John F. Kennedy – Sharing History

The House Select Committee on Assassinations

March 29, 2024April 2, 2024Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On March 29, 1979 the House Select Committee on Assassinations released a report that compounded years of research on the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The committee, which performed its research from 1976-1979, released a report of their findings, which included their belief that federal intelligence agencies did not perform adequate investigations into the possibility of conspiracy in the assassination plots of the two American leaders.

In September 1976, the U.S. House of Representatives formed a committee to investigate the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy (Dallas, 1963) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Memphis, 1968). The House of Representatives believed they had cause to open such an investigation given their responsibility to respond to their constituents’ concerns about how government intelligence agencies performed during the investigations. According to a Gallup Poll taken at the time, 80% of Americans believed that President Kennedy’s assassination had been a conspiracy, and 60% believed that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination had been a conspiracy despite reports from the government indicating otherwise. Conspiracy theories had begun to take root among the American public, and the nation’s representatives felt it was wise to put the issue to rest.

As the committee began their research, they identified four issues to be investigated in particular: “First, who was or were the assassin(s) of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Second, did the assassin(s) have any aid or assistance either before or after the assassination(s). Third, did the agencies and departments of the U.S. Government adequately perform their duties and functions in (a) collecting and sharing information prior to the assassination; (b) protecting John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. and (c) conducting investigations into each assassination and coordinating the results of those investigations? Fourth, given the evidence the committee uncovered, are the amendment of existing legislation or the enactment of new legislation appropriate?”

The report, released in March 1979, found that, in the case of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, there was acoustic evidence that there was a second shooter (this evidence has since been debunked). The committee felt that this evidence pointed to the possibility of a conspiracy that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) failed to adequately look into. The report also said that the committee did not believe that the Soviet or Cuban governments, the anti-Castro Cuban groups, the organized crime syndicate, or the various U.S. intelligence groups were involved in the assassination plot. In the case of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the committee reported that they believed there was a possibility of conspiracy. They believed that the FBI, in the process of their own investigation of King, “grossly abused and exceeded its legal authority and failed to consider the possibility that actions threatening bodily harm to Dr. King might be encouraged by the program.” They also reported that they felt the FBI failed to adequately investigate the possibility of a conspiracy. The report ended by recommending that the Department of Justice review the committee’s findings and decide whether to further investigate the claims. Both cases have been reopened and investigated at various times over the ensuing 45 years; however, no concrete evidence of larger conspiracies have surfaced.

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The Peace Corps: Kennedy’s Legacy of Service

March 1, 2024May 7, 20241960s, 20th Century, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order that established the Peace Corps, an organization of volunteers that work in countries around the world addressing agricultural, economic, environmental, educational, and medical problems. Presented as an idea to university students in an impromptu speech, Kennedy formed the organization that would send over 240,000 Americans around the world as harbingers of peace and cooperation.

About six months before its official establishment, during his campaign for the presidency, then-Senator John F. Kennedy visited the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He arrived late, at 2 a.m., but with 10,000 students waiting to greet him, Kennedy gave a short, improvised speech on the steps of the Michigan Union. In it he said:

How many of you who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world? On your willingness to do that, not merely to serve one year or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend on the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can! And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the efforts must be far greater than we have ever made in the past.”

In March of the next year, after winning the election and becoming president, Kennedy signed Executive Order 10924 and established the peace corps, asking his brother-in-law, R. Sargent Shriver to be its first director. The first group of Peace Corps volunteers left in August 1961, headed to Ghana and Tanganyika (presently Tasmania) to provide service. The service was very popular among recent college graduates, and the program grew to 15,500 volunteers by 1966. Since then, over, 240,000 volunteers have served in 141 countries around the world. Today, around 2,400 volunteers are serving with the Peace Corps.

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January 20

February 6, 2024February 5, 2024Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On February 6, 1933, the 20^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed. The amendment set the date of any Presidential Inauguration to January 20. Previously, new presidents were sworn in on March 4. The amendment is commonly referred to as the “Lame Duck Amendment” because it shortened the time a “lame duck” president (or one who had already lost reelection) would continue serving in office. It reads, “The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20^th day of January,” and that has held until today. The only time the inauguration was moved was in 1957, 1985, and 2013, when January 20 fell on a Sunday. In those cases, the oath of office was administered on January 20, and the inauguration ceremony took place on the 21^st.

During the January 20^th inauguration ceremony, the new president addresses the nation for the first time. Below are listed some famous quotes from presidential inaugurations. Do you recognize any of them?

“This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

“We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

President Abraham Lincoln

“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 to assure the survival and the success of Liberty. This much we pledge and more.”

President John F. Kennedy

“There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”

President Bill Clinton

“Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those that prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things—some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor—who have carried us up the long rugged path toward prosperity and freedom.”

President Barack Obama

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