What PC? 1996 August/WPCAUG96.ISO/database/power/cu99.txt

Text File | 1996-06-13 | 45.0 KB | 1,071 lines

1.5
Jack Kennedy was
killed before he had,
as president, achieved
very much. He is to be
remembered as the
American president
whose PR men tried
with most success to
depict in a quasi-royal
role. The chief items
on his presidential
balance-sheet will be
reckoned his election
in 1960, which
showed that a Catholic
could make it; his acceptance of the intelligence chiefs'
disastrous plan to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs; his
facing down of Khrushchev in the 1962 Cuban missiles
affair, which took the world to the very brink of
nuclear war, but then led to a welcome, if temporary,
improvement in Soviet-American  relations; his
launching of a high-minded reform programme within
the United States; the nuclear test-ban treaty; and his
intensification of the fatal American commitment in
Vietnam, which showed that the Cold War resonances
of his inaugural address were not mere window-
dressing. The Kennedy myth derives from the man's
charm, good looks, vigour and intelligence. This
Kennedy, according to true believers, would have
repaired his mistakes. No-one can say whether this is
true. But a legend will survive; young hope cut down
by an assassin's bullets, a legend reinforced by the
very similar death of Jack's younger brother Robert
(the president's closest adviser) in 1968. This too must
be reckoned in the balance
@
2.3
Senator Kennedy, from Massachusetts, is hot favourite
for the Presidential nomination.  His toughest opponent
is Senator Johnson, from Texas.  Johnson's mature age
and experience are in his favour, but to select him, a
Southern Conservative, would be almost like the
Labour Party choosing Mr. Macmillan as their leader.

Two other candidates in the running are Senator
Symington (Missouri) and Mr. Adlai Stevenson.  Their
hopes rest on a deadlock between Kennedy and
Johnson.

Kennedy is expected to lack only about 100 to 150 of
the 761 votes needed for victory on the first ballot and
as the most likely winner, his candid views on Britain
and the world at large are presented here.  He also
discusses, in this tape-recorded conversation, his
relationship to his controversial father who, as the
United States Ambassador to Britain, wrote to
President Roosevelt in September, 1939, that England
didn't have a "Chinaman's chance" against Germany and
Russia but would go down fighting.

BRANDON: What do you think are the basic qualities a
President must have?

KENNEDY: Well, I think a President certainly must have
character, judgment, vigour, intellectual curiosity, a
sense of history, and a strong sense of the future.
Many other qualities would be advantageous but I
would say these are the essentials.

BRANDON: It has been said that your youth and Roman
Catholic religion are against you.

KENNEDY: Yes.  Both of those factors were regarded as
strong on the debit side; but they were not wholly
debit.  Youth - I've come on to the political scene at a
time when the leadership is old.  The President is old,
his health has been affected, his leadership is not
wholly successful, and therefore I think there is a
desire to turn a new page and start with a newer
leadership, fresher, and we hope more vigorous.

My religion is a matter of great political concern and
has made me a controversial figure.  In that sense I
was evidently born into controversy.  But I don't know
whether it hasn't been advantageous to be
controversial in one way or another.  Religion is still a
key issue in American politics, but only one among
many.  The whole fight for religious freedom, the whole
struggle of the Reformation, the whole character of the
United States - all these things make the prospect of a
Catholic President a matter of serious concern to a good
many Americans.  The majority of these Americans
want certain questions answered, and when they're
answered in a responsible way I think they are then
prepared to move on to the other serious problems
facing the United States.  Some will never accept any
answer.

BRANDON: It is often said, about the father-son
relationship, that sons either rebel against their father
or are a chip off the old block.  How do you see your
relationship to your father?

KENNEDY: I would say that the great majority of father-
son relationships really don't fall into either category.
In my particular case there are many disagreements on
policy and have been for a great many years.  My
father has a wholly different view of what the role of
the United States ought to be in the world from the one
I've had in the fourteen years I've been in Congress.
And on many domestic matters he has substantial
differences of opinion.  We disagree.  I'm not going to
attempt to convert him, and he doesn't  attempt to
convert me.  It is therefore outside our personal
relationship, which is very satisfactory.

BRANDON: If you look in a broad sweep at American-
Russian relations, say, for the next ten years, what do
you foresee?

KENNEDY: I envisage a continuing competitive struggle
with periods of relative warmth and periods of bitter
cold.  I don't imagine there will be a sharp enough
change within the Soviet Union itself, or within China,
in the next decade to cause a complete reversal of
present policies.  The tempo may change; the goals will
not.  I say this with some degree of hesitation because
the world has changed in so many ways in the last ten
years, certainly in the last fifteen years.  But I would
judge that the competitive struggle will continue and
will be affected in its vigour by the actions that we
take.

BRANDON: In your Algerian speech in July, 1957, you
used a phrase: "The Western house must be swept
clean of its own lingering imperialism."

KENNEDY: Well, I think an impressive job has been
done on that.  There are still areas where the Western
house isn't clean, and there are people who are
compelled to maintain their ties to Western Europe
unwillingly.  But great progress has been made in the
last 15 years in freeing Africa from the remnants of
Western imperialism.

I don't think there's any doubt at all that Africa is
going to be free in another decade.  The big problem is
what will happen in those free countries, whether they
will be able to maintain a free society.  Are they going
to be able to solve the staggering problems that they
face?  As people hope more and more that life will be
more generous to them, the great problem is how to
share the benefits of life more generously.  That's going
to be a great problem for the African leaders and for us
who have a stake in free Africa.
@
2.4
The Democrats have chosen a new young knight, Mr
John F. Kennedy, Senator for Massachusetts, to fight for
the White House in November; and the Vice-President
Nixon as his Republican adversary - there can be no
shadow of doubt about that - the United States have
the most youthful presidential contest in history. The
daunting thought is that the Republicans have also to
go through the predestined motions of their contention
at Chicago before the real election campaign can get
under way. It all takes so long.

Another tumultuous demonstration for Mr. Adlai
Stevenson last night, a warming tribute to a great man,
made no impression on the mathematical precision
with which Mr. Kennedy and his managers, having
combed virtually every state since the last election,
had aquired their votes.

One ballot in the surging convention hall was simple.
Wyoming, the last state in the roll call, cast all its 15
votes for Mr. Kennedy to put him " over the top" and
one or two hurried switches brought his total of 806
against the 409 votes given to his strongest opponent,
Senator Lyndon Johnson (Texas) who, solidly backed by
the southern states, achieved all he promised without
having a ghost of a chance of encroaching sufficiently
on the Kennedy strongholds to produce the elements of
deadlock.

Poor Mr. Stevenson polled 79.5, a few votes fewer than
Senator Symington (Missouri), the only other active
candidate, whoce forces jumped in quickly to move
unanimous nomination and thus advance his prospects
in today's balloting for Mr Kennedy's running mate.

Whether unanimity was complete is doubtful. There
was little opportunity from the seething floor of getting
the attention of the chairman, Governor Leroy Collins,
of Florida, who interpreted the rules with a draconian
hand; and though there could be no question about Mr.
Kennedy's triumph the whole progress of the
convention seemed to give some point to Mr. Truman's
objections - he was absent for the first time in nearly
30 years - that everything had been prearranged.

One might ask how matters could have been otherwise
in this turbulent ocean in which the chairman was
always pounding for the order that he rarely obtained
as the states of nominated candidates staged their
traditional demonstrations with bands, emblems and
little forests of placards - in some instances this time
with outside professional help enlisted by the more
wealthy political machines.

However, some southern delegations complained that
they would not have voted for Mr Kenndy in their
resentment over the civil rights issue on which the
party has taken the strongest position ever adopted on
a Democratic platform. As usual this produced the
fiercest debate of the week and some southern states
are still threatening to withhold their votes in the
electoral college with the unlikely intention of forcing
the election into the House of Representatives.

The votes of all four candidates had been predicted this
time with almost the accuracy of a calculation by
electronic computer and none of the pressures exerted
by the Johnson men or the tide of emotion flowing for
Mr. Stevenson could upset the vote which, as one of his
team remarked, had long since been signed, sealed, and
delivered to Mr. Kennedy.

He becomes the first Roman Catholic since Al Smith in
1928 to run for the presidency, a factor which most
observers expect to count in November. As the largest
Roman Catholic minorities are in the heavily populated
states on which an election often turns, it might not
necessarily turn against him.

With untold millions of other Americans he watched
the roll call of the states on television and, cool and
poised in his taut way, he came down to the cheering
arena towards midnight to exhort the party to unite
behind his onward march to the White House.
@
2.5
One of the closest elections in American history has
taken Senator John Kennedy into the White House on a
Democratic wave that swept back, with a few
casualties, to retain control of both Houses of Congress.

His victory speech today was characteristic of his
pungent style. "To all Americans", he declared, "I say
that the next four years are going to be difficult and
challenging years for us all. The election may have
been a close one, but I think that there is general
agreement by all of our citizens that a supreme
national effort will be needed in the years ahead to
move this country safely through the 1960s.

"I ask your help in this effort and I can assure you that
every degree of mind and spirit that I possess will be
devoted to the long-range interests of the United States
and to the cause of freedom around the world."

"DRAMATIC" NAMES

Then he looked at his wife standing beside him and
said they would now prepare for a "new
Administration and a new baby". He also indicated that
he had sent a message to President Eisenhower
expressing the hope of the whole nation that his long
experience and service would still be available in years
to come.

He told reporters that he would not have anything to
say about Cabinet appointments until Thanksgiving Day
(November 24) or later, but he expected almost
immediately to announce his arrangements for liaison
with the present Administration pending his
inauguration in January.

Mr. Kennedy has always refused to speculate about the
choice of his Secretary of State in spite of counsels
within the party that his election might be advanced
by naming Mr. Adlai Stevenson. It has recently seemed
improbable that he will receive the portfolio and less is
heard of Mr. Chester Bowles, his chief adviser on
foreign policy, or Mr. David Bruce as possible
candidates; Senator Fulbright (Arkansas), chairman of
the Senate foreign relations committee, has been in the
picture but Mr. Kennedy is credited with the idea of
making some "dramatic" appointments to impress
world opinion.

Mr. Kennedy's talk with reporters today was at his
Cape Cod home. The secret service had moved in to
guard the President-elect and for the first time in the
campaign he appeared in public with his father, Mr.
Joseph Kennedy.

A MAN OF PURPOSE

Mr. Kennedy, who at 43 is in the prime of his vigour
and intellect, is the first Roman Catholic and the
youngest aspirant to be elected to the Presidency, and
there had been a look of intense purpose about an
intense campaign. It had been plotted and planned for
years.

Vice-President Nixon, a politician of perhaps more
subtle skill, will nevertheless always wonder how he
lost. It was well after dawn today before Mr. Kennedy
gained a sufficient lead to take California, his
opponent's home state, and so surpass the requisite
majority of 269 votes in the Electoral College. Political
observers who had shied from the idea of a Kennedy
landslide can hardly have bargained for a night of
suspense like this one, which, with Mr. Kennedy stalled
for hours a few votes short of the magic number, hung
on close-locked contests in Illinois, Michigan and
Minnesota - that is, before the Democratic tide in
California began to rise.

NECK AND NECK

If Mr. Kennedy's electoral majority never seemed to be
in real danger, the popular vote, paradoxically, was
running neck and neck. In the small hours he was
drawing away to a lead of nearly two million; then he
began to fall back until, with most of the returns in, he
was ahead by less than 400,000 in a count of more
than 65 million votes.

Late tonight the popular vote was: -
Kennedy 33,000,259 (50.2 per cent)
Nixon 32,679,260 (49.8 per cent)

Mr. Nixon, showing solid strength in the north-west,
the farm country, and the mountains - much of it
traditional Republican territory - actually stood to win
more states than Mr. Kennedy but in these sparsely
populated areas the harvest in electoral votes was
meagre compared with Mr. Kennedy's rich prizes in the
great Democratic bastions of the eastern seaboard. His
probable total of 331 electoral votes to 192 tells much
of the story.

MR. NIXON CONCEDES

The Vice-President could read the portents. There were
cries of dismay and frantic chants of "We want Nixon"
heard all over the country to the tune of "Goodnight,
Ladies"  when, at 3.15 a.m., he emerged at his
headquarters in Los Angeles to say that if the current
trend continued Mr. Kennedy was the victor - and he
urged the nation to close ranks behind him.

The morning brought realization. Mr. Nixon formally
conceded the election; and President Eisenhower, who
was "not happy" with the outcome, sent his
congratulations to Mr. Kennedy and called a Cabinet
meeting to arrange the orderly transition of
government.
@
3.2
President Kennedy refused to answer questions on
Cuba, at his press conference today, but said rather
bitterly that he was sure plenty of information, much
of it inaccurate, would soon be available. A number of
versions of American involvement in this week's
unsuccessful rebel landings have indeed already been
circulated: together they provide an account that
subsequent disclosures will probably generally
support.

That there was a monumental miscalculation is clear,
but President Kennedy inherited a situation in which
the United States was deeply involved even to the
extent of providing air cover, sea transport, and
logistical support. Under the previous Administration a
detailed plan had been evolved for the full support of
landing some thousands of insurgents. Preparations
had gone far beyond the planning stage when Mr.
Kennedy took office.

All the available evidence shows that from the
beginning the President was opposed to active
American participation. Opinions were divided not only
between the State Department, the Defence
Department, and the Central Intelligence Agency, but
also within them. Both Mr. Dean Rusk, the Secretary of
State, and Mr. Chester Bowles, the Under-Secretary,
opposed the operation; Mr. Adlai Stevenson, leader of
the American delegation to the United Nations, insisted
that United States forces should not be used.

HOPE OF SUPPORT

There was no disposition to believe that the insurgents
could immediately overthrow Dr. Castro's regime in
Cuba or that there would be wholesale military and
militia desortions. Instead, it was believed that the
insurgents could attract enough popular support to
capture a viable bridgehead where the revolutionary
council could establish it. Recognition by some Latin-
American states and later by the United States would
make possible overt supply and recruitment.

Advice, mounted against American support which
would have made large-scale landings possible, and
earlier this month it was decided that it would not be
given. Meanwhile the insurgent forces had moved out
of Florida to Caribbean marshalling areas and complete
American control was at least compromised.

Reports of the arrival of jet aircraft from
Czechoslovakia and destroyers or frigates from the
Soviet Union, and the critical condition of guerrillas
operating in Cuba, persuaded the insurgent command -
and presumably their unofficial American backers -
that an immediate attempt had to be made before the
Castro regime was equipped to stop it. According to the
New York Times, President Kennedy, anxious for
insurgent morale, agreed to make available ships and
other support for small-scale landings.

BOMBING SIGNAL

As previously reported, the intention was only to
supply groups that had already been landed. Only a
few hundred men were involved in the first landings,
though it would appear that they were reinforced.
Probably about 1,000 men were put ashore in two or
three days.

According to one insurgent leader, the signal for the
landings was the bombing of Cuban air bases over the
weekend. This was arranged before President Kennedy
took office. No evidence is available that he ordered the
attack or that he was a party to it.

The situation got out of hand not only on the beaches
but elsewhere. The American press promoted the idea
that a full-scale invasion was about to take place. They
must have put both Mr. Khrushchev and Dr. Castro on
the alert. Their enthusiasm ran ahead of the
Administration and in ignoring it President Kennedy
was half-way to making his miscalculation.
@
3.3
President Kennedy, in a nation-wide televised speech
on the Mississippi segregation crisis, said tonight that
no man, no matter how prominent or powerful, could
defy the law of the land.

The court orders for desegregation of Mississippi State
University were beginning to be carried out. "Mr. James
Meredith is now in residence on the campus of the
University of Mississippi," he said.

He said this had been accomplished so far without the
use of troops, adding that he hoped the faculty and
students at the university could now return to their
regular pursuits with respect for the laws of the United
States.

Before Mr. Kennedy went on the air, Governor Ross
Barnett had virtually admitted defeat in his struggle to
prevent Meredith from enrolling in the university.
Shortly before Mr. Kennedy started speaking students
were reported to be rioting on the campus at Oxford.
Marshals retaliated with tear gas.

Mr. Kennedy said the American nation was founded on
the principle that observance of the law safeguards
liberty and defiance is the road to tyranny. He said the
law includes court rulings as well as legislative
enactments. Americans are free to disagree with the
law but not to disobey it.

OTHER METHODS TRIED

The President traced the history of Meredith's attempts
to get into the university, through a series of court
efforts. He told of the decision of the Court of Appeals,
naming the justices, all of them from the South, and
said they made clear that enforcement of this order is
necessary. "My obligation as President was
inescapable", he said. "I accepted."

Mr. Kennedy said the object is to achieve the
registration of Meredith without violence. "I deeply
regret the steps that were taken, but all other methods,
including conciliation, had been tried", he said.

OVERNIGHT ORDERS

During the evening, President Kennedy requested a
two-and-a-half hour postponement of his planned
address. Soon after this, federal marshals were
admitted to the university campus and surrounded the
administration building. The campus was itself
surrounded by state patrol men who refused entry to
all those not holding authorizing passes and there was
no immediate explanation for the admittance of the
marshals. There were rumours of compromise but no
official confirmation could be had

The university's director of development, Mr. Clegg,
told your Correspondent he could not explain the
admission of federal marshals to the university
campus.

At the University of Mississippi - "Ole Miss" - the
faculty has been sorely tried by the crisis. Most of its
teaching staff would like to let the world know that
they favour Mr. Meredith's admission, but loyalty to
Mr. John Williams, the Chancellor, who has urged strict
neutrality upon them, has so far prevented any action.
However, the local chapter of the American Association
of University Professors has asked the Chancellor to
meet it tomorrow afternoon to explain his position.
@
3.4
President Kennedy's eight-hour stay in Berlin was
expected from the start to be the emotional climax of
his German visit, but no one had expected the frenzy of
jubilation which gripped the city today. It was a
triumphal progress, the like of which Berlin had not
seen since the days of Hitler, a local correspondent
remarked.

Half the population was on the streets to greet the
President and went almost mad with joy when he
appeared. At the end of this unforgettable day, one's
ears are still ringing with the endless roar of cheering,
and one's eyes filled with the sight of smiling, laughing,
waving masses. Relations between Germany and the
United States can never be quite the same after it.

President Kennedy rose to the occasion. He seemed
completely confident and relaxed, displaying his
outstanding gifts as a popular tribune in a way he has
not done since he arrived. His words, packed with
unusual punch, whipped up the crowd to new heights
of enthusiasm.

"BURDENS APPRECIATED"

The significant part of the whole German visit,
however, and in particular of today in Berlin, was not
so much the speeches as the fact that the President
obviously got a feeling for the Germans which he had
not had before. Herr Brandt, the chief burgomaster,
summed it up in a phrase when he told the crowd
before Schoneberg Rathaus at noon: "I have a wish to
express to you, the wish that in town you may feel the
heart of the German people beat also for you." The
crowd roared assent.

At Tegel airfield, in the French sector, this evening,
when he took farewell of Dr. Adenauer and Herr
Brandt, who had ridden through 30 miles of streets
with him and shared in his triumph, he said that the
American people were sometimes doubtful whether
the tremendous burdens they had shouldered for the
free world in 18 years were really appreciated. After
this visit to Germany and the tremendous welcome he
had been given he was sure they were.

PROUDEST BOAST

The broad square before Schoneberg Rathaus has
witnessed many sad and joyful events, but it has never
seen anything like today's demonstration for President
Kennedy. It was packed with 120,000 very emotional
yet disciplined Berliners long before the President was
due to speak. When he appeared on the tall podium, an
ovation of several minutes greeted him.

"Two thousand years ago",  he declared, "the proudest
boast in the world was 'civis Romanus sum'. To-day, in
the world of freedom, the proudest boast is 'Ich bin ein
Berliner'." Many times he was interrupted in the
middle of a phrase by crescendo cheers and rhythmic
shouts of "Kennedy, Kennedy".

His tribute to General Clay, who was at his side, "and
will come again if ever needed", was enthusiastically
endorsed. Even the Chancellor, who has never really
been a popular figure here, got a warm hand and
shouts of "Konni, Konni", in the general euphoria.

"There are many people in the world who really do not
understand what is the great issue between the free
world and communism. Let them come to Berlin. And
there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere that
we can work with the communists. Let them come to
Berlin.

VITALITY AND HOPE

"Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not
perfect; but we never had to put up a wall to keep our
people in. I know of no town, no city which has been
besieged for 18 years and still lives with the vitality
and the force and the hope and determination of this
city of west Berlin. While the wall is the most obvious
and vivid demonstrations of the failures of the
communist system, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is
an offence not only against history but against
humanity."

What was true of Berlin was true of Germany. The
President continued:--

"Real lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as
long as one German out of four is denied the
elementary right of free men, and that is to make a
free choice. In 18 years of peace and good faith this
generation of Germans has earned the right to be free,
including the right to unite their family and nation in
lasting peace with the goodwill of all people.

"When the day finally comes when this city will be
joined as one in this great continent of Europe in a
peaceful and hopeful gathering, the people of west
Berlin can take great satisfaction in the fact that they
were in the front line for almost two decades.

"All free men, wherever they may live are citizens of
Berlin, and, therefore, as a freeman. I take pride in the
words 'Ich bin ein Berliner'."

President Kennedy had reserved for his speech to the
students of the Free University this afternoon a more
detailed exposition of his views on coexistence. General
Marshall, in his famous speech at Harvard, made a
proposal which extended to "all of Europe". His offer of
help and friendship, President Kennedy emphasized,
had been rejected. But it was not too early to think
once again in terms of all of Europe.

WINDS OF CHANGE

"For the winds of change are blowing across the iron
curtain as well as in the rest of the world. The people
of eastern Europe, even after 18 years of oppression,
are not immune to change. The truth never dies.

"The desire for liberty can never be fully suppressed.
The people of the Soviet Union...feel the force of
historical evolution. The harsh precepts of Stalinism are
officially recognized as bankrupt. So history itself runs
against Marxist dogma not towards it. In short, these
dogmatic police states are an anachronism.

"The new Europe of the west, dynamic, diverse and
democratic must exert an ever increasing attraction on
the peoples to the east. And when the possibilities of
reconciliation appear, we in the west will make it clear
that we are not hostile to any people or system.

"There will be wounds to be healed and suspicions to
be eased on both sides. Fair and effective agreements
to end the arms race must be reached. These changes
may not come tomorrow but our efforts must continue
undiminished."
@
4.1
Senator Robert (Bobby) Kennedy, brother of President
Kennedy who was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on
November 22, 1963, died yesterday in Los Angeles
after being shot by a gunman of Jordanian origin.  He
was 42.

His brother was cut down before he was able to show
in office whether he was the leader, in the line of the
"great presidents" who could guide the country into a
new era; Robert Kennedy, who clearly intended to
carry on and complete, if possible, his brother's aims
and promise, was destroyed even before he had the
chance to win the presidency, an ambition which
according to those who knew him most intimately he
developed immediately after his brother's death.  He
was, at the time of his death, the recognized head of
the Kennedy family, a position which now devolves
upon Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy.  His career has
been snapped off just at the moment when he would
regard it as having reached its supremely critical
moment, though it was a moment which he had not
expected to arrive until the presidential elections in
1972.  He must now be mainly judged by his work for
his brother, and his term of office as Federal Attorney
General: his hopes are sufficiently attested by his
consistent manoeuvres between 1964, when he
resigned office, and his declaration of his candidacy for
the nomination on March 16, 1968, to place himself in
a position to bring the Kennedy magnetism and popular
following irresistibly into play when the electorate
tired of party hacks and machine politics, and was
ready to accept again his brother's cry at his
inauguration in 1961 "the torch has been passed to a
new generation of Americans - born in this century,
tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter
peace, proud of our ancient heritage."

This open and perhaps arrogant assumption that he
was the heir apparent to his brother produced bitter
hostility in many sections of American life, so much so
that many people feared for his life long before the
shots rang out in Los Angeles, though nobody could
have foreseen what particular set of motives would
inspire the killer.  But against those who feared the
almost royal, or perhaps tarquinian, presumptions of
the Kennedy family, were ranged the millions who saw
in Robert Kennedy's leadership, whether it came in the
late sixties or early seventies, the only hope of
resolving the frightening racial and social tensions
which are straining the fabric of the republic.  For them
the "Kennedy dream" had been temporarily usurped by
the assassination; they could argue that President
Johnson could never have entered the White House
unless the Kennedys had opened the way for him; and
they traced the true line of the Democratic evolution
through Robert Kennedy - as was well shown in the
joyful flocking fo the former White House aides to his
banner when he finally unfurled it.  His enemies
dilated upon his ruthlessness and his visible craving
for political power, but these very qualities were to his
supporters not merely the positively lovable hallmarks
of the Kennedy clan, which had to succeed in
everything to which it set its hand, but also the
lineaments of the man of action to whose brilliant
future they confided their loyalties.  To them, his
naked ambition was controlled by principles of
thought, patriotism and compassion which more than
favourably contrasted with the motives of opponents
who accused him of pure opportunism.

SYMBOL FOR YOUTH

After his brother's death he indeed became a symbol
and even spokesman for the revolt of the younger
generation against the establishment, and even of the
less militant Negro radicals against the white power
structure; he was able to claim wryly when he entered
the campaign in the primaries that he was a candidate
equally detested by large scale business and organized
labour.  Of his capacity to offend there can be no
question: but few politicians could have worried less
about it.  "Somebody", he remarked to a critic during
the presidential campaign in 1960, "has got to be able
to say No."  But in sedulously building up the image of
his brother - whose speeches he frequently quoted in
his campaign this year - as the "good king" whose short
reign was a foretaste of good times coming, he opened
himself to the accusation that he was "another and a
very different brand" of Kennedy.

His world was largely confined to politics, and indeed
he once said that the political life with all its
nerveracking torments and genuine physical risk, was
the only one worth living.  But he lived it for a purpose,
and he learned as he lived it.  There may be something
equivocal in his statement when he won his Senate seat
in New York "we started something in 1960, and the
vote today is an overwhelming mandate to continue",
but in fact the way in which he placed himself at the
head of youth, and developed his championship for the
underprivileged and the oppressed minorities, Negro,
Puerto Rican, Mexican, was the result of genuine
personal conviction, reinforced by sharp observation on
his visit to Asia, and not part of a scheme for winning
the presidency.  This continuing experience defined
what he never articulated, his vision of the America he
felt destined to bring into being in accordance with the
country's true character and dedication.  Catholic
theology and Bostonian puritanism fused in that vision.

His creed was that of the gospel of work, learned in the
hard Kennedy family Victorian regimen of
competitiveness and self-help - work hard, play hard,
rise early, drive oneself to the limit of capability and
endurance, accept any new challenge.  He had not the
natural feeling for culture which graced the Kennedy
White House era in the person and style of his sister-
in-law, Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy, but he set himself to
educate his sensibilities with the same doggedness that
he brought to a political task.  It is in a pilgrimage of
self-discovery by a simple but not insensitive - and
socially indeed very shy - man that his career is best
interpreted.  Its influence on American politics may
seem limited.  He held, with distinction, an important
Cabinet office at a critical time, and history has yet to
appraise fully the impact of his interventions in foreign
and defence policy between 1961 and 1964, but few
will deny that he was in or out of office a channel for
change, a barometer of the political temperature.  He
may link his brother's achievement with Kennedy
interventions to come.  His brother stuck the Kennedy
note when he said that he had to take up where his
brother Joe, killed in the war, left off-"and if anything
happens to me, Bobby will take over, and if anything
happens to him, it will be Teddy".

He publicly predicted that a Negro could become
president of the United States in 30 years - a daring
thing to say then-and he resigned from Washington's
exclusive Metropolitan club when it refused to admit a
Negro, Mr. George Weaver, when he became assistant
Secretary of State.

His brother's assassination seemed for a time to have
deprived him of purpose in politics, besides shattering
his emotional world.  He is remembered for his fine
bearing at his brother's state funeral and his
tenderness at that time to his bereaved sister-in-law.
  @
4.2
"Everyone liked Ike" so it was said. Eisenhower was, in
fact, a curious combination, seemingly all warmth and
outgoingness, yet cold, and often shockingly
ungenerous. He owed his rise to General Marshall, who
picked Eisenhower as he picked so many others he had
spotted over the previous decade. In November 1942
Eisenhower was a general commanding the Anglo-
American forces invading North Africa. In late 1943 he
was appointed to command the Allied Forces invading
western Europe; in this role he defeated the German
armies in the west. He was the obvious choice for
supreme commander of the North Atlantic Treaty
forces in Europe in 1951 when the Americans decided
to back the treaty with a major military commitment to
the defence of Europe. This in turn swept him into the
presidency in 1952. In 1956 he was re-elected by a
landslide. In domestic politics he aimed at the
conservative dream: low taxes and minimal federal
government intervention. In international politics he
kept the United States ahead of the Soviet Union by the
development of the nuclear deterrent, and much low
level intervention, often by clandestine means. In his
farewell speech in 1961 he denounced the 'military-
industrial complex', which he said was slipping out of
control. His organisation presidency is now seen as
among the most successful in this century, but he had
little to say to the young, and his conservative ideals
did not long survive him
@
4.3
LBJ will be remembered for his initials and for the
sorrows that befell the United States during his
presidency. This harsh but unavoidable verdict results
from the greatest American political tragedy since the
fall of Woodrow Wilson. Johnson came to the highest
office trailing a record of brilliant success as
Congressman, Senator and campaigner and deputy to JF
Kennedy. He became president when Kennedy was shot
in 1963. At first it seemed that as president, Johnson
would eclipse his earlier achievements: he pushed
through a vast reforming legislative programme,
including aid for the elderly with food and medical
care. But foreign affairs (which he never properly
understood) proved his bane. He got bogged down
inextricably in the foolish, hated Vietnamese War and,
against his election pledges, intensified it. The political
and economic costs of the war stopped him tackling the
problems of poverty and racism, with which he was
otherwise superbly equipped to deal. Riot became
endemic in America. Johnson was forced to renounce
all hope of re-election, and saw his chosen successor
repudiated by the people in favour of Richard Nixon.
The monument to his great talents is inscribed with the
names of the dead in the war abroad and the
insurrections at home
@
4.4
John Edgar Hoover was even more closely identified
with America's Federal Bureau of Investigation than
was Franklin D Roosevelt with the New Deal. In 1921
Hoover became assistant director and in 1924 director
of the FBI, itself only founded 16 years earlier. The FBI,
which he reformed on assuming control, grew with him
for nearly 50 years. Its jurisdiction was limited to
Federal crimes, but this was greatly extended to
include such offences as bank robbery, kidnapping,
espionage and sabotage. It established a national
finger-print system, improved the collection ofcrime
statistics, and encouraged higher standards of police
investigation. In a report on communism which he
wrote in 1919, Hoover struck, perhaps for the first
time, the most significant keynote of his life: "These
doctrines threaten the happiness of the community, the
safety of every individual, and the continuance of
every home and fireside. They would destroy the peace
of the country and thrust it into a condition of anarchy
and lawlessness and immorality that passes
imagination." In 1958 he wrote: "My conclusions of
1919 remain the same. Communism is the major
menace of our time."
@
5.3
Lee Harvey Oswald, the 24-year-old former Marine
accused of the assassination of President Kennedy, was
shot yesterday as he was about to be transferred from
the police headquarters at Dallas, Texas, to the county
gaol. A man identified as Jack Ruby, owner of a Dallas
strip-tease club, was taken into custody. Oswald died in
the Parkland Hospital - the hospital to which Mr.
Kennedy was taken on Friday - and Ruby was formally
charged with murder.

Astonished Americans saw the shooting on television.
It occurred while, in Washington, representatives of
countries all over the world were assembling for
today's state funeral service for Mr. Kennedy at St.
Matthew's Cathedral. Mr. Kennedy is to be buried at
Arlington National Cemetery, where the American
unknown warriors lie.

SINGLE BULLET FIRED FROM PISTOL

Television watchers today saw Oswald being brought
through the basement of the Dallas police headquarters
towards an armoured car which was to take him to the
Dallas county gaol. They saw a man step forward from
the crowd in the basement, raise a pistol, and fire a
single shot at Oswald, who was walking through lines of
policemen and sheriffs, Oswald fell to the floor,
grasping his stomach, and a confused scuffle broke out.

The police at once covered him with a cloth. Viewers
then saw him being wheeled along on a stretcher and
lifted into an ambulance.

At Parkland Hospital he was put into a room only 10
feet from the one in which Mr. Kennedy died. His
condition was described as very serious. Then, a few
minutes later, his heart stopped beating.

It had been kept going until then by massage and an
electronic pace-maker. A dozen doctors worked on him.
He was stated to have died from severe injury to the
internal organs and loss of blood.

HEAVY GUARD

The doctors said there had never been much hope of
saving his life. "I suppose he was conscious for a few
minutes after he was shot", one of them said.

No explanation was given by the police of how Ruby -
otherwise known as Rubinstein - gained access to the
police headquarters. One officer said there were 40
police officers guarding the building. Several telephone
calls threatening Oswald's life had been received
during the night and the precautions taken had been
intensified.

The police said that Ruby came to Dallas 10 years ago
from Chicago.

At the time that the shot was fired Oswald was
surrounded by policemen, secret service agents,
reporters, and television cameras.

Three lawyers are said to have offered to defend Ruby.
One of them said: "Ruby is a very fine man, a great
admirer of President Kennedy and police officers."

Meanwhile a dispute appeared to be arising today
between the Texan and Federal authorities as to
whether the case of the assassination of Mr. Kennedy
could now be closed. The Dallas police claimed to have
built a cast-iron case against Oswald and they
announced that, with his death, the case was closed;
but the Department of Justice has sent the head of its
criminal division to Dallas to study the situation there.

HELD IN CUSTODY

Ruby was formally charged with murder today before
Mr. Pierce McBride, a justice of the peace, and was held
in custody without bail.

The police have alleged that Ruby admitted shooting
Oswald because of a deep sense of feeling for Mrs.
Jacqueline Kennedy. They said he declared that he
wanted to spare her the ordeal of the trial of the man
accused of killing her husband.

They said that Ruby told them: "I didn't want to be a
hero - I did it for Jacqueline Kennedy".

Eyewitnesses said that Ruby got out of a car at police
headquarters, quietly slipped into the crowd, and then
jumped over a three-foot railing separating reporters
from Oswald and the police, and ran about six feet
before firing. He was immediately subdued by the
large number of police in the area.

CHEERING CROWD

A crowd of about 200 cheered as Oswald clutched his
stomach when shot at point-blank range and fell
sprawling to the ground. "Somebody got Oswald.
Hooray", one bystander shouted.

Other people, told about the shooting as they waited for
Oswald's arrival at the county goal, shouted: "They
ought to give the guy a medal".

Mr. J. Price, chief administrator at the Parkland
Hospital, said attendants had been warned of the
possibility of an attempt on Oswald's life. Mr. Steven
Ladregan, his assistant, said the hospital was on "full
alert" for this reason when the wounded Oswald was
brought in. Special precautions had been taken ever
since President Kennedy's death, he said.
@
5.4
About 90,000 pages on the assassination of John F
Kennedy are to be released by the Clinton
administration today. By doing so it hopes to put paid
to the many conspiracy theories surrounding the death
of the former president.

The documents are not likely to produce a "smoking
gun" since previous investigating commissions all had
access to them. Because of the sheer scale of the
information involved however, the documents may
contain some previously undiscovered information
about whether Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy's killer,
has links to CIA agents.

In addition to the CIA files, the National Archives will
release several thousand other documents, including
those from the Warren Commission, which concluded in
1964 that Oswald acted alone.

A new investigative book on Kennedy's assassination is
also being published this week, which supports the
Warren Commission's view. The investigation, one of
the most comprehensive private enquiries launched on
this issue, makes use of advanced computer techniques,
such as computer simulation of an amateur film that
showed the assassination.

Gerald Posner, the author, claims to be able to prove
that three bullets, rather than four were fired at the
president, and that they all came from the sixth floor of
the Texas School Book Depository. Posner's book, "Case
Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of
JFK", also supports the single-bullet theory, which holds
that Kennedy and John Connally, the former Texas
governor, were hit by one bullet.

Posner claims to provide "incontrovertible medical,
ballistic and scientific evidence" that Oswald's second
shot was a single bullet. The author who has previously
investigated the whereabouts of Josef Mengele, the
Nazi concentration camp doctor, also attempts to
disprove the notion that Oswald had links with the
American government, or that he was a KGB agent.

Marina Oswald Porter, 52, Oswald's widow appealed to
those attending a conference on the assassination in
Sudbury, Ontario, on Saturday to keep questioning the
case. She said she did not believe Oswald was the
assassin.