Memories

Submitted by Peter Herz (United States), Jan 26, 2011 at 18:46

Kennedy's line "ask not what your country can do for you..." inspired me, too, even though I was just an elementary school kid. But I have more vivid memories of his assassination. Our 5th grade teacher was called to the office, along with all other teachers, and we were left along to work on our assignments (such innocent times those were, when a classroom of healthy kids could be trusted!). He came back a few minutes later ashen face, reporting that the President had been shot. A little while later, the principal came on to announce that the President had died, and that school would be dismissed early. We left early, but not one of us was glad, including the few who dared to identify themselves as Republicans.

But would things have been different had Kennedy lived? My guess is that Kennedy is an inspiring figure simply because he died before the 1960's had soured. Had he lived, his political career would have been ruined by the Viet Nam War and the militancy of the later Civil Rights era, How he would have reacted to the 1967 Six-Day-War (assuming he won a second term in 1964) is anyone's guess. I suspect that after winning their foothold in the Caribbean and getting away with building the Berlin Wall on Kennedy's watch, the Soviets would have continued to prod and support subversion, and all the best intentions of Kennedy's short administration would have been thwarted by the intelligentsia of Africa, Asia, and Latin America (to say nothing of most of Europe) being intoxicated with Marxism.

I suspect that all the other forces that make and break history would have continued as they were.

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