I finally finished Robert Dallek’s John F. Kennedy biography, An Unfinished Life (on Amazon, or your local bookstore). Took me a number of months to get through the 711 pages, but it was well worth the time. For faster readers, it’s certainly not a burdensome book to read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story, and Dallek did a marvelous job of taking me from the beginning of JFK’s life, through his early years in government, to the intricate details of his presidency. I was lucky to read it at this point in history, where obvious parallels jump out between President Kennedy and President Obama, Vietnam and Iraq, and civil rights demands for equality.
An Unfinished Life is teeming with masterful use of the English language, by JFK, JFK quoting others, and Dallek himself.
Quoting Daniel Webster, Kennedy concluded, “Our aim should not be ‘States dissevered, discordant [or] belligerent’; but ‘one country, one constitution, one destiny’.”
First is a JFK quote of an earlier American politician, Daniel Webster. Kennedy’s point is an important one: even though the states are separate, we all share a destiny. And that destiny is important to the strength of the United States. In practical matters, the “powers not delegates to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” States can do things differently, but should still consider the interest of the country.
One critical journalist wrote: “This man seeks the highest elective office in the world not primarily as a politician, but as a celebrity. He’s the only politician a woman would read about while sitting under the hair dryer, the subject of more human-interest articles than all his rivals combined.”
This “critical” journalist’s comment is the first of many timely remarks with the 2008 presidential campaign and election just months ago. As we all know, President Obama and his family were a sensation in the popular media. He was the only candidate this time around to match JFK’s popular appeal. In the end, his celebrity status probably helped more than it hurt (those few celebrity ads didn’t seem to inflict any damage). Without debating Kennedy’s success as president, let’s accept that JFK inspired a nation and, at a minimum, governed and maintained order in the midst of many difficult situations and unexpected crisis, and set the nation on a path to important changes. JFK used his celebrity status to win an election, and to maintain public support for his administration. President Obama seems to be on the same path, and hopefully in the future we’ll see his celebrity status as an additional excitement factor to his presidency, and not the only thing to remember of the Obama Administration.
Chicago Daily News reporter Peter Lisagor and other journalists met with Jack in 1958: They “looked at him walking out of the room, thin, slender, almost boyish really,” and one of them said, “‘Can you imagine that young fellow thinking he could be President of the United States any time soon?’ I must say the thought occurred to me, too,” Lisagor recalled.
Lisagor and his fellow journalists were, for JFK, in doubt of Kennedy’s abilities because of his “lack of experience.” Again, I hope President Obama can too prove early critics wrong, perhaps even more forcefully than JFK.
The Berlin Crisis as it evolved during the summer of 1961 was arguably the most dangerous moment for a nuclear conflict since the onset of the Cold War. It tested Kennedy an effective balance between intimidating the Soviets and giving them a way out of their dilemma.
I found Dallek’s statement here quite powerful. Of course this was important at the time because Kennedy’s struck the balance on the issue of nuclear conflict, a key issue for the continuation of the human race. And more broadly, Kennedy’s mastery of maintaining a strong negotiation position without ceding ground while giving the Soviet’s a chance to change course without a shattered ego as a consequence is a lesson for all of us when facing any important issue. Kennedy’s model demonstrates the effectiveness of giving your opponent an easy way out when accepting defeat. It makes it more likely your opponent will concede.
All the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyways – Harry S Truman
Not JFK, or even quoted by JFK. Dallek included this quote at the beginning of a chapter about called “The Limits of Power,” in which he addressed Kennedy’s trouble areas of health, womanizing, foreign relations, civil rights, “taxing and spending” accusations, among others. As an avid outside observer interested in political and government communications, I find this quote exceptionally amusing.
“Civilization,” Kennedy said, quoting H. G. Wells, “is a race between education and catastrophe. It is up to you in this Congress to determine the winner of that race.”
The argument for education couldn’t be stronger than to avert catastrophe. One appropriate example for our time is global warming, and our need to better understand which of our actions cause the most damage and what we can do to repair current problems and reduce destruction in the future.
“The mere absence of recession is not growth.”
Again, timely for JKF and timely for us in 2009. When we emerge on the economic charts from this technical resecession, we must be careful with policies and actions to ensure continued growth. Obama’s choices to invest in new, green technologies are a great example of investing now with immediate returns of new jobs and more money flowing in the economy and later returns as higher efficiency and renewable sources save energy costs and the planet.
The speech was one of the great state papers of any twentieth-century American presidency. Kennedy’s topic was the “most important…on earth: world peace. What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war,” he said, with the Soviets and China particular in mind. “Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave.” In that one brief sentence, he dismissed both the kind of peace that would follow a cataclysmic nuclear war, which “hard-liners” in Moscow, Peking, and Washington seemed ready to fight, and the sort of peace a generation reared on memores of appeasement feared might come out of negotiations limiting American armaments. This was to be “not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women–not merely peace in our time but peace for all time”–the realization of Woodrow Wilson’s ideal, announced in response to the century’s first great war.
We’re not fighting Moscow like we were in JFK’s time, but we’re still concerned with Russian, China, and newer issues in North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and much of the middle east region. And Washington “hard-liners” still seem keen on more American fighting power across the world on some type of crusade (even if the hard-liners don’t do the fighting, or even send their own children, spouses, or friends). From this, I see the importance of earning peace, not bashing it in.
“When the possibilities of reconciliations appear, we in the West will make it clear that we are not hostile to any people or system providing they choose their own destiny without interfering with the free choice of others.”
In describing Moscow and Peking, JFK might as well be describing Iran, China, and others in 2009. While I generally agree with Obama’s response so far to the sham elections in Iran (I consider them a sham because some cities had more votes than voters…), I think JFK’s thought below must be our guiding principles. So far, it doesn’t appear that the people of Iran chose their own destiny, but more information is needed. (The fact that the Iranian government doesn’t allow journalists in or reports out doesn’t bode well for the regime.)
Of all the quotes, this is the last one I flagged in the book, and the one I think is the most timeless and important.
It was not that Kennedy was without larger hopes and goals–better race relations and less poverty in America and improved East-West relations, with diminished likelihood of nuclear war, were never far from his mind. But it was the practical daily challenges standing in the way of larger designs that held his attention and seemed to him the principal stuff of being president.
This is an important lesson, that applies every step of the way. From an animated entreprenour starting a new small business, to the President of the United States of America, one must have the knowledge in place, ability to learn, and the right supporting staff to even start to consider significant reforms. Our most successful leaders in the next two centuries of America, like Kennedy, keep everything moving, but more than JFK, they will fully master the daily challenges and free their mind for the epic task of meaningful changes where they are most needed.
Take Back the Flag 