The Death of a president

Title

Language

English

Year

1963

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

Editorial in The Observer, November 24, 1963.

“His death diminishes us all.”

Fulltext

■ “His death diminishes us all.” THE DEATH OF A PRESIDENT When great men of State die, it is their achievements which come to mind. The tragedy of Kennedy’s death is that we have also to mourn the achievements to come. There is a feeling that the future has been betrayed. When John Kennedy be came President, he not only symbolized youth in a world dominated by older men. He brought with him a sense of intellectual adventure. Sud denly, new prospects seemed possible. Life itself seemed more exciting. He seemed to be not so much the heir to an existing political situa tion as the herald of a new. one'. But Kennedy was no vi sionary driven on by dreams. He was a cool-headed poli tician with a great regard for facts. Indeed, the intellec tual detachment which allow ed him to see, more clearly than most men, what needed to be done, also at times prevented him from mobiliz ing the emotional fervour necessary to overcome oppo sition and to carry his poli cies through. • • • This was most true of his domestic policies. He had the courage to challenge deep American prejudices about public spending, so cialized medicine and foreign aid. He saw the supreme importance of the Civil Rights issue. And he fought hard to get his views accept ed. But his success in these fields was limited. He was thwarted by the cumbersome American system of govern ment, and did not always succeed in overcoming his weakness in the Congress by appealing to the people over their heads, as Roosevelt so frequently did. Perhaps his greatest suc cesses were in the crucial is sues of world affairs. Not that his policies were entirely free of ambiguity. He was, after all, elected after a cam paign in which he attacked Eisenhower for failing to deal with Cuba and stressed what subsequently proved to 2 Panorama be a mythical missile gap. But, once in office, he began an intensive study of the facts that never slackened. The importance of the dis astrous invasion of the Bay of Pigs lay in Kennedy’s abi lity to learn from mistakes. He quickly perceived the fol ly of one of his campaign promises and in subsequent crises — Berlin and Cuba again — he showed a rare com bination of caution and dar ing. The risks he took were based on a cool assessment of the situation. And in this moment of epic success, he resisted all temptation to crow — thus turning victory into constructive achieve ment. For Kennedy was quick to see the implications of the Cuban crisis. He realized that it showed not so much the supremacy of American power but the dependence of the United States and Rus sia on each other. The les son he drew was that it was necessary for the two Powers to establish a working re lationship with each other: that in a situation dominated by nuclear physics, the real enemy was not Communism but instability and chaos. For the first time, it seem ed just possible that America and Russia would pursue a limited common aim, modi fying their rivalry to meet the need to prevent nuclear proliferation. In the event, only the Test Ban treaty materialized. But the per ception that a new era could be opened, that there were tremendous opportuni ties ahead for constructive initiative, had been gained. While Kennedy lived, there was hope that these opportu nities would be exploited. With his death at the hands of a crazed assassin, that hope has been lessened, though not entirely destroy ed. The new President, Mr. Lyndon Johnson, is an able, perhaps a very able, politi cian, but a man of a more ordinary mould. And while it is improbable that there will be any dramatic changes in policy — indeed, the new President may be more suc cessful than his predecessor in persuading Congress to ac cept existing policies — it is difficult to see these policies being further developed to create a new order in our disordered world society. But as the example of Tru man showed, the office of December 1963 3 President can bring out un expected qualities in those who hold it. The men who helped to shape the Kennedy policies — McNamara, Rusk, Robert Kennedy and others — are still at hand. More important still, the world realities which determined these policies remain the same. It would therefore be wrong to assume that the new President will change the purpose or intention of American policy. But the effectiveness of Kennedy’s Administration lay as much in its style as in its actions — the way policies were car ried out was as important as their actual content. They were characterized by the President’s keen respect for intellect, ideas and know ledge. It was his style which also gave him his unique personal prestige outside America. His intellectual, somewhat princely, yet keenly profes sional approach to his tasks had an appeal beyond the shores of America: the sense of excitement which he con veyed quickened the tempo of political life everywhere. He communicated his own sense of adventure to others. Here was a man who saw himself a world leader, heir not only to America’s poli tical legacy, but to Europe’s intellectual tradition and, through his Irish ancestry, to the hopes and aspirations of the under privileged every where. The final irony is that the most rational of pre sent-day statesmen should have met his death as the re sult of an apparently irra tional act. In the end, Kennedy’s qua lities as a man command as much affection as respect. In him, the private man was never lost in the public fig ure. The friends he made before he became President were the friends he kept while in office. We mourn a man who —with his beauti ful wife, his respect for ideas and the arts, his humour, his informality and modesty in the face of the tremendous responsibilities which he fully understood — represented something vital, life-enhan cing. His death diminishes us all. — Editorial in The Observer, November 24, 1963. 4 Panorama

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