JFK In Your City

[Duncan MacRae]

My City: Glasgow, Scotland.

Harvard student John F Kennedy made his first public address IN 1939 at the Beresford Hotel in Glasgow

The Beresford Hotel in Sauchiehall Street, was opened in 1938. Described as Glasgow's first skyscraper, it was the tallest building erected in Glasgow between the wars. The Art Deco curved towers of the facade reflect the design found in many of Glasgow's cinemas of the 1930s.

The architect, William Beresford Inglis of Weddell & Inglis, was also the hotel's owner and managing director. The hotel became a favourite rendezvous for American servicemen during the Second World War.



JFK, who was 22 at the time, was sent from London to Glasgow by his father Joseph to represent the United States of America for the first time. Kennedy senior was the US Ambassador to Great Britain



Full Article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-49557543

[Alan J. Ford]

An interesting thread, a great idea! Way to go, Glasgow.

Still remember as a young lad in my youth, whenever Mum visited our family in nearby Andover, Massachusetts, we would also return here ---->

https://www.nhpr.org/post/nashua-remembering-day-john-f-kennedy-launched-his-campaign

to recall how she and Pappy initially crossed paths in this small New England town. 

Even today, surviving family members still venture back there to gather at this historical marker, fondly recalling the heartwarming stories we heard in our youth about the grace & class of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. What a remarkable human being.

[Joe Mannix]

Here you go:

https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local/jfk-memorable-dayton-visits-included-famous-tuxedo-reward/d9aupGfD8HM7fEAfGjU2UJ/

[Tom Scully]

Great thread, Duncan!

I have the indelible memory, and the privilege of being within thirty feet (for approx. five seconds) of President Kennedy, about an hour before this October, 1962 photo was taken, as he passed by us in an open car (thanks, Mom!) In late afternoon, the autumn sunlight, intensifying the auburn tone of the President's hair color, gave him a larger than life aura.



https://www.jfklibrary.org/sites/default/files/archives/JFKWHP/1962/Month%2010/Day%2017/JFKWHP-1962-10-17-C/JFKWHP-ST-464-43-62.jpg


The photo above is dated October 17, 1962. JFK had a lot on his mind, despite his warm, relaxed demeanor.

https://www.history.com/news/cuban-missile-crisis-timeline-jfk-khrushchev
.....
October 16: President John F. Kennedy meets with a team of advisers known as Ex-Comm, to discuss how to respond to the missile threat. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara presents JFK with three options: diplomacy with Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, a naval quarantine of Cuba, and an air attack to destroy the missile sites, which might kill thousands of Soviet personnel and trigger a Soviet counterattack on a target such as Berlin.

Kennedy rejects the attack, and favors a quarantine to buy time to negotiate a missile withdrawal. JFK and his advisers are careful to call it a quarantine because a blockade is considered an act of war.

October 15: CIA analysts spot launchers, missiles and transport trucks that indicate the Soviets are building sites to launch missiles capable of striking targets nearly across the United States, according to a 2013 article by Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst and Cuba expert at the National Security Archive in Washington.

October 14, 1962: A U.S. U-2 spy plane piloted by Maj. Richard Heyser takes hundreds of photos of newly-built installations in the Cuban countryside. As Heyser will recall years later in an Associated Press interview, he worries that he will be looked upon as the man who started a war.

[Thomas Graves]

I saw him give the commencement address at San Diego State College in June of 1963.



--  MWT 

[Michael Walton]

JFK went to Newport, KY, after visiting Cincinnati in 1960. He came down Park Avenue. Our house is third from right:



You can read here why he went there - to see a Gold Star mother, who lived across the street from our house:

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/jfk-how-greater-cincinnati-remembers-the-kennedy-assassination

Footage of arrival [you can see same scenes in photo above]:

My deaf Mom said she shook his hand and he patted my brother on the head.

After he left that scene, someone took this picture:



Fun story - Bobby Kennedy was fighting the mob and Newport was knee-deep in corruption. This story took place there and a piece of it was incorporated into the Godfather Part II. Can you figure out which scene it's based on?

http://www.nkyviews.com/campbell/text/newport_look.html

Goldfarb wrote about Kennedy's crusade and Newport corruption is mentioned:

https://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Villains-Imperfect-Heroes-F-Kennedys/dp/B01MU69N9F/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=erfect+Villains%2C+Imperfect+Heroes&qid=1575842430&sr=8-1-spell