Tectonic plates of politics undergird us. Theant to look at event that is the most traumatic event of the last halfcentury of American Life, the. Ssassination of jfk and at almost 50 years removed, is there anything new to be said about this grim episode . Surprisingly there is. Jim pearson argues in camelot and the cultural revolution that the trauma of his killing went beyond the nations grief and outrage and led to the d formation of our political consensus. It was the catalyst for transformation of liberalism in the 1960s and should be regarded as a key turning point of the end of americas law liberal tradition and the beginning of a new kind of liberalism that represents a repudiation of the older tradition. Whether this older tradition was too brittle because of its predecessors is a matter that the panel will take up. We have david brown and the author of a biography of Richard Hofstadter. Hofstadter is important because he is one of the leading midcentury. He consensus liberalism. He contemplated the clash between new left and its liberal fathers. Striking,aph i found the columbia crisis forced him to realize most liberals did not understand liberalism. They believed it was selfperpetuating even in the face of violence. They had no idea of the toughness and effort required to sustain it against enemies. He noted the style of liberalism was not liberal at all. It was soft, weak, and inconsistent. Rather than serve as a consensual middle ground for the majority of americans, liberals were tilting to the left. Abandoning their liberalism. I can see why you were taken with his book. Our second discussant is michael barone. He can tell you exactly how many votes and from which precinct mayor daley rounded up for kennedy. In addition to being a longtime columnist we are pleased he is now a fellow here at aei. He is the author himself of the ourative political history country, which he thinks about the same themes. We begin with jim piereson. Jim thank you. Im delighted to be here, delighted to be on the panel with old friends. Steve hayward. Rone. El ba and david brown, a young scholar who has turned out a wonderful book on Richard Hofstadter. The kennedy assassination was what i call an overwhelming events in the 1960s. No one expected it. It came as a shock. It turned out to be an event that was extremely difficult to assimilate according to the assumptions of the time in the assumptions of liberalism. To start out, i have a short , which is a collage of the events of the time, which when i talked to College Students i like to show because they have no sense of any of this history. Do you want to start it off . I think this will work. [applause] full employment. Economic growth. A strong society. Qual opportunity for all americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Whether it wishes us, that we shall pay any price. Bear any burden. Meet any hardship. [applause] a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment is being initiated. All ships at any time bound for cuba from whatever nation report, found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons be turned back. Some say it is useless to eace, and that it will be useful until the leaders of the soviet union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. Some say communism is the wave of the future. [applause] the cries for equality that no city or state or legislative body can choose to ignore. Thishave a dream, one day nation will rise up, live up to theies live meaning of its creed. All men are created equal. [applause] i wish to enact legislation giving all americans the right to be served and facilities open. O the public this seems to be an elementary right. This is an arbitrary dignity. No american in 1963 should have to endure. It is been a long time since we have had a rip or on your health. How is your aching back . [laughter] andt depends on the weather political allies. Mrs. Kennedy. The crowd yells. And the president of United States shaking hands with the dallas people. Withce concern themselves the progressive future. I hope to preserve the peace to make sure that this is achieved. [gunshot] bullet wounds. The president is seriously wounded. Here is a flash from the Associated Press. They say he is dead. Dead. Sident kennedy is capitol is ins disbelief. The sidewalks have been jammed with crowds. 20 feet away from the president. Three shots rang out towards jackie. Said my over on him and god, he is shot. Here and there people are crying. There are reactions of rage and fury. Have, only evidence i ultraconservative groups spreading hate. In mys is the first time life i can say im not proud to be an american. They have little doubt that lee also walled was the one who shot and killed president kennedy. This. Eny [inaudible] c has been shot. Oswald has been shot. It is impossible to man cannd, this young be dead in this fashion. There is nothing. Ok. Illustrate ailm to couple of things. Eventust the shock of the in American Life. There were two key issues. Civil rights, the cold war. The cold war flash point of the cuban missile crisis the year before, brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. There is in this film the idea that the kennedys were celebrities. The moving scenes associated with the assassination, the photos of the event and the scenes of the funeral with the widow, the march 2 Arlington National cemetery. Engraved on the National Memory where they served as a dark backdrop to the tumultuous events that followed in the 1960s. Most books on the assassination raise the question of who did it. That oswald do it. He did. Or maybe the mafia. Maybe the cia or fbi. The radical right wing businessman. Those are favored subjects. I ask a different question. What did it mean. This is a large event. What did it mean in American Life. What was its meaning for politics . What was the length between kennedys assassination in 1963 and the events that followed, which by 1968 turned the nation on its head . End1960s represented the of the liberal era, which began in the 1930s with Franklin Roosevelt and the new deal. By 1968 the assumptions of the liberal movement that roosevelt, truman, stephenson, humphrey, represented,hnson those assumptions were in tatters by 1968. 1968 was a remarkable year. A wall street journal piece on the events of that year including, two important assassinations. Senator kennedy and Martin Luther king. And the upheavals on campus. Lyndon johnsons withdrawal from the race. 1963 towe get from 1968 . We had a stable country. A fairly popular president. His popularity was around 60 when he ventured to dallas. Within 4. 5 years the country was turned upside down. I spent a great deal of time on postwar liberalism, the liberalism reflected in the work of Richard Hofstadter. A historicaled narrative of liberalism in the 1950s. Set forth whatd i would call a democratic narrative. They believe that america had with thebut that leadership of liberals, intellectually and politically the democratic experiment in america could be progressively perfected. And the bounty of america was progressively extended to those who had been left out. That was the narrative they believed in. The cold war represented a new iteration of liberalism. Postwar liberalism, the 1950s and 1960s represented the third iteration of 20th century liberalism. The new deal was the second. Postwar liberalism the third. And the cold war represented an important piece of this. They believed in fighting the cold war. You saw the clip of kennedy in berlin. Fighting oncontrast the plane of ideas, that communism was a failure on the plane of ideas and practicality. Element ofne other postwar liberalism important to mention. The effect of mccarthyism. The liberals of the new deal were confidence that their ideas were supported by majority of the people. The electoral results seem to prove that. Mccarthyism challenged this. It seemed that mccarthy, whom the liberals regarded as a demagogue, gained support. Mccarthy might generate sufficient support to overturn the achievements of the new deal. A bodyose in the 1950s of work by these historians which focused heavily on the radical right is a great threat to democratic process and a threat to this democratic narrative they set forth. The radical right consisted of the anticommunists like mccarthy, southern racists and bigots, and ministers on the radio the war only what with the previous two groups. There is a very large industry of books and articles on the radical right. Daniel bell edited a very anduential book posted reedited in 1962 call the radical right. From a liberal standpoint it was not conservative. It was not associated with groups that held power. It was not respectful of institutions. They were radicals outsiders, they had little power. Daniel bell called them the dispossessed. They were at war with modernity. Hofstadter wrote and in full and shall assay called the paranoid style in american politics in which he characterized these extremist groups as being out of touch with reality, paranoid. Most of the examples he gave her from the right, though he did not exempt the left. Faith,s the democratic and the democratic analysis set of they liberal thinkers 1950s and early 1960s. Kennedy was loosely associated with this tradition. He talked about the future, progressive future of the american dream. Even though he was a very cautious politician, kennedy never wanted to get far out in front of Public Opinion. He came late to the support of civil rights. After there had been at least two years, three years of persistent demonstrations in the south. They reached a point by 1963 when he saw this could not be held off any longer. As i said, the two great issues were civil rights and the cold war. Was an important flashpoint. Eventsthe course of 1963 picked up speed. You saw the clip of the police in birmingham using fire hoses and dogs on the demonstrators. That was flashed across the country. A Civil Rights Activist was assassinated outside of his home in jackson, mississippi. Kennedy endorsed the civil rights bill. In september the ku klux klan blew up a Church Killing for small girls. Kennedy gave a speech and blamed George Wallace for inflaming Public Opinion to the point where such actions were taken. Evenson, view u. S. Ambassador ventured to dallas to give a speech he was greeted by hecklers. He was spat upon as he made his way to his car and hit over the head with a cardboard placard. This is the end of october. Cause gold attended the event. That dallaseported was overtaken by a spirit of madness in the white house should think twice before they send president kennedy into such a dangerous city. Kennedy committed himself to going. There was a rift between johnson and connolly, and sinister yarborough on the other side. Johnson wanted to run a conservative against yarborough. He ventured to dallas. It was kennedy, events for tita. Assee any violence occurring emanating from the radical right. , anticommunists or racists. When word spread that afternoon that kennedy had been shot, broadcasters began to speculate quickly that some forces from the right were responsible. People were shocked when they began when alls well was arrested and they showed tapes of oswald demonstrating on behalf of castro the previous summer, appearing on Television Interviews saying he was a communist. Someone who had defected to the soviet union before returning. Kennedy, plain that given the evidence, was a victim or casualty of the cold war. That would seem to be the interpretation placed on the event. This was not the case. Very quickly, this event was interpreted by liberals, political leaders, even political leaders across the spectrum as an event in the civil rights crusade. Kennedy is a victim of the nations culture of the radical right. This is a copy, you cant see it. The front page of the new york after november 23 the day kennedy was killed by snipers. There is a long story on oswald. Leftist accused. Details alls walled oswalds communist background. Article, you can see it below the photo, why america weeps. Victim of a wild streak he sought to curb in the nation. He interprets kennedys death as an event, a rising from the violent strength in america. Itself. Wept for the worse in the nation has prevailed over the best. The indictment extended beyond the assassin. Some strain of madness and violence that destroyed the highest symbol of law and order. The irony is that it short dashes administration was dedicated to curb the violence in the american character. It goes on in that vein. Pushing this fame, the New York Times published an editorial called the spiral of hate. This is after oswald has been shot. Place it in the same context. Martin luther king said it had to be seen against the backdrop of violence against civil rights workers in the south. Kennedyren said that was a martyr because of hatred injected into the bloodstream of the nation by bigots. Hedon johnson said that wanted to tap out the hatred and prejudice and oppression prevalent in American Life and the best memorial given to president kennedy would be to pass the civil rights bill. The day after the assassination, the leaders of the american telegram party sent a saying that the assassination was the ultimate end of the rise of violence and terror by racists and forces of the ultraright. The soviet union put out a statement saying reactionary reactionaries are using the death to fuel anticuban hysteria. Also was the man accused of burning the rice stock fire, the rice stock in 1933. The interpretation continued along these lines. Looking at the newspapers i saw only one instance of a prominent figure chocking kennedys assassination of to the cold war and communism. This didnt happen. The dominate interpretive motif was that kennedy was a victim not of communism, not of the cold war, but a victim of hatred and violence that was prevalent in American Life. Why did that happen . Very quickly, several reasons. Mrs. Kennedy wanted her husband remembered as a modern day Abraham Lincoln. A casualty of the crusade for equal rights. In her mind, being a casualty of the cold war did not carry with it the honor that the other would have. Ofdon johnson was fearful complicating relations with the soviet union should the communist aspect be emphasized. Liberals were fearful that an emphasis on communism would inflame the public and bring about a replay of the mccarthy era that had done so much damage to liberals. Robert kennedy and other members of the family were careful of a communist element emphasized, attention will be drawn to efforts to overthrow castro. J edgar hoover did not wish this to be emphasized either. Theoryerred the lone nut of the assassination. If it were shown also was a subversive communist the fbi would be held liable for not having identified him and protected the president. The fbi is not responsible for identifying lone nuts. Less it should be said the public did not know in 1963 of the Kennedy Administration efforts to eliminate castro. This was not made public until 1975 when the Church Commission investigated efforts by the cia when they disclosed efforts by the eisenhower and Kennedy Administration to assassinate leaders. The public did not have the information needed to put these pieces together that leaders did. I have a long chapter on oswald that i will not get into. Also was a strange and bizarre character in the cold war, defecting to the soviet union in 1962. Returning in being in contact with the communist arty and the socialist workers party. He purchased a rifle and a the first1963, and thing he did was try to assassinate the head of the John Birch Society in dallas. His shot missed. People living in dallas at the time suspected that he had done this. If he had hit walker and killed him he probably would have been captured. He left a note to his wife telling her what he should what she should do if he was killed. That was not until after kennedy was assassinated. He was fearful of staying in dallas after he tried to kill the general and created a fair play for cuba committee. He was interviewed frequently on television and radio. September of 1963 he gave an interview to the Associated Press reporter in cuba in which he said that american leaders continued efforts to assassinate leaders of the revolution they will not be safe. The text of the interview was published in newspapers around the country, including the paper where also called lift. Its an investigator suspected craps all small was like the corgi as to the king cortier s to the king, who will rid me of this miserable priest . He made an effort to travel to cuba in september of 1963 by visiting the cuban and soviet in this these in mexico city. Up a call from oswald from the cuban to the soviet embassies and referred this to the fbi who try to get s also walled trail oswald trail. He attended the demonstration against stevenson at the end of october. He was living apart has wife and the fbi could not find him. They interviewed his wife twice in early november 1963 but she would not tell him where her husband was. Since they didnt interview people at their places of employment the fbi did not track him down. Jagerthe assassination hoover discipline agents privately. Saying, when as you discipline the agents, i will not tell you actions which have forever destroy the fbis reputation as a top investigative agency. Hoover believe the fbi should have been able to intercept oswald before he assassinated kennedy. Book, the the assassination of kennedy and the interpretation imposed upon it, that kennedy was a victim of a violent streak in the nation, that it was place in the context of this warfare against the radical right, that this led to the unwinding of liberalism and contributed to it. I dont think it did alone. Many events for taking ways in the 1960s. But the narrative of liberalism changed by 1968, i think that today. Is with us the democratic narrative the liberals had in 1950s was aggressive and future oriented. The narrative that came into place by the late 60s was a different one. If that america was a flawed and sick society. All the things we had been proud of they regarded as things we s