john fitzgerald kennedy. the thirty fifth president of the united states. the youngest man to hold the office and a tower figure in american history. his life, his death and the almost mythological shadow he left behind hold a unique place in our collective fascination. in the next hour, we are looking back at the moments, the celebrity and his lasting impact. but we begin with the arena of politics. history tends to cling most fervently to moments of change and despite the divisive politics in this country, it's hard to dismiss john f. kennedy as the faceof change in 1960's america. he was young, charismatic and intoxicatingly charming. all of which bled through on a new campaign tool known as television. "let me say first that i accept the nomination of the democratic party." *cheers in 1960, the american people had two very different choices for their next president of the united states. either richard nixon, president eisenhower's vice president for the last eight years, a mark of 1950's conservatism. "we are proud to offer the best eight-year record of

one of their problems was many of the important people who were dead, john and robert kennedy were dead. as well as desmond fitzgerald and edmond dulles from cia. during the investigation itself, more people showed up dead. sam giancono who was part of the castro plots was shot in the mouth five times before being interviewed by the church committee. and johnny roselli also major part of the plots did testify before the committee a few times, but then disappeared and his body was found in a 55-gallon oil drum floating off the coast of florida. so the basic question of whether u.s. presidents, specifically eisenhower and kennedy for the most part, was the focus authorize these plots, the committee ran headlong into an inpet traitable fog. one national security staffer named robert swron son did say that he was at an nsc meeting when eisenhower ordered the assassination, and he was shocked at the time that this had occurred, but he couldn't remember for the committee the exact words used. the committee pinpointed the particular meeting in which this had to be, august 18th, 1960 meeting, and it's within a month of that