Mar. 10, 1962 - President Kennedy's speech in Miami Beach

Mar. 10, 1962 - President Kennedy declared tonight that the U.S. must be prepared to “shoulder the burden” of meeting the threat of communism abroad for the next 10 to 20 years. Otherwise, he told 3,000 Democrats at a dinner party in Miami Beach, “the whole cause of freedom fails.” The U.S., he declared, had become “the source of strength for the entire free world.” And it would be for this achievement, he said, that this generation of Americans would be longest remembered. Mr. Kennedy also took the unusual step of intervening openly in Florida’s Democratic primary. He urged the renomination of Senator George A. Smathers and Rep. Dante B. Fascell, both of whom have opponents in the primary May 8. A major accomplishment of the dinner was to raise more than $300,000 for the party, much of which will be used to finance efforts to win the four new House seats the state will have in the next Congress. Each diner paid $100 a plate for roast beef served in the ballroom of the Fontainebleau Hotel.