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Nelson Mandela at Podium

Nelson Mandela, deputy president of the African National Congress of South Africa, delivers remarks at a reception in the Pavilion of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, June 23, 1990.

Mikhail Gorbachev with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and John F. Kennedy, Jr.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is welcomed to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and John F. Kennedy, Jr., May 15, 1992.

The Kennedy Library Foundation’s Distinguished Foreign Visitors Program seeks to build international cooperation and understanding and to promote international dialogue by providing a forum for world leaders to meet with the American public.

Since the program’s inception, international leaders who have changed the state of world affairs have come to the Kennedy Library and Boston to discuss critical issues affecting freedom, democracy and human rights for all citizens of the global community. Many figures of international stature have made a special effort to include the Kennedy Library as part of their official visits to the United States – a testimony to the enduring impact of John F. Kennedy’s vision upon the global community.

Distinguished Foreign Visitors to the Kennedy Library have included:

  • President Corazon Aquino, Philippines
  • President Mario Soares, Portugal
  • Prime Minister Giovanni Goria, Italy
  • Prime Minister Charles Haughey, Ireland
  • Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Canada
  • Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan
  • President Nelson Mandela, South Africa
  • President George Vassiliou, Cyprus
  • Dr. Fang Lizhi, People’s Republic of China
  • Former Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, Soviet Union
  • President Mary Robinson, Ireland
  • President Arpad Goncz, Hungary
  • Former President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Soviet Union
  • Prime Minister Albert Reynolds, Ireland
  • President Levon Ter-Petrossian,  Armenia
  • President Vaclav Havel, Czech Republic
  • Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, Portugal
  • Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh
  • His Majesty King Juan Carlos I and Her Majesty Queen Sofia, Spain
  • His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Eastern Orthodox Church
  • Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, Ireland 
  • His Holiness Karekin I, Armenia
  • President Mary McAleese, Ireland
  • Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema, Italy
  • His Majesty King Abdullah II and Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah, Jordan
  • His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal, Jordan
  • President Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine
  • Secretary General Kofi Annan, United Nations
  • Prime Minister Gordon Brown, United Kingdom 
 
  
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