“I am the responsible officer of the government [regarding the failed invasion of Cuba].”
John F. Kennedy
Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs News Conference (Primary source)
On April 21, 1961, four days after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, President John F. Kennedy held a news conference at the State Department Auditorium in Washington, D.C. Although the meeting opened with announcements—including U.S. support for a broad-scale United Nations attack on world hunger—reporters quickly pressed Kennedy on Cuba.
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“We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“The idea that Britain loses every battle except the last has proved correct so many times in the past that the average Englishman is unwilling to make great personal sacrifices until the danger is overwhelmingly apparent.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“For, in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, ‘holds office’ every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.”
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President Responsibility Defeat Invasion