Richard M. Nixon - No. 37 - Washington, DC and Arlington, VA - Dec. 18, 2021

                                                                  

Richard Nixon was a thinker, an internationalist,  a devoted husband and father.  He was also a paranoid, a loner, an anxious person, sometimes a drunk; a man uncomfortable in his own skin (Bradlee, 1995).  He didn’t mix well with people.  “Cocktail party conversations is not a subject for which President Nixon will go down in history,” said Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s secretary of state (Wicker, 1991).  

 

Nixon is, of course, famous—or infamous—as the first president to resign for his activities related to the Watergate break-in.  That would be the focus of our Nixon visit.

 

* * *

In mid-December of 2021, we were still avoiding flying as the  new omicron variant swept across the country. So, we decided that the best thing to do would be to visit places associated with Watergate.

 

Now, this particular adventure didn’t sound too promising. Our itinerary: Drive from our Maryland Beltway home into downtown Washington, D.C., look at an office building, head across the Potomac River into Arlington, look at a parking garage. 

 

Sounds fun, right?

 

But it actually turned out to be a really fun day trip, almost like a leg of Cathy’s favorite TV show, The Amazing Race.  We dragged our ever-suffering friend, Dottie, who was already a three-time veteran of our presidential visits.

 

* * *

 

Nixon grew up poor in a house in Yorba Linda, CA without running water or electricity.  His entire life he felt looked down upon by those who were better off, the “elite.”  He felt like he had to work harder than anyone to prove himself.  He attended a small college nearby, Whittier College, and went out for football, not an obvious sport for his lean frame. But again, he needed to prove himself.  But he could not excel in the sport and didn’t earn a letter.  

 

But he did well in law school, graduating 3^rd of 25 from Duke Law School in 1937.

 

* * *

Nixon is known as a fervent anti-communist, which is ironic because outside Watergate, Nixon is best remembered as president who opened the West to Red China when he made his historic visit there in 1972.  

 

His anti-Communist views helped him win his first political fight against incumbent California Rep. Jerry Voorhuis in 1946.  Nixon hinted at ties between Voorhuis and Communists.  The ploy worked and Nixon won his seat 57 percent to 43 percent.  

 

Rep. Nixon was placed on the House Un-Americans Committee and worked closely with Sen. Joseph McCarthy ferreting out “Communists” from American government and industry.  Nixon achieved instant fame by promoting Whittaker Chambers, an editor at Time, in his testimony against Alger Hiss, a former State Department official and president of the Carnegie Endowment, regarding allegations of spying for the Soviets.  (Hiss was eventually convicted of perjury in 1950.)

 

Soon Nixon was on his way to the Senate.  

 

In the election of 1950, he was paired against fellow Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas, a former actress.  Nixon again used allegations of Communist ties to weaken his opponent.  He also hinted that her husband, Melvyn Douglas, was Jewish.  He won with 59 percent of the vote, but his tactics earned him the nickname, “Trickie Dickie.”

 

Sen. Nixon didn’t spend much time in the Senate.  His reputation as a fervent anti-communist prompted Dwight Eisenhower to choose him as his vice-presidential running mate in 1952.  But first, Nixon had to survive the “Fund Crisis.”  He was accused of having a secret fund to buy himself and wife, Pat, luxurious items such as a fur coat.  He was pressed by Eisenhower to take his case to the nation.  Nixon went on TV and said that Pat had a “respectable cloth coat.”  He also said that the family had been given a cocker spaniel named Checkers as a gift.  He said his daughters loved the dog, and he wasn’t giving it back.  His “Checkers” speech, heard by about 60 million Americans, garnered sympathy for Nixon and he was cleared to run.

 

As vice president, Nixon was given broad responsibility including foreign assignments.  He advocated for a space agency after the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957.   And he kept up his anti-communist obsession.  When he visited Uruguay, he debated the communist leader of students and had a respectable showing.  But when he tried a street “debate” with 2,000 demonstrators in Lima, Peru, it didn’t go as well.  The demonstrators became threatening, and he had to take refuge in his car.  Things got worse in Venezuela when crowds violently attacked his car.

 

He was never close to Eisenhower and was having invited to Eisenhower’s Gettysburg farm home.  When Eisenhower was asked by a reporter about Nixon’s accomplishments as vice present, Eisenhower famously replied, “If you give me a week, I might think of one.  I don’t remember.”

 

When it was Nixon’s turn to run for president, he went head-to-head with rising Democratic star, Sen. John F. Kennedy.  They held the nation’s first televised debate on Sept. 26, 1960, before a huge audience of 70 million. (The debate is available on YouTube.) Kennedy appeared self-assured and he opened the debate by attacking Communism, one of Nixon’s signature issues. Nixon was defensive throughout but came across better than had been expected. Sometimes Nixon appeared nervous, but he generally gave a strong showing.  It is interesting to learn that Nixon had a severe blood infection during the debate. Nixon was better on substance than style; critics said that Nixon had a 5 o’clock shadow and that his shirt collar was too big.  

 

Nixon pushed as hard as he always did becoming the first presidential candidate to campaign in all 50 states.  

 

In the end, Nixon could not overcome Kennedy’s good looks and charisma.  He lost a close popular vote race (a difference of 118,000 votes out of nearly 69 million cast).  But he lost the Electoral College vote by a larger margin: 303-219. 

 

JFK’s campaign was accused of stealing votes, including having Chicago Mayor Richard Daly find “ways” of increasing the vote count in Illinois.  (But winning Illinois would not have flipped the election.)  Nixon, to his credit, refused to contest the results because he didn’t want to harm the democratic process.  “I will not give this nation’s enemies an opportunity to downgrade democracy and to say that our elections were fraudulent. Those who lose accept the verdict and support those who win,” he said.  

 

In 1962, Nixon took a shot at the California governorship but lost decisively to Edmund Brown (52 percent to 47 percent).  His political career was seemingly over.  Nixon whined to the press, “You don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.”

 

But he was back in 1968.  The Republicans had built a solid base in the South, partially due to the backlash against LBJ’s Great Society civil rights initiatives.  The Republicans had courted the Southerners who had been solidly Democratic since before the Civil War.  But now many Whites resented the gains Blacks had made.  Nixon ran on a “law and order” platform, an often-used racial scare tactic, and recruited Maryland Gov. Spiro Agnew as his running mate because Agnew had a tough-on-Blacks “law and order” image.  

 

Much later it became clear that Nixon’s staff had illegally become involved in foreign policy during the election.  Henry Kissinger had leaked information regarding the Paris Peace Talks to the Republicans.   The Republicans sent messages to President Thieu of South Vietnam that he should stall the Paris Peace talks because he would get a better deal from Nixon than Democratic candidate Hubert Humphry.  (It was never proven that Nixon was personally involved in these tactics.)  Nixon won the election with 301 electoral votes to Humphrey’s 191 votes.  (Segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace collected 46 electoral votes as a third-party candidate.)

 

With Nixon’s election, the Republican Party was virtually flipped ideologically with the Democratic Party of the 1800’s.  The Republicans now stood for limited government and resentment of minorities.  The proud party of Abraham Lincoln was no more.

 

Unlike LBJ, Nixon preferred to focus on foreign rather than domestic policy.  (He and Foreign Policy Advisor Henry Kissinger worked closely, generally excluding the State Department from their activities.) He would make major breakthroughs with China and the USSR.  But Vietnam was the tar baby that he could never shake.  

 

His major domestic policy achievement was signing landmark environmental legislation.  Of course, he was pressured into it by a Democratic-controlled Congress.  1970 was the year of the first Earth Day, and Congress passed environmental protection bills one after another.  These laws were passed and signed by Nixon:  the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Coastal Zone Management Act.  Nixon vetoed the Clean Water Act, but Congress overrode it.  The most important bill (which
was signed prior to Earth Day) was the National Environmental Policy Act, which guaranteed environmental review of all major projects.  In December 1970, Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

 

It’s ironic that the anticommunist crusader, Nixon, warmed to the idea of opening relations to China.  It was a gradual process that included China inviting the U.S. ping pong team to play in China in April 1971.  Next, Kissinger a made secret trip to China in July 1971 to arrange the next visit—President Nixon’s.  Nixon and a delegation visited China for six days in February 1972.  Nixon met with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and even met with Chairman Mao.  The intent was to keep China from becoming too close to the Soviet Union.  (The cost was acknowledging China’s claim that Taiwan is a part of China—a troubling issue to this day.)

 

In May 1972, Nixon traveled to the Soviet Union to hold a summit with Leonid Brezhnev.  During the meeting, the U.S. and Soviets agreed to peaceful coexistence and signed an antiballistic missile (ABM) treaty.  (While there, Nixon had the opportunity to speak on Russian TV directly to Soviet citizens.)  During his term, Nixon would hold three summits with the Soviets.  

 

Like LBJ, Nixon did not want to be the first president to lose a war.  He worked toward what he called “peace with honor.”  But to pressure North Vietnam toward peace, he needed to escalate the war—secretly.  In May 1969, the New York Times revealed that the United States had taken the war into Cambodia earlier in the year, bombing North Vietnamese positions there.  (Nixon retaliated against the media by authorized illegal wire taps of some of his aides and some journalists—a slippery slope to Watergate.)   

 

In April, ground troops were authorized in Cambodia.  Mass demonstrations followed in the United States.  On May 4, 1970, National Guardsmen shot dead four protesting students and bystanders at Kent State University.  

 

The appetite for war was gone, but it would take until March 1973 to pull out the last of the troops and for Congress to cut all funding for the war.  In two more years (April 30, 1975), the North Vietnamese conquered South Vietnam.  

 

With the illegal bugging noted above, Nixon was on the road to Watergate.  His team used “bugging, following people, false press leaks, fake letters, cancelling campaign rallies, investigating campaign workers’ private lives, planting spies, stealing documents, planting provocateurs in pollical demonstrations” as political tactics  (Bernstein and Woodward, 1974).

 

When Daniel Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers were printed in the New York Times on June 13, 1971, Nixon was determined to stop the leaks.  His team created a team of “plumbers”  operating out of the Executive Office Building.  They were directed to break into the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist on Labor Day weekend 1971 and dig up dirt.  E. Howard Hunt, a former CIA officer, and G. Gordon Liddy, a former CIA agent, were in charge.  In addition, Nixon’s aides created an “enemies list” that included 20 names such as Representative Ron Dellums of California, journalist Daniel Schorr and actor Paul Newman.

 

The actual Watergate break-in took place on June 17, 1972.  The buildings were described as a “futuristic complex, with its serpent’s-teeth concrete balustrades…”  (Bernstein and Woodward, 1974).  The five plumbers, dressed in business suits and wearing Playtex surgical gloves, entered the building carrying walkie-talkies, film, cameras, tear gas and wiretaps. Their target was the Democratic National Committee Headquarters located on the sixth floor.  A security guard noticed that some door locks had been taped over and called police. The police found and arrested the five plumbers. One of the arrested men carried an address book that included the phrases “W.House” and “W.H.”  

 

It would take years for the entire plot to be revealed and traced directly to the Oval Office.  The story included hush money, firings, resignations, congressional hearings, a special prosecutor, missing tapes, a Supreme Court decision, three articles of impeachment and finally Nixon’s resignation on August 8, 1974.  Much of the early sleuthing and exposure of the scandal came from the hard work of two young Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward (29) and Carl Bernstein (28).   Their work is chronicled in their excellent book, All the President’s Men (1974).  

 

* * *

 

Despite being a lifelong Washington-area resident, Cathy always thought the Watergate complex consisted of two buildings — the residences and the infamous office building. She was wrong. Situated along the Potomac River and next to the Kennedy Center, the massive complex consists of six curved buildings, with several of them encircling a big courtyard. The buildings were constructed between 1963 and 1971, with the first two, the hotel and office building, opening in 1967. It was the first mixed-use development in D.C., and the buildings’ curvature was considered a good example of the new modern architecture. It was designed by Luigi Moretti, an Italian architect who was a favorite of Mussolini’s and had been jailed briefly during World War II, according to Washingtonian.

 

Fun fact: The Italian company that owned the property at the time, SGI, was partially owned by the Vatican. 

 

Fifty-odd years later, the buildings don’t look so modern, with their gray exteriors and thousands of teeth protruding from every floor’s balcony. Still, they look better than the boxy, brutalist design of many of the federal buildings downtown.

 

While we were hunting down the office building and wandering through the courtyard outside the Watergate Hotel, we found Watergate-themed private plastic people pods on the terrace.  Excited about this bit of unexpected Watergate-themed nostalgia, we were able to explore them unencumbered, since they were still closed for the morning.

 

These are called “Scandalous Igloos” and are offered by the Next Whisky Bar inside the hotel. Each igloo features a comfy sofa and chairs with blankets, table, typewriter and Victrola. The floors are the best part: They are made of a collage of newspaper front pages about Nixon’s resignation. The igloos also offer books about the scandal and historical quotes hanging on the igloo’s walls.

 

They would be a great place — though pricey — to take out-of-town guests during the fall, winter or early spring. (It would be an oven in the hot Washington summers.) On weekends, renting an igloo will set you back $300, with an additional $75-per-person minimum for food and drink, according to the hotel website. But for a true D.C. historical splurge, it might be worth it.

 

After we left the Watergate, we drove across the Teddy Roosevelt bridge into Rosslyn to hunt down the parking garage where a mysterious Watergate leaker nick-named Deep Throat and Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward met late at night between October 1972 and November 1973.

 

* * *

 

Deep Throat set up an intricate system to arrange meetings with Woodward.  Woodward had a flower pot on his balcony in which someone had once planted a small red flag.  Woodward was to move the pot to the back of the balcony when he wanted a meeting with Deep Throat.  Deep Throat would circle page 20 of Woodward’s morning copy of the New York Times and indicate the time of the meeting.  Woodward never figured out how Deep Throat got to his newspaper.  Woodward was required to take several modes of transportation to the late meetings, often taxiing to one part of town before switching taxis to make his way to the garage in Rosslyn, VA.  Woodward and Deep Throat would spend hours in the garage, sitting, standing, pacing, as they traded information. 

 

* * *

 

With help from Atlas Obscura, we found the Oakhill Office Building garage and even the proper entrance to reach the exact spot — space D32 — where Woodward and Deep Throat met.  (We now know Deep Throat was Mark Felt, the second most senior official in the FBI.)

 

And yes, we parked in space D32. That level of the garage was completely empty, and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

 

The inside of the garage is dark and dingy and now rundown — in fact, the office building and garage are slated to be torn down. You can see why they chose here to meet. You can also see why Woodward was a bit scared walking down the stairs to the back of the garage in the middle of the night. 

 

Taped on the support column next to the parking space where they met, near the exit door at the back of the garage, is a computer printout with a bit of information about their meetings. Outside the garage near the entrance—250 feet north of the entrance, according to Atlas Obscura—is a historical plaque commemorating the importance of those meetings. It was erected by Arlington County after Felt’s attorney revealed his identity in 2005 when Felt was in his early 90’s.

 

* * *

 

After our garage trip, we walked a mile toward the Court House Metro station and had lunch at a Corner Bakery. That was a mistake, although we do like Corner Bakery. On the way back, we took a different street with locally owned restaurants that likely would have been better choices. 

 

(After our visit we watched the movie version of All the President’s Men, an Academy Award-nominated firm starting Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.  We were disappointed that the garage depicted in the movie is not the same as the original.  The details of the garage location had not yet been revealed by Bob Woodward when the movie was made in 1975-1976.)

 

* * *

 

Within a month of taking office, President Gerald Ford issued Nixon a full pardon—to allow the nation to move on.

 

The irony is that Nixon didn’t have to resort to these illegal tactics to win the 1972 election.  Nixon won a landslide victory with 520 electoral votes, with Democrat George McGovern winning only 17.  (McGovern won Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.) 

 

Nixon spent the rest of his life rehabilitating himself.  He became an elder statesmen with respected foreign policy views.  He wrote more than a dozen books with poignant observations of world politics.  In his last op-ed published in the New York Times in 1994, he warned about the danger that Russia could pose in the future when he presciently wrote:  “The independence of all the former Soviet states is important. The independence of Ukraine is indispensable. A Russian-Ukrainian confrontation would make Bosnia look like a Sunday-school picnic. Moscow should be made to understand that any attempt to destabilize Ukraine -- to say nothing of outright aggression -- would have devastating consequences for the Russian-American relationship. Ukrainian stability is in the strategic interest of the United States. To the extent that Kiev is prepared to proceed with economic reforms, supporting these efforts should be a national security priority for the U.S.”

 

Directions

 

The Watergate is located at 2600 Virginia Avenue NW in Washington, DC.

 

The “Deep Throat” garage is located at 1816 N Nash St, Arlington, VA beneath the Oak Hill Office building.

 

References

Bernstein, Carl and Woodward, Bob.  1974.  All the President’s Men.  Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.  New York, NY.

 

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.

 

Drew, Elizabeth.  2007.  Richard M. Nixon.  Henry Holt & Company.  New York, NY.

 

Nixon, Richard.  1994.  Moscow, March '94: Chaos and Hope.  New York Times.  March 25, 1994

 

Rubenstein, David.  2019.  The American Story:  Conversations with Master Historians.  Simon & Schuster.  New York, NY.  Bob Woodward on Richard Nixon.

 

Thomas, Helen.  1999.  Front Row at the White House;  My Life and Times. Scribner.  New York, NY. 

 

Wicker, Tom.  1991.  One of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream.  Random House.  New York, NY.

 

 

Websites

 

Watergate.info

 

atlasobscura.com

 

Lyndon B. Johnson - No. 36 - Washington, DC & Arlington, VA - Oct. 2, 2021

 

Source:  Smith, Carter.  2004

Were it not for the Vietnam War, LBS’s presidency might have been among the most brilliant. His presidency saw the most progressive legislation signed since FDR: the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, and Medicare. 

But Vietnam ruined everything. 

LBJ had little interest in getting involved in a foreign war. His reason for being in politics was to help people. But he knew the challenges and opportunities of opposing Communism in Vietnam. He once told John F. Kennedy, “I cannot stress too strongly the extreme importance of following up this mission with other measures, other actions and other efforts … we must decide whether to help these countries to the best of our ability or throw in the towel in the areas and pull back our defenses to San Francisco and a ‘Fortress America’ concept.” He supported the concept of aiding South Vietnam but he couldn’t decide whether to be hawk or dove. He said later as president, “I was bound to be crucified either way I moved.” 

In response to actual and alleged attacks by the North Vietnamese navy in the Gulf of Tonkin, Congress on August 6, 1964, authorized Johnson to “take all necessary measures to repel” attacks and come to the aid of South Vietnam. 

But complicating matters was the election of 1964 for which Johnson had to campaign soon after he entered office in late November 1963. He was running against ultra-conservative Republican Barry Goldwater. So, Johnson needed to appear tough on Communism. 

In fact, even in the short time he was in office, Johnson was so burned out by the war, that he contemplated not running for a term of his own. But Lady Bird pushed him into running. She said, “I can see nothing but a lonely wasteland for your future. Your friends would be frozen in embarrassed silence…” (Goodwin, 1976) 

So, Johnson ran and won the greatest victory in presidential history -- winning by 15 million votes and gaining 61% of the vote. His electoral margin was 486-52 and he lost only five states (all Southern). In addition, the Democrats won control of the House and Senate by large margins. 

Soon after his inauguration, the United States began the “Rolling Thunder” air strikes in response to an attack on Plaiku military base. By April 1965, the United States had 50,000 troops in South Vietnam. And by June these troops were authorized to conduct combat operations. Troop strength was quickly increased to 200,000 and eventually to 500,000. Throughout the war, the public and Congress were given minimal information. And Johnson avoided requesting federal taxes to pay for the war so as to not antagonize the public. But doing so was inflationary and hurt the economy. 

                                                                 * * * 

The Vietnam War Memorial

With the delta variant of COVID still raging, especially in Johnson’s native Texas, we decided to stay local to cover his life. We visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, better known as “the Wall,” to highlight the war that bedeviled Johnson throughout his presidency and prompted him not to seek re-election in 1968. 

In the late morning, we walked down the incline next to the black granite wall until it towered over us — a tableau filled with the names of the more than 58,000 people killed in the war. 

Volunteers clad in pale yellow golf shirts and khaki pants/shorts/capris chatted with the few dozen visitors young and old about the war, helping them look for names, and explaining how the names are listed. 

A smattering of flags and roses lay against the bottom of the wall, some with messages. 

Vietnam Women's
Memorial

Close to the wall is the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, a large bronze statue surrounded by trees and benches. A plaque at the statue says more than 265,000 women served during the Vietnam era, mostly as nurses. They tended to 300,000 soldiers, saving 98% of those who went to the hospital. 

                                                                   * * * 

LBJ’s path to the presidency was in many ways inspired by his father, Sam Johnson. He was a progressive Texas politician who looked out for the less fortunate. Sam fought the Klu Klux Klan and defended the civil liberties of minorities. He would bring needy strangers to the house for dinner. 

Young Lyndon loved to join his father on his campaign trips. Johnson’s mother was also a strong influence on his life. She loved her son but would use her love as a reward, and she would freeze him out if he didn’t do as she wanted. She spent a lot of time with him while he was at college, helping him with his studies. 

Johnson met and married Claudia Taylor while visiting Austin in 1934. He proposed to her the day they met. She turned him down, but they ended up marrying within months. He called her “Lady Bird.” Having no career of her own, she was his ardent supporter throughout his life. When Johnson became president, she became known for her efforts to beautify the nation’s highways. 

Johnson was never popular and was somewhat of a loner. But he learned at a young age that befriending powerful people was a path to success. When he went to Southwest Texas State Teachers College, he went out of his way to become known to the college president, who soon asked Johnson to be his assistant. Later Johnson would use that strategy to rise in the House and then the Senate. Johnson shared his father’s progressive views. He thought teaching was the best way to help people. After graduation, he became a history teacher at Sam Houston High School in Cotulla, Texas. Most of the students were children of Mexican migrant workers. He became the debate coach, softball coach, volleyball coach and song leader. He even used his salary to buy sports equipment. He encouraged his students to avoid speaking Spanish so they could learn English faster. Later he would say, “I swore when I was teaching those kids that if I ever had the power, I would help them. And now I have the power and I mean to use it.” (Rubenstein, 2019). 

                                                                 * * * 

 In 1931, he was asked by Rep. Richard Kleberg to become an aide. LBJ was on his way to Washington, D.C. 

Johnson stayed at the Dodge Hotel, where many of the other aides stayed. Johnson worked hard at networking with the other aides, going so far as to visit the bathroom multiple times to meet the other aides. In fact, on some days, he took four showers and brushed his teeth five times! He knew that relationships would help him turbocharge his career. Knowing that information was power, he would also read everything related to congressional activities. He was busy and only slept about 4-5 hours a night. 

His hard work was noticed by Rep. Sam Rayburn, who convinced FDR to appoint Johnson as the director of the National Youth Administration (NYA) in Texas, a New Deal program. In typical Johnson fashion, he worked hard at the job. 

In 1937, Texas Rep. James P. Buchanan died and Johnson decided to run for his seat. He put his enormous energy into the race and visited every village in the 10th District. Thirty-year-old Johnson won and was now back in D.C. as a politician in his own right. 

Johnson grew closer to Rayburn, who began to regard LBJ as a sort of son. Johnson’s connections with Rayburn helped bring money to Texas, including electrification of his district. 

When the United States entered World War II, Johnson was the first congressman to enlist. He served in a non-combat role in the Navy. However, he did participate in one combat mission as an observer on a B-26 bombing run over New Guinea. He was supposed to ride in the Wabash Cannon and was in fact sitting in the plane on the runway. But the takeoffs were behind schedule, so he ran to the bathroom. When he returned, the Wabash Cannon had departed. Instead he rode on the Heckling Hare, which had not yet taken off. That mission saw heavy combat, and his plane was badly damaged. Johnson was awarded a Silver Star for this coolness under fire. It was an obvious political award because none of the actual crew won that award. As a historical footnote, the Wabash Cannon was shot down on that mission and all aboard died. 

Johnson ran again for a Senate seat in 1948. But first he had to beat popular former Gov. Coke Stevenson in the Democratic primary. Johnson put in his usual hard work and visited 20 towns a day on some days. The election was a squeaker, with Johnson winning by only 87 votes out of about 900,000 cast. Allegations of cheating came up immediately. A ballot box from Precinct 13 showed up with 200 votes for Johnson. Interestingly, all of the ballots were in same handwriting, same pen and in alphabetical order. The Stevenson campaign accused Johnson of illegalities. They took their case all the way to the Supreme Court, but the court would not review it. Johnson won the subsequent general election in heavily Democratic Texas by a margin of 2 to 1. 

As he had with Rep. Rayburn, Johnson found a mentor in the Senate — Sen. Richard Russell. Sen. Russell was a loner bachelor with few friends. LBJ and Lady Bird would have him over often for dinner. LBJ called Russell “one of his daddies.” 

Johnson knew that as a senator for the entire state of Texas, he needed to act more conservative. But he only went so far; he did not join the Southern Caucus. 

Soon Johnson was elected party whip. By 1953 he was minority leader. When the Senate turned Democratic in 1954, he became the majority leader. It was a meteoric rise. 

 

The "Johnson Treatment"

Johnson was now a political master. His abilities to convince people would be legendary. He said, “Never let a conversation end. There’s always something that someone doesn’t want to tell you. And the longer the conversations goes on, the more likely you are to find out what that is” (Rubenstein, 2019). In what became known as "the Johnson Treatment," he would use his 6’ 4 height to tower over people and intimate them. He also knew he could change legislative power by handing out committee assignments strategically. 

In July 1955, his hard-driving, chain-smoking, and heavy-drinking lifestyle caught up with him and he had a heart attack. He was only 46. 

One of LBJ’s achievements as senator was the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which strengthened voting rights for Blacks. LBJ pushed the bill through the Senate, which approved it on August 7, 1957. It was the first civil rights bill since the late 1800s. 

While senator, Johnson bought a Texas radio station, KTBC. This was a controversial move because LBJ sat on the Commerce Committee that oversaw the Federal Communications Commission. The station would eventually become very profitable. 

                                                                 * * * 

When 1960 rolled around, Johnson was ready to run for the presidency. He naively thought that as a senator, he had control of delegates from his state, so he did not campaign for the nomination. He thought John F. Kennedy would be an easily beatable opponent because he was nine years younger and sickly. But Kennedy campaigned hard and was quickly nominated at the Democratic National Convention. Basically, the liberal wing of the Democratic Party didn’t want Johnson as their candidate. 

JFK was ambivalent about having LBJ as his running mate. He didn’t like him but liked how he operated politically. And of course, Johnson brought Texas’s large cache of electoral votes. 

Once in the vice president’s office, Johnson wanted to preside over the Democratic Senate Caucus but Democratic senators would have none of it. He also wanted supervision of some government agencies, but Kennedy was not going to let that happened. Instead, Johnson was given oversight of NASA, the agency he had helped establish in 1958. He was also given oversight of the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), which was established to eliminate racial discrimination. He later said that the vice presidency was political death and that he “detested every minute of it” (Goodwin, 1976). 

And then came Dallas. 

 When JFK was killed on November 21, 1963, Johnson kept Air Force One on the ground for an extra hour so that Jackie Kennedy could be on the plane for his swearing in. He thought that having her next to him would lend legitimacy to his presidency. 

And he continued JFK’s legislative agenda. 

Johnson said, “no memorial or oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy’s memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long” (Goodwin, 1976). To work with southern conservatives such as Richard Russell, Allen Ellender, John McClelland and Harry Byrd, Johnson pretended to share their negative attitudes toward Blacks. But in the end, LBJ took a hard stance in favor of civil rights and defeated a Southern filibuster. The bill passed the Senate 73-27 and the House 289-126. On July 2, 1964, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Among other measures, it opened public places to Blacks and enforced school desegregation. 

But voting rights still needed to be ensured. In Alabama, only 19 percent of Blacks were registered to vote. (In Mississippi, the number was only 6 percent.) On March 7, 1965, Blacks marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to advocate for voting rights. As they approached the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Selma, they were violently attacked by Alabama state troopers. Images of the attack were captured on television. Johnson responded by nationalizing the Alabama National Guard, and later that month the march went forward 25,000 strong. Congress responded by passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 74-19 (Senate) and 333-85 (House). LBJ signed the bill on Aug. 6, 1965. 

Johnson was upset that some Blacks had turned to rioting to vent their frustrations. But the riots had nothing to do with him. The riots began with the arrest of a Black motorist in Los Angeles in August 1965. The rioting would continue on and off for three years. It culminated with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in April 1968. When the rioting ended, 225 people had been killed and 4,000 had been wounded. And there was $112 billion in property damage. 

Johnson had a vision of a “Great Society” that would prosper as a whole and not leave anybody behind. It included Medicare, a higher minimum wage, better unemployment benefits, auto safety, Head Start (free preschool education for the poor), Job Corps (job opportunities in urban areas), Community Action (required minimum participation by the poor in some federal programs), and especially fairness and equality for Blacks. 

 Johnson signed Medicare on July 30, 1965, in Independence, Missouri, so that former President Truman could attend; Truman had pushed for national health insurance while president. 

 He also signed the Fair Housing Act in April 11, 1968. The law banned discrimination on the basis of “race, religion, national origin, sex, (and as amended) handicap and family status.” 

While president, a side of Johnson’s personality that could only be characterized as twisted came out. He would swim in the White House pool in the nude and mock those on his staff who did not. He continued to work while sitting on the toilet — and his staff was expected to come into the bathroom while he defecated so that work could continue. 

Like a lot of the recent presidents, LBJ had affairs on the side. One was with Alice Glass, a socialite, and another with the Helen Gahagan Douglas, an actress, the wife of actor Melvyn Douglas, and a member of Congress. Lady Bird put up with his affairs. 

As his first full term was drawing to a close in 1968, Johnson’s poll numbers were rock bottom —somewhere around 36 percent. He was tired and decided against running for a second full term. In a televised address he said “… I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.” 

                                                                 * * * 

Needing to occasionally escape the White House, LBJ and Lady Bird frequently crossed the Potomac River to reflect on the issues of the day and enjoy the magnificent views of the Washington Monument and Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. 

That spot is now marked by a tall granite stone in what is now Lady Bird Johnson Park. 

Lady Bird Johnson
Park

Four plaques lay around the base of the rock, highlighting four of LBJ’s most important quotations. Visitors can enjoy the views and reflect on his presidency on one of the half-dozen or so benches encircling the site. 

The park is off the George Washington Parkway between the Potomac and the Boundary Channel and is along the Mt. Vernon Trail that parallels the river. The trail itself should not be missed. Though frequently crowded, it affords walkers, runners and cyclists amazing views of the Washington skyline, the planes landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the Potomac River and nature itself. 

With the air a bit chilly but the sun warm. Cathy took advantage of the trail and went for a run (north from the park to Rosslyn, south to Teddy Roosevelt Island, and then back to the parking lot), while Tom took a nap and got a head start reading about the next president on our tour, Richard Nixon. 

The park itself is bucolic, full of shady trees and bushes and a walking path that loops around. But if you’re expecting a bunch of flowers—as you should since Lady Bird had had flowers planted to beatify the highway system—you will be disappointed. 

The park shares parking with a marina that offers a bar and grill and both inside and outside seating. A very nice way to finish up our visit. 

As noted earlier, LBJ could have been reflecting on the Vietnam War as he gazed at the memorials, dedicated to our most notable presidents. Perhaps he was asking himself how they would have handled the conflict, which single-handedly destroyed his presidency. 

One of the granite plaques in Lady Bird Johnson Park reads: “I hope it may be said 100 years from now that by working together, we helped to make our county more just for all its people. I believe at least it will be said that we tried.” 

 Directions 

 The Vietnam Memorial is located in Washington, DC near Constitution Ave NW and 22nd Street NW. 

 Lady Bird Johnson Park is located on an island in the Potomac River and can be reached by the George Washington Memorial Parkway. 

 References 

 Dallek, Robert. 2003. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963. Little Brown and Company, New York, NY. 

Goodwin, Doris Kearns. 1976. Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. St. Martin’s Press. New York, NY. 

History Channel. 2005. The Presidents: The Lives and Legacies of the 43 Leaders of the United States. 

Peters, Charles. 2010. Lyndon B. Johnson. Henry Holt and Company. New York, NY. 

Rubenstein, David. 2019. The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians. Simon & Schuster. New York, NY. Robert A. Caro on Lyndon B. Johnson 

Smith, Carter.  2004. Presidents: Every Question Answered.  Smithsonian.  Metro Books.  New York, NY.

Websites 

Kiger, Patrick, J. 2019. How a Luckily Timed Bathroom Break Saved LBJ's Life During WWII https://www.history.com/news/lbj-world-war-ii-bathroom-break 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_Veterans_Memorial

 https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2013/02/14/90-letters-in-90-days-the-courtship-of-lady-bird-and-lbj/

John F. Kennedy - No. 35 - Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA - June 26, 2021

 

John F. Kennedy 

Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington,  VA 

June 26, 2021 

JFK Official Portrait

And we’re back. 

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. 

 * * * 

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?” 

The limo - Nov. 22, 1963

Their first day in Fort Worth was uneventful. On the second day, Nov. 22, 1963, JFK and Jackie flew from Fort Worth to Dallas Love Field where a caravan awaited. The president and first lady were seated in the back of the second car in the caravan, a three-row 1961 Lincoln Continental limousine. Directly in front of them were Texas Gov. John Connelly and his wife, Nellie. Secret Service agents rode in the front. The caravan traveled a meandering route thorough Dallas with crowds of people lining the roads to view the president. Everyone in the car was delighted with the reception. Nellie is reported to have turned to the president and said, “Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you.” JFK replied, “No, you certainly can’t.” Those were his last words. 

 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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Kennedy - Nixon
presidential debate

 JFK faced conservative Republican Sen. Richard Nixon. They participated in the first televised debate on Sept. 26, 1960, before a huge audience of 70 million. (The debate is available on YouTube.) Kennedy appeared self assured and opened by attacking Communism, one of Nixon’s signature issues. Nixon appeared on the defensive throughout but came across better than we had been led to believe. Sometimes Nixon appeared nervous, but he gave a strong showing. It is interesting to learn that Nixon was found to have had a severe blood infection during the 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. 

March on Washington
Aug. 28, 1963

When the Freedom Riders rode buses throughout the South to gain political rights for Blacks, JFK gave only lukewarm support. He was wary of blowing too much political capital on civil rights. A frustrated Martin Luther King said, “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor of the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order’ than to justice, who … constantly says, ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action,’ who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom.” In August 1963, MLK and other civil rights leaders converged at the “March on Washington.” It was there that MLK delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. 

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. 

 * * * 

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. 

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