President Biden commemorated President John F. Kennedy on the 60th anniversary of his assassination in Dallas — calling the day a “defining moment of deep trauma and loss that shocked the soul of our nation.”
Biden, the only other Catholic president besides Kennedy, said in a statement that he remembered relating to his values.
“Like millions, I deeply felt his conviction and dreams for America,” Biden said. “His ideas rhymed with the lessons I’d learned from the nuns at school and around my father’s kitchen table – that we are each called to do good works on this earth, to try to make our world a better place in the service of others. But what stuck with me most was President Kennedy’s courage, his heroic sense of duty, and his family’s capacity to absorb profound suffering.”
Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas. Oswald then shot and killed a Dallas police officer before he was arrested.
Biden said he was in college when the assassination happened.
“Millions of Americans still remember exactly where we were when it happened. I was in college and had just left class, joining other students glued to the news in silence along with the entire country,” he said.
Kennedy’s death has been a topic of conspiracy theories in the decades since. Biden released 13,000 government documents on the assassination last year, which revealed Oswald’s communications with the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City weeks before the shooting.
The president said Kennedy’s optimism is important to remember today.
“On this day, we remember that he saw a nation of light, not darkness; of honor, not grievance; a place where we are unwilling to postpone the work that he began and that we all must now carry forward. We remember the unfulfilled promise of his presidency – not only as a tragedy, but as an enduring call to action to each do all we can for our country,” Biden said.
Update: This article has been updated on November 27 to reflect historical facts.
