John F. Kennedy, Camelot and the Cold War
Summary: Kennedy's political agenda was rooted in the consensus politics of the 1950s. However, his political style and strategies represented a fundamental break with the 50s emphasis on security and conformity.
Lecture Outline
Kennedy's Life and Political Career before the Presidency
The Making of the Kennedy Mystique: from Organization Man to James Bond
Kennedy's Cold War: The Policy Implications of the Kennedy Mystique
The Kennedys before 1960
A Version of The American Immigrant Narrative: Economic Wealth but Lacks Acceptance from Upper-Class Protestant Society
Joseph Kennedy, Sr.: Business Tycoon & New Deal Supporter
Seeks to Prepare Next Generation for National Leadership as Proof of American Assimilation
John F. Kennedy's Political Career
War Hero
Congressperson and Senator
A Moderate Democrat
A New Path to the Presidential Nomination: Uses Family Money and Charisma–Rather than Congressional Record and Service to Party-- to Develop National Following
A Catholic President?
Challenges Anti-Catholic Bias in 1960 West Virginia Primary by
The Changing Image of White Immigrants: From Unassimible Foreigners to Quintessential Americans–War Heroes, Celebrities, Exemplars of the American Dream
Joe DiMaggio: The Son of Italian Immigrants Becomes the Yankee Clipper, the ideal of American Masculinity–soft-spoken, high-achieving, married to Marilyn Monroe
Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack–ethnic outsiders who come to symbolize a masculine ideal: self-made, hard drinking, ladies' men–proud of their achievements and their country. Kennedy's identification with Sinatra helps him to achieve the same cross-over appeal to non-ethnic white Americans.
Camelot and the Remaking of Postwar Masculinity
- The Kennedy-Nixon Debate–Kennedy appears more presidential, the making of the television president
- From "I Like Ike" to the "Rat Pack"–Eisenhower was a national father-figure; Kennedy's appeal is that he's a man's man–like the Rat Pack–hard working and high achieving, but also high living and sexually active.
- A Masculine Camelot? Kennedy's Masculine Image helps to resolve popular anxiety that American men are being deprived of their masculine drive by organizational bureaucracies and conformist suburban families.
- Playboy
and the Death of the Organization Man. Playboy is a call to abandon security of corporations and families is search of masculine challenge and adventure
- Barbara Ehrenreich, Hearts of Men
Sex and Masculine Achievement
From Ozzie Nelson and John Wayne to Sinatra, Hefner, and Kennedy–Nelson and Wayne's model of masculinity is reliable and self-sacrificing, while Sinatra, Hefner, and KennKennedy administration’s civil rights policy was solely reactive. As Attorney General, Robert Kennedy undertook the most aggressive campaign of voting rights litigation in history, a campaign whose ultimate failure to protect black voting rights would ultimately lead to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In addition, the Kennedy Administration sought to aggressively leverage private foundation funds to encourage civil rights groups to shift their focus in the south from nonviolent protest to voter registratior Your Country? Willingness to Serve the Nation, Rather than Take from the Government, is the Key to Building a Strong Country
Passing the Torch to a New Generation: In contrast to the generation of Depression and War (which sought peace and economic security), Kennedy calls on postwar generation to seek service to the nation for the cause of freedom
From Containment to Counterinsurgency
Containment Policy: During the Truman and Eisenhower adminstrations, U.S. Cold War policy sought to limit communist expansion to current levels.
Kennedy's Cold War Strategy: Defeat the communist challenge across the globe with a program of 1) economic and political reform in non-industrialized countries, and 2) counterinsurgency: aggressive military intelligence and covert action to defeat left-wing guerrilla offensives
The Peace Corps and the Green Berets Symbolize the Two Components of Kennedy's Strategy
The Peace Corps Message: Superior American Know-How and Democratic Capitalist Values
The Green Berets: Winning the Game of Internal Subversion and Guerilla Warfare against the Communists