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Moon Shot
John F. Kennedy valued courage.
“He sought out those people who had demonstrated in some way, whether it was on a battlefield or a baseball diamond, in a speech or fighting for a cause, that they had courage,” wrote his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, roughly a month after the president was assassinated in 1963.
During his presidency, John F. Kennedy exhibited courageous decision-making, averting near war with the Soviet Union. The Cuban missile crisis was sparked in 1962 after the U.S. uncovered evidence of Soviet arms in Cuba, including nuclear missiles. The Joint Chiefs of Staff favored air strikes to respond to the threat. Kennedy preferred a blockade.
The Joint Chiefs “had decades of institutional knowledge and military planning behind them when they gave President Kennedy their recommendation for air strikes and a subsequent invasion of Cuba,” wrote Dan Martins, a naval helicopter pilot, in the Naval War College Review in 2018. But Kennedy wanted to avoid all-out war. Ultimately, he managed to do so without dropping a single bomb.
Last month, I visited the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. It’s a striking building designed by the architect I.M. Pei that overlooks Boston Habor, and the exhibits focus on the tough decisions Kennedy had to make during the Cold War.
I left Boston with an appreciation for Kennedy’s courage and sense of vision. During his presidency, he vastly expanded the U.S. space program. John Glenn Jr. orbited Earth in February 1962, the first American to do so. Months later, Kennedy called for a mission to the moon. He never saw the moon landing in 1969, but he set the stage for it.
In Bank Director’s training programs, we advocate for courage in the boardroom. That can mean going against the grain during deliberations; it can also be as simple as asking, “Why?” when a director doesn’t understand something.
But aligning behind a long-term vision can be equally critical. In Bank Director’s 2024 Governance Best Practices Survey, 20% of directors and CEOs told us their board lacked long-term vision — and I suspect the problem could be more pervasive.
Creating a clear vision that surpasses your own time at an organization can be hard work. Kennedy knew that but pushed forward anyway. “We choose to go to the Moon,” he said in 1962, “and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
• Emily McCormick, vice president of editorial & research for Bank Director
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