Kennedy (136 page)

He was not the first President to take on Big Steel, nor was he the first to send a controversial treaty to the Senate, nor was he the first to meet state defiance with Federal forces, nor was he the first to seek reform in a coordinate branch of government. But he may well have been the first to win all those encounters. Indeed, all his life he was a winner until November, 1963. In battle he became a hero. In literature
he won a Pulitzer Prize. In politics he reached the Presidency. His Inaugural, his wife, his children, his policies, his conduct of crises, all reflected his pursuit of excellence.

History and posterity must decide. Customarily they reserve the mantle of greatness for those who win great wars, not those who prevent them. But in my unobjective view I think it will be difficult to measure John Kennedy by any ordinary historical yardstick. For he was an extraordinary man, an extraordinary politician and an extraordinary President. Just as no chart on the history of weapons could accurately reflect the advent of the atom, so it is my belief that no scale of good and bad Presidents can rate John Fitzgerald Kennedy. A mind so free of fear and myth and prejudice, so opposed to cant and clichés, so unwilling to feign or be fooled, to accept or reflect mediocrity, is rare in our world—and even rarer in American politics. Without demeaning any of the great men who have held the Presidency in this century, I do not see how John Kennedy could be ranked below any one of them.

His untimely and violent death will affect the judgment of historians, and the danger is that it will relegate his greatness to legend. Even though he was himself almost a legendary figure in life, Kennedy was a constant critic of the myth. It would be an ironic twist of fate if his martyrdom should now make a myth of the mortal man.

In my view, the man was greater than the legend. His life, not his death, created his greatness. In November, 1963, some saw it for the first time. Others realized that they had too casually accepted it. Others mourned that they had not previously admitted it to themselves. But the greatness was there, and it may well loom even larger as the passage of years lends perspective.

One of the doctors at the Parkland Hospital in Dallas, observing John Kennedy’s six-foot frame on the operating table, was later heard to remark: “I had never seen the President before. He was a big man, bigger than I thought.”

He was a big man—much bigger than anyone thought—and all of us are better for having lived in the days of Kennedy.

1. The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (required Senate approval only)
   

2. The Civil Rights Act
   

3. The Tax Reduction Act
   

4. The Trade Expansion Act
   

5. The Peace Corps
   

6. The Mental Health and Mental Retardation Acts
   

7. The Higher Education and Medical Education Acts
   

8. The depressed communities Area Redevelopment Act
   

9. The Manpower Development and Retraining Act
   

10. The authority and funds for
    

    1. A full-scale outer space effort, focused on a manned moon landing in the 1960’s
       

    2. The largest and fastest military build-up in our peacetime history
       

    3. New tools for foreign policy: the Disarmament Administration, a revamped Foreign Aid Agency, an independent Food-for-Peace program and a UN bond issue
       

    4. The Alliance for Progress with Latin America
       

    5. More assistance to health, education and conservation than had been voted by any two Congresses in history
       

    6. A redoubled effort to find an economical means of converting salt water to fresh
       

    7. The world’s largest atomic power plant at Hanford, Washington
       

11. Modernization of New Deal-Fair Deal measures:
    

    1. The most comprehensive housing and urban renewal program in history, including the first major provisions for middle-income housing, private low-income housing, public mass transit and protection of urban open spaces
       

    2. The first major increase in minimum wage coverage since the original 1938 act, raising it to $1.25 an hour
       

    3. The most far-reaching revision of the public welfare laws since the original 1935 act, a $300 million modernization which emphasized rehabilitation instead of relief
       

    4. A revival of Food Stamps for the needy, plus increased food distribution to the impoverished and expanded school lunch and school milk distribution
       

    5. The most comprehensive farm legislation since 1938, expanding marketing orders, farm credit, crop insurance, soil conservation and rural electrification
       

    6. The first accelerated public works program for areas of unemployment since the New Deal
       

    7. The first major amendments to the food and drug safety laws since 1938
       

    8. The first full-scale modernization and expansion of the vocational education laws since 1946
       

    9. A temporary antirecession supplement to unemployment compensation
       

    10. The first significant package of anticrime bills since 1934. plus a new act on juvenile delinquency
        

    11. The first major additions to our National Park System since 1946, the provision of a fund for future acquisitions, and the preservation of wilderness areas
        

    12. A doubling of the water pollution prevention program, plus the first major attack on air pollution m. The most far-reaching tax reforms since the New Deal, including new investment tax credit
        

    13. Major expansions and improvements in Social Security (including retirement at age sixty-two for men), library services, hospital construction, family farm assistance and reclamation
        

12. The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the Constitution, outlawing poll taxes (required ratification by states instead of the President’s signature)
    

13. The Community Health Facilities Act
    

14. The Communications Satellite Act
    

15. The Educational Television Act
    

N
OTE
: This listing is restricted to measures advanced as well as initiated by John F. Kennedy and thus omits the War on Poverty Bill of 1964. While he was not present to sign approximately one out of six of the measures listed above—including such important measures as civil rights and tax reduction—and while President Johnson skillfully facilitated their passage, the Democratic and Republican leaders of both houses have stated publicly that these measures, too, would have passed the Eighty-seventh Congress had Kennedy lived in—and view of his role in formulating and forwarding them—properly belong in his record.

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

Abel, Rudolf, 517

Academic Advisory Committee, 388, 406

Acheson, Dean, 255, 256, 270, 271, 288, 334, 391, 571, 583, 584, 589, 590, 598, 675, 705, 719

Adams, John Quincy, 67, 289, 755

Adams, Sherman, 232, 238, 261, 262, 281

Adenauer, Konrad, 331, 541, 554, 559, 569, 570, 572, 578, 581, 584, 596-597, 598, 686, 705, 715, 720, 734

Adoula, Premier, 533, 638

Adzhubei, Aleksei, 515, 517, 552, 556, 598, 613n.

Adzhubei, Mrs. Aleksei (Khrushchev), 556

AFL-CIO, 52–53, 438, 439

Africa, 646, 662

“Africa for Africans,” 538, 539

Agar, H. S., 62, 67

Agency for International Development,
see
AID

agriculture, 237, 741, 742

Agriculture Act (1961), 742

AID, 288, 350, 452, 530–531, 532, 534, 539

Air Force, 612

Air Force Academy, 605

Air Force Association, 739 “Air Force One,” 367, 520, 601, 731

air strike (Cuba), 684, 685, 686, 687, 691, 692, 693–694, 696, 713, 714, 715, 716

Alabama, 478, 479, 488–493

Alabama National Guard, 493, 502

Alabama, University of, 488–493

Albert, Carl, 355, 356

Algeria, 65, 228, 547, 571, 638

Allen, George, 204

Alliance for Progress, 533–540

Alphand, Hervé, 559, 561

Alsop, Joseph, 66, 165, 272, 315, 379

Alsop, Stewart, 315

American Bar Association Journal
, 67

American Medical Association, 343–344, 439

American Nazi Party, 504

American Presidency, The
, 392

Anderson, George, 608, 698

Anderson, Marian, 240

Anderson, Rudolf, Jr., 713

Angola, 533, 538

Annapolis, 55, 370

anti-missile missile, 621

Arab League, 540

Area Redevelopment Act, 404

Aristotle, 367

Armco, 456

armed forces Reserves, 480

“Armenian Radio,” 556n, 613n.

arms inspection, 518, 519, 728, 730, 733

Article VI, no-m Arvey, Jake, 53, 115

As We Remember Joe
, 375

Asia Magazine
, 581

ASNE, 144, 189

Atlanta (Ga.), 479

Atl´ntico
(ship), 299

Attwood, 279

Australia, 647, 741

Austria, 548, 600

Autobahn
(East Germany), 584, 587, 594, 598, 600, 745

Autobiography
(Franklin), 100

Autobiography
(Poling), 192

automation, 402, 441, 488

Ayub Khan, 664

B-26, 299

B-70, 390

Bacon, Robert, 2

Badeau, John, 54, 279

Baer, Howard, 101

Bailey, John, 82–83, 84, 87, 89, 117, 120, 171, 211

Bailey, Peter James, 190

“Bailey Memorandum,” 82–83, 127, 146, 217

Baker, Robert, 165

balance of payments, 405–412, 563, 570

Baldwin, James, 503

Ball, George, 236, 260, 280, 282, 287, 288, 289, 323, 395, 411, 566, 674, 679, 682, 691, 692, 734

Baltimore
Sun
, 316

Baring, Walter S., 260–261

Barkley, Alben W., 118

Barnes, Donald, 581

Barnett, Ross, 483–484, 486, 487–488, 707

Barry, John, 375

Bartlett, Charles, 36, 37, 315, 447, 457

Bartlett, Mrs. Charles, 37

Bartlett’s Quotations
, 62

Batista, Fulgencio, 546

Battle, Virginia, 471

Bay of Pigs, 259, 268, 288, 294 ff., 399, 534, 542, 546, 605, 607, 613, 629–630, 631, 635, 644, 645, 652, 661, 669, 677, 681, 688, 708, 722

see also
Cuba

Bean, Louis, 138, 146

Beck, David S., 53

Belgium, 635, 639

Belgrade Summit Conference, 538, 551, 620

Bell, David, 260, 263, 272, 288, 395, 407, 531

Benítez, José, 115

Benson, Ezra Taft, 171, 220, 276

Berger, Samuel D., 279

Berle, Adolf, 237, 287, 307, 534

Berlin,
see
East Berlin
and
West Berlin

Berlin crisis, 514, 548, 556, 562, 563, 564, 581, 626, 726, 742, 748, 756

Acheson and, 583–584, 589, 598

Adenauer and, 559, 596–597, 598

Adzhubei and, 598

and
Autobahn
, 584, 587, 594, 598, 600, 745

and Berlin Wall, 593–594, 595596, 600, 743

and children, 2

Clay and, 594–595

and Cuban crisis, 667, 668–669, 672, 677, 680, 681, 683, 686, 687, 689,690, 694, 699, 724, 725

deadlock over, 554

De Gaulle and, 561, 593, 597, 599

East-West split, 583

Eisenhower and, 585 “false climax” of, 589

and “floating depots,” 627

Freedman and, 591

and German peace treaty, 583, 585, 586

Gromyko and, 598, 599

Johnson and, 594

and Joint Chiefs of Staff, 587

and Khrushchev, 583

Lemnitzer and, 589

Macmillan and, 563, 599

McNamara and, 590

military build-up in, 409, 588–589, 595, 627–629

Murrow and, 591

and NATO, 587, 588, 591, 628

news conferences during, 325

Norstad and, 595, 596

and nuclear war, 548, 549, 550, 588

Ormsby-Gore and, 559

and Paris Summit Conference, 583

Rostow and, 595

Rusk and, 590, 598, 599

and surtax, 399

Taylor and, 591

Thompson and, 598

Ulbricht and, 586, 598, 599

and visit to Soviet Union, 552

and “Western Peace Plan,” 596

World War II and, 553, 583, 584

see also
East Berlin
and
West Berlin

Berlin Wall, 593–594, 595–596, 600, 743, 749

Betancourt, Ernesto, 533

Bethlehem Steel, 453, 458, 462, 467

Big Steel, 319, 329, 390, 421, 435, 460, 757

Billings, K. Lemoyne, 23, 36

Birmingham (Ala.), 329, 489, 490, 491, 493, 502–503, 505

birth control, III

Bissell, Richard, 630

Black Muslims, 504

Blaik, Earl, 503

Blair, William McCormick, Jr., 85, 279

Blanshard, Paul, 364

Block, Joseph, 456

blockade of Cuba, 682, 683, 687–689, 691- 692, 694, 697, 698, 704, 711, 721

Blough, Roger, 445, 446, 447–448, 452, 453, 455, 457, 458, 459, 460, 462

Boggs, Hale, 356, 702

Bohlen, Charles, 46, 231, 256, 279, 542, 553, 674, 677

Bokaro steel mill, 537

Bolivar, Simon, 205

Bolivia, 689

Bolshakov, 554, 558, 668

Bolton, Frances, 742n.

bomb shelters,
see
shelters, bomb and fallout “bomber gap,” 624

Bond, James, 388

Bosch, Juan, 536

Boston, 20–21

Boston
Globe
, 87, 316

Boston
Herald
, 75, 77, 316

Boston National Historic Sites Commission, 44

Boston
Post
, 25, 46, 59, 78

Boutin, Bernard L., 277

Bowie, James, 190

Bowie, Robert, 288

Bowles, Chester, 98, 149–150, 151, 157, 170, 176, 205, 240, 252, 255, 256, 260, 271, 287, 288–290, 334

Boyd, Albert, 277

Boyle, Bernard J., 121

Bradlee, Ben, 36

Brandt, Willy, 576, 600, 697, 705

Brawley, Bill, 275

Brazil, 293, 708

Brewer, Basil, 74

Brewster, Owen, 46

Bricker Amendment, 62

Bridges, Harry, 170

Bridges, Styles, 66, 74

Brinkley, David, 212

Brogan, Denis, 63

Brookings Institution, 229, 230

Brown, Edmund G., 96, 124, 130, 148, 151, 155

Broyhill, Joel T., 260n. Bruce, David, 279, 565, 571

Bruno, Jerry, 172

Bryan, William Jennings, 252

Buchan, John, 14, 16

Buckley, Charles, 115, 124, 353

Buddhists, 657

Budget Bureau, 614

Bulganin, Nikolai A., 555

Bunche, Ralph, 260, 271

Bundy, McGeorge, 253, 256, 261, 262–263, 264, 270, 271, 282, 284, 287, 288, 294, 323, 324, 330, 372, 374, 386, 448, 542, 591, 604, 607, 622, 630,674, 679, 716, 717, 730, 731, 740, 756

Bunker, Ellsworth, 279, 580

Burden and the Glory, The
, 375 Burke, Arleigh, 286, 296, 739

Burke, Edmund, 718

Burke, William H., 78, 79

Burma, 535, 631, 646, 661

Burns, James MacGregor, 4, 13, 27

Business Council, 502

Butler, Paul, 124 “By George McBundy,” 316

Byrd, Harry, 188, 219, 220, 222–223, 253, 345, 418, 420, 424, 425

Byrd, Robert, 141, 146

Calhoun, John C, 74

Cambodia, 640, 646, 652–653

Camelot
, 387

Camp David, 377, 378

Canada, 575–576, 705, 741

Cannon, Clarence, 345, 431

Cape Cod, see Hyannis Port Capehart, Homer, 2, 66, 669, 674, 687

Capital Times
, 136

Caplin, Mortimer, 237, 277

Caracas, 749

Carey, William R., 190

Caribbean Security Conference, 700

Caribe
(ship), 299

Caroline
(plane), 100, 101, 117, 135, 172, 202, 243, 249, 533

Carter, Marshall, 674, 675

Cary, William L., 277

Casablanca
, 387

Casals, Pablo, 385

Cassini brothers, 388

Castro, Fidel, 183, 210, 533, 536, 686, 707, 711, 713, 716

and Bay of Pigs, 294, 302, 677, 681, 692

Khrushchev and, 546–547, 555, 720

and Latin America, 228, 297, 669, 671, 692

removal of, plans for, 306–308, 630, 670, 682, 683, 684, 693–694, 706, 723

retaliation of, 681, 683, 687, 721

see also
Cuban crisis

Castro, Raul, 677

Catholic Review
, 109

Catlin, George, 387

Celebrezze, Anthony, 265, 274

Celeste, Vincent, 77

Celler, Emanuel, 236, 500

censorship, III, 286, 364

Central Committee (Soviet), 730

Central Intelligence Agency,
see
CIA Chandler, Albert B., 96

Charleston
Gazette
, 146

Chayes, Abram, 118 “Checkers” speech, 196

“Chet Set,” 289

Chiang Kai-shek, 204, 541, 547, 661, 662

Chicago
Sun-Times
, 85, 316

Chicago
Tribune
, 316, 458

China,
see
Nationalist China
and
Red China

Christian Science Monitor
, 52, 146

Christmas Island, 623

Church, Frank, 180

Churchill, Winston, 6, 169, 333, 512n., 560, 563, 596, 734

CIA, 205–206, 294 ff., 371, 372, 376, 532, 612, 630–631, 651, 659–660, 669, 670, 673, 674, 678, 706

Cincinnati, 180

Citizens Committee for a Nuclear Test Ban, 739

Citizens for Educational Freedom, 361

civil defense, 613–617, 708

civil defense shelters,
see
shelters, bomb and fallout

civil rights, 2, 17, 47, 48, 49–51, 150, 168, 172, 187, 470ff., 577, 578, 731, 753

Civil Rights Act, 51, 330–331, 333, 342, 496

Civil Rights Commission, 472, 474, 475n., 480, 488, 494

Civil Rights Message, 472, 494, 495

Civil Service Commission, 473

Civil War Centennial Commission, 477

Clark, Champ (James Beauchamp), 155

Clark, Joe, 236

Clay, Henry, 74, 163, 356

Clay, Lucius, 347, 351, 594–595

Clement, Frank, 81, 86

Clemson University, 488

Cleveland, Grover, 436

Cleveland Press, 131

Clifford, Clark, 69, 70, 229–230, 231, 254, 255, 457, 458

Clifton, Chester, 607

Coal Valley News
, 142

Coast Guard, 473

coexistence, 514–516

Cogley, John, 190

Cohen, Wilbur, 118, 237, 274

Cohn, Roy, 35

Cold War, 228, 514, 521–522, 553, 643, 744, 757

Cole, Charles W., 279

Coleman, J. P., 103

collective bargaining, 441, 459

Collins, LeRoy, 96, 124, 321–322

Colmer, William, 340, 361

Cologne Cathedral, 581

Colombia, 535, 536–537

Colorado Fuel and Iron, 456

Columbus, Christopher, 152

Committee on Equal Opportunity, 497

Common Market (EEC), 410–412, 561, 562, 566, 567, 570–571, 572

Commonweal
, 190, 363

Communications Satellite Board, 439

Communications Workers, 438

Communism and Communists, 26, 210, 245, 351, 530, 532, 538, 539, 563, 573, 626, 634, 685, 727, 741

and Berlin, 331–332, 515, 521, 561, 593, 601

in Burma, 631–632

and censorship, 286

in civil rights groups, 503

coexistence with, 514–516

and collective farms, 402

in Congo, 636

in Cuba, 515, 536, 631–632, 670, 671, 684, 688, 689, 693, 698, 703, 719, 722, 726;
see also
Cuban crisis and De Gaulle, 562

in Greece, 631–632

and guerrilla warfare, 548, 631–632

and Indonesia, 580

in Katanga, 638

kinds of, 510, 540

and Khrushchev, 514, 515, 516, 625

in Laos, 510, 631–632, 639, 641 ff.

in Latin America, 510–511, 689

in Malaysia, 631–632

in the Philippines, 631–632

in Red China, 516, 547, 631–632, 661

and religion (JFK), 194

and Soviet Union, 515, 516, 518, 529, 545–546, 625

and space, 529

trade policies toward, 540

U Thant and, 709, 710, 712, 714, 720

and UN, 523

and USIA, 697, 704

in Vietnam, 510, 631–632, 648 ff.

and Western Europe, 570, 573, 627

Zorin and, 706–707

see also
Bay of Pigs
and
Castro

Community Relations Service, 497

Conant, James B., 46, 335

Confident Living
, 188

Congo, 228, 520, 522, 523, 531, 533, 549, 564, 565, 577, 617, 625, 634, 635–639