JFK

But we can no longer risk

emergency improvisation of national defense.

We have been compelled to create

a permanent armaments industry

of vast proportions.

Added to this...

three and a half million men and women

are directly engaged

in the defense establishment.

We annually spend on military security alone...

January 1961.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the nation.

Now this conjunction...

of an immense military establishment

and a large arms industry

is new...

in the American experience.

The total influence...

economic, political, even spiritual,

is felt in every city,

every state house,

every office of the federal government.

We must guard against the acquisition

of unwarranted influence,

whether sought or unsought,

by the military-industrial complex.

We must never let the weight

of this combination

endanger our liberties,

or democratic processes.

November, 1960.

Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy,

of Massachusetts,

wins one of the narrowest

election victories in American history

over the vice president,

Richard Nixon,

by a little more than 100,000 votes.

Alongside his beautiful

and elegant wife, Jacqueline Bouvier,

Kennedy is the symbol

of the new freedom of the 19603,

signifying change and upheaval

to the American public.

That all men are created equal.

Every degree of mind and spirit

that I possess...

will be devoted to the cause of freedom around the world.

Today, the proudest boast is...

"Ich bin ein Berliner!"

He inherits a secret war

against the communist Castro dictatorship

in Cuba, a war run by the CIA

and angry Cuban exiles.

Castro is a successful revolutionary,

frightening to American business interests

in Latin America.

This war culminates

in the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion

in April 1961,

when Kennedy refuses to provide air cover

for the exiled Cuban brigade.

Kennedy, taking public responsibility

For the failure,

privately claims the CIA lied to him

and tried to manipulate him

into ordering an all-out American invasion

of Cuba.

In October 1962, the world comes

to the brink of nuclear war,

when Kennedy quarantines Cuba

after announcing the presence of offensive

Soviet nuclear missiles

90 miles off American shores.

Soviet ships with more missiles

sail towards the island,

but at the last moment,

they turn back.

The world breathes with relief.

In Washington, rumors abound that JFK

has cut a secret deal

with Russian Premier Khrushchev

- no wish to war with Soviet Union... - not to invade Cuba

in return for a Russian withdrawal

of missiles.

Suspicions abound

that Kennedy is soft on communism.

Kennedy also finds himself embroiled

in Laos and Vietnam.

We've got our difficulties there,

quite obviously.

Unless a greater effort is made by the government,

to win popular support, I don't think that

the war can be won out there.

And the final analysis...

it's their war.

They're the ones who have to win it or lose it.

Early that fateful summer,

Kennedy speaks of his new vision

at the American University in Washington.

What kind of a peace do I mean?

And what kind of a peace do we seek?

Not a Pax Americana,

enforced on the world

by American weapons of war.

We must reexamine our own attitudes

towards the Soviet Union.

Our most basic, common link

is that we all inhabit

this small planet.

We all breathe the same air.

We all cherish our children's futures.

And we are all mortal.

You fucking asshole!

You come back here!

Don't leave me here!

They're going up to Dallas.

Whose} Friday.

They're gonna... kill... Kennedy.

Call somebody...

And stop them.

These are serious fucking guys!

She's high as a kite on something.

- Been that way since they brought her in. - Please help!

Please!

In Dallas, Texas,

three shots were fired

at President Kennedy's motorcade

in Downtown Dallas.

The first reports say that

President Kennedy has been seriously wounded

by this shooting.

What's wrong, Lou?

Boss, the president's been shot.

In Dallas. Five minutes ago.

Oh, no.

How bad?

There's no word yet,

but they think it's in the head.

Come on.

Napoleon's has a TV set.

Apparently, three bullets were found.

Governor Connally also appeared to have been hit.

The President was rushed by Secret Service

to Parkland Memorial Hospital,

four miles from Dealey Plaza.

We are told a bullet entered the base of the throat,

and came out of the backside,

but there is no confirmation.

Blood transfusions are being given.

A priest has administered the last rites.

There's still a chance, dammit.

Come on, Jack. Pull through.

From Dallas, Texas.

The flash, apparently official.

President Kennedy died

at 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time.

2:00 Eastern Standard Time.

Some 38 minutes ago.

Vice President Lyndon Johnson

has left the hospital.

Presumably, he will be taking the oath of office shortly

and become the 36th President of the United States.

He did so much for this country,

for colored people.

Why?

Why?

He's dirty!

Goodbye, you sorry bastard!

Die!

Hey, shut the fuck up!

God, I'm ashamed to be an American today.

The President of the United States...

is dead.

I have just talked to Father Oscar Hubert,

of the Holy Trinity Catholic Church.

He and another priest tell me that the pair of men

had just administered the last rites

to President Kennedy.

Shortly after 12:30,

as the president's motorcade near the freeway entrance

near the park in the Westside of Downtown Dallas,

those terrible shots rang out.

The president is dead.

Bullets were coming up over our heads...

from that fence up on the knoll.

I seen his face when it hit. He just...

His ear blew off...

and he turns this real white.

He kind of flopped over on his stomach...

And um...

with his foot sticking out.

Excuse me.

None of us thought it could happen in America

or any place else, and yet...

All this blubbering over that no-count son of a bitch.

They're bawling like they knew the man.

Makes me want to puke.

For God's sake, chief, the president was shot.

A bullshit president.