OQIIU
monday, november 19, 1973
lincoln, nebraska vol. 97 no. 48
JFK death prompted advent of 'terrible 60s'
By Mark Kjeldgaard
Ten years ago Thursday, when most of today's
university students were giade schoolers, John F.
Kennedy, 35th president of the United Starts, was
assassinated.
Somehow, in retrospect, the .v;,k, .ma .ion seems
like a beginning as well as an end. i vr iy tiling crazy
and terrible seemed to happen after that ---things that
Jackie in her pink suit, accepting flowers at the Dallas
airport, and a smiling
loiinson and the
thousands waiting in ihe midday 'un for ihe parade
to pass, would never dream of, Kennedy's death
ended the promising 60s and began the terrible 60s.
Who was Kennedy? What role did he play in the
history of America? Kennedy, as I see him, was the
last president of an America that sbii knmv where it
was going.
Current admirers of John F. Kennedy, who praise
his idealism and his :,ense of puipose, soidom mention
one of his highest ideals. Kennedy v as ardently
(gasp!) anti-Communist.
Yes! That is what makes one reaii.t; that it has
indeed been ten years. Anti-Comm.mis'n is no longer
a thing to be ardent about.
When the betrayed Bay of Pigs invaders icturned
to our soil, Kennedy giccted tiv-m wiih choked-up
Churchitlian congratulations of tj,. ihe Castios of
the world could oppiess human nodies, hut not
human spirits. Indeed, paiaphra.ang Chi n chill would
have been appropriate to those so die who were
deserted by American air power W will fight on the
beaches, all right. Newer have su few owed so j tt le to
so many,
During the Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy was
undeniably h ud lir e. He $.2,-; tht attack on a
Latin American country would uc considered an
attack on the United States, that further Soviet
military activities in this hemisphere would mean
nuclear war. Suburbanites built thousands of private
fallout shelters, which later became tec rooms and
winecellars.
In starting our big space program, Kennedy
stressed the importance of landing men on the moon
before the Russians.
When he went to Berlin, Kennedy praised the
island-city of freedom in the Communist sea and
received applause the like of which that city had not
heard since the early forties. The applause came
before the interpreter translated Kennedy's words,
primarily because the paragraphs often ended with
German phrases such as "Ich bin ein Berliner!" ("I
am a Berliner!").
The audience did not need to understand the rest
of the speech, because they knew that the American
president would support them all the way in their
resistance against the forces of Russian imperialism.
How impossibly archaic that now seems. Just try
to imagine Richard Nixon in Taipei, shouting"! am a
Nationalist Chinese!" before the cheering citizens of
Taiwan.
We live in a different age now. We live in the age of
detente, to which the table-pounding Khrushchev is
strangely ancient. In Kennedy's time, school children
in Mao's genial land bayonetted effigies of American
soldiers.
Kennedy's anti-Communism dug us deep into
Vietnam. South Vietnam, to him, was a free nation
being overrun by external forces of totalitarianism.
He committed 17,000 "advisers" to a conflict in
which 44,000 would die.
Historically Kennedy was fortunate, because it was
the Johnson Administration which extended the
syllogism of Asian land war to its absurd conclusion.
Vietnam, more than anything else, blunted
America's sword of democracy and ended our dream
of a universal republic. Eisenhower and Kennedy, in
their supreme acts of anti-Communism, initiated the
destruction of anti-Communism.
Today, popular liberal opinion scoffs at
anti-Communism. In my personal circles it is a dirty
word. We go to China, now, to visit the Hobbits and
Chuck Connors drops in on 3re:hnev. Despite
Solzhenitsyn and Amalrik, "tyranny" is not part of
our foreign policy vocabulary.
Kennedy is a pop hero, however, and pop heroes
can hardly be hard-liners, so his "free world" notions
are draped in a pleasant blanket of vagueness which
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John F. Kennedy
obscures his human frailties.
To his d.vpiy ;coular white fc!lrvveis, Martin
Luther King was only incidentally Christian, his
Moses analogies regarded as innocuous metaphors. So,
to his believers, Kennedy is remembered for the Peace
Corps, for saying good things about civil rights, for
giving his country "style" and vitality.
Vacation
cuts UNL
operations
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Thanksgiving vacation brings pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce,
turkey and football games. But it also takes away the Daily
Nt.braskan, the Nebraska Union, Love Library, dormitories
and classes.
Vacation at UNL officially begins at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Then dote, today's edition of the Daily Nebraskan is the last
onni afer Thanksgiving. The Daily Nebraskan will resume
: iniic.ition Nov. 28.
1 1' Union will be open limited hours on Tuesday and
IV 'dnrsday On Tuesday the building, South Crib and vending
a'-:;. y.'iH be open fiom 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. The North Crib will
r inse at '? p m., the North Desk at 4:30 p.m. and the South
I.), sk at H:30 p.m.
Wednesday the building, the South Crib and vending area
will be open from 7:45 a.m. io 5 p.m. The North and South
Desks, the North Ciib and the Colonial Dining Room will be
closed.
UNL libraries also will operate under different hours dining
vacation. All libraries will te open Wednesday from 7:30 a.m.
to 4:50 p.m. They will he closed bom Thursday through
Saturday and will open aiiain Sunday ftom 1:30 p.m. to 10:50
p.m.
Residence hall switchboards will close at midnight Tuesday.
All dormitory residents must be out of the dorms by 8 a.m.
Wednesday. Residents ca i move in again Sunday after 1 p.m.
School and its services will resume Monday.
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Photo by Bill Ginl
When airplanos land at !. iucoln s Municipal
Airport, stewardesses iinnoti! tec tins is the
home of the LJifj Red. Tcday it, ,i special
pullout section, the Daily rj"Sr;i.l-,;,w takes a
look at UNL football, highlighting the annual
Thanksgiving weekend battle between the
Sooners of Oklahoma and the Nebraska
Cornuskers. See pages 7 through 10.
Open sessions set
to discuss altering
Five Year Plan
What ate The major functions of the Univuisity?
How important is graduate education? Should faculty
teach more instead of doing research?
UNL. students can offer their opinion'; on these
and othei questions at special Faculty Senate
meetings on Tuesday, Nov. ?0 and 27.
At the meetings, the seriate plans to discuss
prioiitics for the University and possible revisions of
the Five Yeai Plan, which has established certain
goals for NU.
Senate mom be is hope students will attend the
meetings and express theii opinions, according to
Max Larsen of the senate's Academic Planning
Committee.
Thone to appear
Tuesday in Union
The Union Talks and Topics Committee is
sponsoring the piogram "Meet Youi Congressman" at
1:15 p.m. Tuesday in the Nebraska Union Small
Auditorium.
Ret). Charles Thone (H Ni.'h) i.; to meet
individually with students and ans ver questions at
the session, according lo an aide.