The key drafting occurred in Palm Beach, overlooking the Atlantic.

John F. Kennedy had won the narrowest of victories in the 1960 election, and he wanted a crisp,

memorable inaugural address. Domestic policy was cut along the way, as Kennedy remarked to his

speechwriter and counsel Ted Sarranson, let's drop out the domestic stuff altogether. It's too long

anyway. JFK believed brevity was key, noting, I don't want people to think I'm a windbag.

They wouldn't. In Stately Cadence's delivered with crisp urgency,

his breath wiped in the winter air. John F. Kennedy summoned a new generation to the hard work

of democracy, and in so doing, JFK did something remarkable. He made public service glamorous,

fashionable, and central. In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine will rest the final

success of failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans

has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans

who answered the call to service surround the globe. Now the trumpet summons us again,

not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need, not as a call to battle, though in battle we are,

but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle year in and year out, rejoicing in hope,

patient infugulation, a struggle against the common enemies of man, tyranny, poverty,

disease, and war itself. Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance,

north and south, east and west, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind.

Will you join in that historic epitome?

I'm John Meacham, and this is It Was Said, Episode 10, John F. Kennedy and the summons to service.

Let's remember, he barely won, he was perceived by many people to be young, to be untested,

to be maybe not quite ready for prime time, even after his victory.

One of the measures of greatness in the President is not just what bills he signs,

...