肯尼迪总统就职演说(John F. Kennedy – Inaugural Address)

John F. Kennedy

–

Inaugural Address

delivered 20 January 1961

Chief Justice Earl Warren: You, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, do solemnly swear.

John F. Kennedy: I, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, do solemnly swear.

Chief Justice Earl Warren: That you will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United

States.

John F. Kennedy: That I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States.

Chief Justice Earl Warren: And will to the best of your ability.

John F. Kennedy: And will to the best of my ability.

Chief Justice Earl Warren: Preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States.

John F. Kennedy: Preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States.

Chief Justice Earl Warren: So help you God.

John F. Kennedy: So help me God.

Vice

President

Johnson,

Mr.

Speaker,

Mr.

Chief

Justice,

President

Eisenhower,

Vice

President

Nixon, President Truman, Reverend Clergy, fellow citizens.

We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end as well

as a beginning, signifying renewal as well as change, for I have sworn before you and Almighty

God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three- quarters ago.

The world is very different now, for man holds in his mortal hand the power to abolish all forms of

human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our

forebears fought are still at issue around the globe the belief that the rights of man come not from

the generosity of the state but from the hand of God. We dare not forget today that we are the heirs

of that first revolution.

Let

the

word

go

forth

from

this

time

and

place

to

friend

and

foe

alike

that

the

torch

has

been