For Premier the world has never been the same since JFK was murdered.

Mr. Scott was in Architectural Design class on Tyler Campus, Temple University when he heard the news.

He said: ?A student ran into the class in the early afternoon with the news and was not immediately believed. Later someone got a radio and the students all listened to the reports.

?It was a very traumatic experience. Not only for Americans but worldwide. A lot of people felt an overwhelming sense of loss. America was not to be the same, forever.

?His legacy is enduring. In many ways the era of Camelot was to be short-lived. There had been at the advent of his presidency every possibility that the United States would undergo a renaissance.

?There was a dynamic first family, a very energetic and charismatic President.

?Constantly by his side was a vibrant first lady with many ideas and initiatives that had the potential to touch the culture of the United States and change it.

?Their two young children completed this circle. ?John John?, President Kennedy?s young son, constantly stole the limelight from his father and in somewhat a prophetic manner suggested with his own personality that some day he would be equally as popular as his father.

?As history would show, he was snatched from a productive life far too early by tragic circumstances.

?Tragic circumstances seemed to haunt the Kennedy clan, as history has shown.

?As we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the assassination, his vision for America as a strong democratic country is very much alive.?

Opposition Leader also has clear memories of where he was the moment he heard ? a similar experience to the murder of Martin Luther King to which he equates JFK?s death.

?Both men, in different ways tried to advance some very important issues. Both men were towering figures.?

Dr. Gibbons was 11 years old when he heard of JFK?s murder.

?I was standing outside a classroom at Saltus when I heard. It was quite extraordinary.?

However, he says it was in an age when America?s influence on Bermuda and TV?s influence on the world wasn?t quite so widespread and the impact was diminished.

But looking back he sees the assassination shook the old certainties and led to a loss of innocence.

?It made everyone feel less certain about the way the world was going.?was in science class at St. Jago High School, Jamaica when a teacher came in and gave the stunned students the news.

?The room went silent. I didn?t believe it, I didn?t want to believe it.

?It was the first time I realised that one of the prices one pays for political appetite is the loss of safety. It made me at times wonder whether it was worth it.

?I think that?s why politics is not for the faint-hearted. If you have passion you are going to follow it.

?My view of him was as the media presented him ? a young, athletic, intelligent man not afraid to make bold decisions ? that appears to be a family trait.?

Dr. Brown says Kennedy?s legacy is intelligence and effective communication. The deputy Premier said he has tried to emulate Kennedy?s good points. ?I try to pick up good things from all I have seen and heard about.?

For then Saltus student the news was shocking but difficult to comprehend as the news broke as he went into a gym changing room.

?You are not that politically aware at nine years old. It came out of left field, you didn?t think it was true. You wondered what it meant.?

Forty years on Mr. Moniz, now shadow Attorney General, believes the death had little significance because a seamless transition to Lyndon Johnson presidency ensured Kennedy?s civil rights agenda was carried forward.

He believes JFK would still have become embroiled in Vietnam which was Johnson?s undoing and which forced him not to seek a second term.

Although Mr. Moniz admits there were a few holes in the Warren Commission?s findings that Lee Harvey Oswald was solely responsible for the killing, he is not taken with more fanciful theories.

Various others have been blamed for masterminding the assassination including the Russians, the Cubans, the Mafia, the CIA and President Johnson.

?I have read a couple of books about it. But we will never come up with a better answer to the one we have got and I don?t think it matters. I don?t think the CIA or the President did it. That?s a crazy theory.?

But he admits the killing blew away the untouchable nature of world leaders. ?Like 9/11 you see that everybody could be reached, no one was safe.?