Larry J. Sabato - The Kennedy Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy

For all those who ask what they can do for their country

There is no present or future, only the past, happening over and over again, now.

EUGENE ONEILL, IRISH AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHT

The Kennedy Half-Century is the result of a research project stretching over five years, and many people have contributed much along the way. Without generous funding, this book would still be in my hard drive. The essential financial support came from the Reynolds Foundation, with special thanks to J. Sargeant Reynolds, Jr., Richard S. Reynolds III, Randolph N. Reynolds, David P. Reynolds, Glenn R. Martin, Dorothy R. Brotherton, and Victoria Pitrelli; our loyal Center for Politics backers, Paul and Victoria Saunders; McGuireWoods Consulting and McGuireWoods law firm, with special thanks to Frank B. Atkinson, Mark T. Bowles, and Richard Cullen; the Honorable William P. Hobby and Paul W. Hobby of the Hobby Family Foundation; James Falk and Martha Powell of the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth; Dan Alcorn, a Center board member; and several sources at the University of Virginia, including the offices of President Teresa Sullivan and Provost John Simon.

It was my great pleasure to work with Hart Research Associates on the public opinion research that undergirds many of the books findings. The pollsters at this firm are Picassos in their field, and their artistry drew out our participants about long-ago events. We extend our gratitude to Peter Hart, chairman; Geoff Garin, president; Molly ORourke, partner; Becca Mark, analyst; Kevin Schmidt, assistant analyst; and Leah Stecher, also an assistant analyst.

I am deeply indebted to the interviewees, reviewers, and professionals who have so willingly shared their time, memories, research, and impressions. Special thanks to former President Jimmy Carter for granting us an interview, as well as Dr. Stephen Hochman and Lauren Gay of the Carter Center. A special mention is also needed for JFK speechwriter Ted Sorensen, who was generous with his thoughts and counsel on several occasions before his passing in October 2010. Former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert and his wife, Laura, also deserve special acknowledgment for their hospitality and graciousness in showing me the critical locales of November 22, 1963, and giving me considerable access to people who understood the city of that time and our time. In addition, I am grateful to Bill Alexander, Pierce Allman, Hugh Aynesworth, James Barger, Eddie Barker, Barry Webb Battle, Gerald Blaine, Robert Blakey, Aniko Bodroghkozy, Julian Bond, Dan Bongino, David Bowers, Jim Bowles, Stephen Bryce, Joseph Califano, Tommy Caplan, Mortimer Caplin, Jim Carroll, James Carville, Phil Costello, Mal Couch, Senator John Culver, Jim Cunningham, Craig Daigle, Jerry Dealey, John Dean, Ralph Dungan, Frank Fahrenkopf, Dan Fenn, Ari Fleischer, Winfried Fluck, Frank Gannon, Bill Greener, Jeff Greenfield, Ken Holmes, Henry Hurt, Heinz Ickstadt, James Jones, Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, Ronald Kessler, Sergei Khrushchev, Chris Kincheloe, Mary Moorman Krahmer, Jim Leavelle, Jim Lehrer, Peter Leventis, Fred Malek, Chris Matthews, John McAdams, Paul McCaghren, Dr. Robert McClelland, Senator Mitch McConnell, H. B. McLain, Harry McPherson, Herbert Meza, Jefferson Morley, Bill Moyers, Bill Newman, Michael ODell, Robert Orben, Harold Pachios, Jerry Paul, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Perry, Gary Powers, Jr., Sandy Quinn, First Lady Nancy Reagan, Ron Reagan, Richard Reeves, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, Jason Roberts, James I. Robertson, Jr., Ed Rollins, Jay Root, Sarah Collins Rudolph, Bob Schieffer, Bill Simpich, Gillian Martin Sorensen, Cliff Spiegelman, Oliver Stone, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Judge John R. Tunheim, Sander Vanocur, and David R. Wrone for their time and assistance.

The following people at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum were helpful to us: Director Thomas Putnam and staff members Stephen Plotkin, Sharon Ann Kelly, Lara Hall, Stacey Bredhoff, Laurie Austin, and Sara Ludovissy.

Staff in other presidential libraries also lent a hand, and we thank Kevin Bailey at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library; Tina Houston, Regina Greenwell, Claudia Anderson, Allen Fisher, Liza Talbot, Barbara Cline, Eric Cuellar, Lara Hall, Brian McNerney, Christopher Banks, and Margaret Harman at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum; Greg Cumming, Jonathan Roscoe, and Jon Fletcher at the Richard Nixon Library; Nancy Mirshah and William H. McNitt at the Gerald R. Ford Library; James A. Yancey, Jr., Keith J. Shuler, and Polly Nodine at the Jimmy Carter Library; Ray Wilson, Jennifer Mandel, Shelly Williams, Shelley Nayak, and Michael Pinckney at the Ronald Reagan Library; Robert Holzweiss at the George Bush Library; Herbert Ragan and Lisa Sutton at the William J. Clinton Library; and Christine A. Lutz at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University.

We also thank several people at the National Archives and Records Administration, including David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States; Gary M. Stern, general counsel; Mary Kay Schmidt and Amy DeLong, archivists working in the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection; Daniel Rooney, supervisory archivist of the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video unit, and Mark Meader, an archives specialist in the same department; Joseph A. Scanlon, FOIA / Privacy Act Officer, Office of General Counsel; the Honorable Frank Keating, a member of NARAs board of directors; and Kenneth Lore, president of the Foundation for the National Archives. Marc Oliver, production manager at Silver Spring Studios, deserves a special acknowledgment for copying essential audio files from NARAs College Park, Maryland, repository.

We relied extensively on the personnel and resources of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza for our chapters on President Kennedys assassination, and we thank Nicola Longford, executive director; Gary Mack, curator; Stephen Fagin, associate curator; Megan Bryant, director of collections and intellectual property; and Pauline Martin and Krishna Shenoy, the Sixth Floor Museums chief librarians. Their cooperation was crucial, although they have no responsibility for anything I have written.

Charles Olsen, a senior analyst at Sonalysts, Inc., assembled an extraordinary team of audio experts to reexamine the Dallas Police Dictabelt recording and the original report put together by Bolt, Beranek, and Newman for the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Mark Bamforth, Malinda Finkle, Jonathan Grant, Richard Hodges, Dr. John Jakacky, Lauren Logan, Scott Martin, Lisa Peringer, and Curt Ramm of Sonalysts teamed up with Brian Sargent of Aberrant Sound in Concord, Massachusetts, to produce a ground-breaking scientific study. These gifted men and women deserve the gratitude of everyone who has ever researched the Kennedy assassination.

A companion documentary based on the findings of this volume will air on PBS stations throughout the nation. We wish to acknowledge Curtis Monk, president and CEO of Commonwealth Public Broadcasting; John Felton, vice president and general manager of WCVE in Richmond and WHTJ in Charlottesville; Gene Rhodes; Mark Helfer; Leslie Custalow; and Paul Roberts, independent filmmaker.

Most of all, I am deeply appreciative for the fine team we assembled at the University of Virginia to work on this book. The team leader was Dr. Andrew Bell, a historian with a keen grasp of the subject, who worked directly with me on almost every aspect of the research. Andrew was the first to read each of my draft chapters and to fill in critical details that had escaped my attention or memory. Further, Andrew worked with Sean Lyons, who skillfully helped us conduct interviews, and he supervised a crack team of graduate and undergraduate interns and researchers. Several interns spent far more hours than they should have, but we are ever so grateful that they became a bit obsessed with the project. They include Josh Bland, Sophie Arts, Jonathan Elsasser, Nicholas Blessing, Valerie Clemens, Jack Jessee, Emma Paine, Blake Wheelock, James Yu, Cameron Cawthorne, Ann Laurence Baumer, Joseph Wilkinson, Brian Wilson, and Michael Bugas. Other students who made significant contributions were Andrew McGee, Aaron Flynn, Whitney Armstrong, Joe Wiley, Jeff Young, Tyler Matuella, Ethan Thrasher, Justin Lee, Scott Tilton, Michael Pugliese, Randy Pearson, Kasey Sease, and Reed Arnold.