Patricia W. Levering - The Kennedy Crises: The Press, the Presidency, and Foreign Policy

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The Kennedy Crises

The Kennedy Crises

The Press, the Presidency, and Foreign Policy

Montague Kern
Patricia W. Levering
Ralph B. Levering

The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill & London

1983 The University of North Carolina Press

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

First printing, February 1984

Second Printing, July 1984

Kern, Monatague, 1942

The Kennedy crises.

Bibliography: p.

Includes index.

1. United StatesForeign relations19611963. 2. Press and politicsUnited StatesHistory20th century. 3. Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 19171963. I. Levering, Patricia W., 1946

II. Levering, Ralph B. III. Title. IV. Title: Kennedy crises.

E841.K468 1983 327.73 83-6899

ISBN 0-8078-1569-1

ISBN 0-8078-4127-7 (pbk.)

THIS BOOK WAS DIGITALLY MANUFACTURED.

To our childrenChristopher, Alexander, and Deane Kern Matthew and Brooks Leveringand to Charles E. Kern II

Contents

Tables and Figures

Tables

Figures

9.Breakdown of Congressional Sources by Ideological Reputation

Preface

When research for this book began in the summer of 1976, it was assumed that the project would include newspaper, magazine, and television news coverage of all major foreign policy issues during the Kennedy years. Although the administration and the public gave primary attention to cold war concerns from Kennedys inauguration until civil rights became equally important in the summer of 1963, it was thought that the brevity of Kennedys presidency would make it possible to cover virtually all foreign policy issues in depth.

As is customary during the first few months of research, the project was narrowed both by necessity and by design. Television news was dropped because most of the evening news programs before systematic preservation began in the late 1960s have been destroyed and hence are unavailable to researchers. Some research was done in news magazines and journals of opinion, but it was decided that coverage of foreign policy issues in magazines was a very different subject worthy of separate treatment. Finally, the idea of covering all major foreign policy issues was discarded after it became apparent that substantial effort would be required to cover any one in depth.

The decision soon emerged to focus on press-presidential interaction and on day-to-day coverage in five important newspapers during four major crises in which the Kennedy administration was involved: Laos and Berlin in 1961, Cuba in 1962, and Vietnam in 1963. But, even after the narrowing of focus, this study has involved the systematic study of thousands of news stories, editorials, and columns; numerous interviews with journalists and officials who played important roles during the four crises; and substantial research in previously untapped primary sources at the John F. Kennedy Library and elsewhere. By examining these four crises in detail, we have sought to present new insights into the press-presidential relationship during foreign policy crises.

Although based largely on practical considerations, the decision to focus on newspaper coverage reflected the primacy of newspapers among the nations media during the Kennedy years. Until September 1963, when the leading television evening news programs were expanded from fifteen to thirty minutes, they offered almost no detailed analysis of foreign policy issues. And news magazines, though influential as lively and widely read summaries of major developments, lacked the day-to-day impact of leading newspapers. The higher one goes in the formal and informal structures of foreign policymaking in the United States, Bernard C. Cohen wrote in 1963, summarizing numerous studies of media usage, the more time and attention one finds being paid to the newspaper rather than to radio and television as the important source of foreign affairs news and comment.*

The authors represent two academic disciplines, political science and history, each with its own methodology and approach to knowledge. Political scientists tend to be interested in testing generalizations and contributing to theory, whereas historians generally seek to answer the questions they address to the past within a basically chronological framework. Overall, we believe we have succeeded as political scientists in developing a methodology for studying influences on press coverage that should permit comparative research on other presidencies; and as historians in remaining faithful to the particular circumstances of the Kennedy years.

Collaboration between the two disciplines on a project of this type is rareregrettably so, in our view. Although many of our conclusions about the press-presidential relationship during foreign policy crises might well be valid for other presidencies, our research, focused on the Kennedy years, does not permit us to claim that they are universally applicable. Having offered these caveats, we still hope that this book will be of value to journalists, historians of the Kennedy years, and political scientists specializing in the press and in presidential power.

Finally, because it obviously was impossible for us to interview Kennedy and because many important documents from his era remain closed to scholars, this study focuses more fully on the various influences on press coverage than on newspapers influence on presidential decision making. Our theoretical contribution thus is not in the area of crisis decision making, which Graham T. Allison analyzed for the Cuban missile crisis, but rather toward an understanding of the conditions under which the press can apply pressure on a president and, conversely, the influence that he can have on press coverage.

We wish to thank the many people who have helped us with this book. The assistance of Frederick Holborn, who rendered valuable advice to Montague Kern, is especially appreciated. Joan M. Nelson also offered important support, and Leon V. Sigal and Herbert Dinerstein gave her worthwhile critiques. The contributions of Porter Dawson, Evan Farber, Charles E. Kern II, Dewey W. Grantham, Gary R. Hess, Riordan Roett, Robert Lystad, Michael C. Hudson, William C. Adams, W. Russell Neuman, Samuel and Miriam Levering, Merry Levering, Wilton and Carol Lindsey, Betsy and David Morgan, Irene B. Webb, and Phil and Marilyn Wellons are also recognized. A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities enabled Ralph and Patricia Levering to begin their work on this project during 1976-77; they received additional support from Western Maryland College and Earlham College.

We also wish to thank the many journalists and officials of the Kennedy period who granted us interviews; their names are listed in the Bibliography. Three journalistsRobert Estabrook, Charles Gould, and Chalmers Robertsgave us access to valuable primary source materials. Special thanks also go to Ruth Ames, curator of the Arthom Collection of newspaper files at Wake Forest University, and to librarians and archivists at the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the John F. Kennedy Library. Mark Steinwinters assistance in the computer analysis of the data is also appreciated, as is Rhonda Kilers, Mildred Harllees, and Mary Maloneys conscientious typing.

* Bernard C. Cohen, The Press and Foreign Policy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), p. 8.

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