The Kennedy Half-Century (95 page)

35
. “Lacoste Calls Kennedy Arab Propaganda Victim,”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, July 8, 1957; “Foreign Relations: Burned Hands Across the Sea,”
Time
(July 15, 1957),
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809643-1,00.html
 [accessed September 16, 2010].

36
. John F. Kennedy, “A Democrat Looks at Foreign Policy,”
Foreign Affairs
36 (October 1957): 44–59; “Kennedy Criticizes U.S. Foreign Policy,”
New York Times
, September 23, 1957. Ironically, Dulles published an article in the same issue about the merits of massive retaliation.

37
. Warner Bros. released a big-budget picture in 1963 entitled
PT 109
; the film was produced under the personal supervision of Jack Warner and starred Cliff Robertson as Lieutenant John F. Kennedy. The film was an undeniable boost for Kennedy as he began to seek a second term.

38
. Giglio,
Presidency
, 15; “Television: Review,”
Time
(October 28, 1957),
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,810051,00.html
 [accessed September 16, 2010]; “Democrats: Man Out Front,”
Time
(December 2, 1957),
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,825326,00.html
 [accessed September 16, 2010].

39
. Jacqueline Jones, Peter H. Wood, Thomas Borstelmann, Elaine Tyler May, and Vicki L. Ruiz,
Created Equal: A Social and Political History of the United States
, 2nd ed. (New York: Pearson Longman, 2006), 854; Carroll Kilpatrick, “Kennedy, the Moderate,”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, October 24, 1957. Sorensen’s biography of JFK supports Kilpatrick’s interpretation.

40
. “Kennedy Raps Union Lawyers as Unethical,”
Los Angeles Times
, October 20, 1957; Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,
Robert Kennedy and His Times
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978), 137–75.

41
. John M. Murrin, Paul E. Johnson, James M. McPherson, Gary Gerstle, Emily S. Rosenberg, and Norman L. Rosenberg,
Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People
, 3rd ed. (New York: Wadsworth / Thomson Learning, 2002), 990; “Kennedy Assails U.S. Missile Lag,”
New York Times
, November 7, 1957; “Hungarians Get Freedom Award,”
New York Times
, October 24, 1957. JFK lived during a time when a large majority of Americans of all stripes were anticommunist. On September 20, 1959, Khrushchev met with American labor leaders at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco. Walter Reuther peppered the Soviet premier with hostile questions. For example, Reuther asked: “If you don’t exploit them [East German workers], why should three million of them cross the border into West Germany?” Khrushchev: “You are hopelessly sick with capitalist fever.” Reuther: “Do you have the credentials to speak for the workers of the world?” Khrushchev: “Do you have credentials to poke your nose into East Germany?” Reuther: “Can you give us one single example in which one of your unions ever disagreed with government policy?” Khrushchev: “Why poke your nose in our business?” and so on. Arthur Goldberg Papers, Box I:60, Folder 6, Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Washington, DC.

42
. “Catholic President Upheld by Kennedy,”
New York Times
, November 25, 1957; Roger Creene, “Not Too Reluctant Is the Coy Kennedy,”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, November 10, 1957.

43
. George Gallup, “Poll Shows Kennedy Leading Democrats,”
Los Angeles Times
, June 23, 1957.

44
. Dallek,
Unfinished Life
, 219–25; Theodore H. White,
The Making of the President, 1960
(New York: Atheneum House, 1961), 50. Kennedy wrestled with the Kennedy-Ives bill for two years, watching in dismay as its strong pro-labor provisions were gradually diluted. He eventually withdrew his sponsorship, and a version of the bill was later passed as the Landrum-Griffin Act.

45
. I attempted to secure documents that would have revealed the underlying texture of the Kennedy-Vatican relationship, but the request was politely declined in a letter sent by Sergio Pagano, one of the archivists at the Vatican, on August 20, 2011. Mr. Pagano wrote, “… I regret to inform you that the documentation custody in this Vatican Secret Archives, by sovereign papal disposition, is available for consultation by scholars only through February 1939 (the end of the pontificate of Pius XI). No exception has ever been granted for documents contained in the closed periods which you have requested.” Governmental bureaucracies are secretive the world over. Americans are still waiting to see thousands of classified pages relating to President Kennedy’s assassination, supposedly scheduled for release in 2017.

46
. Dallek,
Unfinished Life
, 230–33; William S. White, “John F. Kennedy and His Money,”
Washington Star
, May 9, 1958; Kennedy,
Let the Word Go Forth
, 88.

47
. Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 64; letter from John Kennedy to Clark Clifford, February 15, 1958, Clark Clifford Papers, Box 30, Folder 15, Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Washington, DC.

48
. White,
Making of the President
, 51; Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 105; Dallek,
Unfinished Life
, 240–41; Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy (D-MA), National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Washington, DC, February 11, 1959; Convocation of United Negro College Fund, Indianapolis, IN, April 12, 1959; National Civil Liberties Clearing House Annual Conference, Washington, DC, April 16, 1959; and AFL-CIO Convention, Seaside, OR, August 3, 1959, John Bartlow Martin Papers, Box 74, Folder 7, Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Washington, DC.

49
. Gerald P. Fogarty,
The Vatican and the American Hierarchy from 1870 to 1965
(Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 1982), 383–84.

50
. Marquis Childs, “A Banana Peel for Kennedy?”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, December 2, 1959; James Reston, “The Religious Issue That Won’t Go Away,”
New York Times
, November 29, 1959.

51
. Kennedy,
Let the Word Go Forth
, 89–90; “Statement of Senator John F. Kennedy,” January 2, 1960, John Bartlow Martin Papers, Box 73, Folder 3, Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Washington, DC.

52
. At the Democratic Party’s 1960 presidential campaign kickoff dinner (January 23), Kennedy said, “The Eisenhower ‘peace and prosperity’ is a myth. We are not enjoying a period of peace—only a period of stagnation and retreat, while America becomes second in missiles—second in space—second in education—and, if we don’t act fast and effectively—second in production and industrial might.” “For Release to Sunday Newspapers, January 24, 1960,” John Bartlow Martin Papers, Box 74, Folder 8, Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Washington, DC.

53
. James Reston, “Primary Issue Explored,”
New York Times
, January 15, 1960. In public, Kennedy worked hard to reestablish his credibility with farmers. In November 1959, he had blamed Ezra Taft Benson, Eisenhower’s secretary of agriculture, for the drop in agricultural prices. He called for new Democratic programs that would preserve family farms, foster the growth of cooperatives, and cut farmers’ costs. In all likelihood, JFK was also trying to soften up Hubert Humphrey’s rural backing before the 1960 primaries. Humphrey needed farmers’ support in order to win the Democratic nomination. See “Sen. Kennedy Attacks Ike’s Crop Program,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, November 13, 1959, and Russell Baker, “Economic Unrest in Farm Belt Spurs Democratic Hopes for ’60,”
New York Times
, November 23,
1959. Privately, on at least one occasion, JFK expressed contempt for farmers and their demands. After delivering a speech at the 1960 South Dakota Plowing Contest, he told his speechwriter, Richard Goodwin, “Fuck the farmers after November.” Michael O’Brien,
John F. Kennedy: A Biography
(New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005), 427.

54
. “Kennedy Accepts Humphrey’s Dare,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 4, 1960; Carroll Kilpatrick, “Kennedy Draws Cheers in ‘Humphrey Territory,’ ”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, February 26, 1960; and “Humphrey Questions Kennedy’s ‘Liberalism,’ ”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, March 1, 1960.

55
. Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 133; Robert C. Albright, “ ’60 Previewed in Wisconsin,”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, September 27, 1959. According to Theodore White, Kennedy won by “a 9 to 1” margin in New Hampshire in “what was, politically, a trumpet flourish for national publicity but of no real meaning.” White,
Making of the President, 1960
, 80. Kennedy said he was “fully aware of the risks and difficulties” involved in running in Wisconsin, but added, “No other candidate, real or unannounced, has indicated a willingness to enter any primary adjoining the home state of another contender—including New Hampshire, which is next to my own state of Massachusetts. Nevertheless, the people of Wisconsin should not be denied their right to help select the Democratic presidential nominee merely because their state happens to [ad]join Minnesota.” “Statement of Senator John F. Kennedy, Milwaukee Wisconsin, January 21, 1960,” John Bartlow Martin Papers, Box 74, Folder 8, Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Washington, DC.

56
. White,
Making of the President, 1960
, 92–93.

57
. 
Primary
, DVD, directed by Robert Drew (New York: Docurama, 2003). In 1960, fifteen states and the District of Columbia held primary elections.

58
. “Kennedy Schedule,” Gerald Bruno Papers, Box 3, Folder “1960 Campaign Wisconsin Primary Scheduling,” John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts.

59
. White,
Making of the President, 1960
, 94–95.

60
. Dallek,
Unfinished Life
, 253–57.

61
. Telephone interview with Barry Webb Battle, January 20, 2011.

62
. Dallek,
Unfinished Life
, 253–57.

63
. “A Personal Message From Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr.,” Gerald Bruno Papers, Box 1, “1960 Campaign Trips 4/60-5/60 West Virginia,” John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts; O’Donnell, Powers, and McCarthy,
“Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,”
186; Doris Kearns Goodwin,
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
(New York: Simon and Schuster), 211–12; Dallek,
Unfinished Life
, 257.

64
. Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 146; W. H. Lawrence, “Rival Quits Race,”
New York Times
, May 11, 1960. Benjamin C. Bradlee,
Conversations with Kennedy
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1975), 27. Kennedy’s campaign team worked tirelessly to neutralize the Catholic issue. An extended version of the famous “Kennedy, Kennedy!” made-for-TV campaign jingle included the following lines: “And do you deny to any man the right he’s guaranteed to be elected president no matter what his creed? It’s promised in the Bill of Rights, to which we must be true. So, it’s up to you, it’s up to you, it’s strictly up to you.” See “John Kennedy Campaign Song,” YouTube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DoUiNxh6_0&NR=1&feature=endscreen
 [accessed September 25, 2012].

65
. Jones et al.,
Created Equal
, 859; Dallek,
Unfinished Life
, 260.

66
. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,
A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House
(Boston: Mariner Books, 2002), 97.

67
. W. H. Lawrence, “Kennedy Bandwagon Well-Oiled,”
New York Times
, June 26, 1960; Roland Evans, Jr., “Confident Kennedy Maps Plans for Headquarters, Hard Campaign,”
Los Angeles Times
, July 12, 1960; Max Lerner, “Truman Crystallizes Kennedy Weaknesses,”
Los Angeles Times
, July 10, 1960; W. H. Lawrence, “Johnson Backers Urge Health Test,”
New York Times
, July 5, 1960; Robert Dallek, “The Medical Ordeals of JFK,”
Atlantic Monthly
290 (December 2002): 49–61.

68
. Ronald Kessler, “Whitewashing Joseph P. Kennedy,”
Newsmax
, December 4, 2012,
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Joseph-Kennedy-book-Nasaw/2012/12/04/id/466448
 [accessed December 5, 2012].

69
. Gary A. Donaldson,
The First Modern Campaign: Kennedy, Nixon, and the Election of 1960
(New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), 72.

70
. Dallek,
Unfinished Life
, 265; White,
Making of the President, 1960
, 162; Geoffrey Perret,
Jack: A Life Like No Other
(New York: Random House, 2002), 255.

71
. In order to prove his point, Alsop relayed a story. Shortly before the convention, Alsop had called Senator Herman Talmadge (D-GA) to find out what his phone number would be at the convention. “I ain’t going to Los Angeles, Joe,” Talmadge replied, “because I know exactly what’s going to happen. Kennedy is going to be nominated on the first ballot by a thousand votes, and then he’s going to offer the vice presidency to Lyndon Johnson, and Lyndon Johnson is going to take it. And I just don’t want to be there to see that, so I’m going off to the Great Dismal Swamp for a few days hunting.” Alsop couldn’t believe his ears: “You cannot tell me that Johnson will take the vice presidency,” he exclaimed. “It’s unimaginable!” “He’ll do it,” insisted Talmadge. “You wait and see. I know him better than you do.” “Joseph Alsop Oral History Interview,” May 28, 1969, Joseph and Stewart Alsop Papers, Box 183, Folder 8, Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Washington, DC.