In his own words: Djerejian on Nov. 22, 1963

“President shot.” Those were the words Edward Djerejian read off the ticker on Nov. 22, 1963, as he sat in his Washington, D.C., office, where he was the special assistant to the acting secretary of state. Djerejian’s surprising reaction to those words and his recollection of the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago are told in his own words in the video below.

Djerejian is the founding director of Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and to Syria.