Q2 Flashcards
Perpetuations at the time
- Kennedy was being marketed from day 1 when Joe Kennedy actively lobbied for the publication of his PT-109 in Reader’s Digest article naming him a Navy hero
- Wins Pulitzer Prize for Profiles in Courage → intellect: physical and moral courage
- Televised debate between Nixon and JFK (1960) - decisive: despite Nixon appearing more resonant and sonorous than Kennedy, he visually appeared more attractive and impressive - the impact of this was profound - before the debate the polls were neck and neck, subsequent 49% backed Kennedy and 46% for Nixon. Furthermore, 43% of Americans believed Kennedy had won the first debates in comparison to 23% for Nixon
- Kennedy was able to use rhetoric as well as the visual image to connect with the American people in the 1960 presidential campaign. In his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles on 15 July 1960, he framed his quest for the White House in historical and mythical terms, “I stand here tonight facing the West” - claimed that “together he and the American people should conjoin on a special mission of national self-renewal”
- Academic historians tend to rate Kennedy as far more of an average president than other sources - e.g Arthur Schelsinger Snr. when ranking presidents put Kennedy in the middle of the pack, as opposed to other sources such as Time Magazine who put him at least in the top 3 → public opinion versus academic interpretation
- An April 21 1958 Life Magazine cover displayed Kennedy sitting with Jackie and their baby Caroline in the baby’s bedroom. In August 1956 they again put Jack and Jackie on its cover with the caption, ‘Jackie Kennedy: A Front Runner’s Appealing Wife’. By the summer of 1960, with that year’s presidential campaign well underway, Time Magazine put JFK on its cover with Jackie and his parents behind him, with pictures on the walls of his siblings - cover implied his campaign could only be understood with reference to the family that had propelled it
- Sinatra’s song, “High Hopes” proclaimed that “Jack’s the nation’s favourite guy” and urged everyone to “Come vote for Kennedy”
Ted Sorensen Papers (2012)
- Boxes 68,69,73 offer valuable new insights into the role of Kennedy administration in face of opposition in the struggle for civil rights
- The documents in box 68 are valuable as they relate the famous incident when the Kennedy administration supported James Meredith, an African American veteran, when he applied for admission to the racially segregated
University of Mississippi over the opposition of segregationist Mississippi governor Ross Barnett - this rift highlighted Kennedy’s civil rights agenda and the difficulties in pursuing this - Taylor Branch’s monumental study, Parting the Waters: American in the King Years, 1954 - 63 (1988), traced the difficult and often ambiguous relationship between Kennedy and civil rights leaders. Rather than leading, the president was often pushed alone by others when he preferred to be more cautious on this issue.
Nick Bryant 2006: “The Bystander”
- Misconception surrounding JFK being an idealistic, cruising liberal. Rather, he was a pragmatic centrist, “somebody who read the politics and tried to act accordingly”
- Classic example - Civil Rights: initially denied march on Washington as apprehensive of democrat fears making this synonymous with liberal values
- Introduced civil rights legislation - not due to any personal agenda but because he was worried a black rebellion would overwhelm the image of his presidency
- LBJ contributed to this MYTH - claimed that passing civil rights legislation would be the best way to memorialise Kennedy
Jackie Kennedy
- Jacquie’s interview with Theodore White in Time Magazine on November 29, 1963 was one of the most profound microcosms of the Camelot Myth, attributed to founding the mythology, “for one brief moment there was Camelot”.
- As “she did not want Jack left to the historians”, shortly after Kennedy’s assassination, Jacqueline Kennedy actively worked to propagate a certain image of JFK. Sharing with Schlesinger that JFK often listened to the musical “Camelot” and enjoyed its association with a time of idealism and noble leadership, this anecdote was shared with the public and contributed to the romanticised view of the Kennedy administration as a modern-day Camelot, characterised by youthful vigour, cultural sophistication, and progressive ideals.
- This portrayal has profoundly influenced how historians and the public view Kennedy’s presidency, often emphasising its aspirational and visionary qualities.
- The interviews highlighted JFK’s intellectual interests, his engagement with artists, writers, and intellectuals, and his administration’s support for the arts and humanities.
- This emphasis contributed to the image of Kennedy as a cultured and sophisticated leader, which contrasted with the more pedestrian images of some of his predecessors and successors.
- This cultivated image has reinforced the view of the Kennedy White House as a beacon of cultural and intellectual life in American politics. Jacqueline Kennedy’s personal anecdotes and insights provided a more intimate and humanising portrayal of JFK. By sharing stories about his private life, humour, and personal struggles, she helped construct a more relatable and human image of the president.
- This personal dimension has been an essential component of Kennedy’s enduring appeal, making him not only a political figure but also a beloved and tragic hero in American culture.
JFK Library
- Form of hagiography
- Ongoing source - always contemporary
- The JFK Library, often referred to as a “site of memory”, reveals the way in which Jackie Kennedy carefully constructed the ‘Camelot’ image of JFK in the public landscape. Following the untimely death of the president, JFK’s family and friends were as concerned with “feeling as they were with fact, and as much about the imagined as they were real”.
- As such, their priority in the JFK Library was not so much an objective and truthful recollection of his presidency, but was moreso a “performance” that honoured and carried through the legacy of a young and brave president who was taken before his time.
- Jackie’s role in the construction of the library saw her curate images and sources that heavily emphasised the positives of JFK’s presidency, while omitting aspects of his personal life and revisionist contributions from the library’s oeuvre.
- American presidential libraries are part of their iconography - picks out the best of the president
Centre for liberal, progressive, american, political, policy making and agendas - The democratic rebuttal to Donald Trump’s first State of the Union was delivered by a Kennedy relative in the JFK library - site for politics and enduring power of the legacy
Power of the institution to speak with authority due to the curated nature - everything strategically has a purpose within the library - James Hufbauer, “Presidential Temples” - calls these institutions “sites of pilgrimage”
Kennedy Cuba Rhetoric
Radio and Television Address to the American people on the Soviet Arms Build-up in Cuba → positioned himself as a peacekeeper
→ “Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right. Not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom”
→ “the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation… The cost of freedom is always high - but Americans have always paid for it. One path we will never choose is that of submission and surrender” → his audience was not just Krsuchev but his political critics
Arthur Schelsinger 1965, “A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House” (CUBA)
Kennedy’s close friend and confidant
Trained historian but claims the book is a ‘personal memoir’
His narrative suggests that:
→ Kruschev was reckless
→ Kennedy was calm and rational
→ Kennedy was an excellent manager
→ US was the ‘right’ world leader
Vested interest in propagating JFK in a certain way (limitation)
No access to Cuban/Soviet sources → these came out in revisionist perspectives
- Strengths include some personal anecdotes of Kennedy as well as an understanding of the main narrative being portrayed to America at the time
- In relation to the Cuban Missile Crisis: “it was this combination of toughness and restraint, the calmness and will … which gave the world - even the Soviet Union - a sense of American determination and responsibility in the use of power which if sustained, might indeed become a turning point in the history of relations between East and West”
EXCOMM Tapes
EXCOMM tapes released in the mid 1990s:
- “What difference does it make? They’ve got enough to blow us up now anyways”
- Shows the strategic nature of his presidential announcements, “Talk about maybe the dangers to the United States…say that we’re going to move with MRBMs on friday, that the existence presents the gravest threat to our security and appropriate action must be taken
Seymour Hersh 1970, “Dark side of Camelot”
- “Over the next 13 days the president eschewed diplomacy and played a terrifying game of nuclear chicken, without knowing all the facts… Kennedy publicly brought his personal recklessness, and the belief that the normal rules of conduct did not apply to him in his foreign policy”
- “Jack Kennedy chose to believe Kruschev’s assurances over his own intelligence service … another crisis in Cuba would evoke the Bay of Pigs and give the Republicans a vibrant foreign policy issue”
Orthodox: Chris Matthews 2011, “Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero”
- Calls JFK a ‘fighting prince’
- Neo camelot
Revisionist: Thomas G Paterson 1989, “Fixation with Cuba: the Bay of Pigs, Missile Crisis and Covert War against Castro”
Argues that JFK’s policies aimed to achieve US hegemony in Latin America
His narrative suggests that
→ JFK was reckless
→ JFK’s approach was self interested
→ EXCOMM often managed poorly
→ US was not a ‘force of peace’
Less personal and more ‘historical’ analysis of JFK’s role in the CMC
Paterson consulted Cuban, Soviet and new US Sources (e.g Church committee 1975-76)
Clear limitations include
→ Relatively brief (one chapter)
→ Still focussed on ‘great men’
→ Bent on attacking ‘myths’
Post-Revisionist: David Owen 2008, “In Sickness and in Power”
British leftist politician and medical doctor
Believes in hubris-syndrome
Narrative suggests that
→ JFK performed well in 1962
→ New treatments = central to this
→ Success was not just skill
→ Critique of Dallek
Dallek: Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 (2003)
- Dallek’s work draws from never-before-seen medical documents, Oval Office tapes, and oral histories, shedding new light on Kennedy’s physical ailments, including Addison’s disease, which significantly impacted his presidency.
- The book paints a detailed picture of how JFK’s family, especially his father Joe Kennedy, influenced his career, attitudes towards women, and personal life.
- Giglio in “Why Another Kennedy Book?” (2003) emphasizes Dallek’s focus on Kennedy’s courage in managing his severe health issues, and how JFK’s reliance on medications, including controversial treatments, influenced his leadership.
- Dallek’s analysis suggests that JFK’s illnesses did not hinder his presidential performance, and the book critically addresses how the media manipulated the public image of his health.
- Dallek downplays JFK’s womanizing as mostly inconsequential to his professional duties but notes how his medical issues were downplayed or hidden during his presidency.
The Afterlife of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (2017)
- Hogan asserts that Jacqueline Kennedy carefully crafted the public image of her husband as an embodiment of American virtue, concealing his flaws (such as medical issues and infidelities) and promoting his strengths.
- The book examines how Jacqueline orchestrated the Kennedy administration’s public relations, with her most notable achievement being the White House restoration. This project reinforced JFK’s image as a cultured and forward-looking leader.
- The assassination of JFK and the symbolic acts following his death, like the eternal flame at his gravesite, further cemented his status as a revered figure in American memory.
- Hogan critiques the “heritage industry” that has shaped Kennedy’s image, suggesting that popular culture has played a larger role in maintaining his legacy than academic historians.
- “For most Americans…the slain president and his widow emerged…as larger-than-life figures who supposedly revealed in more or less perfect form the best attributes of American character” (p. 100).
- Hogan reflects on the “tension between history and memory” and how Jacqueline Kennedy’s vision of her husband ultimately prevailed over historical criticism.
Richard Reeves, “Profile of Power” (1993)
- The book portrays Kennedy as an intelligent yet pragmatic leader who valued practical problem-solving (“brains over ideology”) but struggled with indecisiveness at times. Reeves explores moments such as the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Cuban Missile Crisis, civil rights challenges, and Vietnam, showing JFK as someone reacting to events rather than mastering them. The narrative highlights both his successes—such as negotiating the limited nuclear test-ban treaty—and his shortcomings, particularly in Vietnam, where his policies became increasingly entangled and reactive.
