This Day In History, 1917: John F. Kennedy Is Born

photo credit: National Review

She wanted to make sure that the point came clear and went on: "There'll be great Presidents again--and the Johnsons are wonderful, they've been wonderful to me--but there'll never be another Camelot again.

"Once, the more I read of history the more bitter I got. For a while I thought history was something that bitter old men wrote. But then I realized history made Jack what he was. You must think of him as this little boy, sick so much of the time, reading in bed, reading history, reading the Knights of the Round Table, reading Marlborough. For Jack, history was full of heroes. And if it made him this way--if it made him see the heroes--maybe other little boys will see. Men are such a combination of good and bad. Jack had this hero idea of history, the idealistic view."

But she came back to the idea that transfixed her: "Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot--and it will never be that way again."

From an article in the December 6, 1963 edition of Life magazine, two weeks after the assassination. Journalist Theodore H. White had gone up to Hyannis Port for an interview with Jackie. She talked about the motorcade, and putting her wedding ring in the coffin, then she set out to create a myth. One of the most intriguing things about the Kennedy narrative is that the Kennedy administration was never called Camelot while JFK was alive. Jackie started it during that interview with White. (Read the entire story here.)

White knew what she was doing, as Sally Bedell Smith spelled out in America's Queen:

"She put it so passionately that, seen in a certain light, it almost made sense," White recalled. "I realized it was a misreading of history, but I was taken with Jackie's ability to frame tragedy in such human and romantic terms. There was something extremely compelling about her.  All she wanted was for me to hang this Life epilogue on the Camelot conceit. It didn't seem like a hell of a lot to ask. So I said to myself, Why not? If that's all she wants, let her have it. So the epitaph of the Kennedy administration became Camelot--a magic moment in American history when gallant men danced with beautiful women, when great deeds were done and the White House became the center of the universe." (Smith notes that this quote is from a Theodore White interview with C. David Heymann in A Woman Named Jackie.)


photo credit: Wikipedia

There are lots of interesting things being written about President Kennedy on his 100th birthday, here's some of what I've been reading:

From Politico Magazine: JFK at 100, by Jeff Greenfield
From the LA Times: JFK Wasn't The Greatest President, But He Was A Hell Of A Politician
From U.S. News & World Report: JFK At 100: The Man Behind The Legend
From Time: See How JFK Created a Presidency for the Television Age


photo credit: JFK Library

By-the-way, do you know what you'll be doing on June 14, 2046? Me neither, but if I'm still around, and I hope I am, I'm certain I will not be commemorating the 100th birthday of our 45th president.