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Chapter 2 John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson
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chapter 2 John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson Even though John Kennedy is not the first president most people think of when considering the preeminent environmental presidents, a speech he gave in 1963 indicated that he did feel a part of the conservation legacy. Kennedy asserted, “ I want those Americans who live here in 2000 to feel that . . . those of us who inherited it [the country] from Franklin Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt will have something to pass on to those who come. . . . So I hope we will harness our rivers. I hope we will reclaim our land. . . . I hope we can provide, through cooperative effort of the farmers and the Government, the kind of program which will give them a hope for security.”1 John F. Kennedy While other issues, such as the economy, foreign affairs, and civil rights, dominated his agenda, Kennedy shared several traits with those presidents who are considered leading political figures in the environmental movement . Although he talked only in terms of conservation, he had a firm understanding and vision of not only conservation but of the potential of the environmental movement in the future. He acknowledged that Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring had an influence on the way he thought about conservation, and about pesticides in particular. In the presidential news conference on August 29, 1962, he was asked about the “widespread use of DDT and other pesticides.” He was then asked if he was going to have the Department of Agriculture and Public Health Service “take a closer look at this.” He replied, “Yes, and I know that they already are, I think particularly, of course, since Miss Carson’s book, but they are examining the matter.”2 The popularity of Carson and the book’s focus led Kennedy to instruct his science advisory committee to look into the concern over pesticides . The committee’s report came back in May 1963 requesting limits on the use of pesticides. As a result, Kennedy ordered its recommendations to be implemented, which led to the Department of Agriculture halting its spray- jfk and lbj 47 ing programs and to the Food and Drug Administration reviewing the acceptable limits of pesticide residue on our food supply. The report also indicated “until publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, people were generally unaware of the toxicity of pesticides.”3 Kennedy also instructed Secretary of Interior Stewart Udall, to look at the broader range of environmental protection.4 This interest and concern with pesticides led later, in 1964, to federal regulations. Stewart Udall, in his own book The Quiet Crisis and the Next Generation, suggested that Carson’s particular influence on the Kennedy era wasn’t because Carson had made many new discoveries or had put forth an original thesis, but because she had “prophetic gifts” as a person who “synthesized the insights of other scientists.”5 Kennedy was also convinced of the distinct role that the 1960s could play in advancing the environmental cause; he saw that the 1960s were different from the days of either Theodore Roosevelt or Franklin Roosevelt, that citizens living in the 1960s had a peculiar task to perform to keep the environmental movement alive and strong. Kennedy argued that the 1960s, as a time of burgeoning population, would put excessive demands on natural resources, which could result in diminishing resources of timber, water, minerals, energy, fuels, and topsoil. Kennedy saw that the 1960s generation would have to do more than just conserve resources. He indicated in a 1963 speech in Wyoming: “It is not enough to put barbed wire around a forest or a lake, or put in stockpiles of minerals, or restrictive laws and regulations on the exploitation of resources. . . . Our primary task now is to increase our understanding of our environment to a point where we can enjoy it without defacing it, use its bounty without detracting permanently from its value, and, above all, maintain a living balance between man’s actions and nature’s reactions, for this Nation’s great resources are as elastic and productive as our ingenuity can make them.”6 The ocean was of particular interest to the president. Whenever he had a chance to speak about conservation he would say something about the ocean and its resources. In his March 1, 1962, special message to Congress he talked about the need both to conserve the public shorelines and to understand the rich resources in the ocean. For this he looked to oceanography in...