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Moment of Silence Soon in Dallas for JFK; "Star Spangled Banner"; Remembering JFK

Aired November 22, 2013 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world.

It was 50 years ago during this exact hour a beloved American president, cut down in his prime, leaving a nation shocked and grief stricken. In Dallas this hour, a solemn ceremony marks the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. The images are etched in our collective memories. The president and the first lady in the open top limousine. The motorcade making its way toward Dealey Plaza. No signs of the tragedy about to unfold.

Today, the crowd gathered in Dealey Plaza. It will pause for a moment of silence at 12:30 p.m. local time, that's 1:30 p.m. Eastern, the moment the shots rang out. We're going to have live coverage of the ceremony.

Earlier today, members of the Kennedy family held a wreath-laying ceremony at the grave site in Arlington National Cemetery. Leading the family, Jean Kennedy Smith, JFK's last surviving sibling. We have a team of correspondences, authors, commentators who will be here with us throughout this hour. They'll share their reflections on the assassination and the anniversary as well as the legacy of President Kennedy.

We want to start with our investigative -- with the investigative reporter, Gerald Posner; the historian, David Kaiser. They're both in Watertown, Massachusetts right now. Correspondence Ed Lavandera is standing by as is our own John King. Give us a quick thought. Gerald, let's start with you. This is the hour he was shot exactly 50 years ago today.

GERALD POSNER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Wolf, every minute that pas as we're talking right now, there is something taking place 50 years ago in the setup to the assassination. Just a few minutes ago, as a matter of fact, three of Oswald's coworkers in the Texas School Book Depository decided to go downstairs for lunch. And one of them said, are you coming along, to him. And he said, no, send the elevator back up and they went down.

And then in the next few minutes as the president's coming down Main Street, it's Lee Harvey Oswald who was taking some boxes and starting to form the sniper's nest that police will find after the assassination. So, the lead-up to 12:30 when the president is killed is filled with the time for the preparation, for the killing by Oswald. And we're passing those every moment as we're speaking right now.

BLITZER: David Kaiser, give me a quick thought as we begin our special coverage this hour. You've spent a lot of time academically studying this moment.

DAVID KAISER, HISTORIAN: Well, I did. And I had written a book about Kennedy and Johnson in Vietnam during the 1990s, and then came the big release of documentation thanks to the JFK Records Act which gave me the opportunity to look into the assassination. I do agree with Gerald Posner that will Oswald killed the president. I disagree in that I think he did it on behalf of organized crime. But it took a long time to understand that because we had to understand the context which involved Robert Kennedy's war on organized crime and the ways in which they were thinking about retaliating and certain links and connections that Oswald and Ruby had and so on. But I laid that out as thoroughly as I could some years ago in "The Road to Dallas."

BLITZER: Your book and Gerald Posner's book. We'll get to that a little bit later this hour. I want to go to John King right now. He's on the scene for us in Dallas. John, you're there with Ed Lavandera, our long-time Dallas Correspondent. John, I know you grew up in Boston. The JFK assassination 50 years ago this hour had a really powerful impact especially on folks in Massachusetts, his home state.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, Wolf, the Kennedys were -- it was Camelot in the country I guess they called it at the time. But the Kennedys had been and from those days on were because of Ted Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy obviously was a senator from the state of New York. But the Kennedy family was the royal family of Massachusetts for some time. And I was just a month -- a week shy of three months when President Kennedy was assassinated, so I have zero memory of it. But my mother used to tell me about that day in the house about sitting on her lap when she was watching the television reports of that horrified day.

And if you grew up in Boston, the Kennedys were legend. As I mentioned the other day and a lot of the Irish catholic households I grew up in, if you walked into the front hallway or kitchen, there would be a picture of Jesus Christ and a picture of Jack Kennedy. That's just the way it was in the neighborhood growing up. So, it's interesting to be here on this many special day, and a somber day planned here in Dealey Plaza. As we approach, as you noted, we're now just moments away from 12:30 when the motorcade rolled into the plaza and Lee Harvey Oswald shot the president.

BLITZER: Yes, 25 minutes from now, that would be the exact moment 50 years ago. Ed, you've lived in Dallas for a long time. The city has struggled over these 50 years in dealing with the assassination. They're doing something very different today. Explain what's about to happen.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's interesting listening to John's perspective having grown up in the Northeast. I've grown up in Dallas and have come to Dealey Plaza since I was a little kid, so that was my memory of it. But, you know, this is a city that has struggled deeply with how to handle the situation. And I think the fact that it's taken 50 years for the city of Dallas to do an official event like this kind of speaks volumes to that.

In fact, there are conspiracy theorists who are the ones who would gather on the grassy knoll here just off to our right and observe the moments of silence. They are the ones who would put the X on the roadway which the city of Dallas earlier this week paved over. They said that they didn't want people tripping on the roadway. A lot of people think they didn't want people seeing the gruesome nature. What they don't want is people here talking a lot about the actual gruesomeness of that assassination. They want people talking about the legacy and what John F. Kennedy meant to this country.

BLITZER: Yes, and that's a -- we're going to be eyewitnesses to this 50th anniversary hour that's coming up. All right, everyone stand by. Our coverage is only beginning. We're going to go back to Dallas for the emotional ceremony, once again, marking the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination.

Also, we'll take a closer look at how Americans feel today about JFK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Within a few moments, there will be a moment of silence in Dallas. Lots of folks have gathered there to remember JFK, the assassination exactly 50 years ago this hour. At the bottom of the hour, there will be that moment of silence. A lot of people will reflect, especially those who lived through that era exactly 50 years ago this hour. Over at the white house, flags already at half-staff in memory of the late president of the United States. This moment of silence will be a powerful moment of silence all across the country, indeed around the world.

You can't overstate the affection the American people have for President Kennedy. Just take a look at this brand new CNN ORC Poll. It shows 90 percent of Americans today approve of the way Kennedy handled his job as president. No other past president even comes close. You can see Ronald Reagan places second with 78 percent, followed by Bill Clinton who got 74 percent approval rating. At the bottom of the list, George W. Bush with 42 percent. Richard Nixon had the lowest score, 31 percent.

Let's bring back more of our panel in Miami, the investigative journalist, Gerald Posner, and the historian, David Kaiser, is joining us from Watertown, Massachusetts. Let me get both of your reaction. First, Gerald, to you. This unbelievable 90 percent approval rating for the late president. What do you make of that?

POSNER: It's because Kennedy was all about the unfulfilled promise of what his presidency would have been. I mean, cut down only two and a half years into his presidency. Everybody looks at him today and says, if he had stayed for another, you know, five and a half, six and a half years, he would have fulfilled all the things we hoped he would have. He would have done civil rights like LBJ. He would've ended Vietnam on a quick note. We don't know but that's what we thought at that time. And that's the hope that was cut down by the assassin's bullet here in just a few minutes.

BLITZER: 90 percent approval is unbelievable, when you think about it, David. And historians at the time, journalists at the time, folks at the time certainly nowhere near that kind of approval. But 50 years later, people look back and they obviously like him and admire him.

KAISER: Well, I think he stands for his generation, the G.I. generation, the greatest generation. He stands for a different time in American politics and American life which in many now looks like an age of innocence but it was an age in which we all shared a belief in the ideals of America and the purpose of America, both at home and abroad. And he embodied that. He desperately wanted to make peace in the cold war and he took some big steps towards doing that.

At the same time, he wanted to find new national enterprises that we could go on that would make us proud and bring us together. And the moon program was the best example of that. I think there is a sense that in some ways at least we have not had as capable a president as him in the years since.

And, again, I think that the nostalgia for him among people your age and mine and older, Wolf, is that he represents an America when our political system worked much better than it does now, when the nation had common values to an extent that it does not have now and when we could solve problems in a way we're having a great deal of difficulty doing now.

BLITZER: Yes, the color guard --

POSNER: And, Wolf, if I could just --

BLITZER: Hold on one second, Gerald. I just want to tell viewers what they're seeing. The color guard with bagpipes entering Dealey Plaza for this memorial service. At the bottom of the hour, once again, there will be that moment of silence. David McCullough will also read from some of the more memorable moments of President Kennedy's speeches as well. So, we have a lot to look forward to.

Hold on for a moment, Gerald, because I want to bring Jeff Greenfield into this conversation. Our old friend, he's written an amazing new book entitled "If Kennedy Lived." It really is amazing. You learn a great deal about what potentially, Jeff, could have happened. But give us a thought or two right now as we remember this hour, 50 years ago exactly when he was shot and killed.

JEFFREY GREENFIELD, AUTHOR, "IF KENNEDY HAD LIVED": Well, I think everybody will remember vividly where they were. The only comparable moment in recent American history would have been 911. For me, I was at the University of Wisconsin where I edited the college newspaper. And I think one of the things that's important to remember is how literally unbelievable it was at a time when public violence was far less prevalent than it later became. It was a less violent media.

BLITZER: Hey, Jeff, hold on for a moment because I -- they're singing the "National Anthem." I want to make sure we listen to it. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say, does that star spangled banner yet wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please be seated.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We'll continue to watch this ceremony. There's a lot going on. All of our analysts, historians, journalists are standing by. Much more coverage right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Honoring the memory of President John F. Kennedy now at this special services in Dallas, the mayor of Dallas, Mike Rawlings, is speaking

MAYOR MIKE RAWLINGS, DALLAS: Had been taken from us. Taken from his family. Taken from the world. John Fitzgerald Kennedy's presidency, his life and, yes, his death, seemed to mythologically usher in the next 50 years. What ensued was five decades filled with other tragedies, turmoil, and great triumphs.

We were all very young. Our lives (INAUDIBLE) in front of us. Dallas was very young, as well, barely a century old. And given the nature of youth, we all felt invincible. Well, it seems that we all grew up that day, city and citizens, and suddenly we had to step up to trying to live up to the challenges of the words and visions of a beloved president.

Our collective hearts were broken. Like so many of us who were too young to fully comprehend, I remember being called into the school gymnasium, hearing the terrible news and told to go home. Stunned civic leaders at the Trade Mart luncheon awaited a president who would never arrive. Crowds prayed outside Parkland Hospital. Traffic stopped in cities across the country as news spread from car to car. And the world grieved with us. Newspapers reported that flags were lowered to half-staff around the globe. Germans on both sides of the Berlin Wall placed lit candles in their windows. An eight-year-old Nigerian girl recited the entire inaugural address from memory as her father wept just like the skies today.

Well, the past is never in the past. This was a lifetime ago. Now, today, we the people of Dallas honor the life, legacy and leadership of the man who called us to think not of our own interests, but of our country's. We give thanks for his life and his service. We offer condolences to his family, especially his daughter Caroline, on this difficult day. We pay tribute to an idealist without illusions who helped build a more just and equal world. We salute a commander in chief who stared down a nuclear threat to this country. We praise a writer who profiled true courage and modeled it himself. We applaud a visionary who created a core of young Americans to promote peace around the globe. We stand in awe of a dreamer who challenged us to literally reach for the moon, though he himself would not live to see us achieve that goal. Other goals were even tougher, have taken longer to reach and we, the United States, still struggle towards some even as we speak, as do we here in Dallas. But we're fortified by the knowledge that we have always had big goals and big aspirations in this city, set by our founding fathers like John Neely Brian and George Dealey, the namesake of this plaza, reenergized by Eric Johnson, the mayor who led Dallas in the post assassination years. These five decades have seen us turn civic heartbreak into hard work. They've seen us go from youthful invincibility to existential vulnerability, to greater maturity as a city and a community. On the one-year anniversary of the assassination, the late Rabbi Levi Olan, of Temple Emanu-El, one of our city's greatest spiritual leaders, gave voice to Dallas' communal pain unleashed on that day. Rabbi Olan said then, quote, "contrary to the impassioned judgment of that horrible moment, the city is not guilty of the crime. But in those awesome days following the assassination, the most powerful searchlight man possesses was focused on this city. Every flaw, every raw spot, every wrinkle and every uncleanness was put under a microscope and shown to the world." He continued, "the city of rich palaces and tall towers of commerce were set amidst slums and hovels. As the powerful light shown upon it, the city, it was learned, had been inhospitable to honorable debate," end quote.

Rabbi Olan captured the heartbreak and hurt the city felt. He stated plainly the defects and failings that were laid bare before the entire world. But most important, he called for Dallas to use this tragedy to seek a true transformation.

Look around today. I believe we have heeded that call. The people of this city have been filled with a sense of industry bourn of tragedy, driven to improve the substance of Dallas, not just the image of it. Today, because of the hard work of many people, Dallas is a different city. I believe the new frontier did not end that day on our Texas frontier. And I hope that President Kennedy would be pleased with our humble efforts towards fulfilling our country's highest calling, that of providing the opportunity for all citizens to exercise those inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The city of Dallas will continue on that course. The man we remember today gave us a gift that will not be squandered. He and our city will forever be linked in tragedy, yes, but out of that tragedy, an opportunity was granted to us, the chance to learn how to face the future when it's the darkest and the most uncertain, how to hold high the torch even when the flame flickers and threatens to go out. As the people of Dallas did then, each of us will meet our oncoming challenges head-on with courage, honoring, but not living in the past. And never, never flinching from the truth. We will meet the future with the same vigor, optimism, and unfailing sense of duty that our young president embodied.

President Kennedy brought us that message. In his pocket, down that street on November 22, 1963, that message was to be delivered a few miles away in a speech to Dallas leaders following his parade. It was a speech he never got to make. But those unspoken words resonate far beyond the life of the man. To commemorate that day and those words, we are unveiling a memorial right here in this historic plaza. It is inscribed with the last lines of his undelivered speech and will serve as a reminder and a permanent monument to President Kennedy's memory.

I leave you with those resonant words. "We, in this country, in this generation, are by destiny rather than choice the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and our responsibility. That we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of peace on earth, good will toward men. That must always be our goal and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength for as was written long ago, accept the Lord, keep the city, the watchmen waketh but in vain."

Ladies and gentlemen, would you join me in a moment of silence in honor of the life of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

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