Basic Information:
Author:
Ted Widmer
Edition:
eBook on OverDrive from Fresno County Public Library
Publisher:
Grand Central Publishing
ISBN:
1401324568 (ISBN13: 9781401324568)
Start
Date: October 23, 2018
Read
Date: November 11, 2018
320
pages
Genre:
History
Language
Warning: Low
Rated
Overall: 3 out of 5
History:
4 out of 5
Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
Kennedy
was the first President to make extensive use of taping to record the
important decisions of his presidency. In addition, there is some
recordings from before he became president. These recordings range
from a 1940’s radio interview to just ten days before his
assassination. The subjects include his outlook on history, politics,
civil rights, Cuba, the bomb, Space, Vietnam, and the world.
Caroline
Kennedy has a blurb describing her father as well as her feelings on
hearing the tapes. Then Ted Widmer talks about the taping systems and
circumstances behind the taping. Most of those recorded did not know
they were being recorded.
Cast of Characters:
John
F. Kennedy
Jackie
Kennedy
Robert
F Kennedy
Various
politicians, both state and federal
Expectations:
Recommendation:
JFK Library and Museum
When:
October 22, 2018
Date
Became Aware of Book: October 22, 2018
How
come do I want to read this book: When visiting the JFK Library and
Museum, it talked about that Kennedy has secretly installed a
recording device in the Cabinet room. He could control when
recordings would be made and when it would not. Having heard some of
the discussion concerning the Cuban Missile Crisis, it sounded
interesting being a fly in that room for their discussions.
What
do I think I will get out of it? Insight to how decisions were made
in the Kennedy administration.
Thoughts:
The
book is divided into nine sections. There is an introduction to give
context to each section. Then a series of tapes in each section. Each
tape has an introduction as well to indicate the subject matter,
date, and participants.
One
comes away with the thought that Kennedy in his speeches expressed
high sounding, perfectly cadenced talks. But in this conversations,
there is hesitations, lots of assumptions, and ordinary sounding
words.
Introduction
248
hours of meetings and 17.5 hours of telephone conversations, along
with dictated thoughts.
Three
things which these tapes are good for:
-
Insight and understanding of the decisions made by Kennedy
-
An understanding of how the Presidency actually works.
-
The people at that level are still people, like the rest of us. They have concerns, fears, joy, happiness. There are relationships in the most unexpected places.
History
as it is being made is not a straight line.Also sometimes things need
the proper timing.
It
is noted that Kennedy’s publicity campaigns allowed him to do some
rather impressive work.
Mythology
exists for a reason: we tell ourselves stories to explain complicated
subjects…
For
the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie--deliberate,
contrived, and dishonest--but the myth--persistent, persuasive, and
unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears.
We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We
enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
John F Kennedy, June 11, 1962, Yale Commencement Speech
One:
History
Dinner
Party Conversation, January 5, 1960
Kennedy
is asked why a well-to-do person like himself does not just sit back
and live off of the benefits of being rich? Or at least go into law
and become a high profile lawyer? Kennedy responds that he could have
gone into law-he did go to law school for a period. But to what end?
Divorce lawyer? Estate lawyer? Even a high profile case going after
a big-name company? But as a member of Congress, you get to affect a
number of lives in a comparatively short amount of time.
JFK:
… if you didn’t have that power of desire, the United States and
every place else would collapse! That’s what moves the country and
the world. ...I’m just saying the center of action … is the
presidency. Now if you are interested, which many, many people are, …
the presidency is the place to be, in the sense of if you want to get
anything done.
Kennedy
is asked how do you get over a sense of loss after a defeat? His
response is he does not know. Even when we lost the bid to be
Vice-President, he was still a senator.
The
conversation went around to money in politics. Cannon says that he
thought about going into politics, but thought he should have an
independent source of money. Kennedy did not agree. He has seen a lot
of people in politics and did not find that they were in particular
dishonest. He then goes on and says that There’s
so many kinds of being dishonest, the money part is just only one of
them. I don’t really think … that people with money are more
honest than those who aren’t.
The conversation about money in politics, particularly those who have
money going into politics. Kennedy points out that most of his
colleagues-1960 and before-do not have money. But even if you do have
money, you are still susceptible to pressure. That is that most
politicians are anxious people-anxious ultimately to get re-elected.
He points out two things:
-
If you have money, this [politics] is their tremendous chance to break through the rather narrow lives they may lead.
-
Then talking about being beaten in an election, the concern is being cut off from this fascinating life at mid-age, …
Kennedy
points out that when campaigning, I
think you have to be able to communicate a sense of conviction and
intelligence and rahter, some integrity.
Dictabelt
Recording, Circa 1960
This
tape seems to be a remembrance of why Kennedy went into politics and
his road leading up to the presidency.
A
politicians power may be great, and with this power goes the
necessity of checking it.
Kennedy
understood it is the politicians who make the great decisions of the
day. In our society, everything depends on the government and what it
decides.
“The
exercise of vital powers, along lines of excellence, in a life
affording them scope" is an old Greek definition of happiness.
Through all Greek history that spirit of life abounding moves. From
Edith Hamilton’s The
Greek Way
Kennedy
raises the question, why do politicians keep looking for bigger and
better positions, particularly if they enjoy the position they are
currently in and are doing well:
-
Normal desire to move ahead
-
Greater opportunity to determine the direction things will go.
-
The scope and power are bigger.
The
magic of politics is participating on all levels of national life in
an affirmative way, of playing a small role in determining whether,
in Mr Faulkner’s words, “freedom will not only endure, but also
prevail.”
Meeting
with Vice Admiral Hyman Rickover, February 11, 1963
Much
of the meeting was on the state of education. Kennedy asks, why is it
that children today are so fixated on television? Rickover says that
there is two reason why people like them were educated:
-
Parents like Kennedy’s did not want their children spoiled by money so they forced them to face the world.
-
Rickover was born into poverty and education was the way out.
Rickover
says that everything which parents did (1960’s-when I was being
raised) was to make it easy on their kids.
Rickover
makes the argument that Kennedy should push education. Without
education, the rest of Kennedy’s administration goals will not
work.
Two:
Politics
Call
from Attorney General Robert F Kennedy
Discussed
tactics on obtaining de-segregation in schools. Both Kennedy’s felt
it should have worked its way through the courts rather than direct
confrontation.
Call
to Lou Harris, August 23, 1963
Lou
Harris noted to Kennedy that
people are more and more aware on the issues, and know the
congressmen less, than the other way around. In Washington, you get
the feeling that it’s only the congressmen that count and the
issues don’t matter.
Three:
Civil Rights
Meeting
with Americans for Democratic Action Leaders, May 4, 1963
The
Birmingham, Alabama protests where dogs were set to attack protestors
had just happened. Kennedy met with some civil rights leaders and was
lamenting that there was nothing the federal government could do
about these attacks. How much has changed since then? Protesters are
no longer attacked by dogs. But chances are if the police shoots
someone, they can claim self defense and most of the time get away
with it.
Meeting
about Birmingham, Alabama, May 21, 1963
Robert
Kennedy goes over the incidents which lead Martin Luther King, Jr
into prominence. Some of it was himself and the circumstances. But
other some of it was careful planning and stagecraft by him.
Robert
Kennedy continues on with what have we learned. This included:
-
Biracial (now it would be multiracial) committees made up of local people who can talk with one another about the problems each are facing.
-
Problem is that there is a feeling that there is no solution for the problems they are facing.
-
Being able to air their grievances.
-
Government needs to lead the way, if it is to be an honest broker. In this case, the federal government was not hiring blacks into good jobs such as postal workers.
Meeting
with Civil RIghts Leaders, August 28, 1963
Roy
Wilkins comments that having Kennedy’s understanding and blessing
turned the protests into orderly protests. It changed the mood.
Walter
Reuther remarked that legislation gives the people tools, but it is
not the solution in of itself. It takes people, of the whole
community, of goodwill to come together to implement the legislation.
Civil
Rights takes a crusade to achieve.
Meeting
with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, September 19, 1963
Despair
leads to frustration. Frustration leads to violence. Combine despair
and frustration with feeling threatened you have a recipe for an
explosion which will out run the philosophy of nonviolence. To
counteract this, there needs to be a feeling that there is hope and a
sense of protection.
Four:
Cuba
Kennedy
was supported in this crisis with a superb leadership team which
functioned effectively together. The chief aim was to improve
Kennedy’s options.
Five:
The Bomb
Let
us resolve to be master, not the victims, of our history.
Meeting
with Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson, September 9, 1963
Kennedy’s
comment about Republicans still stands true today, along with the
inverse: you’ll
find there’s a hell of a vested interest in proving any Democratic
president to be wrong or soft on Communism.
Interesting
that Kennedy thought that the Test Ban Treaty with Russia was
probably going to be a short term treaty. It sounds like Kennedy and
Jackson did not think the treaty was a great hindrance to us. We
still had underground testing as well as the extrapolation and
simulation the scientists do.
Six:
Space
Meeting
with James Webb, Jerome Wiesner, and Robert Seamans, November 21,
1962
Kennedy
lays out why he thought going to the moon was the top priority-this
was a competition with the Russians to say who was superior. Rather
than guns and bombs, this was like the Olympics-a draw for other
nations to show that democracy produced better results than
communism. It was not a discovery of scientific information-that was
only a by-product. James Webb thought that it was a
basic ability in this nation to use science and very advanced
technologies to increase national power, our economy, all the way
through.
Seven:
Vietnam
No Notes
Eight:
The World As It Is
Meeting
on India and china, May 9, 1963
When
we give a commitment to defend a county, we have to mean that
ultimately we would use nuclear weapons if need be.
Meeting
with Asia Specialists, November 19, 1963
Kennedy
wanted to recast the Cold War and its binary logic into something
different where we were supporting nations because of who they were
rather than tools and pawns of the Cold War.
Nine:
The Burden and the Glory
No notes
Evaluation:
Do
not expect to hear the high phrases which Kennedy would use in his
speeches, even though there are some, or an at depth analysis of
what is being said. The value of this book, and if you choose to, the
recordings, is that you can listen in on the everyday conversations
between Kennedy and his advisors. You hear the advice he got, some of
the questioning he asked, and the directions he gave. That is the
true value of this book.
Notes from my book group:
Many
of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
-
Why the title of Listening In?
-
Did the get a better picture of Kennedy and his thoughts before he made decisions?
-
What is the ethics of recording people who are not made aware that they are being recorded? Does being President give JFK the right to do this?
-
Every story and person has a world view. What world view did Kennedy and his advisors bring to the Presidency?
-
Why do you think this book was created?
-
What would you ask the author if you had a chance?
-
What “take aways” did you have from this book?
-
How did this book affect your view of Kennedy? The Presidency?
-
What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
-
-
Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
-
What was memorable?
-
New Words:
-
Arabrine: Mepacrine (INN), also called quinacrine (USAN) or by the trade name Atabrine, is a drug with several medical applications.
Book References:
-
The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman
-
Conversations with Kennedy by Ben Bradlee
-
Politics USA: A Practical Guide to the Winning of Public Office by James M Cannon
-
Education and Freedom by Vice-Admiral Hyman Rickover
Good Quotes:
-
First Line: John F. Kennedy may have been the youngest president elected and a supreme modernist in a modernist age, but he also possessed an acute sense of his nearness to the American past.
-
Last Line: Kennedy!
-
For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie--deliberate, contrived, and dishonest--but the myth--persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. John F Kennedy, June 11, 1962, Yale Commencement Speech
-
A politicians power may be great, and with this power goes the necessity of checking it. Dictabelt Recording, Circa 1960
-
“The exercise of vital powers, along lines of excellence, in a life affording them scope" is an old Greek definition of happiness. Through all Greek history that spirit of life abounding moves. From Edith Hamilton’s The Greek Way
-
Democracy is the worst form of government except for all of the other systems that have been tried. Winston Churchill
-
The magic of politics is participating on all levels of national life in an affirmative way, of playing a small role in determining whether, in Mr Faulkner’s words, “freedom will not only endure, but also prevail.” Dictabelt Recording, Circa 1960
-
Let us resolve to be master, not the victims, of our history. Quoted by Ted WIlmer of Kennedy at the University of Maine.
-
Introduction
-
One: History
-
Two: Politics
-
Three: Civil Rights
-
Four: Cuba
-
Five: The Bomb
-
Six: Space
-
Seven: Vietnam
-
Eight: The World As It Is
-
Nine: The Burden and the Glory
References:
-
Author's Web Site
-
Wikipedia-Author
-
Amazon-Book
-
Amazon-Author
-
Barnes and Noble
-
GoodReads-Book
-
GoodReads-Author
-
CNN Review
-
NPR Review
-
CSPAN2 talk
-
Download the recordings
-
Presidential Recordings: Digital Edition
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