You weren't alive when those of us who were experienced almost three full years of his crude, distasteful, and unpatriotic use of the White House and his playfully, blithe conduct of the privileges covering it up.
You weren't alive to understand the deep distrust and rejection of his imperious Camelotish conduct, his failed Bay of Pigs incident, and his initiation of US involvement in the Viet Nam conflict that made him extremely unpopular. In fact, he most certainly was not a "hero" until the day he was shot, a moment in time seized by the media to turn the hearts of the un- and dis-informed fickle public into an enduring state of blind, doting, misplaced compassion. Not everyone was fooled by this unfortunate ending of his failing career as upholding America's anti-Communism struggle in the Cold War:
"The editors of National Review judged John Fitzgerald Kennedy to be a consummate technician of mass politics. His programs and policies -- often chosen, by the evidence, in opportunistic furtherance of technical manipulations--we judged to be, for the most part, dangerous to the nation’s well-being and security, and to the survival of our perilously threatened Western civilization. Neither his death nor the fearful manner of it provides any reason to change these judgments." (My added emphasis)
-- Excerpt from the National Review, quoted by Loe Conason in his article for the National Memo, "Was JFK A Conservative — Or A Socialist? Let’s Ask The Right-Wingers Of 1963" (click here) (Nov. 22, 2013, 50 years latere)
Please do not think that by any means I would believe that this was the way our President should be relieved of his office. Unlawful, certainly, and not at all laughable, but unpatriotic--who can know? One would have to be in possession of reliable information not within reach of the ordinary citizen at this time.
It would not be my way to honor and uphold the Constitution of my forefathers.
Thank you for your thoughtful and intelligent reply.
I know Dallek. Also, as an NR reader and consumer of WFB’s older works I think it is fair to say there are “myriad” views on JFK.
For instance, he was a free marketeer, and a tax-cutter on a grand scale, which many “conservatives” found or find admirable.
I am not so sure what “western civilization” means now: I am just returned from New Haven where all that matters is a soup of race-victimhood.
Is the Civil Rights Act responsible for ALL this? I would say rather that it is the race-baiting of newer politicians, power
-hungry communists far more dangerous than JFK.
To be sure we can probably agree he - for all his womanizing - was far less dangerous to our country on any day than Obama is every day.