There have been many pieces reflecting on the Kennedy legacy now that Sen. Ted Kennedy, the last Kennedy brother, has died. Yet, the legacy hinges on a fateful day in November 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas, TX. What would have John Kennedy’s legacy been if fate had intervened and he lived on?
It’s an interesting question to consider. Kennedy is mostly remembered as a young President martyred before he could truly make his impact. Perhaps a good indicator is to look at the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson, Kennedy’s successor, who was tasked with running the country. There were significant accomplishments, for better or worse, during the Johnson Presidency such as the Civil Rights Act, the Great Society, and the creation of Medicare. However, these pieces of legislation didn’t define his presidency.
He is remembered, quite negatively, for the escalation of the Vietnam War. But Johnson was playing the cards he was dealt and some of those cards he was playing with were dealt to him by President Kennedy.
Kennedy, after all, increased American troops in the country from levels around 1,000 in 1961 to over 16,000 in 1963 at the time of his death. It’s debatable if some events, especially incidents like the Gulf of Tonkin, would have occurred, but it’s abundantly clear from Kennedy’s rhetoric that the United States was going to “draw a line in the sand” and contain communism on the Vietnamese peninsula. Kennedy’s record on foreign policy shows that he was not immune to mistakes in this arena; he might have averted nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis, but he also was responsible for the Bay of Pigs disaster.
Americans, even if they weren’t alive in the 1960s, can still hear the chanting echos of “Hey, hey, LBJ how many kids did you kill today?” The country, and the world, still remembers the protests in 1968 which were the genesis of an anti-war movement that hasn’t died over forty years later. But what if those chants had been “Hey, hey, JFK how many kids have you killed today?”
History has not been kind to Johnson because of Vietnam. Kennedy’s administration may have been treated as Camelot early on, but if Obama’s current experience has taught us anything, the sheen of a young and favored president will wear off. If Kennedy escalated Vietnam as Johnson did, he would have undoubtedly received the same harsh treatment. The idealist JFK that inhabits our imaginations may have instead had Vietnam tied around his neck and left office with a legacy entirely different than the one that currently enchants American history.
After JFK’s assassination, tragedy followed the Kennedy family. Robert Kennedy was killed while campaigning for President in 1968, Ted Kennedy committed homicide ruining his presidential ambitions, and multiple family members have died in plane crashes.
But if Kennedy had lived and became the “Vietnam president” it’s not clear any of these incidents would have happened. Robert Kennedy would likely not have run for president in 1968 in the same way Jeb Bush couldn’t run in 2008 because of his brother’s unpopularity. Perhaps Robert Kennedy would have ended up running in 1976 with 11 years of experience as a US Senator, and three more as Attorney General.
Imagine the consequences of the election of a President Robert F. Kennedy in 1976: No President Carter, perhaps no President Reagan, President George H. W. Bush is questionable, and don’t forget Senator Edward Kennedy would be waiting for his chance on the big stage, sans the Chappaquiddick disaster.
Many points in American history hinge on small events such as the discovery of Special Order No. 191, or in this case, the aim of a disgruntled former Marine. The Kennedy family has played a part in American politics for the last half a century, but the role they play now could have, and sh0uld have, been far different.
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