Kennedy by Theodore C. Sorensen
Kennedy by Theodore C. Sorensen
A Book Report by Bobby Everett Smith
May 24, 2018
Spoiler Alert
Setting
White House, Washington, D.C. and around the world, 1917 to 1963
Characters
John F. (Jack) Kennedy, 35th President of U.S., assassinated while in office in Dallas Texas, November 1963
Robert Kennedy, Attorney General, Senator from New York, candidate for president, brother to Jack Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson, President of U.S., and Vice President under Jack Kennedy succeeded JFK when he was assassinated.
Joseph P. Kennedy, Joe Sr., father of Bobby, Jack Joe, Jr., Teddy, and four sisters. Ambassador to England in 1937
Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr., Congressman from Massachusetts
Ethel Kennedy, wife of Bobby. Married in June 1950. Maiden name Ethel Skakel
Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States in 1969 and competitor for President with Jack in 1960
Joseph Kennedy, Jr., oldest brother of Bobby and Jack Kennedy. Killed in combat in WWII
Joe McCarthy, Senator from Minnesota, famous for confrontations with Communists in the U.S. Hired Bobby as Assistant to General Counsel in McCarthyism fights
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., 1947 Massachusetts Senator, competitor with Jack for U.S. Senate in 1950, Ambassador to South Viet Nam, 1968, Republican
Jacqueline Bouvier, wife of Jack Kennedy and First Lady of United States, with Jack when he was assassinated in 1963
Jimmy Hoffa, U. S. Head of Teamsters Union. Tried for racketeering by Bobby Kennedy in the Senate. Murdered and body never found
Ted Kennedy, younger brother of Kennedy clan. Senator from Massachusetts
Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King, received sympathy phone call from Jack Kennedy when her husband was in jail in Alabama. Call helped Jack win election
Ed Guthman, Press Secretary under President Jack Kennedy, 1960.
- Edgar Hoover, Director of FBI, for several presidents including Jack Kennedy. Went after Communists more than gangsters
Sam Giancana, Chicago Mobster, chased by Bobby Kennedy
James Meredith, first African American to apply for enrollment in University of Mississippi. Supported at enrollment by federal marshals sent by Bobby Kennedy
McGeorge Bundy, National Security Advisor to President Kennedy. Introduced pictures proving Soviet missiles were installed on Cuban soil with a range of 1100 miles
Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense under Jack Kennedy and later under Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam war
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, an American Army general who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was a five-star general in the United States Army and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe. Succeeded by John F. Kennedy as President in 1961
Executive Summary
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the second boy in a family of nine children. He was born in Massachusetts on May 29, 1917 to a caring mother and a father who was an affluent and arrogant life-long Democrat. Called Jack, JFK became a Representative and a Senator from Massachusetts, and the 35th president of the United States.
Growing up, Jack was a handsome young man with a charming smile. He was popular amongst his friends at schools including Harvard where he graduated in 1940. After college, he joined the U.S. Naval Reserves. During World War II, Kennedy commanded a series of PT boats in the Pacific theater. In 1943, Jack’s boat was hit and sunk, and Jack led his crew, swimming 5 miles in shark-infested waters, to save their lives. He became a big hero at home. Joe, Jr. was given a bombing assignment in France and was killed when his plane exploded en route to the target.
After the war, Kennedy represented the 11th Congressional District of Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives from 1947 until 1953. He was subsequently elected to the U.S. Senate and served as the junior Senator from Massachusetts from 1953 until 1960.
At age 43, he became the youngest elected president as well as the first and only Roman Catholic to occupy the office.
Kennedy was best known for his handling of The Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Cuban Missile Crisis, initiation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and formation of the Peace Corps.
Kennedy continues to rank highly in U.S. presidents’ rankings. His average approval rating of 70% is the highest of any president in Gallup’s history.
On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the state crime, but he was never prosecuted due to his murder by Jack Ruby two days later; Ruby was sentenced to death and died while the sentence was on appeal in 1967.
The Story
“And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” JFK Inauguration address.
Jack Kennedy was the second boy in the Joseph Kennedy family behind Joe Jr. Bobby and Ted were next. The youngest boy, Teddy Kennedy, later became Senator from Massachusetts. From childhood, Jack was charming, had a beautiful smile and a generous spirit. His dad thought those characteristics were basically worthless, and Jack worried all his life about pleasing Dad. Five girls completed the Joseph Kennedy family—Rosemary, Kathleen, Jean, Eunice, and Pat.
Joseph Kennedy was one of the nation’s richest men. He was conceited and arrogant to match his wealth. Joe Jr. was the apple in Dad’s eye.
Bobby and Jack were not close as they grew up and did not become close until 1952 when politics brought them together. While there was a JFK era, there never would be a Robert Kennedy era even though it was Bobby who recognized the historic urgency of making civil rights a national priority.
The Great Depression struck the United States in 1929 and by 1932, it was in full swing. Joe Kennedy was a life-time Democrat who sometimes voted Republican if it suited his personal interests. In 1932, Joe Sr. supported FDR who won the election by a landslide. Joe expected a patronage assignment from FDR and finally received appointment to the Maritime Commission, but it was not until 1936, that Kennedy was appointed Ambassador to England, that he got what he really wanted. This was a prestigious and powerful position.
World War II
Kennedy Sr. established a close relationship with Neville Chamberlain, England’s Prime Minister. These two leaders, Chamberlin, and Kennedy, thought that the best approach with Hitler was to let him run his course, i.e. continue with the current invasions of eastern Europe but not allowing England. At that time, they did not think that was going to happen.
Kennedy Sr. was opposed to American aid to Britain. Even though, in July 1940, Hitler prepared to invade England. German bombers began hitting British targets and more than one million buildings were hit, preparing England for a German sea invasion.
Kennedy believed that the British would lose the war to Germany and he even predicted that the Germans would be in Buckingham Palace within a couple of weeks. Roosevelt was now going around Kennedy and communicating directly with Winston Churchill about America’s support of England.
By November 1941, Joe, Jr., and Jack were already Naval Officers. Joe was in flight school in Jacksonville, Florida and Jack was working for Naval Intelligence in D.C. Bobby, eight years younger than Jack, was in a private boarding school in New England.
Jack was transferred to the South Pacific where he was given command as a Lieutenant junior grade of a PT boat. In 1943, Jack’s boat was hit and sunk. Jack led his crew, swimming 5 miles in shark-infested waters, to save their lives. He became a big hero at home. Joe, Jr. was given a bombing assignment in France and was killed when his plane exploded en route to the target.
Senator Jack Kennedy
In 1946, jack began his first political race, Congressman from the 11th District in Massachusetts. Jack won the election.
That September, Jack announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts.
Jack’s campaign for the senate was coming along but there was one big problem—no one was in charge. Jack could only campaign on the weekends and no one else was there during the week to make things happen.
Jack invited Bobby to come up and take over as Campaign Manager. Bobby did not want to do it, but he loved his brother so much he agreed to take the assignment. Bobby controlled the finances and the campaign activities. He proved himself to be a fighter, hard-working, hard-driving, no-excuses Campaign Manager. Bobby’s role in the campaign was to be the bad guy, leaving Jack to make friends and be the good guy.
Jack won the election by over 70,000 votes and he gave Bobby credit for making it happen. The two of them would never forget what they had been through together.
Jack opted to run for president in 1960 with Bobby Kennedy as his campaign manager. Bobby would be the enforcer and Jack would be the charmer. Jack chose Lyndon Johnson for political reasons to be his running mate. The 1960 election would be Kennedy/Johnson vs. Nixon/Lodge.
Kennedy campaigned for economic growth, reduction in poverty, top flite education, and specifically against corruption in the Teamsters Union which was run by Jimmy Hoffa, an explicit enemy of his brother.
The final popular vote for the election was Kennedy 34.2 million votes and Nixon 34.1 million. The new president appointed Bobby Kennedy to be Attorney General. Jack needed someone in the cabinet in whom he had complete trust and that person was Bobby for the position of Attorney General.
Bay of Pigs Embarrassment
Just four months after JFK was inaugurated as president, the Bay of Pigs fiasco transpired. Under the Eisenhower administration, the CIA had planned to train 1400 Cuban refugees to invade Cuba. The plan assumed that the Cuban people would join the raiders and revolt against the Fidel Castro regime. As a fallback, the CIA expected the president of the United States to send military support as needed to defeat Castro.
The whole plan blew up in the face of Jack Kennedy and he was left with an embarrassing defeat early in his term of office. Bobby did an autopsy on the invasion to provide lessons-learned for future events.
Cuban Missile Crisis
In the fall of 1962, America was dealing with the Cold War. It was our belief that the Soviets were on a course of world domination. We had been fighting the Soviets since the end of World War II sometimes with “hot” conflicts like Korea and other times with “Cold War” tactics like the support of Berlin in the late 40’s.
Both super powers of the Cold War had nuclear weapons which were far more powerful than the weapons used over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WWII. Our strategy of containment was “massive retaliation”. “You bomb us with a nuclear weapon and we will retaliate, bombing you.”
Up until 1962 the strategy had worked for both sides. Neither the U. S. nor Soviets had threatened to use nuclear weapons seriously, both sides realizing that a nuclear war might well mean the end of life on our planet.
But in the fall of 1962, Soviet leaders thought they should test the will of the United States. Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, convinced Fidel Castro in Cuba that they could install launch sites for Soviet nuclear weapons. At first Castro pushed back but finally conceded. In September 1962, the Soviets began to deliver weapons and build launch sites in several locations throughout Cuba, only 90 miles from Miami, Florida.
In October, U. S. intelligence reported to President Kennedy about the construction of the missile sites.
At 7 pm ET on October 22, 1962, John F. Kennedy spoke to the American people from the Oval Office about the details of these sites and the dangers they represented to America and the world. He described that U. S. intelligence had discovered that several offensive missile sites were currently under construction in Cuba and that they would, within a few days, be operational.
Kennedy: “The characteristics of these new missile sites indicate two distinct types of installations. Several of them include medium range ballistic missiles, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead for more than 1,000 nautical miles. Each of these missiles, in short, is capable of striking Washington, D. C., the Panama Canal, Cape Canaveral, Mexico City, or any other city in the southeastern part of the United States, in Central America, or in the Caribbean area.”
“Additional sites not yet completed appear to be designed for intermediate range ballistic missiles — capable of traveling more than twice as far — and thus capable of striking most of the major cities in the Western Hemisphere, ranging as far north as Hudson Bay, Canada, and as far south as Lima, Peru. In addition, jet bombers, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, are now being uncrated and assembled in Cuba, while the necessary air bases are being prepared.”
“This urgent transformation of Cuba into an important strategic base — by the presence of these large, long-range, and clearly offensive weapons of sudden mass destruction — constitutes an explicit threat to the peace and security of all the Americas.”
“In that sense, missiles in Cuba add to an already clear and present danger — and in defiance of American and hemispheric policy — this sudden, clandestine decision to station strategic weapons for the first time outside of Soviet soil — is a deliberately provocative and unjustified change in the status quo which cannot be accepted by this country, if our courage and our commitments are ever to be trusted again by either friend or foe.”
“The 1930’s taught us a clear lesson: aggressive conduct, if allowed to go unchecked and unchallenged, ultimately leads to war. This nation is opposed to war. We are also true to our word. Our unswerving objective, therefore, must be to prevent the use of these missiles against this or any other country, and to secure their withdrawal or elimination from the Western Hemisphere.”
“Our policy has been one of patience and restraint, as befits a peaceful and powerful nation which leads a worldwide alliance. We have been determined not to be diverted from our central concerns by mere irritants and fanatics. But now further action is required, and it is under way; and these actions may only be the beginning.”
“Acting, therefore, in the defense of our own security and of the entire Western Hemisphere, and under the authority entrusted to me by the Constitution as endorsed by the Resolution of the Congress, I have directed that the following initial steps be taken immediately:”
“First: To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation or port will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back. This quarantine will be extended, if needed, to other types of cargo and carriers. We are not at this time, however, denying the necessities of life as the Soviets attempted to do in their Berlin blockade of 1948.”
“Second: I have directed the continued and increased close surveillance of Cuba and its military buildup. I have directed the Armed Forces to prepare for any eventualities; and I trust that in the interest of both the Cuban people and the Soviet technicians at the sites, the hazards to all concerned of continuing this threat will be recognized.”
“Third: It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.”
“Seventh and finally: I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to world peace and to stable relations between our two nations. I call upon him further to abandon this course of world domination, and to join in an historic effort to end the perilous arms race and to transform the history of man. He has an opportunity now to move the world back from the abyss of destruction by returning to his government’s own words that it had no need to station missiles outside its own territory and withdrawing these weapons from Cuba by refraining from any action which will widen or deepen the present crisis, and then by participating in a search for peaceful and permanent solutions.”
“My fellow citizens let no one doubt that this is a difficult and dangerous effort on which we have set out. No one can foresee precisely what course it will take or what costs or casualties will be incurred. Many months of sacrifice and self-discipline lie ahead — months in which both our patience and our will will be tested, months in which many threats and denunciations will keep us aware of our dangers. But the greatest danger of all would be to do nothing.”
Messages between Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, and Kennedy traveled back and forth. The Soviets offered to remove the missiles if the U.S. would promise not to invade Cuba. Bobby advocated a course of action that would give the Soviets some room to maneuver without allowing them to escalate their capabilities. We were on the verge of World War III with nuclear weapons aimed at either side.
For the sake of the world, the two countries decided on a course of action that prevented the use of nuclear weapons. The Kennedy’s scored a victory that made up for the defeat they had suffered at the Bay of Pigs invasion. We still had a Communist country just off our Florida coast.
Civil Rights Confrontations
Even though the Confederacy lost the Civil War, States in the deep South and many not so deep, continued the practice of racial segregation of African Americans. Black citizens were segregated in schools, churches, restaurants, and transportation. Public facilities had separate bathrooms, water fountains, and waiting areas for blacks and whites. Black people were required to sit “in the back of the bus” literally. The jobs available to blacks were menial and or hard jobs that white people did not want to do. Blacks could not live in white neighborhoods.
Harry Truman was the first president to take on the issue of segregation. He began to integrate the troops in military and government installations throughout the world. He integrated schools in Washington, D. C.
Eisenhower took on the segregationists in 1954 at the Little Rock, Arkansas Central High School integration. General Maxwell Taylor led the 101st Airborne to assure nine high school students that they could attend the same high school as white children.
In May 1962, tens of thousands of children and young people walked the streets of Birmingham, Alabama in protest over continued civil rights abuses. The police met the marchers with snarling dogs, high-pressure fire hoses, and Billy clubs. Hundreds of the young people were arrested and thrown into jail. Cells meant for eight, had 75 children packed into them.
Bobby Kennedy, Attorney General, watching the events unfold from Washington, dispatched Burke Marshall, head of Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, to Birmingham, to negotiate with city and state leaders. Burke’s aim was to mediate between the civil rights leaders and the business leaders of the city.
Burke managed to get agreement that the WHITE ONLY and BLACK ONLY signs would be removed from restaurants, rest rooms and water fountains—to take effect within 90 days. This was an historic movement towards greater civil rights for all Americans irrespective of the color of their skin.
In his inaugural address as governor of Alabama, George Wallace stated, “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.” He later vowed to resist a federal court order to admit two black students into the University of Alabama. Wallace vowed to stand in the schoolhouse door to prevent black students from entering the school.
Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach accompanied by Federal marshals arrived, at the University of Alabama, to enforce the integration of the University. Wallace, as promised, stood in the door of the registration building surrounded by state troopers.
The stalemate lasted for five hours. President Kennedy dispatched National Guard troops to make sure the doors to the University opened for the two black students, Vivian Malone, and James Hood.
The two students were admitted. President Kennedy delivered a speech to the nation that night on the civil rights issue. In tears, Martin Luther King proclaimed that it was the “most sweeping and most forthright speech ever given by an American president.”
From the Oval Office on June 11, 1963 President Kennedy proposed legislation that would later become the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Just over a week later, President Kennedy submitted to Congress a strong civil rights bill. Anti-communists movements and the civil rights movements now pressured the president. J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, was more interested in anti-communist activities than civil rights activities. The president, for the first time, stated the civil rights issue as a moral cause. “It’s the right thing to do.”
Southerners were opposed to the legislation then and now even though we have achieved integration throughout the United States. There continues to be hatred and bigotry amongst many so-called White Supremacists. In my next Book Report, I will cover Lyndon Johnson’s participation in the civil rights movement.
In the summer of 1963, the president was confronted with the Cold War struggle with a need for additional troops in Viet Nam. The United States had 16,000 military advisers in Viet Nam at that time. The president named Henry Cabot Lodge as Ambassador to South Viet Nam.
JFK Assassination
On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated as he drove in an open car through the streets of Dallas, with his wife Jackie, by his side. Lyndon Johnson was sworn in two hours later as the President of the United States.
President Johnson appointed Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, to form a commission to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy. The Commission concluded that the murder was the work of one man acting alone, Lee Harvey Oswald who was killed while under police custody in Dallas, just one day after the death of the president.
Throughout the time since November 1963, people have suggested that conspiracy theories that resulted in Kennedy’s death: the FBI, the CIA, Cuba, organized crime, and White Supremacists were all accused of the murder. No proof of who killed the president has been found to the present time.
Rating
Four stars out of five. This is an excellent biography of a President who was competent and popular in a term of office cut short by assassination. Jack Kennedy best known for his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Civil Rights enactments was one of the best presidents we have ever had despite a very short time in that position. I highly recommend reading this biography of John F. Kennedy.
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