John F. Kennedy: “It is my task to report the State of the Union--to improve it is the task of us all.”

This Nation is the world's foremost manufacturer, farmer, banker, consumer, and exporter.

Our aim is not simply to be first on the moon, any more than Charles Lindbergh's real aim was to be the first to Paris.

Our decision could well affect the unity of the West, the course of the Cold War, and the economic growth of our Nation for a generation to come.

A year ago, in assuming the tasks of the Presidency, I said that few generations, in all history, had been granted the role of being the great defender of freedom in its hour of maximum danger.