Undergird us. We want to look at the event that i think most people would agree is the most traumatic event of the last half century of American Life, the assassination of jfk. Even if we judge september 11 more consequential. 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 deformation of our political consensus. It was the catalyst for transformation of liberalism in the 1960 s and should be regarded as a key turning point of the end of americas long 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 thinkers of the mid century consensus liberalism. He contemplated the clash between new left and its liberal fathers. I can quote one paragraph from the book i found striking. 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 further noted the prevalent 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. I like to joke that michael can tell you exactly how many votes and from which precincts mayor daley rounded up for kennedy. Michael 24th ward. [laughter] steve 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 narrative political history our 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. Michael barone. And david brown, a young scholar with great talent who has turned out a wonderful book on Richard Hofstadter. The kennedy assassination was what i call an overwhelming event in the 1960s. No one expected it. It came as a total shock. It turned out to be an event that was extremely difficult to assimilate according to the assumptions of the time and the assumptions of liberalism. To start out, i have a short tape, which runs about five minutes, 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. Abby, do you want to start it off . I think this will work. I often have trouble with it. Here it comes. The Great Questions of full employment, economic growth, a strong society, equal opportunity for all. President kennedy so my fellow 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, support any friend, oppose any foe, to ensure the survival of liberty. A strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment is being initiated. All ships at any time bound for cuba from whatever nation or port, found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons be turned back. President kennedy some say it is useless to seek a peace, and that it will be useless 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. Let them come to berlin. [cheering] events in birmingham have so incresed the cries for equality that no city or state or legislative body can choose to ignore. Martin luther king, jr. i have a dream, one day this nation will rise up, live opportunities, live up to the meaning of its creed. All men are created equal. I wish to enact legislation giving all americans the right to be served and facilities open to the public. Hotels, resteraunts. This seems to be an elementary right. This is an arbitrary dignity. No american in 1963 should have to endure. But many do. Mr. President , it is been a long time since we have had a rip or on your health. How is your aching back . President kennedy it depends on the weather, political and otherwise. Mrs. Kennedy. The crowd yells. And the president of United States shaking hands with the dallas people. President kennedy we must concern themselves with the progressive future. I hope to preserve the peace to make sure that this is achieved. Bullet wounds. The president is seriously wounded. Excuse me, chet. Here is a flash from the Associated Press. They say he is dead. The White House Press secretary has announced president kennedy is dead. The nation s capitol is in disbelief. The sidewalks have been jammed with crowds. I was 1520 feet away from the president. Three shots rang out towards jackie. She fell over on him and said my god, he is shot. Here and there people are crying. There are reactions of rage and fury. The only evidence i have as to who these people are are these ultraconservative groups spreading hate. This is the first time in my life i can say i m not proud to be an american. They have little doubt that lee oswald was the one who shot and killed president kennedy. Lee oswald i emphatically deny these charges. He has been shot. Lee oswald has been shot. It is impossible to understand, this young man can be dead in this fashion. There is nothing else to report from the capital. Jim ok. I show that film to illustrate a couple of things. One, just the shock of the event in American Life. Secondly to illustrate that there were two key issues going on at the time. Civil rights, the cold war. Civil rights, flashpoint in the south. The cold war flash point of the cuban missile crisis the year before, brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. There is also in this film the idea that the kennedys were celebrities. And of course the moving scenes associated with the assassination and the funeral, 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 kennedy assassination raise the question of who did it. Did oswald do it . He did. Or maybe the mafia. Maybe the cia or fbi. The radical right wing businessman. Those are all favored subjects. I ask a different question. The question is ask is what did it mean. This is a large event. What did it mean in American Life. What was its meaning for politics . Importantly, what was the length link between kennedys assassination in 1963 and the events that followed, which by 1968 turned the nation on its head . The 1960s represented the end 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, kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson represented, those assumptions were in tatters by 1968. 1968 was a remarkable year. Dan has written a piece in the wall street journal on the events of that year including, two important assassinations. Senator kennedy and Martin Luther king. And the upheavals on campus. Lyndon johnson s withdrawal from the race. How did we get from 1963 to 1968 . We had a stable country. A fairly popular president. His popularity was around 63 when he ventured to dallas. Within four and a half 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. And other historians like daniel bell, who constructed a historical narrative of liberalism in the 1950s. The liberals had set forth what i would call a democratic narrative. They believed that america had problems but that with the leadership of liberals, intellectually and politically, the democratic experiment in america could be progressively perfected. As the bounty of america was progressively extended to those who had been left out. And that was the narrative that they believed in. Of course, the cold war represented a new iteration of liberalism. Postwar liberalism, the 1950s and 1960s represented the third iteration of 20th century liberalism. Progressivism was the first, 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. Kennedy in contrast fighting on the plane of ideas, that communism was a failure on the plane of ideas and practicality. There was one other element of postwar liberalism important to mention and that was 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 faith, because it seemed that mccarthy, whom the liberals regarded as a demagogue, gained support. It seemed for a time that mccarthy might generate sufficient support to overturn the achievements of the new deal. Therefore there rose in the 1950s a body 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, the southern racists and bigots, and the 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 influential book posted and reedited in 1962 called 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 as hofstadter said. Hofstadter wrote an essay 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 where from the right, though he did not exempt the left. This was the democratic faith, and the democratic analysis set forth by liberal thinkers of the 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. That clip you saw was june of 1963, 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 that this could not be held off any longer. As i said, the two great issues of that period were civil rights and the cold war. Cuba was an important flashpoint. During the course of 1963 events picked up speed. You saw the clip of may of 1963 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 august, Martin Luther king gave his i have a dream speech. In september the ku klux klan blew up a Church Killing for small girls. Four small girls. Kennedy gave a speech and blamed George Wallace for inflaming Public Opinion to the point where such actions were taken. Adelei stevenson, the 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. Oswald attended the event. Stephenson reported that dallas 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 yarborough on the other side. Johnson wanted to run a conservative against yarborough. He ventured to dallas. It was kennedy. To see any violence occurring as 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. Therefore people were shocked when they began, when oswald 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 in 1959 before returning. It seemed plain that kennedy, given the evidence, was a victim or casualty of the cold war. That would seem to be the that would seem to be the interpretation that would be placed on the event. This was not the case. Very quickly, this event was interpreted by liberals, by 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. I will hold it up. The front page of the New York Times, november 23 the day after kennedy was killed by snipers is the headline. There is a long story on oswald. Leftist accused. The article details oswalds communist background. This article, you can see it below the photo, is titled why america weeps. Kennedy is a victim of a violent streak he sought to curb in the nation. He interprets kennedys death as an event arising from the violent streak in america. America wept for itself. The worst 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 theme, 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. Earl warren, the chief justice of the supreme court, said that kennedy was a martyr because of hatred injected into the bloodstream of the nation by bigots. Lyndon johnson said that he wanted to tamp 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 Communist Party sent a telegram to Jackie Kennedy, 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 president s death to fuel anticuban hysteria. Oswald was the man accused of burning the reichstag fire, the reichstag in 1933. The interpretation continued along these lines. Looking at the newspapers i saw only one instance of a prominent figure chalking kennedys assassination of to the cold war and communism. This didnt happen. The dominant 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. Lyndon johnson was very fearful of complicating relations with the soviet union should the communist aspect of this event 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. And democrats. Robert kennedy and other members of the family were fearfull 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. He preferred the lone nut theory of the assassination. If it were shown oswald 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. So, more or 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. Including castro. The public did not have the information needed to put these pieces together but leaders did. I have a long chapter on oswald that i will not get into. Suffice it to say oswald was a strange and bizarre character in the cold war, defecting to the soviet union in 1959, returning in 1962. Being in contact with the communist party and the socialist workers party. He read their magazines when he returned. He purchased a rifle and a pistol in 1963, and the first 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 strongly suspected who knew oswald 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 s