JFK Library and Museum - John F. Kennedy Speeches

Before an estimated crowd of 10,000 people, President Kennedy made clear the need for a nation to represent itself not only through its strength but also through its art.

JFK appeared on television to inform Americans of the recent Soviet military buildup in Cuba including the ongoing installation of offensive nuclear missiles, and informed the people of the US of the "quarantine" placed around Cuba by the Navy.

President Kennedy delivered a speech describing his goals for the nation’s space effort before a crowd of 35,000 people in the football stadium at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

In a television address announcing the nuclear test ban agreement, Kennedy claimed that a limited test ban “is safer by far for the United States than an unlimited nuclear arms race.”

At an Independence Day celebration in historic Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 4, 1962, President Kennedy delivered an address on the importance of the Declaration of Independence to contemporary Americans.

Full of references to Irishmen who fought in the American War of Independence, President Kennedy championed the important role of small nations in the pursuit of world peace.

President Kennedy appeared on the podium after having made a visit to Checkpoint Charlie at the Berlin Wall. JFK told the cheering crown that the rest of the world was with them, and that "We are all Berliners."

President Kennedy made the decision to give a televised evening speech announcing his civil rights bill proposal. Thought he delivered part of the talk extemporaneously, it was one of his best speeches--a heartfelt appeal in behalf of a moral cause.

On June 11, 1962, President Kennedy received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Yale University. Using his speech as a platform, JFK used the opportunity to focus on the state of America’s economy.

President Kennedy called on the Soviet Union to work with the United States to achieve a nuclear test ban treaty and help reduce the considerable international tensions and the specter of nuclear war at that time.

President Kennedy added his weight to the federal government’s preparation for the impending clash with the state of Alabama over the integration of the University of Alabama.

President John F. Kennedy arrived at Boeing Airport in Seattle, Washington on November 16, 1961 to deliver a major foreign policy speech at the University of Washington Centennial Convocation.

President Kennedy stood before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, endorsing a complete and general disarmament, and challenging the Soviet Union to a “peace race.”

On January 20, 1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy took the oath of office from Chief Justice Earl Warren to become the 35th President of the United States. At age 43, he was the youngest man to be elected to the office of President.

President Kennedy returned to his home state of Massachusetts to appear before the state legislature to make his final formal public address before assuming the office of the President.

After coming under attack for his Catholic faith, presidential hopeful John F. Kennedy decided to try and defeat the issue by meeting it head-on before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in Houston, Texas.

Senator John F. Kennedy appeared before a crowd of eighty thousand people in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to deliver his formal acceptance of the Democratic party’s nomination for President of the United States.

In 1957, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy was invited by New York’s WQXR Radio to read the Declaration of Independence for a broadcast on July 4 to accompany the New York Times’ printing on that same day of a full page facsimile of the Declaration.