brian cassidy bookselle

43.
[Presidents]: [John F. Kennedy]
[Twenty-Four Original Photographs of President
Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery]
[Washington, D.C.]: [1961]
Collection of sixteen gelatin silver prints and eight color photographs
on heavy stock. Each measuring 10” x 8” approx. All curling
at edges. Slight toning to black-and-white prints. Color prints mildly
faded. Very good or better overall.
Taken Veteran's Day, November 11, 1961, these images document Kennedy's
first presidential visit to Arlington National Cemetery. The
president was accompanied by Major General Paul A. Gavan, Commanding
General of the Military District of Washington, as well as the VA
administrator John S. Gleason, and military aides General Chester
Clifton, Colonel Godfrey McHugh, Captain Tazewell Shepard, and National
Commander of the Legion of Valor Thomas Stirling. These images
document the president's participation in the Veterans Day ceremony,
including laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
and speaking to a crowd of more than 5,000 at the Memorial Amphitheater.
This speech, perhaps a justification for the United States'
increasing involvement in Vietnam, was a message of peace through
war: “In the end, the only way to maintain the peace is to be prepared
in the final extreme to fight for our country — and to mean it. As a
nation, we have little capacity for deception. We can convince friend
and foe alike that we are in earnest about the defense of freedom
only if we are in earnest — and I can assure the world that we are.”
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