The Kennedy Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy

761 Pages·2013·7.46 MB·English

by  Larry J. Sabato

For all those who ask what they can do for their country
There is no present or future, only the past, happening over
and over again, now.
—EUGENE O’NEILL, IRISH AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHT
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Birth of a Legacy
1: “President Kennedy Died at 1 P.M. Central Standard Time”
2: “All the Marbles”
3: Victory Without a Mandate
4: The Torch Is Passed
5: Steel at Home and Abroad
6: Europe, Space, and Southeast Asia
7: Echoes from Dealey Plaza
8: 11/22/63: Questions, Answers, Mysteries
9: Rounding Up the Usual Suspects: The Assassination’s Puzzle Palace
10: Examining the Physical Evidence: Old and New Controversies
11: Inevitability: The Assassination That Had to Happen
12: The Assassination and the Kennedy Legacy
13: “Let Us Continue”: Lyndon Johnson—Pretender to the Throne
14: Crossed Swords: Camelot vs. the Great Society
15: “Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming”: JFK’s Repudiation and Revival
16: The Carters and the Kennedys: Democratic Hatfields and McCoys
17: Reagan and Kennedy: Opposites Attract
18: Clinton Grabs Kennedy’s Torch
19: G. W. Bush: Back to the Republican Kennedys
20: Full Circle: The Twinning of Barack Obama and John Kennedy
21: The People’s President
Conclusion: A Flame Eternal?
Plate Section
Notes
A Note on the Author
Ask the Author
By the Same Author
Acknowledgments
The Kennedy Half-Century is the result of a research project stretching over five
years, and many people have contributed much along the way. Without generous
funding, this book would still be in my hard drive. The essential financial
support came from the Reynolds Foundation, with special thanks to J. Sargeant
Reynolds, Jr., Richard S. Reynolds III, Randolph N. Reynolds, David P.
Reynolds, Glenn R. Martin, Dorothy R. Brotherton, and Victoria Pitrelli; our
loyal Center for Politics backers, Paul and Victoria Saunders; McGuireWoods
Consulting and McGuireWoods law firm, with special thanks to Frank B.
Atkinson, Mark T. Bowles, and Richard Cullen; the Honorable William P.
Hobby and Paul W. Hobby of the Hobby Family Foundation; James Falk and
Martha Powell of the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth; Dan Alcorn, a
Center board member; and several sources at the University of Virginia,
including the offices of President Teresa Sullivan and Provost John Simon.
It was my great pleasure to work with Hart Research Associates on the public
opinion research that undergirds many of the book’s findings. The pollsters at
this firm are Picassos in their field, and their artistry drew out our participants
about long-ago events. We extend our gratitude to Peter Hart, chairman; Geoff
Garin, president; Molly O’Rourke, partner; Becca Mark, analyst; Kevin
Schmidt, assistant analyst; and Leah Stecher, also an assistant analyst.
I am deeply indebted to the interviewees, reviewers, and professionals who
have so willingly shared their time, memories, research, and impressions.
Special thanks to former President Jimmy Carter for granting us an interview, as
well as Dr. Stephen Hochman and Lauren Gay of the Carter Center. A special
mention is also needed for JFK speechwriter Ted Sorensen, who was generous
with his thoughts and counsel on several occasions before his passing in October
2010. Former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert and his wife, Laura, also deserve
special acknowledgment for their hospitality and graciousness in showing me the
critical locales of November 22, 1963, and giving me considerable access to
people who understood the city of that time and our time. In addition, I am
grateful to Bill Alexander, Pierce Allman, Hugh Aynesworth, James Barger,
Eddie Barker, Barry Webb Battle, Gerald Blaine, Robert Blakey, Aniko
Bodroghkozy, Julian Bond, Dan Bongino, David Bowers, Jim Bowles, Stephen
Bryce, Joseph Califano, Tommy Caplan, Mortimer Caplin, Jim Carroll, James
Carville, Phil Costello, Mal Couch, Senator John Culver, Jim Cunningham,
Craig Daigle, Jerry Dealey, John Dean, Ralph Dungan, Frank Fahrenkopf, Dan
Fenn, Ari Fleischer, Winfried Fluck, Frank Gannon, Bill Greener, Jeff
Greenfield, Ken Holmes, Henry Hurt, Heinz Ickstadt, James Jones, Matthew
Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, Ronald Kessler, Sergei Khrushchev, Chris Kincheloe,
Mary Moorman Krahmer, Jim Leavelle, Jim Lehrer, Peter Leventis, Fred Malek,
Chris Matthews, John McAdams, Paul McCaghren, Dr. Robert McClelland,
Senator Mitch McConnell, H. B. McLain, Harry McPherson, Herbert Meza,
Jefferson Morley, Bill Moyers, Bill Newman, Michael O’Dell, Robert Orben,
Harold Pachios, Jerry Paul, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Perry, Gary
Powers, Jr., Sandy Quinn, First Lady Nancy Reagan, Ron Reagan, Richard
Reeves, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, Jason Roberts, James I. Robertson, Jr., Ed
Rollins, Jay Root, Sarah Collins Rudolph, Bob Schieffer, Bill Simpich, Gillian
Martin Sorensen, Cliff Spiegelman, Oliver Stone, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend,
Judge John R. Tunheim, Sander Vanocur, and David R. Wrone for their time and
assistance.
The following people at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and
Museum were helpful to us: Director Thomas Putnam and staff members
Stephen Plotkin, Sharon Ann Kelly, Lara Hall, Stacey Bredhoff, Laurie Austin,
and Sara Ludovissy.
Staff in other presidential libraries also lent a hand, and we thank Kevin
Bailey at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library; Tina Houston, Regina
Greenwell, Claudia Anderson, Allen Fisher, Liza Talbot, Barbara Cline, Eric
Cuellar, Lara Hall, Brian McNerney, Christopher Banks, and Margaret Harman
at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum; Greg Cumming, Jonathan
Roscoe, and Jon Fletcher at the Richard Nixon Library; Nancy Mirshah and
William H. McNitt at the Gerald R. Ford Library; James A. Yancey, Jr., Keith J.
Shuler, and Polly Nodine at the Jimmy Carter Library; Ray Wilson, Jennifer
Mandel, Shelly Williams, Shelley Nayak, and Michael Pinckney at the Ronald
Reagan Library; Robert Holzweiss at the George Bush Library; Herbert Ragan
and Lisa Sutton at the William J. Clinton Library; and Christine A. Lutz at the
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University.
We also thank several people at the National Archives and Records
Administration, including David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States; Gary
M. Stern, general counsel; Mary Kay Schmidt and Amy DeLong, archivists
working in the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection;
Daniel Rooney, supervisory archivist of the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video
unit, and Mark Meader, an archives specialist in the same department; Joseph A.
Scanlon, FOIA / Privacy Act Officer, Office of General Counsel; the Honorable
Frank Keating, a member of NARA’s board of directors; and Kenneth Lore,
president of the Foundation for the National Archives. Marc Oliver, production
manager at Silver Spring Studios, deserves a special acknowledgment for
copying essential audio files from NARA’s College Park, Maryland, repository.
We relied extensively on the personnel and resources of the Sixth Floor
Museum at Dealey Plaza for our chapters on President Kennedy’s assassination,
and we thank Nicola Longford, executive director; Gary Mack, curator; Stephen
Fagin, associate curator; Megan Bryant, director of collections and intellectual
property; and Pauline Martin and Krishna Shenoy, the Sixth Floor Museum’s
chief librarians. Their cooperation was crucial, although they have no
responsibility for anything I have written.
Charles Olsen, a senior analyst at Sonalysts, Inc., assembled an extraordinary
team of audio experts to reexamine the Dallas Police Dictabelt recording and the
original report put together by Bolt, Beranek, and Newman for the House Select
Committee on Assassinations. Mark Bamforth, Malinda Finkle, Jonathan Grant,
Richard Hodges, Dr. John Jakacky, Lauren Logan, Scott Martin, Lisa Peringer,
and Curt Ramm of Sonalysts teamed up with Brian Sargent of Aberrant Sound in
Concord, Massachusetts, to produce a ground-breaking scientific study. These
gifted men and women deserve the gratitude of everyone who has ever
researched the Kennedy assassination.
A companion documentary based on the findings of this volume will air on
PBS stations throughout the nation. We wish to acknowledge Curtis Monk,
president and CEO of Commonwealth Public Broadcasting; John Felton, vice
president and general manager of WCVE in Richmond and WHTJ in
Charlottesville; Gene Rhodes; Mark Helfer; Leslie Custalow; and Paul Roberts,
independent filmmaker.
Most of all, I am deeply appreciative for the fine team we assembled at the
University of Virginia to work on this book. The team leader was Dr. Andrew
Bell, a historian with a keen grasp of the subject, who worked directly with me
on almost every aspect of the research. Andrew was the first to read each of my
draft chapters and to fill in critical details that had escaped my attention or
memory. Further, Andrew worked with Sean Lyons, who skillfully helped us
conduct interviews, and he supervised a crack team of graduate and
undergraduate interns and researchers. Several interns spent far more hours than
they should have, but we are ever so grateful that they became a bit obsessed
with the project. They include Josh Bland, Sophie Arts, Jonathan Elsasser,
Nicholas Blessing, Valerie Clemens, Jack Jessee, Emma Paine, Blake Wheelock,
James Yu, Cameron Cawthorne, Ann Laurence Baumer, Joseph Wilkinson, Brian
Wilson, and Michael Bugas. Other students who made significant contributions
were Andrew McGee, Aaron Flynn, Whitney Armstrong, Joe Wiley, Jeff Young,
Tyler Matuella, Ethan Thrasher, Justin Lee, Scott Tilton, Michael Pugliese,
Randy Pearson, Kasey Sease, and Reed Arnold.
The home base for this book project was the University of Virginia’s Center
for Politics, whose staff assisted us in countless ways. First mention must go to
Kenneth Stroupe, the Center’s associate director, whose hard work and creativity
stitched together the pieces of the project in brilliant fashion. His patient,
thorough work with the National Archives and on the evidence we have obtained
of the assassination has been exceptionally diligent and creative. Also supporting
the book in various vital ways were Mary Daniel Brown, Nyshaé Carter, Glenn
Crossman, Joseph Figueroa, Geoffrey Skelley, Bruce Vlk, and Isaac Wood. Deb
Maren and Donna Packard carefully transcribed interviews for us. Kyle Kondik,
a daily generator of good ideas, proposed some gems we quickly adopted, and he
served as a keen in-house critic of my arguments. A special shout-out to my
executive assistant Tim Robinson, who performed many roles, not least keeping
me on schedule and running interference as deadlines loomed.
No one has ever had a more caring, enthusiastic publisher than I have in
George Gibson of Bloomsbury. George was as determined as my team to make
this project all that it could be. Years ago, I was told that George was “one of the
real gentlemen of New York publishing,” and the description has proved
completely accurate. He was so termed by my able agents, Susan Rabiner and
Sydelle Kramer of the Susan Rabiner Literary Agency. In that spirit, I declare
them to be two of the real ladies of their field. The Bloomsbury team is
unmatched, and I thank Cristina Gilbert, director of marketing and publicity,
Laura Gianino, publicist, Laura Keefe, director of adult marketing, Marie
Coolman, director of adult publicity, Megan Ernst, marketing associate,
Nathaniel Knaebel, managing editor, and Emily DeHuff, copy editor. I also wish
to thank Gene Taft, owner of GTPR, for his tireless promotional efforts.
Over the course of this lengthy undertaking, we have endeavored to be fair at
every juncture, taking care not to be “captured” by any interest group or camp
(pro-Kennedy, anti-Kennedy, Kennedy family, the factions supporting various
assassination theories, and so on). No doubt many of the people upon whom we
relied for information will disagree with some of my observations, and