Kennedy's Last Days: The Assassination That Defined a Generation (2 page)

BOOK: Kennedy's Last Days: The Assassination That Defined a Generation

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The Kennedys with Jackie’s sister’s family, Christmas Eve, 1962. The black dog is Clipper. Mrs. Kennedy is holding Charlie.
[JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

There would be other showdowns during Kennedy’s presidency, as well as times of family relaxation. And it seemed as if we were in on them all. There were photos of the president in meetings, walking with world leaders, speaking around the world, sailing on his yacht, and playing with his children. He was a glamorous figure, young and energetic. He had style, and his wife, Jackie, had even more. Kennedy was friendly with the press and let them show what his life was like. He was our first president who liked to be on television.

And it was television that kept the country in touch when he was killed. After the assassination, my mother and father, like most Americans, were glued to the TV. For three days after the 1:40
P.M.
news bulletin on November 22, 1963, the country watched. Walter Cronkite, the most respected man in television news, had broken into the broadcast of a soap opera to announce the shooting. All the major networks showed the return of the president’s body to Washington, D.C., his funeral mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew, and his burial in Arlington National Cemetery. Not a single commercial was aired during those three days.

My father was not enthusiastic about the new president, Lyndon Johnson. My mother was sad and mostly worried about Jackie Kennedy and her two young children. To me, Kennedy was a distant figure who died in a terrible way, although many of the photographs of that day have stayed with me always.

It wasn’t until I got to college that I began to be interested in politics and in how great men like John Kennedy met the challenges that were thrown at them.