Where's the Aura? (Without Question, The Best JFK Editorial That I Have Read This Week)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Friday, November 21, 2003 | CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

[presidio9]

A short while ago, I chanced to be in Dallas, Texas, making a documentary film. One of the shots involved a camera angle from a big commercial tower overlooking Dealey Plaza and the former "book depository," and it was later necessary for us to take the road through the celebrated underpass. The crew I worked with was younger than I am (you may as well make that much younger) and consisted of a Chinese-Australian, an English girl brought up in Africa, a Jewish guy from Brooklyn and other elements of a cross-section. As we passed the "Grassy Knoll," and looked up at the window, and saw the cross incised in the tarmac, I was interested by their lack of much interest. The event of Nov. 22, 1963 isn't half as real to them as the moment, say, when the planes commandeered by suicide-murderers flew into the New York skyline. Nor, as I realized, is it half as real or poignant to me as the site of Ford's Theater in Washington D.C. Time has a way of assigning value.

[MCRD]

You are quite wrong about his military service. His old man pulled some strings and got him into Naval Intelligence without a real physical. While there the FBI discovered that he was sleeping with a Nazi spy and old Joe got him quietly transferred to PT boat school to avoid the scandal. I never could understand how getting a speedboat ran over by a much slower destroyer could be cosidered heroic. If you ever see the photo of Kennedy getting his medal read the caption old Joe had put under it in the paper, it said the medal was being pinned on by Adm Nimitz, when in fact it was some obscure Navy Captain. Don't let the facts get in the way of your opinions.

[liberallarry]

By the way, he would have led us down the same path in Vietnam that Johnson did- but,, being more reckless and far less astute than even that moron LBJ, he would most likely have turned it into World War III.

Lawrence Freedman, in "Kennedy's Wars", makes the same case but in a far less partisan way.

I remain unconvinced.

[ken5050]

Interesting thread...allow me a somewhat off topic comment for your interest..History Channel has severl good programs this week abotu the Kennedys...last night they were talking about Joe, Jr.the eldest son who died in Europe in WW II..and in now waywas it denigrating his heroism, or his service..the point the show raised was that Joe volunteered for the risky mission , according to his own letters, primarily because he felt that he had to compete with JFK's Navy Cross...

[liberallarry]

Was the leftist icon actually an 'unelected' President who led us into a quagmire? Oh my!

That's an accurate criticism of leftist partisanship and hypocrisy...but not of the man himself.

[Paulus Invictus]

Another Hitchens home run! A great and accurate article by the former commie sympathizer.

[liberallarry]

In a serious discussion one must accept as fact that all elections will have a certain taint of irregularity and fraud...and that in close elections that fraud will be extremely important in deciding the outcome.

It's naive to believe otherwise.

[cars for sale]

bump for later

[liberallarry]

A pretty-boy President with mammoth health problems and some shady connections

I think you're wrong about this.

The man had the capacity to inspire - most importantly - the young. That's not to be dismissed. He was a leader.

As to which leaders deserve our admiration.

I'm sure you've noticed that many are completely forgotten soon after they leave power - William Henry Harrison, Tyler, Grover Cleveland, McKinley. The list is long. Only historians and partisans remember them.

Of those remembered, all are surrounded by highly partisan opinions which originated during their time and have persisted. Napoleon, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great. Were they peerless generals or murderous psycopaths or both?

[Mudboy Slim]

"Partisan revisionism at its best. I always thought better of Hitchens..."

While no big JFK prponent myself, I agree that the piece appeared overly harsh...Kennedy did cut marginal tax rates and somehow muddled through a touchy period of the Cold War.

FReegards...MUD

[presidio9]

That's an accurate criticism of leftist partisanship and hypocrisy...but not of the man himself.

So what's your point? Tell us why we should revere the man other than the fact that the current upper-middle aged generation found him intriguing. The best you've attempted so far is that he cheated on his wife. Been there. Done that.

[RightWingMama]

Bump for later.

[HamiltonJay]

The best ever Kennedy "conjecture" I have ever seen was on a great British Sci-FI show called Red Dwarf... where the time line is altered and Kennedy is not assassinated... it turns out he is arrested not long after re-election as his ties to organized crime and other misdeeds come out...

To set the timeline correct the hero's have to bust Kennedy out of prison, explain what has happened to him and then Kennedy himself becomes his own assassin.... (firing the fatal shot from the grassy knoll) Was a very interesting episode, for a sci-fi comedy, and didn't sugar coat or spin the facts around JFK, but openly admitted the ugly of him without comment.

And Red Dwarf BTW is a great show!

[TheRightGuy]

Joe Kenneddy picked a PT boat because they were statistically one of the safeest combat deployments a member of the armed forces could have in WW II.

And here I always thought they were expendable.

[presidio9]

The man had the capacity to inspire - most importantly - the young. That's not to be dismissed. He was a leader.

Where? Where did he lead us?

[Mudboy Slim]

"As a liberal, why do you come on this site if not to make some attempt at educating us."

Over the years, I've found LL's demonstrated the ability to give as well as he gits...MUD

[iopscusa]

Camelot was a house of Cards and the the DemoRat foundation is finally collapsing...good riddance.

[Charles Martel]

Again, these are PT boats. The idea that one could be rammed by a destroyer is nearly unthinkable. How many other PT boats with operational engines do you suppose were rammed over the course of the entire war?

I recall reading that the PT-109 is the *only* U.S. combat vessel listed as lost due to collision during WWII.

With that kind of luck, JFK might well have been done in by one man with a clunky old Italian rifle (with misaligned telescopic sight).

[presidio9]

Over the years, I've found LL's demonstrated the ability to give as well as he gits

Thus far on this thread he is 0-15 by my count. Maybe Kennedy is too emotional a subject for him to tackle from an unbiased perspective. Hitchens admits he is biased against the man, but he makes some vaild points. The only point Larry has made is this article makes me uncomfortable.

[presidio9]

I don't have the figures with me, but I believe there were roughly 650 combat deaths on PT boats in WW II. That figure includes their service in the Mediterranian.

[headsonpikes]

I was around then. I could not believe that JFK let the Russkis build the Berlin Wall.

He was weak when it counted.