Friday, November 22, is a milestone in American history. It was on this day in 1963 that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Today, sixty-one years later, is a good time to review the extraordinary book recording the events of that traumatic weekend.
In the weeks following the assassination, Kennedy’s widow asked historian William Manchester to write what became a remarkable and enduring piece of scholarship. Key individuals were still living and available for interviews. Manchester debriefed them all, major and minor, from Jacqueline Kennedy to the man who played taps at Arlington National Cemetery.
Manchester begins with the political reasons for Kennedy’s trip to Dallas, and the atmosphere of hate that contributed to the assassination. He recounts the security precautions leading to the visit. He reminds us that when Jacqueline Kennedy joined her husband on his fateful journey, she was barely recovered from the death of her infant son Patrick only three months earlier.
The author personally investigated the sniper’s nest, handled the rifle, drove the motorcade route, and explored Parkland Memorial Hospital. He interviewed the medical personnel who tried to save Kennedy, the Dallas entrepreneur who supplied a coffin, the oafish medical examiner who enraged Kennedy’s friends, and the police sergeant who wanted to clobber him. He describes the antagonism between Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson people on the flight back to Washington on Air Force One. The result is a highly detailed and colorful account of the four-day drama that played out before a national television audience.
Fully two-thirds of the book deals with the events of November 22, 1963. Yet, the author provides ample coverage of the activities of those who managed to pull together an unforgettable state funeral in less than three days. Manchester captures the mood of the principles and the nation itself as thousands of people waited in the rain to view the coffin in the White House East Room.
Years after the book’s release, a magazine article described the ordeal Manchester endured for his honesty and candor. High-profile individuals were embarrassed because they came out looking hateful and petty. Even Mrs. Kennedy tried to have the book suppressed. In his text, Manchester stressed that everyone, including the Kennedy and Johnson people, reacted to the assassination emotionally. The real villain, he pointed out, was the triggerman.
Modern readers may have a hard time keeping up with the names of people long dead. But when Manchester was working on this book they were among the world’s most powerful and influential citizens. The Death of a President is an engrossing piece of history that I highly recommend to anyone interested in the brief Kennedy presidency and its disastrous conclusion.
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