Today, November 22, 2013, marks the 50th anniversary since those infamous rifle shots echoed out in Dealey Plaza. 50 years have gone by since Lee Harvey Oswald took aim at the presidential motorcade from the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository, and forever immortalized the legacy of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in the American political conscience.
As what always happens when Kennedy's name is mentioned among historians and writers, is the debate about whether or not JFK is deserving of his enduring legend in the mind of a lot of Americans. Critics are always prompt to point out the lack of major legislation passed under Kennedy's administration, and the mistakes he made such as the Bay of Pigs invasion. This year marking the 50th anniversary of the assassination, this has also been combined with a lot of discussion on where JFK's probable second term would have taken America had he lived to see it. Would he have sent ground troops to Vietnam? Would he have signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Many of these types of questions and sentiments can be summed up in articles such as, We Don't Need Another JFK by Michael Kazin of The New Republic.
Overall, majority of the consensus among many pundits and historians is that JFK's legacy was helped greatly by his unintentional martyrdom at the hands of Oswald. However, no one mentions what President Kennedy really brought to the White House and gave to the American People, and the real reason for which he is still popular among people today: a vision.
The most important thing that President Kennedy accomplished during his short tenure as president was the creation of a vision for America. By initiating the space race and giving speeches such as the one he made at the American University, Kennedy gave the American public inspiration to reach for the stars, become better citizens, and was a symbol of the new freedom of the 1960s.
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