“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“There’s an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“A man does what he must—in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures—and that is the basis of all human morality.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary sourceMore quotes by John F. Kennedy →
“A new-born government must dazzle.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Disputed“I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better goverment.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“Approve not of him that commends all you say.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“If the government is cruel, the governor’s life is not safe.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary sourcePresident Responsibility Defeat Invasion