John Kennedy

by Burns, James MacGregor;

  VIII. McCarthyism: The Issue That Would Not Die

  The main general sources on McCarthy that I have used are Jack Anderson and R. W. May, McCarthy: The Man, the Senator, the “Ism,” (Boston: Beacon, 1952); W. F. Buckley, Jr., and L. Brent Bozell, McCarthy and His Enemies (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1954); and Richard H. Rovere Senator Joe McCarthy (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1959).

  Kennedy and the Liberals: On the Christoffel episode, see Hearings before Subcommittee No. 1 of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, 80th Cong., 2nd Sess., pp. 2131 ff; and Congressional Record, Vol. 95, Part 14, June 29, 1949, pp. A4169-70. On the Harvard seminar episode, see Mallan, cited in notes for Chapter 5 above. The political scientists quoted prefer to remain anonymous. The Healy quote is from The Saturday Evening Post, op. cit., p. 127; I am satisfied from other evidence that Healy quoted Kennedy accurately. Letter from ADA housewife to Kennedy is dated June 25, 1953, and his reply to her, July 13, 1953; both of these are in 1953 General Files, Attic Office. Kennedy to Boston insurance man opposed to ADA is in 1953–55 Legislative Files, February 11, 1954, Attic Office.

  On The Fence: The Lodge-Dever exchange is from Rovere, op. cit., p. 13. Letter to Kennedy from Western Massachusetts woman is in 1953 Legislative File, McCarthy Folder, letter dated Feb. 6, 1953; letter from Harvard law professor to Kennedy, Jan. 23, 1954, is in 1953–55 Legislative Files, Subversive Activity (Congressional Investigation) Folder. Kennedy letter to Boston newspaperman, March 23, 1954, is in 1953–55 Legislative Files, Communism Folder; his letter to Fitchburg woman, May 4, 1954, is in same file, Foreign Policy General Folder. Kennedy’s answer to the Harvard Law School professor, Feb. 10, 1954, is in same file as letter from him to Kennedy, cited above. The other correspondence referred to in this section is also in the 1953–55 Legislative Files.

  “The Honor and Dignity of the Senate”: The Rovere quotation is in op. cit., pp. 35–36. Conant’s confirmation was by voice vote and hence votes were not recorded; my sources are Kennedy and Irwin Ross, in the New York Post, July 30, 1956, p. 21; Ross states that he was with Kennedy when McCarthy, by telephone, requested Kennedy to vote against confirming Conant, and Kennedy refused. Kennedy’s comment on McCarthy is also from Ross, op. cit. On the Bohlen nomination, see the Congressional Record, Vol. 99, Part 2, March 27, 1953, p. 2392; on the Lee nomination, see ibid., Vol. 100, Part 1, Jan. 25, 1954, p. 698; and on the Brewster appointment, see the New York Times, Aug. 4, 1954, p. 8. In answer to queries on Kennedy’s stand on McCarthyism, his office issued in June 1959 a mimeographed statement, “Notes on the Record of Senator John F. Kennedy on McCarthyism and Civil Liberties.” For Humphrey’s statement on not being soft toward communism, see the Congressional Record, Vol. 100, Part 11, Aug. 12, 1954, p. 14210; for McCarthy’s statement about the skunks, see ibid., Vol. 100, Part 11, Aug. 16, 1954, p. 14569; and for Kennedy on the Annie Lee Moss case, see ibid., Vol. 100, Part 10, Aug. 2, 1954, p. 12962. A photostat copy of the “undelivered speech,” which had been misplaced in the Main Office, was made available to the author on June 23, 1959, by the Kennedy office. The speech is undated but presumed by the Kennedy office to have been scheduled for July 31, 1954. Ross refers to this speech in his Post story of July 30, 1956, p. 21.

  “A Reasonable Indictment”?: I have interviewed several participants in the television episode. Quotations of Kennedy, including his “reasonable indictment,” are from author’s interview with him, July 17, 1959. Quotations of Mrs. Roosevelt are from Fletcher Knebel, in Candidates 1960, op. cit., p. 204; her article “Of Stevenson, Truman and Kennedy,” The Saturday Evening Post, March 8, 1958, pp. 72–73; and her book On My Own (New York: Harper, 1958), pp. 163–64. Kennedy’s review of Rovere’s book appeared in the Washington Post and Times-Herald, June 28, 1959, p. E4, and his critic’s letter (with a brief reply from Kennedy) in the Brooklyn Tablet, Aug. 8, 1959.

  IX. The Anatomy of Courage

  My source on Kennedy’s hospitalization is chiefly Kennedy family interviews.

  Grace in a Vacuum: The Addison’s disease rumor was taken up in an interview of Kennedy by Fletcher Knebel; I have used a copy of the press statement issued by the Kennedy office and the study by Knebel; a more recent statement by the Kennedy office based on report by his endocrinologist; and other sources. The report of Kennedy’s doctor is dated July 21, 1959; the doctor prefers to remain anonymous.

  “Profiles in Courage”: There is an extensive file of material and drafts for Profiles in Courage in Kennedy’s Main Office; I have studied these and also the original manuscript material. Canham’s review is in the Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 5, 1956, p. 7. The statistics on Kennedy’s increase in poll popularity shortly after the award of the Pulitzer prize is from the Roper Public Opinion Center at Williams College.

  The Meaning of Courage: Quotations are from Profiles in Courage (New York: Harper, 1956). The priest’s letter on McCarthy is in the McCarthy Folder, 1957 Legislative File, Attic Office.

  X. Vice-Presidential Politics

  On Kennedy’s return to duty, see accounts in the Boston Herald, the Boston Post, and the New York Times, all reprinted in the Congressional Record, Vol. 101, Part 5, May 25, 1955, pp. 6965–66.

  Fight for the Electoral Collage: For list of sponsors of the Daniel-Mundt resolution see the Congressional Record, Vol. 102, Part 4, March 15, 1956, p. 4749. Douglas’s letter to Kennedy is dated April 10, 1956, 1956 Legislative File (Electoral College); see also Boston Traveller, April 5, 1956.

  Melee in Massachusetts: This section is based in small part on personal observation and participation by the author as candidate for delegate and later as delegate to the Democratic national convention of 1956. The Kennedy-McCormack contest was well covered in Boston and other Massachusetts newspapers. On Kennedy’s and McCormack’s early plans and activities, see letter and telegram, Kennedy to Stevenson, March 23, 1956; letter, Kennedy aide to Adlai E. Stevenson, Jan. 12, 1956, Kennedy Personal File, 1956, Attic Office; I have used also McCormack to author, Dec. 8, 1955. Kennedy to James Finnegan, May 2, 1956, Attic Office files, described Kennedy’s plans at that point. The Attic Office files contain a copy of a list of Kennedy’s contacts for the Democratic state committee chairmanship contest, and the “scenario” for the anticipated committee meeting, both undated. My account of the actual committee meeting is drawn from several of those present and from Boston newspapers.

  Who but Kennedy?: The account of the early stage of convention planning is based on interviews with Kennedy aides, on Kennedy family interviews, and on mimeographed copies of both the documents referred to (the report on the religious aspect and the report on the availability of various men for the vice-presidential nomination), entitled “The Democratic Nominee for Vice President in 1956” (11 pp.), both in Main Office files, undated. Shriver’s interview with Stevenson is described in Shriver to Joseph P. Kennedy, July 18, 1956, Main Office files.

  The First Hurrah: There are good accounts of Kennedy’s convention campaign for the vice-presidential nomination, especially for the period after the nomination was thrown open, in Time, Newsweek, and the New York Times; I have also made extensive use of Knebel, op. cit., pp. 184–85, based on Tom Winship’s eyewitness accounts in the Boston Globe. Eleanor Roosevelt describes her meeting with Kennedy in her On My Own, op. cit., pp. 163–64. My account of McCormack’s role in the floor fight is taken from Time; however, there is considerable question as to what did happen because of the confusion on the floor at that time. Kennedy today says that he does not know if McCormack had the role that Time and other periodicals imputed to him. Probably McCormack did not; it seems likely that the “conspiracy theory of history” should yield to the “confusion theory” here.

  XI. Senator from the United States

  Kennedy’s speech to the Harvard alumni at the June 14 commencement exercises was reprinted in the Congressional Record, Vol. 102, Part 8, June 22, 1956, pp. 10800–801. The letter from the Haverhill man is in 1956 Personal Files, Attic Office. S
tevenson’s letter to Kennedy was dated Nov. 18, 1956; the original hangs on the wall of Kennedy’s office in Washington.

  A Democrat Looks at Foreign Policy: Source of the exchange between Kennedy and Herter is “Ambassadorial Appointments,” Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 85th Cong., 1st Sess., Aug. 1, 1957, pp. 26–29; and between Kennedy and Dulles is “Mutual Security Act of 1958,” same committee, 85th Cong., 2nd Sess., March 24, 1958, pp. 179–84. The New York Times, July 3, 1957, p. 5, reported the reaction in France to Kennedy’s speech on Algeria. The account of Kennedy’s telephone conversation with his father is in Time, Dec. 2, 1957, p. 20. Citation for Kennedy’s article is “A Democrat Looks at Foreign Policy,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 36, No. 1. October 1957, pp. 44–59. The speech on the arms gap was delivered in the Senate Aug. 14, 1958; see Congressional Record, Vol. 104, Part 14, pp. 17569–575.

  Civil Rights: A Profile in Cowardice?: The indignant New Yorker’s letter to Kennedy is dated Aug. 2, 1957, and Kennedy’s reply, Aug. 10, 1957, 1957 Legislative File, Civil Rights Folder, Main Office. For the legislative and parliamentary background of the 1957 civil-rights battle, see H. E. Shuman, “Senate Rules and the Civil Rights Bill,” The American Political Science Review, Vol. 51, No. 4, December 1957, pp. 955–75. For Kennedy’s position on bypassing the Eastland Committee, see Congressional Record, Vol. 103, Part 7, June 20, 1957, pp. 9793, 9805, 9815; Long Island resident to Kennedy, June 26, 1957, and Kennedy’s answer, July 3, 1957, 1957 Legislative File, Civil Rights Folder, Main Office. Senator Morse set forth his position in letter to the Washington Post and Times-Herald, July 1, 1957. Kennedy’s speech endorsing Section 3 is in the Congressional Record, Vol. 103, Part 9, July 23, 1957, pp. 12467–468; the vote is recorded in ibid., p. 12565. For the legislative history of the Civil Rights Bill, see the two excellent articles in The Reporter by Douglass Cater, “The Senate Debate on Civil Rights,” Aug. 8, 1957, pp. 37–40, and “How the Senate Passed the Civil-Rights Bill,” Sept. 5, 1957, pp. 9–13. Telegrams to Kennedy from the Southern governors are in 1957 Legislative File, Civil Rights Folder, Main Office. Kennedy’s defense of his position on the jury-trial amendment is in Congressional Record, Vol. 103, Part 10, Aug. 1, 1957, pp. 13305–307; see also, correspondence in Civil Rights Folder cited above. Example of Kennedy’s mollifying of Southerners is Kennedy to Birmingham, Alabama, woman, Aug. 1, 1957, in Civil Rights Folder cited above.

  Hooverism and Housekeeping: Hoover’s tribute to Kennedy is in letter to Joseph P. Kennedy, Aug. 20, 1956, Kennedy Personal Files, Attic Office. Kennedy stated his position on the accrued-expenditure bill in Congressional Record, Vol. 102, Part 6, May 21, 1956, p. 8524; for his stand on the proposal for an administrative vice-president, see ibid., Vol. 102, Part 6, May 9, 1956, p. 7744; and for his defense of his committee’s choices of the five senatorial greats, see ibid., Vol. 103, Part 5, May 1, 1957, pp. 6206–16.

  XII. Swinging for the Fences

  These anecdotes are from interviews and from reports by newspapermen covering the affairs; Kennedy’s exchange with the teen-ager was reported in the New York Times, Oct. 12, 1959, Kennedy’s negotiations with publishers are in miscellaneous files in both the Senate offices.

  Room 362: This account of life in Kennedy’s office is based mainly on extensive observation and work by the author in this office during 1959. Some of Kennedy’s financial memoranda are in 1956 Personal File, Attic Office; see also, Thomas J. Walsh to Kennedy, July 18, 1956, and Aug. 17, 1956, same file. Kennedy’s current reading was reported in the New York Times, July 21, 1957, Sect. 7, p. 6. Reston’s comments on Kennedy were reprinted in the Congressional Record, Vol. 104, Part 15, Aug. 21, 1958, pp. 18979–980.

  Home Run in Massachusetts: The candidate for Congress observing the extent of Kennedy’s personal support among businessmen was the author. On the television-channel case, see Kennedy correspondence with Robert Choate and others in Federal Communications Act File, Attic Office, 1956 Legislative File; and for Kennedy’s memorandum, see Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, 84th Cong., 2nd Sess., pp. 345–48. The Civil Aeronautics Board information is based on Kennedy, et al. to Chairman, CAB, July 12, 1956; Kennedy to ibid., July 13, 1956, 1956–57 Legislative Files, Attic Office. The quotation of Celeste is from the New York Times, Oct. 19, 1958, p. 57. Kennedy’s memorandum to aide in regard to the coattail-seeking candidate is in 1958 Election Files, Main Office. The baton-seizing episode was witnessed by the author. The memo about lowering campaign predictions is in 1958 Campaign Files, Main Office. Voting returns are from Congressional Directory, 86th Cong., 1st Sess. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1959), p. 325.

  The Senate as Testing Ground?: My account of the labor measure is drawn from interviews, the Congressional Record, congressional hearings, and John Van Camp, “What Happened to the Labor Reform Bill?,” The Reporter, Oct. 2, 1958, pp. 24–28. Kennedy’s statement on the defeat of the labor bill in the House was issued in mimeographed form, undated, Main Office. On the 1959 labor bill, see especially Congressional Record, Vol. 105 (unbound), April 22, 1959, pp. 5795–827; 1959 Labor Legislation File, Main Office, correspondence between Kennedy and Labor Committee staff and advisers; and accounts in the New York Times. Cabell Phillips’s comments appear in the New York Times, Sept. 13, 1959, Sect. IV, p. E7.

  “Victura”?: The description of a typical Kennedy campaign trip is drawn from the author’s observations after accompanying Kennedy on a Midwestern trip in the spring of 1959. Description of the campaign office is from author’s observation. Fletcher Knebel’s comment on Mrs. Kennedy as a campaigner is from Candidates 1960, op. cit., p. 200. The Chicago Daily News poll was published in a series of articles in April 1959. The convention first-ballot estimate was based on answers from about half the 1956 delegates who responded to the questionnaire; these answers were then projected as gauges of the whole delegation vote in 1960. The Gallup poll of Democratic voters is from Press Release of the Public Opinion News Service, Princeton, N. J., Aug. 13, 1959. Quotations from Democratic leaders on Kennedy’s strategy are from Joe McCarthy, “The Remarkable Kennedys,” Look, Oct. 13, 1959, pp. 27–33. Kennedy’s Life article was in the issue of March 11, 1957, pp. 164–66.

  XIII. Kennedy and the Catholics

  The story of the visiting congressman is told in Profiles in Courage, pp. 123–24.

  Sources on Catholicism and Protestantism that I have used are John A. Ryan and Francis J. Boland, Catholic Principles of Politics (New York: Macmillan, 1950), the revised edition of The State and the Church; Leo Pfeffer, Church, State, and Freedom (Boston: Beacon, 1953); John C. Bennett, Christians and the State (New York: Scribner, 1958); Catholic Mind, Vol. LVII, No. 1143, May, June 1959 (articles and addresses by John Courtney Murray, S.J.).

  Render unto Caesar?: A recent reference to the Vatican Council of 1870 is Gerald W. Johnson, The New Republic, March 5, 1959, p. 10. Mrs. Roosevelt’s comments on the church-state problem and a Catholic candidacy are in Look, March 3, 1959, and the New York Times, Feb. 17, 1959, pp. 1, 19. Her Detroit remarks were made in an interview with Lou Gordon of “Detroit Headline.” The article challenging Al Smith appeared in The Atlantic, Vol. 139, April 1927, pp. 540–49; and his reply, ibid., May 1927, pp. 721–28.

  Kennedy Takes His Stand: Kennedy’s address at Notre Dame was delivered Jan. 29, 1950; a copy of the speech is in the Kennedy office. His statement appeared in Fletcher Knebel, “A Catholic in 1960,” Look, March 3, 1959, p. 17. The Catholic doubt over the advisability of a Catholic President is reflected in The Catholic Observer, Vol. 5, No. 17, March 6, 1959, pp. 1, 3; see especially, the roundup of Catholic editorial opinion in this journal on p. 3. Cardinal Cushing’s defense of Kennedy is in the New York Times, March 10, 1959, p. 19. Lowell’s statement on POAU’s reaction to Kennedy’s comments in Look was given to the press.

  What Kind of Catholic?: Kennedy’s statement “The Pope speaks …” was made to Martin Agrons
ky, NBC interview, December 1957. Source of his statement to the Council of Methodist Bishops is Time, April 27, 1959, p. 16. The Cogley statement is in Commonweal, May 8, 1959, p. 152. Smith’s remark is quoted in Oscar Handlin, Al Smith and His America (Boston: Little, Brown, 1958). Kennedy’s answers to Protestant critics and interrogators are in 1957 Legislative File, Religion Folder; see especially, Kennedy’s answers dated June 17, 1957, and July 2, 1957. On the Vatican question, see Kennedy letter to Cambridge man, April 12, 1954, 1953–55 Legislative Files, Foreign Policy—General Folder, Attic Office. One letter sent out from Kennedy’s office over Kennedy’s name, and dated June 5, 1959 (Main Office), stated his position on the question of birth control as follows: “Without minimizing the moral implications which many people see in the so-called birth control issue or minimizing the relevance of these considerations to political decisions, I nevertheless agree with you that consideration of legislation is essentially a political issue. I believe also that those who have no religious or moral scruples concerning the use of contraceptives should not be hampered in their freedom of choice.” However, the Kennedy office stated recently that this letter does not represent Kennedy’s personal viewpoint. For Kennedy’s belief in pluralism, see his letter dated July 31, 1957, Religion Folder, Main Office. The Bennett quotation is from Christians and the State, op. cit., p. 263.

  “No Catholics Need Apply”?: Handlin’s quote is from Al Smith and His America, pp. 130–31. See the perceptive columns on the Al Smith precedent by William Shannon, “The Lesson of Al Smith,” New York Post, March 31 and April 1, 1958. The position of some Kennedy campaign strategists on the effect of his Catholicism on the vote was summed up in the study cited in Chapter 10, “The Catholic Vote in 1952 and 1956”; I have supplemented this with interviews. For the report on Governor Patterson’s support of Kennedy and Methodist reaction in Alabama, see the New York Times, June 17, 1959, p. 38; June 25, 1959, p. 16. The Baptist rebuke was quoted in a dispatch in the Berkshire Eagle, July 1, 1959, p. 4. The exchange between the Pilot and Bishop Lord is reported in the New York Times, Aug. 1, 1959, p. 14. Bishop Lord’s statement against voting anti-Catholic is from the New York Times, Oct. 10, 1959, p. 6. Kennedy’s statement on not voting “Catholic” is a quotation from a friend.