With flags fluttering at half-staff, the US paused on Friday to mourn President John F Kennedy and a generation’s broken dreams, cut down 50 years ago by an assassin’s bullet.
The young leader’s brutal televised death, a dark turning point event in an era gripped by the Cold War nuclear stand-off and bloodshed in the jungles of Vietnam, shocked a global audience of millions. Five decades on the wound is still raw, with many still obsessed by the conspiracy theories surrounding his death, and others gripped by regret for the America they imagine might have been.
Across the nation, at ceremonies large and small, many took comfort in reflecting upon the words of a charismatic man whose soaring rhetoric and call to service continues to inspire. “Today, we honor his memory and celebrate his enduring imprint on American history,” President Barack Obama declared.