On March 27, 1963, Morocco’s King Hassan II was welcomed to Washington, DC by President John F. Kennedy. On November 22, 2013, the North African leader’s son, Morocco’s reigning King Mohammed VI, meets with President Barack Obama at the White House to carry on the vision that has sustained the Morocco-US strategic partnership since 1787. Click photo for video from JFK Library.
**50 Years Ago – President Kennedy welcomed Morocco’s King Hassan II on visit to the US, on March 27-30, 1963 – Click here to see video of visit**
John F. Kennedy Library and Museum (Boston, Massachusetts, November 19, 2013) — On March 27, 1963, President John F. Kennedy warmly welcomed Moroccan King Hassan II on a three-day state visit to the United States. On November 22, 2013, the North African leader’s son − Morocco’s reigning King Mohammed VI − is visiting the White House at the invitation of President Barack Obama, for meetings to deepen a long friendship and strategic partnership between the two countries that dates back more than two centuries.
The meeting marks a poignant date for both leaders, the fiftieth anniversary of the tragic death of President John F. Kennedy.
Fifty years and eight months earlier, at Union Station in Washington, DC, President Kennedy and King Hassan spoke with eloquence and grace about the common vision and shared values that have sustained the two countries’ partnership for so long. President Kennedy recalled George Washington’s letter to Sultan Mohammed III in 1789, which offered thanks for Morocco’s early help to the new nation and praise for the Morocco-US “Treaty of Friendship and Peace,” now the longest-standing treaty of its kind in US history.
The visit and two leaders remarks were recorded on six-minute and 18-minute film reels that are archived at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.
President Kennedy said:
“Your Majesty, it is a high honor to welcome you to the United States. I am confident that your visit here on this occasion, will be as fruitful and as beneficial to both of our countries, as the visit of your illustrious father, with my predecessor President Eisenhower, several years ago.
“Though a wide ocean separates our two countries, they have been bound together throughout our history. Your country was the first to recognize the United States in the most difficult days of our revolution. Our first president, President Washington, [wrote of] our Constitution to your country in 1789.
“From that day to the present, the ties have been intimate, in war and in peace. We are very proud to welcome you here, your Majesty. Your distinguished record as the leader of your country, which occupies a position of strategic importance in the world, which occupies a position of increasing significance along the Mediterranean, and along the Atlantic, for all these reason, we are particularly glad to welcome you here at the present time.
“You will find, your Majesty, that you come to a country that knows Morocco. A good many of our sons have fought there, lived there in war and in peace, and we are proud to welcome you here on this occasion. And we know your visit will be beneficial to both of our countries and to both of our peoples.”
King Hassan II said:
“Mr. President, friends, at this moment as I meet your Excellency and renew my acquaintance with the people of the United States of America, I am deeply moved by a feeling of joy and of happiness. I wish to thank you Mr. President, for taking the lead in making possible this occasion, thus affording me the opportunity to meet your Excellency personally, and to visit again this great country which has realized splendid achievements in progress and civilization.
“Speaking for myself, and on behalf of my people and my government, I deem it a great and real pleasure to meet the people of the United States, their President, and their government, as well as to express to them the affection and the admiration we cherish for them. It is with pleasure, also, that I express our strong desire to consolidate the friendship which has characterized our traditional relations that date back to the independence of the United States.
“My people, bent as they are, on establishing and furthering close relations with all the nations of the world, whether small or big, are pleased that I have come to visit this great country of yours, and will follow with deep concern the progress of my visit here. My people are hopeful, also, that this visit will prove to be a means for further understanding and closer relations between them and the people of the United States. And that it may usher in a new era of stronger ties, in the field of true and honest and unselfish cooperation in their mutual interests, as well as in the interest of the cause of freedom, peace, and human dignity throughout the world.”
On his first stop of the official trip, King Hassan II traveled to Philadelphia, where he visited Independence Hall and met with the Mayor at the Liberty Bell.
In Washington, the Moroccan leader was welcomed by President Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy to a state dinner at the White House. He also met with Members of Congress and the diplomatic corps, and paid his respects to fallen veterans at Arlington National Cemetery.
King Hassan wrapped up his US trip in New York City, where he met the Mayor, spoke with leaders at the United Nations, and dedicated a mosaic hand made in Fez that became a permanent exhibit at the UN headquarters building.
For more information about the film, go to: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
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