--- title: President Obama's Iran Deal Speech: This Is the JFK Speech He Quoted description: In addressing the nuclear deal on Tuesday, the president drew on history for support canonical: https://time.com/3956981/jfk-quote-obama-iran-speech/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-14T16:16:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T09:13:42.802Z article:section: History og:title: President Obama's Iran Deal Speech: This Is the JFK Speech He Quoted og:description: The president drew on history to make his case for the nuclear deal og:url: https://time.com/3956981/jfk-quote-obama-iran-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf4ffa698f93df0e/69885abba988ca659e6b36f4/1101610127_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Jan. 27, 1961 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama's Iran Deal Speech: This Is the JFK Speech He Quoted twitter:description: The president drew on history to make his case for the nuclear deal twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf4ffa698f93df0e/69885abba988ca659e6b36f4/1101610127_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is the JFK Speech Obama Just Quoted in His Iran Deal Speech ## Video: Know Right Now: Iran Deal Announced [Watch (HLS stream): Know Right Now: Iran Deal Announced](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ygODFTXh.m3u8) (1:00)  _Published 2015-07-13. Negotiators at the Iran nuclear talks plan to announce Monday that they’ve reached an agreement. Find out more by watching Know Right Now._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 14, 2015 4:16 PM UTC  The Jan. 27, 1961, cover of TIME The Jan. 27, 1961, cover of TIMECover Credit: JIM MAHAN  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 14, 2015 4:16 PM UTC With the [news on Tuesday](http://time.com/3956880/iran-nuclear-deal/) that a nuclear deal had been reached with Iran, President Obama addressed the nation about the long-discussed arrangement. In making the case for the diplomatic reasoning behind the deal, he turned to history to prove that working with opponents does not run counter to American ideals. “This deal is also in line with a tradition of American leadership,” the President said. “It’s now more than 50 years since President Kennedy stood before the American people and said, ‘Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.'” As Obama briefly explained, Kennedy was speaking about the Cold War relationship between the United States and the USSR, and the prospect of working together to limit nuclear proliferation. The speech from which Obama quoted was Kennedy’s very first as president: his inaugural address, delivered on Jan. 20, 1961. Even on the day it was delivered, it was clear, TIME reported that week, that Kennedy’s speech would be long remembered. Those prognosticators were right: that’s the same speech that was home to Kennedy’s famous “ask not what your country can do for you” line. Kennedy started off by acknowledging that the current era was very different from the world of the Founding Fathers, but that it was important to translate their ideals into modern life. To the supporters of democracy, Kennedy pledged that the U.S. would continue to stand for freedom. To enemies, meanwhile, he made a request to try to find whatever common ground there was and, using those shared interests, work for a peaceful future. (But that didn’t mean the president wasn’t also firmly grounded in the worldview of the early ’60s: his vision of peace revolved around the theory of mutually assured destruction.) “Kennedy‘s inauguration speech went beyond mere rhetoric derived from the U.S. past; it had profound meaning for the U.S. future,” TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1961-01-27/page/9/). “In lean, lucid phrases the nation’s new President pledged the U.S. to remain faithful to its friends, firm against its enemies but always willing to bring an end to the cold war impasse.” TIME [quoted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1961-01-27/page/10/) the speech in the issue following the inauguration: --- > “” --- **_Read the 1961 issue about the Kennedy Inauguration, here in the TIME Vault:_**[ The Inauguration of John Fitzgerald Kennedy](http://time.com/vault/issue/1961-01-27/page/1/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3956981/jfk-quote-obama-iran-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3956981/jfk-quote-obama-iran-speech/"},"headline":"This Is the JFK Speech Obama Just Quoted in His Iran Deal Speech","datePublished":"2015-07-14T16:16:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:13:42.802Z","description":"In addressing the nuclear deal on Tuesday, the president drew on history to make his case","url":"https://time.com/3956981/jfk-quote-obama-iran-speech/","keywords":["politics","JFK","White House","Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf4ffa698f93df0e/69885abba988ca659e6b36f4/1101610127_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf4ffa698f93df0e/69885abba988ca659e6b36f4/1101610127_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jan. 27, 1961","caption":"Jan. 27, 1961","creditText":"Cover Credit: JIM MAHAN","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3956981/jfk-quote-obama-iran-speech/","name":"This Is the JFK Speech Obama Just Quoted in His Iran Deal Speech"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Know Right Now: Iran Deal Announced","description":"Negotiators at the Iran nuclear talks plan to announce Monday that they’ve reached an agreement. 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