John F. Kennedy

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The Birchers weren't big fans. This handbill was circulated the day before the assassination by the John Birch Society.[1][2]
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“”Nixon, in a high-level or high-road campaign which emphasizes the issues, in the last seven days has called me an economic ignoramus, a Pied Piper, and all the rest. I just confine myself to calling him a Republican! But he says that is really getting low.
—Kennedy, 1960[3]

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–1963) is a member of the Dead Kennedys, and the fourth POTUS to die from an assassin's bullet. He was elected in 1960, besting the arguably more qualified but far less attractive (and insane) Richard Nixon. He was also the first Catholic president, which was actually considered shocking at the time. Indeed, he would be the only one until Biden showed up.

What constitutes a leftie in the U.S. is... different. Despite being a member of the NRA (albeit when it was a radically different organization than what it is today[4]), favoring large-scale tax cuts and aggressive foreign policy (most of his forays into international affairs proved to be disastrous, or at least dangerous brinkmanship, e.g. the Vietnam War, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis), at the time (and as usual with any Democratic candidate), the GOP considered him a radical leftist, and additionally, stoked fears he would take orders from the Pope.[5]

Kennedy's push for civil rights proved to be of good intent. However, as a senator, he supported a procedural matter favored by segregationists to weaken the 1957 Civil Rights Act.[6] His New FrontierWikipedia brought some domestic change, but wasn't as expansive (or expensive) as the Great Society. He also ended federal executions in Washington, a pretty significant move that hasn't really been written into his legacy. Moreover, he refused to send soldiers into Laos, rejected the idea of using nukes on Cuba, preferred a neutralist option in Vietnam like in Laos, switched up the Joint Chiefs of Staff after the Bay of Pigs debacle, and sacked Allen DullesWikipedia from the CIA. He is also rumored to have banged Marilyn Monroe. The Pope himself would've had to give JFK a high-five.

Presidency[edit]

Kennedy's time in the White House is marked by a series of accomplishments, but also a series of issues which cause his reputation to be soured. Still, he had either high approval ratings during his time in the White House,[7] is beloved by modern people,[8] and even historians tend to think rather highly of the guy.[9]

Did he really win?[edit]

See the main article on this topic: 1960 U.S. presidential election conspiracy theories

Kennedy's 1960 victory is one of the five closest in United States history,[10] and many have wondered since if he was the true victor. "That Richard Nixon was cheated out of the presidency in 1960 has become almost an accepted fact," wrote David Greenberg in a 2000 article for Slate, where he goes on to discuss why he doesn't believe that to be the case. Essentially, he points out how the claims originated with Republican political operatives who were interested in discrediting Kennedy before his administration got off the ground, while actual attempts at recounts and court cases constantly found that, yes, Kennedy was the winner of the election.[11] However, that doesn't mean nothing changed:

A recount did wind up changing the winner in one state: Hawaii. On Dec. 28, a circuit court judge ruled that the state—originally called Kennedy’s but awarded to Nixon after auditing errors emerged—belonged to Kennedy after all. Nixon’s net gain: -3 electoral votes.[11]

Although Greenberg is reluctant to come to a conclusion regarding if Kennedy stole Illinois, even if Nixon had won that specific state, he still would have lost the election. As Paul von Hippel wrote in 2017:

Kennedy won 303 electoral votes; his Republican opponent Richard Nixon won 219. (The remaining 15 electors voted for segregationist Democrat Harry Byrd.) If Illinois’s 27 electoral votes shifted from Kennedy to Nixon, Kennedy would still have won, with 276 votes to Nixon’s 246. Only 269 were needed to win in 1960 (vs. 270 today).[12]

Cuba[edit]

Bay of Pigs & Operation Mongoose[edit]

One of the earliest controversies of the Kennedy Administration was the Bay of Pigs invasion, a plan first thought up near the end of Eisenhower's Presidency to work with anti-Castro groups in Cuba in order to overthrow the government of Cuba,[13] which had become communist after a revolution in 1959.[14] This was especially a blow to the United States from a foreign policy standpoint because the government that was overthrown, that of Fulgencio Batista, was put in power through a US backed coup in 1933. Batista was essentially the most powerful man in Cuba, although he did not abandon the Constitution nor the idea of holding elections in the nation until 1952.[15]

Cuba was also serving as a good economic hub for both American organizations and organized crime, and became a popular tourist destination for Americans. The Castro government quickly put an end to that, nationalizing all United States businesses and becoming a closer trading partner with the Soviet Union.[15] Because of this, many in the intelligence community wanted Cuba to be taken away from the Communists and returned to what it once was.

The plan, to be blunt, was a total failure. "The invasion force was unequal to the strength of Castro’s troops, and by April 19 [four days after the invasion had begun] its last stronghold had been captured, along with more than 1,100 men."[13] "The brigade prisoners remained in captivity for 20 months," notes one source, with the prisoners only returning in exchange for fifty-three million dollars worth of baby food and medicine.[16]

Kennedy is said to have viewed the incident as a mistake,[17] and Kennedy's famous line about wanting to “splinter the C.I.A. in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds” comes from a member of his Administration describing how angry he was over what happened.[18] Many view this as the start of Kennedy's hostilities towards the CIA, an agency that was largely allowed to act without restriction from the President up until that point. Then-CIA Director Allen Dulles is even frequently targeted in conspiracy theories about Kennedy's assassination, with his firing usually cited as the incident that put his death into motion. However, some have argued that Kennedy simply used the CIA, and Dulles specifically, as a scapegoat for the failure of the operation and allowed the public to believe his tension with the CIA was higher than it actually was in order to better distance himself.[19]

Still, Kennedy kept trying to overthrow Castro, leading to Operation Mongoose which "was designed to do what the Bay of Pigs invasion failed to do: remove the Communist Castro regime from power in Cuba." It was suspended in October 1962, once again without Castro being removed from power. However, this was after it was made clear the Soviet Union was willing to back Cuba and stop the United States from taking it over, and more specifically after they decided to make this known to the United States through sending Cuba large amounts of weapons.[20]

Cuban Missile Crisis[edit]

From October 22, 1962 until November 20, 1962, the American population experienced the Cuban Missile Crisis, described as "the closest point that the world had ever come to global nuclear war."[21]

The crisis came about when the United States decided to put missiles in Turkey, leading to the Soviet Union placing missiles in Cuba in response to this situation. A blockade occurred, and both nations were essentially on the verge of nuclear war.[22]

The situation ended when Kennedy made a deal with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, where both nations would withdraw their missiles in exchange for peace. However, this deal was done totally in secret,[22] with the public having no knowledge of this happening until 1989.[23]

Vietnam[edit]

One of the most common beliefs regarding Kennedy is that he was an opponent of what later became the Vietnam War. In fact, one of the most common reasons stated by those who think his assassination was a conspiracy for the event occurring is that Kennedy was against Vietnam, and therefore the entire Military Industrial Complex.[24]

However, the actual reality of the situation is much more complicated. One interview commonly cited as evidence Kennedy was against intervention in Vietnam was held on September 2, 1963, and sees him saying on the people of said nation “they’re the ones who have to win it or lose it.” However, if one checks that same interview, they find Kennedy saying he doesn't "agree with those who say we should withdraw. That’d be a great mistake. That’d be a great mistake.”[24]

Much of the early escalation in Vietnam was done by Kennedy. Before Kennedy took office, it was uncertain if the United States was going to remain in South Vietnam for much longer, and it was him (in spite of the warnings of French General Charles de Gaulle) who sent military advisors, money, and weapons to those opposed to the Communist North Vietnamese government in far greater amounts than any previous President. Kennedy also was openly fine with the assassination of South Vietnam's President Ngo Dinh Diem.[25]

MLK & JFK[edit]

Another issue where Kennedy was quite complicated involves his record on civil rights, specifically seen through his relationship with the famous activist Martin Luther King Jr. Kennedy famously paid King's bail when he was imprisoned in 1960, which is widely seen as one of the major events that caused Kennedy to win the election that year.[26] Kennedy has also spent much of his final year in office working on a Civil Rights bill for African Americans, and had previously sent federal troops to make sure states complied with already existing desegregation orders.[27]

However, the FBI's wire tapping of MLK was approved by then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy in 1962. This was done largely because King was close friends with Stanley David Levison, who the FBI believed was a member of the Communist Party. Members of the Kennedy administration, including President Kennedy himself, attempted to get King to distance himself from Levison, but King refused.[28]

At first, the goal was simply to spy on King's friends who the FBI viewed as Communists, however by October 1963 the FBI was looking into King himself, specifically to gather evidence regarding his alleged communist ties. Instead, however, the investigation soon became about finding evidence of King's extramarital affairs in hopes of discrediting him in the eyes of the public.[28]

This began at the very end of Kennedy's life, and much of the worst of it, including the infamous letter requesting MLK commit suicide or else his personal life be exposed, happened after his death.[28] Still, it is largely considered a massive blackmark on his administration.

"Secret Societies" speech[edit]

On April 27, 1961, Kennedy gave a speech to the American Newspaper Publishers Association in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York. Aside from being a particularly good example of Kennedy's grasp of rhetorical pathos, it's become prevalent amongst online conspiracy whackjobs, almost exclusively because Kennedy used the term "secret society" on one occasion and made reference to the U.S. being opposed around the world by a "vast right-wing monolithic and ruthless conspiracy," which relies variously on "infiltration instead of invasion," "subversion instead of elections," "intimidation instead of free choice," and "guerillas by night" to "expand its sphere of influence."

Versions of this speech are all over YouTube with ridiculous titles (e.g., "JFK blows the whistle on 9/11") - the speech is generally quote mined down from its original 20-minute length to a pithy five minutes (some are as short as a minute or two) which focuses on the juicy (when decontextualized) statements listed above. However, they're invariably so poorly edited that the speech doesn't actually make much narrative sense (although it's certainly a credit to Kennedy's aforementioned grasp of highly charged rhetoric that he can sound convincing and purposeful even when what he's saying is incoherent). All in all, these videos command a combined viewership of several million.

Depending on what theories you subscribe to, JFK was referring to one or all of the following: the CIA, the Fed, the FBI, the Illuminati, the New World Order, 9/11, Mossad, MI6, Freemasons, Israel, Skull & Bones Society, Big Government, and so on. However, many conspiracy peddlers seem to be in agreement that it was this speech that led to his assassination.

It should come as absolutely no surprise that Kennedy was talking about something totally unrelated to any of the targets just mentioned (although, ironically, JFK's statements about this enemy's behavior are directly applicable to the actions of the U.S. throughout the Cold War period). Additionally, for a speech that supposedly threatened the powers that be to such a degree that they had no recourse but to assassinate Kennedy in cold-blood two and a half years later, verbatim text transcripts of the speech in its distinctly non-scurrilous entirety (and a full audio recording) are freely available in numerous places on the web.[29] A brief read or listen of the oratory in full reveals that Kennedy was clearly speaking about the Soviet Union. It's due to their own generalized idiocy (ignorance of the logistics and history of the Cold War, ignorance of the use of terms like 'closed society' and 'Iron Curtain' in political discourse, etc.) that conspiracy theorists believe differently.

Democrat or Republican?[edit]

One of the most common talking points about Kennedy from those on the right is that, if he were alive today, he would be a proud Republican. Larry Elder pushed that idea in a 2017 video for PragerU[30] and Ted Cruz did the same two years before while running for President.[31]

The PragerU video is filled with historical distortions. Elder quotes Ronald Reagan saying “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The party left me,” in order to show how much the DNC has changed over the years,[30] while leaving out the fact that Reagan was against Kennedy in 1960, even comparing his plans to those of Karl Marx.[32]

Elder specifically takes a look at JFK's views on taxes, saying:

Kennedy was an ardent proponent of across-the-board tax cuts, believing that more cash in the hands of all Americans, including the so-called wealthy, and a lighter footprint from the IRS would grow the economy. “A tax cut means higher family income and higher business profits,” Kennedy said in an address to the nation shortly before his death. “Every taxpayer and his family will have more money left over after taxes for a new car, a new home, new conveniences, education and investment. Every businessman can keep a higher percentage of his profits in his cash register or put it to work expanding or improving his business.”[30]

The issue at hand is that, although Kennedy did support some tax cuts throughout his time in the White House, the reality is far more complicated than Elder states. As Scotty Cameron noted in 2019:

What Kennedy supported was a tax system where the rich paid their fair share in taxes on both the surface and in reality. One of the biggest issues Kennedy had with the Eisenhower tax plans were the loopholes that were included in them. These loopholes allowed the rich to get off scot-free without paying taxes. So while Kennedy reduced the top marginal tax rate from 91% to 74%, he also closed loopholes in the tax code which forced the rich to actually pay their taxes instead of finding a way to get out of paying their taxes. Secondly, Kennedy never pitched his tax plan as a tax cut or tax cuts, he pitched them as tax changes. Why? It’s because Kennedy didn’t plan on continuing to sign tax cuts into law as Reagan and Bush Jr. did, he planned on also signing tax increases into law to pay for programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the Universal Healthcare program he wanted to implement. Yes, that’s right conservatives, Kennedy supported that scary socialist healthcare program that Bernie Sanders is campaigning for. As a matter of fact, Ronald Reagan recorded an album where he expressed his disapproval of John F. Kennedy’s healthcare proposals. Reagan decried the idea of “socialized medicine,” Kennedy endorsed it.[33]

Kennedy was primarily concerned with making sure the government got enough revenue to fund his social programs. Going back to Cameron, he writes "John F. Kennedy wanted to increase revenue to the government to increase the amount of money to the government so he could increase the amount of money he could spend on healthcare, education, and housing. Today’s Republicans want to cut spending on healthcare, education, and housing."[33] This was even seen in the same part of the speech Elder mentioned that he quoted from, as the full quote reads:

Fourth, a tax cut means higher family income and higher business profits and a balanced Federal budget. Every taxpayer and his family will have more money left over after taxes for a new car, a new home, new conveniences, education, and investment. Every businessman can keep a higher percentage of his 'profits in his cash register or put it to work expanding or improving his business, and as the national income grows, the Federal Government will ultimately end up with more revenues.

Prosperity is the real way to balance our budget. Our tax rates are so high today that the growth of profits and pay checks in this country have been stunted. Our tax revenues have been depressed and our books for 7 out of the last 10 years have been in the red. By lowering tax rates, by increasing jobs and income, we can expand tax revenues and bring finally our budget into balance, and to assist further in this effort we have pledged an even tighter rein on Federal expenditures, limiting our outlays to those activities which are fully essential to the Nation. Spending will be controlled and our deficit will be reduced.[34]

Elder similarly tries to argue that Kennedy was against the policy of affirmative action,[30] this is in spite of the fact that "the first executive order Kennedy enacted as president in regards to Civil Rights was an affirmative action policy."[33]

Pulitzer fraud?[edit]

One of Kennedy's most famous works, outside of anything he did in the White House, is his 1956 book Profiles in Courage where he goes over nine people throughout American history who he believed showed great courage during their time in office. The book was incredibly popular, becoming a best-seller rather quick,[35] and even won Kennedy a Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957.[36] In 1989, his family even created The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, which exists to honor the people who show the same courage Kennedy described in his famous book.[37]

However, despite it being so associated with Kennedy's name, Kennedy is said to have little involvement with the book itself. As early as 1957, rumors were circulating that Kennedy hired Ted Sorensen to ghostwrite the book. Both Kennedy and Sorensen denied that was the case,[35] although Sorensen has admitted to being behind the first draft of most chapters in the book.[38]

Quotes[edit]

  • "If by a 'liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties - someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a 'liberal,' then I'm proud to say I'm a liberal."
  • "We need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all - except the censor."
  • "Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed - and no republic can survive."
  • "If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth."
  • "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."
  • "We choose to go to the Moon, and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are HAAAAHHD."
  • "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
  • "A wall is a hell of a lot better than a war."
  • "Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind."
  • "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."
  • "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Warren Commission Report: Page 298 The John F. Kennedy Assassination Homepage (archived from February 22, 2006).
  2. ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Edwin Walker.
  3. ↑ Papers of John F. Kennedy, Pre-Presidential Papers, Speech Files (1953-1960). "Concourse Plaza Hotel, Bronx 11/5/60."
  4. ↑ When the NRA Supported Gun Control Time
  5. ↑ Nasaw, David, "Identity Politics in 1960", Slate (21 November 2012, 6:45 AM).
  6. ↑ Levingston, S. (2017). Kennedy and King (p. 58). Hachette Book Group.
  7. ↑ JFK’s Presidential Approval Ratings History in Pieces
  8. ↑ Americans Rate JFK as Top Modern President Gallup
  9. ↑ HISTORIANS SURVEY RESULTS C-Span
  10. ↑ 5 Remarkably Close U.S. Presidential Elections Britannica
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Was Nixon Robbed? Slate
  12. ↑ Here's a voter fraud myth: Richard Daley ‘stole’ Illinois for John Kennedy in the 1960 election The Washington Post
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Bay of Pigs invasion Britannica
  14. ↑ Cuban Revolution Britannica
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 A Timeline of US-Cuba Relations History
  16. ↑ THE BAY OF PIGS JFK Library
  17. ↑ Enduring Lessons of the Cuban Missile CrisisThe Wall Street Journal
  18. ↑ The Real Story Behind That JFK Quote About Destroying the CIA Gizmodo
  19. ↑ An inside job: CIA a suspect for some in JFK's killing NBC News
  20. ↑ The Bay of Pigs Invasion and its Aftermath, April 1961–October 1962 Office of the Historian
  21. ↑ Cuban missile crisis Britannica
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 How JFK Almost Caused World War 3 | Adam Ruins EverythingYouTube
  23. ↑ The Cuban Missile Crisis Air and Space
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 7. President Kennedy’s record on Vietnam is unclear. Wordpress
  25. ↑ The Vietnam War Explained YouTube
  26. ↑ Georgia Today: How MLK's Prison Sentence Landed JFK In The White House GPB
  27. ↑ THE MODERN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND THE KENNEDY ADMINISTRATION JFK Library
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 Why the FBI Saw Martin Luther King Jr. as a Communist Threat History
  29. ↑ Address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association, April 27, 1961, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 JFK: Democrat or Republican? PragerU
  31. ↑ Ted Cruz: JFK would be GOP today YouTube
  32. ↑ MONDALE SAYS REAGAN NOTE COMPARED KENNEDY TO MARXThe New York Times
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 Debunking Right-Wing Myths: Kennedy Wasn’t a Conservative, He Was a Progressive. Medium
  34. ↑ Radio and Television Address to the Nation on the Test Ban Treaty and the Tax Reduction Bill
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 ‘I Would Rather Win a Pulitzer Prize Than Be President’ Politico
  36. ↑ ABOUT THE BOOK JFK Library
  37. ↑ ABOUT THE AWARD JFK Library
  38. ↑ Theodore C. Sorensen dies at 82; JFK’s close advisor and writer-in-residence Los Angeles Times
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