A USIA poster for the Kennedy memorial film, English edition for Beirut

A U.S. Information Agency poster dated 11 November 1964 announces "John F. Kennedy ... Years of Lightning, Day of Drums," a color feature film with commentary by Gregory Peck, produced by George Stevens Jr. The English version was distributed in Beirut.

What it prints

A color portrait of President Kennedy at a desk, a flag and curtain behind him, fills the top. Below are two black-and-white photographs: Kennedy at a lectern in a hall hung with national flags, and Kennedy holding a small child beside Jacqueline Kennedy. The text is a film billing.

"JOHN F. KENNEDY

...YEARS OF LIGHTNING,

DAY OF DRUMS"

FULL LENGTH FEATURE FILM

IN COLOR

Commentary By Gregory Peck

Produced By George Stevens Jr.

Who issued it, and for whom

The maker line is the U.S. Information Agency, in the National Archives series of propaganda posters distributed in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. This copy is the English version for Beirut; the archive holds other editions of the same billing, including Arabic-English, French-English and Japanese versions, a textless sheet, and an English printing for Manila, which this page does not reproduce.

USIA was the government's overseas information service, and this sheet's audience was foreign. It was printed to be seen in Beirut, not in Boston.

How to read it

FRAME tags the sheet transfer and testimonial. The dead president's portrait, the flags of many nations, and the family photograph lend the film their warmth, and a famous actor's name vouches for the commentary. The poster makes no claim about policy. Its work is to attach admiration for one man to the country that elected him.

That is mild as propaganda goes. The point to keep is that national mourning was packaged for foreign audiences, with a distribution plan, under a federal agency's name, a year after the assassination. Space posters from the same series, such as U.S. Astronaut Walks in Space, did the same job with a different hero.

Record and rights

National Archives, Record Group 306, NAID 6949181, item 306-PPB-257, retrieved 4 October 2026. Public domain as a U.S. government work.