Bob Schieffer | CBS News: When the President came to Texas, I was a young newspaper reporter covering the crime beat for the Fort Worth Star Telegram. With JFK and his elegant wife Jackie heading our way, for us it was the biggest story of the year. Little could we know history was about to be made. Time stopped cold, in that dark moment, on a Dallas street. The horror of the assassin's shots shattered dreams, and echoed through the decades, coloring our politics, and lives. It was also a watershed moment for American television news, led by CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite. With the death of a president came the birth of live coverage. America shared a national tragedy, as it happened.
Because of television we thought we knew JFK and his family more intimately than any of his predecesors, the man friends simply called, "Jack."
Voice of Rose Kennedy: His father would go out and watch the sailboats...and then he'd say, "Why are your sails flapping while the other one was straight? And the other one won the race and you didn't.... If you're gonna race, why do it right and come in a winner. Second place is no good.Sandy Socolow | Walter Cronkite's producer: John F. Kennedy ... was brought up in an ultra-rich way. Very well educated. ... Very good-looking. Very personable. ... He was extraordinarily self confident.
Schieffer: Sure he was playing the media. ... But the fact is he was just so good at it... that it worked. ... And who could blame him?
1960 Kennedy-Nixon presidential debate rehearsal: Kennedy: It's a pleasure to be here tonight to participate in this program which opens up a series of discussions... is that about the right tone of voice. Richard Nixon: Think I better shave.
Walter Cronkite on the air 1960: And the popular vote ... 84 percent of the precincts counted now ... give Kennedy just a little margin over 50 percent of the vote... Nixon almost 50 percent of the vote. One of the closest elections in our nation's history has been record in this year of 1960.
Schieffer: It was just the difference in night and day. He was the Technicolor President and we had sort of seen the presidency in black and white up until that point. ...Suddenly we had this young handsome president and this gorgeous wife and these beautiful children ... and he is the first president that we came to really know, and we came to know his family and that was because of television.
Schieffer: In those days presidents didn't travel very much and it was a major event. ... They decided to come to Texas because they thought they could raise money there. ... The people were so excited.
Schieffer: The relationship between Lyndon Johnson and John Kennedy was very complex. They were partners. Were they ever friends?
Robert Caro | Author and historian: Not really.
Bob Huffaker | Former KRLD radio reporter: Well the day began gray and cold... there was a misting rain falling and the temperature was cold. Suddenly at mid-morning the skies opened up and it was a beautiful ... blue ... spring-like day.
Caro: We see it, the great plane is gleaming silver in the background, everything is bright under a bright Texas sun, and you hear the television announcer "There she is..."
Reporter: ...and there's Mrs. Kennedy, the first lady stepping from the plane. Wearing a bright pink suit with a dark fur collar and a matching pink hat, and the president wearing a dark suit.Caro: They hand Jackie at the bottom of the stairs this bouquet of roses.
Reporter: She does makes a very striking picture as she clutches the huge bouquet of bright red roses...Caro: He takes Jackie and they walk along the fence. And someone said there was no brighter moment in the Kennedy presidency then that moment at Love Field in Dallas.
Schieffer: They decided because the skies had cleared to take the bubble-top off the presidential limousine.
Reporter: And the president will be riding in the open ... that car was flown in here last night from Washington ...Huffaker: The crowd cheered as the President and his beautiful wife came past us.
Reporter: And now the ticker tape and uh ... other confetti and such is beginning to flow from the windows and the crowd at our point is surging forward. There is a big cheer going up...Schieffer: As they turned to go into the main downtown area, Nelly Connally, who was John Connally's wife ... Governor Connally's wife, turned to the president and said, "Well Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you."
Reporter: ... and here is the President of the United States ... and what a crowd... what a tremendous welcome he is getting now.Huffaker: The crowd just surged out from their points on the sidewalk and filled the street from curb to curb.
Caro: Then they turn off Main Street into this open grassy area, Dealey Plaza, and there's a sharp cracking sound. ...John Connally, I remember saying to me, "I was a hunter. I knew the moment I heard it, it was the crack of a hunting rifle."
Abraham Zapruder film: I was down on this freeway early ... and even the freeway was jammed pack with spectators waiting their chance to see the president as he made his way toward the trade mart ... it appears as though something has happened in the motorcade route ... something I repeat has happened in the motorcade route.Schieffer: Well, it was just pandemonium. It was just a terrible moment.
Caro: So the three cars -- the cars with President Kennedy, the Secret Service car and Johnson's car squeal up the ramp to an expressway ... and then off the expressway and into the emergency bay at Parkland Hospital.
There has been a shooting ... Parkland Hospital has been advised to stand by for a severe gunshot wound.
Socolow: And he couldn't get on the air on television. You never saw Cronkite. You saw a card on the screen.
Cronkite on the air: Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas.Huffaker:
Cronkite on the air: The first reports say the President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting.Schieffer: People were crying. People were just walking around with a blank look on their face. "What does this mean? What's happened?"
Walter Cronkite on the air: This is Walter Cronkite in our newsroom. There has been an attempt, as perhaps you know now, on the life of President Kennedy. He was wounded in an automobile driving from Dallas Airport into downtown Dallas, along with Governor Connally of Texas. They've been taken to Parkland Hospital where their condition is as yet unknown.Dr. Kenneth Salyer: I'm Dr. Kenneth Salyer. And on Nov. 22, 1963, I was on neurosurgery call at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas. ... A nurse ran into the room and said "the President's been shot."
Kennedy trauma room doctor recalls tragic day
Dr. Salyer: When I walked in, my colleagues were at the top of the table in trauma room one ... The president ... had a large, huge jagged injury of the right side of his skull, with pieces missing.
Schieffer: Was he alive?
Dr. Salyer: He was still breathing ... and we were trying to intubate him, get a tube into his windpipe, trachea. ... But it wouldn't go past this wound.
Cronkite on the air: We have not been told their condition. At Dallas, in a downtown hotel room, a group had been gathered to hear President Kennedy and was waiting his arrival. Let's switch down there now where Eddie Barker of KRLD is on the air. Eddie Barker reporting: As you can imagine there are many stories that are coming in now as to the actual condition of the president. One is that he is dead. This cannot be confirmed.Schieffer: Did you think this was survivable?
Dr. Salyer: I didn't make that assessment at the moment I was taking care of him. ... This is a major, high velocity injury.
Huffaker: As I was standing in the crowd, two priests brushed past me...
Voice of Bob Huffaker | KRLD Radio: President Kennedy is on the inside of Parkland Hospital and two priests have just been sent in to the room with the president.Dr. Salyer: As I looked up in the room, in the far back of the room is Mrs. Kennedy. ... blood splattered on her dress. But she was just observing everything, wasn't talking.
Cronkite (1993): My God, who, what, why? Surely the president won't die. I mean, that can't be. He won't die, surely.
Schieffer: How long did that go on?
Dr. Salyer: It seemed like forever. But it was really probably less than 30 minutes.
Cronkite breaks news of President Kennedy's death
Cronkite on the air: From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official: President Kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time, 2:00 eastern time, some 38 minutes ago [takes off glasses, pauses.]Socolow: He stopped in his tracks. ... tough man who understood the momentousness of what he was charged with doing.
Cronkite (1993): It was disbelief that it could have happened, that it had happened.
Dr. Salyer: As I was looking at Mrs. Kennedy and everyone started to exit the room and she came over. We had covered him up ... and she laid on his chest. And took a ring off, and put onto his finger. ... And I thought it was a very touching moment.
Socolow: As the news spread people stopped what they were doing to go to the radio, mostly, but also to television. ... It was the first instance of wall-to-wall news coverage.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: It was one of the most shocking things I'd ever heard. Frankly I was very upset and couldn't adjust to it and could hardly believe it in the beginning. Penny Robinson to Charles Kuralt: Nobody could believe it. It's too... there's no words to express what happened at all.
Charles Kuralt | CBS News 1963: It's true that there are no words to express it and that feeling is obvious all around us on the streets of Los Angeles.
Richard Nixon: Today millions of people throughout the world are trying to find words adequate to express their grief and their sympathy to his family.
Man on the street, NYC: We are sorry. Deeply moved over this incident. This is a dark day in the history of America.
Edward Kennedy: I do want to say how appreciate both my parents have been for the tremendous outpouring of thoughtfulness and prayers that have come from all Americans from all parts of the country.
Man on the street: Someone to do this must be mentally deranged. No clear-thinking human person would ever think of doing something like that.
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