatever’.”

But when the news hit that Oswald had been arrested three months later, Lanuza and Rocha called Howard. Lanuza said Howard told them to call the FBI and provide the letter, and then alert the media to Oswald’s pro-Cuba leanings. The FBI came and took Oswald’s letter with a promise to return it, Lanuza said, but never did.

Lanuza then phoned his contacts in the news media, who promptly added Oswald’s political leanings to their coverage. The Fair Play for Cuba Committee soon imploded from its association with Oswald, a massive victory for the CIA — and for Howard.

Stonewalling

Documents show the CIA gave Joannides a career commendation medal in 1981, partly for handling the Cuban group and for serving as liaison to the House assassinations committee, where researchers say he stonewalled their investigation.

Researchers have long accused Joannides, who died in 1990, of obstructing that committee’s investigation.

Staff members testified that they were making progress until Joannides was installed as their CIA contact, unaware that he was central to the events they were trying to uncover.

“The obstruction of our efforts by Joannides escalated over the summer [of 1978],” former committee staff member Dan Hardway testified in May. “It was clear that CIA had begun to carefully review files before delivering them to us for review.”

The documents, however, do not indicate CIA involvement in Kennedy’s assassination.

The Warren Commission concluded Oswald acted alone, while a 1976 House committee found a “probable conspiracy” but couldn’t identify other conspirators.

But Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a former CIA counter-intelligence officer, said the evidence suggests “this looks a hell of a lot like a CIA operation.”

He theorised rogue CIA officers created the conspiracy, unknown to the agency, and “the CIA covered it up not because they were involved, but because they were trying to hide the secrets of that period.”

Many CIA officers were angry with Kennedy after he withdrew support for the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and moved toward peace with the Soviet Union after the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, he said.

“The question is what was Joannides doing for the CIA monitoring Oswald?” he said. “His bona fides are being set up to be a lone gunman.”

J Barry Harrelson, a former CIA official who wrote a 1998 memo denying Howard’s existence, acknowledged his error after seeing the driver’s license documents.

“My memo was incorrect,” Harrelson said. “But this wasn’t deliberate.”

CIA had ‘ties with Oswald’ before JFK assassination: WaPo

Agency operative had contact with anti-Castro group that assassin also courted.

www.dawn.com

 

[oatmeal]

Has to be Lincoln and FDR. FDR brought the country out of the depression, started many major government programs that exist till today. He was elected 4 times, they had to bring in term limits to avoid that for any other president

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Has to be Lincoln and FDR. FDR brought the country out of the depression, started many major government programs that exist till today. He was elected 4 times, they had to bring in term limits to avoid that for any other president

Lincoln, FDR, Theodore Roosevelt