Today the people of America are remembering their former President who was killed in Texas 50 years ago. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy has continued to be an intriguing fixture in Americas political culture 50 years on.
The fact that he died young, full of hopes and what might have been is one reason of this fixture. The other is the fact that Kennedy inspired young men to serve in government. He was the first president to fill his administration with Harvard graduate intellectuals. He established the Peace corps, which called on young Americans to go abroad and share their skills and education with people in developing countries.
Kennedy came to power at the height of the cold war. America was also at war with itself, white against black. He dealt with the cold war and was able to avoid a nuclear catastrophe when Russia sent its missiles in Cuba. Despite the fiasco of Bay of Pigs, when the US invaded Cuba and was routed out in shame, Kennedy's popularity never waned.
In internal politics, Kennedy was a reluctant warrior in the civil rights movement. But once he warmed up to it he became a dependable ally to the Bayard Rustins and Martin Luther King jr. who were at the forefront of this movement. Kennedy was killed only 2 years in office, but he was able to establish what became known as the civil rights legislation that was seen through by his successor, Lyndon Johnson. It is said that in October 1960, when Martin Luther King, jr was jailed for his civil rights campaign, it was a phone call that candidate Kennedy made to the father of the civil rights leader that changed the votes of Black Americans, who had been voting 90% Republican since the days of the reconstruction, to the Democratic party. That trend continues to this day.
Kennedy was a liberal who ruled a most conservative country with an industrial military complex. He inherited the Vietnamese war, and initially he expanded America's involvement in that war. By the time of his death he harbored second thoughts on the conduct of the war, and according to his former advisors, he had decided to withdraw the bulk of the US military from that country in his second term.
In July 1963 Tanzania's young president, Julius Nyerere came to the US on a state visit. The result of that visit was President Kennedy agreeing to stop arming apartheid South Africa. However, that decision was short lived. It was reinstated by Richard Nixon when he came to power in 1968.
People often ask where one was when they heard the news of Kennedy's death. I was in Musoma at Nyasho Middle School. As we got to school, someone told us Kennedy had been killed in Texas and there would be no school that day. I returned home to find my father and other brothers listening to the short wave radio. As the local stations, both KBC in Kenya and TBC in Tanzania closed at 8:00am every day only the English foreign radios were on air. We listened to Voice of America and for the first time I learned the word "assassination."
So as Americans remember their hero, whose popularity still hovers at 74% in opinion polls, I thought I would share these few thoughts with you.
em
--
Send Emails to wanabidii@googlegroups.com
Kujiondoa Tuma Email kwenda
wanabidii+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com Utapata Email ya kudhibitisha ukishatuma
Disclaimer:
Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Wanabidii" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to wanabidii+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit
https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
Share this :
0 Comments