A HUNDRED YEARS – AT 10:54 A.M. ET:   John F. Kennedy was born a hundred years ago yesterday, on May 29, 1917.  We didn't note it yesterday because it was Memorial Day and I didn't want to mix the two commemorations.

President Kennedy was assassinated 54 years ago.  If we assume that a child becomes aware of a president at, say, ten years of age, only those over 64 have any direct memory of him.  And yet he remains a firm part of the American consciousness.  I suspect that's because of his youthfulness, the attractiveness of his family, and the tragedy of his assassination.  It's also because he was the first "television" president, and we have so much film and tape with which to keep the memory alive.

As readers know, I was able to experience Kennedy up close.  In 1960, when he was elected president, I was a campaign aide to U.S. Senator Paul H. Douglas of Illinois, a great and distinguished senator and honored Marine Corps combat veteran.  We were with Kennedy often as the future president campaigned in Illinois. 

Many people today are surprised to learn how controversial Kennedy was.  When he was nominated in Los Angeles during the summer of 1960, there was a collective letdown in a large part of the Democratic Party.  It had little to do with his Catholic religion, although that was a factor in the campaign.  It had more to do with the setting in which this 43-year-old senator appeared.  A campaign is a play, and you have to set the stage.

In 1960 we had millions of Americans still in their thirties who had served in World War II, and tens of millions who had been involved in war work.  The incumbent president was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had risen to five-star-general in that war.  By contrast, Kennedy had been a lieutenant.  Eisenhower was the wise, aging father, while Kennedy was the new generation, seen as perhaps too young, too inexperienced, too undeserving.  Eleanor Roosevelt, the widow of the wartime president, openly questioned whether he was ready for the White House.  Getting Kennedy simply to look mature was a struggle, and it was almost lost.  His victory in November was razor-thin.

And yet Kennedy had served 14 years in Congress, a number of those on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  He had written or co-written two serious books, one on British foreign policy, the other, "Profiles in Courage," written with Ted Sorensen, on American history.  He was a legitimate war hero, wounded when a Japanese destroyer cut his PT boat in half in the Pacific.  But for a generation used to gray-haired leaders, he was an exception.  Many Americans did not buy the exception.  His opponent, Richard M. Nixon, was, after all, vice president of the United States.

Senator Douglas knew Kennedy well.  In a conversation we had in a Polish neighborhood in Chicago, he described him as "brilliant but cold."  I think it applied.

Jack Kennedy served less than three years.  Whether one agreed or disagreed with him, he brought vigor and vitality to the White House, and inspired a new generation to enter politics.  For many, his administration was the last optimistic time, before the chaos and ugliness of the late sixties.  It took 17 years from the time of Kennedy's death before Ronald Reagan was elected and restored the national morale.

Kennedy, with his centrist policies and powerful devotion to national defense, could not come anywhere near a presidential nomination in today's Democratic Party.  He might not even be a member of that party.  It's hard to see where he'd fit in.  How sad.

May 30, 2017