2013 Winter Newsletter

HHHHHHH LEGACY JOHN F. KENNEDY LIBRARY FOUNDATION Winter | 2013 Freedom 7 Splashes Down at JFK Presidential Library and Museum “I believe 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.” – President Kennedy, May 25, 1961 he John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Joined on September 12 by three students from Pinkerton opened a special new installation featuring Freedom 7, Academy, the alma mater of astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., Tthe iconic space capsule that U.S. Navy Commander Kennedy Library Director Tom Putnam unveiled Freedom 7, Alan B. Shepard Jr. piloted on the first American-manned stating, “In bringing the Freedom 7 space capsule to our spaceflight. Celebrating American ingenuity and determination, Museum, the Kennedy Library hopes to inspire a new the new exhibit opened on September 12, the 50th anniversary generation of Americans to use science and technology of President Kennedy’s speech at Rice University, where he so for the betterment of our humankind.” eloquently championed America’s manned space efforts: Freedom 7 had been on display at the U.S. Naval “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the Academy in Annapolis, MD since 1998, on loan from the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. At the request of hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure Caroline Kennedy, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is the U.S. Naval Academy, and the National Air and Space one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to Museum welcomed the idea of celebrating U.S. Navy postpone, and one which we intend to win.” veteran John F. Kennedy’s role in America’s space effort s P12 NASA RICK FRIEDMAN Alan Shepard is rescued after Freedom 7 splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean. Freedom 7 “splashes down” at the JFK Library on August 29, 2012. A Time for Greatness AS WE ENTER THE FINAL YEAR OF OUR CELEBRATION marking the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy administration, I continue to be struck by the community of people who we are fortunate to call friends. From the luminaries who speak at our forums, to the many individuals, corporations, and organizations that provide vital funding for our work, and the thousands TOM FITZSIMMONS of visitors and students who grace our halls, our Kennedy Library Director Tom Putnam, Profile in Courage Award Committee member and former friends breathe new energy into this institution Director-Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and and help us to fulfill Jacqueline Kennedy’s vision Education Fund, Elaine Jones, and Kennedy Library of the Library as a living memorial to the President. Foundation Executive Director Tom McNaught. In reflecting on these friendships, it occurs to me that what binds us together is a deep appre- an opportunity to step back and bear witness ciation of the history we chronicle here and a to the torch being passed to a new generation. shared value of the timeless political ideals that In the fall, we saw the installation of the Kennedy championed. This past spring, historian WHAt’S INSIDE Freedom 7 space capsule, which in 1961 launched Alan Brinkley came to the Library to discuss his the first American into space and now, in our biography, John F. Kennedy: The 35th President, 50th Anniversary museum, beckons young visitors to dream big. 1961–1963. Brinkley sums up how so many of us of the Cuban We partnered with the Museum of Fine Arts, P4 feel about the man and his legacy: Missile Crisis Boston to bring Picasso’s masterpiece, The Rape “Kennedy reminds many Americans of an age of the Sabine Women to the Library, paying homage when it was possible to believe that politics could to President and Mrs. Kennedy’s appreciation of be harnessed to America’s highest aspirations, that the arts. And we marked the 50th anniversary of it could be rooted in a sense of national community, 2012 Profile in the Cuban Missile Crisis—President Kennedy’s that it could speak the country’s moral yearnings. Courage Award P6 defining moment of international diplomacy—with Recipients And perhaps most of all, Kennedy reminds Americans the publication of Listening In: The Secret White of a time … when it was possible to believe that House Recordings of John F. Kennedy, the opening the United States could solve social problems and of To the Brink, a blockbuster exhibit at the accomplish great deeds.” National Archives in Washington D.C., and a As you’ll read in this edition of Legacy, the past Kennedy Library host of online experiences that brought those several months at the Kennedy Library were packed Foundation P15 thirteen days to life for today’s students. at the DNC with robust programming and initiatives—each During his campaign, John F. Kennedy vowed paying tribute to the optimism, vitality, and purpose that his administration would be “a time for that defined President Kennedy’s time in office. greatness.” I believe that he fulfilled that promise Spring 2012 brought the annual Profile in in the final year of his presidency, when he led Courage Award and four honorees who all insisted the country in making unprecedented progress that they were just doing their jobs. But as you read toward world peace and civil rights for all. Now, about the three Iowa Supreme Court Justices who fifty years later, the Kennedy Library will once struck down a law banning same-sex marriage, and again look to our community of friends to help us Robert Ford, the U.S. Ambassador to Syria, I think remember these pivotal moments in our nation’s you’ll agree that for public officials, just doing their history that continue to serve as inspiration for job often demands a special kind of courage. greatness in our own time. This summer our New Frontier Network, a group of young leaders and philanthropists, made We thank you for your support. their mark at the Democratic National Convention by hosting “Changing Political Demographics,” Tom McNaught a forum that stimulated provocative conversation Executive Director about the politics of change. For me, the event was John F. Kennedy Library Foundation 2 Listening In—The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy n July 1962, President John F. Listening In delivers the story Kennedy installed hidden recording behind the story in the unguarded Isystems in the Oval Office and words and voices of the decision- the Cabinet Room in an effort to pre- makers themselves, and covers serve an accurate record of presidential watershed moments of the Kennedy decision-making in a highly charged White House, including the Cuban atmosphere of conflicting viewpoints, Missile Crisis, the space race, strategies, and tactics. The result is a Vietnam, and civil rights. priceless historical archive comprising A softer side of the President can some 265 hours of taped material. also be heard in various parts of the In conjunction with the 50th recordings as Caroline and John Jr. anniversary of the Kennedy presi- visit their father in the Oval Office. dency, Caroline Kennedy, the John In her foreword to the book, F. Kennedy Presidential Library, and Caroline Kennedy reflected on her presidential historian Ted Widmer own memories of the White House, carefully selected the most compelling and what looking back on these tapes and important of these remarkable meant to her: secret recordings for release in Listening “For me, listening to these In: The Secret White House Recordings conversations is a powerful of John F. Kennedy. Fully restored HYPERION experience. Although at the time, and remastered, two 75-minute CDs of I was too young to understand much President Kennedy’s secret recordings accompany the of what was happening, I recall spending happy afternoons extensively annotated transcripts of the recordings. Listening eating candy and making paper-clip necklaces under my In is a uniquely unscripted, insider account of a president father’s desk while men talked in serious voices. The delight and his cabinet grappling with the day-to-day business of in my father’s voice when my brother and I appear is the White House and guiding the nation through a hazardous something I treasure.” era of uncertainty. In addition to the book and the audio-CD version of the book, Hyperion released a special enhanced eBook, which “I recall spending happy afternoons eating candy includes more than twenty-five minutes of video, ranging and making paper-clip necklaces under my father’s from archival footage of President Kennedy and President Bill Clinton to new interviews with Caroline Kennedy, desk while men talked in serious voices. The Congressman John Lewis, delight in my father’s voice when my brother and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and historian Alan I appear is something I treasure.” Brinkley, speaking about – Caroline Kennedy, in foreword of Listening In President Kennedy’s legacy. To mark the release of Listening In, the Kennedy Library TOM FITZSIMMONS hosted a forum on October 4 with Caroline Kennedy, Widmer, Caroline Kennedy introduces a forum Tom Putnam, Director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential on Listening In. Library, and political scholar Ellen Fitzpatrick, who discussed the most significant tapes of the Kennedy Presidency. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tom Oliphant moderated. www.jfklibrary.org 3 New Exhibit Takes Visitors Inside Cuban Missile Crisis Deliberations his fall the National Archives and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum collaborated to Tpresent a major new exhibit, To the Brink: JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis, commemorating the 50th anniversary of what many consider to be the greatest test of John F.

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