JFK: Go to Moon Speech

JFK will be remembered long after the other dramas of the twentieth century are as obscure as the Hundred Years War is to people today.

The reason?

This speech and the actions that followed it.

For the first time in history, human beings left this planet and stood on another part of the universe. It was a baby step, since where we went was our own moon. But it was the beginning of something that, if it plays out in future generations, will inevitably lead to JFK getting a mention in the children’s history lessons of the future.

If, on the other hand, humanity does not follow up on this first adventure into space and we simply molder here, this speech will be forgotten, along with everything else people did in the past century. Events seem all-powerful when you’re close to them. And then they fade. As people die and new adventures come about, they fade away altogether.

Here is Kennedy’s speech announcing the push to put Americans on the moon.