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"We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal." [1]

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Date: 2023-11-22  

Attribution for above sketch of Camelot: The Camelot Project, University of Rochester. The title of the diary comes from JFK’s “Peace Speech” delivered at American University on June 10, 1963 in Washington, DC.

“ Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief, shining moment that was known as Camelot. There’ll be great presidents again… but there will never be another Camelot.”

Camelot was first publicly used by Jackie in a Life magazine interview, after she invited the journalist Theodore H. White to the White House just days after the assassination. White was best known for his Making of a President series about Kennedy’s election. In the interview, Jackie referred to the Broadway musical, Camelot, which Kennedy apparently listened to often. The musical had been written by his Harvard schoolmate Alan Jay. Jackie quoted the ending lines of the final song:

In the hours, days, months and years following the assassination of her husband, Jackie Kennedy cultivated an enduring myth around her husband’s presidency. This myth was centred around one word, ‘Camelot’, which came to encapsulate the youth, vitality and integrity of JFK and his administration… For centuries, King Arthur and Camelot have been referenced by monarchs and politicians hoping to align themselves with this famed myth of a romanticised society, typically one led by a noble king where good always wins.

On the 60th death anniversary of the last American President to be assassinated while still in office, it is useful to remember not just John F. Kennedy the legend, but the talented leader whose eloquence, sophisticated wit, memorable speeches, and deeds inspired a nation.

Had he lived, been re-elected in 1964, and served a second term, would we remember him along with the likes of great presidents like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt? We will never know.

That speculation would end on a dark day in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.

President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy pictured above in Dallas, Texas. Attribution: New Yorker. Attribution for the “My Son, My Son!” editorial cartoon by Stuart McDonald at the very top of this diary: History 12. I first wrote a version of this diary in 2011.

“The First Modern President Who Gave One a Sense of Caring”

The election of Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy (D-MA) in November 1960 was like a breath of fresh political air blowing throughout the entire land. The staid, predictable 1950s which ushered in the politics of superficial tranquility and a period of conformity in American life was drawing to a close.

Senator John F. Kennedy (D-MA) was surrounded by supporters as he arrived in Los Angeles, the site of the July 1960 Democratic National Convention. Attribution: Business Insider.

If the country had largely coasted through the previous decade, new frontiers and possibilities suddenly appeared over the horizon. The charismatic, young President challenged all Americans to work harder to give of themselves to their country and to scale new heights.

Optimism and excitement seemed to be the new buzzwords. in American life.

It was to be the dawn of a new period of American renewal in more ways than one. Beginning in June 1944 — when JFK was first mentioned in the New Yorker for his PT-109 exploits and bravery during World War II — Kennedy made it to the weekly magazine on numerous other occasions.

What was his unique contribution to American society and the presidency? In the magazine’s November 30, 1963 issue following that fateful day in Texas, contributor Richard Rovere painted the picture of a leader determined to leave his mark on the country. JFK understood that he was not just the head of government but, equally importantly, the head of the nation — one destined for, he strongly believed, greatness.

Senator John F. Kennedy (D-MA) and Jacqueline Kennedy, shown above in 1960 reading to her daughter, Caroline, at Hyannis Port, MA in July 1960. Attribution: Business Insider. John F. Kennedy in The New Yorker Kennedy, Rovere wrote, had “a curiosity as broad as Montaigne’s” and “a critical intelligence and a critical temper.” Rovere added that “his zest for simply watching the show was as great as H. L. Mencken’s.” Kennedy was also, Rovere thought, “the first modern President who gave one a sense of caring — and of believing that a President ought to care — about the whole quality and tone of American life”: He proposed to have, in time, an impact on American taste. He proposed to impress upon the country — to make it, if he could, share — his own respect for excellence of various kinds…. [He believed] that a President of the United States could do more than help ensure domestic tranquility, secure the blessings of liberty, and the rest. He thought that a President might help a fundamentally good society to become a good, even brilliant, civilization. And it pleased him to think of himself as a promoter, an impresario. It sounded like a vague approach to the Presidency, Rovere wrote, but it wasn’t. “The energies he released, the people and ideas he encouraged, the style he brought to the Presidency” — all these would have real consequences — among them “a generation of public servants who will be serving Presidents (and perhaps being Presidents) into the next century.”

For all of his sins during his four years as the leader of this country — and the list is long and full of criminal and unconstitutional activities — in my opinion, one of the most unforgivable ones is that Donald Trump has done more to debase language than any political leader in recent memory. And that an entire political party has become subservient to and enamored of anti-intellectual, low-brow behavior is a national tragedy in itself.

Rovere recounts an event involving literary critic and author Diana Trilling's 1962 visit to the Kennedy White House in honor of Nobel Prize winners. It captured the heady optimism, sophistication, endless possibilities, and vigor of the Kennedy years.

First Lady Jackie Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy. When they went on a state visit to France in June 1961, the President opened his press conference in Paris and said, “I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.“ In 1962, the Trillings were invited to the White House for a dinner honoring that year’s Nobel laureates. Jacqueline Kennedy, Trilling wrote, was “a hundred times more beautiful than any photograph had ever indicated”; the President “was handsome and exuded energy—I could feel it even at my distance from him.” Later, the First Lady talked to Lionel Trilling about D. H. Lawrence. (Which was better, “The Rainbow” or “Women in Love”?) The President talked to Robert Frost. The White House, it turned out, was a cultured, brilliant, intimate, easy place. “I felt as if anything could happen,” Trilling wrote. “The party was just beginning.”

Three of JFK’s Most Memorable Speeches

The power of persuasion is one of the most effective tools available to any President of the United States. Few used it better than President John F. Kennedy. Considerable efforts were made by his speechwriters — Ted Sorensen in particular — to frame his messages in ways that resonated with Americans young and old. That JFK was a gifted orator didn’t hurt either.

Unlike Trump, Kennedy respected the use of language to positively affect his domestic and international policies. It was certainly a different era in which social media (chatrooms, DM’s, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) didn’t play any role in corrupting and degrading language learning skills. The cynicism amongst the public brought about by the disillusionment of the Vietnam War and loss of faith in honest government caused by the Watergate Scandal — resulting in the first and only resignation of an American President — had also not yet polluted our political culture.

You can read about, listen to, and watch several of his historic speeches as well as his other pre-presidential and presidential speeches going as far back as 1942.

President Kennedy believed in the power of words — both written and spoken — to win votes, to set goals, to change minds, to move nations. He consistently took care to choose the right words and phrases that would send the right message.

The Moon Speech — Rice University, Houston, Texas — September 12, 1962

The President invoked America’s pioneering spirit in his speech to explain why it was necessary to establish American leadership on this issue. Given during the highly tense and competitive period of the Cold War, the country, he reminded the audience at Houston’s Rice University, had never shirked from taking on seemingly impossible challenges.

As promised by JFK, and less than seven years after this speech on July 20, 1969, the first moon landing actually happened. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins would become the first human beings to reach the moon, with Armstrong and Aldrin memorably walking on the moon's surface.

x YouTube Video We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a State noted for strength, and we stand in need of all three, for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds… If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred… There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too… And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. Here is the complete transcript of the speech. You can also watch the speech in its entirety on YouTube.

Under Kennedy, the "Age of Camelot" ushered in new ways of thinking and fostered new ideas to move the country forward. In his administration, the right kind of questions were being asked.

First Lady Jackie Kennedy with her daughter Caroline and son John Jr. waiting to join President Kennedy’s funeral procession to the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, November 25, 1963. [T]here began in Kennedy's time an effort of government to bring reason to bear on facts which were becoming almost too complicated for human minds to grasp. No Merlins advised John F. Kennedy, no Galahads won high praise in his service. The knights of his round table were able, tough, ambitious men, capable of kindness, also capable of error, but as a group of men more often right than wrong and astonishingly incorruptible. What made them a group and established their companionship was their leader. Of them all, Kennedy was the toughest, the most intelligent, the most attractive — and inside, the least romantic. He was a realistic dealer in men, a master of games who understood the importance of ideas. He assumed his responsibilities fully. He advanced the cause of America at home and abroad. But he also posed for the first time the great question of the sixties and seventies: What kind of people are we Americans? What do we want to become? Richard L. Cassin, “ And so the legend of Camelot was born,” The FCPA Blog, November 22, 2013. This blog entry discusses historian Theodore White's famous article published in the December 6, 1963 issue of LIFE magazine. That article was based on a conversation that White had with Jackie Kennedy soon after JFK's assassination and one that would link the myth of Camelot and the Kennedys for years to come. Photograph source: LIFE, December 6, 1963.

The Peace Speech: “We Are All Mortal” — American University Commencement Address, Washington, DC — June 10, 1963

Only eight months earlier in October 1962, President Kennedy had helped steer the country away from nuclear armageddon during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Referred to as “one of the most eloquent, hopeful, and realistic visions for a peaceful world,” the speech outlined a path to a pragmatic vision of peace. It called for an end to the Cold War and arms race; stressed the need for greater cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union; and favored diplomacy and mutual understanding over belligerence and aggressive behavior.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was so impressed with the speech that he ordered widespread dissemination in the Soviet Union. Not only was the speech published in the USSR but it was also broadcast to ordinary citizens.

Kennedy had also wanted to move beyond the “Balance of Terror” argument which maintained a semblance of peace under the Mutual Assured Destruction (M.A.D.) Doctrine — one which made nuclear war unthinkable and unimaginable.

The speech would result in the first arms control treaty between the two Superpowers.

x YouTube Video 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. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children — not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women — not merely peace in our time but peace for all time. I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war — and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task… Our problems are manmade — therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable — and we believe they can do it again… And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal. Here is the complete transcript of the speech. Watch the speech in full.

The Inaugural Address — Washington, DC — January 20, 1961

More than six decades later, it remains one of the most memorable and eloquent speeches ever given by an American President. At a time when the Soviet Union was ascendant and the Cold War raging, Kennedy asked Americans to contribute something of value to their country and help it achieve its foreign policy goals. Focusing on external developments and global freedom — rather than the thorny domestic issue of race relations and Civil Rights — this was an attempt to unite the nation in a common cause.

Striking a theme of generational change and challenging the youth of this country to greater heights, he appealed to the best instincts of his fellow citizens — the “better angels of their nature” as President Abraham Lincoln put it in his 1863 Gettysburg Address. The call to public service was loud and clear, explicitly and forcefully expressed by the President.

The speech was a national sensation.

x YouTube Video Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans — born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage — and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge — and more… And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. The above video is the speech in full. You can find the speech transcript here.

The Impact of JFK’s Death in 1963 on the Country’s Psyche

This infamous handbill was distributed in Dallas, Texas by conservative political opponents of the President in the days leading up to his visit. Within an hour of arriving in Dallas on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was dead. Attribution: Wikipedia. Faced with Kennedy’s death, Rovere’s admirable impulse was optimism. But mourning had an equal pull. “The death of a President enters the house and becomes a death in the family,” the magazine’s Comment began, in that same issue. “No other public death produces so personal an alteration in one’s world.” A few weeks later, on December 21st, John Updike walked down Fifth Avenue, in search of “the invisible difference” between that Christmas and all others. The flags, he noticed, were at half-mast—“All up and down the Avenue, the half-mast flags were gray from rubbing against sooty facades.” Outside of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, “looking at the crowds, we realized what the difference is this year. People are not determined to be jolly; they do not feel obligated to smile.” The “sudden death of our young President,” Updike wrote, was reflected in immobile faces around the city; it had taught them that “a human face may refuse, or fail, to smile and still be human.” — New Yorker, November 30, 1963 x Greatest editorial cartoon ever. Good old Bill Mauldin. https://t.co/wNXFFqAPHD — Peter Kelley (@UWscribe) November 23, 2021 "Grieving Lincoln" — Drawn in one hour on November 22, 1963 by editorial cartoonist Bill Mauldin, it was his most famous cartoon in the post-World War era. Mauldin became famous during World War II for portraying the dangers of war through the eyes of "Willie and Joe,” two characters representing American infantry soldiers.

This is how the Washington Post covered JFK’s death. You can read several editorials and see editorial cartoons drawn by the Post’s legendary cartoonist, Herblock.

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