Ask Not What Your Country Can

Delivered on January 20, 1961, in Kennedy's Inaugural Address at the U.S. Capitol, spoken to a crowd of more than twenty thousand in near-freezing temperatures. It was the climax of a 1,366-word speech drafted with speechwriter Ted Sorensen and focused on Cold War themes of sacrifice and shared purpose. Kennedy called on citizens of both America and the world to serve the cause of freedom rather than wait on their governments. The speech, the first inaugural address broadcast in color television, inspired a generation and directly contributed to the founding of the Peace Corps that same year.