Changes

==Legacy==

==Legacy==

[[Image:JFK bust.jpg|thumb|Bust of John F. Kennedy by Robert Berks.]]

[[Image:JFK bust.jpg|thumb|Bust of John F. Kennedy by Robert Berks.]]

Kennedy’s assassination in November, 1963, was a stunning shock to all Americans. Incoming president Lyndon Johnson used the assassination to rally support for his liberal programs, painting them as memorials to Kennedy until Johnson won reelection in 1964 by a landslide over conservative leader [[Barry Goldwater]].

Kennedy’s assassination in November, 1963, was a stunning shock to all Americans.   Pierson (2007) argues that the liberal media turned Kennedy's death into a martyrdom against racism, ignoring Kennedy's weak interest in race and his strong opposition to Communism. Lee Harvey Oswald's Communist ties were downplayed and instead the conservative city of [[Sallas]] was made the guilty party. Incoming president Lyndon Johnson used the martyrdom theme to rally support for his liberal programs, painting them as memorials to Kennedy until Johnson won reelection in 1964 by a landslide over conservative leader [[Barry Goldwater]].

 

The Irish Catholic community took it hard, and immediately elevated JFK to a sort of sainthood status, celebrating the miracle that he had liberated them from second class citizenship.  Johnson in 1964 successfully retained the Catholic base JFK had fostered, but that was the last hurrah.  By 1966 Catholics started showing their disillusionment with Johnson, who never recovered from the wave after wave of urban riots that followed his civil rights bills, nor from the disillusionment of the intellectuals with his [[Vietnam War]] policy.  With the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968, and the failure of youngest brother [[Ted Kennedy]] to recover his brothers’ national base, the Kennedy legacy increasingly became the romantic memory of Camelot.  Disclosures of JFK’s astonishing sexual involvements, and detailed reports of his multiple grave medical problems fascinated the public but failed to break the myth that if only JFK had lived his second term would be a story of political triumphs that would restore the people’s faith in their government.

The Irish Catholic community took it hard, and immediately elevated JFK to a sort of sainthood status, celebrating the miracle that he had liberated them from second class citizenship.  Johnson in 1964 successfully retained the Catholic base JFK had fostered, but that was the last hurrah.  By 1966 Catholics started showing their disillusionment with Johnson, who never recovered from the wave after wave of urban riots that followed his civil rights bills, nor from the disillusionment of the intellectuals with his [[Vietnam War]] policy.  With the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968, and the failure of youngest brother [[Ted Kennedy]] to recover his brothers’ national base, the Kennedy legacy increasingly became the romantic memory of Camelot.  Disclosures of JFK’s astonishing sexual involvements, and detailed reports of his multiple grave medical problems fascinated the public but failed to break the myth that if only JFK had lived his second term would be a story of political triumphs that would restore the people’s faith in their government.

* Herbert S. Parmet, ''JFK: The Presidency of John F. Kennedy'' (1983)

* Herbert S. Parmet, ''JFK: The Presidency of John F. Kennedy'' (1983)

* Thomas C. Reeves, "A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy." Illustrated. 510 pp. New York: The Free Press. $24.95.  [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE7D9143EF931A35755C0A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all New York Times Book Review]

* Thomas C. Reeves, "A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy." Illustrated. 510 pp. New York: The Free Press. $24.95.  [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE7D9143EF931A35755C0A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all New York Times Book Review]