JFK 50 Years On BBC News Special

I'm Tim Wilcox in London with Nick Bryant in Dallas for this BBC news

special as America remembers President Kennedy. It is 50 years

since he was assassinated with the shots that reverberated around the

world. 50 years ago, Dallas was known as

America's city of hate but today it is a place of Atonement.

50 years ago today on the 22nd of November, President Kennedy was

shot. He was 46 years old and barely halfway through his first term in

the White House. His short`lived residency was perhaps the most

elaborate America has ever known that we will never know what kind of

president he would have become. Let us take you live now to Dallas which

is the focal point of commemorations. Dozens of people

have gathered in the Park. Our correspondent is among them. This is

the first official memorial of the assassination.

Yes, Dallas has always been very embarrassed about its role that day.

Many people urged President Kennedy not to come here because it was

simply too dangerous. One of his senior officials had been attacked

only a few weeks before and there were concerns about his safety. But

he received a rapturous welcome as he drove through this grates that

Mac `` the streets of Dallas. That was when American history took a

very ugly diversion. When it went on an alternative path.

So many conspiracy theories ever since that day. Are those recognised

today in Dallas as well? Not in the official commemorations.

There is a convention of conspiracy theorists that has met over the past

few days in Dallas and as you walk around, often conspiracy theorists

will come up to you and posit there own theories about what happened

that day. Many do not believe that Lee Harvey Oswald could have carried

out the assassination on his own. But so many of the other conspiracy

theorists sound plausible. Let us look at those events and

Dallas half a century ago and how they have shaped and divided

America's view of John F. Kennedy. Dallas Texas and the most beautiful

couple who had ever occupied White House were about to embark on a

journey which changed America and the world. Instantly iconic. The

images are so familiar. The welcoming crowds, the open top

limousine. It appears as though something has

happened in the motorcade. This film, the last moments but we cannot

show you the last frames because they are just too horrible to watch.

President Kennedy has been assassinated. The president is

dead. He was 46 years old. His fleeting

presidency lasted little more than 1000 days. This man was a reporter

that day. He was opposite from where the three shots rang out.

50 years later I am in the same spot and I can see the car turn and if I

face its eye will see the whole ten seconds again in slow motion. The

impact is indescribable. The official version is that Lee

Harvey Oswald, a former US marine, was responsible. Two days later, he

himself was gunned down. Many people still find it

inconceivable that a 24`year`old loner could gunned down the

president on his own. But many of the conspiracy theories are even

more implausible. We still do not have a definitive account of what

happened at the world 's most famous crime scene.

Now that we know that Mac nor do we now hope resident Kennedy's

presidency would have unfolded. We all get to decide how his story

could have ended. We will be discussing the legacy and

those conspiracy theorists with our guests but let us go to a producer

at the BBC involved in social media. What sort of reaction has there

been? JFK is obviously a has to go figure

but he is very present on social media. It has become a global

conversation. We have people from around the world, Asia and Africa,

messaging about the assassination. Lots of them caught their favourite

quotes from JFK. The most favourite is, as not what your country can do

for you but what you can do for your country. He is very much a global

figure and his legacy lives on. The comment is often made, where

were you when the assassination happens? How many people are you

seeing comments from who were around at that time or is it a younger

audience? Many people would have been in

school at the time but the younger people, teenagers and those in their

early 20s, they are exploring more about JFK. If you go to sites like

YouTube you see a resurgence of people uploading archive material of

John F. Kennedy. These are people in their 20s and their teenage years.

Let us speak to a couple of guests, a professor of American history and

a former White House correspondent. The big question is what might have

been. America is divided on that, isn't it? It has to be if he is not

there to answer the question. He was only president for two and a half

years so perhaps the trajectory wasn't as clear as it might have

been. Look at Vietnam for example, or the

Bay of pigs. Which he have taken trips out of Vietnam?

There is evidence on either side. You can see in his performance after

the Bay of Pigs, good judgement because he didn't just trust the

easy answers. The optimistic scenario is that he would've made

more efforts at world peace. One of the things is that you can

put your own ending on story. We want to see growth in office. He was

the youngest American president in history and clearly made a mistake

in the Bay of Pigs but he learned from those by the time of the Cuban

missile crisis and knew not to put your opponent in a corner.

Many thought he wasn't qualified enough for the role as president.

Importantly, he stepped up and acknowledged his responsibility and

his ratings went up. He also moved forward with the first regular test

ban treaty as well which was important in the Cold War. `` first

the . It is a very strange story. I

happen to believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman. All the

strange physical evidence. In the current age there would be a million

photographs and videos and because triangulate everything. `` they

could triangulate. This is what always happens in complicated

events. Princess Diana's death as well. You can always make a

conspiracy. We can see the can is `` the service

now beginning. Let us listen in to who is going to be speaking at this

commemoration in Dallas. BAGPIPES PLAY.

If you are just joining us, you are watching a BBC News special focusing

on this commemoration service in Dallas, Texas 50 years after the

assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This is the first official

memorial held in the city. The ceremony has started now and is

carefully harry aircraft to coincide with the time that President

Kennedy's motorcade passed through these packed downtown streets in

Dallas 50 years ago. Thousands turned out to greet the president

and his wife on that particular day. Very different weather, right,

sunny, cold. All mighty endeavour the full god,

today we lift up our minds and hearts to you because you lot have

lifted us up from the horrible tragedy enacted in this place, from

the cruel suffering that was born on this hill. From the shock and horror

that gripped our nation and from the years when we as citizens of the

city suffered and were implicated by the gun shot by one man that killed

a president in whom many of us had set our hopes and streams for a

better America. `` hopes and dreams. It was your abiding inspiration and

active presence among us, Lord, that moved us ever followed, despite the

temptation only to lament and be paralysed by day. `` by grief. Yet

under our sorrow into a firm commitment to move forward. Yet

turned our grief into a resolve to refashion our city to a place where

life flourishes and true love abounds. You turned our devastation

to a commitment to rebuild here this city of God, a city where all are

welcomed, nurtured and cared for. We rejoice with gratitude in all that

you have caused to happen here and a place that was disgraced, scorned

and ruthlessly judged by ourselves and others. May your heavenly Father

continue to sustain us as we celebrate that the Phoenix has risen

from the ashes of violence. That hatred can be turned into harmony.

That ignorance can seemed to understanding. That prejudice can

read to open this. `` leads to openness. Vickers instruments of

your peace and help us always temper instinct with mercy. That changes

what appears to be defeat to the reality fed by providence that all

will be well. Lord, may you walk always with us. May you inspire

others as you once inspired President John Fitzgerald Kennedy to

dream of a world that never was and to say, why not? May God bless the

United States of America. That was from a bishop of the

Catholic dioceses there. Now we're going to hear from the Mayor of

Dallas. And you either don't `` a new rear

adorned and another waned half a century ago. When hope and hatred

collided in Dallas. We watched the nightmarish reality that in our

front yard, our president had been taken from us. Taken from his

family, taken from the world. John Fitzgerald Kennedy's presidency, his

life and yes, his death, seemed a mythological weight usher in ``

seemed to mythological weight usher in the next 50 years. What ensued

was five decades filled with other tragedies, turmoil and grey trials.

`` great triumphs. We were all very young. Our lives... We had our hopes

and dreams in front of us. Dallas was very young as well. Be only one

century old. Not even one century old. In youth, we all felt

invincible. It seems we all grew up that day. Suddenly, we had to step

up to try and live up to the challenges of the words and visions

of a beloved president. Our collective hearts were broken. Like

so many of us who were too young to fully comprehend, I remember being

called into the school gymnasium, hearing the terrible news and told,

go home. Stunned civic leaders at the luncheon and waited a president

who would never arrive. Crowds prayed outside the hospital, traffic

stopped across cities in the country as news spread from car to car. And

the world grieved with us. Newspapers reported that flags were

lowered to half staff around the globe. Germans on both side of the

Berlin Wall placed candles in Windows. And eight`year`old Nigerian

girl recited the entire inaugural address from memory. Her father

wept, just like the skies today. Well the past is never in the past.

This was a lifetime ago. Now today, we the people of Dallas on the

life, legacy and leadership of the man who called us to not think of

our own interest, but of our country. We give thanks for his life

and service. We offer condolences to his family, especially his daughter

Caroline, on this difficult day. We pay tribute to an idealist without

illusions, who helped build a more just and equal world. We salute a

commander`in`chief who stepped down a nuclear threat to this country. We

praise a writer who profiled true courage and modelled it himself. We

applaud a bed is many `` a visionary who promoted peace around the globe.

We stand in the dreamer who challenged us to literally reach for

the moon, though he himself would not live to see us achieve that

goal. Other goals were even tougher. Have taken longer to reach. We use

the net `` we the United States still struggle to what some as we

speak, as to be in Dallas. But we are fortified by the knowledge we

have always had big goals and big aspirations in the city, set by our

founding fathers like John Bryan and George Daley, the namesake of this

plaza. It is re`energised by the Mayor who led Dallas in the

post`assassination years. These five decades have seen as... As `` have

seen as go from existential vulnerability to greater maturity as

a city and community. On the one Yannis Crime and Courts Bill `` on

the one`year anniversary of the assassination, one of our city's

latest spiritual leaders gave voice to Dallas's communal pain that was

unleashed on that day. He said on that day, quart, contrary to the

impassioned judgement of that horrible moment, the city is not

guilty of the crime. But in those Sundays following the

assassination, the most powerful searchlight man possesses was

focused on this city. Every floor Kamara `` every floor, everyone spot

and wrinkle and an cleanness was put under a microscope and shown to the

world. He continued, the city of rich palaces and told tales of

commerce or sit amidst slums and hovels. The powerful light shone

upon it and the city was shown to be inhospitable to honourable debate.

The rabbi captured the heartbreak and hacked the city felt. He stated

plainly the defects and feelings that were laid bare before the

entire world. Most important, he called for Dallas to use this

tragedy to seek a true transformation. Look around today. I

believe we have heeded that call. The people of this city have been

filled with a sense of industry born of tragedy. Driven to improve the

substance of Dallas, not just the image of it. Today, because of the

hard work of many people, Dallas is a different city. I believe the new

Frontier did not and that day end. `` did not end that day. I believe

President Kennedy would be pleased with our humble efforts towards

fulfilling our country's highest calling, that of providing the

opportunity for all citizens to exercise those rights of life,

liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The city of Dallas will

continue on that course. The man we remember today give us a gift that

will not be squandered. He and our city will forever be linked in

tragedy, yes, but out of that tragedy, an opportunity was granted

to us. The chance to learn how to face the future when it is the

darkest and most uncertain. How to hold high the torch, even when the

flame flickers and threatens to gloat. `` go out. As the people of

Dallas did then, each of us will meet our oncoming challenges head`on

with courage , honouring but not living in the past. And never

flinching from the truth. We will make the future with the same

vigour, optimism and unfailing sense of duty that our young president in

body. `` our young president embodied. President Kennedy plotters

that message will stop `` brought us that message. In his pocket, then

that's great, in 1963. That message was to be delivered in a speech a

couple of miles away following his parade. It was a speech he never got

to make. But those unspoken words resonate far beyond the life of the

man. To commemorate that day and those words, we are unveiling a

model right here in the systolic plaza `` historic plaza. It has the

last lines of his undelivered speech and will serve as a reminder and

permanent monument to President Kennedy's memory. I leave you with

those resonant words. We in this country, in this generation, are by

destiny rather than choice the watchmen on the walls of world

freedom. We may be worthy of our power and responsibility. That we

may exercise your strength with wisdom and restraint. And that we

might achieve in our time and for all time, the ancient vision of

peace on earth, goodwill toward men. That must always be our goal.

And the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength.

For as was written long ago, accent the Lord, it keep this city, the

watchman weakest but in vain. `` the watchmen wake. Would you join me in

a moment of silence in honour of the life of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

# America, America # God shine his grace on the

#. # # America, America

# God shed his grace on the # And bring thy good with

brotherhood # From sea to shining sea. #

# America, America # Until all success be nobleness. #

As we listen to this, some first thoughts.

This seems to be more about Dallas than about John F Kennedy. You are

right. This was a tribute organised by the city fathers and mothers of

Dallas. It is not a national ceremony. It has a parochial feel.

It is, however, important for Dallas. This has been a stain on

their reputation and psychology, and they look at this as a chance to

finally expiate this long legacy of unhappiness. Would you agree that it

is exorcising the Demons? Absolutely. It was a maudlin

performance. You heard the mayor and he did not talk about the fact that

there were schoolchildren celebrating and cheering at the news

of events in Dallas that day. In many ways, you have to question the

appropriateness of this. There was very little of John F Kennedy in

what we heard today. Let's go back, because we are going to be hearing

now from an author and historian. Let's listen in for a phrase or two

and discuss what we were talking about in more depth. Unity of

purpose, education, the life of the mind and the spirit, art, poetry,

service to one's country, and the courage to move forward into the

future because of peace on earth. His was the inspiring summons to

serve, to hard work and worthy accomplishment, a summons we longed

for. He was an optimist, and he said so, but there was no sidestepping

reality in what he said, no resorting to stale old platitudes.

He spoke to the point and with confidence. He knew words mattered.

His words changed lives. His words changed history. Historian David

McCulloch, addressing the 5000 people who had won those seats in

the Plaza area, selected by ballot. Many fewer than half a century ago

when many thousands turned out to see President Kennedy. With me in

the studio for this special news coverage of the 50th anniversary of

the assassination of John F Kennedy, Jeff McAllister, a former White

House correspondent. Just picking up on the expiate of Dallas' guilt, you

talked about the schoolchildren who were celebrating on the streets

then. Explain the political context to the problems here for JFK, and

why he was actually advertised not to go. We are talking about 50 years

ago, but Dallas was known as the hate capital of Dixie. Before JFK

visited, you had the former UN ambassador of the United Nations

spat on and hit. A similar reception greeted Lyndon Johnson. Kennedy was

warned not to go. There was concern about the overall political climate

there. When he arrived there were flyers going out accusing him of

treason. This was a very white `` right`wing town at that point. There

was no doubt he was facing down a lot of hate. He was trying to

reconcile divisions within the Democratic party, between the member

of Congress and the governor, trying to get his chips in line for the

forthcoming election in 19 64, in which Texas would have been

essential because of its electoral college votes. That desire to keep

the Democrats united, did that colour other policy decisions, or

lack of, in those 1000 days when he was in office? Well, the civil

rights crisis, I would say, was the fundamental place where he has been

accused of protecting his electoral chances. You can quite understand

it. Southern senators still ran the show. It took his death, and the

tremendous electoral victory of Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and his

command of the Senate to be able to get the civil rights ill through.

You can understand why Kennedy was reluctant to push faster on civil

rights. But he was a tactical politician, as he had to be. Looking

at his victory, it was a narrow victory, wasn't it? You could say

maybe it was the voting machines that Mayor Daley's people through

into the lake in Lake Michigan that meant Richard Nixon was not

resident. It was narrow as you could get. It was the hanging chad.

Exactly. He was doing well and his electoral ratings were going up that

he had a substantial problem to solve in getting re`elected. If

Barry Goldwater had been his opponent, he could have romped

home, not as heavily as Lyndon Johnson, but he did not know that at

the time. James, as a TV politician, photogenic with the family, I think

it was Jacquie who was the one who coined the phrase, but the oratory,

was he a consistent performer, or did he just have a very good team

behind him? What is interesting is the distinction between John F

Kennedy as Senator and as president. No one expected the

inaugural. That came out of the ether. From then on, he and his

keyword Smith coined some of the most memorable phrases in American

presidential history. If you look across the history of American

presidency, presidents say very little that is memorable, and most

of those that are memorable come from this 1000 days in office. It is

remarkable how quotable John F Kennedy is. Just when you think,

this is my favourite, you are reminded, hang on, there is the

American University speech, for example. So many commentators talk

about not just 1000 days, but the 1000 nights. Do you think he would

have survived in the modern media age? Do you think there was always a

risk that it would have caught up with him? I think it would have

caught up with him during his presidency because it was too widely

known and he had enemies. It is amazing he got away with what he did

get away with. The press corps was complicit in some sense. I think

because of the number of women and the profligacy of effect that he was

unbelievable. Almost risky deliberately. It could well have

caught up with him. Maybe not before the election, but certainly by the

end of another four years. He also had medical problems which he hid.

He had a lot of secrets he kept. And yet he is somebody who Democratic

presidents have invoked the memory of all the way through, knowing all

that. There is that famous picture of Bill Clinton greeting him as a

student. One imagines what they would have done with that when

Clinton was campaigning, had the truth be known. To be fair, the

truth was known when Clinton was campaigning. Not only Democrats but

Republicans as well try to model themselves. We used to mock Dan

Quayle but one of the reasons he was chosen by Republicans was because it

was believed he had an element of Kennedy to him and he would get the

young women of America. One thing John F Kennedy did know how to do

was how to spell. You have seen Bill Clinton riding the Kennedy

bandwagon, and most recently, Barack Obama. The legacy of him, despite

all of the scandals that could have exploded in his face, how do you see

him now, and the impact he has impressed on American politics? I am

one of those whose first political memory was his assassination. I was

seven and I had the experience of my teacher running into the classroom

crying, because he had been shot. I watched television with my family

for days after. I grew up thinking about him and under his spell, to a

degree. I would say that despite some of the paltry accomplishments

that you can put to him in his two and a half years in the presidency,

the fact that he knew how to communicate in a new way, and in the

television age, and with the kind of economy and depth of almost moral

purpose in his own words, made for a lasting legacy. That call to do

something more than what you think you can do, for a greater purpose,

which is identified with him, I think it still does live in his name

and affects politics subsequently. Other presidents wish they could do

it as well as he was able to. Bubbly it can never be done again in the

same way. `` probably. But that cultural inheritance is an important

legacy. And a poetry that connected with the common man. Nick Bryant is

watching those events. How would you describe the mood of the people

where you are? Listening to those speeches by the Mayor and the

Cardinal, the Bishop beforehand, really making this so much about the

city, linked forever with the assassination of a president. This

is partly about Dallas, as well as JFK. There is a mood of atonement

here from city officials, who wanted to have this commemoration. They

have never done this in the 50 years since his death. They wanted to

gather people almost to say sorry for our role in this, as the mayor

said. The city will forever be linked with what was one of the most

ugly and formative days in American history. Part of this is to expunge

some of the guilt that lingers around it, as we have heard. Dallas

was the city of hate. Those leaflets that were circulated on the day dash

wanted for treason, with a criminal looking Kennedy's photo on the

cover. This is partly about Dallas, this ceremony, as well as about JFK.

The mood is referential, people who want to come here to remember John F

Kennedy. People had applied for this for months. Tickets were scarce.

People had to go through an application process and security

checks to get here. There was the fear that some people might try to

hijack the event for violent ends. But the mood is one of great

reverence for the JFK. Even though, as you have been discussing, his

legacy is contested. It is at contradictory legacy. And now the

naval choir are singing the Battle hymn of the Republic behind me.

# His truth is marching on # Glory, glory, hallelujah

# His truth is marching on. # # I have seen Him in the watch`fires of

a hundred circling camps. # They have builded Him an altar in

the evening dews and damps. # I can read His righteous sentence

by the dim and flaring lamps. # His truth is marching on.

# Glory, glory, hallelujah! # Glory, glory, hallelujah!

# Glory, glory, hallelujah! # His day is marching on.

# In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea.

# With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.

# As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.

# While God is marching on. # Glory, glory, hallelujah!

# Since God is marching on. Our closing prayer will be delivered

by the pastor emeritus of the United Methodist Church.

Let us pray. Oh, God, I hope in ages past and for years to come, send us

forth to claim the brand`new future that you continue to offer us beyond

our tragedies and our triumphs. And as we go forth, grant that we may

not be sitting where we have been, or on what we have done, but on

where we are going and what is possible by your Grace for us to

become a beloved community, which celebrates and affirms our unity in

the midst of our God`given diversity. And in the challenging

words of a Franciscan benediction, may God bless us with discomfort and

easy answers, half`truths and superficial relationships, so that

we may live the within our hearts. May God bless us with anger and

injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that we

may work for justice, freedom and peace for all. And may God bless us

with tears to suffer for those who suffer from starvation, rejection

and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn

their pain into joy. And may God bless us with enough foolishness to

believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we

can do together what others claim cannot be done. And so, in the

season of Thanksgiving, we humbly ask these blessings, in the name of

the one God who created us all for the sake of a beloved community, and

in Thanksgiving to God for the inspiring and courageous life and

legacy of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, amen and amen.

Ladies and gentlemen, please stand as we retired the colours.

STUDIO: A closing prayer there, the pastor of Saint Luke's community

United Methodist Church, the colours being taken away from the podium

today on this blustery, cold, rainy day here in Dallas, Texas, a very

different today from the November the 22nd 1966. When he was

assassinated, 50 years ago. And just as we stay with these pictures,

let's just pick up on some of the comments that we have heard in

Dallas there about the legacy. They talk about the legacy of JFK, but

very little fleshed out. What you think we would have seen, at this

never happened? I think we would have seen more difficulty getting a

civil rights bill. I think he probably would have been... I mean,

my bet would be, although it is probably a 51% bed, that they would

have been less enthusiasts for the beard now more than Lyndon Johnson

showed. `` four BBS now in war. Was more interested in making peace with

the Russians and being creative, staring down the forces, including

his own military, spies that wanted to escalate the Cold War. The civil

rights movement? Martin Luther King criticised him for not having a

passion for it. He was not a passionate man in this respect. He

had a sense of the indecency of the continued legacy of slavery in the

American South and in the North, but he was a cautious domestic

politician, and one thinks that his assassination kind of loosed the

theories in some way, opened the bounds of American political

discourse and violence in a way that we saw in a very difficult decade

with the protests over Vietnam and civil rights, too. I think he might

have managed to keep the lid on, because he was a unifying figure in

a way that is very difficult to play out historically. I think his legacy

would have been positive. I said 1966, 1963, of course, apologies for

that. James, the same thought to you, had he survived, do you think

he would have made radical changes to America in that era? I think

America would be a different place, but for somewhat different reasons

than most people might imagine. I think he fought the military in

terms of not sending ground troops into Vietnam, the first ground

troops, the Marines landed in 19 city five after Lyndon Johnson won

an election in his own right. `` 1965. I think he would have been

hesitant to involve himself in beard now, but the civil rights movement

get a real shot in the arm. `` in beard now. `` in Vietnam. He was

warned that the civil rights movement could cost him the

election, and arguably the Democrats lost their stranglehold on the

south, and it has never been retrained, so you see a complete

restructuring of domestic American politics in the 18 months after the

assassination because of Lyndon Johnson's use of the assassination

to get the civil rights movement marching forward. Nick, I am not

sure if you can still hear us, you have spent several days in Dallas

just looking at the preparations for this event. What is your sense of

there about what people there feel might have been the? Luck, I think

that is the reason for the continuing fascination around

Kennedy. `` look. Everyone gets to decide how the fairy tale story

should have ended, and for some it has become a fairy tale. For some,

he is the president who would have saved America from the horrors of

Vietnam, who would have been a racial healer, who might have even

averted Watergate. But there is a darker side that you have been

hearing from your guests. Kennedy was a bystander to the great social

revolution of his age. For the first two and a half years of his

presidency, he delivered a speech about civil rights as a moral issue.

Saying it was as old as the Scriptures and as clear as the US

constitution, but for the first two and a half years he did not want to

speak out in favour of the moral case for dismantling segregation in

the south. He was a president who enlarged America's military

involvement in Southeast Asia and Vietnam. He was a president for whom

scandal would have hit his presidents had he lived, surely,

people would have started to hear about the affairs, it would have

been reported, the White House press corps was complicit, really, in

keeping them under tabs. He would have been a very different figure.

It is hard to imagine, for instance, in becoming a presidential

pensioner. An interesting novel was written about 20 years ago,

imagining what would have happened to that famous picture of Kennedy

and Bill Clinton that was taken in 1963, a moment of almost art theory

and transfer of power, when it seemed like Clinton's future was

preordained when he met Kennedy on the lawn of the White House. That

book imagines a very different version of how the Clinton campaign

were desperate to suppress that photo, they were so worried about

Clinton being associated with a president that was in such disgrace

and whose years were remembered for such scandal. So, in some ways,

Dallas saved President Kennedy from decades of tawdry tabloid headlines,

people uncovering the darker side of Camelot.

Nick Bryant in Dallas, Texas, Jeff McAllister, James Boyce, thank you

very much indeed. We are drawing this special coverage to an end, the

commemoration of the assassination of John F Kennedy in Dallas, Texas,

50 years ago today. Let's just leave you with some of the images from

that ceremony we have just been watching.

The weather is not going to change of the course of the weekend,

broadly speaking it will be cloudy with a bit of sunshine from time to

time, but it will be dry. As far as tonight is concerned, some

frost on the way, temperatures dipping away in rural spots, `5 or

six degrees, but in towns or cities closer to freezing. Certainly below

freezing in some of the bigger places in Scotland, mist and fog

could be freezing first thing in the morning, take it steady for

travelling, slippy in one or two places. Tomorrow, broken cloud

across the vast majority of the country, in the south`west some

sunshine around at temperatures hovering around five or six

degrees. In terms of