eight senators he was about to profile for processing quote the breathtaking talent of the orator compay kennedy, the brilliance of the scholar, well may be kennedy the breadth of the man not yet kennedy and a belief in the integrity and rightness of their cause and call these heroic men people who had quote failed with the wind until the decisive moment when their conscience and offense propelled them into the center of the storm. well, this is what happened to kennedy in june of 1963. the offense were first the terrifying close brush with nuclear war that happened during the cuban missile crisis and the secret correspondence with khrushchev that followed right to the rest of kennedy's presidency and the brutal suppression of african-american demonstrators in birmingham alabama in the spring of 60. in two successive days in june 1963 kennedy delivered speeches in which he had last married to power the presidency to the poetry of his words and became more irish than harvard. in his june 10 commencement address at american university here denounced his own unilateral suspension of nuclear tests t