The Kennedy Half-Century (82 page)

Respondents were also asked to select which two among seven of Kennedy’s best-known statements (four of them from his inaugural address) best represent what America would most benefit from today in focusing our approach to government and citizenship:

63%
—“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past—let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”
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49%
—“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”
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28%
—“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.”
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26%
—“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”
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14%
—“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 …”
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12%
—“It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.”
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9%
—“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 …”
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In our era of intense partisan strife and polarization, Americans seek relief from the blame game, perhaps the reason that the highest rated statement was Kennedy’s statesmanlike assertion that the “right answer” should be preferred to the Democratic or Republican answer. Older and younger adults liked this sentiment equally well, as did Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. JFK’s most famous declaration, “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country,” was chosen by 49 percent—although Republicans were especially enamored of this combination of patriotism and self-reliance.
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Those over age fifty-five were somewhat more likely to pick this statement, compared to younger adults, perhaps because it was the single most quoted line of JFK’s inaugural address, and those alive and aware in 1961 recalled the attention it received. The only Cold War proclamation to draw much backing was Kennedy’s “pay any price, bear any burden” litany from the inaugural. Younger respondents were more inclined to pick Kennedy’s rationale for helping the poor; 30 percent of those fifty-four and under selected that line from the inaugural, compared with just 20 percent of those fifty-five and older.

Later in the survey, respondents watched short film clips of President Kennedy giving parts of five speeches: the inaugural address on January 20, 1961 (the “ask not” excerpt), a September 12, 1962, address that included a recapitulation of the moon landing goal, the Cuban Missile Crisis address to the nation on October 22, 1962, Kennedy’s “peace speech” to American University’s graduating class on June 10, 1963, and the following day’s television address on civil rights.
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“Ask not” was the most remembered excerpt: a
startling 83 percent of those age fifty-five and over “definitely” recalled having seen or heard it, with 60 percent of those under age fifty-five having also come across it. Of older Americans, 55 percent remembered the Cuban Missile Crisis speech, compared to only 26 percent of younger Americans. The least recognized excerpt was the peace speech, with a mere 5 percent of adults recalling it.

Respondents were then asked to “write a few words or phrases describing how you felt as you watched this video.” The inaugural excerpt encouraged people to get involved and make a difference. The Cuban Missile Crisis address evoked many comments about JFK’s “firm, strong leadership.” Civil rights elicited remarks about Kennedy’s boldness and courage in calling for equality (though civil rights leaders in the first couple of Kennedy years would have had a less positive view about JFK’s “boldness”). The moon speech produced observations about Kennedy’s “good ideas and great, worthy goals.” Many saw the peace speech as both a call for national unity and an attempt to avoid war.

The responses to this question were not dramatically different by age, save for the Missile Crisis address. Americans alive and aware in 1962 were almost three times as likely to say they were “scared” or “frightened” while watching the speech as those too young to recall the event. Emotions generated by the very real prospect of nuclear annihilation easily survived a half century.
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Ten concrete goals and achievements of the Kennedy administration were featured in order to test respondents’ knowledge of them. These “things that John F. Kennedy did as president” ranged from setting a course for the moon landing to pushing for a major tax cut. Seventy-seven percent of respondents aged fifty-five and older were familiar with JFK’s goal of landing a man on the moon, while only 59 percent of younger respondents remembered it. Older participants also demonstrated a greater awareness of the Cold War; 82 percent said that they knew JFK had resisted the Soviet Union’s attempt to place missiles in Cuba even as 44 percent of younger respondents admitted to knowing nothing, or next to nothing, about this pivotal event. Few of the younger respondents can recall the crisis in Germany either, while 55 percent of the older group remembered that Kennedy had supported West Berliners in their fight against Communism. JFK’s lesser-known accomplishments
appear to be fading fast from public memory. Only 32 percent of the people in both groups knew that Kennedy signed a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the USSR, and only 21 percent were aware that he endorsed a major tax cut.
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Even so, in every case, those who lived through the Kennedy years were more familiar with these achievements than younger Americans. More interesting is the consistency of the Kennedy legacy for generations born since his time. Younger people focused on the accomplishments still relevant to modern life, such as space exploration and civil rights. The most remembered event for Americans alive and aware in the early 1960s was the life-or-death Missile Crisis. For the young, though, the Soviet Union is merely a failed piece of discarded history, and the Berlin confrontation with the Soviets an even more obscure episode in the Cold War against Communism. Unexpectedly perhaps, young people appear unaware that JFK established the Peace Corps. Compared with older Americans, the young are also less conscious that JFK’s election was a watershed event in the separation of church and state—possibly because the once-palpable prejudice against Roman Catholics in the political arena is almost nonexistent today.

When asked to pick the top three accomplishments of Kennedy’s presidency, the poll’s entire group of respondents chose (1) standing up to the Soviet Union in Cuba, (2) proposing the legislation that became the Civil Rights Act, and (3) desegregating schools in Alabama and Mississippi, with the moon landing goal a close fourth.
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Democrats rated JFK’s civil rights record highly, while Republicans were more inclined to credit Kennedy’s staunch anticommunism and desire to explore space.

In part because of John Kennedy’s assassination, Americans are not inclined to focus on his shortcomings. The natural human reaction is to say “He and his family have suffered enough,” or “If he had been given additional time, he might have reversed course, changed destructive behaviors, or accomplished more.” While understandable and kind, these reactions do not contribute much to a balanced view of JFK’s presidency. In the poll, five specific criticisms of Kennedy in the White House were tested, and respondents were asked whether they were matters of concern: the escalation in Vietnam, wiretapping of civil rights leaders, JFK’s extramarital affairs, CIA coups and assassinations abroad, and Kennedy’s inability to get civil rights legislation passed in his lifetime.
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The Vietnam question hovers over Kennedy. Among all adults in the survey, 53 percent had major concerns, and of only those old enough to have clear memories of the Vietnam War’s course during the 1960s, 60 percent had major concerns. Younger adults were more uneasy about the wiretapping of civil rights leaders (48 percent) than older adults (42 percent). Remarkably, neither age group was overly alarmed about JFK’s role in CIA coups over-throwing
foreign leaders. Few held JFK responsible for failing to power the civil rights bill into law; this may be the clearest example of Americans making allowances for the short time that JFK held the White House.

The public’s tolerant view of Kennedy’s extramarital affairs while president is noteworthy. Just a third of the respondents had major concerns about Kennedy’s behavior, and there was essentially no difference based on age. Forty-five percent had “only minor” or “no concerns” about JFK’s womanizing. As a follow-up, respondents were asked to assess how Kennedy’s many extramarital affairs affected their view of him, and many drew a clear distinction between JFK the president and JFK the person. Only 17 percent said, “This makes me feel more unfavorable to JFK both as a person and as president” while 44 percent replied, “This makes me feel more unfavorable to JFK as a person, but does not affect my view of him as a president.” And another 36 percent indicated that their view of Kennedy as both a president and a person was completely unaffected by the affairs.
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On this topic, though, a large partisan gap emerged about JFK. Only 19 percent of Democrats had major concerns about the extramarital affairs, but 56 percent of Republicans did. And while only 4 percent of Democrats felt more unfavorable to Kennedy as a person and a president on account of his affairs, 34 percent of Republicans rated Kennedy lower as a result.

There may be another psychological factor in the public’s tendency to give Kennedy a pass on his unsavory behavior: the expectations human beings have of a powerful, good-looking politician. With great frequency, participants in both the focus groups and the poll cited JFK’s charisma, handsomeness, and physical attractiveness (his hair, voice, bearing, and other attributes). Some men said they simply assumed an “alpha male” like Kennedy would assert his supremacy and use his charms to attract members of the opposite sex, while some women openly commented on Kennedy’s sex appeal. As a retired Chicago waitress revealingly put it, “This might be too personal … but he’s the first president I ever had a sex dream about … I was young [and] there was an underlying sexual attraction about him.” Other women around the focus group table nodded in agreement. Human nature is full of such subconscious realities and the contradictions they encourage. We condemn immoral actions but presuppose and anticipate them in certain “entitled” individuals—while simultaneously resenting and censuring the entitlement.

A final question explored today’s public sentiment about press exploration of politicians’ private lives, especially referring to the fact that members of the press knew about JFK’s extramarital affairs during his presidency but adhered to an unspoken agreement to ignore his transgressions. By a 59 to 41 percent margin, respondents believed we were better off in the 1960s when
many of the private details of elected officials’ personal lives were considered off-limits by the media. Older adults were more inclined to “strongly agree” with the former rules of coverage than younger adults,
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and party differences emerged on private life reporting: Democrats and Independents strongly preferred the old “off-limits” press guidelines, but Republicans were almost evenly divided about which set of journalistic procedures is better.

There has been a sea change in opinion on this subject over the decades. The media may have turned a blind and complicit eye, but public tolerance of extramarital affairs by politicians was quite low in Kennedy’s time, and if revelations about JFK’s behavior had broken then, he would never have been elected president, or would almost certainly have been forced to resign his office. President Bill Clinton survived such exposure in the 1990s, and judging by Clinton’s relatively high ratings in our current survey, there has been little lasting damage from his many brushes with scandal. Similarly, we can find no evidence that Kennedy’s often egregious womanizing has had any durable effect on his overall public standing, though for specific subgroups, such as evangelical Christians, JFK’s private life revelations have indeed hurt his image. For example, born-again Protestants were far more likely (54 percent) than the general population (33 percent) to say that Kennedy’s extramarital affairs were of concern to them.

There is little doubt that Americans evaluate Kennedy’s life in the shadow of his tragic death, and the survey underlines that belief. Other than the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Kennedy assassination is far and away the defining event for those aged fifty-five and over. Almost two thirds of the older participants chose November 22, 1963, as one of the days having the greatest impact on their generation. Asked to choose a second day, 72 percent also named 9/11.
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Other key events in the lifetimes of those over fifty-five trailed far behind: the attack on Pearl Harbor (30 percent), the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (21), the explosion of the space shuttle
Challenger
(7), and the Oklahoma City bombing (6).