So why is JFK so beloved?

We always imagine the best for lives that were cut short, because we don’t have to live through the imaginary downside.

Getting your brains blown out all over your pretty wife tends to make people forget the other stuff.

He died young and was good looking. That's all it takes to be beloved.

FYI OP, it hasn't been called Idlewild in decades when you were probably there last.

r3 please try to post in English

He died young and beautiful.

It's part of the Boomer Cult. Anything boomer gets inordinate attention.

JFK was not a boomer.

He was "greatest generation" fraud

R7 I know but it's only Boomers who gush over him. Because he was part of their formative years we get to hear about him endlessly.

You had to be there to understand. A run of old geriatric Presidents followed by a young vibrant and good looking man, whose wife didn’t look like grandma.

Yawn

He saved us from being nuked by the Soviet Union.

First of all, we were never in real danger of being nuked.

If he had lived he would have screwed up somehow in his term and we wouldn't have this sentimental view of him.

And finally his personal behavior hasn't aged well in an age of #MeToo. And neither has LBJ's for that matter.

Compared to what we have today he was Abraham fucking Lincoln .

I don't like him and I have never understood the worship for the vapid materialistic fish eyed trash known as Jackie o. That woman never lifted a finger for anyone else, she could of improved so many people's lives.

Is Chris Matthews still in love with him?

Shanty Irish

[quote]It's part of the Boomer Cult. Anything boomer gets inordinate attention.

Another idiot millennial speaks. (And no, I'm not a Boomer)

Jfk was scum and his wife was a greedy nasty money grubbing pig incapable of showing any compassion for those in poverty. I actually think she was worse than Melania TBH. Rfk was OK though. Unfortunately our Irish American press corps still venerate everyone in that morally diseased family. Frankly I think they deserved most of their misfortunes.

Had he lived, there would have been a gigantic sex scandal. Britain had just gone through one and following that all his transgressions would come to light.

JFK enabled Bill Clinton.

The problem with this thread is that Millennials can't count.

r22, and not only that, the millennials and gen x types always show a hint of jealousy when told about Kennedy because they have nothing substantial to which they can lay claim--what are they going to do, wax rhapsodic over a shithead like ronnie fuckhead reegin? r15, I suggest you inform yourself about Jackie Kennedy's work in restoring the White House, including her purchase of glassware from West Virginia glass companies. While campaigning with her husband in West Virginia she was quite moved by the poverty she saw there and saw to it that as First Lady she patronized West Virginia products such as glassware. And BTW, it's "she could HAVE improved so many people's lives" not "she could OF". Why should I listen to you about Jackie O when you don't know your ass from your elbow about grammar any 6th grader should know? Jackie Kennedy also helped save numerous historic buildings in Washington and New York from the wrecking ball, most notably Grand Central Station.

Trying to explain what JFK meant to Amerca to people who weren't alive and old enough to remember him, well it's like trying to describe the sunrise to a blind man.

He governed with the right principles.

American ones.

OP Yes he started Vietnam

Ooh, and Bill Clinton just destroyed this fucking country, didn't he r21?

Never mind that Trump is terminating democracy and persecuting innocent people. Never mind that Dumb Dubya Bush slaughtered 250,000 innocent people, plus 4,000 U.S. soldiers for imaginary Weapons of Mass Destruction and let thousands drown in the Gulf of Mexico during Katrina, then "enabled" Wall Street to cheat and deceive the world with mortgage frauds, plunging the U.S. into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

What really destroyed this country was Bill Clinton's extra marital affairs!

But none of the affairs by H.W. Bush, Trump or any Republicans mattered.

Right, r21?

P.O.S. deplorables are ON A RAMPAGE tonight.

It's the weekend. No Muriel, so the trolls come out.

Well, I'd take Obama over Kennedy any day, let alone Deluded Bullshitter Reagan.

I'm quite proud of Obama and his achievements are plenty of Gen X / Y to be proud of and we DID vote for him.

R28 He loved his drones

He had charisma. And brains. The smartest prez since Thomas Jefferson. He escalated Vietnam at the advice of this generals, then realized what a shit show it was. And then they killed him.

No he didn't r26, the basis for American involvement came during the Eisenhower administration when the first American advisors were sent to the south after France signed an independence agreement which also divided Vietnam into the Communist north and non-Communist south. The whole thing was a contrivance to forestall what was seen by the West as further communist advance in Indochina. Truman, Eisenhower's predecessor had pledged aid to France as they tried to retain control over Vietnam in the wake of Mao Tse-tung's Communist victory in China after driving out the Japanese in World War II, but it was Eisenhower whose policy laid the foundation for American involvement there. Kennedy was unsure of whether to continue an American presence there, especially after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 which had been under Fidel Castro since 1959. Johnson made the horrible blunder of increasing the American involvement with Nixon almost grudgingly winding it down. It prevented Johnson from running for a second term in his own right in 1968.

So the French are to blame for Vietnam, [R31]?

If so, then why does the U.S. still get 100% of the blame for it historically and why did we lose *so* many soldiers over there? Were our generals just completely shitty back then?

There are documents in the Kennedy Library dated in the fall of '63 that, had JFK lived, prove he wanted the American ambassador to India to act as a liaison in consultations with the South Vietnamese government towards removing U.S. army personnel from Vietnam starting in '64 and to be completely withdrawn by early '65.

Thank you DL. I love you too!

Ever heard of #MeToo R27?

We had this portrait of JFK and RFK hanging in the house when I was growing up. When I asked my mom what the big deal about Kennedy was (She's a couple of years too old to be a boomer) she said you had to be there to really get it. Plus, we're Catholic so it apparently was a big deal that a Catholic was president.

It was a whole deal. He was young, good looking. Had a pretty wife, cute young kids. It was just a time full of optimism and endless possibilities in America. Then it all changed when he was killed.

Eisenhower sent the first advisors to Vietnam. As a result of lines drawn and boundaries set after WW II, the French controlled Vietnam. The Communists, aided by Russia and China I think, took over the northern part and were trying to gain control of the south. The French defeat at Dien Bin Phu in 1954, is legendary. We were grappling with a similar situation in Korea. Not identical, but similar. So we saw this as all part of the same struggle. The "domino Theory" and all that. We should have recognized that like our own struggle to get rid of England in the distance past, there was no way any outsiders were going to defeat them.

It's the Kurt Cobain effect. Someone dies young and suddenly, they become an icon, deserved or not.

Will add that the French were always in control. It was called French Indonesia. To distinguish it from the Dutch. But this was the last gasp of colonial power in the Far East. The WW II decisions re inforced an outdated premise.

[quote][R22], and not only that, the millennials and gen x types always show a hint of jealousy when told about Kennedy because they have nothing substantial to which they can lay claim

What on earth are you talking about? Someone else nailed it. JFK was he not a Boomer. Not only was he not a Boomer, they didn't vote him into office, either. The youngest Boomer would've been 14 in 1960. So they didn't vote for him and can't call dibs on him. They can call dibs on Nixon and Carter, though.

And no generation ever had an exclusive claim on the Kennedys. The Kennedy clan/legacy was very much alive when GenX was coming of age in the 80s and 90s. Jackie O died in 1994. JFK Jr., who was being primed as the Kennedy for a new generation, died in 1999. Ted Kennedy was very much in the picture until 2009. Why would GenXers be jealous about the Kennedys when the Kennedys were just as much in the public eye in the 80s and 90s as they were in the 1960s?

JFK only got a 1,000 days. What he did in that short time was to inspire. He made Americans feel they were better than we are. He gave young people hope in the future. That is impossible to quantify. It is rare gift in a politician. To appeal to the best in America not the worst which sadly is what we have now. In that way Jack Kennedy for all his flaws was a symbol of the best not the worst America can offer. That is why JFK is "beloved" he made us feel we were better then we are. He was hope. Now we have none. Guess ya had to be there.

r40 your reading comprehension seems to be rather low, maybe another outcome of gen x and millennials having poor reading, spelling, grammar and arithmetic skills which also comes from not listening well either, something, apparently dating from their childhoods when mouthing off and interrupting adults was probably indulged rather than corrected. If you had read the post and understood it you wouldn't have posted your silliness. John Kennedy was born May 29, 1917. The OLDEST boomer would have been 14 in 1960. I was talking about John Kennedy specifically, his presidency and his assassination, you are the one who read into that all the other stuff you mentioned about the Kennedy family thereafter.

[Quote][R22], and not only that, the millennials and gen x types always show a hint of jealousy when told about Kennedy because they have nothing substantial to which they can lay claim

No, because we can see clearly that he was not that substantial. We don't see the world through Boomer nostalgia prescription sunglasses.

OK r39 is on the right track, the French, after being defeated by the British in the 7 Years War (1756-1763, called the French and Indian War in North America) in the contest to gain control of India, cast about for other lands to "influence". An early French presence in 1795 (during revolutionary period in France, soon to be Napoleonic) at DaNang (aka Tourane) turned into a piecemeal process of gaining control over what eventually became Vietnam, then called Annam as well as Cambodia, which was a protectorate with its own king and Laos. This was called French INDOCHINA, not Indonesia which is an entirely different geography altogether and the Dutch were never a presence in Indochina. The Annamese or Vietnamese emperor continued to reign but France was the actual colonial administrator. Similar to how the British permitted the Mogul emperor to continue to reign until the Sepoy Mutiny in 1858. So after the Japanese were evacuated from Indochina after World War II the French tried to reassert control--the rest is history...

r43, there it is, there's the jealousy and uninformed puzzlement--you don't see the world at all because you are always staring down at some goddamn phone to which so many of you are slaves--phones AND tattoos. Grow up.

No, you grow up R45.

Why all this hate for the young.? Millennials are the future. Boomers who were fired up by JFK gave up and sold out Ronnie Reagan. My generations self indulgence,cynisim and rapaciousness gave us the demented baby boomer we now have in the White House. We voted for him in the highest numbers. The millennials have a right to blame us. Our generation had everything and we squandered it and left the young with the most toxic boomer of them all ...Trump.. How far we have fallen from JFK and RFK. My generation has a lot to answer for.

[Quote]JFK only got a 1,000 days. What he did in that short time was to inspire. He made Americans feel they were better than we are. He gave young people hope in the future. That is impossible to quantify.

That isn't an actual accomplishment. It sounds like the Hope and Change of Obama.

NO uh uh YOU grow up r46!--see how babyish you sound when you can only come back with the same admonition I gave you? I rest my case with your desperately needing maturity. I also think r47 was NOT written by a baby boomer.

John Kennedy represented or personified a kind of inspiration given to an entire generation, largely the one that came after him. He exemplified charm, wit and a fine sense of humor, attributes which gen x and millennial people generally lack. Kennedy also valued courage. Paul Ryan, to me, is a good example of a gen x guy. If younger people want to get some idea of why and how John Kennedy attained the kind of regard he did and why it was such a shock when he was killed, there are plenty of videos of his press conferences online much of which he conducted off the cuff and without many notes. The press had high regard for him if only for that but his rapport with the press corps otherwise is well known. Coverage of his assassination is also found online notably by Walter Cronkite and Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. It will give you some idea of the anxiety and disbelief that gripped the nation when this happened. No one who lived then and heard the news was unaffected by it which is mainly why anyone living then remembers what they were doing when they did hear the news. My parents both told me it was not unlike when they heard the news of Franklin Roosevelt's death. For people in their 90s now (maybe teenagers then), if they can remember clearly, will probably be able to tell you what a shock it was to hear of Roosevelt's death because he had been in office for 12 years and helped to both lead a nation out of economic depression and pursue involvement in World War II to victory although that was something he did not live quite long enough to see which I'm sure added to the tragedy. Much of what Kennedy wanted to accomplish was done by Lyndon Johnson because he better understood how to wheel and deal with Congress, having been in there since the 1930s as a New Dealer, plus he had plenty of sympathy after Kennedy's death. Medicare is one of those accomplishments. Vietnam was Johnson's downfall.

Because he was cut, OP . . . but not until an emergency circumcision in 1935 at age 18.