Mary's Mosaic: Entering Peter Janney's World of Fantasy

[Adele Edisen]

I'd like to add my two cents here. I don't deny that Kennedy turned out to be an anti-colonialist and sincere worker for peaceful settlements of disputes, but he was in 1960 battling for votes in the presidential campaign against Nixon. In those days it was very difficult to see much difference between the Republican and the Democratic Party platforms, and between Nixon and Kennedy, particularly on questions revolving around communism (we should really say socialism, as communism as a form of stateless and classless society did not then, nor does it now, exist in any major country - look up the definitions in your dictionaries). In the United States we were still linked to the McCarthy era of the 1950s and lived in awesome fear of atomic war with the Soviet Union. The election results were very close.

Kennedy, politician that he was, had to tread carefully in speaking about peace and liberation of the colonial peoples in order to win the votes he needed to win. In those days to speak of equality for minorities and women (democratic views) immediately labeled one as a "communist". You had to be there to understand this; we had to sign 'loyalty oaths', believe it or not. Kennedy had a public persona to win votes, and a private view based on his extensive understanding of world history and his experiences and personal convictions, and his vision for America and the world. It's important not to confuse the two.

Adele