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JFK appeared in Washington in an eventful month for the country, world

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Observer-Reporter

President John F. Kennedy appears outside the George Washington Hotel in Washington on Oct. 13, 1962. In the backseat of the car with him are Richardson Dilworth, the Democratic candidate for governor of Pennsylvania in that year’s election, and sitting Gov. David L. Lawrence.

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Observer-Reporter

President John F. Kennedy visiting Washington on Oct. 13, 1962.

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President John F. Kennedy in the George Washington Hotel on Oct. 13, 1962

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Observer-Reporter

President John F. Kennedy addresses a crowd outside the Washington County Courthouse on Oct. 13, 1962. Kennedy was making a campaign swing through the region.

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Cecil Stoughton/White House Photographs/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

President John F. Kennedy’ motorcade arriving in Monessen on Oct. 13, 1962.

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Cecil Stoughton/White House Photographs/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

President John F. Kennedy addressing a crowd in Monessen on Oct. 13, 1962.

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President John F. Kennedy addressing the crowd in downtown Washington on Oct. 13, 1962

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President John F. Kennedy and a crowd outside the Washington County Courthouse on Oct. 13, 1962

The 1960s were packed with eventful months, but few can match October 1962 for the number of truly momentous things that unfolded in its 31 days.

The Beatles’ first single, “Love Me Do,” was released in Britain, on the same day that “Dr. No,” the first James Bond film, hit theaters in the UK. In this country, Johnny Carson took the helm at “The Tonight Show,” and the University of Mississippi was roiled when James Meredith, the institution’s first Black student, showed up for classes while escorted by U.S. Marshals.

Oh, and the fate of civilization also hung precariously in the balance when the United States and the Soviet Union faced off in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

It was also a month when politics took the fore in the United States, as candidates for governor, Senate, the House and an array of local and state positions tried to rouse their supporters before midterm elections on Tuesday, Nov. 6. In the weeks before the vote, President John F. Kennedy took to the hustings, making appearances for Democratic candidates in hotly contested races. In that push, Kennedy made a two-day swing through the Pittsburgh region, stopping in Aliquippa and Pittsburgh on Friday, Oct. 12, and then Monessen, McKeesport and Washington on Saturday, Oct. 13.

In that era, Washington and most of the other counties that surrounded Pittsburgh were Democratic strongholds and were vital in Kennedy’s narrow victory in Pennsylvania over Richard Nixon in the election two years before – Kennedy carried the commonwealth with 116,000 votes out of 5 million cast, and took 58% of the vote in Washington County and 60% of the total in Fayette County.

Kennedy came to the area to motivate supporters to go to the polls for Sen. Joseph Clark, the incumbent Democrat, and Richardson Dilworth, the mayor of Philadelphia who was hoping to replace term-limited Democrat David L. Lawrence in the governor’s mansion.

“I want to express a great appreciation for you for coming out on a Saturday morning,” Kennedy told the crowd that had gathered outside the Washington County Courthouse. “I think you probably know why we’re here. We’re here for the Democratic Party. We’re here to elect Democratic candidates.”

Kennedy went on to lambaste Republicans for not supporting his legislative priorities, and said, “They can tell you what they’re against, but they can’t tell you what they are for.”

He went on to say, “What kind of country do you want to live in 1962 and 1963 and 1964? There isn’t anyone here who wasn’t a beneficiary of what Franklin Roosevelt did in the 1930s. Now what are we going to do in the 1960s?”

Kennedy’s trip to Washington was the first time a sitting president visited the city since Benjamin Harrison came to the city for a funeral in 1892. No other sitting president has done so since. A sign proclaiming “Welcome Mr. President” was placed between two pillars outside the courthouse. Despite the region’s political leanings and strong support for Kennedy two years before, there were some protesters in the throng. One held up a sign saying “JOBS, NOT JIBES,” and another said, simply, “TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK.”

After Kennedy’s 15-minute address, he and his entourage enjoyed some downtime in a suite at the George Washington Hotel, watching the Army-Navy football game on television.

The Observer and The Reporter were separate newspapers in those days, and both offered extensive coverage of the president’s visit. On the Observer’s opinion page, the response was fairly muted: “Many of those who hear him will be persons who are greatly opposed to his political theories and his record in office, but it is to be expected that all of them will respect the office to which he was elected two years ago….Respect does not necessarily mean agreement.”

Kennedy’s assistance for Dilworth was not enough to push the candidate over the finish line – he was defeated handily the following month by Republican Bill Scranton, who took 55% of the vote to Dilworth’s 44%. Washington, Greene and Fayette counties were among the five counties Dilworth carried in the state. Clark did, however, manage to win another six-year term, narrowly defeating Republican James E. Van Zandt 51% to 48%.

The president’s swing through the Pittsburgh region on mild autumn days was a breeze compared to the emergency he confronted when he returned to Washington, D.C. On the following Tuesday, Kennedy was presented with evidence that the Soviet Union was placing medium range ballistic missiles in Cuba, turning the temperature up to boiling in the Cold War.

For a handful of days, the possibility of a nuclear war breaking out between the United States and the Soviet Union seemed all too tangible. On Monday, Oct. 22, Kennedy announced a blockade of Cuba, and the Soviet Union called it “despotic” and an act of aggression. The crisis finally reached a resolution and the world heaved a sigh of relief by the following weekend, when the United States agreed to remove missiles from Italy and Turkey if the Soviet Union followed suit in Cuba.

At the time, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk said, “We were eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fella just blinked.”

Later on, Robert McNamara, Kennedy’s defense secretary, reflected on how close he believed the world came to a conflagration: “It was a perfectly beautiful night, as fall nights are in Washington, D.C. I walked out of the Oval Office, and, as I walked out, I thought I might never live to see another Saturday night.”

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