violence and hatred. Riots burned down entire sections of cities. A truculent and aggressive counter-culture emerged that attacked existing norms about sex, drugs and decorum. Little if any of this was caused by the assassination, but the psychological turning point was real. The nation seemed to have lost its innocence. Public trust in government plummeted. Assassination conspiracy theories probably had some role in this, but so did revelations about real government misconduct — which were themselves a goad to conspiracy thinking. And real, vociferous disagreements about policy were the strongest cause of that declining trust. No matter what government did, an increasing number of people were alienated. Kennedy, Johnson and policy
A
ny claims about how the assassination affected public policy in the nation are speculative. We don’t have a post-Nov. 22, 1963, Kennedy presidency to compare to the real postNov. 22, 1963, Lyndon Johnson presidency. But some plausible inferences can be drawn. Some liberal policies, particularly the 1964 Civil Rights Act, received a boost because they could be considered part of the legacy of the martyred former president.
In the 1960s, Kennedy brought a sense of idealism to American politics.
The war in Vietnam
However, Johnson was more passionately committed to civil rights, and to the downtrodden in general. Kennedy was a bit slow to get behind the civil rights movement — his initial agenda was a more conventional one of extending the New Deal. When he did embrace the movement, however, he did so with his characteristic rhetorical skill. Johnson’s cultural ambiance did not appeal to Northern elites. Kennedy’s young Ivy League staffers called him “Uncle Cornpone.” Kennedy invited Pablo Casals to the White House and First Lady Jackie redecorated the place with exquisite taste. Johnson showed reporters his gall bladder scar. But Johnson’s Great Society programs are hard to imagine under Kennedy. Johnson was both more committed to helping those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder and more capable of working his will with recalcitrant members of Congress.
P
eople in thrall of Camelot (the mythical realm of King Arthur that came to be associated with Kennedy) have insisted that Kennedy would never have gotten the nation into the Vietnam War. Indeed, several witnesses claimed he expressed to them an intention to withdraw completely from that southeastern Asia country. Unfortunately, those claims all come from staffers and friends and all surfaced years after the assassination when the war had become highly unpopular. Kennedy’s public statements up to the day he died insisted that South Vietnam should not be allowed to fall under communist domination. He increased the number of U.S. advisers there from fewer than 700 to more than 16,000, many in combat roles. When asked in April 1964 if John Kennedy had planned to withdraw, his brother Robert answered “the president felt that the. ... He had a strong, overwhelming reason for being in Vietnam and that we should win the war in Vietnam.”
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