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

Nonfiction | Biography | YA | Published in 2013

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Part 1, Chapter 3

Part 1, Chapters 4-6

Part 1, Chapters 7-10

Part 2, Chapters 11-13

Part 2, Chapter 14-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Introduction-Part 1, Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “Introduction to John F. Kennedy”

Introduction Summary: “Beginnings”

James Swanson opens The President Has Been Shot! with a description of Georgetown, the rich Washington, DC neighborhood where John F. Kennedy had lived since 1946. When Kennedy was elected, it was there that he embarked on the “New Frontier” (ix), which was his term for the plans for his new administration. The night of January 19th, the Kennedy family left for the presidential inauguration. Since they were moving to the White House, they would never return to the Georgetown house again.

Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “The Early Years”

Kennedy came from a wealthy Irish-Catholic family involved in politics. His grandfather John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald had been the mayor of Boston. Kennedy’s father Joseph was a millionaire who was an ambassador to Britain under the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration.

Both Kennedy and his older brother, Joe Jr., fought in World War II. Kennedy, who was a navy lieutenant, was nearly killed and managed to save his men by having them swim to an island. Joe Jr. was killed over the English Channel while serving as a bomber pilot. Joseph Kennedy had hoped that Joe Jr. would become the first Catholic president of the United States. Now, he put his political hopes on John “Jack” Kennedy.

In 1946, Kennedy was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat. Swanson notes that he “was an awkward campaigner and not a natural politician. That would come later” (5). Still, Kennedy’s image as a World War II hero helped him get elected. After serving two more terms in the House of Representatives, Kennedy was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1952. The next year, he married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, who also came from a wealthy, prestigious family.

At the same time, Kennedy struggled with back pain. He had back problems throughout his life and they were made worse by his experiences in World War II. He nearly died from a series of surgeries to treat the issue. Kennedy also had Addison’s disease, which causes pain and other symptoms in the stomach and lower back. These problems gave him lifelong pain. Such pain “he concealed with a cheerful public demeanor” (7).

Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “The 1960 Election”

In 1960, Kennedy ran as the Democratic Party’s nominee for president. Kennedy’s opponent was the Republican nominee, Richard Nixon. While Kennedy came from a rich background and “never had and never would need to work for a living a day in his life” (8), Nixon came from a poor family and had worked as a lawyer.

Nixon was popular because he took a strong stance against the Soviet Union, which was Communist. At the time, the United States was in the Cold War with the Soviet Union (See: Background): The two rivals were superpowers but not actively and directly fighting each other. Swanson describes Communism as “a naïve dream that was soon corrupted” (10) that led to the rise of many authoritarian regimes. Still, Nixon was also controversial, since he was seen as extreme as Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was leading a witch hunt against suspected Communists in the 1950s. Meanwhile, Kennedy’s political career was harmed by the fact that he was both a Catholic and inexperienced.

However, in a televised debate between Nixon and Kennedy, viewers at home thought Kennedy was victorious. Unlike Nixon, Kennedy had taken it easy and wore makeup, which made him look better on television. Kennedy “looked relaxed, fit, and charismatic” while Nixon “looked uncomfortable, swarthy, and nervous” (14). Even though Kennedy and Nixon both had similar views on the Cold War and neither strongly supported the growing civil rights movement, Kennedy narrowly won the presidential election.

Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “The Inauguration”

In his inauguration speech, Kennedy called for the “new generation” (16) of Americans to support the fight for freedom in the Cold War. At the same time, he expressed hope for cooperation between the world’s nations. This speech included a line that is still famous: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country” (17).

Introduction-Part 1 Analysis

In the first half of The President Has Been Shot!, James Swanson focuses on President Kennedy and his administration. In these chapters, Swanson begins to make a case for The Importance of the Kennedy Administration. Swanson agrees with Kennedy’s own observation in his inauguration speech that his election “coincided with a special moment in history” (17). In these and the following chapters, Swanson will suggest that the Kennedy administration played a pivotal role in the United States’ relationship with the Soviet Union and Cuba, in the civil rights movement, and in the beginnings of outer space exploration.

Swanson implies that Kennedy was a good or even great president. Describing Kennedy and his rival for the presidency, Richard Nixon, Swanson notes that both of them “possessed brilliant minds” (9). It is important for Swanson to establish Kennedy’s importance in history, as it explains why Kennedy’s assassination is seen by many people as a turning point that “ushered in a dark era and set in motion a series of awful events” (209). The assassination of an important and popular president like Kennedy would give fuel to the conspiracy theories claiming that someone other than Lee Harvey Oswald was behind the assassination, marking a shift in public perceptions of government (See: Background).

Much of Swanson’s argument for Kennedy’s historical significance involves The Impact of the Cold War. From Kennedy’s inauguration speech to Kennedy’s support of anti-Communist forces in Vietnam, most of Swanson’s discussion of the Kennedy administration concerns the Cold War. Swanson argues throughout that Kennedy was a sincere and mostly successful advocate for American freedom against Communism. In his inauguration, Swanson writes that Kennedy “summoned the American people to stand up for freedom in the shadow of the Cold War” (16).

The idea that Kennedy made himself into a living model for freedom, one which he hoped the American people themselves would follow, is a recurring one for Swanson. Still, Swanson argues that Kennedy and Nixon’s views on the Cold War did not differ much, writing that “no great issues divided the candidates” (14). Swanson’s approach to the topic here is clearly influenced by the fact that he is a pro-free market conservative, as shown by his involvement with the conservative Heritage Foundation (See: Key Figures). Indeed, Swanson’s description of Marx and Communism is negative and unnuanced (9-10), which in turn shapes his attitude towards both the Kennedy administration and the American role in the Cold War era.