- 24 minutes ago
TV, Documentary The American President 1 Family 'l'Ies
The American President is a series that aired on PBS in 2000 profiling 41 U.S. chief executives, using exclusive interviews with Presidents Clinton, Bush, Ford, and Carter. Well known figures lend their voice to presidents of the past who lived before sound recordings, including: Colin Powell, Bob Dole, Walter Cronkite, Ben Bradlee, John Glenn, James Carville, Andrew Young, and the Rev. Billy Graham. Narrated by Hugh Sidey.
The American President is a series that aired on PBS in 2000 profiling 41 U.S. chief executives, using exclusive interviews with Presidents Clinton, Bush, Ford, and Carter. Well known figures lend their voice to presidents of the past who lived before sound recordings, including: Colin Powell, Bob Dole, Walter Cronkite, Ben Bradlee, John Glenn, James Carville, Andrew Young, and the Rev. Billy Graham. Narrated by Hugh Sidey.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:04Presenting History's Best on PBS.
00:59Presenting History's Best on PBS.
01:28Presenting History's Best on PBS.
01:55Presenting History's Best on PBS.
02:27Presenting History's Best on PBS.
02:29History, though it retains some of the aura of kingship, is an elective office deliberately distinct from monarchy.
02:36And yet, even in America, politics often runs in families, and certain prominent families have come to dominate the high
02:45office.
02:46The first such lineage produced was the Adams family of Massachusetts.
02:51John Adams set out to create an American dynasty, raising his oldest son, John Quincy, to one day inherit the
03:01presidency.
03:13I cannot escape my destiny.
03:16I am bound to my parents by more than ordinary ties.
03:21The children of presidents historically have had a very difficult time living up to their reputations and experiences of their
03:34parents.
03:41Most children have not been able to get enough distance to manage careers of their own that bring them within
03:50sight, sound, or possibility of the presidency.
03:53Well, this says something for John Adams, as well as John Quincy Adams, that he let his son grow up.
04:03John Quincy Adams was raised at the family homestead in Quincy, Massachusetts, where his famous parents put huge pressure on
04:11him to succeed.
04:13His father lectured, if you do not rise to the head of your country, it will be owing to your
04:19own laziness and slovenliness.
04:23The first and deepest of all my wishes is to give satisfaction to my parents.
04:32Forced by his demanding parents to grow up fast, by the time he reached his twenties, John Quincy was appointed
04:39America's minister to Holland.
04:44And in time, President Washington called him the most valuable public character we have abroad.
04:51Then, during his father's presidency, he served ably for four years as minister to Prussia.
04:59In 1801, when his father retired from the presidency, John Quincy returned to the United States to settle down on
05:08the family homestead.
05:10I feel an attachment to these places more powerful than to any other spot upon earth.
05:18But by now, the first of many family tragedies had struck the Adamses.
05:25John Quincy's brother Charles, unable to live up to the family ideal, had succumbed to alcoholism.
05:32The death of my brother affected me greatly.
05:36Now there is no passion more deeply rooted in my bosom than the longing for posterity to support my father's
05:44name.
05:46Elected to the upper house of the Massachusetts legislature, one year later he won a seat in the U.S.
05:52Senate.
05:53And in 1809, he was named minister to Russia.
06:01Now recognized as the country's most skilled diplomat, it was John Quincy who negotiated the close of the War of
06:081812.
06:11In recognition of his accomplishments, he was named James Monroe's top cabinet officer.
06:18He proved himself to be a brilliant Secretary of State, perhaps the finest in American history,
06:25toiling over complex negotiations involving boundary disputes and the acquisition of Florida.
06:32And he was the chief architect of the Monroe Doctrine.
06:37The Secretary of State always inherited the presidency.
06:44He knew it was his task to go on to be president.
06:50I think this was a man who was testing himself and watching himself and being uncomfortable about his obligations
06:59throughout his public life.
07:03Make no mistake about it, the four most miserable years of my life were my four years in the presidency.
07:15He was one of the brightest men ever to enter high office, and his administration was marked by its bold
07:22initiative.
07:24He advocated federally funded roads, canals, river widenings, and harbor works.
07:31In a visionary program, he called for the creation of a national observatory.
07:37And in foreign affairs, he became known for his patient negotiations, concluding more commercial treaties than any president prior to
07:47the Civil War.
07:49But Adams' introverted ways and arrogant intellectual manner overshadowed his many achievements,
07:57and he became vilified as one of the country's most unpopular presidents ever.
08:02I well know that I was never a popular man.
08:05I am reproached as a gloomy misanthropist and an unsocial savage.
08:10But I am not formed to shine in company.
08:13I have no powers of fascination, none of the honey which is the true flycatcher.
08:19I am a silent animal.
08:22John Quincy Adams seemed to be more comfortable around plants than people.
08:28Horticulture was his passion, and he was the first president to begin what would become an ongoing tradition of formal
08:35plantings around the White House.
08:38Throughout his presidency, Adams took long walks by himself and swam alone in the Potomac River.
08:47Almost every day I have bathed in the river and swam up to an hour and a half.
08:55On the morning of July 4, 1826, I received a letter announcing that my father was rapidly sinking.
09:04I immediately determined to proceed as speedily as possible to Quincy.
09:11But the president was too late.
09:14John Quincy reached the family homestead on July 13th, six days after his father's funeral.
09:21Everything about the house was the same.
09:24I was not fully sensible of the change till I entered his bedchamber.
09:28That moment struck me as if it had been an arrow to my heart.
09:33The charm which has always made this house to me an abode of enchantment is dissolved.
09:40And yet, my attachment to it is stronger than I have ever felt it before.
09:47Two years later, the so-called people's candidate, Andrew Jackson, vowed to topple the Adams administration and everything it stood
09:56for.
09:56Following one of the bitterest fights in presidential campaign history, John Quincy was defeated by a large majority.
10:05My career is closed, he wrote dejectedly.
10:09His hopes now focused on his children.
10:13My sons have the honor of two preceding generations to sustain.
10:18I had hoped that at least one of my sons would have been ambitious to excel.
10:23Instead, I find all three coming to manhood with indolent minds.
10:29It is a bitter disappointment.
10:31I am aware that no labor will ever turn a pebble into a diamond.
10:37Recently, his son George had begun drinking, gambling, and womanizing.
10:43I have been horror-struck at your danger, Adams had written.
10:47May I remind you of the blood from which you came.
10:51But when he demanded that George come talk over his life,
10:55his confused oldest son leapt to his death from aboard a steamboat.
11:03Oh, my unhappy son, what a paradise of earthly enjoyment I had figured as awaiting thee and me.
11:12It is withered forever.
11:17The Adamses passed on from one generation to the next,
11:23enlarging neuroses, which got more problematical with each successive generation.
11:30Fathers in office are so perpetually occupied
11:35that sons get neither the attention nor the direction they deserve.
11:41No one knows the agony of mine that I suffered.
11:44It was like roasting to death by a slow fire.
11:50It was his religious faith that finally brought him around.
11:54That and a distinct honor awarded him in 1831 by the people of Massachusetts,
12:00who elected him as a representative to the U.S. Congress.
12:05He became the only former president ever to serve in the House of Representatives.
12:12No election or appointment ever gave me so much pleasure.
12:16My election as president was not half so gratifying.
12:21And so commenced the final chapter in John Quincy's long life.
12:25He served brilliantly in Congress for the next 17 years.
12:29And though his second son, John, also died from alcoholism,
12:35his youngest son, Charles Francis, would one day go on to become,
12:40like his father, a distinguished diplomat and a congressman.
12:45All my hopes in this world are now centered upon him.
12:49I would die despondent if I were under the conviction
12:53that no remaining drop of my father's blood transmitted through me would survive.
13:01John Quincy once swore he would die in the pursuit of duty,
13:05and in 1848 he received his wish,
13:08suffering a severe stroke on the floor of the House of Representatives.
13:14To the end, it was his family that had kept him going.
13:18That, and a lifelong ambition that destroyed so many other Adamses.
13:24To have earned the right to be called his father's son.
13:32After the Adamses, the Harrison family was the country's foremost political dynasty.
13:38William Henry Harrison was the son of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
13:45The hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe in the War of 1812,
13:49he went on to become the country's ninth president.
13:53Then, half a century later, his grandson also rose to the high office.
13:58He was our 23rd president, Benjamin Harrison.
14:12I have only a vague memory of my grandfather, as I was only a child when he died.
14:18But I will show all that my family's famous name is safe in my keeping.
14:25Benjamin Harrison was a disciplined, dispassionate, proper individual,
14:29and one of the finest lawyers in the Midwest.
14:33But the very qualities that made him excel, his methodical approach,
14:38his absorption in logic and detail, his unwillingness to delegate,
14:42turned him into an over-efficient workhorse with little sense of fun.
14:49I do the same thing every day.
14:51Eat three meals, sleep six hours, and read dusty old books the rest of the time.
14:57My life is about as barren of anything funny as the great desert is of grass.
15:05Because of his grandfather's reputation as a famous general,
15:09much was expected of Benjamin during the Civil War.
15:13Intent on proving himself worthy of his heritage,
15:16he fought in more battles in six months than his grandfather had in a lifetime.
15:25Returning to his law practice after the war, he became a force in Republican politics.
15:33In 1881, he won a seat in the U.S. Senate.
15:37And just seven years later, he won the Republican nomination for president.
15:43A gifted orator, he told his party he wanted a low-key campaign,
15:48with as little emphasis placed on himself as possible,
15:51and with no mention at all of his famous ancestry.
15:54I want to avoid everything that is personal,
15:57and I want it understood I am grandson of nobody.
16:02But against his wishes, Harrison's managers insisted on making the connection to his famous grandfather.
16:13Campaign posters referred to Tippecanoe.
16:17Keep the ball rolling had been William Henry's campaign theme.
16:22Now the giant ball of his grandfather's day was recreated,
16:26so that the grandson could also push it to victory.
16:31And to Benjamin Harrison's great embarrassment,
16:35mock log cabins were set up as his campaign headquarters,
16:38to symbolize his grandfather's supposed humble origins.
16:44You know, of course, that while one part of my grandfather's house was a log cabin,
16:49you could find logs only by going in through the closet.
16:54The only time in the campaign Harrison spoke at all of his family
16:58was to a delegation of his grandfather's troops,
17:02now old men, who arrived at his front porch.
17:06I know the respect and even affection which you bore to my grandfather.
17:11May I not now say that you have since created a modest respect for me?
17:18Like his grandfather, Benjamin Harrison defeated a sitting president.
17:23Coming in second to Grover Cleveland in the popular vote in 1888,
17:28he won in the Electoral College and was pronounced the new chief executive.
17:36But right from the start, Harrison found the presidency frustrating.
17:42His reclusive personality was not suited for the office,
17:46especially the part of the job involving people.
17:49And they came to see him in droves.
17:53It is a frightful ordeal filling the offices in the country.
17:58The applicants for office are generally respectable
18:01and many of them are personal friends.
18:03But the president cannot aid every needy person.
18:07And I made myself unpopular.
18:11Benjamin Harrison was known colloquially at the time as the icebox.
18:17He is probably the coldest fish we ever had in the presidency.
18:24Colder by far, even than John Quincy Adams.
18:29Harrison, it is said, came to despise the presidency,
18:34to hate the office in which he had to serve.
18:37But our most successful presidents, our most effective presidents,
18:42have absolutely adored the presidency, adored every minute of the day.
18:47There may be a lesson in that.
18:51With blue eyes and a reddish gray beard, at five foot six,
18:56Harrison was only slightly taller than the shortest president, James Madison.
19:03Critics began to say he could never fill the hat of his famous grandfather
19:07and that a microscope was needed to examine so insignificant a figure.
19:15And as criticism intensified, the White House began to seem like a prison.
19:21It is an office and a home combined, an evil combination.
19:27It is open to visitors from 10 a.m. till 2, without card or introduction.
19:33The grounds are practically a public park.
19:36There's not a square foot, not a bench, nor a shade tree that the president or his family can use
19:42in privacy.
19:46Unwilling to delegate responsibility, Harrison tried to do the job single-handedly.
19:52He overshadowed his cabinet officers, outraged deserving politicians by ignoring them,
19:58and assumed an annoying superior manner.
20:04Outside for a stroll, he would walk with his eyes on the sky to avoid having to acknowledge well-wishers.
20:11Once, when a friend pleaded, for God's sake be human, he answered, I tried it but failed.
20:18I'll never try again.
20:23Harrison's presidency occurred during a quiet period of peace and prosperity,
20:27so there were few opportunities to leave a lasting mark.
20:31And having assumed the presidency without a popular majority and with a Democratic Congress,
20:37there was little that he was able to accomplish.
20:41On top of this was his own personal philosophy, to govern best is to govern least.
20:49Ever cautious, when electric lights were installed in the White House in 1891,
20:54he refused to touch the switch for the rest of his term, fearing he might be shocked.
21:03As the 1892 election approached, his prospects for a second term appeared dim.
21:11Running against him once again was Grover Cleveland,
21:15making it the only time ever that both candidates had been president.
21:24But in the midst of the re-election campaign,
21:26Harrison's wife Caroline developed tuberculosis.
21:32Dropping presidential obligations, the president nursed her himself,
21:37spending whole nights by her bedside in the White House.
21:42Observers said he was red-eyed from constant weeping.
21:49Anxiety about her makes my interest in public matters very small.
21:56Just two weeks before the election, Caroline died.
22:03And with her went the remainder of Harrison's ambition.
22:07When he lost the election, it came as a relief.
22:10Now all he wanted was to leave Washington and return home to Indianapolis.
22:18After the heavy blow of the death of my wife, I do not think I could have stood re-election.
22:27In retirement, Harrison attempted to rebuild a family,
22:31marrying his wife's young niece three years after leaving office.
22:37But in doing so, he became permanently estranged from his grown children.
22:45The following year, the couple had a daughter, Elizabeth,
22:48who brightened the former president's last years.
22:54I have sometimes thought that the life of the president is like that of the policeman in the opera.
23:01Not a happy one.
23:04For nearly 60 years of my life, I was driven by work.
23:09I want hereafter to do the driving myself.
23:16In striking contrast to the Harrison family was the dynasty of the Roosevelt's.
23:23Theodore Roosevelt charged into office eight years after Harrison,
23:27staking out the White House as family territory.
23:31And no one ever felt more at home there than did T.R.'s cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
23:49We had no other president that I can think of except our first president, George Washington,
23:57who had such a sense of possession by right.
24:03Being president was being FDR.
24:07And he had nothing to live up to. He was it.
24:16He saw the presidency as almost a family property.
24:22FDR thought of the country as his patrimony.
24:27The secret of Roosevelt's extraordinary self-confidence lay in his secure childhood near Hyde Park, New York.
24:34A 900-acre family estate on the Hudson River became his lifelong spiritual heart and center.
24:43I received a love and devotion that were perfect,
24:46and a companionship that was rare in quality between parent and child.
24:53In 1905, he married his fifth cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt.
24:59She was the favorite niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, who came up from Washington to give the bride away.
25:07Pulling Franklin aside, he said,
25:09there's nothing like keeping the name in the family.
25:12Teddy Roosevelt had made a strong bid for the proposition that the, quote,
25:22best people in the country had as a matter of noblesse oblige to engage in public life to try to
25:30lead it.
25:30And he preached it all through Franklin's adolescence and young manhood with increasing success.
25:38It's my belief, although I cannot prove it, that from the time Franklin entered college, he had his mind fixed,
25:47his eye fixed on the White House.
25:49It was the natural setting for him. It was his home. It was Eleanor's uncle's place.
26:00When Franklin entered politics, he patterned his career and campaign style after Theodore Roosevelt.
26:07It didn't matter that they belonged to different parties. Family ties were far stronger than political ties.
26:16He told the same stories, peppered his speeches with the word bully, began wearing the same style of eyeglasses, and
26:24went on well-publicized hunting trips.
26:28Two terms in the New York State Legislature came first, then seven years as Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
26:36It was the same political route to the presidency that his famous cousin had taken.
26:45Hyde Park was transformed into his base of operations.
26:49There, an increasingly secretive Roosevelt became known as a skilled and cagey politician.
26:57I am a juggler, and I never let my right hand know what my left hand does.
27:06Juggling his home life as well, he and Eleanor had six children over ten years.
27:13But in 1918, their seemingly perfect life fell apart when Eleanor discovered he was having an affair with her social
27:22secretary.
27:25From then on, Eleanor agreed to support her husband publicly, but privately their relationship turned cool and purely professional.
27:37Two years later, Franklin was soundly defeated by Warren Harding when he ran as the Democratic nominee for Vice President
27:45alongside James M. Cox.
27:49At age 39, he had come to what seemed to be the end of the road, both personally and professionally.
27:59That summer, his bad luck grew even worse.
28:03Franklin contracted polio, which was then America's most dreaded disease.
28:10Although both his legs were completely paralyzed, he denied there was anything permanently wrong.
28:17At Hyde Park, it took months and a deep depression before he was able to deal with his plight.
28:26As months turned into years, Roosevelt seemed to age rapidly.
28:32Staying out of the political arena for a decade, his sole focus was to try and overcome his disability.
28:40People who are crippled take a long time to be put back on their feet.
28:45Sometimes years.
28:48In 1927, Roosevelt purchased an old resort in Warm Springs, Georgia, and opened a therapeutic center for polio victims.
28:59This is really a discovery of a place.
29:02The mornings are taken up with the pool, and general exercising in the water is fine.
29:07The legs are really improving a great deal.
29:13He fought his way back, not to complete health.
29:17His legs were never worth a damn.
29:21But the fundamental thing that made Roosevelt what he turned into as president was his struggle to overcome this crippling
29:31illness.
29:33It changed him into a man of deep determination, enormous determination, and also enormous empathy for the struggles and problems
29:46of other people.
29:49The following year, Franklin Roosevelt got back into politics.
29:54Tracing Theodore Roosevelt's course once again, he was elected governor of New York.
30:01To prevent his paralysis being seen by voters as a sign of weakness, he surrounded himself with family members to
30:08help cover it up.
30:10Grabbing the strong arm of a son while bracing himself with a cane, he was actually able to make it
30:16appear as if he were walking.
30:20I am able to walk only with great difficulty, with steel braces and crutches, having to be carried up and
30:27down stairs, in and out of cars.
30:31Through it all, the great performer put on a mask of joviality and patience in the face of frustration and
30:38pain.
30:41Allowing newsreel cameras into Hyde Park, he cleverly modeled his estate into the symbol of who he was.
30:49Hyde Park was where he was.
30:50Hyde Park was where he vacationed, where he conducted his most important business, where he made many of his most
30:59memorable announcements,
31:01and where he set up his campaign headquarters to run for the presidency.
31:06What's our campaign slogan, sister?
31:09Happy days are here again!
31:11Good, that's right.
31:16In 1932, promising to restore prosperity in the midst of the worst depression the country had ever faced,
31:24Franklin Delano Roosevelt was named the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.
31:30That from this date on, I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people.
31:47As Franklin Roosevelt campaigned, a quarter of the labor force was unemployed,
31:52and banks all across the country were closing down.
31:56By inauguration day, the economy had hit bottom.
32:02All eyes were on the new president to see how he would respond.
32:08I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis.
32:14Broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency as great as the power that would be given to
32:25me.
32:25If we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.
32:33And then, he won the nation's heart, saying, we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
32:42As Roosevelt assumed office, a grateful Congress responded by granting him its full support.
32:50And in just 14 weeks, 15 major bills were passed.
32:56No president had ever so actively attempted to cure an economic crisis.
33:05It is common sense to take a method and try it.
33:08If it fails, admit it frankly and try another.
33:12But above all, try something.
33:17FDR's New Deal forced the country to take responsibility for its citizens.
33:23Creating unemployment relief.
33:26A massive public works program.
33:28A shoring up of the banking system.
33:31And eventually, social security for millions of Americans.
33:36FDR's visionary rescue measures reinvigorated a national spirit and changed the country's idea of what government should be about.
33:47He made himself almost a father figure.
33:52He brought his own confidence to office and infused it into the country.
33:59And that was an enormous contribution.
34:03An absolutely critical contribution.
34:07Eleanor Roosevelt never let FDR forget the disadvantaged in the society.
34:16Especially concerning the employment rights of blacks and women.
34:23She badgered him unmercifully sometimes.
34:29Eleanor Roosevelt was a new kind of first lady.
34:32Who traveled the world as the president's ambassador.
34:36And though they led largely separate private lives.
34:39He admired her so much she became his most valued advisor.
34:43He once called her the most extraordinarily interesting woman he had ever met.
34:53Like his cousin, Roosevelt ran the White House like a big informal boarding house.
34:58With its doors thrown open to family and friends.
35:02And he had the same command Theodore Roosevelt had had over the press.
35:07But now, because of radio, the president could do something his cousin could never do.
35:12Talk directly to the American people.
35:15In what became known as his fireside chats.
35:21It is your problem, my friends, no less than it is mine.
35:26Together, we cannot fail.
35:32Embraced warmly by the American public, Roosevelt successfully campaigned for re-election in 1936.
35:40And in 1940, he went on to do what no other president has ever done.
35:46Win election to a third term.
35:51With war now raging in Europe and Asia, Americans knew they couldn't afford to lose FDR's proven leadership in time
36:00of crisis.
36:07On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
36:16Four days later, Hitler declared war against the United States.
36:22And once again, Roosevelt would have to rally the nation.
36:27We are now in this war.
36:29We are all in it.
36:31All the way.
36:33Every single man, woman and child is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking of our American history.
36:47With consummate skill, Roosevelt led the war effort, even at the expense of his own health.
36:56Forging an unbreakable alliance with Great Britain, and risking a wartime alliance with the Soviet Union, he turned the tide
37:05against Hitler.
37:07The man who, more than any other single person, saved democracy in the 20th century, became the acknowledged leader of
37:15the free world.
37:17British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called him, the greatest man I have ever known.
37:27By the time Franklin Roosevelt was elected to an unprecedented fourth term, his face showed the signs of the toll
37:34of 12 years in office.
37:37By now, he had given everything he had.
37:40The strength and energy that had carried the nation was gone.
37:47Weak and in failing health, he asked that his fourth inauguration be held at the White House, to make it
37:54easier on him.
37:57I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to
38:06the best of my ability.
38:07Just 82 days later, he collapsed of a cerebral hemorrhage.
38:13He would never see the end of the war, nor his dream the United Nations coming to being, nor the
38:21new world order he had attempted to create.
38:25But he had made an indelible mark upon the world.
38:29The New York Times proclaimed,
38:32Men will thank God on their knees a hundred years from now that Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White
38:38House.
38:41Franklin Roosevelt will be remembered always, I think, as a great president, because he fulfilled the first requisite of, quote,
38:52greatness, unquote.
38:53He lived in great, difficult times.
38:58He assumed the mantle of fatherhood for the country, and the country responded gratefully.
39:06One has to go all the way back to understand how a person does such a thing naturally.
39:16And I've always assumed that part of the answer lies in the total security of his childhood.
39:25And as a memory, as an image, it may have contributed something to Franklin Roosevelt's stance in those periods of
39:35crisis.
39:36I can't prove that, but I've always suspected it.
39:41In the end, Hyde Park and FDR had become one and the same.
39:46Once someone had asked how, with the knowledge that he would never walk again, he ever got himself to sleep.
39:53He answered, it's very easy.
39:56I coast down the hills in the snow, and then I walk slowly up, and I know every curve.
40:04All that is in me goes back to the Hudson, and to the days as a boy in Hyde Park.
40:14The Roosevelt's, like the Adamses and the Harrisons, were native aristocrats, part of America's Protestant establishment.
40:23The fourth great political dynasty to produce an American president was Irish Catholic and had to seize its place in
40:31American history.
40:32It was the family of John F. Kennedy.
40:40The Kennedy family was not at all like the Roosevelt family.
40:46Oh, its origins were, of course, in the Irish famine.
40:54The one place which became a source of real family roots was their summer home in Hyannisport on Cape Cod,
41:05which Joe Kennedy had bought in the late 20s.
41:10He had bought it in a WASP community, and he was not a very welcome neighbor.
41:17It is Joe Kennedy who created the tight bonds, the warmth, the competitiveness, and the concern for public service that
41:31penetrated the lives of all his children, not least Jack.
41:41My father was very active in politics during our formative years.
41:45My grandfather was in Congress and was mayor of Boston.
41:49My other grandfather was in the State Senate.
41:52I had four great uncles who were also in the State House or State Senate in Massachusetts.
41:59All the discussions at our table growing up were about government and political life.
42:06Though Jack's father would serve as FDR's ambassador to Great Britain, he was always frustrated, believing his Irish Catholic roots
42:15had held him back from presidential politics.
42:18So he focused his hopes on his children.
42:21We want winners, he told them.
42:23We don't want losers around here.
42:25Home life was defined by constant verbal testing, competitive athletics, iron discipline, and no sympathy.
42:37But early on, Jack Kennedy was detached and careless, more independent than his brothers and sisters.
42:45He was sickly and frail, suffering from spinal problems and asthma.
42:52When he attended Harvard, his older brother, Joe, overshadowed him in everything he did.
42:58I was not very active in politics at Harvard, and I don't think that there was any indication that I
43:07was going to adopt it as a career.
43:13I was always interested in writing, I wanted to teach for a while, so that really the war changed my
43:20life, and I suppose if it hadn't been for that, and what happened then, I suppose I would have gone
43:26on with my original plans.
43:28What happened was that Jack's brother, Joe, was killed in action while flying a secret mission.
43:37Old Joe Kennedy had always intended that his eldest son, Joe, would ultimately make the run for the presidency and
43:50vindicate the Irish in the highest office in the United States.
44:00Joe's influence had been striking, I believe.
44:05First, in convincing young Jack that he shouldn't pursue a journalistic career, but having lost his brother in the war,
44:15should take his place in politics.
44:19From the start, first as a congressman, then as a senator, Jack Kennedy's popularity ratings soared.
44:27I ran in 1946 and was successful, and then ran again in 48, 50, and won then, and then again
44:36in 1952.
44:38Someone has said that you really don't understand politics until you've been defeated.
44:42And then all the mysteries become apparent, but I've had very good luck, and I think it's better this way.
45:08America's most eligible bachelor became even more popular when he married Jacqueline Bouvier in 1952.
45:20Her style and grace complemented his style and grace.
45:29Now all the ingredients were in place for a meteoric rise to the White House.
45:39Well, after 1956, I was a candidate for the vice presidency, and then after the Democrats lost in 56, I
45:47began to think that maybe I would run in 1960.
45:57As Jack Kennedy campaigned for president, it was joked he was running on the family plan.
46:04Joe Kennedy not only helped pay for it, he pulled important political strings from behind the scenes, and every member
46:11of the Kennedy family actively campaigned.
46:14Well, this week, my sister Eunice was in Wisconsin, my wife Jackie.
46:21My two brothers are in Wisconsin, Bobby, who's really sort of directing our effort there, and my brother Teddy's there,
46:30except his wife's about to have a baby.
46:35Every member of the Kennedy family soon realized that they were facing widespread prejudice against their Irish Catholic roots.
46:45Religion, it turned out, was the sleeping issue of the campaign, and ultimately Jack Kennedy was forced to confront it
46:53head on.
46:54If this election is decided on the basis that 40 million Americans lost their chance of being president on the
47:02day they were baptized, then it is the whole nation that will be the loser in the eyes of Catholics
47:09and non-Catholics around the world, in the eyes of history, and in the eyes of our own people.
47:17I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president, who happens also to
47:25be a Catholic.
47:32His victory in November 1960 was a victory for all Roman Catholics, but it was a special vindication for Jack's
47:41family.
47:42At the inauguration, one of every seven people on the podium was a Kennedy.
47:49So help me God.
47:51His father had made just one request of the president-elect, that his brother Bobby, who had served as his
47:58campaign manager, be a member of his cabinet.
48:02It's the only thing I'm asking for, he said, and I want it.
48:07For Jack, it was a leap of faith, and he decided that the best place was in the Department of
48:15Justice.
48:17He acted against all the advice that other people poured in on him about justice.
48:26You must get someone learned in the law. I wrote that myself, among others.
48:33Bob Kennedy had never practiced law, but he was an exceedingly effective attorney general, and was totally loyal.
48:46He was not only a brother, he was a brother in an established hierarchy, in a family that in some
48:52ways was an old ancient Irish tribe.
48:58His loyalty could be counted on completely.
49:04Jack Kennedy's presidency got off to a disastrous start.
49:09At the urging of a team of experts, including the director of the CIA, he approved a plan for a
49:15secret invasion of Cuba.
49:17Of the 1,450 soldiers who were landed at the Bay of Pigs, all but 150 were captured or killed.
49:27It's a tremendous change to go from being a senator to being president.
49:31It's much easier to make the speeches than it is to finally make the judgments.
49:36Because, unfortunately, your advisors are frequently divided.
49:39If you take the wrong course, and on occasion I have, President bears the burden and responsibility quite rightly.
49:48Kennedy vowed never again to be swayed by advisors, and increasingly he came to place his trust in loyal family
49:56members.
49:59To those around him, his family seemed linked to everything he did.
50:04When he dealt with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, he said it was like dealing with dad, all give and no
50:11take.
50:12Upon hearing that construction of the Berlin Wall had gotten under way, Kennedy's first words were, go get Bobby.
50:21When he established the Peace Corps, he announced his brother-in-law, Sergeant Shriver, would run it.
50:28And he turned to his wife to transform the White House into a center of culture.
50:35The Vice President once said the only thing keeping us going are not the programs, but my wife and Caroline,
50:42but we believe that the programs are also important.
50:49Throughout Kennedy's presidency, the public got memorable glimpses of his family life.
51:01And even as the Cold War grew critically dangerous, the president rarely showed any signs of the pressure he was
51:09under.
51:16My perception of President Kennedy is that he grew enormously in office.
51:23The Bay of Pigs in the first three months of his administration was a matter of not understanding what he
51:31got himself into.
51:33It was a transition blunder.
51:36He learned a great deal from that.
51:39And it shaped a lot of his behavior after in foreign relations.
51:44Right up to and including the Cuban Missile Crisis.
51:48His presidency may have contributed somewhat to creating the crisis.
51:54That can't be denied.
51:56But once the crisis was upon him, he acted in an enormously careful and responsible way.
52:03It was certainly Jack Kennedy's finest hour.
52:10Kennedy's success in getting nuclear missiles removed from Cuba during the October crisis in 1962 occurred largely because this time
52:20he relied primarily on his own judgment.
52:23Kennedy was sending his brother Bobby behind the scenes to open a direct line of communication with the Soviet Union.
52:32And by making direct contact, Kennedy was able to defuse the single most dangerous confrontation of the nuclear age.
52:44I think looking back in Cuba, what is of concern is the fact that both governments were so far out
52:49of contact.
52:52The final judgment of anybody in an administration in the 60s.
52:57And I think that that's the test, not any other test.
53:02Have the vital interests of the United States been protected?
53:06Has peace been maintained?
53:08Is there a greater stability in the world than when he came in?
53:13And did all citizens participate more fully in the life of the country?
53:17Now, that's what I'll rest on whenever I'm finished.
53:29In the summer before his assassination, President Kennedy made a sentimental journey.
53:38His father was unable to travel with him.
53:42Having suffered a stroke, he was unable to walk or talk, unable to give any more advice.
53:50Now, Kennedy was off to his ancestral homeland, to Ireland, where he was mobbed by adoring crowds.
54:08Here he was, Jack Kennedy, the first Irish Catholic president of the United States, fulfilling his father's ambitions for him,
54:18for his family, indeed for the Irish in America.
54:21Here he was back on the ancestral soil, being greeted by the entire population of the island as a hero,
54:37as their hero, their special hero.
54:42It moved him profoundly.
54:45It was, in a way, completing the circle.
54:54There is an impression in Washington that there are no Kennedys left in Ireland, that they're all in Washington.
55:00And so, I wonder if there are any Kennedys in this audience.
55:04Could you hold up your hand so I can see?
55:07Well, I'm glad to see a few cousins who didn't catch the boat.
55:21If you ever come to America, which means, in Gaelic, 100,000 welcomes.
55:40Americans have had just a handful of presidents who were seemingly born for office.
55:46Most of America's presidents still come from humble origins.
55:51Bill Clinton was the son of a traveling salesman.
55:55Jimmy Carter of a peanut farmer.
55:58Richard Nixon's father owned a gas station.
56:02But as the George Bush family most recently illustrates, there is also a tradition which might be called the American
56:10royalty.
56:10Americans really adore having native aristocrats as presidents, provided the aristocrats know how to conduct themselves in the office and
56:24have a popular touch.
56:26Without that common touch, aristocracy in and of itself is not an advantage.
56:35It occurs only two or three times a century, but when a powerful family is successful in the presidency,
56:43that dynasty can take hold of the country's imagination and not let go for a very long time.
56:52You are the mayor of the country.
56:53Because there are many people that are not in the office and the Americans are the same.
56:54But understand that and not do much.
56:55It's a very important place.
56:56You will not take the time to the country.
56:56If you ever do not take the time to the country, you will not take the city and the city.
56:56You will not take the time.
Comments