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Intelligence & Humility: JFK on Tape

By Bud White on October 18, 2008 at 10:25 PM in Democratic Party, John F. Kennedy

jfkjackie.jpgA new audio tape was released this week of John F. Kennedy at a dinner party with Toni and Ben Bradlee (of Watergate fame), journalist James M. Cannon, and Kennedy’s wife Jacqueline. The conversation was recorded shortly after Kennedy announced that he was running for president. It’s about politics, of course, but it’s also a philosophical conversation on politics as a vocation and raising children.

For all that has been written on Kennedy, he is in many ways a mystery. The first books written after his death, by grieving aides and friends, are often one-dimensional in the way they describe the character of the 35th president.

Although Schlesinger’s A Thousands Days sparkles, the human quality of John F. Kennedy is only hinted at. Ted Sorensen’s Kennedy, published in 1965, was written by a man closer to Kennedy but oddly it was even a more distant portrayal of Kennedy, as if criticism of Kennedy or details of his thinking would undermine the martyred president’s memory.

However worshipful the early biographies were, the attacks on Kennedy are just as one-dimensional. He was a complex man who was intensely private for a public person. He was both flawed and heroic, and a real intellectual who projected a vigorous image in an effort to conceal his poor health. (Audio below the fold)

Kennedy was dedicated to self-improvement. As he makes clear on the audio, his father didn’t think he had the health or personality for politics. Kennedy forced himself to be outgoing.

One of my favorite stories about Kennedy — if I remember correctly — took place shortly after he returned from the war and immediately prior to running for a seat in Congress. He was suffering from malaria, Addison’s disease, and a bad back which had been aggravated when the boat he commanded, PT 109, was split in half by a Japanese destroyer. In order to heal, he went to a clinic in Arizona. While he was there, Kennedy met a prominent labor leader who was also convalescing. In order to be educated on labor issues, Kennedy sent for a box of books on labor issues. This labor leader was shocked to discover that Kennedy would stay up half the night reading so that he could hold an intelligent conversation the following day.

After all the books and rumors, this audio gives the best feeling of his personality I’ve heard or read. He’s intelligent, gracious, and humble. What a concept.

In a recent post on Bobby Kennedy, I asked No Quarter readers about their memories of RFK, and there were some incredibly moving stories. So, with this audio being released, I ask: What are your memories of JFK? Or, if don’t remember him, what do think his memory means to the country?

Please see other No Quarters posts on the 35th president:

Obama and Kennedy: Gut vs. Experience by SusanUnPC

Kennedy Choosing Johnson v Obama Choosing Biden by Bud White

To the Moon by Easton McNeal

JFK, Walter Mitty and Barack Obama by Uppity Woman

Senator, You’re No Jack Kennedy by LisaB

Appeasement at Tehran? by Medusa