JOHN F Kennedy — young,
heroic, charismatic — embodied the overflowing promise of possibility of 20th
century America, until an assassin’s bullet ended his life in November 1963.
One hundred years after his
birth, the youngest man ever elected president, who once urged Americans to
strive for the “New Frontier” is still a political icon, and the country is
celebrating his legacy, which lives on most visibly in his family.
“It’s an opportunity to
reflect on what president Kennedy stood for, and the belief and commitment he
had to solve every challenge in front of him,” Congressman Joe Kennedy III, a
great-nephew of the president, told AFP.
The lanky, red-haired
grandson of slain lawyer general Robert F. Kennedy is part of the family’s
third generation to carry the political torch, entering the House of
Representatives in 2013.
President John F Kennedy
and his wife Jacqueline moments before his assassination in Dallas on November
22, 1963.qSource:Supplied
For all but two years since
1947 — nearly a third of the history of the United States — a Kennedy has
served in elective office.
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They are the quintessential
American dynasty, the closest thing the country has to royalty.
JFK’s legacy, said the
36-year-old politician from Massachusetts, is “his call for all Americans,
regardless of size or shape or background, to serve their country.”
“Many of my colleagues from
both sides of the aisle have stopped me to say they have been inspired by his
call to service.”
First lady Jackie Kennedy
became a global phenomenon, their White House social sessions were the stuff of
legend and politicians of all political stripes embraced the comity.
“There was sort of an aura
around the Kennedy White House,” recalled Senator John McCain, the 2008
Republican presidential nominee who was a US Navy pilot during JFK’s tenure.
“It was just a magic time,”
he told AFP.
Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, reacts as Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby shoots at him from point blank range in a corridor of Dallas police headquarters. Picture: APSource:AP
Kennedy barely served 1,000 days in office before he was assassinated. His brother Robert was killed on the presidential campaign trail in 1968.
Kennedy barely served 1,000 days in office before he was assassinated. His brother Robert was killed on the presidential campaign trail in 1968.
Americans ultimately
transcended the tragedies.
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JFK is seen as the
president who, perhaps more than any other, most transformed the way the nation
viewed itself. Kennedy was its eternal optimist.
‘MISSED HIM EVERY DAY’
The longest-serving public
official in the family, liberal lion Ted Kennedy, died in 2009 after serving 47
years in the US Senate.
Several Kennedy clan
members are still in public life, and more may be on the way.
JFK’s daughter Caroline
Kennedy, who was US ambassador to Japan for three years under president Barack
Obama, is considering a run for public office, perhaps for Congress, according
to the New York Post.
“I’ve thought about him and
missed him every day of my life,” the 59-year-old said of her father. He
“inspired a generation that transformed America,” she said in a video released
by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum to mark the anniversary,
which will be celebrated in a series of events in Washington and Boston.
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She added that people have
told her that “he inspired them to work and fight and believe in a better world
— to give something back to this country that has given so much to so many.”
Marilyn Monroe wears the
iconic gown that she wore while singing Happy Birthday to President John F.
Kennedy at Madison Square Garden. Picture: APSource:Supplied
Robert F. Kennedy Jr, 63,
is an environmentalist and a leading proponent of the widely debunked theory
that vaccines cause autism.
In February, he said he had
met weeks earlier with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss possible
formation of a “vaccine safety commission.” Joe Kennedy said there are “plenty”
of younger relatives who might enter politics, without getting into specifics.
“The thread running through
us is that we’re seeking a way to serve,” he said.
Jackie Kennedy with her
children, John Jr. and Caroline and her sister Lee Radziwill, with son Anthony,
outside Buckingham Palace during a visit to London. Picture: Getty
ImagesSource:Supplied
It was in his 1961
inauguration speech, one of the most famous in US presidential history, that
Kennedy issued such a poignant challenge to the nation’s younger generations.
“My fellow Americans,”
Kennedy posed on a frigid January morning: “Ask not what your country can do
for you — ask what you can do for your country.”
PASSING THE TORCH
In the era of Trump, an age
of political polarisation, making comparisons to Kennedy’s Camelot can be
jarring.
“This lack of comity and
civility would shock John F. Kennedy, because he had friends in the Republican
Party who were very close,” said James Thurber, founder of the Department of
Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University in Washington.
Thurber also said Kennedy
likely would have been tougher than Trump on Russia and its President Vladimir
Putin.
“He’d be tough with them
about what they’re doing in Syria and their relationships with Iran. He was a
realist,” Thurber said.
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/john-f-kennedy-wouldve-been-100-today-and-if-hed-lived-to-see-president-donald-trump-hed-be-horrified/news-story/1575e49a19d0351ea90d6353ff809ba0
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