American Legends: The Life of John F. Kennedy (Illustrated)

by Charles River Editors

  In response, President Kennedy spoke to a joint session of Congress in May, in which he proposed one-upping the Soviets by not only sending a man to space, but by sending a man to the moon. On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy asked the nation to “commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” While Kennedy is still hailed today for his push to land a man on the moon within a decade, Eisenhower’s administration had already been designing plans for the Apollo space program by 1960, a year before Gagarin orbited the Earth and two years before John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.

  President Kennedy's commitment to space initiatives prior to Yuri Gagarin's mission was mixed, however. As a Senator, he had opposed the Eisenhower Administration's research funding to space exploration. As President, he changed his position in response to the Soviet Union's advances.

  Though Kennedy was not alive to witness the U.S. achieve this mission, his efforts laid the groundwork for Apollo 11's July 20th, 1969, landing on the moon.

  Vietnam

  At the end of Kennedy's first year in office, the U.S. sent its first direct military support to South Vietnam, with two Army Helicopters arriving to the country on December 11th, 1961. This move was part of a long-standing commitment, begun by the Eisenhower Administration, to prevent the spread of communism into Southeast Asia. Furthermore, South Vietnam was one of the Southeast Asian countries that the United States vowed to help defend during negotiations over the armistice that ended the Korean War. Kennedy was initially reluctant to devote a full-scale military presence to the country, but his position was continually evolving throughout his Presidency.

  Kennedy also felt that the South Vietnamese themselves did not want an American presence in their country. By 1963, this was increasingly apparent to the president, but, on the other hand, he felt the Southeast Asian territory was critical to preventing the spread of communism. This concept was fueled largely by the “Domino Theory” that had dominated Cold War foreign policy thinking. Kennedy also worried that giving up on Vietnam would further weaken his foreign policy credentials and chances at reelection in 1964.

  Throughout 1962 and 1963, Kennedy's primary interest in Vietnam was to better understand how much the South Vietnamese wanted or did not want an American presence. He sent numerous ambassadors, among them his former opponent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., to the country to investigate. Kennedy, however, was frustrated when multiple investigations returned widely different accounts. The issue remained unresolved until Kennedy's death in November of 1963, at which point President Johnson took over the policy and dramatically increased the American military presence.

  Cuban Missile Crisis

  The issue of communist Cuba came to a head in a big way in October of 1962. With the help of spy planes, U.S. intelligence discovered the Soviets were building nuclear missile sites in Cuba. Kennedy officially learned of this on October 16th.

  It went without saying that nuclear missile sites located just miles off the coast of the American mainland posed a grave threat to the country, especially because missiles launched from Cuba would reach their targets in mere minutes. That would throw off important military balances in nuclear arms and locations that had previously (and subsequently) ensured the Cold War stayed cold. Almost all senior American political figures agreed that the sites were offensive and needed to be removed, but how? Members of the U.S. Air Force wanted to take out the sites with bombing missions and launch a full-scale invasion of Cuba, but Kennedy, however, was afraid that such an action could ignite a full-scale escalation leading to nuclear war.

  Instead, President Kennedy thought a naval blockade of all Soviet ships to be the better option. On October 22, 1962, Kennedy addressed the nation to inform them of the crisis. He told Americans that the “purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere.” Speaking of the threat to the nuclear weapon balance maintained in previous years, Kennedy stated, “For many years, both the Soviet Union and the United States, recognizing this fact, have deployed strategic nuclear weapons with great care, never upsetting the precarious status quo which insured that these weapons would not be used in the absence of some vital challenge.” Thus, Kennedy announced a blockade, warning, “To halt this offensive buildup a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation or port will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back.”

  Beginning on October 24th, the US began inspecting all Soviet ships traveling in the Caribbean. Any ships carrying missile parts would not be allowed to enter Cuba. Additionally, President Kennedy demanded that the Soviets remove all nuclear missile sites from Cuba. In response, Soviet premier Khruschev called the blockade "an act of aggression propelling humankind into the abyss of a world nuclear-missile war".

  Kennedy speaking to the country about the Cuban Missile Crisis

  For the next four days, President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev were engaged in intense diplomacy that left both sides on the brink. Europeans and Americans braced for potential war, wondering whether any day might be their last. During that time, however, the Soviets used back-channel communications through Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy seeking a way for both sides to reach an agreement and save face. Finally, on October 28th, Khrushchev and Kennedy agreed to the removal of the missiles, under U.N. supervision. In exchange, the U.S. vowed never to invade Cuba, while privately agreeing to remove intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that had been stationed in Turkey, near the Soviet border, under the Eisenhower Administration. Realizing how close they had come to disaster, the Americans and Soviets agreed to establish a direct communication line, known as the “Hotline”, between the two sides in an effort to avoid nuclear catastrophe resulting from miscommunication.

  Despite the foreign policy failures of Kennedy's first year and a half in office, the Cuban Missile Crisis significantly increased the Administration's credibility on foreign policy matters. By fending off Soviet aggression, Kennedy renewed the America’s commitment to defending the Western Hemisphere and repositioned the nation with strength. Prior to the crisis, the Soviets had viewed the Kennedy Administration as weak, especially for its timidity on Fidel Castro. The Cuban Missile Crisis was in part a result of Kennedy's prior failure; the Soviets thought they could push the Americans in Cuba. By averting nuclear war and removing the Soviet missiles from Cuba, Kennedy's political popularity improved, and he was again lauded for his foreign policy achievements.

  Nuclear Testing and West Berlin

  Throughout his presidency, Kennedy made repeated efforts to negotiate a treaty banning nuclear testing with the Soviets. At Vienna in June 1961, Kennedy held his ground until he and Khrushchev reached an informal agreement against nuclear weapons testing. While this was initially hailed as a success, it fell apart just months later when the Soviets began testing nuclear weapons in September, and began sending them to Cuba the following year. In 1962, after almost 40 months of negotiations led by the United Nations Disarmament Commission, negotiations between the US and the Soviets again failed to come to a conclusion on nuclear weapons testing.

  By the summer of 1963, however, after nearly five years of talks, the US, Great Britain and the Soviet Union finally agree to a limited ban on nuclear testing. This treaty halted testing in the atmosphere, outer space and under water, but not underground. It was quickly ratified in Congress.

  During that same summer, another East-West controversy had come to the fore: the Berlin Wall. Build in 1961 to prevent East Berliners from venturing into West Berlin, the Wall had come to serve as a symbol for global division.

  In June of 1963, Kennedy travelled to West Berlin, where he gave his famous Berlin Wall Speech. In it, he said “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the
words: Ich bin ein Berliner.” In the speech, Kennedy reiterated the American commitment to Berlin and West Germany. It was very well received by Germans, and it helped to solidify the alignment of Western Europe with the United States against the Soviets.

  The Civil Rights Movement

  It took a lawsuit, but finally he was set to attend the University of Mississippi. James Meredith was still a young man in 1962, and thousands of young men attended the university each year. But as he repeatedly attempted to enter campus that September, he was prevented by a mob, which included Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett. Governor Barnett had earlier attempted to stop Meredith’s admission by changing state laws to ban anyone who had been convicted of a state crime. Meredith’s “crime” had been false voter registration. On September 30, Meredith was escorted by U.S. Marshals sent in by Attorney General Robert Kennedy. A white mob attacked the marshals, and nearly 200 people were injured. President Kennedy had to send in the Army to allow Meredith to stay at school. Meredith would receive a bachelor’s degree in political science in August 1963. He would later be shot in the back and legs during a civil rights march in 1966 by a white man attempting to assassinate him.

  While the bulk of Kennedy's legacy deals with foreign policy, significant domestic upheavals were occurring in the United States during his Presidency. Most important among these was the Civil Rights Movement.

  Kennedy's record on civil rights is mixed. In the House and Senate, he often sided with conservative Southern Democrats. And though he ran for President in favor of civil rights, he didn't believe his narrow victory gave him a mandate for decisive action on the issue. For most of 1961 and part of 1962, Kennedy essentially made no movement on civil rights, despite the spread of protest and action, led by Martin Luther King, throughout the South.

  Nevertheless, Kennedy and his brother Robert often found themselves forced into action by conflict between authorities and minorities and protesters in the South. After ensuring Meredith’s attendance in 1962, a similar situation broke out in 1963, when Alabama's Governor George Wallace personally prevented two African-American students from enrolling in the University of Alabama. Again, Kennedy sent in federal troops against the state's Governor.

  In between these events, Kennedy had proposed a limited civil rights act that focused primarily on voting rights, but it avoided more controversial topics of equal employment and desegregation. Kennedy was toeing the line between maintaining political support in the South while also holding liberal Democrats. Until the end of his Presidency, however, a coalition of Southern Democrats and Republicans prevented any action on the bill, and Kennedy was never able to sign it into law.

  Apart from civil rights, Kennedy made some headway on other domestic policy issues. He successfully passed an increase of the minimum wage and aid to public schools. Otherwise, though, most of Kennedy's New Frontier proposals failed to pass through Congress, including his Medicare bill. It would fall upon his successor, Lyndon Johnson, who had spent the 1950s mastering Senate parliamentarianism, to enact much of the New Frontier in the form of the Great Society. And it would be Johnson who pushed forth more stringent protections on civil rights than Kennedy had ever proposed.

  Chapter 5: Kennedy’s Assassination

  By November of 1963, President Kennedy was not overly popular nationwide. His foreign policy had a number of successes, but Americans had also not forgotten the failures of 1961 and early 1962. Furthermore, his tepid support of civil rights was dividing his own party, between liberals and conservatives. Southern conservatives thought Kennedy had proposed too much, while liberals didn't think voting rights went far enough. The strains would eventually undo the former Democratic coalition of the previous 80 years, done in with the help of Richard Nixon’s “southern strategy” in the late 1960s, which saw the South turn solidly Republican at the expense of losing minority support.

  Such division was showcased especially in the state of Texas. Liberal and conservative Democrats were divided there, which threatened to reduce Kennedy's chances of carrying the state's 25 electoral votes in the 1964 election. To shore up reelection prospects, the President travelled to the state to cool disagreements and rebuild his support.

  November 22, 1963 started as a typical Friday, and many Americans were unaware that President Kennedy was heading to Dallas, Texas in preparation for his reelection campaign. Jackie and the President arrived in Dallas in the morning, and were surprised by their warm reception. Kennedy's meetings with top Democratic officials also went well, and Kennedy felt reassured that Texas would be behind him in 1964.

  That day, Kennedy chose to keep the presidential limousine’s top down to feel connected to spectators. Around 12:30 p.m., Texas Governor Connally’s wife turned behind to the first couple and said, “Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you.” But as the motorcade slowed down while turning a corner to enter Dealey Plaza, it came into the sightlines of a sixth floor window at the School Depository building. There, Lee Harvey Oswald, a Communist sympathizer, had set up a sniper’s nest with a high-powered rifle. With the motorcade traveling at low speed, Oswald’s first shot hit Kennedy in the upper back, traveled through his body, and struck Governor Connally’s arm in the front passenger seat. The bullet would come to be referred to by conspiracy theorists as the “Magic Bullet”.

  As Kennedy hunched over, a confused Jackie moved toward him to check on him. Oswald’s next shot missed the motorcade, but Oswald’s next shot was a direct hit, shattering Kennedy’s skull. Of course, chaos reigned supreme as the motorcade quickly sped out of the Plaza and headed for a hospital, with a Secret Service agent famously jumping onto the back of the limousine as it sped away. But it was far too late.

  Aside from the spectators who turned out to greet Kennedy and his wife at Dealey Plaza, some of the first people to find out about the shooting in Dallas were those watching the soap opera As the World Turns on CBS. In the middle of the show, around 1:30 p.m. EST, Walter Cronkite cut in with a CBS News Bulletin, announcing that President Kennedy had been shot at and was severely wounded.

  The news began to spread across offices and schools across the country, with watery eyed teachers having to inform their schoolchildren of the assassination in Dallas. Most Americans left school and work early and headed home to watch the news. Even the normally stoic Cronkite couldn’t hide his emotions. Around 2:40 p.m., misty eyed and with his voice choked up, Cronkite delivered the news that the president was dead.

  That day, stunned Americans wondered if the assassination was a Soviet conspiracy, a Cuban conspiracy, or the actions of a lone nut. Time and investigations haven’t fully resolved all of the questions. The country never fully recovered from the President’s assassination, which still remains one of the most mysterious and controversial events in American history.

  Oswald was arrested hours after Kennedy’s shooting, after he shot and killed Officer J.D. Tippit. In fact, Oswald was initially arrested for Tippit’s death, not Kennedy’s, and he claimed he was a “patsy” who had killed neither man. Two days later, Oswald was being transported through the basement of the police’s headquarters when nightclub owner Jack Ruby stepped out of the crowd and shot Oswald point blank in the chest, killing him on live TV. The Warren Commission later investigated the Kennedy assassination and ruled that Oswald was the lone assassin, but the bizarre sequence of events have ensured that the Kennedy assassination is still widely considered one of the great mysteries of American history, with conspiracy theories accusing everyone from Fidel Castro to the mob of orchestrating a hit.

  Ruby shooting Oswald

  After a state funeral that mimicked Abraham Lincoln's of a century earlier, Kennedy was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with an Eternal Flame marking his gravesite.

  Chapter 6: Kennedy’s Legacy

  Camelot

  John Kennedy's legacy is intimately intertwined with that of his own family. Even before his White House years, John Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy fascinated the media and
became integral parts of American popular culture. Few Presidents acquire the sort of celebrity status that Kennedy maintained, and the Kennedy family was wrapped in a sort of regality normally reserved only for untouchable stars. The continued popular fascination with the Kennedys suggests that Americans are still clamoring for the rare type of celebrity that John and Jackie embodied. Their celebrity lives on most strongly in the Kennedy family.

  With his death, the Kennedy legacy hardened. Just five years after his assassination, John's brother Robert took hold of the Kennedy torch and began his own run for the White House. In the summer of 1968, however, his dream was also cut short by an assassin's bullet. A little over a decade later, another Kennedy brother made a much less successful bid for the Presidency when Ted Kennedy challenged the incumbent Jimmy Carter in 1980. Throughout the past few decades, other Kennedy relations have vied for the top executive office, among them Sargent Shriver, who was the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee in 1972 and sought the party's Presidential nomination in 1976.