The Kennedy Half-Century (90 page)

1969. President Nixon hands Senator Edward Kennedy a pen while approving amendments to the Older Americans Act, September 1969. Despite Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick scandal in July that year, Nixon and his aides were still worried that JFK’s potent legacy might help his youngest brother win the White House in 1972.

1997. President Gerald R. Ford had served on the Warren Commission while a member of the U.S. House, and he was the longest surviving member of the commission. He emphatically supported the Warren Report’s conclusions for the rest of his life, as this signed letter from 1997 indicates.

2001. In 2001 President Ford received the John F. Kennedy Foundation’s “Profiles in Courage” award for his controversial pardon of Richard Nixon, which may have cost Ford a full White House term of his own. Senator Edward Kennedy, one of Ford’s harshest critics at the time of the pardon, and JFK’s daughter Caroline were on hand to present the award.

1979. President Carter shakes hands with Senator Edward Kennedy as Kennedy’s wife Joan looks on during the dedication of the John F. Kennedy Library, October 20, 1979. Kennedy’s attempt to oust Carter the following year helped Ronald Reagan win the White House and created lasting animosity between Carter and the Kennedys.

1981. Despite deep differences in philosophy, the Kennedys and the Reagans shared a mutual respect for one another and maintained a cordial relationship during Reagan’s eight years in office. Here Rose Kennedy and son Ted pay a friendly visit to the Oval Office on November 12, 1981.

1985. President Reagan delivers a glowing tribute to JFK during a June 24, 1985, fundraiser for the John F. Kennedy Library at Ted Kennedy’s home in McLean, Virginia. Reagan’s genuine admiration for President Kennedy helped bridge the political divide between the two families.

1985. Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Reagan were both traumatized by the shootings of their husbands, but according to Mrs. Reagan, they never shared their experiences with one another. The two First Ladies are shown here at the June 1985 reception for the JFK Library.

1958. As two of the most famous and enduring families in American politics, the Kennedys and the Bushes have often interacted. In this photograph from June 26, 1958, Senator Kennedy (right), who founded the New England Conference of Senators, meets with the group’s members in the office of Senator Prescott Bush (center, seated), the father of future president George H.W. Bush and the grandfather of future president George W. Bush.

1963. “The Torch Is Passed.” Bill Clinton, a seventeen year-old Boys Nation delegate from Arkansas and the future forty-second president, shakes hands with the thirty-fifth president in the White House’s Rose Garden on July 24, 1963. This was a much-seen photograph during Clinton’s 1992 campaign. Clinton’s mother, Virginia, would later describe the moment this way: “When he came home from Boys Nation with this picture of John Kennedy and himself shaking hands, I’ve never seen such an expression on a man’s face in my life. He just had such pride. And I knew then that government in some form would be his goal.”

1993. President-elect Clinton receives a tour of JFK’s gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery from JFK, Jr. and Senator Ted Kennedy on inauguration eve, January 19, 1993.

1993. President Clinton speaks at the John F. Kennedy Library in October 1993 during the dedication of the new Kennedy museum.