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John F. Kennedy on Principles & Values
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1960: separate Catholic identity from public life
Kennedy's famous speech [on Catholicism in 1960] is actually quite different from the way it is often described. Instead of reconciling his religious identity with his role in public life, Kennedy entirely separated the two. In 2008, Mitt Romney's
Mormon faith was likewise perceived as an issue by some voters. Some pundits and political advisors urged him to "do a JFK." Just give a speech, they told him, and reassure voters that your faith will have nothing to do with your presidency. Unlike JFK,
Romney declared that our religious liberty is "fundamental to America's greatness."
Like Kennedy, Romney Mitt praised all Americans' freedom to worship as they choose. Like Kennedy, he also declared that "no authority of my church, or of any other
church, for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions." But unlike Kennedy, he spoke out strongly for America's religious heritage, and how it continues to define us as a nation
Source: America by Heart, by Sarah Palin, p.184-186
, Nov 23, 2010
Legacy is aspiration, not legislative accomplishments
There were relatively few legislative accomplishments during Kennedy's presidency. Much of the landmark legislation that he initiated (such as action on civil rights) was carried through after his death. Uniquely, Kennedy's legacy is his aspiration,
his spirit and challenge, his sentiments and his perceived strength and nobility. These continue to inspire modern politicians across the political spectrum and, perhaps more significantly, people across the world.
Source: The 100 Greatest Speeches, by Kourdi & Maier, p.149
, Mar 3, 2010
1960: Today we stand on the edge of a New Frontier
Jack broke tradition and arrived in the convention hall immediately after he had been nominated, to thank the delegates--and to offer a surprised Lyndon Johnson the vice presidential spot, which LBJ immediately accepted.
On the following night, to great cheers, Jack introduced a thrilling new phrase as the descriptive term for his program. "Today our concern must be with the future," he called out. "For the world is changing.
The old era is ending. The old ways will not do."
And then: "The problems [of the past] are not all solved and the battles are not all won. And we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier.
The frontier of the 1960s. A frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats."
Source: True Compass, by Edward M. Kennedy, p.150-151
, Sep 14, 2009
The Catholic Question: I follow both my conscience & nation
Despite increasing Republican attacks on Jack's Catholicism, Jack addressed, on live television, a convention of southern Protestant ministers.Facing these conservative clerics who had regarded him as a likely agent of the Vatican whose loyalties were
to the pope rather than the American people, my brother stood at ease behind the podium and delivered on of the pivotal speeches of his career. He was not the Catholic candidate for president, he told the stony faces before him; he was the Democratic
Party's candidate for president who happened to be a Catholic. Speaking without a trace of defensiveness, Jack gradually disarmed the ministers. "If the time should ever come," he assured them, "When my office would require me to either violate my
conscience, or violate the national interest, I would resign the office." He subtly peeled back the layer of righteousness regarding "the Catholic question: and exposed the bigotry that lay beneath. The ministers sent him offstage with a standing ovation
Source: True Compass, by Edward M. Kennedy, p.153-154
, Sep 14, 2009
Camelot: romantic model of public service & inspiration
Many of the friends, aides, and followers who envisioned an Edward Kennedy presidency were basing their hopes on a romantic and ultimately irrelevant model. Whether consciously or not, they seemed enthralled by the dream that the dash and vaulting
aspirations of the early 1960s would return again.My actual vision of the presidency, to the extent that I turned it over in my mind, was more complex and less romantic. It was and remains a given that my brothers established a soaring standard for
public service, and that their standards to a great extent has defined my life and my aims. I have always measured against that standard.
But my concept of myself as president had little or nothing to do with Camelot. It had nothing to do with that
old preoccupation with "catching up" that I've mentioned. It wasn't about Jack, or Bobby, or my father. The eras that shaped them had passed. The present era was quite different in mood, in collective experience, and in the challenges the nation faced.
Source: True Compass, by Edward M. Kennedy, p.343-344
, Sep 14, 2009
Double life as charismatic leader and cheating husband
Agents assigned to guard Kennedy soon learned that he led a double life. He was the charismatic leader of the free world. But in his other life, he was the cheating, reckless husband whose aides snuck women into the White
House to appease his sexual appetite. Besides one- night stands, Kennedy had several consorts within the White House. One was Pamela Turnure, who had been his secretary when he was a senator, then Jackie's press secretary in the White House.
Two others, Priscilla Wear and Jill Cowen, were secretaries; "neither did much work," says a former Secret Service agent. "We had radio contact with Jackie's detail in case she came back." One afternoon, Kennedy was cavorting in the pool with young women
when Secret Service agents on Jackie's detail radioed that she was returning to the White House unexpectedly. "Jackie was expected back in ten minutes, and JFK came charging out of the pool," says an agent.
Source: In the President`s Secret Service, by Ron Kessler, p. 11-12
, Jun 29, 2009
Insisted on low-security open convertible despite risks
Kennedy aides told the Secret Service that the president wanted to ride in an open convertible, according to the Warren Commission Report. If it had rained, Kennedy would have used a plastic top that was not bulletproof. Kennedy himself told agents he di
not want them to ride on the small running boards at the rear of the car. At 12:30 PM, shots resounded in rapid succession from the Texas School Book Depository. A bullet entered the base of the back of the president's neck. Another bullet then struck hi
in the back of the head, causing a massive, fatal wound.[Two Secret Service agents were in the limousine], but neither could immediately leap to Kennedy's assistance, as would have been the case if agents had been allowed to ride at the rear of the
car. The "kill shot" to the president's head came 4.9 seconds after the first shot that hit him. If agents had been allowed on the rear running boards, they would have pushed the president down and jumped on him to protect him before the fatal shot.
Source: In the President`s Secret Service, by Ron Kessler, p. 13-14
, Jun 29, 2009
1961: Ask not what your country can do for you
[Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address]: In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it.
I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation.
The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow
Americans: ask not what your country can do for you00ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
Source: They Think You're Stupid, by Herman Cain, p.154
, Jun 14, 2005
Won 1960 election over Nixon by only 0.1%
Kennedy had won 49.7% of the vote & Nixon had taken 49.6%. A mere 112, 803 votes separated the two candidates--the smallest margin of the century. Only a handful of people knew the other side of the story--the cynical manipulation of issues, unrestrained
spending, vote fraud, and dishonesty about Kennedy's intellectual achievements and physical condition. What mattered to the Kennedys was victory, and they had always been willing to pay any price for it. In 1960 as before, that approach proved successful
Source: A Question of Character, by Thomas Reeves, p.214-215
, Dec 10, 1997
Ambassador father pushed JFK into politics
The ambassador boasted in 1957, "I got Jack into politics; I was the one. I told him Joe was dead and that it was therefore his responsibility to run for Congress.
He didn't want to. He felt he didn't have the ability and he still feels that way. But I told him he had to."
Source: A Question of Character, by Thomas Reeves, p. 73
, Dec 10, 1997
1960: Give direction to our traditional moral purpose
Kennedy formally announced his candidacy on January 2, 1960. Among the real issues of 1960, he said, were:- How to end or alter the burdensome arms race, where Soviet gains already threaten our very existence.
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How to maintain freedom and order in the newly emerging nations.
- How to rebuild the stature of American science and education.
- How to prevent the collapse of our farm economy and the decay of our cities.
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How to achieve, without further inflation or unemployment, expanded economic growth benefiting all Americans.
- And how to give direction to our traditional moral purpose, awakening every
American to the dangers and opportunities that confront us.
With an agenda emphasizing moral ideals and global concern, Kennedy tossed his hat in the ring.
Source: A Question of Character, by Thomas Reeves, p.157-158
, Dec 10, 1997
OpEd: 1952: wins Senate seat with dazzle but not substance
The Kennedy image portrayed in the campaign of 1952 was dazzling. Here was youth, energy, intelligence, warmth, and selfless devotion to principle. Few of the cheering voters knew that beneath that surface was a much less substantial reality.
There was indeed intelligence, discipline, and determination. All the Kennedys fought hard and tirelessly. But behind the whole effort was the will and ambition of the Founding Father, Joe Kennedy, who cared little for any principle beyond the advancemen
of his family's power and prestige.Jack lacked the full measure of his father's ambition cruelty, and will to dominate. He was a more amiable, less focused man; his personality was not the almost carbon copy of the ambassador's that
Bobby's was at the time. Still, Jack like his father and his brother, was without any guiding intellectual, philosophical, or moral vision in his pursuit of office. Politics, like life, was about winning, and little else.
Source: A Question of Character, by Thomas Reeves, p.106-107
, Dec 10, 1997
Freedom of worship is based on religious diversity
The search for freedom of worship has brought people to America from the days of the Pilgrims to modern times. In our own day, for example, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian persecution in Hitler's Germany and the Communist empire have drawn people
from their homes to seek refuge in America. Not all found what they sought immediately. Minority religious sects, from the Quakers and Shakers through the Catholics and Jews to the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, have at various times suffered both
discrimination and hostility in the US.But the diversity of religious belief has made for religious toleration. In demanding freedom for itself, each sect had increasingly to permit freedom for others. The insistence of each successive wave
of immigrants upon its right to practice its religion helped make freedom of worship a central part of the American creed. People who gambled their lives on the right to believe in their own God would not lightly surrender that right in a new society.
Source: A Nation of Immigrants, by John F. Kennedy, p. 6-7
, Jan 8, 1963
US has obligation to defend freedom
If we do well here, if we meet our obligations, if we're moving ahead, then I think freedom will be secure around the world. If we fail, then freedom fails.
The kind of country we have here, the kind of society we have, the kind of strength we build in the United States will be the defense of freedom.
Source: The First Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Debate
, Sep 26, 1960
US needs more economic & social strength to fight Communism
I think the tide could run against us. I don't want historians to say, these were the years when the tide ran out for the United States. I want them to say these were the years when the tide came in.
The question before us is can freedom in the next generation conquer, or are the Communists going to be successful? If we meet our responsibilities I think freedom will conquer. If we fail to develop sufficient military and economic and social strength,
Source: The First Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Debate
, Sep 26, 1960
Page last updated: Apr 28, 2013
