The Presidency of John F. Kennedy (American Presidency Series) [Paperback]

James N. Giglio (Author)

Book Description

Series: American Presidency Series | Publication Date: January 1992

Where were you when President Kennedy was shot? Nearly everyone who was alive and aware in 1963 can answer that question. No single event stands out so sharply in our memories or shocked us so deeply. But Kennedy's tragic death colored our view of his life, creating a national blind spot that has hindered fair assessment of his administration.

Only now, nearly three decades after his death, have we begun to look objectively at Kennedy, both as a man and as a president. In The Presidency of John F. Kennedy, historian James Giglio provides a succinct, comprehensive, and highly readable assessment of the Kennedy years.

As a man, Giglio contends, Kennedy was indeed charming, witty, intelligent, and handsome, but he was also ambitious and vulnerable-a man who often failed to measure up to his romantic image.

As president, Kennedy did deal effectively with many domestic economic and social issues, but he provided only sporadic and belated leadership in civil rights. He made little effort to combat poverty. He was more adept at managing foreign crises than preventing them, and by 1963, Giglio writes, Kennedy was on a collision course in Vietnam.

Giglio utilizes the latest scholarship and newly opened material from the Kennedy Library to provide up-to-date analysis of a variety of issues (including agriculture, space, organized crime, and the Kennedy assassination) and personalities (Jacqueline Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson, Dean Rusk, Chester Bowles, and members of the White House staff and press). His portrait of the Kennedy years is clear, finely tuned, and long awaited.

This book is part of the American Presidency Series.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Brisk, solid survey of a brief and controversial presidency, by Giglio (History/Southwest Missouri State Univ.). Elected with virtually no mandate in what Giglio says was a stolen election, Kennedy managed in his ``thousand days'' to put his stamp on the American reality. He soon forged his mandate, Giglio points out, by media mastery and by using supreme political skills that allowed him to give the appearance of firm, virtuous positions while keeping options open as he successfully identified himself with causes (civil rights, anti-imperialism) that in reality he accepted only shallowly, and avoided acting on. Judging gently, supporting his views with precise, well-integrated evidence, Giglio gives a relatively unbiased picture of JFK. We see the future President begin as his father's creature, supported every step of the way by money, influence, and manipulation, and grow into a man learning from traumatic confrontations with Khrushchev (in Vienna) and with American blacks (at a breakfast that left him virtually speechless). Kennedy's Achilles' heel--his unproductive relationship with Congress--is plainly drawn, but his judgment on the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban missile crisis are not seriously faulted, while his creation of the Peace Corps is seen as genuinely historic. Most interestingly, Giglio documents JFK's lifelong physical frailty, superbly concealed in the mythology of the war hero and athlete. A victim of Addison's disease (not to mention satyriasis) for years, Kennedy came close to death as a young man and was also in constant, uncorrectable back pain, often severe. Regularly injected with steroids and pain-killers, he was also receiving, until his death, amphetamine shots from a notorious doctor-to-the-stars. A balanced and thoughtful account that avoids the hagiography or damnation of so many other JFK bios, revealing the man in all his complexity, from his wily, hypnotic charm to his political decisiveness when it could not be avoided. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"A balanced and thoughtful account that reveals the man in all his complexity." -- Kirkus

"This book is more than merely interesting; its narrations of the major crises of the Kennedy presidency are riveting." -- American Historical Review --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas (January 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0700605207
• ISBN-13: 978-0700605200
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,822,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars revealing, July 25, 2000

By 

"daniel_sp" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Presidency of John F. Kennedy (American Presidency Series) (Hardcover)

This book is neither an uncritical appraisal of Kennedy nor a damning account. Rather, the author has managed to give a critical but not biased view of Kennedy's presidency. Naturally, this involves disproving a couple of myths about "Camelot". I had to read this book for a university course about Kenndey's presidency and can recommend it to anyone interested in a fair account.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Honest appraisal of a complex man, June 4, 2002

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Presidency of John F. Kennedy (American Presidency Series) (Paperback)

While it was shorter than most, that did not prevent the Kennedy presidency from being eventful, even without including the tragic end. The closest the world ever came to thermonuclear war was during the Cuban missile crisis, which is still a model for the management of a crisis between great powers. And the greatest public failure of a CIA sponsored action was the disastrous invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.
While necessarily short, the description of the Cuban missile crisis was still amazing to read, as the hawkish position of the U. S. military commanders was clearly a harbinger of the same policy of ratcheting up the force that failed so badly in Vietnam. Some, although not all, of the commanders were for massive force, thinking that it would so intimidate the Cubans that it would be all over quickly. This event is one of the strongest arguments in favor of political control over the military and Kennedy showed himself to be strong-willed in doing all he could to find a political solution that allowed the Soviets a face-saving way to retreat.
Given all that has happened since then, it is amazing to be reminded that in the early years of the Kennedy administration the country in Southeast Asia that was considered most likely to fall under communist control was Laos. Here again, Kennedy showed himself willing to do whatever it took to find a political settlement. He was most reluctant to commit American combat forces in Southeast Asia, considering it dangerous and fraught will all kinds of unknown consequences.
This backdrop brings up the natural question as to whether Kennedy would have followed the path in Vietnam that Lyndon Johnson did. Giglio avoids spending a great deal of time on that continuous point of contention. However, he does bring up several very important points.

1) The disaster at the Bay of Pigs made him very skeptical of CIA and military "rosy scenarios."
2) His dealing with hawkish elements during the Cuban missile crisis made him skeptical of military statements about the effect of overwhelming military power. It also showed that he was willing to restrict the military in its' desire to blow things up.
3) Kennedy would most certainly have been re-elected in 1964 and as a President who would not face another election, he could have made unpopular, but correct decisions.
4) Kennedy and Khrushchev were beginning the process that was later known as détente, and that could have led to more of a political settlement in Vietnam along the model that was a modest success in Laos.

Together, these elements make one believe that Kennedy would not have made the same mistakes that Johnson did in Vietnam.
Kennedy's record on civil rights is far more mixed and it is clear that brother Bobby, who was also Attorney General, did a great deal to push John towards more involvement. Once more, John Kennedy was politically cautious in trying to avoid alienating southern Democrats. And yet, he did press the issue, showing that he did understand how important it was. Giglio rightly takes Kennedy to task on this battle that needed to be fought.
Finally, the descriptions of Kennedy's health problems and sexual exploits remind us of an earlier day when the press did have some standards in pressing into a public official's private life. Kennedy was a very sick man who took drugs to cope, and there is some reason to believe that he would have been an invalid by the time he completed his second term. The much celebrated sexual escapades of Bill Clinton are trivial in comparison, as Kennedy seemingly would sleep with any woman willing to do so. As ironic as it sounds so many years later, most people felt that the greatest danger to his person was a consequence of his sexual adventures, where he often had sex with women where the only screening done was the verification that they were female.
The Kennedy presidency was successful in many ways, most notably in foreign affairs, as he managed to reach political accords that were reasonable and certainly better than all possible alternatives. He was a strange combination of strong will and weak flesh, both in the literal and figurative sense. Giglio captures all of this, describing a man and an era named after him that was the precursor of the turbulence of the late sixties, where the world seemed to be tearing itself apart.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty through and dense history of JFK's presidency, October 2, 2010

By 

Robert Kirk (Reno, Nv) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Presidency of John F. Kennedy (American Presidency (Univ of Kansas Paperback)) (Paperback)

I've read a few of these books from this series of presidents and this one is extremely through and deep. The author did a wonderful job of extracting deep, dark details of major events in JFK's years. A great look into our relationship with Russia and the civil rights struggle in America, this book is very fair to not be too negative or positive. Also, I did enjoy his summary of JFK's impact on society and it helped me understand most people's found memory of this president.