Peggy Noonan: Camelot on Painkillers

Opinion Journal ^ | 11/22/2002 | Peggy Noonan

[Pokey78]

The big things to say about the recent JFK allegations--amazing, isn't it, that "recent JFK allegations" is still an operative phrase in 2002?--are obvious.

But other thoughts arise. When the brilliant journalist Dorothy Thompson watched JFK's inauguration she--a longtime liberal and FDR supporter--fretted to a friend: "There's something weak and neurotic about that young man." She knew his story, knew of the charming monster of a father who was an isolationist in foreign affairs and a constant interventionist in all other spheres, especially his family. In Clark Clifford's memoirs, the old Democratic Party warhorse-in-lawyer's-pinstripes wrote of his first meeting with Sen. Kennedy, in the 1950s. JFK was pliant, pleasing, needed legal assistance. During their meeting old Joe called to bark instructions and yell at the senator and the attorney. Clifford found it chilling. JFK handled his father coolly. To read the scene with recent revelations in mind is to wonder what toll the facts of his life took on JFK, and to ponder a paradox. Old Joe's blind ambition probably made his son president; old Joe probably made his son sick, too.

[WaveThatFlag]

I hope I live long enough to see the end of the Camelot myth. I was 19 when Kennedy beat Nixon, and will never get over the way all the co-eds thought Kennedy was a god.

Co-ed are weird. In my generation they thought Bill Clinton was sexy.

[A_perfect_lady]

Did you know Jackie was a chain smoker? She was never photographed with a cigarette.

That explains how she stayed so skinny.

Wow, this is interesting stuff. I was born after Kennedy was assassinated and have only passing familiarity with this era. I can see I need to read some more, I have a tendency to blame everything on the baby boomers.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[js1138]

Interesting that the youngest president was also the sickest, and the oldest, the strongest.

[blackie]

"Peggy Noonan MEGA PING!!"

Right-on, John!

[Utah Girl]

Theodore H White in his book In Search of History relates how Jackie Kennedy called him after JFK's assassination and asked White to memorialize JFK and his times as Camelot. White had written The Making of the President 1960 and had travelled extensively with JFK and his family. White said he was still besotted with JFK, and so did his part for Camelot. When White wrote his own autobiography, he said at the end that of all the things he did in his life, making JFK into a myth called Camelot was his biggest mistake. It was a lie from the get-go.

[AUsome Joy]

Thanks for all the pings tonight, Pokey. I enjoyed each article you posted tonight. (Are you going to the big game tomorrow? Do you think Fran is leaving? I don't.)

I think that my husband and I both voted for Kennedy. I remember my father and I sitting at the kitchen table and arguing politics. He couldn't believe I was for Kennedy. I had watched the last two democratic conventions and became a Kennedy "fan" because of that. My husband and I were 20 and were getting married that December.

It was when I first heard Reagan give his Goldwater speech that I realized that I was a conservative. My parents were conservative even though "everyone" in Alabama back then had to be a Democrat. Elections were decided in the primaries.

[Pokey78]

Fran's not going anywhere. Just your typical 9internet/Iron Bowl week rumormill at work.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

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