Thursday, April 29, 2010

Memooirs by Harry S. Truman, Vol. One (6).


Year of Decisions. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1955.

Why Read It? Truman had to end the war, decide on the atomic bomb and then shift to a peacetime economy in which he had to fight a Cold War with the Soviets, fight the Korean War, battle through labor troubles and to remind everyone of the necessity to maintain civilian control of the military through relieving MacArthur of his command. Although he appeared to be a normal U.S. citizen, he was anything but. His character was almost the ideal of a U.S. President. His decisions were well thought out and decisive. He was well known for his plain spokenness.

Ideas:
“I saw it takes men to make history or there would be no history. History does not make the man.” p. 120. ………. “Especially in reading the history of American presidents did I become aware of the value of knowing what has gone before.” p. 120. ………. “I learned of General McClellan, who traded his leadership for demagoguery and eventually defied his commander in chief. and was interested to learn how President Lincoln dealt with an insubordinate general. These lessons were to stand me in good stead years later when I was to be confronted with similar problems.” p. 120. ………. “I learned of the unique problems of Andrew Johnson, whose destiny it was to be thrust suddenly into the Presidency to fill the shoes of one of history’s great leaders. When the same thing happened to me,, I knew just how Johnson had coped with his problems, and I did not make the mistakes he made.” p. 120. ………. “History taught me about the periodic waves of hysteria which started with the witch craze, the Alien and Sedition Acts…the Know-Nothing movement…the anti-Masonic…anti-Catholicism movements…the Ku Klux Klan…the Red Scare of 1919. When the cycle repeated  itself during my administration in the form of anti-communist hysteria and indiscriminate branding of innocent persons as subversives, I could deal with the situation calmly because I knew something about its background… When we are faced with a situation, we must know how to apply the lessons of history in a practical way.” p. 120.

To be continued.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Memoirs by Harry S. Truman, Vol. One (5)


Year of Decisions. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1955.

Why Read It? Truman had to end the war, decide on the atomic bomb and then shift to a peacetime economy in which he had to fight a Cold War with the Soviets, fight the Korean War, battle through labor troubles and to remind everyone of the necessity to maintain civilian control of the military through relieving MacArthur of his command. Although he appeared to be a normal U.S. citizen, he was anything but. His character was almost the ideal of a U.S. President. His decisions were well thought out and decisive. He was well known for his plain spokenness.

Ideas:
“Churchill climaxed this appeal to  Stalin by painting a picture of what the world might be like if divided into two camps…. ‘It is quite obvious that their quarrel would tear the world to pieces….’ ‘But do not, I beg you, friend Stalin, underrate the divergences which are opening about matters which you may think are small to us, but which are symbolic of the way the English-speaking democracies look at life.’ ” p. 109. ………. “Among the many burdensome duties and responsibilities of a President, I soon experienced the constant pressure and necessity of making immediate decisions.” p. 111. ………. “The glasses were a great help in seeing but a great handicap in playing. I was so carefully cautioned by the eye doctor about breaking my glasses and injuring my eyes that I was afraid to join in the rough-and-tumble games in the schoolyard and the back lot.” p. 116. ………. “My time was spent in reading, and by the time I was thirteen or fourteen years old, I had read all the books in the Independence Public Library and our big old Bible three times through.” p. 116. ………. “…an English teacher, Miss Tillie Brown, who was a genius at making us appreciate good literature. She also made us want to read it.” p. 118. ………. “My debt to [the study of] history…for my awakening interest as a young lad in the principles of leadership and government.” p. 119. ………. “In school, history was taught by paragraphs. Each great event in history was written up in one paragraph. I made it my business to look up the background of these events to find out who brought them about.” p. 119. ………. “I wanted to know what caused the successes or the failures of all the famous leaders of history.” p. 119. ………. “…a leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to and like it.” p. 119.

To be continued.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Memoirs by Harry S. Truman, Vol. One (4)


Year of Decisions. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1955.

Why Read It? Truman had to end the war, decide on the atomic bomb and then shift to a peacetime economy in which he had to fight a Cold War with the Soviets, fight the Korean War, battle through labor troubles and to remind everyone of the necessity to maintain civilian control of the military through relieving MacArthur of his command. Although he appeared to be a normal U.S. citizen, he was anything but. His character was almost the ideal of a U.S. President. His decisions were well thought out and decisive. He was well known for his plain spokenness.

Ideas:
“Molotov: “I Have never been talked to like that in my life.” HST: “Carry out your agreements and you won’t get talked to like that.” P. 82. ………. “Stimson…seemed at least as much concerned with the role of the atomic bomb in the shaping of history as in its capacity to shorten the war.” p. 87. ………. “From the time I first sat down in the President’s chair, I found myself part of an immense administrative operation. There had been a change of executives, but the machinery kept going on in its customary routine manner….” p. 87. ………. “…and I had to find time to read the urgent messages in between visitors.” p. 88. ………. “The essence of our problem here, is to provide sensible machinery for the settlement of disputes among nations.” p. 95. ……….”Labor-management relations had grown tense and explosive because of the wage and price controls of the war years….” p. 96. ………. “It is terrible—and I mean terrible—nuisance to be kin to the President of the United States…. A guard has to go with Bess and Margaret everywhere they go—and they don’t like it. They both spend a lot of time figuring how to beat the game, but it just can’t be done. In a country as big as this one there are necessarily a lot of nuts and people with peculiar ides. The seem to focus on the White House and the President’s kin.” p. 107.

To be continued.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Memoirs by Harry S. Truman, Vol. One (3)


Year of Decisions. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1955.

Why Read It? Truman had to end the war, decide on the atomic bomb and then shift to a peacetime economy in which he had to fight a Cold War with the Soviets, fight the Korean War, battle through labor troubles and to remind everyone of the necessity to maintain civilian control of the military through relieving MacArthur of his command. Although he appeared to be a normal U.S. citizen, he was anything but. His character was almost the ideal of a U.S. President. His decisions were well thought out and decisive. He was well known for his plain spokenness.

Ideas:
“He [Harry Hopkins] was a dedicated man who never sought credit or the limelight, yet willingly bore the brunt of criticism, just or unjust.” p. 30. ………. “All Presidential messages must begin with the President himself. He must decide what he wants to say and how he wants to say it. Many drafts are usually drawn up, and this fact leads to the assumption that Presidential speeches are ‘ghosted.’ The final version, however, is the final word for the President himself, expression his own convictions and his policy. These he cannot delegate to any man if he would be President in his own right.” p. 36. ………. “I had hurried to the White House to see the President, and when I arrived, I found I was the President.” p. 44. ………. “I decided also to continue the practice established by my predecessor of barring direct quotation of my replies [in press conferences]  and comments while permitting indirect quotation.” p. 47. ………. “I felt as if I had lived five lifetimes in my first five days as President.” p. 53.

“I had each member of the Cabinet lay important matters before the Cabinet as a whole, and each person present was given an opportunity to discuss the subjects that were under consideration to have his views.” p. 55. ………. “The relationship between the President and the Vice-President is complicated, and it is complicated further by the fact that the Vice-President  is in between the legislative and the executive branches of the government without, in the last analysis, being responsible to either. The Vice-President cannot become completely acquainted with the policies of the President, while the senators, for their part, look on him as a presiding officer only, who is outside the pale as far as the senatorial club is concerned.” p. 57. ………. “Nations which can plan and fight together shoulder to shoulder in the face of such obstacles of distance and of language and of communication as we have overcome, can live together and can work together in the common labor of the organization of the world for peace,: p. 65. ………. “The Soviet Union, Harriman replied, had two policies which they thought they could successfully pursue at the same time. One was the policy of cooperation with the United States and Great Britain, and the second was the extension of Soviet control over neighboring states by independent action.”

To be continued.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Momoirs by Harry S. Truman Vol. One. (2)


Year of Decisions. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1955. (2).

Why Read It? Truman had to end the war, decide on the atomic bomb and then shift to a peacetime economy in which he had to fight a Cold War with the Soviets, fight the Korean War, battle through labor troubles and to remind everyone of the necessity to maintain civilian control of the military through relieving MacArthur of his command. Although he appeared to be a normal U.S. citizen, he was anything but. His character was almost the ideal of a U.S. President. His decisions were well thought out and decisive. He was well known for his plain spokenness.

Ideas:
“Many of the people who are actually engaged in the work [construction of the A-bomb] have no idea what it is.” p. 10. ……….. “From my reading of American history, I knew there was no cut-and-dried answer to the question of what obligations a President by inheritance had in regard to the program of his predecessor….” p. 12. ………. “Boys,…if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don’t know whether you fellows ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me yesterday what had happened, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me. I’ve got the most terribly responsible job a man ever had.” p. 19. ………. “My real concern at the moment, however, was divided between the war situation on the one hand and the problems of the coming peace on the other.” p. 21. ………. “Already we were at odds with the Soviet government over the question of setting up a truly representative Polish government…an ominous trend.” p. 32. ………. “Everyone, including myself, still continued to think of Roosevelt as the President.” p. 29.

To be continued.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Memoirs by Harry S. Truman. Vol. 1 (1)


Year of Decisions. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1955.

Why Read It? Truman had to end the war, decide on the atomic bomb and then shift to a peacetime economy in which he had to fight a Cold War with the Soviets, fight the Korean War, battle through labor troubles and  remind everyone of the necessity to maintain civilian control of the military through relieving MacArthur of his command. Although he appeared to be a normal U.S. citizen, he was anything but. His character was almost the ideal of a U.S. President. His decisions were well thought out and decisive. He was well known for his plain spokenness.

Ideas:
“Very few are ever authorized to speak for the President. No one can make decisions for him. No one can know all the processes and stages of his thinking in making important decisions.” p. ix. ……….. “…the one purpose that dominated me in everything I thought and did was to prevent a third world war.” p. x. ………. HST to Eleanor Roosevelt on learning of the death of FDR from her: “Is there anything I can do for you?” Eleanor Roosevelt: “Is there anything we can do for you? For you are the one in trouble now.” p. 5. ………. “I spoke to the Cabinet…. It was my intention…to continue both the foreign and domestic policies of the Roosevelt Administrations. I made it clear, however, that I would be President in my own right and that I would assume full responsibility for such decisions as had to be made. I told them that I hoped they would not hesitate to give me their advice—that I would be glad to listen to them. I left them in no doubt that they could differ with me if they felt it necessary but that all final policy decisions would be mine. I added that once such decisions had been made, I expected them to support me.” p. 9.

To be continued.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Kennedy. Theodore C. Sorenson (27).


Special Counsel to the Late President. New York: Bantam Books. 1966.

Why read it? To understand Kennedy’s philosophy of the Presidency. His humor. His wisdom. He could think on his feet. His ability to own up to his mistakes and to learn from them. To appreciate the vast range of responsibilities faced by the President. His style. You won’t learn any of the details of his extra-marital affairs in this book. It focuses on John Kennedy, an American who was elected President by one of the narrowest margins in history. He instilled a spirit of confidence in the American people, and his assassination destroyed that spirit.

Ideas:
JFK: “A man does what he must…in spite of personal consequences, in spite of…dangers—and that is the basis of all human morality.” Profiles in Courage. p. 843. ………. “Life for him [JFK] had always been dangerous and uncertain, but he was too interested in its opportunities and obligations to be intimidated by its risks.” p. 843. ………. “H had so much more to do and to give that no religion or philosophy can rationalize his premature death as though it served some purpose….” p. 846. ………. “The world’s loss is the loss of what might have been.” p. 847. ………. “He had learned so much from the first and second Cuban crises, from his travels and talks with foreign leaders, from his successes and failures.” p. 849. ………. “Prime Minister Macmillan once wrote: ‘It is not the things that one did in one’s life that one regrets, bur rather the opportunities missed.’ ”

Jacqueline Kennedy: “He believed that one man can make a difference and that every man should try.” p. 852. ………. “He stood for excellence in an era of indifference—for hope in an era of doubt—for placing public service ahead of private interests—for reconciliation between East and West, black and white, labor and management.” p. 852. ………. “He had confidence in men and gave men confidence in the future.” p. 852. ………. “The public complacency…was partly due to a sense of hopelessness—that wars and recessions and poverty and political mediocrity could not be avoided, and that all the problems of the modern world were too complex to be understood, let alone unraveled.” p. 852. ………. “Customarily [history and posterity] reserve the mantle of greatness for those who win wars, not for those who prevent them.” p. 853.

The end. My next book for this blog, Books and Ideas, is entitled Memoirs by Harry S. Truman.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Kennedy. Theodore C. Sorenson (26)


Special Counsel to the Late President. New York: Bantam Books. 1966.

Why read it? To understand Kennedy’s philosophy of the Presidency. His humor. His wisdom. He could think on his feet. His ability to own up to his mistakes and to learn from them. To appreciate the vast range of responsibilities faced by the President. His style. You won’t learn any of the details of his extra-marital affairs in this book. It focuses on John Kennedy, an American who was elected President by one of the narrowest margins in history. He instilled a spirit of confidence in the American people, and his assassination destroyed that spirit.

Ideas:
JFK: “If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.” p. 844. ………. JFK: “For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is the fact that we all inhabit this planet…all breathe the same air…all cherish our children’s future…. We are all mortal.” p. 844. ………. “This treaty is not the millennium…but it is an important first step—a step toward peace, a step toward reason, a step away from war…..” p. 831. ………. “In each of these presentations, he anticipated and answered with precision each argument raised in opposition.” p. 831. ………. [Paraphrase of Judge Learned Hand’s discourse on liberty]: “Peace…does not rest in charters and covenants alone…but in the hears and minds of al people…and if it is cast out there, then no act, no pact, no treaty, no organization can hope to preserve it…. So let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper…but strive to build…a desire for peace…in the hearts and minds of all our people.” p. 838. ………. JFK: “While maintaining our readiness for war, let us exhaust every avenue for peace.” p. 839.

To be concluded.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Kennedy. Theodore C. Sorenson (25).


Special Counsel to the Late President. New York: Bantam Books. 1966.

Why read it? To understand Kennedy’s philosophy of the Presidency. His humor. His wisdom. He could think on his feet. His ability to own up to his mistakes and to learn from them. To appreciate the vast range of responsibilities faced by the President. His style. You won’t learn any of the details of his extra-marital affairs in this book. It focuses on John Kennedy, an American who was elected President by one of the narrowest margins in history. He instilled a spirit of confidence in the American people, and his assassination destroyed that spirit.

Ideas:
Cuban Missile Crisis, continued. JFK: “Whichever plan I choose, the ones whose plans we’re not taking are the lucky ones—they’ll be able to say, ‘I told you so’ in a week or two.” p. 783. ………. “The President, although opposed to proposing a summit at that time, wanted to stress the desirability of a peaceful solution, of communications between the two powers, of an approach to the UN, of persuading the world that our action was prudent and necessary.” p. 783. ………. “The desire to avoid panic also caused the President to delete all references to the missiles’ megatonnage as compared with Hiroshima, and to speak of ‘striking’ instead of ‘wiping out,’ certain cities.” p. 787. ………. “He did not talk of total victory or unconditional surrender…..” p. 789. ………. “Rejecting the temptation of a dramatic TV appearance, he issued a brief three-paragraph statement welcoming  Khrushchev’s ‘statesmanlike decision…an important and constructive contribution to peace.’ ” p. 809. ………. ‘He [Khrushchev] had learned…that the American President was willing to exercise his strength and restraint, to seek communication and to reach accommodation that did not force upon his adversary total humiliation.” p. 816. ………. “He sent Averell Harriman to Moscow to review the full range of problems dividing the two nations.” p. 820. ………. “The President was determined to put forward a fundamentally new emphasis on the peaceful and the positive in our relations with the Soviets.” p. 823.

To be continued.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Kennedy. Theodore C. Sorenson (24)


Special Counsel to the Late President. New York: Bantam Books. 1966.

Why read it? To understand Kennedy’s philosophy of the Presidency. His humor. His wisdom. He could think on his feet. His ability to own up to his mistakes and to learn from them. To appreciate the vast range of responsibilities faced by the President. His style. You won’t learn any of the details of his extra-marital affairs in this book. It focuses on John Kennedy, an American who was elected President by one of the narrowest margins in history. He instilled a spirit of confidence in the American people, and his assassination destroyed that spirit.

Ideas:
The Cuban Missile Crisis: “I had prepared a four-page memorandum outlining the areas of agreement and disagreement, the full list of possibilities and…the unanswered questions.” p. 773. ………. “On Thursday afternoon subcommittees were set up to plot each of the major courses in detail…kind of blockade…likely Soviet response…U.S. responses to Communist responses.” p. 776. ………. “He [JFK] liked the idea of leaving Khrushchev a way out, of beginning at a low level that could be stepped up.” p. 780. ………. “Yet it was true that the blockade approach remained somewhat nebulous and I agreed to write the first rough draft of a blockade speech as a means of focusing on specifics.” p. 780. ………. “Among the texts I read for background were the speeches of Wilson and Roosevelt declaring World Wars I and II.” p. 781. ………. The moral of the crisis: “While defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war.” p. 783. ………. “…adopted the term ‘quarantine’ as less belligerent and more applicable to an act of peaceful self-preservation than ‘blockade.’ ”. p. 783.

To be continued.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Kennedy. Theodore C. Sorenson (23).


Special Counsel to the Late President. New York: Bantam Books. 1966.

Why read it? To understand Kennedy’s philosophy of the Presidency. His humor. His wisdom. He could think on his feet. His ability to own up to his mistakes and to learn from them. To appreciate the vast range of responsibilities faced by the President. His style. You won’t learn any of the details of his extra-marital affairs in this book. It focuses on John Kennedy, an American who was elected President by one of the narrowest margins in history. He instilled a spirit of confidence in the American people, and his assassination destroyed that spirit.

Ideas:
“…the contrast between his youthful vitality and the weary pessimism of most older leaders.” p. 653. ………. “Kennedy set out to change the stereotyped view of the United States….” p. 654. ………. “The role of the mediator is not a happy one; we are prepared to have everybody mad if it makes some progress.” p. 654. ………. JFK: “We are committed to no rigid formula…. We see no perfect solution.” p. 675. ………. JFK: “Our arms must be subject to ultimate civilian control and command at all times, in war as well as peace.” p. 628. ………. JFK: “Our foremost aim is the control of force, not the pursuit of force, in a world made safe for mankind.” p. 703. ………. “A limited Communist conventional action, in short, could best be deterred by a capacity to respond effectively in kind.” p. 706. ………. JFK: “We possess weapons of tremendous power…but they are least effective in combating the weapons most often used by freedom’s foes: subversion, infiltration, guerilla warfare, civil disorder.” p. 710.

“Finding little to go on in Army field manuals, he [Kennedy] read the classic texts on guerrilla warfare by Red China’s Mao Tse-Tung and Cuba’s Che Guevara, and requested appropriate military men to do the same.” p. 712. ………. “Military conflicts required more than military solutions…the Communists exploited genuine noncommunist grievances.” p. 715. ………. “A Lenin adage said Bohlen in one of our first meetings on the Cuban Missile Crisis compares national expansion to a bayonet drive: if you strike steel, pull back; if you strike mush, keep going.” p. 763. ………. “…the best performer [during the Cuban Missile Crisis] was the Attorney General [Robert Kennedy]..not because of any particular idea he advanced, not because he presided (no one did), but because of his constant prodding, questioning, eliciting arguments and alternatives and keeping the discussions concrete and moving ahead, a difficult task as different participants came in and out.” p. 765. ………. “Our response would have to offer the Soviets a way out….” pl 768.

To be continued.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Kennedy. Theodore C. Sorenson (22).


Special Counsel to the Late President. New York: Bantam Books. 1966.

Why read it? To understand Kennedy’s philosophy of the Presidency. His humor. His wisdom. He could think on his feet. His ability to own up to his mistakes and to learn from them. To appreciate the vast range of responsibilities faced by the President. His style. You won’t learn any of the details of his extra-marital affairs in this book. It focuses on John Kennedy, an American who was elected President by one of the narrowest margins in history. He instilled a spirit of confidence in the American people, and his assassination destroyed that spirit.

Ideas:
JFK: “…those who make a peaceful revolution impossible will make a violent revolution inevitable” p. 602. ………. “…a world made safe for diversity.” p. 606. ………. “…believed that the most relevant contributions from his own country’s experience were not its concepts of private property or political parties but its traditions of human dignity and liberty.” p. 607. ………. JFK: “I think it is a very dangerous untidy world…we will have to live with it.” p. 608. ………. “While such a conference [summit meeting]…might be necessary when war threatened, or useful as ‘a place where agreements…achieved at a lower level could be finally, officially approved…a summit is not a place to carry on negotiations which involve details.” p. 610.

JFK: “The Soviets and ourselves give wholly different meanings to the same words—war, peace, democracy, and popular will.” P. 614. ………. “…the President picked out points in Khrushchev’s letter with which he could agree…. p. 623. ………. “What Izvestia had to print was Kennedy’s statement that the great threat to peace ‘is the effort by the Soviet Union to communize…the entire world…and to impose Communism by force’; that the Soviet Union had resumed nuclear tests even while its representatives were at the bargaining table; that if it would look ‘only to its national interests and to providing a better life for its people,’ all would be well.” p. 626. ………. “He prepared for each of those meetings—whether it was the President of France or Togo—with a searching inquiry into all available facts about the other country, its politics, its problems and its personalities.” p. 649.

To be continued.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Kennedy. Theodore C. Sorenson (21)


Special Counsel to the Late President. New York: Bantam Books. 1966.

Why read it? To understand Kennedy’s philosophy of the Presidency. His humor. His wisdom. He could think on his feet. His ability to own up to his mistakes and to learn from them. To appreciate the vast range of responsibilities faced by the President. His style. You won’t learn any of the details of his extra-marital affairs in this book. It focuses on John Kennedy, an American who was elected President by one of the narrowest margins in history. He instilled a spirit of confidence in the American people, and his assassination destroyed that spirit.

Ideas:
“Indeed, the most successful diplomacy, in his view, was more often dull than dramatic. Drama usually came with what he called ‘collision courses,’ direct confrontations.” p. 581. ………. JFK: “Unless man can match his strides in weaponry and technology with equal strides in social and political development, our great strengths like that of the dinosaur, will become incapable of proper control, and man, like the dinosaur, will vanish from the earth.” p. 584. ………. JFK: “Together we shall save our planet or together we shall perish in its flames.” p. 587. ………. “To those who argued that instruments alone could do the job [of going to the moon], he replied that man was ‘the most extraordinary computer of them all…whose judgment, nerve and ability to learn from experience still make him unique’ among the instruments.” p. 593. ………. JFK: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills….” p. 594.

JFK: “They [the members of the Peace Corps] lived with those people in their villages, spoke their languages, helped them develop their natural and human resources, and received no compensation other than the satisfaction of helping others.” p. 598. ………. “Liberals denounced [the Peace Corps] as a gimmick…conservatives dismissed it as a nonsensical haven for beatniks and visionaries…. Communist nations denounced it as an espionage front…and its own backers threatened to dissipate its momentum by talking, even before it started, of a UN Peace Corps and a domestic Peace Corps and a dozen other diversions.” p. 598. ………. Latin America: “With a rate of infant mortality nearly four times our own, a life expectancy less than two-thirds our own, a per capita annual product less than one-ninth our own, an illiteracy rate of 50 percent, a lack of schools and sanitation and trained personnel, runaway inflation in some areas, shocking slums in the cities, squalor in the countryside, and a highly suspicious attitude toward American investments, where were we to begin?” p. 601.

To be continued:

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Kennedy. Theodore C. Sorenson (20).


Special Counsel to the Late President. New York: Bantam Books. 1966.

Why read it? To understand Kennedy’s philosophy of the Presidency. His humor. His wisdom. He could think on his feet. His ability to own up to his mistakes and to learn from them. To appreciate the vast range of responsibilities faced by the President. His style. You won’t learn any of the details of his extra-marital affairs in this book. It focuses on John Kennedy, an American who was elected President by one of the narrowest margins in history. He instilled a spirit of confidence in the American people, and his assassination destroyed that spirit.

Ideas:
JFK: “A willingness to resist force, unaccompanied by a willingness to talk, could provoke belligerence—while a willingness to talk, unaccompanied by a willingness to resist force, could invite disaster.” p. 575. ………. JFK: “Because of the ingenuity of science and man’s own inability to control his relationships with one another…we happen to live in the most dangerous time in the history of the human race.” p. 576. ………. JFK: “When that day comes, and there is a massive exchange, then that is the end, because you are talking about…150 million fatalities in the first eighteen hours…the equivalent for this country of five hundred World War II’s in less than a day.” p. 597. ………. JFK: “We have to proceed with…care in an age when the human race can obliterate itself.” p. 577. ………. “In 1963 he would cite the 1914 conversation between two German leaders on the origins and expansion of that war [WWI], a former chancellor asking, ‘How did it all happen?’ and his successor saying, ‘Ah, if only one knew.’ ” p. 578.

JFK: “If this planet is ever ravaged by nuclear war—if the survivors of that devastation can then endure the fire, poison, chaos and catastrophe—I do not want one of those survivors to ask another, ‘How did it all happen?’ and receive the incredible reply, ‘Ah, if only one knew.’ ”p. 578. ………. JFK: “Our words need merely to carry conviction, not belligerence.” p. 580. ………. JFK: “If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself; if we are weak, words will be of no help.” p. 580. ………. JFK: “World peace…does not require that each man love his neighbor…only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement.” p. 580. ………. JFK: “If the Soviet Union were merely seeking to…protect its own national security, and permit other countries to live as they wish…then I believe that the problems which cause so much tension would fade away.” To Izvestia in 1961. p. 580. ………. JFK: “Negotiations are not a contest spelling victory or defeat.” p. 581.

To be continued.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Kennedy. Theodore C. Sorenson (19).


Special Counsel to the Late President. New York: Bantam Books. 1966.

Why read it? To understand Kennedy’s philosophy of the Presidency. His humor. His wisdom. He could think on his feet. His ability to own up to his mistakes and to learn from them. To appreciate the vast range of responsibilities faced by the President. His style. You won’t learn any of the details of his extra-marital affairs in this book. It focuses on John Kennedy, an American who was elected President by one of the narrowest margins in history. He instilled a spirit of confidence in the American people, and his assassination destroyed that spirit.

Ideas:
JFK: “I do not say that all are equal in their ability, their character or their motivation…but I say they should be equal in their chance to develop their character, their motivation and their ability.” p. 530. ………. “ ‘Simple justice requires this program,’ he would tell the Congress in concluding his Civil Rights message of June 19, 1963, ‘not merely for reasons of economic efficiency, world diplomacy and domestic tranquility—but, above all, because it is right.’ ” p. 531. ………. JFK: “Any educated citizen who seeks to subvert the law, to suppress freedom, or to subject other human beings to acts that are less than human, degrades his heritage, ignores his learning and betrays his obligations.” p. 553. ………. JFK: “…legislation cannot solve this problem [of racism] alone…must be solved in the homes of every American.” p. 556.

JFK: “But law alone cannot make men see right.” p. 557. ………. JFK: “It is better to settle these matters in the courts than on the streets….” p. 557. ………. “Not content with a bill and a speech, he immediately resumed the hard practical job of creating the political, legislative and educational climate that would transform the bill into law and the speech into a new era of racial justice.” p. 557. ………. “At times he found it hard to believe that otherwise rational men could be so irrational on this subject [Civil Rights].” p. 568. ………. JFK: “We must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent nor omniscient…that we cannot impose our will upon the other 94% of mankind—that we cannot right every wrong or reverse each adversity—and that therefore there cannot be an American solution to every world problem.” p. 575. ………. JFK: “On the Presidential coat of arms, the American eagle holds in his right talon the olive branch, while in his left he holds a bundle of arrows…. I intend to give equal attention to both.” p. 575.

To be continued.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Kennedy. Theodore C. Sorenson (18).


Special Counsel to the Late President. New York: Bantam Books. 1966.

Why read it? To understand Kennedy’s philosophy of the Presidency. His humor. His wisdom. He could think on his feet. His ability to own up to his mistakes and to learn from them. To appreciate the vast range of responsibilities faced by the President. His style. You won’t learn any of the details of his extra-marital affairs in this book. It focuses on John Kennedy, an American who was elected President by one of the narrowest margins in history. He instilled a spirit of confidence in the American people, and his assassination destroyed that spirit.

Ideas:
“He was wise enough to know that in a nation of consent, not command, Presidential words alone cannot always produce results.” p. 439. ……….”But as President he more than compensated for his limited background in economics by his superb ability to absorb information and to ask the right questions.” p. 443. ………. JFK: “The 94% employed…couldn’t care less about the 6 % unemployed.” p. 454. ……….”…that the budget represented not a bureaucratic grab but loans to farmers and small businessmen, aid to education and conservation, urban renewal and area redevelopment.” p. 472. ………. “…encouraged his economic advisers, Treasury Secretary and Budget Director to talk plainly.” p. 472.

“We tried every possible way to make a dull economics speech interesting…used charts beside his desk…cited real-life human interest examples of individuals helped by his programs.” p. 479. ………. “The challenge was clear; the answer was not.” p. 489. ………. “Magnanimous in victory, as always, the President turned his attention to the problem of reconciliation.” p. 516. ………. “He permitted no gloating by any administration spokesman and no talk of retribution.” p. 516. ………. JFK: “The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the nation in which he is born, has about one-half as  much chance of completing high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day, one-third as much chance of completing college, one-third as much chance of becoming a professional…twice as much chance of becoming unemployed…a life expectancy which is seven years shorter, and the prospects of earning only half as much.” June 1963. p. 530.

To be continued.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Kennedy. Theodore C. Sorenson (17)


Special Counsel to the Late President. New York: Bantam Books. 1966.

Why read it? To understand Kennedy’s philosophy of the Presidency. His humor. His wisdom. He could think on his feet. His ability to own up to his mistakes and to learn from them. To appreciate the vast range of responsibilities faced by the President. His style. You won’t learn any of the details of his extra-marital affairs in this book. It focuses on John Kennedy, an American who was elected President by one of the narrowest margins in history. He instilled a spirit of confidence in the American people, and his assassination destroyed that spirit.

Ideas:

JFK: “The Constitution has served us extremely well…but…all its clauses had to be interpreted by men and had to be made to work by men, and it has to be made to work today in an entirely different world from the day in which it was written.” p. 437. ………. “Within the Executive Branch he accepted responsibility for every major decision, delegating work but never responsibility to Cabinet, National Security Council, Joint Chiefs of Staff, White House aides or other advisers.” p. 437. ………. “The Joint Chiefs of Staff… ‘advise you the way a man advises another one about whether he should marry a girl…he doesn’t have to live with her.’ ” p. 438. ………. “…he liked hearing alternatives and assumptions challenged before he made up his mind.” p. 438. ……….”As his months in office increased, however, he talked more and more about the limitations of power.” p. 439.

To be continued.