The Man and the Myths
Fifty years later, historians are still struggling to complete a picture that grows more complex with the years.
JFK
In This Issue
Fifty years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, The Atlantic resurfaces some of its best journalism about the 35th president and his legacy. Read classic articles by Robert F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Walter Lippmann, new pieces by Bill Clinton and Robert Dallek—plus rarely seen images and documents.
Fall 2013
Passing the Torch
The 42nd president assesses the civil-rights accomplishments of the 35th.
The Legacy of John F. Kennedy
Historians tend to rate JFK as a good president, not a great one. But Americans consistently give him the highest approval rating of any president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Why?
JFK vs. the Military
President Kennedy faced a foe more relentless than Khrushchev, just across the Potomac: the bellicose Joint Chiefs of Staff argued for the deployment of nuclear weapons and kept pressing to invade Cuba. A presidential historian reveals that Kennedy's success in fending them off may have been his most consequential victory.
The Real Meaning of Ich Bin ein Berliner
In West Berlin in 1963, President Kennedy delivered his most eloquent speech on the world stage. The director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum tells the evocative story behind JFK’s words.
Magnified
Fiction: What if Lee Harvey Oswald had lost his nerve? A historical novelist—who is also a student of the Kennedy assassination—imagines what might have happened next.
What JFK Saw: November 22, 1963
An artist's sketchbook
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Associated Press The Purpose of Poetry
"When power corrupts, poetry cleanses," the president declared.
Associated Press The Medical Ordeals of JFK
The core of the Kennedy image was, in many respects, a lie. A presidential biographer, granted access to medical files, portrays a man far sicker than the public knew.
Associated Press Here Comes Kennedy
A photo essay
Associated Press Playing Hardball
During the Kennedy years, The Atlantic regularly published unsigned reports that provided an insider's perspective on the mood in Washington. Here, the column described Kennedy's political ruthlessness, which helped him secure the Democratic nomination for president in 1960.
Associated Press Kennedy and Nixon
The 1960 presidential election offered voters a clear choice between a well-born candidate who cared about the poor and a candidate of modest birth who wanted government restrained.
The Leader
Henry Burroughs/AP Memo to the Next President
As the 1960 presidential campaign was taking shape, an eminent political scientist examined the top candidates' leadership strategies for bringing an obstinate Congress to heel.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Ask Not
A photo essay
Harvey Georges / AP Team of Eggheads
In assembling the youngest Cabinet in generations, the 43-year-old president insisted that his appointees think along similar lines and communicate easily. For the first time since the New Deal, an administration was in the hands of intellectuals.
The Perils of Charisma
Kennedy's team treated the bureaucracy as the enemy, launching a counterinsurgency that centralized authority in the White House, and placed a dangerous amount of power in one man's hands.
Oval Office, Open Door
President Kennedy's leadership style generated a "creative tension" that energized the executive branch, but his proposals failed to excite Congress.
The Nation
Associated Press JFK’s New Industrial State
As New England’s textile-mill business and other industries fled to the low-wage South, a freshman senator from Massachusetts suggested a solution.
Bob Daughterty / AP JFK’s Civil-Rights Problem
Candidate Kennedy promised a civil-rights bill, but President Kennedy was cautious—overly cautious, critics said—in proposing legislative action.
Do Something!
Action, action, action—that was the new administration's instinct. But six months into Kennedy's term, the success of his agenda still hinged on whether the economy would pick up enough to pay for it.
The Baleful Influence of Gambling
The president's brother came to be considered one of the nation's most effective attorneys general. His interest in organized crime, dating to his Senate staff work during the 1950s, led him to crusade against illegal gambling, which was known to finance criminal enterprises.
Those SOBs
"My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it until now," President Kennedy famously said when he felt steel executives had double-crossed him by raising prices.
Neil Armstrong / NASA / AP Why Land on the Moon?
In 1961, when President Kennedy declared that America would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, critics complained about the cost. In response, two scientists argued that the endeavor shouldn't be thought of in terms of budgets or even science, but rather in terms of pursuing a "great adventure" on behalf of mankind.
Associated Press Too Cool for Congress
Kennedy never worked well with Congress, even while he was a member. Here, a longtime television correspondent examines the cultural roots of JFK's problems on Capitol Hill.
Cecil Staughton / White House / John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Camelot
A photo essay
The Politics of Poverty
Kennedy's concern for the plight of the poor never turned into a broad legislative program. But his successor seized on the issue, claiming it was the martyred president's last wish that he do so.
The World
Frank C. Curtain/AP The Cold War Logic of the Peace Corps
A former first lady's notion for competing with the Soviets: give young Americans a chance to spend two years in an underdeveloped country, offering help and spreading goodwill toward the West
Associated Press What Missile Gap?
In 1960, Kennedy campaigned hard against the Republican negligence that had allowed the Soviet Union to overtake the United States in producing missiles. Once in office, however, JFK learned that there was no missile gap—which gave him an opening to negotiate with Moscow from a position of strength.
Associated Press The Dawn of Nuclear Diplomacy
Every president of the postwar era longed for the approval of Walter Lippmann, the voice of the Eastern establishment. Here, Lippmann praised Kennedy for avoiding nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis.
Associated Press Did Kennedy Cause the Crisis?
Conventional wisdom has tended to rank the Cuban missile crisis as the Kennedy presidency's highest drama and grandest success. Drama, yes. But this provocative recounting of the administration's policy toward Castro's Cuba suggests that Kennedy brought the crisis on himself.
America Didn’t Sleep
By shoring up U.S. military strength and resolve, President Kennedy persuaded the Soviet Union to back down in Berlin and Cuba, bringing a measure of peace to a world frightened about the threat of nuclear war.
Horst Faas / AP How Could Vietnam Happen?
"Many in government or close to it," The Atlantic noted in 1968, "will read the following article with the shock of recognition." An insider explained the bureaucratic imperatives that muzzled dissenters and kept policy makers ignorant of foreign cultures.
The Limits of Power
In an issue that went to press just before President Kennedy's death, The Atlantic described how JFK's difficulties in influencing events had brought gloom to the White House.
The Assassination
Associated Press November 22, 1963
A photo essay
Associated Press John Fitzgerald Kennedy, A Eulogy
“It is in keeping with the Atlantic tradition that we should strive to give the long view of our late president,” the magazine noted shortly after Kennedy’s tragic death. “We turn to Harvard's leading historian, Samuel Eliot Morison, for an estimate of President Kennedy’s place in history.”
Death of a Man
A poem
Associated Press Courage in a Pillbox Hat
Remembering Jacqueline Kennedy's public dignity in the face of catastrophe
LBJ: Oswald Wasn’t Alone
Was President Kennedy murdered because of his actions against Cuba? His successor suspected so.
The Legacy
White House/AP A Dad, a Cad
JFK was a loving family man who doted on his children—and a philanderer who seduced an intern in his wife's bed.
John Lent / AP When RFK Played the What-If Game
In 1966, The Atlantic assigned the NBC News correspondent Douglas Kiker to take the measure of the late president's brother and political heir, who, seeing the presidency as his destiny and his due, was biding his time until Lyndon B. Johnson was out of the way.
Charles Tasnadi / AP Knifed
How a Kennedy brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, fell victim to the jealous acolytes of a political dynasty in mourning
Associated Press The Cultural Meaning of the Kennedys
Jack, Jackie, Bobby—or is it Elvis, Marilyn, Ringo? The Kennedys have left the realm of politics to reign as entertainment superstars, at the intersection of Washington and Hollywood.
