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- [00:00]
Ryan Reynolds
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- [00:34]
Narrator
It'S coming up to half past noon on 22 November 1963 in Texas. A young girl is standing with her father on a grassy bank on Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas amid a sea of excited faces. Nearby, a man is waiting for the big moment with his eye against the viewfinder of a cine camera, which whirs away as he captures the day's events. There is a cacophony of cheers as a motorcade swings off from Main street onto the plaza, the vehicles moving no more than five miles an hour. Then the girl spy is the focus of all the attention in the second car from the front, an open top Lincoln Continental. The weather has perked up since the morning's rain and so the car is without its plastic bubble top. The girl's father leans down and tells her that the man inside is the Texas Governor, John Connolly, and next to him his wife, Nellie. But more exciting are the couple seated behind them, a man in a black suit and his beautiful dark haired wife dressed in a raspberry pink outfit with navy trim, plus one of her famous pillbox hats and white gloves. The President and the First Lady. The motorcade passes a tall building at one corner of the plaza, the Texas School Book Depository. The little girl notices the giant hurts rent a Car clock high up on the building tick over from 1229 to 1230. They are now coming towards her and her excitement is nearly uncontainable. She looks up at her father, who meets her broad grin with his own. Soon the President is almost within touching distance. He's smiling, his light brown hair riffling in the wind. He raises his right hand as if to wave, but now comes a sudden, disconcerting crack that pierces the hubbub. Then another, and another. Everyone in the crowd instinctively ducks, but then the entire throng dissolves into panic and screaming. Horrified spectators run in all directions, unable to comprehend what is happening. The girl looks up at the sky in the direction of the Depository and then back to the car. The President slumps towards his wife and a pursuited Secret Service agent jumps from the running board of the vehicle behind and lunges for the presidential car, somehow managing to grab on as its engine revs and the driver puts his foot down. The girl stares up at her father, tears brimming in her eyes and blinking. Suddenly he scoops her up and runs too. As the motorcade disappears, the terror in what's left of the crowd turns to grief as those people who came all this way to catch a glimpse of their beloved leader realize what they have just witnessed. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy and one of the darkest days of America's history. Once a sickly boy from a well to do corner of New England, John F. Kennedy fought his way up to become the most powerful man on the planet. After claiming a narrow victory in the 1960 election, he entered the White House as America's 35th and youngest ever elected president, swept up by a wave of optimism and energy. Along with his wife, Jacqueline, he represented for many a vision of America at its brightest glamorous, cultured, confident and full of promise. But what challenges did he have to overcome to get there? And what were the personal qualities that powered his ascent? Just how golden was his presidency, and to what extent did he pull the world back from the brink of Cold War annihilation? Crucially, in what ways did his life and death shape the American century? I'm John Hopkins from the Noisy Network. This is a short history of John F. Kennedy. It's the 1920s in Massachusetts, and two young brothers sit astride their bicycles. Joe Jr. Is the older by a couple of years, big and brawny. He challenges his little brother, John, or Jack as he is known in the family, to a race. Never one to back down from a contest, Jack agrees. They speed off, Jack's feet pumping the pedals just to keep up, but he struggles to maintain control. The bikes touch, convulsing through the air until their riders lie in a heap on the floor. Joe Jr gets up and dusts himself down, but Jack is hurt. He has a cut that's going to need stitches, 28 in all, but at least he hasn't lost. And to a Kennedy that matters. Little Jack is born John Fitzgerald Kennedy on 29 May 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. His family, on the maternal and paternal sides, arrived in America as immigrants from Ireland during the potato famine of the mid 19th century. But from Unpromising beginnings, both sides flourished. Jack's middle name is given in recognition of his mother, Rose's father, John Fitzgerald, a former mayor of Boston, Jack's grandfather. Meanwhile, Patrick Kennedy held office in both the state House of Representatives and Senate. For Jack, second born of what will eventually be nine siblings, life is comfortable. His father, Joe Sr. A bank president by his early 30s, has made a fortune from business, investing variously in real estate, steel, liquor and Hollywood studios. Still growing up part of an immigrant Catholic family that arrived in this predominantly Protestant nation with virtually nothing, Joe Sr. Instills in his brood an understanding that success must be earned. Frederick Logeval is professor of history at Harvard University and author of a multi volume biography of John F. Kennedy.
- [07:43]
Frederick Logeval
There was always a sense that the Kennedys felt themselves to be, at least to a degree, outsiders. And that was, I think, really important, is really important if we're to understand how they emerged and how ultimately Jack Kennedy and then other kids in the family became, of course, prominent figures in American life.
- [08:03]
Narrator
Though the family is wealthy, money can't buy everything. Jack's health is wretched and has been since he was hospitalized as a toddler with scarlet fever. His life hanging in the balance. Whatever bug there is to catch, he gets, including debilitating bouts of bronchitis and diphtheria. But all the bed rest has at least one advantage. He reads anything and everything, working his way through huge amounts of history. He especially loves the legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. His mother, Rose, is reserved, even distant. A strict Catholic, she turns a blind eye to her husband Joe's affairs, but takes tranquilizers for her nerves. Joe, on the other hand, is front and center of family life.
- [08:57]
Frederick Logeval
Jack, in fact, inherits, I think, more of his attributes, personality attributes, from her than he does from his father. Nevertheless, the dominant figure in the household, in the family, is Joe Kennedy and has ambitions for his children, especially the boys, to a lesser extent for the girls. But the other thing that we should note about Joe Kennedy, which I think was somewhat unusual among fathers of that era, is how engaged he was, how committed he was to helping to raise these children and the degree to which he was a nurturing, devoted father.
- [09:37]
Narrator
Joe Sr. Encourages a rivalry between his children as well as a zest for life and a desire to achieve. But for now, Jack has at least a little slack.
- [09:49]
Frederick Logeval
It was a family legendary for its energy. Joe Jr. Is seen as the golden child. He is the one on whom the parents attach most of their ambitions. He's eager to take up that mantle. This allows Jack to some extent to, in a good way, from his perspective, be in his brother's shadow a little bit. The pressure is off to some extent.
- [10:20]
Narrator
As he enters his teens, Jack is packed off to a Connecticut boarding school along with Joe Jr. He is popular enough amongst his peers, but excels neither academically nor in sports. He is still searching for his place in the world. By 1935, Jack is through with school. He heads first to Princeton, New Jersey's prestigious Ivy League University, but then moves on to Harvard, his father's old university, and specializes in government and international relations. Though he is once again in the shadow of his high flying brother who is already enrolled there, Jack is well liked and enjoys one notable success in his sophomore year. Skillfully developing a strong network, he is granted membership of the SPEA Club, one of the university's most exclusive social clubs, an accolade that eluded both his father and elder brother. In 1937, he takes the opportunity to travel to Europe with a friend, Lem Billings, just as hostilities are ramping up between nations.
- [11:24]
Frederick Logeval
Because of what he's able to observe as the war clouds or as the tensions are gathering in Europe as we're drawing closer to perhaps another world war, I think it has a marked effect on young Jack Kennedy. Billings, in later interviews, talked about the degree to which Jack seemed to just mature as a result of that trip. Was asking questions at the end of it that he wasn't really asking before honing his fascination for politics and for international affairs.
- [11:55]
Narrator
A few months later, Joe Sr. Is appointed US Ambassador to the UK an appointment that gives the family a chance to spend time in London. Joe, who harbors ambitions of using his ambassadorship as a platform for a run at the White House, wants the US to stay out of any European struggle. But Jack's opinion diverges from his father's as the likelihood of war increases throughout 1939. Jack Kennedy returns to Harvard that September where he writes a paper on what he perceives as Britain's lack of preparedness for the coming storm. It is published in 1940 as why England Slept and becomes a best seller. Still only in his early 20s, he is already in demand as a serious commentator on international relations. But as his star rises, the opposite can be said for his father, whose determination to keep America out of the war brings his tenure into disrepute and ends his dream of the presidency.
- [13:01]
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- [14:04]
Narrator
Although the US initially refrains from joining the war, it does so after the Japanese attack on Pearl harbor in December 1941. By now Kennedy is serving in the Naval Reserve, his earlier attempts to join the army having faltered because of his medical history. Towards the end of 1942 he is given command of his own PT, or patrol torpedo boat. Initially stationed near the Panama Canal, he is transferred to the South Pacific in early 1943. It's coming up to half past two in the morning on 2nd August 1943, a moonless, starless night in the Blacket Strait in the Pacific Ocean, not far from the Japanese held island of New Georgia, part of the Solomon Islands. Lieutenant Jack Kennedy's patrol boat, designated PT109, is an 80 footer with a crew of 13. Out here on the lookout for enemy ships to reduce wake and conserve fuel, Jack has throttled down as the PT109's low growl accompanies the churn of the ocean. He stands on deck, straining his eyes for the telltale silhouette of any approaching ship. In this light it's hard to make out where the sea ends and the sky begins, but off the starboard bow in the distance, he spots something. At first he considers whether it's another patrol boat, except this vessel is coming at them quick and he can see that it is big. Within moments it's looming up like a New York skyscraper. A Japanese destroyer, and it's on a direct collision course. Jack has no time to steer out of danger, let alone fire off a torpedo. As contact becomes inevitable, he notices his radio man muttering Hail Marys. Then a deathly crunching sound as The Destroyer Rams PT109. Jack is flung against the bulkhead and Payne fires across his back, his ears ringing with the wrenching of metal and an explosion of burning fuel. Jack lunges ineffectually for a handrail Amid the desperate shouting as man after man is thrown overboard, he feels himself sliding down, down the deck into the water, fighting with all his might not to be sucked down into the depths. As the destroyer streaks away amongst the debris and micro islands of burning fuel that cast a ghostly light, he makes out the motionless bodies of two of his crew. With half of PT109 still afloat, he summons every last reserve of energy to haul himself aboard. Gasping for breath, he checks on the rest of his men. Most are clambering back onto the wreckage, but there in the waves glinting with fire, he spots one fellow, Patrick McMahon. Too badly burned to move despite the pain in his back, Kennedy throws himself back in, somehow towing his stricken comrade to the boat. Then, once he is safe, he dives back in to help another injured man. With all the survivors now accounted for on the sinking boat, stuck in hostile waters, Jack makes an executive decision. He instructs his men that together they will swim for an island on the horizon. They'll just have to hope and pray there are no sharks around these parts, nor any more Japanese leading the way. He dives into the ocean and begins an agonizing journey that will take him hours. Refusing to leave any man behind, he drags McMahon with him, gripping the strap of the crewman's life jacket in his mouth. His muscles burn at every stroke, and his lungs fill repeatedly with mouthfuls of seawater. But at last he reaches the beach of what he will learn is Plum Pudding island. Once he knows McMahon is safe, he. He lies panting on the ground, his feet in the water and head on the sand, his back screaming in pain. At last, he summons the energy to stand and vomits great quantities of brine. He has brought his men to dry land, but it'll be some time yet until they're truly out of danger. Though Kennedy will later go back out into the sea, alone, in the hope of attracting the attention of a patrol boat, he sees neither friend nor foe. So over the next few days, the 11 survivors swim from island to island, hiding when necessary from passing Japanese ships. Finally, they make it to an island, where they find two young locals with a canoe. Kennedy Scrawls a plea for rescue onto a coconut husk and sends it off with the two youths who by chance have been working for the Allies. Against all the odds, Kennedy and his men are picked up by a rescue party six days after the collision. Before long, he is back home in the States recovering from his ordeal and a bout of malaria. He receives several awards for bravery and extensive press coverage, including a feature in the New Yorker. Kennedy has returned a war hero.
- [19:41]
Frederick Logeval
I think it gives him self confidence, it teaches him that he's got what it takes. He can be a leader of men right here. He showed that he could be a leader of a small group who looked up to him, who knew that he was going to decide how they were going to try to save themselves. And in that sense, I think this experience with PT109 and more broadly his experience in the service over a couple of years during the war is really important in underscoring for him that he could in fact assume an important leadership position.
- [20:23]
Narrator
Jack's brother Joe, meanwhile, is serving as a naval aviator. In August 1944, he is flying over England on a daring mission, his aircraft loaded with explosives. The plan is to set it en route for a strategic German target in northern France, prepare the explosives to detonate, and then bail. But something goes terribly wrong. The airplane explodes while still over England with Joe and his co pilot on board. But though the older Kennedy brother is the first victim of tragedy among the nine siblings, he will decidedly not be the last. Jack Kennedy had been thinking about a post war future in journalism, but the death of his brother changes everything.
- [21:12]
Frederick Logeval
It's now that Jack is expected to assume the mantle in terms of the family ambitions. Joe Sr. Has come to realize that his own political career is probably finished because of what turned out to be a very checkered, to put it kindly, experience as ambassador in London. So now he has to hitch his ambitions to his kids. Joe Kennedy basically says to Jack, in so many words, it's now up to you. We no longer have Joe, your older brother, here. You're now the oldest, and I want you to pursue public service.
- [21:50]
Narrator
In 1946, Kennedy runs for a seat in the Federal House of Representatives as the member for the Massachusetts 11th congressional district, a seat traditionally strong for the Democratic Party for whom he is standing with a profound interest in foreign affairs. Stoked by his time in Europe, he believes the United States must be a central player internationally in the interests of global security. And though he still has precious little experience in campaigning for public office or as an orator, this handsome All American Boy has skills that play well with voters, the ability to listen and to connect. Despite his privileged background, he clicks with ordinary working men and women, people scraping by at the docks or the naval yard, on the till, at the grocery store, or risking their lives in the emergency services. He promises to work to create new jobs, make housing more affordable, provide better medical care and look out for veterans. In one speech, he directly addresses the so called Gold star mothers who have lost sons in war, winning their trust as he explains how his own mother is one of them.
- [23:02]
Frederick Logeval
People are drawn to Jack Kennedy in a way that I think is interesting, even though he's not very skillful as a speaker, doesn't really have a clue as to what's involved here, but there is a kind of magnetism, charisma, I guess I could say that one sees among audiences as he's competing for this first political position.
- [23:28]
Narrator
He wins the election with nearly three quarters of the vote in January 1947, not yet 30, Jack heads off to take his seat in Congress. His Life in Washington D.C. the National Capital and center of political power, has begun. Kennedy has matinee idle looks, irrefutable charm and a career on the up. But his entry into national politics prompts him to call off an affair he has been having with the Oscar nominated Hollywood star Jean Tierney. Recently separated from her husband, she is by no means the first glamorous woman he has courted. A few years earlier, he fell hard for a striking Danish journalist called Inge Arvand. She was by all accounts the first great love of his life. However, the course of true love did not run smooth, not least because the FBI had their eyes and ears on the relationship.
- [24:29]
Frederick Logeval
Why do we have FBI transcriptions? Well, because Inga Arvad was a suspected Nazi spy. She was from denmark in the 1930s. She was quite close to numerous Nazi German leaders. She interviewed them, would attend some of their weddings.
- [24:45]
Narrator
She.
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Frederick Logeval
She interviewed Hitler. And so when she and Jack have their romance, she for much of that time is under surveillance.
- [24:54]
Narrator
Though that's all water under the bridge by the time he hits Washington. His reputation as something of a lothario is one he's eager to shed.
- [25:03]
Frederick Logeval
Jack himself and his father come to a realization that an aspiring politician in the United States, certainly somebody who wants to reach high levels, maybe even the highest rung of the ladder, namely the presidency, cannot really be single, cannot be just a playboy who has kind of serial relationships with different women, that you're expected to settle down, you're expected to have children and to be in a traditional marriage.
- [25:35]
Narrator
But it's going to take someone exceptional to catch Jack's roving eye and win his heart, as well as meet all the requirements of a Washington political wife. In May 1952, Kennedy attends a dinner party thrown by journalist friend Charles Bartlett. He is sat across from a strikingly pretty socialite from New York, Jacqueline Bouvier. They've met a couple of times previously, but until now she's always been in a relationship. Kennedy is smitten. It's not just her looks, either. A graduate in French literature, she is fiercely intelligent, not to mention an accomplished equestrian, actor, dancer and artist. A prominent national newspaper column once even proclaimed her debutante of the year. Currently, she works as a photojournalist with the Times Washington Herald. She is at once sensitive and defiantly nobody's foolish. And like him, she is Roman Catholic. The complete package. Kennedy leans across the asparagus and asks her for a date. She says yes. It's a slow burn, though. After five years in the House of Representatives, Kennedy is frustrated by how long it takes to get anything done. He believes he will be able to affect things far more in the Senate, where members represent their entire state and not just a district of it, and are voted in for six years at a time rather than two. The election is just a few months away, and with a tough battle against the incumbent ahead of him, Kennedy has little time for romance. But his family pull out all the stops for their boy. Joe Sr. Is there with advice and, crucially, an open checkbook. Rose campaigns enthusiastically agreeing to a TV show coffee with the Kennedys, which helps bring the candidate into people's homes. Jack's younger brother Bobby, is his campaign manager, and another brother, Ted, gets involved, too. And it pays off. Kennedy wins with 51.5% of the vote. He now makes up for lost time with Jacqueline, and while she's in England to cover the Queen's coronation, he asks her to marry him over a transatlantic phone line. They wed in September 1953 in Newport, Rhode island, in front of 700 people, while a crowd of thousands competes to get a view. The young senator and his wife are about as close to a prince and princess as the United States gets. Kennedy consolidates his position as one of the country's most high profile politicians, exuding youthful energy and promise even as ill health dogs him. When he has an operation on his problematic back, Jacqueline dotingly nurses him, but they are careful to keep the photographers away when he uses crutches to get around. That's not to say the marriage is without challenges.
- [28:49]
Frederick Logeval
There are troubles in the marriage from an early point. Jack is unfaithful to Jackie even before the wedding, and he's unfaithful to her after the wedding.
- [29:00]
Narrator
But together, the Kennedys are America's golden couple. Debonair, cultured, thoughtful and successful.
- [29:09]
Frederick Logeval
Jackie becomes a key factor in his rise and in the connection that develops between John F. Kennedy and the American public, to some extent the global public. This is a partnership, Jack and Jackie. That is, she preferred to be called Jacqueline. So maybe I should say Jack, Jacqueline that is destined to become one of the great power couples in the 20th century.
- [29:39]
Narrator
After Jacqueline suffers first a miscarriage and then a stillbirth in November 1957, they welcome a daughter, Caroline. This year, Kennedy also wins the Pulitzer Prize for his book Profiles in Courage, a collection of stories about senators who have risked their career for their beliefs. In April 1958, the Kennedys posed for the COVID of Life magazine, able to present their fantasy like lives to the world. There is a sense that Kennedy is above other politicians, almost as if he somehow has a higher calling here.
- [30:16]
Frederick Logeval
I think we should single out Rose Kennedy, because I think it is Rose, more than her husband, who says basically to the kids, you need to believe in something greater than yourselves. You've been given great advantages because of your father's wealth. We expect you to do something with this and to commit yourself, at least to some degree, to public service.
- [30:44]
Narrator
With a presidential election due in 1960, Kennedy decides his moment has arrived to contest the White House. The Republican President, Dwight Eisenhower, has overseen a mostly thriving economy since he took office in 1953, but Kennedy believes in expanding the country's defense program in view of ongoing Cold War tensions and war in Vietnam. Moreover, he wants to champion civil rights more aggressively, despite concerns from some that he's a little young and inexperienced. He secures the nomination from his party and asks the seasoned Texan Senator Lyndon B. Johnson to stand as his vice president. In the race for the presidency, he faces Richard Nixon, a formidable opponent who has served as Eisenhower's vice president for the last eight years. Kennedy campaigns hard, but he knows his youth is not the only hurdle he has to overcome.
- [31:46]
Frederick Logeval
He understands that his Catholicism is going to be a really important. And if anything's going to keep him from claiming the big prize, he thinks the most important factor there will be his faith. Can a Catholic be elected President of the United States?
- [32:05]
Narrator
So far, the answer has been no. But alongside his trusted advisor and speechwriter, Ted Sorenson, whom Kennedy describes as his intellectual blood bank, he travels the country gradually building support for the man now commonly referred to as JFK. On the 26th of September, Kennedy meets Nixon on what is the first televised presidential debate in history. The two are only four years apart in age, but Kennedy sparkles from the nation's TV screens, vibrant and positive, while Nixon seems wearied in comparison.
- [32:48]
Frederick Logeval
Television he gets really before anybody else on the political scene. He gets that television is an absolute game changer and that the man who can come to understand television, make use of television, be good on television, is going to have an important advantage over his rivals.
- [33:09]
Narrator
Through the night of the 8th of November, the votes are tallied. It comes down to the narrowest of margins. Nixon claims 49.6% of the popular vote. But with 49.7%, Kennedy pips him to the post, and the presidency is his. At his inauguration on 20 January 1961, he delivers a speech which becomes one of the best remembered of any in history.
- [33:39]
John F. Kennedy
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
- [33:50]
Narrator
The following day, he begins to assemble his team, surrounding himself with trusted advisors, including his brother Bobby as Attorney General. His brother Ted, meanwhile, is gearing up to replace him as the Massachusetts senator, while their brother in law is named as head of the Peace Corps, a new volunteering program that Kennedy sets up. It's starting to feel like a dynasty is emerging. The Kennedys, who have recently added a son, John Jr. To their brood, make their mark on the White House as a residence, too. A coterie of animals arrives, including rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, dogs and even a pony, which little Caroline rides across the carefully manicured lawns. Jacqueline turns her attention to making the building a focal point of entertaining and culture, hosting many of their famous friends, such as the aviator Charles Lindbergh and composers Leonard Bernstein and Irving Berlin. The President himself typically rises at 7:30, reads the newspapers, bathes and has breakfast. Then to business in the Oval Office, usually with a swim at lunchtime and a hamburger to refuel. He sits at a great wooden desk that once belonged to President Rutherford B. Hayes, crafted from the wreckage of a ship that was abandoned after being trapped in Arctic ice almost a century before. On its top sits the coconut shell that carried Kennedy's plea for rescue back in 1943. Though he has grand plans for his time at the top, the increasingly frosty Cold War looks set to dominate his tenure. Just three months after taking office, Kennedy greenlights an ambitious covert operation he has inherited from Eisenhower. The aim is to overthrow Fidel Castro's communist regime in Cuba, a mere 100 miles from the US mainland. With Castro pursuing closer relations with the Soviet Union, US agencies including the CIA work with Cuban exiles to launch a surprise invasion via the Bay of Pigs on Cuba's southwestern coast. But the operation is a catastrophe, defeated in three days. Relations with the Soviets suffer another setback in August when construction begins on the Berlin Wall. Built with Moscow's support, the wall is not only a physical barrier intended to stem the mass emigration of East Germans to West Berlin, but a representation of the hostility between the capitalist west and the communist East. Around now, Kennedy is also ramping up support to the South Vietnamese government in Asia, fighting the communist North Vietnamese in what is becoming a proxy for the Cold War itself. Maintaining global peace seems impossible, but Kennedy is hopeful. He is the man to find an answer.
- [36:56]
Frederick Logeval
He understood the importance of the Soviet American conflict, the Cold War, the war between east and west, and he felt, I think from an early point that he had the tools, he had the understandings, including of history, diplomatic history, military history. To succeed there and to leave the world leave US foreign policy in a better place than he found it. A conviction on his part that I think goes right back to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, namely, that nuclear war between superpowers has to be avoided at all cost.
- [37:34]
Narrator
But by the fall of 1962, there is a fear that even he cannot avert disaster. In October, evidence surfaces that the Soviets are building facilities in Cuba from which they could launch nuclear missiles at the us. Though Kennedy rejects the idea of an immediate preemptive attack, he knows that inaction is impossible in the face of such provocation. Instead, on 22 October, he announces a naval blockade of Cuba, with any arriving Soviet vessels subject to inspection. If they're found to be carrying weapons or related materials, they will be turned back. The stakes could not be higher. Foreign It's Saturday, 27th October 1962. Amid the clouds high above the Cuban city of Banis. Streaking through the sky at some 72,000ft, is an American reconnaissance plane, a glider like U2, its single engine thrumming quietly away. Inside its compact cockpit sits a dark haired, firm jawed pilot in his mid-30s, Major Rudolph Anderson, a husband and father to two boys, with the girl on the way too, he set off from Florida a few hours ago. Since the first images of nuclear facilities in Cuba arrived a little under two weeks ago, Kennedy and his advisors, currently installed in the cabinet room at the White House, have demanded up to the minute intelligence to navigate the crisis. The photos that Anderson's aircraft returns today Might be the difference between apocalypse and redemption. Inside his pressurized suit and helmet, Anderson looks like an astronaut. His skin is dappled with moisture as he uses all his concentration to keep the plane on track. Track designed to be discreetly flown at enormous heights. U2s are notoriously difficult to pilot. A radio headset keeps him in communication with the ground, but inside his helmet, he is isolated from the sounds around him, the engine noise muffled. Nor does he have any indication that his aircraft has been picked up on Russian radar. Far below, a telltale blip indicates to Soviet military trackers that he's been up here at least an hour, hovering over the supposedly secret locations of nuclear weapons Close to the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay. Two Soviet surface to air missiles, launched from positions far below hurtle shrilly towards him. It is only at the last second, buried in his suit, but he spots them far too late. Deadly interlopers in his field of vision. They detonate with a mighty roar. Cascading shrapnel that bursts through the fabric of his U2 and pierces his flight suit and helmet. He dies almost instantaneously, the first military fatality of the missile crisis. A patriotic family man caught up in the swirl of Cold War geopolitics. Back in the White House, the President receives the news exactly the sort of thing he'd been dreading. Confirmation that the first shot has been fired. Taking a moment to absorb it, he tells his team that they are now in an entirely new ball game. The world teeters on the brink of Armageddon. If Kennedy orders a punitive strike, it seems inevitable that the conflict will spiral towards nuclear war. It's now a question of who blinks first. The fate of the planet lies in the hands of two men. Kennedy in the White House and Khrushchev in the Kremlin.
- [41:49]
Frederick Logeval
I think that early on, Khrushchev doesn't have that much respect for Kennedy, or at least he thinks he's young, he's untried, he's kind of wet behind the ears. I can take advantage of this guy, and to some degree he does. Kennedy himself, I think, is skeptical to some degree of Khrushchev. His steadfastness, his ability to stay cool in a crisis. You know, Kennedy has his own doubts, but it's an interesting relationship because as time progresses, there is a certain grudging respect, mutual respect, maybe even a sense that, you know, I'm glad that guy is in charge on the other side as opposed to somebody else.
- [42:35]
Narrator
It is a time of unprecedented tension, but the World's two most powerful men are both eager to find a way out. They open up back channels of communication and a deal is struck. On 28 October, Khrushchev agrees to tear down the missile sites on the promise that the US shall not invade Cuba. Kennedy also agrees to remove American missiles located in range of the Soviet Union in Turkey. Although it will be many years before that becomes public knowledge, the pair have pulled back from the precipice. Humanity reigns over enmity. It is arguably Kennedy's greatest moment as president.
- [43:18]
Frederick Logeval
He had a capacity for empathy. Here. He was able to put himself into the shoes of Nikita Khrushchev at a very important moment, to see things from his perspective. Kennedy said to his aides, in so many words, I'm paraphrasing, but he said, we need to try to understand how he is viewing this at this moment and what can we give him as a kind of face saver, if you will, to take a step back here.
- [43:48]
Narrator
Amid the drama on the world stage, it's little surprise that Kennedy's domestic agenda has fallen by the wayside. He does, though, put his weight behind America's space exploration program. The space race, as it is popularly known, is another component of the Cold War rivalry between Washington and Moscow. The Soviets are already ahead, having launched the first human into space in 1961. Kennedy responds by vowing to put a man on the moon before the decade is out. But he has other, more earthbound policies that he wants to press on with, too, in particular, the issue of civil rights and equality for the African American population. In June 1963, he makes a televised address in light of rising tensions at the University of Alabama. The state's governor, George Wallace, is on campus attempting to impose segregationist policies, specifically blocking the enrollment of two black students. It is only the latest in a surge of incidents highlighting the inequality that exists between America's black and white populations. But in his speech, Kennedy tells the nation in no uncertain terms that the time for change has arrived.
- [45:07]
John F. Kennedy
The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities. 100 years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves. Yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. Now the time has come for this nation to fulfill its promise.
- [45:33]
Narrator
In concert with his brother Bobby, the President sets out his plans to introduce pioneering civil rights legislation.
- [45:40]
Frederick Logeval
Ultimately, as his presidency progresses, civil rights becomes very central to the Kennedy administration. I think it's fair to say they're slow to come to an appreciation just how important it's going to be. And civil rights leaders are understandably disappointed that this President, whose campaign in 1960, whose Democratic Party platform in 1960 was very progressive on civil rights, that he turned out to be so cautious in his first year, to say the least. Over time, Bobby and Jack begin to shift and it culminates in a sense in this amazing speech that Jack Kennedy gives. Much of it extemporaneous by the way. Many of his best speeches were ad libbed. That's an interesting part of his political Persona. But this speech on June 11th, 1963 from the White House is one of his great speeches.
- [46:40]
Narrator
By the fall of 1963, Kennedy is looking towards his re election campaign next year. He feels good about his chances and there are signs of progress under his stewardship, notably a much improved relationship with Moscow after the low point of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Even so, the increasingly thorny issue of Vietnam is causing much concern among the electorate. And he is aware that his ambitions for civil rights legislation is divisive in many parts of the country too.
- [47:10]
Frederick Logeval
As was true of John F. Kennedy, from the moment he first entered politics, he was taking nothing for granted. So even now in September and October of 63, he's basically campaigning.
- [47:22]
Narrator
He plans a trip down to Dallas, his Vice President's stomping ground for November. It's a place where racial segregation still claims widespread popular support among the white population. And not everyone is taken kindly to his civil rights agenda. Jacqueline and some of his closest advisors fear he'll meet a wall of hostility, but Kennedy is determined to go and build bridges. The Kennedys fly into Fort Worth, Texas on the 21st of November and head for Dallas the following day. The reception they receive is warm crowds cheering them everywhere they go. Connally, wife of the state Governor, is moved to comment to the President that he can no longer be in doubt that Texas loves him. But then come the bullets that rain down on the presidential motorcade at Dealey Plaza at Parkland Memorial Hospital at 1pm on Friday 22nd November. The President is declared dead within the hour the man believed to be responsible for his death, an employee at the Book Depository called Lee Harvey Oswald, is arrested as he hides in a cinema, having murdered a police officer as he sought to evade capture. Not even two hours later, Vice President Johnson is inaugurated as the new President on board Air Force One as it prepares to leave Dallas. Jacqueline Kennedy, stunned and still wearing her blood spattered pink suit, stands beside him. Two days later, TV cameras are rolling at the Dallas police headquarters where Oswald is being prepared for a Move to County Jail. As viewers watch across the nation, a local nightclub owner, Jack Ruby, appears from the shadows and shoots Oswald dead. Ruby claims to be avenging the President, but his motive is never conclusively established. It's a murky development in one of the touchstone events in 20th century history. On Monday, 25th November, Kennedy's funeral service is held in Washington. His flag draped coffin is pulled by white horses with one black horse processing with a pair of boots placed backwards in its stirrups, a symbol of the fallen leader. His widow Will, wearing black, her face covered by a veil, stands with her children as her husband's body is taken for burial at Arlington National Cemetery, where an eternal flame will burn by his grave. Their little boy, John John, solemnly salutes the coffin as it passes. President Johnson quickly establishes a commission to investigate the assassination. Known as the Warren Commission, it reports in 1964 that Oswald acted alone in murdering the President and Ruby acted alone in murdering Oswald. But not everyone is convinced. The assassination becomes the subject of enduring conspiracy theories involving everyone from the Soviets to the Cubans, the CIA to the mob.
- [50:45]
Frederick Logeval
The forensic evidence is pretty powerful that Oswald was the shooter. Still leaves questions. If he was encouraged to do this, then on some level that's a conspiracy right there. If he had people nudging him to undertake this action. I wonder if we as human beings are conditioned in a way to believe that huge events in our history, in our life must have huge causes. That it can't simply be the result of some random event or some, in this case, misfit who decides, you know, almost on the spur of the moment to take out the President of the United States. We have a hard time as human beings accepting that.
- [51:34]
Narrator
Kennedy's death seems to mark the end of an age of hope epitomized by him personally, brought down before his potential had yet to be fully realized. Some start to talk about his presidency as like Camelot, the legendary court of his beloved King Arthur.
- [51:52]
Frederick Logeval
There was some substance, I would say, to the Camelot notion. Jackie Kennedy, of course, was central to building up this idea. The idea that this was a kind of shining moment for the country. The degree to which her husband represented all that was good about America, the idealism, the sense of possibility that existed.
- [52:18]
Narrator
Over his short time in the White House. Kennedy saw his country through a tumultuous period of history, one that posed existential threats. But having helped avert nuclear catastrophe in 1962, his presidency ushered in a period of detente with Moscow that lasted into the 1970s. He also managed to keep US troops out of frontline action in Vietnam, avoiding the descent into unwinnable guerrilla fighting that would befall his successors and at home. Just a year after his murder, the civil rights legislation that he had proposed was enacted, enshrining the illegality of discrimination based on race, religion or sex. A lasting legacy. Like every leader, Kennedy was imperfect. But the potential for good that was snuffed out in Dallas, that warm November day, has never ceased to occupy the American imagination.
- [53:15]
Frederick Logeval
I think we would say that his thousand days in the White House as President of the United States, just a thousand days, I think we see missteps as well as successes. He was a flawed politician. He was certainly flawed as a human being, but in a way that makes him more interesting. And I would say that through his magnetic leadership and his elevated rhetoric, he raised Americans belief in the capacity of politics to solve big problems, to speak to society's highest aspirations. And I think that matters.
- [54:07]
Narrator
Next time on Short History of We'll bring you a short history of Emperor Nero.
- [54:13]
I think the way we understand figures like Nero is we look at the broader context of what's going on. So Nero is an emperor and acts as an emperor with the extraordinary freedom resources emperors have. So in that sense, I think we can appreciate his dilemma without necessarily sympathizing with him. And we can accept that some of the stuff we're told is likely the result of a new dynasty trying to blacken their predecessor. But then you ask why did they feel it was so necessary to blacken than their predecessor? And the answer is because not everybody hated Nero.
- [54:54]
That's Next time this episode will be available to listen to for free on September 23, 2024. For instant access ad, free listening and bonus material, join Nozer AT T Mobile.
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