Photo: NASA
On the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, IRC president David Miliband reflects on JFK's "practical humanity" and honors a legacy that includes the Peace Corps and a commitment to welcoming refugees.
By David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee
I first encountered the reality – and mythology – of President Kennedy in 1978. I was a young teenager spending a year with my parents in a suburb of Boston. November of that year was marked by a moving remembrance of the terrible day 15 years earlier when Boston’s most famous 20th-century son was gunned down in Dallas. It was also ten years since the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and the national wounds were still especially raw.