JFK and 22nd Nov

[Mandryka]

'Bobby' Kennedy never seemed quite real to me. I believe he was a good friend of Joe McCarthy, adn continued to be a character referee for him even after his (McCarthy's) fall from grace.

[marthe]

EA many congratulations!

I remember November 22, 1963 very well. I was 13, in school, and just about to take a test, when the school principal, Sister MC, came running into the classroom with the news that Kennedy had been shot. After praying for his recovery (he was still alive at this point) we were sent home and spent the rest of the Friday and the entire weekend glued to the one b&w TV in our house. We lived in a suburb just west of Boston, Mass. Kennedy was a native son, Irish-American, and Catholic. We saw him as one of our own. Everyone was profoundly shocked. In June 1968, the weekend I graduated from high school, Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Only two months earlier, Martin Luther King had been fatally shot as well. Shocking times.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I remember November 22, 1963 very well. I was 13, in school, and just about to take a test, .

Gosh. We're the same age.

[Alain Maréchal]

IIRC, BBC2 intended to spend the entire evening celebrating the 50th birthday of Benjamin Britten with a live concert conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvesnky. (This suggests the BBC is not what it was). The programme was delayed while the news was announced.

Whether or not Kennedy was worthy of the rearranged schedules, requests for no applause, fulsome tributes, is not relevant. I recall the moment vividly, and what caused the horror, shock and disbelief at the time, quite apart from Kennedy's engaging televisual personality, was the fact that it seemed utterly inconceivable that the POTUS should be assassinated - these sort of things simply did not happen. I was in my teens and felt immediately that the world would never be quite the same again.

[Mary Chambers]

IIRC, BBC2 intended to spend the entire evening celebrating the 50th birthday of Benjamin Britten with a live concert conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvesnky. (This suggests the BBC is not what it was). The programme was delayed while the news was announced.

Whether or not Kennedy was worthy of the rearranged schedules, requests for no applause, fulsome tributes, is not relevant. I recall the moment vividly, and what caused the horror, shock and disbelief at the time, quite apart from Kennedy's engaging televisual personality, was the fact that it seemed utterly inconceivable that the POTUS should be assassinated - these sort of things simply did not happen. I was in my teens and felt immediately that the world would never be quite the same again.

That's well put, Alain. Also, Jackie Kennedy was a Princess Diana-like icon at the time, and she had two small children. That added to the horror.

[Mandryka]

IIRC, BBC2 intended to spend the entire evening celebrating the 50th birthday of Benjamin Britten with a live concert conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvesnky. (This suggests the BBC is not what it was). The programme was delayed while the news was announced.

Whether or not Kennedy was worthy of the rearranged schedules, requests for no applause, fulsome tributes, is not relevant. I recall the moment vividly, and what caused the horror, shock and disbelief at the time, quite apart from Kennedy's engaging televisual personality, was the fact that it seemed utterly inconceivable that the POTUS should be assassinated - these sort of things simply did not happen. I was in my teens and felt immediately that the world would never be quite the same again.

The assassination of a President was not without...ahem...precedent, though. In 1963, there would have been living Americans who remembered the killing of William McKinley in 1901.

What the JFK killing DID do was herald the beginning of a turbulent era in American politics that can only have been said to have ended with the election of Reagan in 1980.

[Anna]

That's well put, Alain. Also, Jackie Kennedy was a Princess Diana-like icon at the time, and she had two small children. That added to the horror.

Oh, and she soon married another rich bloke, Onassis, didn't she? And, after his death:

"After two years of legal battle, she eventually accepted from Christina Onassis, Onassis's daughter and sole heir, a settlement of $26 million, waiving all other claims to the Onassis estate."

[Roehre]

The assassination of a President was not without...ahem...precedent, though. In 1963, there would have been living Americans who remembered the killing of William McKinley in 1901.

Quite a lot I think, keeping in mind that the last veteran of the Civil War (a confederate, btw) died in 1959, meaning that not only McKinley's assassination (1901) but also Garfield's (1881) must have been in the memories of some people still alive in 1963.

[french frank]

What the JFK killing DID do was herald the beginning of a turbulent era in American politics that can only have been said to have ended with the election of Reagan in 1980.

The election didn't quite end it. Remember: "Honey, I forgot to duck"?

[Mandryka]

The election didn't quite end it. Remember: "Honey, I forgot to duck"?

Yes.

To expand on what I said initially: the Kennedy assassination was the prelude to an era of violence, uncertainty and self-doubt in American politics and society - Vietnam, MLK, RFK, the election and subsequent disgrace of Nixon, with the bombing of Cambodia and the Kent State shootings inbetween; then the stalled presidency of Ford and the honourable but doomed tenure of Carter. When Reagan was elected in 1980, America wanted a return to basic certainties about itself and its role in the world (ie, capitalism=good;communism=evil). In many ways, America is still in this era, as the no President would ever dare, post-Reagan and Bush, come out with a statement like 'I have become a Keynesian' (as Nixon did in 1971).