But if these programs were ever to be ended, our failures in a dozen countries would be sudden and certain.
John F. Kennedy
The Public Record
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president, at 43 years, and the first Catholic president. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A member of the Democratic Party, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress before his presidency.
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Neither money nor technical assistance, however, can be our only weapon against poverty.
For the troubles of a world organization merely reflect the troubles of the world itself.
For my part, I shall withhold from neither the Congress nor the people any fact or report, past, present, or future, which is necessary for an informed judgment of our conduct and hazards.
I shall neither shift the burden of executive decisions to the Congress, nor avoid responsibility for the outcome of those decisions.
I speak today in an hour of national peril and national opportunity.
Before my term has ended, we shall have to test anew whether a nation organized and governed such as ours can endure.
All of us together--this Administration, this Congress, this nation--must forge those answers.
But today, were I to offer--after little more than a week in office--detailed legislation to remedy every national ill, the Congress would rightly wonder whether the desire for speed had replaced the duty of responsibility.
And, while the occasion does not call for another recital of our blessings and assets, we do have no greater asset than the willingness of a free and determined people, through its elected officials, to face all problems frankly and meet…
We need a new law--a wholly new approach--a bold new instrument of American trade policy.
The product of our abundance must be used more effectively to relieve hunger and help economic growth in all corners of the globe.