US president John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot dead on November 22, 1963, as he travelled with his wife Jacqueline in a motorcade through downtown Dallas, Texas. His suspected killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, was gunned down two days later by a nightclub owner, Jack Ruby, as he was being transferred from the city jail.
We look at the Post’s coverage of the assassination and the outpouring of grief in the days that followed.
President Kennedy assassinated — shot by sniper during Texas procession
Hong Kong mourns death of Kennedy — ‘consequences for all,’ says governor
The Post covered the local reaction to the president’s death in a piece published on November 24, 1963.
Hong Kong yesterday joined the world in mourning the death by an assassin’s bullet of the president of the United States, Mr John F. Kennedy.
The governor, Sir Robert Black, expressed “horror and surprise at the shocking news” and cancelled all his engagements.
He sent his deepest sympathies to the late president’s family and to the people of the United States on behalf of the government of the colony.
Flags were flown at half-mast throughout Hong Kong — at Government House on all government buildings and vessels on US and Royal Naval ships in the harbour, from US businesses and local banking and commercial houses.
Throughout the colony, newspapers quickly sold out as crowds of surprised and shocked people sought further information about the shooting.
Last night Radio Hongkong and Commercial Radio broadcast special programmes on the late president on their English and Chinese services. The English service gave a biography entitled “Tribute to the President” and another entitled “Death of the President — Hongkong’s reaction”.
In the Radio Hongkong programme, the governor said that the news had been “extremely difficult to take” when it came through. He said that he could not see all of its implications yet.
“The crude, senseless, murderous circumstances of Mr Kennedy’s death and the anguish of it all for his widow and family to blot out of the circumstances, even when one tries to see beyond the feeling of frustration sticks to one, the meaningless waste, the destruction of quality,” the governor said.
Leadership crisis
In an editorial published on November 25, 1963, the Post reflected on the potential geopolitical fallout from US president Kennedy’s murder.
President Kennedy’s death, so deplorable for many reasons will be felt in the months ahead as a particularly grievous blow to the Western world.
For there will be a strong temptation on the part of some members of the Communist bloc to exploit this sudden reversal in fortunes after the ascendancy the West gained under Mr Kennedy.
A prolonged stand-easy in the cold war while the West recovers from the shock of the president’s dastardly assassination is unlikely to be granted by Peking even if Mr Kruschev would rather not force Mr [Lyndon] Johnson’s hand too soon.
Reactions in Peking
The Post reported on China’s coverage of the Kennedy assassination in a piece published on November 24, 1963.
Chinese newspapers today carried inside page reports of the assassination of president Kennedy and portrayed president Johnson as a “firm supporter of all Kennedy’s reactionary policies”.
All the newspapers printed identical 300-word factual reports summarising Friday’s dramatic events in the United States without comment, omitting only the capture of a suspected assassin.
Hong Kong pays its respects to late president
The Post also covered the memorial ceremonies held at Hong Kong’s protestant and catholic cathedrals on November 26, 1963.
Hong Kong yesterday paid its respects to the late president of the United States, Mr John F. Kennedy, with five memorial services.
Heading the list of dignitaries attending was his Excellency the Governor, Sir Robert Black.
At St John’s Cathedral the memorial service opened with a hymn, during which an escort of three American Marines carried the American flag draped in mourning and handed it to the Rt Rev R. O. Hall, Bishop of Hong Kong. As Bishop Hall placed it before the altar, the American National Anthem was sung.
At the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Caine Road, a full congregation attended a solemn Requiem Mass for the repose of the soul of the late president.
Grateful American
The assassination prompted some readers of the Post to send in their reactions to Kennedy’s death.
The tragic death of president Kennedy is an incalculable loss to the free world and indent to men everywhere who love freedom and justice.
In their hour of deep bereavement we pray God that Mrs Kennedy, her children and all those who are related to them and the President may receive some consolation in the knowledge that their personal loss is genuinely shared by millions throughout the world.
At no time in the history of mankind has the world been threatened with something even worse than total destruction and for three years President Kennedy bore the enormous burden of the free world’s security on his shoulders.
AC Fleming
I do not attempt to speak for other Americans living in Hong Kong. However, I should like to express my own gratitude. It has been a rather wonderful revelation to me to observe the very genuine shock and sorrow felt by many people other than Americans in this colony at the death of our late president John F. Kennedy.
Grateful American