The Kennedys

by Thomas Maier

  The anti-Catholic effort against Kennedy’s campaign, including the comments of Rev. Springer, were reported in Jack Anderson,“Nixon Is Linked to Billy Graham,”Washington Post, September 12, 1960; John W. Finney,“Democrats List 5 as Extremists,” New York Times, September 17, 1960; John Wicklein, “Vast Anti-Catholic Drive Slated Before Election,” New York Times, October 16, 1960; John Wicklein,“Anti-Catholic Groups Closely Cooperate in Mail Campaign to Defeat Kennedy,” New York Times, October 17, 1960; Gladwin Hill,“Religion Remains Big Issue in Texas,” New York Times, November 3, 1960; and “Morton Blames Rivals,” New York Times, November 6, 1960; James Reston’s comments were found in “Dallas,” New York Times, September 14, 1960. Murray Kempton’s quip that JFK would be America’s “first anti-clerical President” was repeated in Victory Lasky, J.F.K.:The Man and The Myth. Joe Kennedy’s angry reaction to the opposition of Spellman and other Catholic prelates was reflected in his February 6, 1961, letter to Galeazzi, also cited in Amanda Smith, Hostage to Fortune. The senior Kennedy’s reaction to the Catholic hierarchy was also discussed in David E. Koskoff, Joseph P. Kennedy: A Life and Times. Robert Kennedy’s recollection of his brother’s antipathy for Cardinal Spellman was contained in RFK’s oral history at the JFK Presidential Library. JFK’s joke to reporters about “the fate of the free world” appeared in Hugh Sidey,“Back Door No Longer,” Time, October 15, 1979; as did the “That’s off the record” anecdote about riding in a limosine outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. “Southern Baptists feel beleagured” quote was reported in “Before the Election,” Commonweal, November 11, 1960.An analysis of Kennedy’s religious obstacles in the fall campaign appeared in “Protestants in Politics,” New Republic, September 19, 1960.The editor of America magazine talked about Kennedy and potential Catholic president in “Jesuit See Shift in Political Era,” New York Times, February 28, 1960, and the criticism that JFK had to “appease” anti-Catholic bigots was in “Priest Sees Bias as Bad as 1928,” New York Times, September 10, 1960. Joe Kennedy’s describing “the campaign not between a Democratc and a Republican, but betweeen a Catholic and a Protestant”was in a letter to Lord Beaverbrook dated September 9, 1960, in JPK papers; also cited in Amanda Smith, Hostage to Fortune.Weigel’s comments and Kennedy’s position were evaluated in Reinhold Niebuhr,“Catholics and the State,” New Republic, October 17, 1960 and particularly in John W. Finney, “Jesuit Rules Out Church Control Over a President,” New York Times, September 28, 1960. Nixon spokesman Herb Klein’s comment about a “Catholic vote”were contained in “Economy Slipping,” The New York Times, October 31, 1960. Several political analysts regard the “religious issue” as the number one issue of the 1960 campaign as reported in “Campaign Issues,” New York Times, November 3, 1960. JFK’s televised assurance of separation of church and state was contained in “3 Sisters Put Questions to Kennedy in Telecast,”Washington Post, November 8, 1960.The Fair Campaign Practices Committee report was quoted in “Striking Changes in the Way Protestants and Catholics Feel about Each Other,”Walter Goodman, Redbook, March 1964. Impact of religion on the campaign was analyzed in John Wicklein, “Campaign Issues: Effect of Anti-Catholic Sentiment Is Weighed as Factor at the Polls,” New York Times, November 3, 1960. New York Times comment that “the next president is not in the ordinary mold, for example, of Irish-American politicians” appeared in its November 10, 1960, edition. Theodore H.White’s 1978 re-evaluation underlining belatedly the significance of JFK’s election as a minority in 1960, was mentioned in Theodore H.White, In Search of History: A Personal Adventure. JFK’s note to New Ross upon his election was recalled in both Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and The Kennedys; and Maurice N. Hennessy, I’ll Come Back in the Springtime: John F. Kennedy and the Irish.

  As part of the research for this chapter, the author examined a large file at the JFK Library, marked religious bigotry, containing several articles and pamphlets handed out during the 1960 campaign. Among those documents that provided information for this chapter were “Kennedy Runs True to Form,” Dallas Morning News, September 7, 1960;“Youth Writes Anti- Catholic Pamphlet,” Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, September 11, 1960; letters from Norman Vincent Peale regarding his statements about Kennedy and a Catholic running for president; The Religious Issue in the 1960 Election Campaign,A Report of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith; “Religion in the Campaign,” Des Moines Register, September 17, 1960;“Religion and Politics,” Time, August 22, 1960;“Who Keeps Religion in the Campaign?” Chicago Daily Tribune, undated; Robert S. Bird and Jo-ann Price, “All-Out Religious Attack on Kennedy Planned by 38 Fundamentalist Sects,”Washington Post, undated; Drew Pearson,“Texas Repeats 1928 Campaign,” Nashville Tennessean, August 23, 1960;“Wanted to Stay in Office,” Dallas Morning News, October 30, 1960.

  Part IV: The Rites of Power

  Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.’s description of the Irish Catholic cultural influence on the Kennedys came from Arthur M. Sclesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times. Cogley’s comment is from an oral history given for the JFK Presidential Library.

  Chapter Twenty-Six: A Catholic in the White House

  Details and dialogue from the baptism of John F. Kennedy Jr. came from “The Kennedys and Their Son at Christening,” Life, December 19, 1960; and “John Jr.,” Time, December 5, 1960. Kennedy’s comment that “if I am not a successful President, the barrier will be back higher than ever” was cited in William Shannon, The American Irish, which also mentions the Robert Frost inscription to be “more Irish than Harvard.” Other discussion of its meaning occured in Arthur Mitchell, JFK and His Irish Heritage; Shaun O’Connell, “Goodbye to All That: The Rise and Demise of Irish America,” New England Journal of Public Policy; Jean Stein and George Plimpton, American Journey: The Times of Robert Kennedy; David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest; “Harvard, 6; Irish, 6,” America, December 9, 1961; and Edward M. Kennedy, Words Jack Loved. Cushing’s statement about JFK as first Catholic U.S. President was derived from “Cardinal Cushing Remembers:‘Twice, I saw Jack Kennedy Cry,’” Look,November 17, 1964. Further background about Frost came from Lawrance Thompson and R.H.Winnick, Robert Frost:The Later Years, 1938–1963.A 1951 JFK speech as genesis of the Peace Corps was mentioned in Laurence Leamer, The Kennedy Men. Discussion of “Irish Mafia” and its surrounding sentiment was in Theodore Sorensen, Kennedy. JFK’s “I’ll open the front door.” quip was cited in Irving Bernstein, Promises Kept: John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier. Sargeant Shriver’s influence on Kennedy decision-making was discussed in Harris Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties. Lem Billings’s assessment of JFK as “something of an upstart, an Irish Catholic who looked to the Brahmins for a model of how to act” was quoted in Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys. Kempton’s reassessment of the Catholic cultural influence on Kennedy was written in Murrary Kempton,“Sorensen’s Kennedy,” Atlantic Monthly,October 1965. Hugh Sidey’s comment was from his introduction to Prelude to Leadership:The European Diary of John F. Kennedy, Summer 1945, which included JFK’s observation about the Duke of Devonshire. JFK’s long-time personal ties to David Ormsby-Gore/Lord Harlech were detailed in Lynne McTaggart, Kathleen Kennedy: Her life and Times, as well as in oral histories by Robert Kennedy,William Douglas Home and Ormsby-Gore for the JFK Presidential Library. Several works mention JFK’s fondness for Irish songs, including the time he induced a Boston politician to sing “Danny Boy” on a visit to the Senate, as recounted in Theodore Sorensen, Kennedy.Tip O’Neill’s recollection came from his oral history for the JFK Presidential Library, and Fay’s view was in Paul B. Fay, The Pleasure of His Company. Bundy’s comment about Paul Blanshard’s book was cited in “Liberalism and Catholicism,” American Prospect, March 13, 2000. Kennedy’s “Hell, they don’t even allow Catholics!” was from David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest. RFK’s remark to the British ambassador to the US:“Why are we, the Kennedys, here in America?” came from Michael Beschloss, Kennedy and Roosevelt.The staffers who want to be “
brothers” were described in Anne Taylor Fleming,“The Kennedy Mystique,” New York Times Magazine, June 17, 1979. Jack’s “St. Crispin’s Day” reference was recalled in the oral history of Francis X. Morrissey at the JFK Library. Schlesinger’s view of John Kennedy “as the more secure, the freer, of the two—freer of his father, freer of his family, of his faith, of the entire Irish American predicament” came from Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times. The number of times JFK reportedly went to Mass in 1962 was counted by the author from the published index to the New York Times for that year. Shannon’s view of Kennedy came from William V. Shannon, The American Irish; and Cogley’s view from his oral history for the JFK Presidential Library and from John Cogley, A Canterbury Tale: Experiences. O’Donell’s recollection about the best politicians in America was from Kenneth P. O’Donnell and David F. Powers, with Joe McCarthy, Johnny,We Hardly Knew Ye;Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Holy Wars

  RFK’s trip to Japan was detailed in “More Than a Brother,” Time, February 16, 1962, and his own recollection “If They’re Communists,You Can’t Get Through to Them” from oral history at JFK Presidential Library. Khrushchev’s comment of “holy wars” was in Hugh Sidey,”What the Ks Really Told Each Other,” Life, June 16, 1961. Bobby’s proposal “to teach insurgency and teach about communism” and other comments about international communism were found in his oral history at JFK Library. Cushing’s involvement with Ted Kennedy’s trip to Peru and Latin America was detailed in a July 19, 1961, letter from him in the JPK papers. The cardinal’s involvement in the money raised for the prisoners from the Bay of Pigs invasion was discussed in “Catholicism in the U.S.,” Time, August 21, 1964; John Henry Cutler, Cardinal Cushing of Boston; John H. Fenton, Salt of the Earth: An Informal Portrait of Richard Cardinal Cushing; and the oral history of Francis X. Morrissey at the JFK Presidential Library. Chester Bowles’s diary note that JFK “lacks a genuine sense of conviction”was from David Halberstam, The Best and Brightest. Billings’s comment about “how right the old man had been” was found in Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys; and repeated with further context and background provided by Michael Beschloss, The Crisis Years. Shriver’s reaction to his children being shown paramilitary techniques came from Harris Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings. Richard Helms’s quote was in Richard Reeves, President Kennedy: Profile of Power.Thomas Merton’s view after the Cuban missile crisis was in “Nuclear War and Christian Responsibility, Commonweal, February 9, 1962. JFK’s thoughts of “all the innocent children” came from Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy. RFK’s “very bloodcurdling” comment of a nuclear death toll was mentioned in his oral history for the JFK Presidential Library. JFK’s comment about “a full life,” his reaction to the U-2 plane shot down and the “Last Supper” comment were found in the David Powers files at the JFK Library. Norman Cousins’s actions during the crisis were detailed in Norman Cousins,”The Improbable Triumvirate,” Saturday Review, October 30, 1971. Cogley’s actions were recalled in Cogley’s oral history at JFK Library. Bobby Kennedy’s comment during crisis showdown that “my brother’s got to be able to live with himself ” is recalled by George Ball in Jean Stein and George Plimpton, American Journey:The Times of Robert Kennedy. Cushing’s recollection of JFK’s concerns about nuclear war were in Joseph Dever, Cushing of Boston:A Candid Portrait.The St. Stephen’s exchange between JFK and Powers was recalled in Michael Beschloss, The Crisis Years. After the Cuban missile crisis, JFK’s characterization of Khrushchev and Russian officials as “like the gangsters that both of us had dealt with” came from RFK’s oral hsitory at the JFK Presidential Library. The attorney general’s “Catholic conscience” during the Cuban missile crisis was remembered in Murray Kempton,“His Catholic Conscience,” Newsday, June 3, 1993. The president’s quip “This is the night I should go to the theater” was repeated in Robert Kennedy, Thirteen Days.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight: Conversion and Subversion

  The excerpt from JFK’s June 28 address before the Irish Dail was recorded in Public Papers of the Presidents. JFK’s 1956 speech about Vietnam was published in John F.Kennedy,“America’s Stake in Vietnam,” Vital Speeches, August 1, 1956.Edmund Gullion’s recollection was in Richard Reeves, President Kennedy:A Profile in Power. Roger Hilsman’s quote came from “The Cold War, Episode 11- Vietnam,” CNN, December 1998. Cardinal Spellman’s relationship with Diem and Vietnam was discussed in John Cooney, The American Pope:The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman; and to a lesser extent in Robert I.Gannon, S.J., The Cardinal Spellman Story.The first quote from Graham Greene was repeated in Cooney’s book; the second comment came from David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest. Neil Sheehan’s description of Diem was from A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. Bobby Kennedy’s recollection that his brother “felt that he had a strong, overwhelming reason for being in Vietnam” was in his oral history for the JFK Library. McGeorge Bundy’s Brahmin heritage was detailed in Halberstam’s book. The reaction of Kennedy and Hilsman to Diem’s death was cited in Ken Hughes,“JFK and the Fall of Diem,” Boston Globe Magazine, October 24, 1999. Bishop Thuc’s later excommunication was reported in Nancy Frazier,“Viet Prelate Excommunicated,” Chicago Catholic, April 15, 1983. Mike Forrestal’s reaction was recorded in Herbert S. Parmet, JFK:The Presidency of John F. Kennedy. JFK’s reaction to Mansfield’s changed view of Vietnam was recalled in Kenneth P. O’Donnell and David F. Powers,with Joe McCarthy, Johnny,We Hardly Knew Ye;Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Two Johns

  The description of Jacqueline Kennedy’s trip to the Vatican and Pope John XXIII’s response was described in “Man of the Year,” Time, January 4, 1963;“President’s Wife Received by Pope,” New York Times, March 11, 1962; with further context from “JFK to the Vatican,” America, June 1, 1963. POAU’s 1962 survey of Roman Catholics in new federal posts with Kennedy’s presidency was reported in “POAU Defends Kennedy Against Bias Charges,” Christian Century,May 16, 1962. Robert Kennedy’s assessment of his brother’s position on church and state issue was mentioned in RFK oral history for JFK Presidential Library. Blanshard’s secret White House meeting was cited in Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy; during interview with author, however, Sorensen couldn’t remember details of the meeting. The comment about Kennedy’s difficulty with Catholic leaders on church and state issues was mentioned in “Church and President,” America, January 18, 1962. Further context was provided by Fletcher Knebel, “The Bishops vs. Kennedy,” Look, May 23, 1961.“He was bending over backwards” comment was from Francis Hurley oral history at JFK Presidential Library. Kennedy’s efforts on church-related issues in the Senate was partly documented in James MacGregor Burns, John Kennedy: A Political Profile. Hochwalt’s view was cited in Fletcher Knebel’s article. JFK’s quip “it hasn’t got a prayer” repeated in Gerald Gardner, All the Presidents’Wits:The Power of Presidential Humor. JFK Gridiron Club dinner quip about the Pope’s note:“Pack!” was mentioned in Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy, and provided further context in author’s interview with Sorensen. John XXIII’s sweeping out of Pope Pius XII’s old guard was detailed in Paul I. Murphy, La Popessa; Paul Johnson, Pope John XXIII; and John Cooney, The American Pope. Cogley’s assessment of John XXIII’s tenure came from his signed July 12, 1963, Commonweal editorial.“You Protestants are always building him up” mentioned in John Henry Cutler, Cardinal Cushing of Boston. JFK’s comment “As a Catholic, I am proud of it”was repeated in Joseph Roddy,“Pope John:The Astonishing Catholic Pontiff,” Look, July 2, 1963. John Courtney Murray and his impact on the Catholic Church was disccused in a cover story in Time, Dec. 12, 1960; with further context provided by John Courtney Murray, S.J., We Hold These Truths; Russell Hittinger,“The Catholic Theology of John Courtney Murray,”Weekly Standard, January 4, 1999; and Charles R. Morris, American Catholic. John XXIII’s comment about the Roman Curia (“They are men of zeal, I am sure, but they are not running the ch
urch”) was in “The Papacy—Vatican Revolutionary,” Time, June 7, 1963.“The grace of martyrdom has been given to the intellectual” came from “Roman Catholics: Clear It with the Vatican,” Time, September 20, 1963. Küng’s comment that Pope John XXIII and John Kennedy “embodied our hope” was in James Carroll,“A Theologian Who Took Up the Torch in the Quest for World Peace,” Boston Globe, February 23, 1999. Cushing’s calling his pope and his president the “two great Johns” was repeated in John Henry Cutler, Cardinal Cushing of Boston, from which Cushing comment about Vatican II was also taken. Cushing’s ecumenical impact on Boston was in Thomas H. O’Connor, Boston Catholics. Kennedy’s response that Pope John’s encyclical “makes me proud to be a Catholic” came from Joseph Dever, Cushing of Boston: A Candid Portrait. Cushing’s embracing “the new spirit of Pope John XXIII” and his impact on the American church was analyzed in “Catholicism in the US,” Time,August 21, 1964, which also detailed his friendship with Kennedy. Cushing’s recollection of “Irish need not apply” signs was recalled in John H. Fenton, Salt of the Earth:An Informal Portrait of Richard Cardinal Cushing. Robert Kennedy’s assessment of Cushing’s closeness to JFK was in RFK’s oral history at the Kennedy Library. JFK and Cushing in Rome was described in “Catholicism in the U.S.,” Time, August 21, 1964.The impact of Kennedy and the Pope’s time assessed by Hannah Arendt was quoted in Xavier Rynne,“Letter from Vatican City,” New Yorker, January 18, 1964.

  Chapter Thirty: Doing the Right Thing