Kennedy Slain On Dallas Street!!!

This headline in Dallas Morning News of November 23, 1963 says it all. I am in Dallas for a customer conference and was staying at the Adolphus at the Main Street. Not far from there is the 6th floor of the then Texas School Book Depository Building on Elm Street where, allegedly, Less Oswald killed the president with a rifle shot in his head. This floor has been converted into a museum with videos from Kennedy's speeches and everything surrounding the assassination. The place is sombre as well as elating for the work presented. The most chilling part is to look out of the window down the Elm Street going into the highway and imagine what happened there on that fateful day. I find out in some of the literature in the museum that Kennedy actually had received a lot of threats from Texas for his pro-civil rights position and his numbers had fallen dramatically in this state which was Democratic at that time. Preparing for his reelection in 1964, he was out trying his best to be as close as possible to the people( and hence an open car)...and that was his undoing.

There are a couple of things which are interesting to note about Kennedy's presidency. He clearly evoked very strong responses from the young who enrolled in droves in the newly created Peace Corps.Another achievement was a road map he created for a lot of civil liberties for black people which came to fruition once LBJ came to power. The committment to land on moon was another example of his visionary capabilities. He also enunciated a very positive vision for America along with strongly standing up to the threat of communism. Probably, his biggest moment of glory in terms of foreign policy was the successful resolution of the Cuban missile crisis....not to forget that speech in Berlin which ended with Kennedy proclaiming Ich bin ein Berliner( I am a Berliner).

Having said that, foreign policy was one area where, I contend, Kennedy administration also committed massive blunders. Bay of pigs, escalation of commitment in Vietnam and erection of the Berlin Wall- all happened while Kennedy was at the helm. Interestingly, most successful foreign policy since 2nd World War was probably run under Richard Nixon who is considered the most uninspiring of all the US presidents in last 50 years( Did I forget Jimmy Carter???).

Anyways, it was quite a moment at the place where all this happened and it is still soaking in. To be so close to what was a sort of myth for a very long time with the video of Kennedy hit and the slow slumber into Jacqueline's arms and then her climbing up the rear of the car in her pink dress...everything happened right there...right where my eyes were.

I actually bought news paper prints from the souvenir shop of two editions of Dallas Morning News for November 23( with the headline: Kennedy Slain On Dallas Street) and one for November 26(35th President Finds His Peace On Slope In Arlington Cemetery), 1963 and they are just chilling. Imagine Texas in 1963, walking into a house to find a copy of these newspapers lying on the coffee table!!!