Monday News (JFK)

The Presidency of John F. Kennedy was one of the most historic times in American history. JFK had charisma, intellect, and leadership qualities. One of his greatest strengths was that he didn’t always follow the dictates of the military industrial complex, he evolved to be more progressive, and he advanced a sense of idealism that impacts the world today. He became the 35th President of the United States of America from January 1961 to his unfortunate assassination on November 22, 1963. He was President during the peak of the Cold War and he handled many issues with the Soviet Union. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in Massachusetts and was a U.S. Senator before being President. Brookline, Massachusetts was the place of his birth. He was also a Navy WWII veteran. JFK believed in volunteering and community work, which is why he mentioned many words about promoting activism in everyday life. 1960 was an era of change and John F. Kennedy politically battled Richard Nixon (then-Vice President of Eisenhower) for the Presidency in 1960. Kennedy’s argument was that Eisenhower didn’t do enough to handle the conflicts of the Cold War internationally and new change ought to exist. Nixon’s views were that he was the successor of Eisenhower’s successes and that Kennedy had inexperience and that didn’t merit him to achieve the Presidency. By the end of Eisenhower’s 2nd term, there was economic growth. Yet, there were still poverty, the Brown decision existed along with the racist backlash against it, Sputnik 1 came about, the U-2 spy plane incident, and the Montgomery bus boycott documented the evil of Jim Crow apartheid. John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon were born in the 20th century. Each served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Each was a Senator before and each had great understanding about foreign policy affairs.  Each man didn’t agree with Communism. They had differences too. Kennedy was born in a wealthy family as his father was a businessman in many arenas. Nixon was from a struggling family environment in California. Kennedy was much more progressive than Nixon on many issues. The election was close from the beginning to the end. The televised debate between Nixon and Kennedy changed many Americans’ minds. While those who listened to the radio viewed the debate as nearly even or Nixon winning it, many watchers of the debate on TV viewed John F. Kennedy as the victor. Kennedy wanted change while Nixon wanted a continuation of the policies of Eisenhower. Nixon looked tired after recovering from an illness. Kennedy was tanned from a California campaign. About 70 million Americans watched the televised debate. By this time, Dr. King and other African Americans were in a Georgia jail for protesting in Atlanta. Coretta Scott King was scared, so she called Robert Kennedy. Later, John F. Kennedy called her. Kennedy worked to allow Dr. King to be released on bail. This action increased the support among African Americans for Kennedy. JFK would call himself a liberal in a speech and he endorsed the separation of the church and state where he said that the Vatican's religious views would never influence his political decisions. The election was close with Kennedy winning the popular vote 49.7% to 49.6%. JFK won the Electoral College too. JFK started his Presidency as a Cold Warrior. 

He wanted the fight against Communism to be firm. He saw the new communist government in Cuba under Fidel Castro as wrong. He wanted to fund more missiles. Eisenhower, ironically in his Farewell Address, opposed the excessive defense spending of the military industrial complex while JFK in his early term wanted an increase of defense spending. He was the first President born in the 20th century, so he gave his historic Inaugural Address to promote a new generation of Americans to handle challenges worldwide. His military policy of a flexible response advanced the Green Berets and other mobile units of the military to handle crisis overseas. He also dealt with the Third World. The developing nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America saw the hypocrisy of American capitalism. Many of them allowed support from the Soviet Union. JFK knew this and believed that the only way to get developed nations on America’s side was to promote the rhetoric of democracy and fair dealing to limit or contain communism. So, Kennedy organized the Peace Corps (its first director was JFK’s brother in law Sargent Shriver) and the Alliance for Progress to help the Third World with resources, education, and health services. Many people in both groups were sincere in helping people. Yet, it is true that both programs were created in part to compete against the Soviet Union ideologically. Many wanted to win the ideological battle against communism. Volunteers in the Peace Corps since 1961 helped many people of color overseas. The organization of the Peace Corps grew to 5,000 members by March 1963 and 10,000 the year after. Since 1961, over 200,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps, representing 139 different countries. Also, Kennedy dealt with Castro. Castro overthrew the dictator Fulgenico Batista in 1959. At first, America wanted to have a good relationship with Castro. This changed when Castro nationalized services, received funds from the Soviet Union, kicked the Mafia out of Cuba, and used other reform measures. Many rich and middle class Cubans fled into America. These Cubans would be anti-Communists. Castro was right to end the reign of a tyrant like Batista. Castro made the mistake of embracing Stalinism in his revolutionary path. American elites didn’t want a nuisance solution in dealing with Castro back then. They explicitly wanted to overthrow and kill Castro. Eisenhower authorized the CIA to plan an invasion of Cuba to overthrow Castro’s new government. The CIA recruited many Cubans in Guatemala in order to do it. Eisenhower now was gone from the Presidency. Kennedy was pressured by the CIA to go forward with the plan which he did (on April 4, 1961). On April 17, 1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion occurred. The invasion was lax and it wasn’t carried out properly. There was no protective cover. JFK refused to use protective cover since it might have provoked a wider invasion. 300 of the 1,400 invaders (called Brigade 2506) were captured or killed.  CIA director Allen Dulles later stated that they thought the president would authorize any action that was needed for success once the troops were on the ground. Kennedy negotiated the release of the 1,189 survivors. Castro was becoming stronger. The CIA and many Cubans hated Kennedy for this. This was one reasons why the some in the CIA and the military industrial complex in general had a vendetta against JFK.  JFK fired Allen Dulles too.

The Berlin Crisis existed in 1961. John F. Kennedy met with French leader Charles de Gaulle who told him to ignore Khrushchev’s abrasive style. De Gaulle respected Kennedy and his wife. Khrushchev wanted a peace treaty to have western zones of Berlin to be ruled by East Germany. JFK refused to do so, but the Soviets wanted skilled East German workers to not to go into West Berlin. Kennedy wanted West Berliners and West Germans to not have communism. The conference at Vienna in June of 1961, both men talked about the Berlin issue. It failed. Khrushchev viewed Kennedy as young and inexperienced. Both men argued. Kennedy wanted no occupation of Western Berlin by Soviet forces. Tensions rose. Kennedy asked Congress to increase military spending. Khrushchev allowed the building of the Berlin Wall between West and East Berlin. The Berlin Wall was a sign of the Cold War for decades to come. In response, Kennedy sent 1,500 U.S. troops to West Berlin. Soviet and American tanks moved next to each other. War could have existed, but cooler heads prevailed.

Kennedy took personal responsibility for the invasion since he was President. Kennedy said that he wanted to resist communist “penetration” in the Western Hemisphere. The Cuban Missile crisis was another event that ultimately strengthened Kennedy’s powers. This was when nuclear missiles were found in Cuba. These missiles came from the Soviet Union. By August and September 1962, the U.S government found this out. CIA U-2 spy planes took photographs of the Soviets’ construction of intermediate range ballistic missiles in Cuba. Radical generals wanted an invasion of Cuba which President John F. Kennedy refused to do so. These missiles could harm the East Coast and the Panama Canal. Kennedy wanted the missiles removed. On October 22, 1962, Kennedy gave a speech and blamed Nikita Khrushchev for the actions. So, JFK used a blockade to prevent further materials to come into Cuba that involved missiles. It was a naval blockade. The U.S. Navy would stop and inspect all Soviet ships arriving off Cuba, beginning October 24. The Organization of American States gave unanimous support to the removal of the missiles. The president exchanged two sets of letters with Khrushchev, to no avail. United Nations (UN) Secretary General U Thant requested both parties to reverse their decisions and enter a cooling-off period. Khrushchev agreed, but Kennedy didn't. 

One Soviet-flagged ship was stopped and boarded. On October 28, Khrushchev agreed to dismantle the missile sites, subject to UN inspections. The U.S. publicly promised never to invade Cuba and privately agreed to remove its Jupiter missiles from Italy and Turkey, which were by then obsolete and had been supplanted by submarines equipped with UGM-27 Polaris missiles.


Kennedy formed a diplomatic settlement with help from his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Kennedy agreed to remove U.S. missiles in Turkey and Italy and the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba. Many military generals called this bad and had more hatred of JFK. From that moment onward, Kennedy and Khrushchev would work more together in trying to have a peaceful co-existence. Both sides moved towards détente. Each had a hot line to between tensions as found in Moscow and Washington, D.C. They communicated and by 1963, the historic Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed by America, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. This banned aboveground nuclear tests. 36 other nations signed it as well. During the summer of 1962, Kennedy had a secret taping system set up in the White House, most likely to aid his future memoir. It recorded many conversations with Kennedy and his Cabinet members, including those in relation to the "Cuban Missile Crisis.” 

JFK aided Israel, but opposed Israel having nuclear weapons. JFK supported the CIA-backed coup of Qasim in February 8, 1963. The aftermath was a puppet pro-Ba’ath Party leader ruling Iraq. Qasim promoted human rights and restricted Western ownership of Iraqi oil. JFK visited his ancestral home of Ireland in June 1963 where he accepted a grant of bearings from the Chief Herald of Ireland and received honorary degrees from the National University of Ireland and Trinity College, Dublin. He visited the cottage at Dunganstown, near New Ross, County Wexford, where his ancestors had lived before emigrating to America.
Kennedy also was the first foreign leader to address the Houses of the Oireachtas (the Irish parliament).

Kennedy promoted a neutral Laos and dealt with the Vietnam War. Kennedy wanted an end to communism in South Vietnam. He gave political, economic, and military support to the South Vietnam government. In late 1961, the Viet Cong began assuming a predominant presence, initially seizing the provincial capital of Phuoc Vinh. Kennedy increased the number of military advisors and special forces in the area, from 11,000 in 1962 to 16,000 by late 1963, but he was reluctant to order a full-scale deployment of troops. JFK also promoted Operation Ranch Hand that promoted aerial defoliation in South Vietnam. On August 21, just as the new U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. arrived, Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu ordered South Vietnam forces, funded and trained by the CIA, to quell Buddhist demonstrations. The brutal suppression of the rights of the Buddhists in South Vietnam was evil by Diem. Lodge was instructed to try getting Diem and Nhu to step down and leave the country. Diem would not listen to Lodge. Cable 243 (DEPTEL 243), dated August 24, followed, declaring that Washington would no longer tolerate Nhu's actions, and Lodge was ordered to pressure Diem to remove Nhu. Lodge concluded that the only option was to get the South Vietnamese generals to overthrow Diem and Nhu. At week's end, orders were sent to Saigon and throughout Washington to "destroy all coup cables.” At the same time, the first formal anti-Vietnam war sentiment was expressed by U.S. clergy from the Ministers' Vietnam Committee. Kennedy wanted research on Vietnam. Kennedy desired a withdrawal of 1, 000 troops by the end of 1963 and all troops gone by 1965. The coup against Diem happened in November 1, 1963. Kennedy supported the coup excluding assassination. The coup was led by South Vietnamese general like Big Minh. Diem and Nhu were killed and JFK was shocked by their deaths. The Vietnam War situation would be more unstable since then. There were statements made by Secretary of Defense McNamara in the film "The Fog of War" that Kennedy was strongly considering pulling the United States out of Vietnam after the 1964 election. The film also contains a tape recording of Lyndon Johnson stating that Kennedy was planning to withdraw, a position in which Johnson disagreed. Kennedy had signed National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 263, dated October 11, 1963, which ordered the withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by year's end, and the bulk of them out by 1965. Such an action would have been a policy reversal, but Kennedy was moving in a less hawkish direction since his speech on world peace at American University on June 10, 1963. It is uncertain to know what JFK would have gone, but it is most likely that JFK would have never escalated the American military involvement in the war like LBJ did. 

John F. Kennedy’s domestic policies were part of the New Frontier. It wasn’t as progressive as the New Deal, but it was progressive. He had a conservative Congress, so his domestic policies were opposed by many in Congress. Kennedy still wanted changes in Social Security, invested in anti-poverty measures, and made policies in fighting racial discrimination. JFK also fought against U.S. Steel having a price increase and he wanted to eliminate tax loopholes for oil companies. On March 22, 1962, Kennedy signed into law HR5143 (PL87-423), which abolished the mandatory death penalty for first degree murder suspects in the District of Columbia, the only remaining jurisdiction in the United States with such a penalty. His cabinet included many college educated men like Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and others. The liberal Arthur Schlesinger Jr.  inspired ideals for President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy wanted to deal with the economy, education, healthcare, and civil rights. It would be 1963 when JFK would focus more on domestic issues. The socialist Michael Harrington wrote his book entitled, “The Other America” that made many Americans witness the epidemic of poverty in America. Kennedy pushed through a higher minimum wage, an extension of Social Security benefits, and improvements in the welfare system. He promoted the study of women suffering injustices with the President’s Commission on the Status of Women. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 wanted equal wages for equal work. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 would ultimately ban discrimination by employers on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. The economy was stagnant in the beginning of JFK’s term. JFK promoted tax cuts to encourage businesses to invest in new factory equipment. He increased military spending. He promoted Keynes’ deficit spending theory. That means that you borrow money in order to spend more than is received from taxes. He promoted tax cuts form middle class Americans and increased the tax burden on wealthier people. His policies contributed to the economic growth of the late 1960’s. JFK was timid on civil rights during the early part of his Presidency. He believed in civil rights, but feared southern resistance in Congress. During his first year in office, Kennedy appointed many black people to office including his May appointment of civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall to the federal bench. In his first State of the Union Address in January 1961, President Kennedy said, "The denial of constitutional rights to some of our fellow Americans on account of race – at the ballot box and elsewhere – disturbs the national conscience, and subjects us to the charge of world opinion that our democracy is not equal to the high promise of our heritage." JFK believed in legislative actions beyond grassroots organizing in getting civil rights achieved. The truth is that you have to do both since solutions come by grassroots organizing by definition. 

There were the Freedom Riders, who organized an integrated public transportation effort in the south, and who were repeatedly met with white mob violence, including by law enforcement officers, both federal and state. Kennedy assigned federal marshals to protect the Freedom Riders rather than using federal troops or uncooperative FBI agents. On March 6, 1961, Kennedy signed Executive Order 10925, which required government contractors to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." It established the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Displeased with Kennedy's pace addressing the issue of segregation, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his associates produced a document in 1962 calling on the president to follow in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln and use an Executive Order to deliver a blow for Civil Rights as a kind of Second Emancipation Proclamation. Kennedy did not execute the order. JFK reluctantly sent troops to protect James Meredith to be enrolled at the University of Mississippi in September of 1962. Both the President and the Attorney General were concerned about King's ties to suspected Communists Jack O'Dell and Stanley Levison. After the President and his civil rights expert Harris Wofford pressed King to ask both men to resign from the SCLC, King agreed to ask only O'Dell to resign from the organization and allowed Levison, whom he regarded as a trusted advisor, to remain. The truth is that Levison left Communism by 1960. Also, O’Dell was a Communist and so what. He has the right to believe what he wants. The First Amendment says that we have the right for the freedom of speech. JFK promoted executive orders and other policies in opposition to racial injustice, but he never promoted a strong federal civil rights bill until 1963. That was when we had Birmingham where cops brutalized men, women, and children with water hoses and dogs back in 1963. 1963 was a very important year for the Civil Rights movement. President John F. Kennedy had no choice but to act. Kennedy gave his historic June 11, 1963 speech where he explicitly endorsed human equality and called for civil rights bill that punished violators of civil rights and federally promoted civil rights. President John F. Kennedy initiately didn’t support the 1963 March on Washington for fear of losing support for civil rights legislation in Congress. Later, he supported it and the March was a huge success. The price that was that many speeches were censored and other actions were taken to make the march more “palatable” for his liking.

RFK authorized the FBI to wiretap King and other leaders of the SCLC in October 1963. Although Kennedy only gave written approval for limited wiretapping of King's phones "on a trial basis, for a month or so", Hoover extended the clearance so his men were "unshackled" to look for evidence in any areas of King's life they deemed worthy. The wiretapping continued through June 1966 and was revealed in 1968. JFK promoted progressive immigration reform. JFK also wanted to use government agencies to get land, handle damages, and use assistance to help the displaced Seneca Native Americans after a Kinzua Dam construction project flooded their lands. JFK invested in the space race. With Sputnik 1 in space, America created NASA. Yri Gagarin was the first human to orbit Earth in April 1961. So, Kennedy allowed NASA to cause Alan Shepard to have a space flight. He wanted man to go to the Moon before 1970. The first American to orbit Earth was astronaut John Glenn in February of 1962. Humankind would go into space by July 1969 with Neil Armstrong via the Columbia. By the end of 1963, Diem was assassined. The civil rights bill was in Congress. Détente was growing. President John F. Kennedy was in high spirit. He came into Dallas after his historic American university speech where he called for world peace. Soviet leaders and Americans respected him by the end of 1963. He came into Dallas by November 22, 1963 to end tensions in preparing for his 1964 Presidential reelection bid. He was in a motorcade when he was assassinated. He was killed by 3 shots from a rifle. Lyndon B. Johnson would be President. The Warren Commission would say that Lee Harvey Oswald did it alone from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Many would disagree with that view to this very day. Millions of Americans were saddened by the evil assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

His wife wanted his funeral to be similar to Lincoln’s funeral as both men would have great similarities. There was a Requiem Mass done at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle on November 25, 1963. The funeral service was officiated by John J. Cavanaugh. He was interred at the Arlington National Cemetery. 16 million people visited his gave from 1964-1966. On March 14, 1967, Kennedy's remains were disinterred and moved only a few feet away to a permanent burial plot and memorial. It was from this memorial that the graves of both Robert and Ted Kennedy were modeled.
The honor guard at Kennedy's graveside was the 37th Cadet Class of the Irish Army. Kennedy was greatly impressed by the Irish Cadets on his last official visit to Ireland, so much so that Jackie Kennedy requested the Irish Army to be the honor guard at her husband's funeral. Kennedy's wife Jacqueline and their two deceased minor children were later interred in the same plot. JFK's brother Robert was buried nearby in June 1968. In August 2009, Ted was also buried near his two brothers. John F. Kennedy's grave is lit with an "Eternal Flame.” Kennedy and William Howard Taft are the only two U.S. presidents buried at Arlington. According to the JFK Library, "I Have a Rendezvous with Death", by Alan Seeger "was one of John F. Kennedy's favorite poems and he often asked his wife to recite it.”


With Kennedy’s death, America would never be the same again. John F. Kennedy was a man filled with both promise and unrealized dreams. He made great policies and made great mistakes (like his extramarital affairs). Many people back then didn’t realize his massive health issues like Addison’s disease, hypothyroidism, back pain, etc. A man with great leadership and intellect was gone, but the spirits of progressive Americans remained. John F. Kennedy’s legacy will be that he had an incredible amount of wit, leadership qualities, aptness to change when it was the right thing to do, and courage. A man with multiple diseases, being hated by many in the military industrial complex, and experiencing massive tragedies plus still accomplish the things that he did (in a short span of time) takes a lot of courage. So, we certainly are inspired by President John F. Kennedy to continue in the work of promoting freedom and justice for humankind.


By Timothy