Jack Kennedy at 96: The torch is passed...

[n2doc]

Jack Kennedy would have been 96 on May 29, and for people over 55 or so, that seems a bit difficult to fathom.

Elected at the astoundingly young age of 43 (even at 47, Obama was at his election older than Kennedy when he died), he seems fixed in historical amber, impossibly young almost fifty years after his death.

For people younger than 55, he is a picture hanging on a classroom wall, a victim of a tragedy replayed almost nightly on some upper cable channel, a caricature of womanizing with Marilyn Monroe, or just another guy who was president. I had one friend, then in her early thirties, who told me that "Kennedy means nothing to me." I was rather taken aback, but I could see that in many ways, he had no resonance for her.

He should and does, of course, for anyone who remembers him, even in the slightest way.

For example, had Kennedy not been president for the brief period of time he served (two years, ten months, 2 days), this country might not have taken up the wildly improbable mission of going to the moon. Had he not been president, perhaps this country might have made different choices in Cuba in October, 1962, and we wouldn't be reading this. And, indeed, had Kennedy not been president, maybe we would not have had the also nearly inconceivable notion that a black man (with a white mother, no less) named Barack Hussein Obama would be currently sitting in the White House today.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/05/28/5453913/jack-kennedy-at-96-the-torch-is.html

[graham4anything]

1. Two disagreements- It was because of LBJ that made the reality of a President Obama, not JFK

I personally do NOT think JFK would have expended the necessary capital, especially knowing he needed
to get Bobby elected President.

I do however think 100% of what happened in Vietnam would have happened with JFK, due to the fact that
Robert McNamara was hired by JFK and after all, Vietnam was Truman, Eisenhower & JFKs war long before it
became LBJ's.

But it was LBJ that rammed through the civil rights/ voting rights and all the other social issues through.

I do think all 3 Kennedy's would indeed have approved of 100% of anything and everything Barack Obama has done
as President.
And I do think had JFK not been killed, Teddy would never had that one thing that happened have happened, so I think
Teddy would have been President at some point, and his son might have still been alive too.

However, one cannot go back, one can only go Forward.

[Octafish]

5. Really? LBJ who used the n-word frequently and only became 'liberal' after Nov. 22, 1963?

The same LBJ who lied America into war in Vietnam? That LBJ?

FYI: Kennedy, personally, integrated the Secret Service White House detail, inviting agent Abraham Bolden to join him in Washington. Mr. Bolden said while many of his fellow agents frequently used the n-word, Kennedy made him feel like an equal.

[graham4anything]

7. The war was on for 20 years by the mid 60s. It was Truman, Eisenhower & Kennedy's war.

others dreamed
LBJ did.

and LBJ IMHO was the 2nd greatest president of all time after Lincoln.

No one protested the war in 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965
the protests came later

Without LBJ, Nixon would have won the 1960 election
Taking the VP was the best of both worlds for both JFK and LBJ

[Octafish]

8. Eisenhower backed France to the hilt in Vietnam.

Even going back on his word to abide by the United Nations agreement for a united North and South plebiscite to determine the nation's fate.

On the recommendation of the Pentagon and his military advisors, Kennedy upped the number of "advisors" in-country, all of whom were volunteers. Unlike his successors LBJ and Nixon, Kennedy said no draftees would be sent to fight in Vietnam.

Kennedy ordered ALL U.S. armed forces out of the country by the end of 1965, as made clear by National Security Action Memorandum 263. A week after JFK was assassinated, LBJ reversed course and ordered all the assistance the government of South Vietnam needed in NSAM 273.

You most likely are correct about LBJ helping JFK win in 1960, graham4anything. As for Vietnam, LBJ gave the Military Industrial Complex the war they wanted.

One thing I know for certain, had Nixon won, the course of history would have been very different and this world would not be the same.

[graham4anything]

9. Yes, we agree on the last part. Thank God JFK/LBJ prevailed over Nixon in 1960.

I myself think LBJ would have beaten Nixon in 1968 had he remained in the race. LBJ knew how to win.
(and possibly if LBJ had picked Bobby as his VP had LBJ stayed in the race).

It's not a contest between the two.

but McNamara was JFK's pick, not LBJ's.

remember too that losing was not an option, as witness by the space race. We HAD to get to the moon first.

[Nimajneb Nilknarf]

2. I logged in to post something about the anniversary of his birth

So I'll just give this thread a kick.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. I clicked on this and now I feel very old and depressed.

[Bombero1956]

4. I sometimes wonder

If we had the means to travel through time how many of us would travel back to that day and warn him or the police about the location of Lee Harvey Oswald. How different would this country be had Lyndon Johnson not become president and escalated the Vietnam War. Would Nixon have ever been elected and maybe not Ronald Reagan. Would our country be worse off now than how we are today. It's both fascinating and troubling at the same time.

[Boomerproud]

6. RIP John F Kennedy.

I am 57 so I am one who remembers.