JFK’s original 3-page handwritten draft for his speech, announcing his intention to run for the Presidency in 1960. JFK writes on North Ocean Boulevard Palm Beach, Florida stationary, also included three additional typed pages with JFK annotated revisions, as well as a third draft of two typed pages with additional JFK hand revisions including the famous line that ended this announcement, "It is with this image that I begin this campaign."
An extraordinary and historically significant John F. Kennedy artifact: "I am announcing today my candidacy for the Presidency of the United States."
The three-page handwritten draft, in full: “I am announcing today my candidacy for the Presidency of the United States. The Presidency is the most powerful office in the World. Through its leadership can come a more vital life for our people. In it are centered the hopes of the globe around us for a freedom and a more secure life. For 18 years I have been in the service of the United States, first as a naval officer in the 2nd World War, and for the past 14 years as a member of the Congress of the US. I have always had an image of America, as fulfilling a noble and historic role as the defender of liberty in a time of maximum peril—and of the American people as confident, courageous and persevering. I seek the Presidency for in that office in the next decade will be determined whether war or peace is to be our fate, and whether the heritage of freedom so forcefully guarded for us from our earliest beginnings can be spread through a war torn world.” Kennedy makes corrections throughout the text, striking through several words, which were incorporated into his final version that was delivered on January 2, 1960.
Kennedy's revisions and corrections appear on the additional typed drafts, including his famous closing line: "It is with this image that I begin this campaign."
