First a couple of things about the library and museum. It is located on a 10 acre waterfront park over looking the city of Boston. This is the official memorial to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. This site was selected by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who also chose the architect, I. M. Pei. Members of the President's family, including his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and his children Caroline and John F. Kennedy, Jr. attended the dedication ceremony of the museum.The library is a major source of information about the mid-20th century as it houses all the personal and public paper and artifacts of John F. Kennedy, his family and members of his administration.
JFK Presidential Library and Museum
Joyce And Lisa Head For The JFK Presidential Library and Museum
JFK Presidential Library and Museum
JFK Presidential Library and Museum
JFK Presidential Library and Museum
JFK Presidential Library and Museum
JFK Presidential Library and Museum
JFK Presidential Library and Museum
JFK Presidential Library and Museum
JFK Presidential Library and Museum
This Plaque Details President Kennedy's Love For Hyannis Port, Massachusetts
President Kennedy Driving Golf Cart With Daughter Caroline In His Lap And Surrounded
By Nieces And Nephews. Some Of The Films Show President Kennedy With These Kids Driving Very Fast And Going Over Bumps In The Yard And The Kids Hanging On For Dear
Life To Keep From Being Thrown Off. In fact in one of the scenes a boy either jumps off or
falls off. You can tell from the expressions on their faces they are having a wonderful time.
falls off. You can tell from the expressions on their faces they are having a wonderful time.
President Kennedy Driving Golf Cart With Daughter Caroline In His Lap And Surrounded
By Nieces And Nephews. In This Photograph Son John,Jr. Is Standing Beside President
Kennedy. Some Of The Films Show President Kennedy With These Kids Driving Very
Fast And Going Over Bumps In The Yard And The Kids Hanging On For Dear Life To Keep From Being Thrown Off.Look At The Expressions On The Kids Faces.
Enlargement Of Above Plaque
Enlargement Of Above Plaque
Enlargement Of Above Plaque
Golf Cart At Hyannis Port, MA.
President Kennedy And Jackie On Sail Boat
Victura-- President Kennedy's Sail Boat On Display Out Side The Library And Museum
Victura-- President Kennedy's Sail Boat 
Display Of Items In Use At Time Of Kennedy Presidency. I Am Sure That Some Of You Older Readers, As You Look At This And The Following Few Photographs You Will Recall Using Many Of These Products.
Display Of Items In Use At Time Of Kennedy Presidency.
Display Of Items In Use At Time Of Kennedy Presidency. Note The Price Of An
Indoor/Outdoor TV Antenna - 77 Cents.
Display Of Items In Use At Time Of Kennedy Presidency. I Have A Photograph Of My
Youngest Daughter Jamie With This Hair Dryer On Her Head.
Display Of Items In Use At Time Of Kennedy Presidency. Do You Remember The Old 45 Records And Jonathan Winters?
A Kennedy Campaign Office.
A Kennedy Campaign Office.
Kennedy Campaign Buttons And Other Such Material
Kennedy / Nixon Debate
Kennedy / Nixon Debate Studio
Kennedy / Nixon During Presidential Campaign Debate
Kennedy / Nixon Presidential Campaign Debate
Enlargement Of Above
Enlargement Of Above
Enlargement Of Above.
Joyce And Lisa Standing Beside Presidential Seal
Joyce, Lisa and I Standing Beside Presidential Seal
Cellist Pablo Casals Plays At A White House Dinner
The Art Of The White House Dinner
Enlargement Of The Art Of The White House Dinner
President Kennedy And Jackie With Governor Of Puerto Rico Seated Between Them
President Kennedy With First Lady Jackie
Areas Of The World Where Troubled Situations Faced The President
Laos
Vietnam
Enlargement Of Vietnam
Enlargement Of Vietnam 
Enlargement Of Vietnam
Enlargement Of Vietnam
Enlargement Of Vietnam
Alliance For Progress
Alliance For Progress
Trouble With Cuba
President Kennedy made physical fitness a national priority so it was inevitable that he would team up with the comic book red-caped hero Superman to help in this effort. In 1963, D. C. Comics joined forces with The President's Council On Physical Fitness. In the story the president calls for Superman to inspire the nation to eat better and become stronger. " Superman's Mission for President Kennedy " was in production when the president was assassinated and the project was put on hold. Eight months later at the encouragement of President Lyndon Johnson the story was published and is shown here in the JFK Museum.
Superman's Mission for President Kennedy Final Page Published July 1964
JFK And The Cuban Missile Crisis
There is more on this crisis that came very close to a nuclear war that would have wiped out civilization as we knew it. Thankfully it was averted or I might not be writing this blog. Also, about this time in history there was general worry about nuclear war so there was a great effort to get the population to be prepared. This preparation took many forms from just selecting a spot in the basement or a storm cellar to building your own bomb shelter. There were any number of shelters commercially available to be bought. There was a fairly long list if items that were recommended to be placed in the shelter in anticipation that you might have to spend a few weeks inside without ever going outside. A great amount of information was put out by the government to educate the population to the dangers but unfortunately much of it was useless. It seemed to me to be based on information from World War II when the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan I never understood why but perhaps it was just because the government knew that the possibility of survival was very low if you were within several miles of the actual blast and it was best to at least help to offer a ray of hope regardless of how slim. The Japanese bomb blasts taught us how devastating would it was. Nuclear test taught us how devastating the shock waves were from a ground level burst. A burst in the atmosphere would be very devastating and then the fall out would be tremendous. Schools conducted drills during the day teaching the children how to react. There was a mock up of one or two of these shelters on display and I thought I took a photograph of them but again the cyber gremlins got involved or Grandpa Bill may have just got so involved in reading that he failed to actually take the photographs. Is that possible? Yes, I must admit, it is because I lived through these times and they are real for me and bring back a flood of memories. A good illustration of this is the movie/DVD from 2002, " A Sum Of All Fears " and The 1983 movie " The Day After ".
Fighting Organized Crime
The Resolute Desk
The Resolute Desk
President's Rocking Chair
The subject of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs Affair and dealing with the USSR is covered in a number of different places in the museum and each are covered in this blog as each present a few new details not previously covered or mentioned.
Cuban Missile Crisis
Above Page.
On The Brink Of Catastrophe ( Things You Don't Count On Happen )
Enlargement Of Khrushchev's Decision Making Process
Stepping Back From The Brink
Cuba's Thoughts Of The Crisis Ending
Kennedy's Thoughts Of The Crisis Ending
Looking Up At The Flag Hanging In This Magnificent Glass Pavilion Of The Museum
JFK 1917 - 1963
The following are a few comments on issues and topics I picked up during my tour of his museum. First of all I was surprised that very little mention was made of his assignation. JFK was born into a family of Irish Immigrants and there were 5 girls and 4 boys. His father and grandfather became very successful business men and the family prospered. JFK did not distinguish himself in his early years. He studied at the last minute and was late most of the time to just about anything that he was suppose to be at. In World War II he joined the Navy and was the skipper of PT Boat 109 in the Pacific. His boat was sunk and he received a broken back which bothered him the rest of his life. He performed heroically while waiting to be rescued. In fact he swam to near by islands and found a native who took a message to the U. S, Military to come and rescue them. All this when the entire waters around them was thick with Japanese patrol boats and soldiers on the islands. His brother Joe was killed in Europe. Following the war he got into politics and served 3 terms in the House and 2 times in the senate. He struggled with the decision to run for president. He was not the choice of the party leaders and this meant he had to enter all of the state primaries. He fought an uphill battle from the start from within the party and the public. The fact that he was a catholic was a major obstacle because the prevailing view was that the American people would never elect a catholic as president because that had never been done before. The common idea from protestants was that he would take order or direction from the pope. I personally recall hearing this argument repeatedly during the campaign. Robert ( his brother ) ran his campaign and he won the democratic party nomination. During the campaign the common negative issue kept being brought up - he is to young, he has no experience and of course his being a catholic. Pictured above is the scene of the historic TV debate between JFK and Nixon. This debate caused his campaign to really catch on fire and people started looking at him in a totally different light. He made many major speeches and I am sure that you can recall some of them but for me the one question he asked will be with me forever, that was " Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country ". Oh, how I wish we could get back to that way of thinking regardless of your political party affiliation.
Of course President Kennedy took office during very turbulent times in the world just like several prior presidents. To name a few. The Russians beat us into space, the war in Laos, the plan to invade Cuba. This was planned before he became president and he decided to go ahead with the invasion. He later said this was his first and worse mistake. He had a historic meeting with Khrushchev which did not accomplish anything but give him the opportunity to personally meet him. He told Khrushchev not to build the Berlin wall but he did anyway. One of his strongest characteristics was that he would not accept the idea that something could not be done. It was this attitude that backed him in his promise to put a man on the moon and bring him safely back. As I said on the world stage and on the home front one issue after another just kept popping up. The world was on pins and needles when it was announced that Russia had exploded an atomic bomb in the atmosphere. People were scared to death about the fall out of radio active material as it was carried around the world by the wind. The government was trying to control inflation and US Steel announced plans to increase the price of their product and they would not back down from that plan. President Kennedy directed the US Attorney General ( his brother Robert ) to stop the increase. Then of course there was the battle to fight organized crime on a national level with the Attorney General taking the lead on this issue which caused great turmoil among the Presidents union backers.He took action to stop discrimination. His brother learned that Governor George Wallace would not allow two black students to enter an all white school and he sent in forces to get them into the school. Of course this was the time in the country when Martin Luther King was a major player in the anti-discrimination struggles in the US. Of course I am sure you recall his famous " I have a dream " speech. I know I certainly do. The Peace Corps and the Alliance for Progress were developed during this time. He went to Berlin and made another of his famous speeches to huge crowds at the Berlin Wall.
There were so many critical problems and decision that JFK faced and made it is almost impossible to single out a single one except when you do it on a strictly personally basis and how it impacted you and your family. That incident for me was the Cuban Missile crisis. In 1962 it was discovered that Russia had and was moving nuclear tipped missile into Cuba only 95 miles away from the United States. These missiles had the range to hit a vast number of US cities. President Kennedy spoke to the nation October 16, 1962 and told the American people about the issue. I remember that like it was yesterday. Being on active duty in the US Air Force at the time regardless of where we were located that area would be a prime target for these missile and there was nothing I could do about it to protect my family. The United States had thrown up a blockade around Cuba to stop further shipments of missiles but Russia expedited the completion of the missile sites. The U. S. Air Force strategic force were on Max alert with half our bomber loaded with nuclear bombs in the air all the time with some headed for Russia. The major danger here was that some hot head would do some thing stupid and start a nuclear war from which there would be no recovery. A couple of incidents did happen but cooler heads prevailed. This standoff was stopped when Russia pulled all the missiles out of Cuba. This is fully documented above in this blog and is presented from several different points of view.
It is interesting at my age to visit the many Presidential Museums I have visited over the last two years to realize that I have lived through the times that all these modern day presidents lived in and the problems they faced in one way or the other affected me and my parents and my own family. That makes all these issue seem really personal and I really identify with the issues and problems.
I come away from each of these visit in complete awe on how God has blessed our nation in spite of our continuing to turn away from him. My prayer is that we will see the error of our ways and as a nation turn again to God putting him in first place recognizing that he is the supreme ruler of the universe.
Remember what I always say. God Loves you and so do I.
Grandpa Bill
No comments:
Post a Comment