{"id":4302,"date":"2013-11-21T20:45:13","date_gmt":"2013-11-22T01:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/?p=4302"},"modified":"2013-11-21T20:45:13","modified_gmt":"2013-11-22T01:45:13","slug":"jfk-what-he-did-for-his-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/2013\/11\/jfk-what-he-did-for-his-country\/","title":{"rendered":"JFK: What He Did For His Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kennedy<\/a>President and Mrs. Kennedy Arrive in Dallas, November 22, 1963
\nCecil Stoughton. White House Photographs.<\/em>
\nJohn F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

November 22, 1963.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Each generation lays claim to shattering dates that “changed everything” or so it seemed in the moment.\u00a0 We remember September 11, 2001<\/a> with fresh horror each year when we see those burning towers all over again.\u00a0 Our parents and grandparents tell us what it was like on December 7, 1941<\/a>, when Pearl Harbor entered the national imagination as ground zero of World War II, the “…date which will live in infamy.”<\/a><\/p>\n

November 22, 1963<\/a> is the date the Baby Boomers remember with relentless precision and endless fascination.\u00a0 “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?” is the question that never grows old no matter that half a century has now intervened.\u00a0 We’ve been talking about John Fitzgerald Kennedy<\/a> for longer than he lived.\u00a0 Why do we keep coming back to the icon, the image, the myth and mystery of JFK<\/a>?<\/p>\n

(See Trinity’s website “Trinity Remembers JFK”<\/a> with alumnae videos)<\/p>\n

My brother John wrote yesterday that, “It’s extremely alarming to be talking knowledgeably about something that happened fifty years ago.”\u00a0 When we were kids in 1963, “50 years ago” would have been 1913 — before our parents were even born!\u00a0 Before<\/em> World War I!!\u00a0 And yet we Boomers go on about things that happened 50 years ago as if they are still quite current.\u00a0 Is this just narcissism or is there genuine meaning in our preoccupation with the Kennedy mystique?<\/p>\n

\"Kennedy<\/a>First Family, 1962<\/em>
\nPhotograph by Cecil Stoughton, White House, in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

President Kennedy’s brief 1,000 days in office is a bright chalkstripe<\/a> across American cultural history.\u00a0 The impact of the Kennedy years was less about political achievements, which were modest during his three year tenure, and more about social change and human advancement, which was huge.\u00a0 In his inauguration address<\/a>, JFK captured the essence of generational change when he declared:<\/p>\n

“Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans\u2014born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage\u2014and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Kennedy<\/a>Presidents Kennedy and Eisenhower, 1961<\/em>
\nRobert Knudsen. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston<\/a><\/p>\n

“Born in this century” was a riveting concept for a president in 1961 when Kennedy was inaugurated.\u00a0 All of his predecessors were born in the 19th Century, stalwart men who epitomized the mindsets and traditions of the ruling classes of the early 20th Century.\u00a0 Truth be told, John F. Kennedy was a son of precisely the same mindsets and traditions, perhaps more so because of his great family wealth.\u00a0 But his youth (he was just 43 when elected president), superficial appearance of vigor (he suffered chronic illness, but like President Franklin Roosevelt, he found ways to hide it from the public), and glamorous style (carried so well by Jackie Kennedy) proved a sharp contrast to the older, staid image of his immediate predecessor President Dwight Eisenhower<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And while his opponent in the 1960 election Richard Nixon<\/a> was only four years older, Nixon’s personal appearance and personality made him seem much older and more sedate than the charming, witty, urbane Jack Kennedy.<\/p>\n

\"Kennedy<\/a>Dinner for the President of the Ivory Coast and Madame Houphouet-Boigny<\/em>, 1962
\nPhotograph by Robert Knudsen, White House, in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Kennedy thought big and spoke boldly, and in his large view of the American agenda at the threshold of the 1960’s burst forth with powerful optimism and unyielding conviction in the belief that America was the best, brightest hope for all people on earth.\u00a0 Today some critics would probably denounce his inauguration speech<\/a> as a good example of “American exceptionalism,” but in 1960, with the flames of Old Europe still dying down and the long gray days of the Cold War settling in, Kennedy was a startling flash of light offering a glimpse into a much better future.<\/p>\n

\"Kenndy<\/a>President Kennedy at a News Conference, 1962<\/em>
\n(When was the last time a president had fun at a news conference?)
\nPhotograph by Abbie Rowe, National Park Service, in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston<\/a><\/p>\n

Students of history certainly can find failure, frustration and fear in Kennedy’s three years in office.\u00a0 The Berlin Wall<\/a> went up, a totalitarian gash across the fragile post-World War II peace.\u00a0 The Cuban Missile Crisis<\/a> brought the United States to the brink of nuclear disaster; but the threat abated thanks in large measure to the rational steely-eyed resolve of Kennedy and his team to find a way to keep the peace.\u00a0 Knowing all that we know today about the follies of the CIA and the intelligence community, we can understand the Bay of Pigs <\/a>disaster as something much larger and more insidious than a presidential misjudgment.\u00a0 In the same way, as a result of inept intelligence work, the assassination of the Diem brothers in Vietnam<\/a> triggered the escalation of that war shortly before Kennedy’s own assassination.<\/p>\n

But domestically, President Kennedy was laying the foundation for some of the greatest triumphs in American history.\u00a0 He would not live to see the passage of the Civil Rights Act<\/a>, but his philosophical and political commitments to human rights and civil rights paved the way for President Lyndon B. Johnson to achieve enactment of that legislation.\u00a0 He created the Peace Corps<\/a>, one of the best and most enduring legacies of the Kennedy Era to the world.\u00a0 He pushed NASA and the space program to work toward the goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade, an achievement he did not live to see.\u00a0\u00a0 The space program spawned countless innovations and advancements that benefit contemporary life in so many ways.\u00a0 His election also brought Catholics in from the political margins, signalling the hope of a political time when people with different characteristics might join the ruling class.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most important, President Kennedy enlarged the national imagination, expanded our world view and made it acceptable to be an idealist when thinking about the purpose of government.<\/p>\n

On November 22, 1963, I was sitting in a fifth grade classroom at St. Margaret’s School in Narberth, Pennsylvania.\u00a0 We noticed the sisters whispering on the corridor, and then we said prayers, and school was dismissed early.\u00a0 As we trudged in our lines down Essex Avenue, I heard a boy somewhere in the back of the line say, “President Kennedy was shot!”<\/p>\n

I could not believe what he said.\u00a0 I stopped by the soda fountain at Davis’s 5&10 (now Mapes) and listened as the radio announcer said that President Kennedy was shot in Dallas.\u00a0 Everyone was solemn.<\/p>\n

I walked home and found the boys already there watching TV.\u00a0 Mom was very upset.\u00a0 She said the president was dead.\u00a0 What I remember most is how upset she was even though she and Dad were stalwart Republicans and really didn’t like President Kennedy.\u00a0 But they were Americans first, and they knew that the assassination was a time of grave danger for the nation and a great tragedy for the Kennedy family and all who knew him.\u00a0 Uncharacteristically, they let us watch television nonstop for the next four days.<\/p>\n

\"Kennedy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Johnson<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Top:<\/strong>\u00a0 President Kennedy’s coffin removed from the planeBottom:<\/strong>\u00a0 President Johnson takes oath of office on the plane back from Dallas
\nwith Jackie Kennedy beside him (right) and Lady Bird Johnson (left)<\/p>\n

Cecil Stoughton. White House Photographs.
\n<\/em>John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

By the time the president’s plane landed in Washington that night, President Lyndon B. Johnson had taken charge.\u00a0 I remember watching as Mrs. Kennedy emerged from the back end of the plane with her husband’s casket.\u00a0 This was all in black and white, and long silences filled the screen as we watched dimly lit images.\u00a0 There was something so simple and poignant about watching history on television in the days before we had so many talking heads and screaming counterpoints and endless cuts to interviews with more talking heads.\u00a0 From a television perspective, the best part of those four days was the simplicity and respectfulness of the coverage, something every producer today should study.<\/p>\n

President Kennedy lit up a pathway to change and growth for our nation.\u00a0 He did so with wit, grace, style and steel when necessary.\u00a0 He was not perfect, but he knew how to be a leader when it counted.\u00a0\u00a0 Our national quest to reignite that spark continues.<\/p>\n

\"Kennedy<\/a>Abbie Rowe. White House Photographs. <\/em>
\nJohn F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Kennedy’s brief 1000 days were a time of imagination, hope and confidence. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[688,509,787,20],"tags":[538,1309,1310,569,1307,536,1308,539,537,568],"class_list":["post-4302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-issues","category-civil-human-rights","category-political-issues","category-politics","tag-538","tag-dallas","tag-jackie-kennedy","tag-jfk","tag-jfk50","tag-john-f-kennedy","tag-john-fitzgerald-kennedy","tag-kennedy-assassination","tag-november-22","tag-president-kennedy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}