The President Has Been Shot!: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy

“These achievements were great honors for an Irish Catholic family that had been treated as second-class citizens by the snobbish New England elite.”

The Kennedys were unusual for being an Irish-Catholic family, at a time when Catholics were still looked down upon and no Catholic had ever been the President of the United States. In fact, discrimination against Catholics and the Irish had a long history in the United States since its establishment. Jack Kennedy’s father hoped that Jack’s oldest brother Joe would become the first Catholic President (1), something that may have helped fuel Jack Kennedy’s own ambitions.

“For the rest of [Kennedy’s] life, he suffered from terrible pain—and other serious illnesses, including Addison’s disease—that he concealed with a cheerful public demeanor.”

Jack Kennedy’s numerous physical ailments were something that caused Kennedy great pain but that he tried to hide from the public. Swanson will speculate that this is part of why Kennedy developed such a charismatic political persona (42), reflecting the theme of Mass Media, Fame, and Heroism.

“As a junior congressman, [Kennedy] earned a reputation as a young playboy, unserious about his work. But by the time he captured the Democratic nomination, he had evolved into a mature leader who, like Nixon, was a voracious reader, a savvy politician, and a formidable debater.”

Swanson’s image of Kennedy is that of someone who grew up with a great deal of privilege as the child of a wealthy family. Nonetheless, Swanson argues he became a hard worker who genuinely sought to inspire and help others. This fits with Swanson’s overall positive portrayal of Kennedy and his insistence on The Importance of the Kennedy Presidency.

“John Kennedy had a brilliant insight. He recognized that television would change political campaigns forever. Once, all that mattered was what a candidate said. Now it mattered just as much how he looked while he was saying it.”

Kennedy was arguably the first President of the United States to fully take advantage of mass media, reflecting the importance of Mass Media, Fame, and Heroism in his crafting of his public persona. Tragically and ironically, this would also mean his assassination would become a televised and highly scrutinized media event.

“President Kennedy had taken the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of a nuclear war in which millions might have perished, but he had solved the dispute in a responsible manner.”

A common criticism of Kennedy is that he failed to prevent the Cuban Missile Crisis. Still, as part of his presentation of Kennedy as an effective Cold War president, Swanson argues that Kennedy had resolved the situation well. This crisis also speaks to The Impact of the Cold War on Kennedy’s domestic and foreign policies.

“Kennedy possessed a glamorous effervescence that made him seem larger than life and a youthful symbol of a new era of American optimism and spirit.”

Kennedy was important as a symbol as well as a president. Even in life, Kennedy and his presidency represented a sort of golden age in the United States. This reputation would only grow after his death, to the point that Kennedy’s assassination is seen as a major negative turning point in the history of the United States (209).

“Of Lee Harvey Oswald’s many long-simmering resentments, frustrations, and grievances, the Kennedy presidency was not known to be one of them.”

Throughout much of his analysis, Swanson speculates that Lee Harvey Oswald was motivated by his frustrations with his own life and his desire to be famous, invoking the theme of Mass Media, Fame, and Heroism. Since he did not write them down or share them with anyone, Oswald’s actual motives are unknown. Still, Swanson sees suggestive proof in the fact that Oswald showed no signs of having a grudge against Kennedy or his presidency.

“Oswald had delusions of grandeur, and he dreamed of accomplishing great things. But in reality, he was the feckless father of two young children whom he could barely afford to feed and clothe…He could not control events. He could not even control his own life.”

To support his theory that Oswald acted out of frustration and ambition, Swanson dwells heavily on Oswald’s personal life. In particular, he calls attention to the fact that Oswald was an abusive husband who became estranged from his wife Marina and that he worked only menial jobs.

“Lee Harvey Oswald could not escape the hopelessness of his life. He was a lonely, impoverished, and embittered young man who had failed at everything in life that had ever attempted—high school, the Marine Corps, marriage, fatherhood, menial jobs, political activism, writing, being an expatriate, and significance.”

Besides giving a potential motive for Oswald’s assassination of Kennedy, the focus on his personal life also sets up a parallel between Oswald and Kennedy. While Oswald had failed at having a career, at politics, and at having a family, Kennedy succeeded greatly at all three.

“Fashion and movie magazines covered Jackie as a style-setter, and the president was aware of how her beauty and elegant fashion sense were priceless political assets that further enhanced his popularity.”

Along with Jack Kennedy’s own success as a youthful, charismatic president, Jackie Kennedy also became a symbol of style. While popular in her own right, she also supported her husband’s popularity as president through the couple’s careful handling of Mass Media, Fame, and Heroism to project a positive image of their marriage and power.

“The answers to these and other questions are lost to history: Oswald left behind no journal, diary, or manifesto, no last-minute letter of explanation or justification to his wife or to the country.”

Swanson does theorize that Oswald acted out of a need to be recognized. However, at the same time, he admits there is no definite proof of Oswald’s motives. There are no first-hand primary sources attesting to Oswald’s thinking in the days leading up to the assassination, while Oswald’s involvement with Communism also speaks to The Impact of the Cold War as a further possible motive.

“It was the beginning of four unprecedented days of television coverage. Within four hours of the shooting, more than three quarters of the American people knew what had happened.”

Another way the Kennedy assassination was an important historical event is that it illustrated how much mass media, especially the relatively new technology of television, affected Americans’ lives. The news of Kennedy’s assassination spread out quickly, even faster than it likely would have in the era when radio was still the predominant technology for news and entertainment.

“Millions of people working that day were out to lunch when Kennedy was shot, and they heard the news when restaurants tuned their TVs and radios and news broadcasts.”

The question, “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?”, would become a common one among the people who lived to experience the event. This made the assassination a shared experience for many Americans in a way that was largely unprecedented, reflecting the role of Mass Media, Fame, and Heroism is shaping both the reception and the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination.

“The intense display of emotions by Kennedy’s grieving staff and Secret Service detail at Parkland Hospital, although understandable, served the nation poorly, and would, in time, and for decades to come, create widespread mistrust about the facts of the assassination, and encourage many wild theories about the murder.”

Swanson highlights the emotional displays of those immediately around Kennedy as a major mistake made by the Secret Service and Kennedy’s staff. Like Oswald’s apparent lack of a motive, this created an ambiguity that would later give way to conspiracy theories.

“The swearing in was a formality to confirm what had already happened. But Lyndon Johnson wanted to take the oath at once as a symbol of the continuity of the American government. A president might die, but democracy would live. He wanted the ceremony photographed to transmit that symbol around the world.”

Part of the tragedy of Kennedy’s assassination was that it was not just the murder of a human being, but a political crisis. As such, the new President Johnson had to make the seemingly callous decision to get sworn in as the new president as soon as possible. The fact he wanted the swearing-in photographed is a case of President Johnson, like President Kennedy before him, recognizing the prevalence and importance of mass media.

“Jackie had still not changed out of the clothes she had worn in Dealey Plaza. She wanted Americans to see her pink suit […] She wanted to sear these images into the collective memory of the American people so that they would never forget. It worked.”

One of the most iconic images of Jackie Kennedy would be of her in her pink coat and hat. Likewise, images of her after the assassination, appearing shocked and covered in her husband’s blood and brains, would also become famous. Such images would cement Jackie Kennedy as an enduring symbol and tragic figure in the American mind, speaking to the role of Mass Media, Fame, and Heroism in the shaping of the Kennedy legend.

“The first would be her husband’s public funeral. With meticulous attention to detail, Jackie Kennedy threw herself into planning the event. With Abraham Lincoln’s funeral as her inspiration, researchers set to work.”

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln was another traumatic event in United States history. In trying to create parallels between Lincoln’s assassination and Kennedy’s, Jackie Kennedy hoped to cement the idea of her husband as a heroic president who had died unjustly and prematurely, reinforcing The Importance of the Kennedy Presidency through the implied connections to Lincoln’s.

“NBC had broadcast the murder of Oswald on live television to the entire nation.”

The power of mass media was not just reflected in Kennedy’s debate with Nixon, his presidency, and assassination. It was also seen in Jack Ruby’s murder of Oswald, which was broadcast live on television.

“Jackie looked through the window and gazed up at the sculpture of Father Abraham, who had perished from an assassin’s bullet ninety-eight years ago. The sight of Lincoln comforted her.”

Since she had planned Jack Kennedy’s funeral using Lincoln as a model, Jackie clearly saw parallels between her husband’s fate and that of Abraham Lincoln. It is thus understandable that Jackie would find comfort in the image of Lincoln. Perhaps she also hoped that Jack Kennedy would be as well-remembered by history as Lincoln still is today.

“America would never be the same.”

Kennedy’s assassination was an event that left its mark on an entire generation, with Swanson here emphasizing The Importance of the Kennedy Presidency even—or perhaps especially—due to its premature end. Aside from whether or not Kennedy would have changed the course of American history if he had lived, his assassination and its aftermath were major, heavily televised, and widely scrutinized events. The conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination fed into Americans’ distrust of their own government, something that would grow with the Vietnam War (See: Background).

“Jackie wanted to live a quiet life. But now she was an American hero.”

As Jackie herself noted, Jack Kennedy himself became seen as a “hero” (209-10), reflecting the ongoing role of Mass Media, Fame, and Heroism in the Kennedy family’s public image. However, the combination of her celebrity as President Kennedy’s glamorous First Lady and the widely televised tragedy and trauma she experienced, Jackie Kennedy was also seen as a hero by the American public.

“But all the theories have one thing in common. They reject the proven role that chance, luck, randomness, coincidence, or mistake have played in human history for thousands of years.”

Swanson absolutely rejects all theories about Kennedy’s assassination that do not place Oswald as the sole killer, emphasizing The Unlikelihood of Conspiracy Theories. One of his reasons is that it certainly was possible for Oswald to assassinate Kennedy, even if coincidence and circumstance helped him do so.

“Perhaps [Oswald’s] motive was not politics but fame. As long as the world remembered John Kennedy, it could never forget the man who murdered him. Or maybe Oswald was one of the America’s first glory killers, obsessed with JFK’s glamorous, movie star-like celebrity.”

Although Swanson often discusses Oswald’s commitment to Communism, reflecting The Impact of the Cold War on American politics and culture at the time, he believes that Oswald’s Communist identity was a “fraudulent pose” (61). Instead, Swanson heavily implies that Oswald was simply seeking fame when he chose to kill President Kennedy.