Presidential Food

I was watching Food Network and saw an episode of Top 5, which covered their top 5 choices of presidential favorite foods. I thought I’d share the tidbits here for you all:

5.) BBQ

• This was LBJ’s favorite. In 1964, the Johnsons held a state dinner for the President-elect of Mexico, Diaz Ordaz. Check out LBJ’s toast if you like as well. LBJ held over 100 official BBQ as a president.

4.) French Fries

• Pommes Frites (what we know call French Fries – they were named by WWI soldiers) were discovered by Thomas Jefferson while he was Minister to France. In 1802 he included “potatoes fried in the French manner” at a White House dinner.

3.) Potato Chips

• Bill Clinton was a fan of Martin’s Potato Chips and had them stocked in Air Force One. Actually Martin’s still provides 30 cases a month to Air Force One even though Clinton is no longer in the White House. Clinton discovered these chips in 1991 while campaigning.

2.) French Cuisine

• The Kennedys love of French food brought the entire US into a love affair with French cuisine. The Kennedys’ favorite French restaurant was La Caravelle in New York City and Jackie called their head chef to find her a new White House chef. La Caravelle actually trained her chef, Rene Verdon, for two weeks before he started at the White House. [You can read about White House chefs and choosing a new one in this article.] There was one American dish that JFK insisted be prepared regularly though – New England Clam Chowder.

1.) Jelly Beans

• Ronald Reagan discovered jelly beans in 1967 while Governor of California. He used them to help him kick his pipe smoking habit. When the new Jelly Bellys came out in 1976, he was quick to make the switch. When he became president, the company made a new flavor – blueberry – so that red, white and blue jelly beans could be served as his inauguration. They provided 3.5 tons of jelly beans for the inauguration.

And a few more presidential food facts:

• Nixon enjoyed cottage cheese with ketchup on it.
• The Madisons introduced a novel new dish at their inauguration – ice cream

In the theme of presidential food, I enjoy mysteries as well as presidential non-fiction (yes, I do have normal interests). A few weeks ago I picked up a new book to try: The State of the Onion by July Hyzy. The main character is a White House assistant chef. It was actually a rather enjoyable read – nothing really historical, but it was quite amusing. Olivia Paras (Ollie) stumbles into the middle of the Secret Service chasing an intruder off and becomes involved in a hunt for an assassin.

Poll: Which 20th century American President was the most responsible for starting a war?

The poll has closed for the question, "Which 20th century American President was the most responsible for starting a war?" Thanks to all who participated by voting.

George H.W. Bush was the leading vote getter with 41% for the Persian Gulf War. President Kennedy was second with 29% for the Vietnam War. President Clinton was third with 12% for the Kosovo War. Truman polled 9% for the Korean War and Wilson got 6% for World War One.

I could only place five Presidents on the poll. As such, I left FDR off. I hardly think he started World War Two so I think this was a good choice. I am going to get off the war theme and try a different sort of poll question next.

Apparent clue to JFK death likely a fake. Or is it?

A new trove of material related to the Kennedy Assissination has been made available to the public. Included in this batch is an apparent transcript of a possible conversation between Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby two months before the murder of Kennedy. Details can be found at Apparent clue to JFK death likely a fake, DA's office says.

Do not get too excited. It looks like the transcript is actually an attempt at a movie script. The transcript was found in the same safe with a movie contract signed by former Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade.

"The fact that it's sitting in Henry Wade's file, and he didn't do anything, indicates he thought it wasn't worth anything," Curator Gary Mack of the Sixth Floor Museum said. "He probably kept it because it was funny. It's hilarious. It's like a bad B movie."

"It's not real. Crooks don't talk like that," Terri Moore said. "If that transcript is true, then history is changed because Oswald and Ruby were talking about assassinating the president."

Of course, if you believe in a conspiracy, maybe the transcript is real. Perhaps they (whoever "they" are) just want us to believe the transcript is fake. I think though that destroying the transcript if it was real would have been much easier. Wouldn't "they" have had plenty of time to have shredded this document? It must be a fake. If not...

Poll: Which presidential assassination affected the country the most?

The poll has closed for the question, "Which presidential assassination affected the country the most?" Thanks to all who participated by voting.

President Lincoln was first with 56%. President Kennedy was second with 34%. McKinley and Garfield trailed far behind with 4% and 3%.

Although I do not disagree with this assessment, I would like to speak up for the importance of the McKinley and Garfield assassinations. Without McKinley's murder, Teddy Roosevelt may have never been president. His trust busting and environmental activitism had a huge impact on the 20th century. Garfield's death allowed Arthur to become president and begin a major reform of the civil service system. Take way either presidential murder and we are probably looking at a very different world today.

Poll: Which American President was the most charismatic?

The poll has closed for the question "Which American President was the most charismatic?" Thank to all those who participated by voting.

JFK was the winner with 44%. President Reagan came in second with 20%. FDR was third with 18%. President Jackson was last with 16%.

Irish Presidents

If you ask most people which President had Irish ancestry, you get one quick answer - JFK. But according to the Directory of Irish Genealogy, there are 15 others, including our current President:

• Andrew Jackson
• James Knox Polk
• James Buchanan
• Ulysses S Grant
• Chester Alan Arthur
• Grover Cleveland
• William McKinley
• Woodrow Wilson
• John Fitzgerald Kennedy
• Lyndon Baines Johnson
• Richard Milhous Nixon
• James Earl Carter
• Ronald Wilson Reagan
• George Herbert Walker Bush
• William Jefferson Clinton
• George W Bush

This page also gives some background on the genealogical questions surrounding some of the recent president's Irish ancestry.

To go with this, you can read a USA Today article on Bush's Irish link. That article actually only says there are 11 presidents with Irish ancestry, so believe who you choose.

Poll: Which President has the most impressive memorial in Washington, DC?

The poll has closed for "Which President has the most impressive memorial in Washington, DC?" Thanks to all who voted.

There was a clear winner. Abraham Lincoln received 50% of the vote. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson each got 17%. FDR and JFK each got 7%.

Thanks to the Tour Marm for the question.

Poll: Which Presidential couple had the most tumultuous marriage?

The has closed for the question, "Which Presidential couple had the most tumultuous marriage?"

Bill and Hillary Clinton won with 32%. Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln came in a close second with 29%. JFK and his wife came in third and Franklin and Jane Pierce finished fourth.

Thanks to all who participated by voting.

Poll: Which actor was the best at portraying JFK in a movie?

The poll has closed for the question, "Which actor was the best at portraying JFK in a movie?" There was a tie at the top between Cliff Robertson (PT 109) and Bruce Greenwood (Thirteen Days) with 35% of the vote. There was a tie for third place between James Franciscus (Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy) and William Petersen (The Rat Pack) at 15% each.

Thanks to all who participated.

LBJ and the CMC

I find it interesting that often “state secrets” are kept even from high ranking officials of state – like the Vice President. We’ve all heard the story of Truman and the atomic bomb. An HNN article from this week explores how little Lyndon Johnson (LBJ), Kennedy’s Vice President, knew about the actual happenings of the Cuban Missile Crisis (CMC).
The article starts with the criticism that has been levied against LBJ – that he should have been better able to cope with Vietnam because of the lessons of the CMC, but the authors (Holland and Egan) bring up this question:
But what if Johnson was not permitted to learn the right lessons, which would have had to begin with an accurate understanding of what had happened? What if Johnson was purposely denied important knowledge? What if Johnson thought he had drawn the right lessons, but actually was trying to replicate a manufactured illusion?

The authors tell us that four members of ExComm were excluded from the final secret deal that ended the CMC – namely the US pulling missiles out of Turkey in return of the USSR pulling missiles out of Cuba. One of these members was LBJ. The other three (Taylor, Dillion, and McCone) were for political reasons. By why LBJ – JFK’s own Vice President?
…John Kennedy also decided to shut out Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat and the second-highest officeholder in the land. There was a tinge of irony in LBJ’s exclusion. Like any consummate politician, Johnson valued one quality—loyalty—above all else, and since he expected it, he gave it in return. Still, not even LBJ’s repeated demonstrations of fealty had been sufficient to overcome the Kennedys’ distrust, and in Robert Kennedy’s case, intense and ineradicable dislike.

So what happened?
In the days following the discovery of the Soviet missiles on October 15, Johnson had played an ambiguous, even contradictory, role at the ExComm meetings—that is, when he chose to speak at all. During the first day of deliberations, the vice president expressed the view that the offensive elements of the Soviet buildup were intolerable for domestic political reasons. As the ExComm’s discussions turned to the crucial question of whether to impose a blockade or take more violent action, however, LBJ went missing in action. Because the administration did not want to signal Moscow that its missiles had been sighted in Cuba, it was decided to keep LBJ on the political hustings as if nothing were untoward.

When Johnson finally made it back to Washington on October 21, the president directed DCI McCone to bring the vice president up to speed on the controversial decision to impose a blockade. Johnson initially expressed disagreement with the policy that had been developed. But McCone had also briefed Dwight Eisenhower that morning, and when the DCI informed Johnson that the former president opposed a surprise attack, and accepted the military handicap that came with imposition of a blockade, Johnson reluctantly changed his position.

Johnson attended every ExComm session thereafter, though his return hardly seemed to matter. Johnson only began to assert himself during the critical meeting on Saturday afternoon, October 27. Overall, LBJ seemed to favor a negotiated solution to the crisis, though he also came down on both sides of the key issue of linkage. At one point he criticized Robert McNamara’s stiff opposition to a missile swap, arguing that the Jupiter missiles were “not worth a damn” anyway. Minutes later, LBJ likened an outright trade to appeasement, asserting that it would be tantamount to dismantling the containment edifice Washington had painstakingly built.

There was every reason to believe, from the totality of what Johnson said, that he would have genuinely supported Kennedy’s gambit: to make the trade, so long as the Soviets agreed to keep it secret. But when the president convened a rump ExComm session on October 27, after the regular one broke up and just before RFK’s evening meeting with the Soviet ambassador, Johnson was purposefully excluded from the trusted inner circle. Thus, LBJ was left unaware of the genuine settlement terms that were hastily accepted by Nikita Khrushchev the next day.

Since the actual agreement was never known at the time, the CMC became a fabled stand-off and Kennedy a hero and after his assassination, no one was willing to contest the story. Stanford Professor Barton Bernstein pointed out in 1992 that this myth made it impossible for Johnson to live up to JFK’s image. While LBJ knew some of the story was false, there were parts that he did not even know, making it difficult for him to work with.

Holland and Egan state that even a better knowledge of the CMC probably wouldn’t have changed LBJ’s Vietnam policy:
Being privy to the truth about the missile crisis settlement might not have altered materially Johnson’s decisions about Vietnam. Had Johnson had a more accurate understanding of the missile crisis’ true history, he still would have had to contend with the false analogies and “lessons” that were rife in public. But more knowledge would have indisputably served him better than what he was allowed to know.

White House Collector

Set Charles Momjian is a major collector of many fascinating objects, including White House china and First Ladies letters, and it is a small part of his huge collection of White House china that is currently on display at the National First Ladies Library.

As such, Mr. Momjian was at the NFLL last week to discuss his collection and I was able to listen to him speak. This is a man who is full of stories about Presidents and First Ladies and is a general delight to listen to. Mr. Momjian is a retired Ford executive and served as a UN respresentative for the Carter administration. He is a regular at White House functions. He says that White House china is so fascinating because: "White House china shows the personal style of each First Lady and they are the only items that remain in the White House to give us a sense of their tastes and the times in which they lived."

Now if you browse the NFLL's site, you will see some of Mr. Momjian's pieces on display. I thought I would also share a few stories that he told us last week.

There is no Kennedy china - JFK was assassinated before china was purchased, although it was discussed. Mr. Momjian discovered a letter by Jacqueline Kennedy to the china company, which discusses what she wanted her china to look like. He then decided to try to have some made up in the pattern she mentioned (she wanted yellow china), but he never could find a design he felt reflected Jackie's taste. Some time later he was out looking for pieces and he found a plate that seemed to embody what Jackie's letter had said and it included the presidential seal. He immediately asked the price and was asked if he'd seen the letter with it. The letter was from a Kennedy White House maid, who stated that this was a sample plate for Kennedy White House china that the Kennedys ate off for a week to see if they liked it. Mr. Momjian purchased both the plate and the letter immediately.

Mr. Momjian often loans his plates out to musuems and functions as well as uses them for his own entertainments. He was once asked to provide plates for a reunion of Presidential children and grandchildren so each person could eat off a plate from their father/grandfather's White House. He did this and Eleanor Seagraves (a granddaughter of FDR) was very moved by this as she had not eaten off Roosevelt china since before her grandfather had died. She told Mr. Momjian that she would send him something special. So what did she send him? When the Roosevelts entertained the king and queen of England at their home, they used their own china. They also had to come up with a larger table, so had used sawhorses and cobbled a table together and then covered it beautifully. Dinner went along smoothly, but at the end, a heavy dish was set on one end and the entire table when flying. All the china was smashed execpt for two pieces that Eleanor Roosevelt managed to save. One was perfect and one was cracked, but Eleanor Seagraves now had both. She sent Mr. Momjian the perfect plate.

Now the last story that Mr. Momjian tells actually made the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on July 1, 1993. You can access the entire story through any number of major databases (I've included parts of the article here as well). Mr. Momjian was in line for a Fourth of July party at the Reagan White House in 1988 when he noticed as an elderly woman, 83-year-old Frances Green, in line in what was obviously her best dress - about 40 years ago:
"This is the happiest day of my life," the 83-year-old woman said. "The president has invited me to the White House." She explained that she took the train from Davis, Calif., and sat up all the way because she couldn't afford a sleeping compartment. As a matter of fact, she wouldn't have any more money until she got home to her next Social Security check, she told him. But none of that mattered because Frances Green was going to have dinner with the president. Momjian was perplexed. He asked to see her invitation. "Did you see the RSVP card?" he asked her. "Yes, but I was taught you write a letter when you receive an invitation, so I wrote to the president and told him I was coming," she told Momjian. "Her manners were correct," Momjian said. "But because she hadn't looked at the RSVP card, she didn't see that it had a little box to check in front of this sentence: 'Yes, I'll be there. Here is my check for $10,000.' "When Mrs. Green got up to the guard's desk, he couldn't find her name on the list," said Momjian, who tried to talk the guard into letting her join the party. But, no, she had not been cleared and she was not allowed in.

A few hours later when Mr. Momjian came back out of the White House, Mrs. Green was still there, looking very forlorn. He offered to bring her back for a special tour of the White House and then preceded to spend the weekend trying to figure out why she had gotten this invitation to a fund-raiser and if there was anything he could do for her. Well, it turns out she was a regular contributor to the Reagan campaigns - she had sent $1 a year for 8 years and the invitations had went out to all regular contributors - no matter the size of the past donations. Mr. Momjian managed to get Mrs. Green a 11 AM meeting with the president after a tour of the White House, but didn't tell her about meeting Reagan as he knew these things didn't always happen. But he told her to wear her white dress again. Now the Tuesday came and Mr. Momjian picked her up for her tour, but was glad he hadn't told her about meeting the President because it seemed that it wouldn't happen. A US Navy cruiser had just shot down an Iranian airliner and the US Attorney General had just resigned. But Mr. Momjian picked up Frances Green and took her on her tour and at the end, he tells us what happened:
"At 10 to 11, I sat her in chair just outside the Oval Office. She didn't know that was the door. I told her just to rest there awhile. "The door opened and the National Security Council walked out. I thought, 'Oh, no.' But this is why Reagan was Reagan," Momjian said. "On his desk was a note telling him all about Frances Green, why she was there and that she sent him a dollar a year." He invited her in. "Mrs. Green," Reagan said. "I'm so sorry about the other day. Those darn computers fouled up again. Of course you had an invitation. They should have called me from the gate." She understood. These things happen. "I knew it, I knew it," Mrs. Green said. And then White House photographer snapped a picture of Reagan, Momjian and Frances Green on the happiest day of her life.

Mr. Momjian even had a copy of that picture to show us last week!

Now I hope you enjoyed these tidbits, but I have to admit, they were better in person!

JFK Assassination Revisited

Always another theory, right? Well, new bullet anaylsis research is saying that the lone gunman theory in the JFK Assassination could be flawed. The crux of the new information is that:
Official investigations during the 1960s concluded that Kennedy was hit by two bullets fired by Lee Harvey Oswald.

But the researchers, including former FBI lab metallurgist William Tobin, said new chemical and statistical analyses of bullets from the same batch used by Oswald suggest that more than two bullets could have struck the president.

As a note, the scientists aren't saying that it couldn't be right - merely that it could NOT be correct:
"This finding means that the bullet fragments from the assassination that match could have come from three or more separate bullets," the researchers said. "If the assassination fragments are derived from three or more separate bullets, then a second assassin is likely," the researchers said. If the five fragments came from three or more bullets, that would mean a second gunman's bullet would have had to strike the president, the researchers explained.

As a note - I linked two different articles on this subject for you. So what do all of you think? Was there there a conspiracy or did Oswald act alone?

And another thing Eleanor!

So what's with my title? Well, in 1985 Ronald Reagan gave a tribute speech about John F. Kennedy to help support the JFK Presidential Library. It is a enjoyable speech in itself and I especially like that Reagan admits he worked against Kennedy's election:
Which is not to say I supported John Kennedy when he ran for president, because I didn't. I was for the other fellow. But you know, it's true: when the battle's over and the ground is cooled, well, it's then that you see the opposing general's valor.

But what I want to share from this speech is the end, talking about the history of the White House:
And sometimes I want to say to those who are still in school, and who sometimes think that history is a dry thing that lives in a book: Nothing is ever lost in that great house; some music plays on. I have been told that late at night when the clouds are still and the moon is high, you can just about hear the sound of certain memories brushing by. You can almost hear, if you listen close, the whir of a wheelchair rolling by and the sound of a voice calling out, "And another thing Eleanor!" Turn down a hall and you can hear the brisk strut of a fellow saying, "Bully! Absolutely ripping!" Walk softly now and you're drawn to the soft notes of a piano and a brilliant gathering in the East Room, where a crowd surrounds a bright young president who is full of hope and laughter. History is not only made by people, it is people.

I thought you'd all enjoy that with me! Please follow the link above if you want to read the entire speech (it isn't that long).

JFK assassination through Mrs. Johnson’s eyes

In the course of the Warren Commission’s investigation into JFK’s assassination, they took testimony from everyone - even Lady Bird Johnson. I find this a fascinating "other" look at the JFK assassination.

Mrs. Johnson recorded that at first she thought the sounds she heard were firecrackers, not shots: “There had been such a gala air that I thought it must be firecrackers or some sort of celebration.” The reaction of the Secret Service alerted her to the fact that something was really wrong. She went on to say: “I cast one last look over my shoulder and saw [in the president's car] a bundle of pink, just like a drift of blossoms, lying on the back seat. I think it was Mrs. Kennedy lying over the president's body ... .”

November Remembrance, Part Two

Part One of this post can be found at History Is Elementary, here.

Mother often told us about the Kennedy assassination and how the four day coverage of that event actually helped her turn a corner. After that time things weren’t better but her ability to cope was better. Sister Dear and I now realize through Mother’s recollection of the whole time period she had actually lost an entire year. In her mind Nanny’s death and JFK’s assassination were simply a few days apart instead of one year and a few days. We have memories of Thanksgiving being a sad time. 1962 was the last Thanksgiving where we travelled to a grandparent’s home. Mother cooked from that point on, but it was always a little sad with a morose pall over the whole day. Mother cooked, and Mother grieved every Thanksgiving.



Having been born in May, 1962 I am a Kennedy baby, a child born during the fading Age of Camelot and at the tail end of the Baby Boom Generation. Once I was old enough to hear Mother tell her stories (she had a million of them) I was destined to entertwine the borrowed memories of Sister Dear and Mother regarding Nanny and President Kennedy’s tragic death, but even Mother it would appear, had borrowed memories because she had lost a year… a year between her own mother’s death on November 24, 1962 and Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963.

While my mother grieved over the loss of her mother many of the events involving space exploration, civil rights, and the Cold War during the last three hundred and sixty-five days of Kennedy’s presidency would shape later events and the course of our country for over the next thirty years.

Following my mother’s tragic Thanksgiving on December 24, 1962 over one thousand Bay of Pigs prisoners were finally exchanged after two years of negotiations for medical supplies and baby food. The struggle for Civil Rights slapped Americans in the face when early in January Alabama governor, George Wallace promised, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.” I continued to do things an eight month old baby does, Sister Dear went to school and played, and our Mother….she grieved.

In February, 1963 travel, financial and commericial transactions were made illegal by U.S. citizens to Cuba by President Kennedy. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered states to provide free counsel for defendants who could not afford an attorney in March. I jolted Mother into reality for a bit by falling out of my crib. The metal part of my hair barrette gouged deep into my scalp. Daddy came to the rescue and made it better. Sister Dear went to school and played with the kids next door, and our Mother…she grieved.

In April, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested in Birmingham with others for “parading without a permit” and wrote his Letter From a Birmingham Jail while incarcerated. In May, 1963, the Civil Rights issue heated up even further when Sheriff "Bull" Conner of Birmingham used fire hoses and attack dogs on demonstrators. The images splashed across television screens doing more for the support of civil rights than any speech or endorsement. I celebrated my first birthday with an extremely short haircut (no more barrettes, please), Sister Dear began her summer vacation, and our mother…she grieved.

On June 11, 1963 Kennedy gave two important speeches. In one he stated all citizens should have “the kind of equality of treatment which we would want for ourselves.” He spoke of promises that will one day become the Civil Rights Act. The second speech occurred at the Berlin Wall where he spoke of the failure of communism and stated, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” In July, NASA launched Syncom, the world’s first geostationary satellite. I run after and annoy Sister Dear while she runs after her dog Jingles who ran after Sister Dear's new Hula Hoop, and our mother…she grieved.

In August, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his eloquent “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington D.C. while in , JFK announced changes in policy and personnel were needed with the South Vietnamese government. Tragically in September, the Sixteenth Street Church was bombed in Birmingham killing four sweet little girls. Sister Dear and I are barely aware the nightly news is on as we play around the coffee table before Dad tells us, “Shhhhhhhh…..”, and our mother…she grieved.

In October, JFK signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and in early November President Diem of South Vietnam was overthrown and murdered. The next year the Gulf of Tonkin incident would play out. I spent my days playing in front of the television with a yellow plastic baby bed and doll I had gotten for my birthday while Sister Dear went to school and mother…she grieved.

The first Thanksgiving without Nanny came and went followed by the anniversary of her death. On the afternoon of November 24, 1963 my mother was watching her “programs” as she did for every day of my life. As the World Turns was on during that time of the day when Walter Cronkite’s voice interrupted the live broadcast to state,

“Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting. More details just arrived...these details about the same as previously, President Kennedy shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas. Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed Mr. Kennedy, she called 'Oh no!', the motorcade sped on. United Press says that the wounds for President Kennedy perhaps could be fatal. Repeating, a bulletin from CBS News, President Kennedy has been shot by a would-be assassin in Dallas, Texas. Stay tuned to CBS News for further details."

A few minutes later Mr. Cronkite, now on camera was handed a piece of paper from the Associated Press wire machine, put on his glasses, looked it over for a moment, took off his glasses, and told the viewing audience:

“From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time---2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.”

After the announcement, Cronkite paused briefly, put his glasses back on and swallowed hard, apparently trying to maintain his composure. Still, there was noticeable emotion and a quaver in his voice as he intoned the next sentence, "Vice President Johnson has left the hospital..."

Mother was no longer alone in her grief. She grieved with Jackie and Rose and the rest of the Kennedy clan. An entire nation grieved. Our television, like many across the nation, remained on for four days straight as the nation’s networks instituted twenty-four hour coverage for the first time ever.

I never knew my grandmother. I never experienced an America while Kennedy was president. I quilted a memory of both them together through my mother’s grief. I cannot think of one without the other since they are so meshed together. Thanksgiving does not come and go without a remembrance of Nanny and the loss of President Kennedy.

Adlai Stevenson, U.N. Ambassador at the time, said it best regarding the effect of the Kennedy assassination, “All of us will bear the grief of his death until the day of ours…”

So, I’ll end this piece as I began part one……

Is it possible to love someone through another’s memory? To love and admire someone you never met, someone you will never be able to meet, someone who at the moment of their passing caused an incredible upheaval of grief and gouged an enormous chasm of longing for things that can never be, someone who a large number of people still speak of with reverence, awe, and thankfulness?

I believe it is possible.

I know it is possible.

I know it because I participate in this kind of love and admiration everyday for two vastly different Americans who left this Earth almost a year to the day from one another. My admiration for these two inviduals stems from my mother who shared her memories of them with me during my formative years where they became entertwined and linked indelibly in the murkiness where actual memory and grafted memories blend.

Dora Estelle Hill Blanton and John Fitzgerald Kennedy....two vastly different Americans....both worthy to be remembered!

Lost papers of JFK

It is depressing to think about the amount of historical knowledge lost to theft. Libraries and museums face continuous problems with security. Libraries are by nature friendly and trusting places – letting you check out books to take home and read. But there are people who will take advantage of that generosity. Now this theft actually took place before the receipt of the donation occurred, the idea is still the same.

James Roth’s article in Prologue, Reclaiming Pieces of Camelot, discusses problems with the Kennedy collection. Evelyn Lincoln, a former secretary of John F. Kennedy, was suspected of “misappropriating” documents related to JFK and through a long effort by NARA, the JFK library, the Kennedy family and the Department of Justice, these items were returned to their rightful institutions. Lincoln was entrusted with gathering up Kennedy’s papers in 1963 for the family to go through to decide what would be donated and what would be kept, but Lincoln turned out not to be a trustworthy choice:
…rather than turning over all of these materials to President Kennedy's family and the National Archives, Lincoln appeared to have kept many of these items and eventually given them away or sold them.

As early as 1964, the Kennedy family noticed problems in the papers Lincoln had turned over to them, but it was not until 1998 that the case was brought to the limelight. An auction of Kennedy material was announced, some of it that the National Archives and the JFK Library knew belonged to them. The Kennedy children also stepped forward with claims to some of materials at this time as well. In a long process of documentation and legal issues, a solution was finally found in 2005:
In the spring of 2004, library staff were permitted to review the entire White collection and selected all items that were deemed to belong to either the library or the family. After a year of negotiation, a final settlement was reached by all three parties in the summer of 2005. The library and Caroline Kennedy obtained the items they claimed and provided the White estate with a release of all of the other items that they had reviewed.

The article discusses what some of these Kennedy artifacts are. I’ll let you explore what was found, but I’ll share two with you so you can see the scope and importance of these papers. First to the Pre-Presidential Papers:
A significant addition to John F. Kennedy's Pre-Presidential Papers is a group of 11 folders relating to the 1960 Democratic National Convention. Before their recovery, the collection of Kennedy's papers at the library lacked material from the convention. The Democratic National Convention materials were collected and generated by Senator Kennedy and his staff before, during, and immediately following the convention in Los Angeles, California.

Next to the Presidential Papers on the Cuban Missile Crisis:
In 2003, Kennedy Library Director Deborah Leff received a telephone call from NARA General Counsel Gary M. Stern informing her that a NARA researcher had seen a map of Cuba for sale on the web for $750,000. The map was advertised as The Cuban Missile Crisis Map, "the ultimate JFK relic, originally acquired from the noted Kennedy collector Robert White" with the claim that this was "the most important Kennedy manuscript extant in private hands." White had long sold the map, and it had changed hands numerous times, ending up in the hands of a collector named Ralph McElvenny. The director convened a team of archivists at the library to work with the general counsel to investigate the background of the document.

Lincoln’s theft was unknown for years and after discovery took ten years to sort out. Allen Weinstein, the Archivist of the US, had this to say at the announcement of the settlement:
I am very pleased that these important documents and artifacts are finally being returned to the Kennedy Library where they belong. It was the intent of the Kennedy family that the American people should have the fullest account of the Kennedy administration, and these materials are essential in telling that story.

This article is two things. First, it is the story of the documents themselves and what they tell us about President Kennedy, which is important in itself. Second, it is a story that illustrates the amount of cultural thefts going on in our country. While this story as a happy ending, many do not. Remember to watch out for your cultural artifacts!

JFK's diary

White House Diary

You can pick any date from Kennedy's presidency and click on it. For instance, November 15, 1961, you get told that JFK's had a meeting of the National Secruity Council. There is also a picture with it. It is pretty cool! The day of his assassination includes a video of the Kennedys getting off the plane in Dallas. This is part of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum's site.

When Kennedy and Nixon Swore

When Kennedy and Nixon Swore. I just discovered this lesson plan from the School of Champions. It is by Ron Kurtus.

This sounds like a fun lesson to teach. I think the students would have some quality learning too. And then the kids can go home and tell their parents that the teacher taught them swear words!

From the site:

During both John F. Kennedy's and Richard M. Nixon's terms in office as President of the United States, Time Magazine published articles that stated how each used profanities in the White House. The articles handled the fact quite differently for the two Presidents, showing a bias that reflected a general attitude about the men.

Questions you may have are:

What did the press say about the profanity?

Why was there a difference between the two?

What can be learned from this?

This lesson will try to answer those questions. There is a mini-quiz near the end of the lesson.

Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy

Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy. This is the text of the speech that JFK gave after he was sworn into office on January 20, 1961. The fabled Camelot began here...

From the site:

Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, reverend clergy, fellow citizens, we observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom--symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning--signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe--the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that 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--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Great Debate & Beyond: The History of Televised Presidential Debates

Great Debate & Beyond: The History of Televised Presidential Debates. This site is a multimedia examination of American Presidential from 1960 to 2000. It includes video, photographs, and curriculum resources.

The most visible debate covered is the so called "Great Debate." This was the first Television debate between presidential candidates and it featured Kennedy vs. Nixon. Other topics include Televised Debate History 1960-2000, and Television: The Great Equalizer. What is nice of each of these sections is that they are loaded with videos, transcripts, photos, essays, and coverage of "spin" that played out after each debate.

The Curriculum Resources is also nice with lesson plans using the debates for courses in government and politics, history, debate, and communication. All in all, a nice site! I hope information on the 2004 debate goes up soon as well.