- Most presidencies have their fair share of controversy, and John Kennedy's was no different:
- Was he a fearless champion of civil rights, or was he too politically cautious?
- Did he boldly stare down Khrushchev over the Cuban Missile Crisis, or did he recklessly take the
world to the edge of nuclear catastrophe?
- Was he a dedicated family man and charming prince of Camelot, or a shameless womanizer?
- Was he a wise and respected Commander in Chief, or an indecisive and weak one who
abandoned his friends at the Bay of Pigs?
Less controversial is that Kennedy was an inspirational and charismatic leader. His youth and
energy made all things seem possible -- even the impossible:
- We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other
things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
You have to wonder how America and the world might have been different had JFK lived. Would
Vietnam have escalated into the long, bloody quagmire it became? Would Watergate have
demoralized the nation? Would the optimism and sense of togetherness of America in the Kennedy
years have degenerated into the cynicism and bitter divisions that still exist today?
America didn't change overnight on November 22, 1963. But looking back, that date arguably
became the boundary line between the America that existed before it and the different one that
emerged after.
Lee Harvey Oswald. How could this one man -- this deranged loner, this misfit "in the category of
nut" -- have managed to kill a beloved president and change the course of history? There is a deep
human need to try to make sense out of such a senseless act, especially one with so great an
impact. That need, it is argued, explains why so many Americans believe the assassination was the
result of a conspiracy, not the irrational act of a madman.
On the other hand, if there was a conspiracy behind the assassination, the government almost
certainly had to be involved at least to the extent of covering it up. If so, there apparently are forces
inside or outside our government with enormous power, and yet are not known to or answerable to
the people. To many Americans, that possibility is simply unthinkable. Therefore, conspiracy is
unthinkable.
As controversial as the Kennedy presidency was, it doesn't approach the controversy over his death.
Even the U.S. Government has two official and conflicting explanations of the crime: In 1964, the
Warren Commission determined that, without doubt, Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin; In
1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations published its findings that JFK "was probably
assassinated as a result of a conspiracy," one in which Lee Harvey Oswald participated.
For a lively ongoing debate on the great and small aspects of the assassination, visit the newsgroup
alt.assassination.jfk.
Dozens of books and web sites are dedicated to the assassination. Here are two links that present
different sides of some of the controversial questions: