Where were you?

50 years ago (22nd November 1963) John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.   One of the many books about JFK the library holds is “Homage to a Friend a Memorial Tribute by the United Nations for President John F. Kennedy”.

The speeches made in the General Assembly at the special commemorative meeting held on 26 November 1963 are bound together in this book alongside excerpts from President Kennedy’s own speeches in which he made reference to the United Nations.

I was very much struck with H.E. Mr Carlos Sosa Rodrigues, Venezuela (President of the eighteenth session of the General Assembly) who said

“John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, is dead.  He fell at his post, in the service of his country.  The treacherous act of the assassin, inspired by the hatred and fanaticism against which he fought so hard, has struck down in its prime a life full of achievement and full of promise for his country and for humanity.  Not only America but the whole world mourns his passing, for by it they have lost one of those rare human beings in whom energy and generosity join to produce glorious and fruitful activity in the service of the noblest ideals.”

This book can be found at shelf mark UN-I.1.