Remembering JFK

It has been 47 years since John Fitzgerald Kennedy, our 35th president, was assassinated in Dallas. Two years ago, I wrote about what I remembered from that time, and how my family’s move to Virginia is inextricably linked.

Today, Kennedy has been dead longer than he lived – he was but 46 when he died, younger than I am now. (It has been interesting to follow his 1960 campaign for president on Twitter, a project of the JFK Library.) Just one year before, on November 22, 1962, the president’s diary shows a single entry: Thanksgiving dinner at Hyannis Port.

The news of that day:

November 22, 1962

Communist China announced early today that its promised cease-fire had gone into effect along the China-India border. Word of the truce was reported by Hsinhua, the Chinese Communist press agency. The Chinese action was confirmed by Prime Minister Nehru in an announcement to the Indian Parliament. Before the cease-fire went into effect, the Chinese forces were said to have made substantial gains along the northeastern sector of the border. (1:8)

Earlier, the United States announced it was sending 12 turbo-jet transport planes, with 160 American airmen aboard, to India to assist her in the fighting. (1:6-7)

United States specialists believe that Communist China has already achieved its primary goal in the border war. This goal, they say, was to force India to acknowledge China’s possession of a strategic area of Ladakh where the Chinese have built a vital road linking western Tibet to China. (3:5-6)

With the Cuba crisis eased, the United States began dismantling its air and sea blockade forces. The Pentagon ordered the release of 14,200 Air Force Reservists who were called to active duty last month, but Navy patrol planes were assigned to verify Moscow’s pledge to withdraw jet bombers from Cuba. (1:5)

The Soviet bloc ended the alert status of its forces. (10:3-5)

In the new phase of the Cuban problem the United States hopes to encourage the decline of Premier Fidel Castro’s prestige at home and internationally. Washington still insists that he submit to international inspection of the removal of Soviet weapons and will press for a system to assure that such weapons are not reintroduced. (1:4)

Chief United States Marshal James P. McShane surrendered in Oxford, Miss., on a warrant charging him with “inciting” the segregation riots at the University of Mississippi Sept. 30. He was released on a writ of habeas corpus by a judge who earlier ruled that former Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker was mentally competent to stand trial for his role in the rioting. (1:2-3)

As the new executive order against discrimination in housing went into effect, the Administration was confident it would have tangible though not revolutionary effect. Southern Senators assailed the order as “absolutely unconstitutional” and “a grave disservice” to the nation’s economy. (1:1)

United States seeking a basis for Yemen peace. (pg. 1)

If there is anything that I always wonder around this time of year is what our country would have been like had he not been murdered.