Original subtitles

- We stand today on the edge of a new frontier,

the frontier of the 1960s.

[dramatic music]

- Somebody once asked him,

why do you want to run for president?

And his answer, that's where the action is.

- What's notable is the lead that Kennedy takes

in insisting on a strong civil rights plank.

- Black people lined up behind Kennedy.

- The candidates need no introduction.

- It was neck and neck all night.

all: We want Kennedy! We want Kennedy!

We want Kennedy!

♪ ♪

- So now my wife and I prepare for a new administration

and for a new baby.

Thank you.

[cheers and applause]

- To lead us to a fruitful America,

from the state of Massachusetts,

John F. Kennedy.

- John F. Kennedy lived a life that would help define

an entire generation.

- Together we shall save our planet,

or together we shall perish in its flames.

- What was it about that guy?

- Looks, style, empathy.

He was incredibly charming.

- Intellectual and progressive.

- He was the future. He was next.

- President for just over 1,000 days,

Kennedy navigated events and crises

that changed the world.

- Kennedy is feeling the pressure

from the civil rights activists.

- This was a country on nuclear war footing.

♪ ♪

- This could be the last mistake

that anybody makes politically.

♪ ♪

- He changed us in the process of his own growth.

- We choose to go to the moon in this decade

and do the other things, not because they are easy,

but because they are hard.

♪ ♪

- 60 years after his assassination,

we are still fascinated by the triumphs and flaws

of the youngest president ever elected.

- I ask you to join us in all the tomorrows yet to come,

in building America, moving America,

taking this country of ours up and sending it into the '60s.

♪ ♪

- You, John Fitzgerald Kennedy,

do solemnly swear...

- I, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, do solemnly swear...

- That you will faithfully execute

the Office of President of the United States...

- That I will faithfully execute

the Office of President of the United States...

- So help you God. - So help me God.

[cheers and applause]

- On the frigid morning of January 20, 1961,

John F. Kennedy took the oath of office,

becoming the 35th president of the United States.

At 43 years old, he was the youngest man ever elected.

- He's very young and he doesn't fit the mold

and he's very glamorous.

He caught our imagination.

And he gives this terrific inaugural address.

- It's one of the great speeches in history.

- Fellow citizens, we observe today

not a victory of party,

but a celebration of freedom,

symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning,

signifying renewal, as well as change.

- So a lot of politicians use their inaugural address

to just almost list policies and check boxes.

And he didn't do that.

- Let the word go forth, from this time and place,

to friend and foe alike that the torch has been passed

to a new generation of Americans,

born in this century, tempered by war,

disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.

[cheers and applause]

- His words were amplified across the National Mall

and beamed to millions watching on their televisions.

- And so my fellow Americans, ask not

what your country can do for you.

Ask what you can do for your country.

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

- He's very optimistic in this address

in terms of what America can potentially be

and what it really should be.

- He had risked his life.

His brother had lost his life.

So he had great credibility giving a speech

in which he was asking Americans to sacrifice.

♪ ♪

- In the early 1960s, the United States

was experiencing a civil rights crisis

and a daunting Cold War with the Soviet Union.

♪ ♪

Outgoing President Eisenhower considered

the incoming president callow and unprepared.

On the day before the inauguration,

the two met at the White House.

Eisenhower warned Kennedy

about foreign policy challenges,

including the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia,

mounting tension in Cuba, and the ongoing struggle

between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

- I think he was scared.

How would Kennedy do confronting Soviet leaders?

And how would he do on the world stage,

given he was so young and inexperienced?

- [speaking Russian]

- There was a sense of threat, very much a sense of threat.

It is our freedom that's at stake.

If we don't stop the spreading of Communism,

other countries may fall like dominoes,

and we'll lose out in this global competition

for influence in the world and for military power.

- Eisenhower was dropping

an enormous geopolitical challenge

in the new president's lap.

- He was instantly overwhelmed by it,

the sheer number of concerns that were piled onto his plate.

And they were urgent issues.

There were crises mounting.

- He understood this was not just

any old moment in the march of time,

but a moment when the United States had

an unusually large capacity

to shape the international environment

and the course of humankind's history.

- But he had never been in charge of that much before.

So he had a lot to learn.

♪ ♪

- As Kennedy prepared for the challenges ahead,

he ensured he had allies in his corner.

He appointed his brother Bobby as attorney general

and filled his cabinet with mostly young men

who, like him, had both liberal

and conservative ideas.

Work began immediately in the White House.

On March 1, 1961, the new president created

a progressive program that he believed

would combat Communism

and promote democracy worldwide.

- I have today signed an executive order

providing for the establishment of a Peace Corps.

- The Peace Corps was charged with providing

socioeconomic support

to isolated developing parts of the world.

- That's a very noble, optimistic idea.

Following up on his message in the inaugural,

he's now taking that a step further and saying,

what can we do for the world?

- Members of the Peace Corps will work

in three different areas, first as teachers,

secondly as agriculturalists,

and third, they will work on health.

- Kennedy understood that global poverty was

not simply a humanitarian concern.

It was also a national security concern,

that these nations were either going to be vulnerable

to exploitation by Communists, or they were going

to collapse into a kind of disorder

that was going to ultimately require a response.

- We don't just fight the Cold War through weapons,

but we're going to fight the Cold War

by doing good overseas.

- I hope that from it will come renewed understanding

by people all over the world of a common desire for peace.

♪ ♪

- Despite a promising start to his presidency,

Kennedy would soon face an alarming matter in Cuba

that threatened to destabilize his political agenda.

[crowd shouting]

April 1961, just 90 miles off the Coast of Florida,

the island nation of Cuba was now run

by dictator Fidel Castro.

Castro had overthrown the old regime

in a daring revolution.

After he took power, Castro's regime began

a courtship with the Soviet Union.

His politics began to follow suit.

- He started with a lot of anti-American rhetoric.

And then he started jailing people

who had the temerity to speak up against him.

He started acting like a totalitarian.

♪ ♪

- I never understood why a leader of a country

can be as cruel and as bad.

- The relationship between the United States and Cuba

soon deteriorated.

- As Castro became

closer and closer to the Soviet Union,

they worried that Castro was a Communist.

And the idea of having a Soviet satellite

within 90 miles of the United States

was intolerable.

- The administration viewed Castro's actions

as a direct threat to American national security.

With the Cold War now in America's backyard,

the growing tensions with Cuba would need to be addressed.

[tense music]

- In early 1961, as Kennedy stepped

into the presidency, he was briefed

on the festering situation with Cuba

and the plan he would be inheriting.

Several months earlier,

the CIA under Eisenhower had created a plan

to overthrow the Castro regime.

- It wasn't about Cuba in and of itself.

It was about the fate of that region,

a region that we did not want to lose to the Communists.

- Starting in March 1960, the CIA had begun

to train Cuban exiles to conduct an invasion.

These exiles would ideally put up a fight

that would inspire the Cuban people to rise

and help topple Castro in a coup d'état,

replacing the dictatorship with a democratic government.

- I was 16 at the time.

Sometimes, people ask me, you know, how at that age,

you know, you make a decision to go into a fight.

It's not like an obligation or a duty.

I consider it a gift that somebody was offering me

training and armaments to go and fight

to liberate my country.

- So it was a very easy decision.

You know, we have to fight for the country.

And it didn't take too much time for me to realize that.

- Kennedy was unsure about authorizing

the complex invasion.

He was worried, if it became public,

that the Soviets would see the American intervention

in Cuba, their ally, as an official act of war.

- The CIA was telling him that Castro was

about to get a large shipment of arms

from the Soviet Union, including MiG fighter jets.

And once Castro got these, it would be

almost impossible to get rid of him.

So it was kind of now or never.

He felt compelled to go forward with it.

He knew it was a bad idea,

but he did not know how to undo it.

- On April 16, Kennedy reluctantly agreed

to the plan with one major exception.

If the operation foundered for the Cuban exiles,

the U.S. military would not intervene.

- We were moved from Guatemala.

That was where the training camps were.

We went to Nicaragua.

We arrived there in the afternoon

on the 16th of April.

We were going to win.

There was no doubt that that was going to happen.

♪ ♪

- On the morning of Monday, April 17,

the exiles had landed near the Bay of Pigs,

and the invasion had begun.

♪ ♪

- It was such a magnificent feeling.

We're here, and we're going to do it.

And a few minutes later, we hear this other airplane

shooting at us.

♪ ♪

- By Tuesday, April 18, the Cuban exiles were caught

between Castro's overwhelming forces

and the sea, with nowhere to go.

- These are 1,400 men.

Castro's army is 25,000.

The real story here is these desperate men

on the beach watching their chances go away

and back in the White House, Kennedy suffering mightily

with what to do about this.

- As the disaster was unfolding,

it soon became clear that CIA officials had

misled the president, secretly hoping

they could sway him to involve the U.S. military

when the situation became dire.

When the United States involvement in the invasion

became public knowledge, the Soviet Union warned him

against taking any further steps in Cuba.

- He feels terrible about what's happening.

But on the other hand, he doesn't want to start

World War III over it.

- Kennedy felt cornered by those

he thought he could trust.

Facing threats of nuclear war, Kennedy decided to back away,

refusing requests to send in the U.S. military

to save the Cuban exiles.

With that, the mission met its tragic end.

More than 1,000 U.S.-backed Cuban exiles

were captured by Castro's army and thrown into prisons

with deplorable conditions.

Over 100 members of the brigade perished.

♪ ♪

Kennedy fell into a state of despair.

His wife Jackie would later recall him

with his head in his hands,

weeping that evening in his bedroom.

- Whether he received the bad advice or not,

still, he's a president.

He took the action.

He took the decision,

and the result was a total disaster.

- He walked around the White House,

ashen-faced, saying,

how could I have been so stupid?

- The Bay of Pigs was a mistake,

and Kennedy knew it.

Meeting with him at Camp David,

Kennedy remarked to Eisenhower,

"No one knows how tough this job is

until after he's been in it for a few months."

"Mr. President," Eisenhower replied,

"if you'll forgive me,

I think I mentioned that to you three months ago."

- What's interesting about Kennedy is,

it becomes a learning experience.

Some presidents double down on mistakes.

But for him, this is instantly a lesson

about the limits of military advice.

- This administration intends to be candid about its errors.

For as a wise man once said,

an error doesn't become a mistake

until you refuse to correct it.

- The Bay of Pigs forged a lasting skepticism

in Kennedy of the CIA and military leaders.

He had to be careful who he trusted

and use the presidency to lead,

not be led by others who wished to influence him.

Kennedy was astonished when a new Gallup poll

following the failure announced

that 83% of the people in the country

were standing by their new president.

But not all Americans agreed that Kennedy was living up

to the expectations he set

during his presidential campaign.

- At the time that Kennedy came in,

quite a few Black people thought

that he represented change.

But as soon as he was elected,

all of the things that he said he was going to do,

none of it happened.

- African Americans are asking the federal government

to do its job, which is force states

to enforce the Constitution.

They're fighting for full-class,

first-class citizenship.

- In spring 1961,

the civil rights movement raged on.

Although Kennedy was slow

to move ahead with legislation,

soon, a situation in the South would demand his attention.

[dramatic music]

- On May 4, 1961, 13 civil rights activists,

including Congress of Racial Equality leader James Farmer

and future Representative John Lewis,

took a Greyhound bus from Washington, D.C.,

to the Deep South.

A provocative and historic campaign

was beginning that would be known as the Freedom Rides.

Their goal was to test a Supreme Court ruling

which banned racial discrimination

on Interstate highways.

- The goal was to sit Black and white constituents

on the bus and seated together throughout the entire bus,

not in segregated spaces, and then travel the South.

- The Freedom Riders traveled from city to city

in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,

Georgia, and Alabama.

As the trip went on and word of the Freedom Riders spread,

conditions became more dangerous.

The protesters were increasingly targeted

by white supremacists.

- Well, I know it was something we had to do.

It was always a possibility

of us losing our life or getting hurt.

♪ ♪

- They do run into some trouble in Virginia and South Carolina,

but nothing like what they found in Alabama.

- Dr. King said, "Look, the things I'm hearing

"from Alabama are really frightening.

"It may be suicidal to go on, frankly,

because the Klan is planning quite a welcome for you."

♪ ♪

- Dr. King was proven right.

Once in Alabama, the Riders were met with violence,

instigated by the Ku Klux Klan,

who were supported by white supremacist police forces.

[explosion]

A bus was firebombed in Anniston,

and riots followed in Birmingham and Montgomery.

The Freedom Riders looked to the new presidential

administration for support.

- We are asserting our rights as citizens,

and we expect that you will support

these kinds of campaigns.

Because we're not taking an aggressive action.

It's just riding the bus.

- Focused primarily on the escalating Cold War,

President Kennedy was irritated

by the situation in Alabama.

- You have Kennedy trying to walk this tightrope.

How do I manage the Cold War but also adhere

to the real dilemma that African Americans are facing?

He delegates down to the attorney general,

his brother, who actually is the liaison

between the civil rights movement

and the Kennedy administration.

- Attorney General Robert Kennedy

deployed 400 federal marshals to protect the Riders

and urged Alabama Governor John Patterson

to send in the Alabama National Guard.

♪ ♪

Once order was restored, Bobby issued a statement

calling for a cooling off period.

But the Freedom Riders did not abandon their cause

and continued on to Mississippi.

- With Bobby and John Kennedy, if you don't have

the Freedom Rides, they don't start moving to a position

where they are going to support

the civil rights movement.

Basically, the Freedom Rides forced them to choose.

You're either with us,

or you're with the white supremacists.

And we think that you'll choose

to uphold the Constitution and uphold civil rights.

And they were right.

♪ ♪

- While the Freedom Riders continued to fight for justice

domestically, Kennedy was locked

into an ongoing competition with the Soviet Union

for supremacy in space.

- Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin

had orbited Earth three times in his spacecraft the Vostok.

- Even though it was long expected that the Soviets

would beat the U.S. to this milestone

in sending the first person into space,

there was a shock to the system when it actually happened.

Kennedy's policymaking process,

when it comes into space, goes into total overdrive.

The nation that was ahead in space

seemed to be the nation that could

do anything technologically and therefore militarily.

♪ ♪

- Less than a month later, a breakthrough would advance

the space program like nothing before.

- The transfer trailer that brought astronaut Alan Shepard

to his rendezvous with history arrived at Launch Complex 5,

Cape Canaveral, at 5:00 on Friday morning,

the 5th of May.

Reporters and cameramen focused on America's

first manned spacecraft,

poised and ready for all the world to see.

♪ ♪

Liftoff.

And the great white rocket with its human cargo

rose higher, higher, higher.

♪ ♪

- In a scientific triumph, Alan Shepard became

the first American in space on May 5, 1961.

"What a beautiful view," Shepard remarked,

while looking at the world below.

- The dramatic achievements in space which occurred

in recent weeks should have made clear to us all

the impact of this adventure

on the minds of men everywhere.

I believe that this nation should commit itself

to achieving the goal before this decade is out

of landing a man on the moon

and returning him safely to the Earth.

No single space project in this period

will be more impressive to mankind or more important

for the long-range exploration of space,

and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.

- You need a president who has vision

and can set what appear to be unrealistic goals.

Sometimes they become realistic.

To me, that was Kennedy and the space program.

- Never one to rest on his laurels,

Kennedy knew this was only a momentary progression

in a much more crucial race.

Advances toward the stars could have

dire consequences on earth.

Rapidly evolving technology meant

that political differences could soon end

in total annihilation.

[dramatic music]

- By the summer of 1961, Kennedy had been in office

less than six months.

He had already endured the Bay of Pigs failure

and made great strides in the space race.

But now there was a new crisis escalating in Europe.

- Following World War II, Germany was divided

among the Allied forces.

By 1961, the U.S., Great Britain, and France

occupied West Germany, while the Soviet Union

occupied East Germany.

The capital, Berlin, though located

within the Soviet zone, was also split

into a Western side and a Communist Eastern side.

- Berlin is something that the United States

and the Soviet Union inherited from a much happier times,

from the times of the Second World War,

when they were allies, and there was a belief

that they could actually share the city.

But as World War II made way to the Cold War,

sharing became, really, an impossibility.

- East Germans began to flee Communism

by crossing into West Berlin, hoping to find an improved

quality of life, better job opportunities,

and the chance to continue onward to Western Europe.

- The Soviet Union's eastern empire was in trouble.

East Germany was hemorrhaging people

who were going to the west via Berlin.

And Khrushchev was very nervous

that East Germany, which was the jewel

of the Soviet crown, if you will,

in Eastern Europe, would fall away.

- The Soviet leader wanted the West out of West Berlin.

- For Kennedy, losing West Berlin

meant losing Europe as a whole to Soviet Communism.

It simply wasn't an option.

- Over time, Khrushchev's demands for West Berlin

became more threatening and more urgent.

A European summit was planned, giving Kennedy the opportunity

to meet Khrushchev face-to-face to discuss

the future of Berlin.

♪ ♪

He embarked on a week-long journey,

with stops in Paris, London, and Vienna

for the summit with Premier Khrushchev.

♪ ♪

Kennedy began his journey in France,

making a grand entrance in Paris on June 1, 1961.

♪ ♪

People lined the streets, screaming and cheering

as he and Jackie rode by.

- The coverage in the press was triumphant.

[applause]

♪ ♪

- Though the trip started out bright and celebratory

in France, it was about to take on

a far more serious tone.

♪ ♪

Kennedy was finally going to meet

face-to-face with Nikita Khrushchev.

♪ ♪

Vienna, June 4, 1961.

- Kennedy knew the world was watching,

and this conversation would determine

the future of the nation.

If an agreement could not be reached with the Soviet Union,

the ongoing tensions between the two superpowers

could reach a boiling point.

♪ ♪

Before their meeting, Kennedy and the Soviet premier

posed for a photo.

♪ ♪

The president was tense but eager to stand his ground.

- The idea that a young man who came from privilege

could possibly have the toughness to operate

on a global scale vis-à-vis Khrushchev

made Khrushchev laugh.

- Khrushchev was unyielding

in his demands for West Berlin.

- Kennedy knew the one thing he could not negotiate

was Berlin.

There was no price

the United States was willing to pay.

- Kennedy says, "We are not leaving West Berlin.

"And if you interrupt

"freedom of access to West Berlin,

"freedom of daily life in West Berlin,

that is grounds for war."

- With both Kennedy and Khrushchev

unwilling to relent, Kennedy warned the premier,

"Then, Mr. Chairman, it will be a cold winter."

[dramatic music]

- No advantage or concession was either gained or given.

No major decision was either planned or taken.

No spectacular progress was either achieved or pretended.

- Kennedy's meeting with Khrushchev in Vienna

ended without a clear resolution.

The administration had to calculate

their next steps carefully.

A wrong move could have catastrophic results.

Shortly after Kennedy's return,

his secretary found a slip of paper

on which he had written...

- "I know there is a God, and I see a storm coming.

If he has a place for me, I believe I am ready."

I mean, that's ominous.

So he's clearly coming back thinking

he's going to face a historic moment

for all the wrong reasons.

- Kennedy comes out of Vienna worried

because the Soviets are pushing on the one thing

that he can't negotiate.

He's thinking, if the Soviets are really

serious about this ultimatum, and I can't give in on this,

then we're headed towards war.

- Are the Soviets going to send in the troops

like they have before?

Are we going to have to respond?

Like, this could spiral out of control.

- Robert Kennedy thought there was a 1 in 5 chance

of nuclear war igniting

from the confrontation in Berlin.

President Kennedy encouraged the nation to prepare

by whatever means necessary.

- Now, in the thermonuclear age,

any misjudgment on either side

about the intentions of the other

could rain more devastation in several hours

than has been wrought in all the wars of human history.

♪ ♪

- That summer, numerous fallout shelters

were built around the country,

and new nuclear war public service announcements

were created.

In drills across the country, children were taught

to seek shelter underneath their desks

in case of an attack.

- In the event of an attack, the lives of those families

which are not hit in a nuclear blast and fire

can still be saved if they can be warned to take shelter

and if that shelter is available.

We owe that kind of insurance to our families.

- There were dog chains that kids had.

The reason they had it was to identify

the charred remains of kids

if there had been a nuclear war.

They watched a thing called Bert the Turtle,

which was a cartoon that played in schools,

which taught you duck and cover drills.

And he was a character like Bugs Bunny,

but it wasn't about comedy.

It was about how to prepare for nuclear war.

This was a country on nuclear war footing.

The idea we could get into a nuclear war

during the '60s was very real.

- These actions will require sacrifice on the part

of many of our citizens.

More will be required in the future.

They will require from all of us

courage and perseverance in the years to come.

- Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union

prepared for the worst,

increasing their defense spending

and building up their militaries.

♪ ♪

- On Saturday night, August 12,

suddenly the East Germans shut down the border in Berlin.

♪ ♪

- After weeks of escalation, on August 13,

Khrushchev laid out the foundation

of what would be the Berlin Wall,

a towering physical boundary dividing the city.

- Over 1,000 East Germans were fleeing from East Berlin

to West Berlin every day.

And finally, the Soviets agreed

to the East German government's request,

close down access to West Berlin.

And they did, building the Berlin Wall.

♪ ♪

- In building the wall, Khrushchev conceded

that for now, he wasn't going to overtake West Berlin.

The two sides were now divided,

effectively defusing tensions

between the U.S. and the Soviet Union

and ending the 1961 nuclear scare.

♪ ♪

But the Berlin Wall had devastating effects as well,

keeping many people trapped in Communist territory

and separating them from their friends and families.

- When Kennedy found out the next day,

he ultimately said to his advisors,

"You know, it's not nice,

but a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war."

♪ ♪

- Though conflict had been narrowly avoided,

things were far from over

between the United States and the Soviets.

One letter, one announcement, or one misstep

could lead to war, and Kennedy treaded lightly

in the political minefield.

- And we in this hall shall be remembered

either as part of the generation

that turned this planet into a flaming funeral pyre

or the generation that met its vow

to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.

[dramatic music]

- As the threat of war began to die down,

calm gradually returned to the Kennedy White House.

Everyone fell back into their daily routines,

including the Kennedy children:

the shy Caroline, almost four,

and John Jr., nicknamed John-John by a reporter,

who was almost one year old.

Whether playing with the family dogs,

running around the White House grounds,

or going to school,

Jackie made sure the children grew up

with a sense of relative normality and privacy.

♪ ♪

Though they seemed like the perfect family,

there were cracks in the romantic façade.

When Kennedy came into office in January 1961,

he continued his sexual escapades

under the nose of White House staff,

Secret Service agents, and Jackie herself.

- Well, Kennedy's many relationships and dalliances

and affairs with women, I think, in almost all cases,

were simply about the sex.

- Part of it was just this was a Washington

in the early 1960s where womanizing was common.

♪ ♪

- Franklin Roosevelt had an affair with Lucy Mercer.

Did Dwight Eisenhower have an affair with Kay Summers?

Yes, he did.

Did Bill Clinton? Yes, he did.

Lyndon Johnson boasted, "I've had more women

than John F. Kennedy ever did."

It isn't to justify that behavior.

But I think what historians have done is said,

yes, these are flawed people.

- It was reckless.

It's really extraordinary

that there wasn't somebody there

to put the brakes on him, to say, no, no,

you're in the White House now.

- Jackie responded by distracting herself,

regularly going on trips for days at a time.

Despite this, the two still maintained

an intimate relationship.

The Kennedy family member later described it

as a marriage of its time, saying, at the end of the day,

Jack came back to Jackie, and that was it.

♪ ♪

- In 1961, the world relations of this country

have become tangled and complex.

One of our former allies has become our adversary.

The names of cities changed overnight.

We increase our arms at a heavy cost,

primarily to make certain that we will never use them.

We must face up to the chance of war

if we are to maintain the peace.

- Kennedy certainly had a rocky first year.

There's no question.

- Of course it was tough.

And they didn't have many successes to report then.

But they were not discouraged.

They just thought, we have to do better.

We'll do more and do better.

- In the final days of 1961, Kennedy was informed

that reporters were considering writing a book

about his first year in the White House.

Kennedy responded, "Who would want to read

a book about disasters?"

♪ ♪

Throughout his first year, Kennedy had learned

the dangers of putting his trust in the wrong people.

- Bobby Kennedy, of course, became a real right-hand man

for John Kennedy.

- Joe Kennedy told the boys when they were growing up,

stick together.

When Jack became president and in the aftermath

of the Bay of Pigs, this stick together doctrine

became something that Jack lived.

He stuck together with Bobby.

And whenever he had a foreign policy challenge,

he most valued Bobby's advice.

- A year full of mistakes and lessons learned

came to a close.

As the civil rights movement called on Kennedy

to be more active and Cold War threats loomed

over Washington, Kennedy accepted the past

and kept his eyes on the horizon,

determined to lead his country to a better 1962.

- Let us go forth to lead the land we love,

asking His blessing and His help,

but knowing that here on Earth,

God's work must truly be our own.

♪ ♪

- I realized I could get killed out here

because of so many bullets are flying around.

- Kennedy's national security advisor knocks on his door

and says, "We've discovered missiles in Cuba."

- This country will do whatever must be done

to protect its own security.

- The first thing that I think about

when I think about the Cuban Missile Crisis is

how much worse the situation was

than the people at the time knew.

- Nuclear weapons had become exponentially more powerful.

These weren't city killers anymore.

♪ ♪

These were country killers.