Today in History—January 20: The Young President Spoke, and the Nation Listened

On a frigid January afternoon in 1961, U.S. Pres. John F. Kennedy stood before a crowd of nearly 1 million to deliver his inaugural address.

Eight inches of snow had fallen the night before, and the youngest person ever elected president, the war hero, spoke wearing no coat. His breath formed clouds as he recited the words that would captivate a generation: “And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

The response was immediate. Praise poured in from all corners of the globe—even Moscow. The words defined his presidency—and his legacy—but they may in fact have been written by someone else, someone far less famous: JFK’s key adviser and speechwriter Theodore Sorensen.

To be clear, every president from George Washington on has relied on advisers to help draft speeches. (Which makes sense: Do we really want presidents spending all their time doing that?)

In the end, nearly a dozen sources, including speechwriters, politicians, historians, and the Bible, contributed to JFK’s 14-minute address.

As to whether Kennedy himself penned the “ask not” phrase, Sorensen, who died in 2010, was circumspect, saying only, “All these years I have tried to make clear that President Kennedy was the principal author of all his speeches and articles. If I say otherwise, that diminishes him, and I don’t want to diminish him.”

Regardless of who wrote it, it was Kennedy’s delivery—crystalline, vibrant, and complete with hand gestures to drive the point home—that created a moment that made this speech the inaugural address by which all others would be judged.

At an earlier point in his speech, Kennedy pronounced that “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.” Just over 1,000 days later, that metaphorical torch would become the eternal flame lit at his grave by his widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, as a stunned and grieving nation looked on through its tears.

The juxtaposition of the hope instilled on that January day and the despair that marked the November one less than three years later may explain why JFK’s words still inspire and haunt us.