JFK Remembered

A remeberance of John F Kennedy on the anniversary of his assassination  November 22, 1963 (an encore posting)

 

It was Tuesday, May 16, 1961, a day many of us had been working towards for weeks. As was the practice those days, the Government Hospitality Committee was responsible for all VIP visits and the Canadian Army's Directorate of Public Relations provided the technical media coordination.

Earlier in the month three of us, plus the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, met with the White House advance party to plan President Kennedy's two day state visit to Canada, his first presidential visit to a foreign country. The ever-cigar-smoking Pierre Salinger, JFK's press secretary, was there but soon turned over media responsibility to his deputy.

Media arrangements for covering VIP visits to Canada were generally somewhat casual. The working press trusted us to get them to where they needed to be, providing them with necessary background materials, and when necessary, arranging pool coverage of more intimate or somewhat restricted events. RCMP presence was more to keep amateurs away from the working press than to "police" the media. It was all quite calm and refined. The arrival of the White House Press Corps came as a shock!

The presidential arrival was to take place at Ottawa's Royal Canadian Air Force Station Uplands. We had anticipated two or three photographers' locations to catch JFK and Jacqueline arriving on Canadian soil. Not good enough, said the White House press, we need a camera truck at each end of the runway. Why? Well, you never know if Air Force One will crash and we need that picture.

And that same sort of aggressive approach continued on for most of the two days, diminishing somewhat as they learned to trust what we were doing, and that we were doing it for them. It seemed as though their experience was, for the most part, confrontational rather than collaborative.

The arrival went as planned, if not two hours late. A state visit, Governor General Georges Vanier and Madame Vanier first greeted the American couple. Then Prime Minister George Diefenbaker and Mrs. Diefenbaker.

The party then moved inside the RCAF hanger for the official welcoming speeches, a moment when JFK won the hearts of all Canada when, following the Prime Minister's greeting first in English and then French, President Kennedy responded.

He explained that he had planned to reply in English and then ask his wife to respond in French, but after hearing the prime minister's fractured French, he had no hesitation in using his own French-speaking skill! A politician from the Manitoba prairies, the Prime Minister's French was always painful and the butt of much late night Canadian humor.

And when on the final day of the visit, addressing the Canadian Parliament, President Kennedy, uttered his famous aphorism, "Geography has made us neighbours; history has made us friends," 

Canada swooned!

Before he retired his commission, the writer of "Aft Deck Musings . . . ", was the news editor for the Canadian Army's Directorate of Public Relations and responsible for national media coordination of VIP visits. Mike was inducted as an Honorary Life Member of the National Press Corps of Canada on his retirement.