When John F. Kennedy entered the presidential limousine at Love Field in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, he began his ride into history. That journey continues even today and we call it the Kennedy legacy. This course will explore the Presidency, assassination, and lasting legacy of President John F. Kennedy. Students will learn how JFK’s life, administration, and tragic death have influenced the general public, the media, and each of the nine U.S. presidents who followed. Understanding the Kennedy legacy and being able to identify elements of his legacy within the context of modern politics helps understand many of the vexing problems that developed over the last half century as well as many of the challenges that confront us today. November 22, 1963 was so powerful a moment that in the fifty years since the assassination, every U.S. President that followed JFK has used Kennedy’s words and actions in an effort to craft their own political image. Why does Kennedy’s influence persist, and will it continue? What are the effects? We’ll address these questions and more as we explore The Kennedy Half Century. Follow on Twitter: @JFKclass.
President Richard Nixon
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Del curso dictado por University of Virginia
The Kennedy Half Century
280 calificaciones
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Conoce a los instructores
Professor Larry J. SabatoRobert Kent Gooch Professor of Politics
Director, UVA Center for Politics
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Having been elected to the US House of Representatives in the
same post-war year of 1946, John Kennedy and Richard Nixon became friends.
The two young, ambitious politicians were both World War II veterans.
They were of different parties, but a similar frame of mind.
The America Richard Nixon inherited from Lyndon Johnson,
deeply divided over Vietnam and polarized about race,
was a far cry from the generally tranquil one that John Kennedy received from Dwight
Eisenhower in 1961. History is full of ironies, and
Nixon's first year as president had one overarching historical achievement.
The landing on the moon in July 1969.
It was of course a direct effect
of President Kennedy's challenge to the country
in 1961 to do precisely that.
Richard Nixon was, without any question, one of the most capable presidents
in American History, highly intelligent, he has many accomplishments to his credit.
But he also had an inherent pettiness which in the end brought him down.
And we saw that pettiness on display in 1969.
>> Mr. Nixon is appearing in the doorway now.
>> Richard Nixon had been trying out for
the presidency since the late 40s and early 1950s.
So, when he finally achieved it, In early 1969,
it was somewhat ironic that the biggest event of
his first year as President was one initiated by
his great rival, John F Kennedy, the moon landing.
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>> I believe that this nation should commit
itself to achieving the goal Before this decade
is out, I'm landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.
>> Most people associated that program with John F Kennedy.
Certainly the members of NASA did.
And the astronauts did. For Nixon, it was pleasant to preside
over it, but I suspect he was unhappy that
the focus was so heavily on John F Kennedy.
He really didn't mention Kennedy, he didn't have his
name on the plaque that was put on the moon.
That was noted by newspapers and people connected to politics.
And it was felt that Nixon had shown a lack of finesse and grace.
Presidents are often assisted when they appear bipartisan.
They bring Americans together
in their role as chief of state.
Nixon would have helped himself by mentioning Kennedy and sharing the credit.
But Nixon's inherent pettiness made that impossible for him.
He simply couldn't bring himself to do it.
While there are many JFK references in the documents comprising the Nixon
administration, to suggest that John Kennedy
was an obsession would be misleading.
The late president was no longer a threat to Richard Nixon.
But another Kennedy was.
Almost from the first, President Nixon and his circle viewed JFK's brother
Ted as their foremost adversary and obstacle to reelection in 1972.
President Nixon carefully followed Kennedy's press, underlining sections
of newspaper and magazine articles about Ted Kennedy.
And scribbling comments such as, another plug for Teddy.
Kennedy campaigned extensively for McGovern in the fall of 1972.
And after a direct appeal to Nixon, by family
matriarch Rose Kennedy, who worried about her last son's safety.
Ted was provided with secret service protection until after election day.
However Nixon and Halderman seized upon
this opportunity to collect political intelligence.
Planting a Nixon loyalist, retired agent
Robert Newbrand, in Kennedy's secret service detail.
All the indications are that Newbrand
turned up very little actionable intelligence,
but it was the fact that Nixon and Halderman did that, that counts.
It was never consciously or explicitly acknowledged that Nixon’s
innovative dramatic moves in foreign policy followed the post-Cuban
missile crisis plans of a chastened President Kennedy.
Having come so perilously close to war in 1962,
JFK had begun to explore the pathways to peace.
Encouraged by the similar desires of Premier Khrushchev.
Nixon's fierce anticommunism protected him from soft-on-communism attacks.
Nixon's stellar foreign policy realignments were
a source of justifiable pride for him and for the Republican party.
Far outstripping what even a re-elected President Kennedy
could have hoped to do in the 1960s.
In many ways, Nixon had the better of Kennedy in both historic categories.
Nixon's painfully slow but successful winding down of Vietnam.
His shrewd playing off of China and Russia to produce spectacular
diplomatic breakthroughs.
And also some creative domestic policies, such as the establishment of
the Environmental Protection Agency and a reorganization of the federal government.
May eventually restore some luster to Nixon's presidential
reputation that was destroyed by extensive Watergate abuses.
As he began to sink under the weight
of Watergate, Nixon and his associates often insisted
that dirty tricks and eavesdropping had been the
techniques of a series of presidents, certainly including JFK.
And again Nixon was correct.
Nixon's memory was selective, though.
His administration extensively used the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service,
and the CIA to serve its political needs, just as his predecessors had done.
The age
of the imperial presidency had enabled Kennedy and Johnson to get away with
their deeds, but of course the
circumstances were very different for President Nixon.
In the conclusion to his final speech in the White house
on August 9th, 1974, as he resigned, Nixon told his assembled staff.
Never be petty.
>> Never be petty. >> Always remember.
>> Always remember others
may hate you but those who hate you don't win, unless you hate them.
And then you destroy yourself.
>> That became the central lesson of the multi-layered scandal that demolished
any chance Nixon had of being as well remembered as John F Kennedy.
When he resigned, Nixon elevated his hand-picked Vice
President, Gerald R Ford, to the nation's highest office.
After more than a decade of trauma, citizens welcomed a chance to heal.
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