JFK, 1962

I was nine years old in 1962, the year in which Jack Kennedy sat down with reporters from the three existing television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) to talk about his first two years in office (video below). Today marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas.

All human enterprises are deeply flawed because they are the products of deeply flawed human beings. But in 1962, seventeen years after the end of World War II, and with Vietnam, Nixon and the dislocations of the 1970s still some years away, it was still possible to talk about The Amercan Century. It was possible to talk about a great country representing great ideals acting in great ways.

While it is easy to take potshots at that historical era — for example, the CIA was in the habit of subverting or toppling legitimate foreign governments — we must also acknowledge that in the decades after World War II, the United States stood for things worth standing for.

I believe those decades after the second World War were an anomaly in human history, a kind of zenith of human accomplishment which we will never see again. To those living at the time, Progress seemed like a tangible thing which humans could strive for and, on occasion, achieve.

And it for that reason alone that I think it is worthwhile to listen to Jack Kennedy give his thoughts on his first two years in office. Listening to him, I am reminded of a time when using the words "civilized" and "progressive" to describe the policies of the United States was not the bad joke it has become today.

 

Comments

[JM]

Dave, I was 6 years old at the time and agree with everything you say, except the "by Lee Harvey Oswald" part. For someone as dial-in to the MSM, I'm surprised by these words. 1963 was a coup - target practice for Corsican hired assassins...