REMEMBERING JOHN KENNEDY:50 years on, America still held in Kennedy’s spell.... Five decades after shots rang out from the Texas Book Depository, the United States will Friday honour President John F. Kennedy, whose assassination is often said to mark the death of American innocence. Kennedy was the fourth US president to be killed in office, but the first whose death was caught on film and replayed repeatedly to a shocked nation. An acclaimed orator and the first president of the television age, his death part-way through his first term at the age of 46 froze him in time as a great symbol of promise never realised. The official account, based on four detailed investigations, records that he was felled by shots fired by troubled 26-year-old Marine Corps veteran turned-Soviet-defector, Lee Harvey Oswald. But to this day, many remain unwilling to accept that a lone gunman’s seemingly deranged act could have had such a historic effect. Many believe Oswald was either framed, or working for a broader conspiracy, and their doubts have fed a sizeable industry of conspiracy-themed books and films. But, while Americans remain divided over the cause of Kennedy’s death, they are remarkably united in seeing him as a great figure, despite his limited time in office. A Gallup poll to mark the anniversary found that three quarters of voters still rate him positively, placing him first among the presidents between the time of his immediate predecessor, Dwight Eisenhower, and that of his current successor, Barack Obama. And, although Kennedy died when the United States was in a nuclear stand-off with the Soviet Union, playing catch-up in the space race and mired in a war in Vietnam, many look back with nostalgia on the glamour and promise of his administration. His wife, Jackie Kennedy, seen by millions on that November 22, 1963, distraught in a blood-spattered pink Chanel suit, has remained an iconic figure, and his surviving family members are leading characters in the American drama. FAMILY LEGACY While many figures in his wealthy Boston Catholic clan have been touched by scandal, others achieved immortality of their own. One of the slain president’s brothers, his attorney-general Robert Kennedy, was himself assassinated in 1968 and the other, Ted Kennedy, was a veteran figure in the Senate. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline will be absent from the anniversary ceremonies this week, but only because she has just set off for Tokyo as Washington’s ambassador. Events large and small, public and private, respectful and conspiratorial, will mark his passing, focused on three cities, the Boston of his family power base, the Washington of his White House victory and Dallas, where his assassin struck. On Wednesday, leading Democratic Party figures — Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, and former president Bill Clinton and former first lady Hillary Clinton, Obama’s heir apparent — honoured him during a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington. There will, of course, be solemn speeches, but both presidents have already paid Kennedy the most telling tribute of all by co-opting his legacy in their own campaigns for office. Clinton had the good fortune to be photographed meeting Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden in July 1963, and has reminisced about how he set his own eyes on the presidency after shaking JFK’s hand. Obama accepted Kennedy’s torch of Democratic idealism in a key moment of the 2008 campaign, receiving the endorsement of Senator Ted Kennedy at American University in Washington. In Dallas, where Kennedy nostalgia remains a mainstay of the tourist economy, bells will be rung at 12:30 p.m., the moment of the shots, and a ceremony will be held at the scene in Dealey Plaza. Americans who cannot make it to the ceremonies, or who are not among the tens of thousands who visit Kennedy’s grave in Arlington each year, can at least enjoy an explosion of the already vast cultural output trading on his name. Even though an estimated 40,000 books have already been published on the young leader, dozens more hit the shelves this year in the run-up to the anniversary, and at least two more television series are due to air. Some deal with his behind-the-scenes life in his mythic household, the so-called “Camelot,” including his many marital infidelities. Others deal with the alleged conspiracy behind his death, and one full-blown historical counterfactual imagines the America of today had he lived. Key moments in the life of JFK A timeline of key moments in the life of slain US President John F. Kennedy as America prepares to mark the 50th anniversary of his assassination: May 29, 1917: John Fitzgerald Kennedy is born at Brookline, near Boston, Massachusetts, the second of nine children raised by wealthy businessman Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald, daughter of the mayor of Boston. The Kennedys come from a line of Irish Catholic immigrants. 1936-1940: “Jack,” as he became known to his family, studies at Harvard. He becomes a regular visitor to Britain after his father is appointed ambassador to London in December 1937. 1941: Despite chronic back pain caused by Addison’s disease, Kennedy joins the war effort, enlisting in the Navy and fighting in the Pacific campaign. August 2,1943: After the torpedo boat he commands is sunk by a Japanese ship in the Solomon Islands, Kennedy swims to safety, dragging a badly burned comrade with him. He is later honoured for “extremely heroic conduct” in the incident. 1945: Kennedy is demobilized. Following the 1944 death in combat of his elder brother, Joe, who had been destined for a career in politics, the torch passes to JFK. 1946: First elected to Congress as a Democratic representative for Massachusetts. He is re-elected in 1948 and 1950. 1952: Elected to Senate, later re-elected in 1958. September, 1953: Kennedy, 36, marries 24-year-old Jacqueline Bouvier, a young journalist at the Washington Times-Herald. Their first child, Caroline, is born four years later on November 27, 1957. 1957: Kennedy wins a Pulitzer Prize for his book, Profiles In Courage, spotlighting the lives of eight US politicians through the ages. 1960: Kennedy launches his presidential campaign with victory in the Democratic primary. He goes on to defeat Republican rival Richard Nixon in one of the closest US elections ever fought. November 25, 1960: John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr is born, known affectionately as “John-John.” January 20, 1961: Kennedy is sworn in as the 35th president of the United States. Still only 43, he is the youngest-ever elected US president and the first Catholic. March 1961: Kennedy creates the Peace Corps, dedicated to humanitarian work in the developing world. April 1961: Kennedy authorizes the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, a 1,500-strong band of US-trained Cuban exiles hoping to topple Fidel Castro. The invasion ends in disaster, with the exiles routed by Castro’s forces within a few days. May 1961: Kennedy launches the Apollo space programme with the goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. At the same time, Kennedy also increases the number of soldiers, military advisers and equipment deployed to Vietnam. October 1962: The United States and Soviet Union edge to the brink of nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis, triggered after a US spy plane discovers Cuba is building Soviet missile bases on the island. June 11, 1963: Kennedy issues his famous Civil Rights Address, calling for an end to discrimination and full equality for African Americans. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr describes Kennedy’s proposals as “the most sweeping and forthright ever presented by an American president.” June 26, 1963: Kennedy rallies to the support of Berlin, declaring in an iconic speech to the divided German city: “Ich bin ein Berliner.” November 22, 1963: Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He is buried three days later at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, near Washington. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HISTORY AND CONSPIRACY CROSS PATHS History buffs and conspiracy theorists cross paths at Dealey Plaza, the now infamous Dallas square where President John F. Kennedy was cut down by an assassin’s bullet 50 years ago. While visitors to the site take pictures of the white X marking the spot where the president was shot, bystanders try to convince them that the official account of what happened is wrong. “Right here in Dealey Plaza, every day is November 22, 1963,” tour guide Michael Scott Aston explained to a group aboard a “Big D Fun Tours” trolley. As the 50th anniversary of the tragedy takes place, onlookers gather at Dealey Plaza to recapture the emotions of that fateful day amid honking car horns and exhaust fumes. The 35th president of the United States died not far from a freeway ramp on the edge of downtown in the Texan city. The nondescript cityscape that served as a backdrop all those decades ago has remained virtually unchanged to this day. A railway overpass straddles three lanes, one of which is Elm Street which JFK’s motorcade was following when the fatal shots rang out. And to the side, a wooden barrier separates a grassy area — known as the “Grassy Knoll” — from a red brick building. “That is the former Texas book depository building,” Aston said as he pointed his group to look at the sixth floor window. “Right here, that’s where the shots rang out,” he said, pointing to the corner of the structure. From there, three gunshots were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald, concluded an investigation by the Warren Commission. The 24-year-old former Marine and Marxist was killed two days after JFK’s assassination by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner. Today, the building houses The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Between two sets of lights that sporadically stop traffic, tourists took pictures of a white cross marking the spot of the fatal shooting. Nearby and close to the lawn, Mark Oates had set up a table covered with books. The self-proclaimed “JFK assassination researcher” — as stated on his business card — has been a regular here since 1986. “They say Oswald acted alone, and we have the evidence to show he did not,” he told a passerby, indicating a video running on constant repeat on a mini DVD player. The former engineer pointed out flashes, which he said were proof that some gunshots came from elsewhere. Steps away, 53-year-old Ron Washington, who said he has been doing research for 22 years, was also convinced of a conspiracy. “I let them make their own decision, I just give them evidence,” he said of what he tells tourists as he tried to sell a copy of a magazine by Robert Groden entitled The Case for Conspiracy. Margie Benson, an 80-year-old Dallas resident, had come to show Dealey Plaza to some guests. The former receptionist still remembers how one of her supervisors called and said the president has been shot. When his death was announced, she added, “everyone was in awe, we were silent, in grief.” Graffiti abounds on the wooden barrier at the site, ranging from “RIP JFK” to “Oswald acted alone BS” and “Conspiracy, we know the truth.” Along the route taken by JFK’s motorcade, there are thousands of small posters — painted by students and artists, among others — focused on love. Kennedy’s murder “is a horrendous tragic wound to our city and the whole Earth,” said artist Karen Blessen, initiator of the “Love Project.” “These efforts are part of our deep need to process this tragedy” that led to Dallas being called the “city of hate,” she said.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 12:25:37 +0000
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