A personal tragedy
On August 7th, 1963, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy was born 5-and-a-half weeks prematurely to John and Jackie Kennedy.
However, soon after his birth, he would experience complications from hyaline membrane disease and pass away 36 hours later.
The loss was utterly devastating for the Kennedy family and would bring public awareness to hyaline membrane disease and to neonatology as a whole.
A small funeral mass would be held for the boy on August 10th, 1963.
Governor Nixon goes abroad
Richard M. Nixon had been Governor of California since January of 1963. In the eight months since his inauguration, he had overseen a trimming of the budget, and had spearheaded several public–private partnership infrastructure projects.
These included California Aqueduct (which would later be named the Governor Richard M. Nixon California Aqueduct), several major roads and highways, and mass transit services.
He had also spoken out against the prevalence of protest/anti-war culture on California university campuses. Ironically, by bringing attention to it, he was effectively fuelling further protests.
Nixon had become the object of scorn for every left leaning college student in California. T-shirts with slogans such as “Fuck Nixon”, “Recall Nixon”, and “Nixon” with the “x” replaced by a swastika and a picture of the incumbent Governor with Hitler’s moustache were commonplace.
The Governor did not shy away from visiting college campuses to give speeches, which often saw disruptive protests carried out in response to his presence.
This created, in a sense, a feedback loop for both the anti-Nixon protestors and the Governor himself. The more one side rallied against the other, the more their support among their respective base grew.
Outside of university campuses and youth political circles, Nixon proved to be a largely popular figure throughout 1963. He had operated as a post-partisanship statesman who looked to bring California together against the forces of communism, student rebellion and extremism that threatened the law-abiding members of society.
This approach paid off, as he was consistently one of the most popular Governors in America.
On August 17th, 1963, Nixon led a delegation to the Free Republic of Cuba, organised by the California Chamber of Commerce, where he met with leaders alongside several prominent California businessmen, Republican and Democratic state politicians, lobbyists, and political operatives.
Its purpose was to sign a number of non-binding agreements concerning trade, education, the environment, and tourism between California and the Free Republic of Cuba.
Nixon shook hands with President Cardona and spoke of the benefits of free enterprise:
“You, the free people of Cuba, understand that freedom is worth fighting, and, if necessary, giving your life for. You have thrown off the shackles of communism and achieved freedom for yourself and are now a beacon for all the oppressed people who suffer behind the Iron Curtain.
And you well know – a free society cannot exist without free enterprise. This is something your leaders, including President Cardona, know to be true.
I am proud to sign a number of agreements which that bind together the peoples of California and Cuba on issues such as on trade, education, the environment, and tourism.
This is truly a beautiful country, and I know there are many Californians who greatly look forward to visiting your wonderful cities, towns and countryside.”
-- An excerpt of Governor Nixon’s televised speech to the Cuban people, from Havana, Free Cuba.
Nixon’s visit was praised by the media in both countries. Conservative outlets like the National Review called Nixon “the President in waiting”, and many Republicans inside and outside of California begged the Governor to consider a run in 1964.
Nixon flatly refused – he had made a pledge that he would not be in a candidate in 1964 and he intended to follow that.
Still, Nixon returned from Cuba with his reputation more glowing than ever. He was optimistic as to what the future might hold for him.
March on Washington
On August 28th, 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place.
This was yet another important development in the civil rights movement, following the peaceful graduation of James Meredith from the University of Mississippi on August 18th.
The speech itself saw 300,000 people marched and protested across Washington, DC.
Speakers included A. Philip Randolph, Walter Reuther, Roy Wilkins, John Lewis, Daisy Bates, Floyd McKissick, Whitney Young, Rabbi Joachim Prinz, Mathew Ahmann, and Josephine Baker.
However, it was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and his "I Have a Dream" speech that would come to define the event and the Civil Rights Movement as a whole.
“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvellous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
The speech would go down as one of the great pieces of rhetoric in all of history.
Following the March, civil rights leaders would meet President Kennedy in the Oval Office.
The tone of the meeting was far warmer than previous meetings with administration officials and civil rights leaders.
Shortly after Kennedy’s shooting and all through his recovery, the Reverend had organised public events at churches across the United States where people would pray for Kennedy’s recovery. It generated significant goodwill among the public and among Kennedy’s inner circle.
Kennedy had proven himself to King as someone he could depend on. He had walked the walk, so to speak, and gotten himself shot in the process.
Both King and Kennedy had been touched by violence when standing up for civil rights, and this brought them closer together.
The President was extremely pleased with the March and believed it bolstered the case for the Civil Rights Act currently in Congress.
A September to Remember
September saw a number of important developments in the America’s domestic and foreign policy spheres.
On the 3rd of September, the federal minimum wage was increased to $1.25 an hour. This was one of Kennedy’s key New Frontier policies and he was happy to see it officially go into effect.
On the 4th, black students registered for schools in Alabama. Kennedy federalised the national guard in order to prevent Wallace from using them to block integration. This saw a number of black households bombed in Birmingham, and federal troops quickly descended upon the city to prevent further bloodshed. Wallace decried the use of federal troops.
On the 9th, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Maxwell D. Taylor, authorised Operation 34A which saw commandos inserted into North Vietnam, aerial reconnaissance missions and naval sabotage operations. As well as that, psychological warfare was employed to increase paranoia and discontent among North Vietnamese citizens and military officers, including the creation of a fictitious anti-communist North Vietnamese resistance, "Sacred Sword of Patriotic League". The actual effectiveness of these covert operations was debated in years subsequently.
On the 15th, another major act of violence would be perpetrated against the African American community in the South. Nineteen sticks of dynamite planted beneath the 16th Street Baptist Church and armed via a timing decide exploded, killing four young black girls, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair, and injuring 20 others.
The outcry was swift, with Martin Luther King calling it "one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity". Attorney General Kennedy promised that there would be “justice for the victims of this horrendous act”.
At the United Nations, President Kennedy suggested the possibility of a joint space mission between the Soviet Union and United States. Brezhnev expressed support for the idea, but behind the scenes admitted to aides that such a thing “was an impossibility”.
On the 22nd of September, South Korea sent the first of its troops to Vietnam. They would prove to be a particularly brutal, and effective, fighting force in the months to come.
On the 25th of September, Juan Bosch, the President of the Dominican Republic, was overthrown by a military coup after 7 months in power. He was replaced by three civilian leaders.
That same day, Kennedy’s tax law would pass the US House of Representatives and progress to the Senate. To get through the Senate, the administration would need to negotiate with Senator Harry F. Byrd, who said he would only allow the tax cut if Kennedy agreed to maintain a federal budget under $100 billion. President Kennedy said to Byrd that he was willing to meet this compromise, and, conscious of not appearing to be too anti-Kennedy following the attempt on his life, Byrd dropped his opposition to the tax cuts. It appeared as though Kennedy’s tax cuts would soon pass.
In international politics, the Dennings Report cleared Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, and the rest of his cabinet, of any knowledge or wrongdoing during the Profumo Affair.
On the 28th of September, Lee Harvey Oswald would be found dead in his prison cell, having been murdered by fellow prisoners, allegedly on account of his communist leanings. Four men would be charged for his murder, but none would ever be convicted.
As September ended and October came into view, President Kennedy mulled over several decisions that would define the rest of his Presidency and the United States for years to come.
