Reply #48: On each of those points [View All]

[jobycom]

Kennedy had just increased our force size in Viet Nam when he was shot, and was publicly not only declaring that we had to get more involved, he was an active proponent of the domino theory, that if Viet Nam fell, they'd lose all of Asia. In addition, JFK campaigned on the "missile gap," claiming (falsely) that the Soviets had more missiles, and beginning the nuclear arms race. There was no reason the conservative side would have hit Kennedy over Viet Nam. It may be true (or may not be) that he was telling friends and liberal supporters privately that he wanted to withdraw from Viet Nam, but he said the opposite publicly, and he made no moves to do so. In fact, he made several moves to do the opposite.

As for the "aggressive stance the Kennedy boys took of race relations," JFK tried to stop the Freedom Rides when he first took office, he coached the civil rights leaders to slow down (they didn't) and he authorized Hoover to wiretap MLK because MLK was associating with a known communist. JFK did no more than Eisenhower for race relations, and many of the Civil Rights leaders were frustrated with him.

And btw, if Kennedy was shot because he was too damned popular and was also shot because the south hated him because of his race relationship, then was he shot by a schizophrenic?

As for JFK's poor relations with the FBI, they were apparently good enough for JFK to authorize them to wiretap MLK.

Every president has issues with government agencies. It's the nature of government for beauracrats to dislike politicians. Why was JFK the only one who got shot over it?