Kennedy on Kennedy
Roger G. Kennedy, the Director Emeritus of the National Museum of American History,
Smithsonian Institution, is the author of the main commentary in our book on John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address.
(Though Roger shares a surname with JFK, the two are not related.) Roger has served under four presidents, including
working as Director of the National Park Service for President Clinton. He is also a seasoned observer and historian
of Washington and its presidents.
Roger’s commentary on Kennedy’s Inaugural Address goes beyond the words and penetrates deeply into the social and
political climate of the time, and the enduring legacy that JFK would leave, despite not living to complete his first term
as President. Here is an excerpt:
It is a masterpiece, the work of a man of first-rate intelligence, magnificently schooled, who had sought and received
the aid of other craftsmen of language. But it is not the sheer art of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s Inaugural Address that moves
us. Rather, it lives in our memories with our prayers, our favorite hymns and lines of poetry, because it is a summons we wish
to heed, calling us and calling Kennedy himself to service beyond convenience or convention.
We do not merely admire that address—we are inspired by it. Other presidents had spoken eloquently to us. Kennedy spoke for us,
and not only for those of us who were of his generation, though many of us feel a bond to him. He spoke for us all, of any age, as
Americans, sharing across generational lines a commitment to freedom. He gave us a sense that we Americans have a special national history
of sharing that commitment with all in the world who desire freedom. There have been bellicose and bullying perversions of that mission in
our heritage as well, but Kennedy’s invocation was to the generous spirit of those who created our nation, and those who have sustained it
with the aid of our better angels.
© 2009 Roger G. Kennedy. Excerpted from John F. Kennedy: The Making of His Inaugural Address, published by Levenger Press.
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