JFK: Seven Days That Made a President (2013) - full transcript

♪ ♪

Narrator: John Fitzgerald Kennedy,

the 35th President of the United States.

For millions of Americans,
he is the greatest President ever.

-Man: If there was such a thing
as a rock star President,

he was idolized by the people.

-Ask not what your country can do for you.

Ask what you can do for your country.

-Man 2: He made politics
an honorable profession.

But behind the conviction
and the charisma,

JFK was a man of contradictions.



-Jack Kennedy was a noble statesman,
but he had a dark side.

A wise and cautious leader who, behind
the scenes, lived life on the edge.

-He was as reckless a President in his
personal life as America has ever had.

A picture of health and vigor hiding
a private struggle from the world.

-The best-kept secret in modern politics

was probably John Kennedy's
health problems.

Yet he was a man of great vision
who inspires to this day.

-Jesse Jackson: He is a major force
in American history,

as an iconic figure for
justice and hope and change.

These are the days
that tested and defined him.

There are seven critical days that shaped
the man and created the legend.

Moments of crisis,
times when he had to stand up

and decide his own future
and the future of the nation.

In his teens, on the brink of death,
he must fight to survive.



As a captain in World War II,

he must choose whether
to put his life on the line for his men.

As a young Presidential contender,

will he defeat a formidable
political fighter on live TV

in front of the nation?

As President, how far
will he dare to go

in publicly revealing his
appetite for glamour and women?

With the world on the brink
of nuclear war,

JFK must choose whether to trust
the military or his own judgment.

He has to decide
between politics and principle

and must make up his mind

whether to gamble his presidency
to support the Civil Rights Movement.

It was a life cut tragically short
on one last fateful day in Dallas.

[siren blaring]

[gunshot]

Age 16, John Kennedy is a pupil
at an elite private school.

Known by his friends
and family as "Jack,"

he is rebellious, but well liked.

-Jack Kennedy was
always a troublemaker.

But people found him inspiring
because he was adventurous,

and he was always looking for fun.

-He's the boy who can charm
the birds out of the trees.

He's the charismatic boy, he's the boy
with the great sense of humor.

But Jack was also plagued by illness.

One day he's in the school infirmary
for what seems like a dose of flu.

♪ ♪

-Doctor, doctor!

-He seemed to have
some mysterious illness.

His condition becomes so serious,
he's rushed to a nearby hospital.

Analysis of Jack's blood raises
more questions than answers.

-The doctors could not get to the bottom
of what was causing this illness.

All they can say is "We
think it is a blood illness.

It could be a blood infection
of some sort."

They think he may have leukemia,
which of course is a blood cancer.

Alarmed, the doctors fear
Jack Kennedy is on the brink of death.

They decide to contact Jack's parents.

-Joe Kennedy's told
by the doctors that this is serious.

"In fact, your son may not survive."

-JFK's father was told that his chances
of living were perhaps 5 in 100.

It's looking likely that Jack Kennedy
is going to die.

In a state of shock, the school holds
a church service to pray for him.

Despite Jack's condition,

his mother and father
make no effort to travel to his bedside.

-His parents are not there.

They're there in spirit so to speak,
but physically, they're not there.

They have all these other obligations.

Born into one of
America's wealthiest families,

Jack's upbringing was very pressurized.

His father, Joe Kennedy,
was a ruthlessly ambitious businessman.

-His father was a really
dominating character,

very powerful and very
demanding of his children.

Determined that all his
children should succeed.

Jack's mother Rose
busy raising nine children,

had little sympathy for illness.

-Rose Kennedy says in her diary,

"Why does anyone have an illness?"

And just push it aside, and that's the way
she dealt with the children.

Suffering from many medical problems,

Jack was used to struggling
through his illnesses alone,

but he'd never come so close to death.

As the night of February 4th draws on,
Jack is in a grave condition,

but he's a fighter.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

-There was this sort of will to survive
right from the very beginning.

-Hey, how you doing?

To the surprise of his doctors,

Jack Kennedy defies
everyone's worst fears.

-You look so much better.

-Once he was stabilized,
he did, thank goodness,

recover with still no final diagnosis
of what had caused this serious illness.

To this day, no one knows what nearly
killed 16-year-old Jack Kennedy.

He would spend the next
two months recovering.

Jack refuses to feel sorry for himself,
and his letters are full of humor.

To a school friend he writes,

"It seems that I was much
sicker than I thought,

and I'm supposed to be dead.

So I am developing a limp
and a hollow cough."

Jack's resilience was crucial to surviving
in a fiercely ambitious family

who had little sympathy
for any sign of weakness.

-The Kennedy family was endlessly,
ruthlessly competitive all the time.

Touch football, swimming, sailing,
parlor games, even academics.

His mother's absence at one
of the most important moments

of his life helped shape
Jack's attitude towards women.

-It had a profound effect,
a sort of inner resentment,

that he'd never had that kind of maternal
affection with his mother.

For Jack, this brutal realization
of his vulnerability

was life changing.

From now on, he would
seize life with both hands.

Jack was an amazing person
who had faced death and faced it down.

He had enormous physical courage.

Over the next ten years, Jack toys
with a career in journalism or politics.

He travels through Europe
on the brink of war

and gains a reputation as a playboy.

He graduates from Harvard,
and on December 9, 1941,

he wakes up to find his country
at war with Japan.

Jack tries to join the Navy,

but he has back and bowel problems

and is rejected by the military
on health grounds.

My uncle Jack wanted to be where
the action was, where the fight was,

and that putting your hat into the ring
is what mattered.

Jack's father pulls strings,

and the young Kennedy eventually
manages to get into the Navy.

He volunteers to work on patrol
torpedo boats in the South Pacific.

JFK wants a slice of the action,

but little does he know quite
how dangerous it will be.

26-year-old Jack Kennedy is the captain
of a patrol torpedo boat, PT-109,

stationed in the Solomon Islands
in the South Pacific.

He's in charge of the lives of 12 men.

-I don't think there's any way to
contribute to that war more fitting

for President Kennedy's personality
than captaining a PT boat.

They were fast, they were
unbelievably dangerous.

Kennedy's mission is to attack
a Japanese convoy

on its way to supply enemy troops
occupying neighboring islands.

-We knew from the coast-watcher

that the Japanese would arrive
about 11:00 PM

that night into Blackett Strait,
where we could best stop them.

Jack Kennedy has no way of telling
where the convoy is.

He waits in the darkness,
ready for the signal to attack.

He turns two of his three engines off
to avoid being heard.

What's more, Kennedy's communication
equipment isn't working properly.

-This is PT-109. Do you read me?

A few kilometers away,
Jack's friend Ted Robinson

is also on the mission and is on one
of the few PT boats that have radar.

-I picked up the pips on the radar screen
coming in very fast and very large.

I was sure they were the destroyers.

-Convoy located, convoy located.

-So we said "Here we go,"
and I thought, God, this may be it.

Seconds later, Ted's boat comes under
heavy fire from the Japanese convoy,

and he's forced to retreat.

-This is PT-109. Do you read me?

At the other end of the channel,

Jack Kennedy continues
to wait for the Japanese convoy,

still unaware of its position.

-Enemy ship approaching fast!

One of his crew is stunned
to see a Japanese destroyer,

40 times bigger than PT-109,
bearing down on them at full speed.

For the second time in JFK's life,
death looks inevitable.

The 2,000-ton Japanese destroyer
is closing in on Jack Kennedy

and his crew.

Rather than trying to flee,
Kennedy makes a split-second decision

and turns the wheel
towards the enemy ship

to fire his torpedoes
from point blank range.

But it's too late.

The Japanese destroyer rams into him,
smashing his boat to pieces.

-That destroyer cut him right in half.

We saw this huge explosion,

and we thought nobody
could have lived through that.

-The two PT boats following

put on all three of their engines
and take off.

Their captains believe that no one could
have survived the explosion that they saw.

Two of the crew on Kennedy's boat
are killed instantly.

The rest are thrown
into the burning water.

Kennedy survives but is badly injured.

-President Kennedy was at the helm,

and he was immediately jerked backwards,
which severely damaged his back.

JFK's first thought is,

"This is how it feels to be killed."

The injured Kennedy clings
to the wreckage

with the sea ablaze around him.

-Man: Help!
-Then he hears shouts in the darkness.

-Jack, like a damned fool,
dove into that flaming gasoline

because his men were screaming
and crying, and confused and dying.

Jack Kennedy searches
for his men for an hour.

Helped by some of his crew,

he tows the injured survivors back
to the wreckage of the boat.

-Jack got terrible gasoline burns,

and he got his men back,
and they all hung on to the boat.

-You wonder whether he dove
into the water because he felt he had to

or dove in because it was his duty.

But it had to be
that it was a mix of all of those

that drove him to this
extraordinary act of bravery.

By 1 PM on the second of August,
Jack Kennedy and his crew

had been in the water for ten hours,
surrounded by the enemy.

-The boat is drifting directly towards
where the Japanese had 40,000 troops,

so Jack knew he had to do something.

The closest uninhabited island is
five and a half kilometers away.

One crewman is too badly injured
to swim the distance.

-He took the tie strings
of the man's jacket in his teeth,

and he had to paddle.

The South Pacific is absolutely
full of sharks, full of sharks.

Now sharks attack when you're bleeding.

This man was bleeding.

With Jack Kennedy towing the injured man,
the rest of the crew follow.

After four hours of battling
through shark-filled waters,

they finally make it to the island.

-When he first got to Plum Island,
he was in terrible shape.

Kennedy and his crew are exhausted,
but if he doesn't get help fast,

the injured crewman will die.

Desperate, he comes up
with a plan of action.

-I think President Kennedy determined

that he would do everything possible
to ensure their survival.

And so he took the last pistol
that they had and a lantern,

And he swam out into the straits.

Jack's plan is to use the lantern to try
to attract a passing U.S. Navy ship.

He's exhausted and is battling
against strong currents.

Finally, he reaches a coral
reef where he can stand.

He uses his lantern to signal,

but now he's at risk of being
fired on by his own side.

-Captain Dick Keresey, who had been
out with President Kennedy the night

of the sinking of PT-109,
told me that if they had seen a lantern,

they would have trained
every gun on that position

and fired until it was
absolutely destroyed.

And I said, "What would
you have done then?"

And he said, "We would have gone
over to investigate,

"and we would have found
President Kennedy dead,

"but we would have known
that the crew was still alive,

and we would have gone looking."

Jack waits, but no U.S. ship shows up.

So he returns to his men.

Little does he know that he and his crew
have been given up for dead

and a funeral is held for them
back at the naval base.

-It was a little funeral,
and we got on our knees,

and I said the Lord's Prayer
as best as I could remember it,

and we all said goodbye
to Jack and his crew,

and we thought
that was the end of that.

Alive but 50 kilometers
behind enemy lines,

Kennedy knows that he and his ten men
are simply part of the cost of war.

Later he writes home, "Thousands of
casualtys sound like drops in the bucket,

"but if those thousands want to live
as much as the ten that I saw,

"the people deciding the whys and
wherefores had better make mighty sure

"that all this effort is headed
for some definite goal

and that when we reach that goal,
we may say it was worth it."

Jack and his crew
have hardly any food or water,

in an area constantly
patrolled by the Japanese.

-Ted Robinson: The only real food
would be the coconut milk.

So, they gradually were starving to death,
is what was really happening.

Jack Kennedy knows if they don't
get help soon, they will die.

He spots some local fishermen

and lights on an ingenious
method of communication.

-He scratched this thing
on a coconut with a knife,

said something to the effect,

"11 still alive, send help."

Kennedy hands the coconut
to one of the fishermen

and asks them to deliver it to a U.S. Army
lookout on a neighboring island.

It's a big gamble.

If the Japanese discover the message,

Kennedy and his crew
could be captured and tortured.

♪ ♪

The next day, his ingenuity pays off.

The coconut is smuggled
to the lookout

and then, finally, to Ted Robinson.

-I was the first to get the most
famous coconut in the world

that ended up on his President's
desk the rest of his life.

I was just delighted.

It was old Jack,
the guy I knew, and he was alive.

Five days after the dramatic events
of August 2, 1943,

Ted Robinson heads off
to rescue the survivors.

-Here this guy is.

When we picked him up,
his feet were cut to shreds.

He was starving, he was in pain.

He said, "Where in the hell
have you guys been?

I've been at this bus stop
for a whole week now."

I will never ever forget that, never.

Still kidding, and we thought,
Oh, that's got to be Jack.

Jack and his crew are in terrible shape
and are sent to recover.

-A month to the day
of after I rescued him,

I lost my boat, and they stuck me
in the same tent with Jack.

When JFK got his orders
to go home, he ripped them up.

He said, "No I wanna
go back up the line."

I said "Hell, give, give me those orders.
I'll put my name on them.

I want to go home."

But no, he said
I'm going back up the line.

The events of August 2
make headlines across America.

Jack Kennedy is thrust
onto the national stage.

He's hailed as a hero.

-Jack Kennedy always made
a joke of being a hero.

He used to say,
"I got a medal for losing my boat."

He said, "I don't know
how often that happened."

-He did not regard himself
as heroic and he certainly never

talked about the truly remarkable
courage that he showed.

After his wartime experiences,
the sickly child of the family

throws himself into politics,
where he has a meteoric rise.

In 1946, a year after leaving the Navy,
he becomes a Democratic congressman.

In 1952, he's elected
Senator for Massachusetts.

The following year,
he marries the beautiful socialite

Jacqueline Bouvier.

One year later, he undergoes
an operation on his back,

during which he almost dies.

In 1960, at age 43, Jack Kennedy
wins the Democratic nomination

to become one of the youngest
Presidential candidates

in American history.

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

The frontier of the 1960s,

the frontier of unknown
opportunities and perils.

Jack Kennedy must now face his
Presidential rival

in the showdown of the century.

-Unemployment through the 50s?

Like 50s, five, seven.

JFK and his advisers are preparing

for the most important night in his bid
for the U.S. Presidency.

-How we doing?
-Let's go.

-All good?
-Ted, quick fire, okay?

-Population growth, past ten years.
-18.5%.

-Okay. Science and engineers?
-Two, two times, twice as many.

-Americans in poverty?

-Ah, fifty million.

In six hours time,

JFK is appearing in the first-ever
televised Presidential debate,

up against his Republican rival
Richard Nixon.

-Food packages?

-The first debate in Chicago was
the crucial test for Jack Kennedy.

If he was going to be successful,
he had to succeed in that first debate.

-Okay, population growth?
-18.5%.

As a politician, Jack Kennedy's
yet to make his mark.

He's young and Roman Catholic,

which makes him an outsider
and an unlikely candidate for President.

He also faces a daunting opponent.

Richard Nixon is the Vice President,

a household name with a serious
track record in government.

-Jack Kennedy is good-looking, rich,
but he's not yet a statesman.

Richard Nixon, who's been Vice President,

is in the public mind associated
much more with gravitas and world affairs

and dealing with big problems.

-Jack Kennedy had never had any previous
exposure to this sort of confrontation.

So there were questions

about how competent Jack would be,
how confident he would be,

how effective he would be
in dealing one-on-one with Nixon.

-Food packages?

-Food packages, that's four million.

-That's four million.

It's youth versus experience,

and Kennedy and his advisers
are feeling the pressure.

-18.5%, 18.5.

-The stakes for Jack Kennedy
are enormous on this night.

He is this young, untested,
inexperienced, callow man

making his first appearance
really before the American people.

More than seventy million
people are watching this debate.

He can't blow it.

Kennedy appears the picture of health,
but it's a sham.

He's suffering from a life-threatening
condition called Addison's Disease

and relies on a battery of steroids,
sleeping pills

and painkillers to keep himself going.

Kennedy knows if his sickness is exposed,
it could end his political career.

-The best-kept secret
in modern politics

was probably
John Kennedy's health problems.

In the late 1950s,
he's hospitalized nine times.

Now, the public didn't know

about the extent
to which he was taking medications.

-A great man once said
the election of 1860, President Lincoln.

After last-minute rehearsals,
Kennedy arrives at the studio.

He's about to address the biggest
television audience in American history

and knows it's vital

that his appearance bares the harsh
scrutiny of the TV cameras.

-Kennedy is on steroids,
and there's a certain bloated quality,

and it gives him a kind of tan.

What I mean is you want
to quit quickly or how, how...

-Yes, well, we figure when you see...

Nixon is also
worried about his appearance.

He decides his gray suit
is too light in color,

and he's disappearing
into the studio backdrop.

His team requests that it's repainted
a darker shade of gray.

Bobby: Ready?

-Yeah.

-Jack, you're not nervous, are you?

-You're making me nervous.

-You'll be fine, fine, fine.

-Let me see this here.

As the minutes tick down
to the start of the debate,

Kennedy makes a clever call.

-The network folks
approached JFK and Nixon,

and they said,
"Do you want any make-up?"

And Jack said "Nah, I don't need any,"

and Nixon, not to be outdone
as a macho man,

said "Well, I don't need any, either."

Kennedy's team realizes that,
without professional make-up,

he will sweat under the hot studio lights,
which could make him look ill.

-Unbeknownst to Nixon,

Kennedy uses make-up
that his campaign has provided.

-Typical Kennedy one-upmanship,
Bluffing basically.

-This is your five-minute call.

-Okay, thank you, darling.

The nation waits with bated breath
for the broadcast to begin.

With just minutes to go,

Kennedy surprises everyone
by walking out of the studio.

The first ever televised presidential
debate is about to start,

and John F. Kennedy has left his seat.

-Jack says,
"I need to go to the bathroom,"

and he goes to the bathroom.

And people are sitting in that audience,
it looks like there's one candidate there.

And then there is the countdown.
10, 9, 8, 7.

-Nixon's wondering,
is this even going to happen?

Where is he?
Does he, what's he doing?

It's a ploy by Kennedy to unnerve
his more experienced rival Richard Nixon.

-Even the producers,
the broadcasters were very nervous.

-Lo and behold the candidate shows up,
seats himself,

crosses his legs, and we're off.

-Moderator: Good evening.

The television and radio stations
of the United States

and their affiliated stations are proud...

After keeping Nixon waiting
until the very last second,

Kennedy now has just one hour
to convince the American public

he'll make a better President
than Richard Nixon.

-And now for the first opening statement
by Senator John F. Kennedy.

Kennedy's aides brace themselves
as their man squares up

to a vastly more experienced adversary.

-Just imagine these two warriors are going
head and head with 80, 90 million,

some say 100, 120 million
watched it that day.

He opens by addressing
the burning issue of the day,

the threat of communist
world domination.

-In the election of 1860,

Abraham Lincoln said the question was

whether this nation could exist
half slave or half free.

In the election of 1960,
and with the world around us,

the question is whether the world
will exist half slave or half free.

Nixon then makes a blunder.

He has the reputation of being
very aggressive, a political assassin,

so he's been advised
to tone down his performance.

-The things that Senator Kennedy has said
many of us can agree with.

-Nixon seemed inclined to agree

with virtually everything
that Kennedy said.

-I subscribe completely

to the spirit that Senator Kennedy
has expressed tonight.

-It appeared as though
the senior man was Kennedy,

not Nixon,
as the incumbent Vice President.

It's a tactical error,

and as the debate progresses,
things get worse for Nixon.

His lack of professional
make-up begins to show.

-He had kind of 5:00 shadow,
and whatever make-up he had on ran,

and somebody said it made him
look like a sinister chipmunk.

Seeing Nixon faltering, the Kennedy team
presses home their advantage

and demands more close-up shots of Nixon.

-The aides to Nixon and Kennedy

are hoping to catch one of them
out in some kind of grimace

or some kind of sneer or contemptuous
response to what the other was saying.

And they have an argument

over how many of these
cut-aways there will be.

But things are far from clear cut.

-As Senator Kennedy pointed out,
we came to the Congress in the same year.

His experience has been
different from mine.

Listening on his
radio is JFK's close friend.

I did have a feeling Nixon was making
stronger points than Kennedy.

Nixon was good.

He'd made a lot of speeches, so he,

he was a more experienced
political performer than Kennedy.

-A lot of people felt that if you hear
the debate on the radio, Nixon wins.

He makes good strong arguments,

and Kennedy's fine,
but he's not quite as sharp.

For those watching the debate,
it's a different story.

Kennedy looks the more
confident candidate.

-Nixon could not have looked worse.

The fact that he would wear a gray suit
that blended into the background

and not have make-up, it was a disaster.

He simply didn't look presidential.

-Jack was loose as a goose
and Nixon was tight as a tick.

Kennedy's presentational style
adds to the impression.

-If we do well here, if we meet
our obligations, if we are moving ahead,

then I think freedom will
be secure around the world.

-He addressed his remarks

to the millions of Americans
who were watching it on television.

That he considered to be his audience
rather than to Nixon himself.

-Thank you very much
for permitting us to present

the next President of the United States
on this unique program.

As the debate ends,
it seems too close to call.

JFK must now wait for the opinion polls

to discover if the country believes
he could be their next leader.

-Next day, the polls begin to come in,

and everything you suspected
is confirmed.

By a narrow margin, Kennedy has won.

-The essence of the debate

is that one candidate tries
to outdo, out-style another,

to look better, to act better,
to seem more presidential.

On that score, it was no contest.

Kennedy defeated Nixon handily.

Image has proven
to count for more than experience.

Nixon later says, "I should have
remembered

that a picture is worth
a thousand words."

The debate marks the arrival
of the cult of youth

and the dawn of a new TV age.

-Thank you, guys. Okay, that's enough.

-He's our guy.

-The debate changes
politics and TV forever.

They are united forever after this.

-First one out of the way.

Kennedy still has a mountain to climb
to convince the American people

to vote for him,
but he's over the first hurdle.

-It really put to rest some of
the questions about him

as being too youthful, too inexperienced.

He came out of that debate

with the appearance
of someone who was presidential.

Two months after winning the first debate,

Jack Kennedy beats Richard Nixon
in the Presidential election

by the narrowest of margins.

Seventeen days later, his wife Jackie
gives birth to their second child,

a much longed-for son, John Junior.

In an extraordinary
triumph over adversity,

chronically ill John F. Kennedy

is inaugurated as the 35th
President of the United States.

-Ask not what your
country can do for you.

Ask what you can do for your country.

By May 1962,
he's a year into his presidency.

He has everything still
to lose and much to gain.

Integral to Kennedy's success
is his glamorous wife Jackie.

She's become an international
celebrity in her own right,

famous for her style, charm,
and good looks.

-That we should cherish a language
and an emotion that unite us all.

Thank you.

With their two beautiful children,
Caroline and John Junior,

the Kennedys come across
as the ideal family.

-Jackie Kennedy was a beautiful woman,
and she was intelligent, intellectual.

She was ambitious, all the things
that Jack Kennedy wanted and needed.

The Kennedys appear the golden couple,
but there are rumors

that their relationship
isn't quite what it seems.

♪ ♪

President Kennedy is in New York
to celebrate his 45th birthday

wit a star-studded gala evening

aimed at raising $1,000,000
for the Democratic Party.

It will be broadcast live to the nation
and is the hottest ticket in town.

-It's going to be a huge
birthday party

at Madison Square Garden,
a huge arena.

-It's often said that Washington
is Hollywood for ugly people.

Well, that didn't apply during
the Kennedy administration.

The beautiful people were
in both Hollywood and Washington,

and it was a very happy marriage.

-Can we go a little faster?

I don't want to be late for the old man.

JFK is heading to his
first engagement of the day,

to visit his father Joe, who's in
the hospital, having suffered a stroke.

He's been a driving force
behind his son's political career

but is now a shadow of his former self.

-The acorn didn't fall
very far from the tree

in the case of John Kennedy
and his father.

His father had been a champion
philanderer throughout his life.

And, in fact had wooed Gloria Swanson
among others

in flagrant extra-marital affairs

known to his own wife Rose Kennedy,

so the pattern was set
for the Kennedy boys.

Jack Kennedy was quick to follow
his father's example.

-My wife was at school
in New York as a young girl

and Jack was even famous at that point
for his pursuit of young ladies.

Jack's friends worried that his womanizing
might damage his political career.

-I asked him one time, "How come you risk
it all by going out with so many women?"

And he looked at me a long time,
and he said, "Because I can't help it."

As a husband,
father of two young children,

and the President of the United States,

Kennedy has compelling reasons
to mend his ways.

-John F. Kennedy took risks
at every opportunity.

He was as reckless a President in his
personal life as America has ever had.

There were dozens
and dozens of women.

This was simply the regular daily practice
for John F. Kennedy.

-I don't know how JFK had the time
to be President of the United States

and to have as many women as he did.

There were a lot of them.

Kennedy's incurable weakness for women

now compels him to take a huge
personal and political risk.

-A man who had seen almost every woman
on Earth that he wanted to,

and he had to have
the biggest one of all.

Across town,
the world's number one sex symbol,

the actress Marilyn Monroe,

is preparing
for the performance of a lifetime,

singing to the President
of the United States.

-There was no bigger star at
the time than Marilyn Monroe,

and she was America's sweetheart.

-Marilyn Monroe was an American icon,
and Jack Kennedy was an American icon,

so I suppose it's natural
that one would sing to the other.

After visiting his father,

President Kennedy heads
to his next engagement.

-Do we know how many
we've got coming tonight?

As he looks forward to his big night,

there is one person who won't be
celebrating with him, his wife Jackie.

She's in Virginia,
competing in a local horse show.

-Jackie had known,
from the day they married that JFK,

like his father and other members
of the family, was a serial philanderer.

She never expected a perfect marriage,

so it was representative
of their relationship

that she would spend the day
with her horses

while he spent the evening

with the most glamorous woman
in America who was not his wife.

-Jackie was furious that Marilyn Monroe
was headlining this event

and she made sure she was not there
at her husband's birthday celebration.

And she made sure that people knew it.

President Kennedy is
about to give a speech at a new

$40,000,000 housing project in Manhattan.

Where he's greeted
by a crowd of 20,000 people.

-It is true that your distinguished
president invited me

to come to speak on November 3.

As we were heading to a meeting
which he was sponsoring

three days before that election,

I would have agreed to anything!

In her New York apartment,

Marilyn Monroe rehearses the song
she has written for the President.

[tune of "Thanks for the Memories"]
♪ Thanks, Mr. President ♪

♪ For all the things you've done ♪

♪ The battles that you've won ♪

The pair met the previous year
through Kennedy's sister Patricia,

who's married to actor Peter Lawford.

-There really is very little doubt
that President Kennedy

had a physical relationship
with Marilyn Monroe.

There was a time, for example,

when they worked together
for two days in Palm Springs.

Marilyn is in a fragile condition.

Her third marriage has ended,

and she is increasingly addicted
to alcohol and sleeping pills.

She has become obsessed
with the President.

Phone records show that Monroe made
dozens of calls to the White House.

Kennedy is aware of the rumors
about Monroe's vulnerable state,

but he still decides to give her
top billing at his birthday party.

And his brother Bobby, his most trusted
confidante, is on hand to make it happen.

-Robert Kennedy, who was
his brother's Attorney General,

actually phoned the Hollywood studio
where Marilyn Monroe was under contract

and demanded that the studio
releases her for a few days

and let her come to New York.

The studio refuses.

So Marilyn Monroe decides to go anyway,

even though she risks
losing her part in the movie.

She spent weeks rehearsing her song
and is going to wear a dress so tight,

she has to be sewn into it,
wearing nothing underneath.

In the year before he faces re-election,

the stakes could not be
higher for the President.

-This was about the riskiest thing
you could have done at that time.

To invite her to come
and be seen and televised,

surely seemed really tempting disaster.

Kennedy is playing with fire
but is prepared to take a gamble.

-Jack Kennedy understands
that his sex appeal is powerful,

and it's one of the reasons
why he got elected.

He's told there's a risk,
but he is a little careless about it.

With the world's press gathering
for his birthday gala,

President Kennedy is gambling

that they will turn a blind eye
to his latest affair.

-Kennedy's close friends in the press
knew that he philandered,

but they didn't want to hurt him.
They liked him.

The rest of the press corps heard rumors
but didn't have any proof.

This evening with Marilyn
could light the fuse for the papers.

Journalists are out in force.

JFK arrives at Madison Square Garden.

He's about to be serenaded
by his alleged lover

in front of the nation.

He's risking both his marriage
and his political career.

♪ ♪

President Kennedy
walks into his birthday gala

to be greeted by rapturous applause.

-It wasn't usual for this
to happen to a president,

but we hadn't had a president
like Kennedy before.

-I think everybody was
excited like I was.

I met a lot of people, but that event was
one that would stick with me.

In the history of show business,

perhaps there has been no one female
who has meant so much,

who has done more than m--

-Marilyn Monroe, who was clearly high
on drugs or alcohol or both,

sashays onto the stage
because her dress is so tight.

-Mr. President,
the late Marilyn Monroe.

As Marilyn removes her white mink stole,

the audience gasps at her figure-hugging
flesh-colored dress.

-All I remember about Marilyn Monroe
at Madison Square Garden

was her voice and her ass,

because I was looking from behind,
and at my age then, that was enough.

-My eyes also had to be
out in the audience

because that's what our job is,

but I couldn't help but take
a peek every once in a while.

All I could say is wow!

♪ Thanks, Mr. President ♪

♪ For all the things you've done ♪

♪ The battles that you've won ♪

♪ The way you deal with U.S. Steel ♪

♪ And our problems by the ton ♪

♪ We thank you so much ♪

Everybody!

-Jackie Kennedy knew

that her husband had had some kind
of relationship with Marilyn Monroe.

So I think it would have
been terribly embarrassing

and humiliating for Mrs. Kennedy
if she had been there.

-Ladies and gentlemen,
the President of the United States.

After Marilyn's breathless performance,

Kennedy coolly departs from a policy
speech written by the White House

and goes for a more intimate response.

-Thank you.

I can now retire from politics

after having had "Happy Birthday"
sung to me

in such a sweet, wholesome way.

-I think he was playing up
to his bad boy image

and loving every minute of it

because people who live on the edge
are not afraid to slip off the edge.

And so, this is the way to get one of the
biggest highs from adrenalin possible.

The gala is hailed
as a triumph for Kennedy,

but his advisers are concerned.

At a party that night,

JFK and Monroe are caught
by a photographer together.

The FBI seizes the prints,
only one of which surfaces years later.

-Kennedy got a little careless
and reckless with Marilyn Monroe.

Kennedy's advisors,
including his brother,

began to see that there was trouble
brewing here,

that the press was close
to writing stories

about Marilyn Monroe
and President Kennedy.

To preserve his reputation,

his advisers do all they can
to end his association with Monroe.

-That's really the end of the relationship

between President Kennedy
and Marilyn Monroe,

and at that point,
she realizes that it is all over,

so she goes into an utter tailspin.

The night of May 19, 1962,
is the last time

President Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe
see each other.

Singing at JFK's birthday party
is her final public performance.

Beset with numerous personal problems,
a little over two months later,

Marilyn Monroe is found dead
in her Hollywood apartment.

-She had made a phone call
to say goodbye to Peter Lawford

and to tell him to say goodbye
to the President and Bobby.

And then shortly thereafter
she was found dead of a drug overdose.

Following Marilyn Monroe's tragic death,

Kennedy and his wife Jackie
would grow closer.

-He obviously was someone
who had a very complicated marriage,

but I have no doubt that he loved
his wife and his children

and was very attached to them.

But JFK, his family, America,

and the world are about to face
a daunting threat.

The west is terrified that communists
are going to take over the world.

America's enemy number one
is the Soviet Union

with its large arsenal of nuclear weapons.

-We'd been told that nuclear
Armageddon was inevitable.

Much of America's fear
is focused on Cuba,

an island just 150 kilometers
away from Florida.

In February 1959, the communist
Fidel Castro, seized power.

The Soviets promised to protect
the island from the Americans.

In April 1961, just four months
into his presidency,

Kennedy had been publicly humiliated

when an American plan
to overthrow Castro failed.

In October 1962,
the President receives news

that Soviet nuclear missile bases
have been detected on Cuba,

putting almost every city in the U.S.
within range of attack.

Kennedy must now rise to the biggest
challenge of his presidency.

-Good evening, my fellow citizens.

The purpose of these bases
can be none other than

to provide a nuclear strike capability
against the western hemisphere.

Narrator: It's been twelve days since
the missiles were discovered on Cuba,

and America and the Soviet Union
are on the brink of war.

Today is the closest the world
has ever come to nuclear annihilation.

President Kennedy is
on his way to ExCom,

the group of high-level advisers
he's set up to deal with the crisis.

His actions over the next 24 hours,
known as Black Saturday,

will determine the fate of mankind.

-Gentlemen!

America is on the verge of invading Cuba.

-Morning.

-Morning, Mr. President.

Overnight, Kennedy received a letter
from the Soviet leader

Nikita Khrushchev.

He's agreed to remove
the Soviet missiles from Cuba

if the U.S. promises not
to invade the island.

JFK is hopeful that a solution
to the crisis is within reach.

-There is a little ray of light.

There is some hope
that there's a way out of this jam.

But Kennedy's hopes of a way out
are almost immediately dashed.

-We've had another
letter from Khrushchev.

The unpredictable Khrushchev
has changed his mind

and is now making
an impossible demand,

that the United States remove
its missiles based in Turkey.

-When the second letter comes in,
it just cast gloom on the ExCom.

Basically, they're back in the soup.

Turkey is an important ally
of the United States,

and the removal of the missiles there

would leave Western Europe
feeling defenseless.

-These conditions are unacceptable, sir.

Our allies will think we are sacrificing
their security for the sake of our own.

Kennedy must act fast.

Military intelligence tells him that five
out of six missile sites on Cuba are now

operational, with Soviet weapons
poised to hit U.S. cities.

The military urges the President
to act and bomb the bases.

-We should move before it's too late.

Kennedy has already placed
U.S. heavy bombers on red alert,

ready to move in 15 minutes if necessary.

The President knows that military action
will give Khrushchev no way out

and could start a nuclear war.

-My father also repeated
the same as Kennedy.

You mustn't push your counterpart
into the corner

because there he will push the button
and start the war.

Kennedy understands that Khrushchev
must keep his promise to protect Cuba

and will use nuclear weapons
if he has to.

-Kennedy must have seen a man
with a great deal of pride and conviction,

and that he couldn't
just walk all over him.

Kennedy and his team argue all morning

about how to respond
to Khrushchev's second letter.

JFK can see that Khrushchev's
offer is not unreasonable.

-I just think you're going
to have it very difficult to explain

why we are taking
hostile military action in Cuba

when he's saying "You get yours
out of Turkey,

I'll get ours out of Cuba."

As the pressure on him builds,
Kennedy takes time out.

Swimming relieves the pain in his back
and gives him time to think.

-Kennedy left the deliberations
of the ExCom to go for a swim.

That is not something
that your average person,

faced with the potential
of a nuclear crisis,

is going to feel they can do.

No one is more aware of what's at stake
than President Kennedy.

He's responsible for the safety
of millions of people,

as well as his own family.

-Jack Kennedy was not just a President.

He was a father.

He had a couple of little kids
and had said to his brother Bob,

"You know, we've lived a good life.

"If war comes, we can die,

but our children,
they haven't had a chance to live."

-He frequently mentioned
the fate of the whole world,

and the fact that he was
the father to small children

I'm sure gave a kind of immediacy
to the long-range picture here.

Kennedy returns to find the crisis
deepening by the minute.

An American U-2 plane spying
on Cuba has been shot down

by a Soviet missile
launched from the island.

The pilot has been killed.

-This immensely raises the stakes.

On that Black Saturday,
there is a sense

that, man,
maybe we can't control this anymore.

The Joint Chiefs press for a massive
airstrike on Cuba to start

the next day at dawn, followed
by an invasion of the island.

-The military wants to bomb.

They want to get ready and get going.

-Mr. President,
it is imperative that we act.

-He had almost every single expert
saying we have to attack Cuba,

putting all of this pressure
on the President.

I think there are
few Presidents since then

that you could count on to preserve
their humanity during that period,

and make the best decision
for the United States.

-This is his responsibility.

He's got his finger
on the nuclear trigger.

He doesn't want the military
chiefs to decide this.

He's the one
who has to make this decision.

Kennedy must now make
the most important choice of his lifetime,

on behalf of his country,
his family, the whole world.

One false move could lead
to a nuclear holocaust.

-I need time to think.

Across the country,

millions of Americans are bracing
themselves for the worst.

-I can remember being
very nervous, upset.

I had nightmares.

Almost everyone I knew did.

We really believed
that this might be the end.

-This was absolutely clearly the closest
that the world has ever come

to having a nuclear war.

JFK remarked, "It is insane that two men
sitting on opposite sides of the world

should be able to decide
an end to civilization."

Kennedy considers
the option of military action.

He knows he needs to act fast

before the Soviets launch
a surprise attack.

Destroying the missile bases
could be the only solution,

but his experiences in the Second
World War now come into play.

-Here was a man
who had seen up close

how screwed up the military can be
when he was in PT boats.

-I think that his interaction with
the Joint Chiefs was colored very much

by his experiences
in the Solomon Islands.

The failed attempt to overthrow Castro
is also fresh in his mind.

-He's wary of the top brass,
and he's not going to let himself

be buffaloed into military action
by people who,

just because they've got
some stars on their shoulders.

Kennedy's determined to explore
every option in order to avoid war.

-Kennedy throughout this wanted peace.

It's, it's very obvious that
he did not want to go to war.

The President has listened
to all the arguments

and decides to agree to a radical plan.

He will completely disregard
Khrushchev's second letter,

which demands that the U.S.
remove its weapons from Turkey.

In a bold move, he's going to pretend
he never received it.

Instead, he will simply reply
to the Russian leader's first letter

and agree that the U.S.
will not invade Cuba.

-I think that the greatest stroke
of genius that Kennedy had

in the entire Cuban Missile Crisis

was to ignore
Khrushchev's second telegram

and simply assumed
it had never been sent.

Kennedy's prepared
to go even further to prevent war.

He turns to his most trusted ally,

the one person he knows
he can totally rely on,

the U.S. Attorney General,
his younger brother Bobby.

-The indispensable quiet, younger brother
that people didn't see as much of,

hear as much from but who was
a huge force in the administration.

Kennedy sends Bobby to talk secretly

to the Soviet Ambassador to Washington
Anatoly Dobrynin.

He's instructed to tell the ambassador
that the Soviets must dismantle

their nuclear missile bases
in Cuba, and in return,

the U.S. will remove
its weapons from Turkey,

but this part of their agreement
must remain absolutely secret.

-JFK is at his Machiavellian
best on Black Saturday

and he makes a private
deal that nobody sees

behind closed doors,
with the Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin,

to pull American missiles out of Turkey.

That part is hidden,
so it's classic Kennedy.

He shows public resolve, but reasonable.

Privately he makes a deal.

The proposed deal has now been
delivered to the Soviets.

All Kennedy can do
is wait for their answer.

There's been no word
from Khrushchev.

After a sleepless night,

Kennedy is dressing to go church
when he hears the news.

-Good morning, Mr. President.

We've just heard.

Khrushchev's agreed to the deal.

-Thank God.

Thank you, I'll see you down there.

[applause]

-I went with the President down
to the situation room

and was standing outside of the room

and could hear a little noise
and a few cheers.

-We did it.

JFK refuses to declare it a victory.

He doesn't want to gloat
or humiliate Khrushchev.

-He came out, and he said,

"Okay, pack your bags,
we're going to Palm Springs."

So we knew everything
was okay at that time.

The world had gone to what Kennedy called
"the abyss of destruction."

Thanks to him, it had pulled back.

-JFK was much tougher than Khrushchev
ever imagined until afterwards.

This was a toughness borne of a lifetime
of facing illness, facing death,

not only in hospital,
but in combat, in war.

-People think that it was the finest day
of his presidency because it's true.

It was the finest day of his presidency.

All of JFK's finest qualities
as a statesman had come into play.

If he never does anything else,

his actions during these twenty-four hours
have won him his place in history.

-The most important characteristic
any President can have

is cool good judgment.

In all of American history,

we never got a better example
of it than John F. Kennedy

on the 27 of October.

Without a President
with those characteristics,

there might not be
a United States of America.

President Kennedy has saved the free world
from nuclear annihilation.

But at home, African-Americans
are far from free.

They had colored water, white water,

and the whites thought they
were superior to the Blacks.

The injustice of racial discrimination

is at odds with everything
America stands for.

Kennedy has seen the country
torn apart over the issue of race.

In 1954, segregation in education
was made illegal.

In 1955, Black students are admitted

to all state schools and universities
in the South,

in the face of fierce
opposition from some whites.

In 1963, the University
of Alabama is the last,

still refusing to admit Black students.

Civil rights is an issue
that divides America.

If Kennedy throws his weight behind it,

he risks losing critical votes
in the South.

Today is the day when this explosive
problem comes to a head.

He must now choose
between politics and principle.

Two Black students,
Vivian Malone and James Hood,

are attempting to enroll
at the University of Alabama.

-James was a competitive person.

When he got an idea in his head,
it was there until he finished it.

He wanted to take these summer classes,
so he was going to school.

Also trying to enroll is Vivian Malone,

the sister-in-law of the man
who was to become U.S. Attorney General.

-Vivian was a
woman of great courage.

But she just simply thought
it was the right thing to do

and that it was fundamentally unfair

for her not to be able
to go to that university,

being as qualified as, as she was.

Monitoring today's events
from the White House is the President.

He believes that the students have
the right to attend the university.

Opposing him is the Alabama state
Governor, the hard-liner George Wallace.

He's one of many Southern Democrats
fighting desegregation

and has said he's prepared to stand
in the school house door to

stop the Black students entering today.

He'd made his position clear
when he became Governor.

I draw the line in the dust

and toss the gauntlet
before the feet of tyranny

and I say segregation now,
segregation tomorrow,

and segregation forever.

-He had already said that he,
Blacks would never enter the university.

He didn't want to change.

Wallace's aggressive stance puts him
in direct confrontation

with the President.

What's more,
Wallace represents the views

of many white Southerners
who agree with him.

-George Wallace and his racist posture

made it absolutely certain,
once he was elected,

that there was going to be a confrontation
with the potential for great violence,

great harm, great death.

The risk for Kennedy is that,
in supporting civil rights for Blacks,

he will lose hundreds
of thousands of votes.

-John F. Kennedy knew

that civil rights was
the right thing to do,

but he was also a politician.

He looked at the election returns in 1960
and recognized that he was barely elected,

and it was the electoral votes
from a bunch of Southern states

that put him in office.

So he was concerned
about moving too quickly.

Many African-American
feel Kennedy has been too slow

in ending discrimination against them.

Kennedy did not move
as quickly as he might have.

Today is the ultimate test of JFK's
commitment to the cause of civil rights.

The decisions he makes will put
the future of his presidency on the line.

The showdown is being
broadcast to a gripped nation.

-I'm so scared.

Man [over television]:
We are armed with a proclamation.

Narrator: 14-year-old Brenda Hood and her
parents watch as her brother James

tries to exercise his legal right
to enroll in the University of Alabama.

Man [through television]:
Appeals for calm.

-I guess you could say
that we were afraid, you know,

because you don't know
what's going to happen.

Man: So, Tuscaloosa is under a tight
security guard of state police.

Narrator: President Kennedy
is taking a personal interest

in the students' struggle.

-Do you have James with you?
Put him on.

-James felt President Kennedy
was just like an average person

because he was able to talk to him
like he was a, a human being.

-I just wanted to tell you

we're all really proud
of what you're doing down there.

JFK sends his man,

Deputy Attorney General
Nicholas Katzenbach,

to escort James Hood and Vivian Malone
as they attempt to enroll.

I know that she derived great strength

from the fact that the Deputy
Attorney General was there.

Kennedy knows there's a massive
potential for conflict.

There's been increasing racial
violence across the South.

-Let's hope this doesn't get messy.

At the university witnessing events
is 23-year-old student Gaines Blackwell.

I thought there's always some nutcase
out there that would do something

with a rifle or with a bomb
but I really wanted to watch.

I wanted to see what was going to happen.

As Katzenbach approaches the university
to confront Wallace,

tensions on the campus mount.

-The danger of it was there are thousands
of people there in Alabama

whose hearts and souls and heads
are right there with George Wallace,

standing in the schoolhouse door.

Katzenbach hands Wallace the President's
order to admit the students.

Man [over television]:
The Governor is adamant.

He made a campaign promise
to stand in the doorway himself

to prevent the integration
of the last all-white, state university.

Narrator: Wallace refuses.

He then escalates the crisis.

He calls up the Alabama National Guard
and orders them to seal the entrances

to the main university hall
to prevent the students from entering.

-Well gentlemen, it looks like Wallace
has taken this to a whole new level.

Faced with this provocation,
Kennedy decides to act.

He will go head to head with Wallace.

-Go ahead and push the button.

Kennedy takes control of the Alabama
National Guard away from Wallace

and places the troops
under his direct command.

The President's orders are that Wallace
must be forced to stand down.

-President Kennedy has to act on June 11
because the crisis has come to a head.

He has found that he can no longer deal
with Wallace and the Southerners.

They're not going to be reasonable.

They're not going to integrate
the university.

We're going to have to do it
by armed troops.

JFK watches as the National Guard
confronts Wallace.

Man [over television]: Brigadier General
Henry Graham arrives to tell the governor,

"It's my sad duty to ask you to step aside

on orders of the President
of the United States."

-The conversation didn't seem to last
very long, and so the question then was,

what was happening?

Nobody knew at the time.

-What a day!

Narrator: Jack Kennedy watches intently.

If Wallace defies him and is arrested,
the Governor's supporters could riot.

-The whole world's going
to be watching this.

Faced with this show of strength,
Wallace gives way.

But the potential for violence remains

as hundreds of his supporters surround

the Black students' path
to the university.

-I was aware
of Klu Klux Klan being there.

So something might go bad.

Then another group of marshals came
walking up the same path with James Hood,

and it's the first time I had seen him.

Brenda Hood holds her breath

as her brother approaches
the entrance to the university.

-There's hope that nothing happens
in between that car and that door,

you know, and you're praying.

Dear Lord, please keep Your protective arm
around our James, my brother James.

-Calm.

No trouble now.

-James said
that from the car to the door,

that that was the longest walk
of his life.

I can understand that being a long walk
and you got time to think,

and you got time to say, mm,
does that one has a gun or does that,

you know, he have a brick or whatever.

At 3:33 PM, James Hood walks
into history as the first

African-American to be admitted
to the University of Alabama.

-Yes.

He's shortly followed by Vivian Malone.

-They made possible many of the things
that we take for granted today.

I stand on their shoulders.

President Barrack Obama
stands on their shoulders.

With the students safely enrolled,
Kennedy now raises the stakes.

-He knows that,
since he's got all this attention,

he's got really the nation's attention

on this confrontation
in the schoolhouse door,

this is the time to strike.

-Ted, get me the network.

He decides to
speak to the American people.

-This is the time to go to the nation
and make a speech that calls

on really, the better angels,
the conscience of the American people

to do something
and to end segregation.

-Get me the phone.

Yea, this is the President.

I want to go live on air tonight.

The networks agree to an 8:00 slot
in just under four hours time.

-Yep, make it happen.

His advisers are alarmed
at the gamble he's taking

in speaking out about civil rights.

If he loses the votes
of white Southern Democrats,

it could cost him the presidency.

-They knew they risked
losing a lot of votes

in the election coming up, in 1964.

Kennedy's advisers are also worried
that he's left them

so little time to prepare a speech
on such a controversial issue.

-Okay, Ted, what have you got for me?

Is it finished?
-Not quite.

-Well, show me what you've got so far.
-It's almost there.

-Is this it?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Let's take a look.
-I've got the last page here, okay?

-"This afternoon,
following a series of threats..."

The speech is barely finished.

With millions of Americans watching,
JFK now has to deliver

one of the most important
performances of his life.

-This nation was founded by men
of many nations and backgrounds.

It was founded on the principle
that all men are created equal,

and that the rights of every man
are diminished

when the rights
of one man are threatened.

-Jack Kennedy gives one of the great
political speeches of all time,

because it is from his heart.

-We are confronted primarily
with a moral issue.

It is as old as the Scriptures

and is as clear
as the American Constitution.

-He uses the word "moral."
"We have a moral obligation."

It has a clear purpose.

He is going to end segregation.

Kennedy's
reading from the prepared draft

but then decides to depart from it

and put his case into his own words.

-This is one country.
It has become one country

because all of us and all the
people who came here

had an equal chance
to develop their talents.

We cannot say to 10% of the population
that you can't have that right.

-It is a speech that's designed
to go to the heart of America

and talk about justice and injustice,
about decency and indecency,

about dignity and indignity.

It's a speech that's designed to touch
the heart, the hard heart of the South,

the total heart of the country.

-It's moving, it's emotional,

it's factually correct,
and to be able to do a portion

of that without a text is from
my perspective pretty remarkable.

-This is a matter which concerns
this country and what it stands for,

and in meeting it I ask
the support of all of our citizens.

Thank you very much.

-It was one of those impactful
moments where the culture was,

there was a seismic shift in the culture.

You had a President arguing our case,

saying to us that these doors
opening are inevitable

and the Federal government
will no longer retreat.

June 11, 1963 marks
a turning point in the battle

for an end racial discrimination.

President Kennedy had finally
thrown his weight

behind the campaign for equal rights.

-He went from being merely a President
to becoming a civil rights leader.

He decided that he was going
to take the power of his office

and put it behind
the civil rights struggle.

-Listening to the
President, we had faith.

You know, you, you could feel

that certain things were going to,
it was going to turn around.

Kennedy's civil rights speech
makes him a hero to African-Americans,

but alienates
many Southern Democrats

whose support he needs
to win re-election.

President John F. Kennedy has been
in office for just over 1,000 days.

He's confronted huge challenges
at home and abroad

but knows he has much more to do
if he is to to fulfill his dream

of transforming America
into a more equal and just society.

He faces re-election next year,

so today he heads to Dallas, Texas,
to raise funds

and win over Democrats angered
by his support of civil rights.

11:25 AM, November 22, 1963.

President Kennedy and his
wife Jackie are about to land.

-He's trying to do some
political bridge building.

Texas is very important
to his re-election in 1964.

The Texas Democratic Party is split
between conservatives and liberals.

He's due to deliver
a speech to key Democrats

and business leaders at the Dallas
Trade Mart, a 45-minute drive away.

Their route has been published
in the papers,

and large crowds now line it,

eager to catch a glimpse of JFK
and his glamorous wife, Jackie.

I was real excited because, you know,
They were so popular.

He was so handsome,
and Mrs. Kennedy was such a beauty.

-By having Jackie there,

the crowds were overwhelming
everywhere he went.

Unusually, Jackie has agreed
to accompany the President.

-To everyone's surprise,

when the President asked if Jackie
would go with him, she said yes.

She did not like grass roots politics.

She was much too above that.

Kennedy and his wife look happy
and relaxed, but they are in mourning.

Their third child Patrick
died three months earlier,

just two days after being born.

-I think after losing Patrick, they both
decided "Let's look again at our family,"

and they decided they needed each other

because they really did care
for each other.

It was evident on that trip.

As Kennedy's motorcade makes
its way to the Trade Mart,

the large crowds pose a problem
for JFK's security team.

-We had 34 agents on his detail.

The problem is that we
didn't have armored cars.

We didn't have bulletproof vests.

We didn't have counter-sniper teams
or counter-assault teams.

With the sun now shining in Dallas,

two crucial decisions are made
that affect the President's security.

It had been raining in Texas,

and they chose to remove
the bubble from the President's car.

Previous to that,
they had the bubble on the car,

but it was a very bright sunny day.

The President is also keen to give
the crowds the best view possible,

so he asks the secret service agents
not to stand on the back of the car.

-Jerry: Basically, he didn't want
to look like he was over-protected,

so we had a shortage of agents,

and then he emphasized

that he didn't want agents
on the back of the car.

To get to the Dallas Trade Mart,

the motorcade must pass through a small
tree-lined square called Dealey Plaza.

A young couple, Bill and Gayle Newman,
decide it's the best place for them

and their two small sons,
Clayton and Bill,

to get a good view of the President.

-You could hear the crowds cheering

way before they got
to where we were standing,

and there was just
such an atmosphere.

-Office workers and people
were hanging out the windows,

and were on the curb's edge,
and it was quite a big day.

Another person who has a very good view
of the President's route

is 24-year-old former U.S. Marine
called Lee Harvey Oswald.

An unhappy loner, Oswald had
defected to the Soviet Union

but returned to the U.S. in 1962.

One month before JFK's visit,

Oswald got a job
working in a book warehouse

which overlooks Dealey Plaza.

At 12:29 PM, the Presidential
motorcade turns into the plaza.

Man [over radio]: It will be
only a matter of minutes

before he arrives at the Trade Mart.

Narrator: What happens next
shocks the world.

President Kennedy's limo passes beneath
the Texas Book Depository

en route to a fundraising lunch.

-I can remember seeing the President's car
turn right onto Houston Street,

and it was coming straight at us,

and probably some 100 feet or so from us,
the shot rang out.

[gunshot]

-Bang.

-The first two sounds that I heard
I thought were firecrackers.

-Bill: And just as the car passed
in front of us, the third shot rang out...

[gunshot]

...and he went over
into Mrs. Kennedy's lap.

-I think I realized that President Kennedy
had definitely died

the minute that I saw that shot
hit him in the head.

-And she hollered,
"Oh, my God, no, they've shot Jack."

I turned to Gayle, I said
"That's it, hit the ground."

Bill and Gayle are caught on camera
as they protect their sons.

Man [over radio]: It appears as
though something has happened

in the motorcade route.
Something, I repeat, has happened.

-We didn't know
where the shots were coming from.

We, we didn't know if other people
in the crowd might have guns.

People were screaming and, and,
you know, running in all directions.

-I think a lot of the crowd didn't realize
what had actually occurred.

It was unbelievable
what had just happened.

-There has been an attempt,
as perhaps you know now,

on the life of President Kennedy.

He was wounded in an automobile driving
from Dallas Airport into downtown Dallas,

along with Governor Connolly of Texas.

They have been taken
to Parkland Hospital there,

where their condition is as yet unknown.

From Dallas, Texas,
the flash apparently official,

President Kennedy died at 1:00 PM
Central Standard Time,

2:00 Eastern Standard Time,
some 38 minutes ago.

-And I was in my office,

and a journalist came in and said,
"I have something you have to see."

It was the bulletin,
and I flared with anger

and said if this is somebody's idea
of a joke, it's sick.

And he burst into tears
and said, "John, I wish it was."

-It was like somebody had kicked
you in the stomach, you know.

It just took your breath away.

-It was a surreal moment.

I remember exactly where I was
on the campus at that moment.

-We were all shocked.
We were in a state of shock.

Man [over radio]: We don't know.

Perhaps there was someone hidden
in that car as well,

we're not sure.

-We were at home and the telephone rang,
and it was the Foreign Minister Gromyko,

and he told it was just announced
by American radio that President is dead.

And really it was very sorrow,

the emotional sorrow
on the face of my father.

-First, I had disbelief,

and mostly my attention was
focused on Jackie Kennedy,

who conducted herself
with great courage and class.

As Jackie travels back to Washington
on Air Force One

with her husband's body,

America struggles to come
to terms with the tragedy.

-America lost its innocence
when Kennedy died,

this innocent belief that America really
was this force for good in the world.

We just lost this hope that our leaders
could lead not just the country,

but the whole world,
to some kind of better place.

-It was a tragic moment
in the country's life.

You see, the country hasn't gotten
over his assassination yet.

-I remember him fondly
and with a great deal of amusement,

and when he was killed,

it was like the end of my youth,
and I think of the country's youth.

-My fellow citizens of the world,

ask not what America will do for you

but what together we can do
for the freedom of man.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a boy plagued
by illness who became a war hero.

The first television President
who changed the face of politics.

A statesman who faced
down his enemies abroad

and had the courage
to confront racism at home.

His days cut tragically short, he remains
forever a symbol of youth and hope.

-Read the Inaugural Address
of any President you want

and see all the things
that you've been promised

and how few of them ever happened.

And then read Jack Kennedy's
inaugural address.

He didn't promise you one damn thing.

He said, "Ask not what your
country can do for you

but what you can do
for your country."

Thank you!

[crowd cheering]