50 Years Ago Today The World Mourned

As your name implies,you are clearly confused.

I was seven. In school. Our teacher cried. We all cried. Although I'm not sure the kids really knew why.

To many, Kennedy was a Rock Star. And, as further posts alluded to...maybe our memory is changed because he died young.

I have noticed that celebrities and leaders that die younger, seem to be thought of in a more "pure" light.

Had Elvis survived into old age...would he still be "The King"?

Yeah, we do seem to attack the best of us.

I remember that day clearly. I think the most compelling thing of all was hearing Cronkite's voice crack when he finally announced that President John F. Kennedy was dead. Even at the ripe old age of 5, that was clearly "Significant."

If you weren't around in the early 60s, you might not get why that was a big deal. Uncle Walter was our rock back then. "The most trusted man in America."

Seriously. A network newsman earned that title. If you wonder why the older denizens of OT are so hard on the modern media, it's because we grew up with giants like Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, and Walter Cronkite. We know what the news could be.

I remember the nastiness when Kennedy was running. "A Catholic as President? That's crazy. Why, they'll end up moving the Vatican to Washington, DC!"

Yes. Really. That was one of the arguments against his candidacy.

Kennedy was a lot like Truman, in one important way. He rose to the job when he sat in the chair. He was a much better President than anyone who knew him ever expected.

We haven't had a President since who could inspire people the way he could.


Paul

If I recall correctly*, Kruschev faced a similar predicament with his own hard line military advisers. They wanted war, and he was fully aware of what that would entail.

So JFK, his brother RJK, as well as Kruschev all played a major part in defusing the situation, not JFK alone.

*My memory of that event was formed long after the event, as I was actually born the day after the crisis ended.

Obviously as well, as I was 12 months old (plus a few weeks) at the time of JFK's murder, I've no idea what I was doing at the time.

JFK was before my time, so I have to ask others what it was like.

One fellow at work said everything came to a stop. Schools were closed, kids sent home and they weren't told why. They were told their parents would explain it when they got home.

Also, he said the 911 attacks were nothing compared to the JFK assassination, as far as the impact it had on people anyway.

I was quite shocked. People really never go into details like that when talking about what it was like that day.

His final speech, which was never delivered, is also worth a read.

Trade Mart Speech, 1963 . JFK . WGBH American Experience | PBS

David, That's probably true for a lot of folks. It's hard for most of us to identify with such large numbers of victims as individuals. I wouldn't say it was less of an impact, by any means, but it was different.

Kennedy had a charisma that made people feel a connection with him. After FDR, Truman, and Ike, he was a very different sort of President. That was part of the "Camelot" mythology, and made the assassination much more immediate and personal.

To put it in perspective, consider that most of the nation thought of JFK as "Jack." And you can't imagine the heartbreak so many people felt watching John Jr salute his father's casket as the caisson passed.

Very different indeed.


Paul

Steve, Wow. You never tire of insisting on things you don't know about, do you?

It's not talked about a lot in the history of American electoral politics, but Catholics weren't trusted politically in a lot of the country at that time. The Pope was too much like a religious dictator for the taste of many people in the US back then.

I was raised Catholic, and was very active in our parish. I heard all about it.

As far as how things are now... what does that have to do with it? When Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he famously remarked that Democrats were signing away the South for 50 years. He was, if anything, a bit on the conservative side with that projection. Not much, I think, but a bit. How about age? At 43, Kennedy was the second youngest President to be elected in US history.

FDR? 51.
Truman? 60.
Eisenhower? 62.

The age range over all of the American Presidents at the time they took office spanned from 42 (Theodore Roosevelt) to 69 (Ronald Reagan). JFK was very near the low end of that range.

Kennedy took office from a predecessor (Ike) who was nearly 30 years his senior, an incredibly distinguished man, and someone the entire world trusted. (I suspect that even our enemies could have been persuaded to wear an "I Like Ike" button.)

Kennedy's age was a huge issue in the campaign. The only way he got past that was having served 2 terms as a US Senator, and his military service. Even then, it was a near thing for many people.

Then there was the source of Daddy's money - bootlegging - and Joe Sr's known connections to organized crime.

JFK was well outside the "usual" parameters for a US Presidential candidate at the time he ran. He won based on two things: Joe's money and his own charisma. Once he was in office, though, the rest was on him. And his personal leadership ability was something special.

It was John's vision, and not Joe's money, that put a man on the moon and brought him back home safely.


Paul