The publication of Action for Mental Health in 1961 established three principles that would dominate American psychiatry for the remainder of the century. First, state mental hospitals were said to be bad and should be closed. Second, psychiatric treatment should take place mostly in community mental health centers rather than in state hospitals. Finally, the prevention of mental illness was said to be the most important activity for psychiatric professionals. The election of John Kennedy as president in November of 1960 presented ideal circumstances for American psychiatry to put their community mental health center plans into action because Kennedy’s younger sister, Rosemary, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Dr. Felix and the mental health lobby proposed their plan for federally funded community mental health centers to the new president. After vetting the idea through an interagency committee, Kennedy agreed and included it in his 1963 State of the Union address. Congressional hearings followed, and the final legislation was signed by the president on October 31, 3 weeks prior to his assassination. The hearings included no evidence that the care of mentally ill persons could be shifted en masse from state mental hospitals to community mental health centers.