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| JFK Official Portrait |
Fifteen months after the pandemic sidelined our Presidential Pursuits — and everyone and everything else — we headed to Arlington National Cemetery to see JFK’s gravesite.
We chose Arlington because the JFK Library in Boston was closed until July Fourth weekend, and even then, it offered timed entries and limited hours on the weekend only, and its theaters were. And obviously, the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, is off limits.
Unfortunately, Arlington National Cemetery doesn’t provide much detail about Kennedy, with the Welcome Center’s focus mainly on the Tomb of the Unknowns, whose 100th anniversary is this year. The visitor center doesn’t provide any short, historical films, either — much to Cathy’s dismay. It’s possible that the (not free) shuttle tour gives more information, but we walked up to the gravesite and didn’t tour the entire cemetery.
To get to the cemetery, we took the Washington area’s Metrorail system to Arlington (Red to Blue Line) in our first foray back onto the subway since the pandemic started, masks required.
An hour or so later, we arrived at Arlington, on a hot and humid, but fortunately breezy, late-June day.
The entrance to Arlington is fairly close to the Metro stop, just a few minutes of slow walking. As you’re exiting the Metro, you can opt to head instead to the historic Memorial Bridge and walk over to the Lincoln Memorial and then back across the Potomac River to the cemetery. At the very least, stop and admire the views of both — Washington, DC at its finest.
After going through screening and through the crowded Welcome Center, we walked the half-mile to JFK’s gravesite. You can also pay for the shuttle tour around the cemetery, which is probably best. Arlington is not small. And it’s not flat.
We walked the steps up to the gravesite, with Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s mansion, now called Arlington House, overlooking it from the top of the hill above, the American and POW flags in front of the house flying at half-staff. (The flags fly at half-staff all day Monday-Saturday, and are raised at 5:30 p.m. each night, because the cemetery holds so many funerals each day.)
Buried at the gravesite are JFK, his wife, Jackie, and two infants — one who was stillborn in 1956 and one who lived for two days in August 1963, not even four months before JFK was assassinated.
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Heading into the 1964 election, John F. Kennedy knew he needed to shore up the South, especially Texas, which was turning Republican. So, in November, he and Jackie headed to Texas. He knew there were people in Texas vehemently opposed to his presidency. Kennedy told Jackie, “We’re heading into nut country today. But, Jackie, if somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it?”
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| The limo - Nov. 22, 1963 |
The caravan traveled slowly — only 11 mph. — allowing a Marxist fanatic named Lee Harvey Oswald, perched in a window of the sixth floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository, to take three shots at the car. The first bullet seriously wounded the president and the governor. The second or third shot, taken a few seconds later, caused a fatal head wound. Although he was rushed to the Parkland Memorial Hospital, Kennedy had no hope of surviving. He was 46 years old.
The gravesite is a very simple resting place. The flat, dark gray slate slabs marking the graves lay on top of irregularly sized stones of Cape Cod granite. Fescue and clover were planted in the crevices to give the appearance of stones lying naturally in a Massachusetts field, according to the JFK Library website.
An eternal flame burns at the site. Jackie got the idea for the eternal flame from the French Tomb of the Unknown Soldier below the Arc d’Triomphe, by which she was inspired, according to the welcome center display.
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| Kennedy gravesite - Arlington National Cemetery |
It wasn’t a sure thing that Kennedy would even live to the age of 46. In spite of his portrayal as a youthful, vigorous man, he had serious health problems. He had Addison’s disease, a malfunctioning of the adrenal glands, which in the early 1960s was often fatal. For his debilitating back pain, he took
painkillers and amphetamines. It was often difficult for him to walk.
Kennedy had always been sickly. When he was young, he had stomach and lower intestine problems, which caused him to be in and out of hospitals. He often underwent enemas, which took a toll. He joked to a friend, “My poor bedraggled rectum is looking at me very reproachfully these days…” He was so sickly, he had last rites given to him three times.
It was his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, who pushed him into politics. Growing up, the eldest son, Joe Jr., was anointed for political greatness. But he was killed during a secret mission to bomb German targets during World War II when his plane blew up in mid-air.
So, Joseph Sr. turned his attention to the next oldest son, John. JFK was given no choice. His father said, “I got Jack into politics. I was the one. I told him Joe was dead and that it was therefore his responsibility to run for Congress.” (Dallek, 2003)
Joseph Kennedy was a successful businessman, an ambassador to Great Britain, and an ardent isolationist during the early days of World War II. Being “nouveau rich,” he always felt he wasn’t good enough for high society and emphasized to his children the importance of winning and proving their worth. His wife, Rose, was an emotionally isolated Catholic. They had nine children. Rose had outlived four of them when she died at 104.
John understood that to be successful in politics, it was necessary to serve during WWII. But his poor health held him back and he failed his physical. But his father intervened and he was accepted in the Navy. He was trained as a PT boat specialist and was assigned stateside to be a PT boat trainer. But JFK wanted to see action overseas. Again, his father intervened and he was given command of PT-109 in the Solomon Islands.
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| Lieutenant John F. Kennedy commanding PT-109 |
His boat was assigned night patrol. On Aug. 1, 1943, a Japanese destroyer hit his boat in the dark. PT-109 sunk immediately. Despite his poor health, Kennedy had been a swimmer in college and had trained up to four hours a day. So he was able to guide and assist his surviving crew to a nearby island. Then he left and swam for help.
JFK was now a legitimate war hero.
Now Kennedy was ready to make the transition to politics. Joe helped his son win his first political race in a 1946 run for Congress. First, he had to convince the mayor of Boston not to run for Congress but to rather run for another term as mayor. Then Joe spent $250,000-$300,000 of his own money on the campaign. JFK was elected as a 29 year old. Then Joe helped JFK get an assignment on the House Education and Labor Committee.
Joe was back at it in the 1952 Senate election when Kennedy decided to run for the seat of incumbent, Henry Cabot Lodge. Joe loaned $500,000 to the owner of the Boston Post. This was seen by some as a thinly veiled bribe to encourage the paper to write favorably about his son. JFK’s campaign themes were foreign affairs and anticommunism and he squeaked out a narrow victory: 51.5 percent vs. 48.5 percent.
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| Jacqueline Bouvier weds John F. Kennedy |
On Sept. 12, 1953, the 36-year-old JFK wed 24-year-old Jacqueline Lee Bouvier at her stepfather’s estate in Newport, R.I. Jackie was a newspaper photographer who had met JFK while he was a congressman. She liked to dress well and spent liberally on clothes — her expenses tended to exceed JFK’s income. She was fluent in French and Spanish and also spoke several other languages with less fluency. JFK was reportedly jealous of Jackie’s language skills. Jackie was somewhat introverted and was never comfortable being in the public eye.
While still a first-term senator, Kennedy decided to run for president in 1960. It was a surprising move since his tenure in the Senate had been short and undistinguished. According to Dallek (2003), “after five years in the Senate, Jack had not attached his name to any major piece of legislation.”
As usual, his father Joe was there to support him financially. So were friends of the mafia, such as Frank Sinatra, who was close with Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana. Kennedy won the Democratic nomination.
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| Kennedy - Nixon presidential debate |
One of the issues JFK had to face during his campaign was his Catholic faith. That turned out not to be an overwhelming issue. Also, there were also rumors of illegal political shenanigans on the Democratic side. Democratic Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley told Kennedy, “…with a little bit of luck and the help of a few close friends, you’re going to carry Illinois.” (Bradlee, 1995). JFK won the election 303-219 electoral votes, becoming the youngest person elected president at 43 years old.
Kennedy’s 1,036-day presidency began Jan. 20, 1961. Dallek (2003) calls his and FDR’s first inaugural speeches the two most powerful of the 20th century. JFK famously issued a call to action; “And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
JFK pledged not to appoint relatives to his administration, but backtracked and appointed his 36-year-old brother, Robert to be the attorney general.
The issues that defined JFK’s presidency were the fight against Communism and to a lesser extent, civil rights.
During his campaign, JFK claimed that the Republicans were soft on Russia and had allowed the Russians to get ahead of the U.S. in the nuclear missile race. That turned out not to be true; the United States was far ahead of the Soviets by as much as 100 to 1 The U.S. had the Soviet Union surrounded with nuclear missiles on land and submarines bristling with nuclear missiles prowling offshore.
Once in office, JFK continued to expand the U.S. nuclear missile arsenal from 96 to 464 and Polaris submarines from 6 to 29. In addition, JFK “wanted to triple spending on civil defense” including the construction of home fallout shelters (Dallek, 2003).
In August 1961, to stem the tide of thousands of people leaving East Germany every day, Russian-backed East Germany constructed a 13-foot high wall between East and West Berlin. In response to the “Berlin Wall,” the Americans sent 1,600 troops to West Berlin.
On Oct. 23, 1961, the Soviets detonated a 30-megaton bomb. A week later they detonated an even larger bomb: 50-megatons, more than 3,300 times the power of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The U.S. started a fallout shelter program and gave instructions and survival pamphlets to homeowners.
The proxy war with Russia also played out in Fidel Castro’s Cuba. The U.S. funded and supported Cuban exiles training to overthrow Castro, who came to power in 1959. Initially, planes from Nicaragua piloted by Cuban exiles bombed military airfields in Cuba. Then a force of 1,400 Cuban exiles landed on the beach of the Bay of Pigs. But the Cubans had been tipped off and quickly overwhelmed the exiles. Twelve hundred troop surrendered. In addition, Castro’s troops rounded up and arrested 20,000 supporters. Kennedy was distraught at the failure and said, “How could I have been so stupid?” But he took full responsibility and said, “… Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.”
In the fall of 1962, the Soviets began deploying medium and intermediate range missiles — with the capability to mount nuclear tips — to Cuba. As news of this leaked out of Cuba, many of Kennedy’s military commanders suggested an air strike or an invasion to take out the missiles. Kennedy also authorized a U2 flight to provide photographic proof. The flight showed that the missiles were in advanced stages of deployment. Kennedy knew he needed to move fast to keep the missiles from becoming operable He put in place an embargo to stop all ships coming into Cuba. He made a television address to the nation that was watched by 10 million people — it was the largest audience for a TV event up to that time — during which he disclosed the nature of the threat.
For these “13 days in October,” the world held its breath not knowing if a nuclear war was about to break out. But Kennedy held back-channel negotiations and agreed not to invade or bomb Cuba if the Soviets removed the missiles. He also promised to remove previously deployed U.S. missiles from Turkey at a later date —as long as the terms of the deal were not disclosed. Dallek (2003) wrote, “His restraint in resisting a military solution that would almost certainly have triggered a nuclear exchange makes him a model of wise statesmanship in a dire situation.”
Another theater of the war on Communism was Vietnam. The U.S. sent 500 troops to the Thailand-Laos border when President Ngo Dinh Diem’s pro-Western government was threatened. The U.S. also authorized funding for an additional 20,000 South Vietnamese troops. (The French, having already been defeated in Indochina, warned the U.S. that Asia would be a nightmare.) JFK believed in and continued Eisenhower’s domino theory. But he did draw the line at troops on the ground. He said, “U.S. troops should not be involved on the Asian mainland.” Instead, the U.S. provided “advisers.” But these advisers tended to get involved in the fighting. For example, South Vietnam’s military was lacking in technical abilities such as flying planes, so the U.S. advisers did that. By 1963, the U.S. had 16,000 advisers on the ground. Even so, JFK tried to keep U.S. involvement out of the press. The U.S. also approved of the assassination of the corrupt Diem, which took place in November 1963.
JFK knew his approach was fraught with danger. He told Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee (Bradlee, 1975), “The trouble is, we are violating the Geneva agreement. Not as much as the North Vietnamese are, but we’re violating it.” JFK understood the challenges of fighting a guerrilla war in Vietnam. He said, “One guerrilla can pin down twelve conventional soldiers, and we’ve got nothing equivalent.”
Kennedy was also interested in improving the lives of Black Americans. But he knew that although the Democrats had a 89-seat advantage in the House (262 to 173), 101 of them were from South, a region generally opposed to civil rights. Because the South was gradually becoming more Republican, JFK didn’t want to lose the crucial support of southern Democratic senators.
Kennedy’s record on civil rights is uneven. During the 1960 campaign, JFK and Bobby helped Martin Luther King get released from a hard labor prison sentence in Atlanta. Once elected, he directed his Cabinet secretaries to expand opportunities for Blacks. Kennedy also nominated African American Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. JFK federalized the Mississippi National Guard to get James Meredith enrolled at the University of Mississippi. And he issued an executive order integrating federally supported public housing.
But in general, JFK slow walked the changes that were needed to alleviate a century of unfairness and repression of Black Americans. His brother, the attorney general, delayed civil rights hearings in Louisiana and Mississippi. JFK said to the commissions conducting the hearings: “You’re making my life difficult.” Kennedy also appointed southern racists to some judgeships, and they did their best to prevent school integration and deny voting rights.
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| March on Washington Aug. 28, 1963 |
Dallek (2003) wrote: “For his part, Jack’s interest in civil rights was more political than moral. The only blacks he knew were chauffeurs, valets or domestics…” It took his successor, LBJ, to see it as a moral issue.
JFK finally asked for a civil rights bill the day before Medgar Evers was shot in the back and killed in his Jackson, Mississippi, driveway in June 1963. The bill would give Blacks a right to vote and stop discrimination in public places.
Kennedy also continued the United States’ space race with the Soviets. Fitting with his New Frontier aura, he pushed for the U.S. to land a man on the moon. “We choose to go the moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…,” he said. He kept up the pressure to continue the race to the moon even when the Soviets said they were no longer interested.
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In front of JFK’s tombstone is a small round stone, imprinted with part of “A Soldier’s Prayer” and the words “Honor-Remember-Explore” at the bottom.
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| A Soldier's Prayer |
Also buried or memorialized at the cemetery are JFK’s three brothers. Robert’s and Teddy’s grave sites are around the corner and are even simpler than his. Both graves are marked with a white marble cross on the green hill leading up to the Lee Mansion, with a white gravestone several feet in front. Both tombstones had white roses and pennies on them. A few feet away, their other brother, Joe Kennedy Jr., is memorialized with more of a traditional gray tombstone.
Directions
The Arlington National Cemetery is located in Arlington, VA near Washington, DC. Parking is available but the cemetery is also accessible by Washington Metro.
References
Bradlee, Ben. 1995. A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures. Simon & Schuster. New York, NY.
Bradlee, Ben. 1975. Conversations with Kennedy. W.W. Norton & Company. New York, NY.
Dallek, Robert. 2003. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963. Little Brown and Company, New York, NY.
Rubenstein, David. 2019. The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians. Richard Reeves on John F. Kennedy. Simon & Schuster. New York, NY.
History Channel. 2005. The Presidents: The Lives and Legacies of the 43 Leaders of the United States.
Websites
https://www.americathebilingual.com/jackie-kennedys-prowess-as-a-polygot/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_John_F._Kennedy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbrcRKqLSRw
https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-7.html#conclusions
