JFK + 50

Friday will be the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Most who are in their 60s or older still recall where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news concerning the fatal shooting in Dallas, Texas.
 
Those who are younger are intrigued about this particular American president, who has captured even more attention in death than when he was alive. Incredible as it may sound, when in office, no president had ever received so much press coverage as him. Which makes President Kennedy a truly global figure.
 
Kennedy came from a privileged background, his father serving as Roosevelt's ambassador in London before and during World War II. Having graduated from Harvard, he joined the US Navy and emerged a war hero due to his courageous actions that went above and beyond the call of duty. Upon his return from military service he took on board the role designated for his elder brother who had died in action: entering politics.
 
Generously aided financially by his family, John Kennedy entered the House of Representatives, later becoming the senator for Massachusetts. He emerged as the Democratic Party's candidate to battle against Richard Nixon for the 1960 presidential election, which he won by the slimmest of margins: 112,827 votes, or 0.17 percent of the vote. This was the first election where television played a prominent part, especially in terms of the candidates' debates. Interestingly, the handsome, young good looks of Kennedy appealed to the viewers, whereas radio listeners were swayed more by the arguments of the vice president.
 
Before entering the White House, Kennedy gave one of the most memorable inauguration speeches of the 20th century, if not of all time. He expressed hope for the future and demonstrated that he was ready for the tough challenges that lay ahead in the midst of the Cold War. He quickly assembled around himself what has been described as the “best and the brightest,” which included as national security adviser McGeorge Bundy, a rising dean at Harvard College, and Robert McNamara as defense secretary, who had made history as the first non-family member to head the Ford Motor Company.
 
Foreign policy
 
With Dean Rusk at the State Department, foreign and security policy were all in capable hands; nevertheless, President Kennedy's foreign policy contained both triumphs and disasters. The latter came very early in his term. He agreed with Eisenhower's invasion plan of landing at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba in 1961. The supposed overthrow of the Castro regime ended up being a debacle for the young president and was capitalized on by his socialist adversaries.
 
Kennedy believed the thaw that emerged after the death of Stalin and the domestic reform pursued by Nikita Khrushchev provided an opportunity to negotiate with the Soviets and lessen the chances of a hot war. Half a year into his presidency, at the Vienna Summit with Khrushchev, secretly suffering immensely from chronic back pain, he came across as second best and was cast off as a rich happy-go-lucky playboy.
 
Trying to add flesh to the bone of "supporting friends and opposing foes," he talked tough about Berlin but quickly faced the fait accompli of Khrushchev building the Berlin Wall. Not wanting to raise tensions further, he declined to combat communism in Laos, which ominously left South Vietnam as the venue to oppose the spread of communism in Asia. Kennedy increased the number of American advisers helping the South Vietnamese, which ultimately resulted in the Vietnam War.
 
Needless to say, his crowning glory came with his cool handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. His ability to put himself in his adversary's shoes, exploring actions to de-escalate the conflict, are still taught as model case studies in universities across the world, giving birth to an academic industry that has deluged the field with countless works. Here was a leader who accepted the awesome responsibility that was laid bare on his shoulders, who was able to delegate the task to discover a solution that avoided nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Without a doubt, this was President Kennedy's finest hour.
 
Having had to eat humble pie over the isolation of Berlin due to the wall, he made another awe-inspiring visit and speech in the summer of 1963 pledging assistance to defend the city against future Soviet aggression. Germans who are old enough to have witnessed that event are unlikely to ever forget that Kennedy was one of them when he declared, “Ich bin ein Berliner.”
 
Oratory
 
Kennedy had such an impact both at home and on the global stage due to his eloquent speeches and his delivery. Having magnificent speechwriters certainly helped, but he was a charismatic speaker who knew how to handle the new television-centered media. As his press secretary Pierre Salinger stated, when Kennedy began to give televised press conferences, broadcast live to the nation, there were very few newspapers that carried full transcripts.
 
Americans until then only read summaries, but with Kennedy they witnessed the whole spectacle, the reverence shown to the fine-looking film-star-like icon. They saw someone who influenced fashion trends and became the subject of numerous photographic articles in popular magazines. That image was admirably assisted by his glamorous wife Jacqueline Bouvier, and his young children for whom on the White House lawn a swimming pool and a tree house became daily sights. Kennedy after all was the youngest president ever, elected at age 43, as well as the youngest to die in office aged 46.
 
His fame was also related to the age. The height of the Cold War placed a premium on the two leaders of the global blocs facing each other. It was Kennedy's hopes and ideals that captured the hearts and minds of millions beyond the shores of the United States. His creation in 1961 of the Peace Corps, encouraging young Americans to travel to Africa and other poor continents to freely assist in development and humanitarian projects, endeared himself and the United States to a wide, appreciative audience. More than half a century on, the Peace Corps is still going strong and continues to be an effective agency helping many people in remote and poor regions across poverty stricken countries to seek better opportunities. It is a legacy no other American president can claim.
 
Kennedy's embracing of technology in the realm of media was also replicated in science. He put forward the ambitious goal of expanding the frontiers of travel and exploring space. He committed the nation “to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” This was achieved, although he himself did not live long enough to witness it.
 
Social change
 
The America of the early 1960s was one in which the personal tragedies and losses of World War II were still fresh in the collective memory. Most Americans had an unbreakable bond of trust with their government, while black Americans were campaigning for equal treatment and protection from racist attacks. Kennedy supported civil rights and came down in favor of extending them, opposing those in his very own party, especially in the southern states, who could not conceive of a change in the status quo.
 
American society was changing as it had elected its very first Roman Catholic as president. That change intensified greatly, and one can assert that the decade or so after the Kennedy assassination completely changed America. Comparing the United States the day after President Nixon resigned with the day before Kennedy was assassinated is akin to comparing two different countries. Gone were the trust and faith in federal government that had been the norm, replaced with bitterness and hatred of political leaders, with a terrible episodic turn to violence culminating in the murders of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
 
Knowledge: Not enough or too much
 
We now know immeasurably more than almost anyone knew at the time about President Kennedy. We know of his adultery, his battle against his health, the medicines he took and much more that was hidden from public view at his time in office. The media and society of the early 1960s was a very different one that was not interested, and did not particularly wish to know about the private life of their president. Such findings, as they were not shared, did not color their perceptions.
 
The whole world saw and came to be told of President Kennedy as the knight in shining armor defending Camelot. While there is some exaggeration in such an assessment, it is completely true to say that Kennedy was an effective leader who strove to be the best that he could be. He was a principled individual as president, too, ordering boxes of Havana cigars to be bought for himself before signing the act embargoing all trade relations with Cuba. He was and remains an icon.
 
Half a century after his death, he is still considered to rank with the towering presidents of Washington, Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Perhaps this is due to what the late British politician Enoch Powell used to say, that “all political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.” Kennedy's was certainly a success, though unfortunately, also very much cut off.