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20 “The Torch Has Been Passed to a New Generation” The Myths of John F. Kennedy T H E PROBLEM W IT H T H E PR ESIDENC Y of John F. Kennedy is a problem of evidence. There seems to be nowhere that the historian can turn for an objective opinion of Kennedy’s short tenure. No president was analyzed so quickly, and so shoddily, by both contemporary observers and historians, until fact, myth, and just plain nonsense were irretrievably mixed. Yet what was perhaps more important, the all too few balanced studies of Kennedy and his administration that have appeared in the past five years have met with an interesting and telling fate; the general American public has shown that it wants to ignore any historical attempt that purports a balanced treatment of Kennedy and his administration. People do not want to think about Jack Kennedy. More than any other modern president, he was a president to whom the country reacted. Revisionism comes and goes; with Kennedy, it has come, and few Americans care. What remains is the Kennedy Myth, a myth that began the second that Kennedy died in Dallas. The assassination of John Kennedy not only stopped his life, it effectively stopped the flow of evidence on his administration. All attempts to probe were squelched, either by the grieving family, or by the protective staff. What replaced the evidence was mythology—Kennedy had restored grace, style, and wit to a presidency that had aged with Eisenhower ; Kennedy had faced down the Russians; Kennedy had been the first great friend of the black man in Washington. He had, in the words of a Democratic partisan, “made America look good.” His presidency became a “ T H E T O R C H H A S B E E N P A S S E D T O A N E W G E N E R A T I O N ” 21 classical tragedy, in which the hero did the best he could, won a few, lost a few, and was killed while trying. However, when the historian questions the Kennedy Myth, as all myths must be questioned, and delves into the vast amount of evidence on the Kennedy presidency, a diametrically opposite hypothesis both appears and can be supported by the evidence—that Kennedy was an amoral warmonger, a man who took the country to the brink not for defense, as did Eisenhower, but just for the hell of it. Not a hero, but a Machiavellian Black Prince. Can one escape the Kennedy Myth—so eloquently labeled by the grieving widow when she told a reporter that her husband’s favorite phonograph record was the soundtrack to the Broadway musical Camelot—and embrace a study of John F. Kennedy that reaches a conclusion that is somewhat less harsh than that of historian/journalist Garry Wills: “His real legacy was to teach the wrong lesson, over and over”? Probably not. America’s fascination with the lifestyles of the rich and famous is a cornerstone of its popular culture. It is certainly a cornerstone of the Kennedy Myth. The Kennedy family has been the subject of almost as many books as the Kennedy presidency. It is the classic family that you love to hate. The patriarch, Joseph Kennedy, Sr., was a bootlegger, stock speculator, money maker, and womanizer—all done to gigantic proportions. His wife, Rose, was the gentle matriarch, loyal despite her husband’s infidelities, taking refuge in the strict practice of her faith. The family’s Catholicism clashed with the puritanical Protestantism of the ruling Boston Brahmins. Kennedy found that despite his wealth and influence—indeed, despite the fact that he had married the daughter of one of the most popular politicians in the Bay State—he was shut out of Boston politics (it was said that the one position Kennedy wanted more than any other, one that because of his religion he never received, was appointment to the Board of Overseers of Harvard University ). Vacation retreats to the family’s summer home at Hyannis, on the more cosmopolitan southern coast of Cape Cod, became permanent. The combination of their faith and their wealth placed the Kennedy family into a microscopic minority. Lest they fall prey to sloth, Kennedy maintained a rigorous family discipline. Stories abound of the family dinners where the boys (Joe Jr., Jack, Bobby, and Teddy) and the girls (Rosemary , Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, and Jean) played the roles of the founding [3.145.186...

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