November 22, 1963
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orldvie A JOURNAL OF RELIGION AND INTERNATIONALw AFFAIRS w NOVEMBER 22, 1963 John F. Kennedy has been taken from us; there His youth and relative inexperience told is an aching emptiness where there was once. a against him in his initial encounters with Khrush- bright presence. We are left now to assess his chev, de Gaulle and others and were undoubted accomplishments and to meditate on the meaning factors in the grotesquerie of the Bay of Pigs. of his death and the almost universal grief it But the decisiveness, the firmness, the restraint inspired. that he later showed, during the Cuban blockade The first news of President Kennedy’s death for example, confinned that he had the stature struck with such force that it was impossible appropriate to the President of the United States. immediately to acknowledge its impact. Frantic The subsequent test-ban treaty was, as he said, disbelief sought vainly to postpone the full re- the first small step out of a darkness, a step alization that an assassin’s bullet had deprived toward a more rational method of negotiating the world’s strongest nation of its leader, that the differences in a nuclear age. It gave promise of President we knew as a powerful, intensely alive further steps that might, with appropriate safe- young man was dead. And that realization, when guards, be taken in the future. The pattern of it came, brought with it a pain that was both behavior that was emerging here was present in sharp and penetrating, dull and lingering, a pain his handling of other areas of foreign policy. that was personal and collective. His domestic program is even more dif6cult And it brought the further realization that, to assess because it was, at the moment of his immortality upon him, the President was now death, bogged down in a Congress divided the possession of his fellow citizens. There against itself and against strong Executive pres- would be nothing now to change the record of sures. One’s presuppositions, hopes and preju- his days on earth-no further accomplishments, dices will probably decide how one judges the no additional failures and defeats, none of the likely outcome of his domestic policies had he vigorous campaigning he seemed to anticipate lived to fight them through. What he has left with pleasure, no more of the wit and charm and are some few resounding successes, such as the elegance and cool reason that contributed to his Peace Corps, and many eloquent, firm statements much vaunted style. This man, who was so con- of political goals that will not soon be eroded scious of the judgment of history, would be by the passage of time. judged on the record he established in less than 0 three years as President. On that record and a general feeling for the man and his aspirations. But the evaluation of President Kennedy’s rec- For john Kennedy’s life was the kind of which ord, even if carried out with sensitive discrimi- legends are made, and already the myth-mabg nation and in detail, would not wholly account powers are at work. for the response his death drew from people President Kennedy’s most notable achievement around the world, for the numbers of young peo- was his leadership of the Western alliance. How- ple who streamed into Washington and even now m 1 ever great the responsibilities of other Western continue to file by his grave. It is not simply the L leaders, however eager they seemed to bear the incomplete record or the office of the Presidency .o0, E burdens and set the directions, no one doubted that allowed this man, who in life was so fre- ;f E: that as the world is now organized the heaviest quently judged to be cool and calculating, to v, burden, the gravest responsibility, fell on the evoke in death such a deep, warm and spon- shoulders of the youngest world leader. It was taneous reaction. z 30 Kennedy who was on this end of the hot line. John Kennedy’s death was as a lightning flash 0 DECEMBEB1963 across one’s life and it threw the great matters his young stafF, his own physical grace, an at- of life, if only mqmentarily, into proper perspec- tractive wife and young children all helped to tive. The substantial was revealed as substantial, make him a spokesman for youth and untried the trivial as trivial and we were privileged, for hopes around the world. a short time, to put the latter aside. *t death How this rare combination of abilities, quali- also made clear the hi h relevance of the virtues ties and circumstances will be assessed by his- tliat Kennedy admirecf and that he himself pos- tory, which winnows and weighs without com- sessed. For it was an act of sudden violence and passion, one cannot know. .President Kennedy’s seeming futility that brought about the death of record is not a full rounded thing but an un- a man who epitomized the use of reason, pa- timely fragment with high spots and low, with tience, moderation, a man who emphasized the more of promise than accomplishment. John F. strength and the fragility of the measures that Kennedy’s personal characteristics did not win sustain our national life, and indeed the lives of the allegiance of all and their vivid quality will millions around the world. His constant effort pass with the memories of living men. Yet one was to restrain the lawless, the possibly violent, can say with confidence that there was greatness whether the threat was domestic or foreign. Now in him and that his name will be sweet in his- that those major threats survive him almost un- tory. We, who are diminished by his death, diminished, we may more nearly comprehend the mourn for him. undramatic virtues, the largely undramatic and sometimes ineffective measures, by which he sought to contain them. A CONTINUATION His emphasis upon restraint and moderation AND A BEGINNING was evident in many of his statements. In his “Strategy for Peace,” for example, he said, “I “Life is for the living,” the late President said, speak of peace; therefore, as the necessary ra- and President Lyndon Johnson has moved rapid- tional end of rational men. I realize that the ly from the wings to front-stage center, from the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit shadows of relative inconsequence to the flood- of war, and frequently the words of the pursuer lights of world attention, He is now the central fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent actor on our political scene and the quality of task.” This peace, he added, would be a “peace, our lives will be strongly affected by his deci- based not on a sudden revolution in human na- sions. ture but on a gradual evolution in human institu- Full-scale assessments of President Johnson’s tions-on a series of concrete actions and effective intellectual and temperamental abilities will soon agreements which are in the interest of all con- be surfeit. His own initial addresses are sufficient, cerned. There is no single, simple key to this however, to indicate the qualities we may ex- peace, no grand or magic formula to be adopted pect. The awesome pressures of the Presidency, by one or two powers. For peace is a process, it is frequently noted, shape into’a new if still a way of solving problems.” recognizable form the person who attains that And he was impressive, too, because he spoke office. They also do much to shape the public -as could the leader of no other world power- response to that person. Both effects were evident as a person who was raised and hardened in a when President Johnson gave his first address. newer age. “Let the word go forth from this Eloquent, deliberate and confident, it impressed time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the even those who had known Senator Johnson for torch has been passed to a new generation of years. Americans-born in this century, tempered by But his next address made definite what was war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, already expected-that the beginning of President proud of our ancient heritage-and unwilling to Johnson’s term will be a continuation of his pre- witness or permit the slow undoing of those hu- decessor’s program. This is determined partly man rights to which this nation has always been by the very intricacy of the decision-making com- committed, and to which we are committed to- plex that was established during the last several day at home and around the world.” years, partly to the short time the President will He proved himself to be an exemplar of this hold office before the next election, and partly new generation, displayin under pressure poise also to the sound, clearly formulated goals that and wit, intelligence and %lrectness. In addition, he has inherited. 2 worlduieu, .