From 1960, words that still matter
Tomorrow marks the 60th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s nomination for president by the Democrats. He was a 42-year-old Massachusetts senator. He pledged to “win in November” over the Republican vice president at the time, a fella by the name of Richard Nixon. He did.
His presidency lasted two years, ten month, and two days, one of the shortest in history. Most people of a certain age remember the start of his presidency, an inauguration marked by a remarkably eloquent speech in the frosty air in front of the Capitol.
Read today, it is a bit bellicose and grandiose with its pledges to defend “freedom around the world and to “pay any price” for the success of democracy. Less well remembered is the speech Kennedy gave in accepting his party’s nomination for president.
It came on a warm southern California evening. The place was the Los Angeles Coliseum. At some point during the speech, my Aunt Ruth, watching on television from her home in Uniontown, turned to her sister Helen, my mother, and said, “He’s a pretty good speaker.” Fond of Ike, the incumbent president, my aunt would cast her lot in November with Nixon. At least that’s what I assume she did.
On that July night in 1960, Kennedy unveiled what he called “the New Frontier … the frontier of the 1960s, a frontier of” hopes and dreams, and daunting challenges.
Kennedy said the New Frontier consisted not of programs or policies, legislation or regulations. Instead, the New Frontier “of which I speak is … a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security.”
Yes, but there was the little matter of medical coverage for the elderly under Social Security – an idea that had been kicking around for decades on the Democratic wish list. Medicare, proposed by Kennedy, would finally become law under Lyndon Johnson in 1965.
Still, it’s rather remarkable, given the number of promises pledged by candidates since, that Kennedy would begin the campaign against Nixon by saying, in effect, the next four years of a Kennedy administration will be hard and you better be prepared. Things could get rocky.
Boy, was he right. He probably didn’t know how right.
The New Frontier undoubtedly appealed to the Churchillian streak in Kennedy’s make up – his “blood, tears, toil, and sweat” streak, his visions of glory streak.
An acceptance speech is about setting an agenda for the campaign ahead. It’s about politics. Kennedy previewed attack lines against Nixon. He would sharpen these as summer became fall.
“We know that [Republicans] will invoke the name of Abraham Lincoln on behalf of their candidate, despite the fact that [Nixon’s] political career has often seemed to show charity towards none and malice for all, ” Kennedy said.
“We know it will not be easy to campaign against a man who has spoken and voted on every side of every issue. Mr. Nixon may feel that it’s his turn now, after the New Deal and the Fair Deal — but before he deals, someone’s going to cut the cards.
“… Perhaps we could afford a Coolidge following Harding. And perhaps we could afford a Pierce following Fillmore. But after Buchanan this nation needed Lincoln; after Taft we needed Wilson; and after Hoover we needed Franklin Roosevelt.”
No one deployed history in the service of partisanship like Kennedy.
John Kennedy was a serious-minded individual. This seriousness can be measured in his words. More than a few things he said in July 1960 resonate still today.
“Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure? … Have we the nerve and the will?” he asked.
“Here at home,” he said, ” … a peaceful revolution for human rights demands an end to racial discrimination in all parts of our community life.”
And: “We are not here to curse the darkness. We are here to light a candle. … ‘If we open a quarrel with the present and past, we shall be in danger of losing the future.’
“Today, our concern must be with that future. For the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do.”
Kennedy concluded on a high note that was also politically deft:
“… The choice … lies not merely between two men or two parties, but between the public interest and private comfort, between national greatness and national decline, between the fresh air of progress and the stale, dank atmosphere of ‘normalcy,’ between dedication and mediocrity.
“All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks to see what we shall do.”
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. His latest book “JFK Rising: The 1960 West Virginia Primary and the Emergence of John F. Kennedy” is available on Amazon. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.