Where were you on November 22, 1963?
I was in class as a sophomore in high school when the announcement came over the loud speaker that the President had been shot and school was over that day. Some, and some were my friends, actually were excited that we are getting out early and also got a day off for his funeral.
A lot of that was the effect of family on kids, much like we learn racism from out parents. Your parents hated Kennedy, you hated Kennedy. I am a 16 year old kid in Little Rock, think the Kennedy hate wasn't strong there? My parents didn't like him but they didn't hate him and they respected the office.
But what a bunch of 16-18 year old boys didn't get at the time is how his death would affect them when they were 19-26 and the perfect draft age. I lost 4 friends to Nam and 2 of their Dads were outright Kennedy haters and I wondered how they felt when it was released that he was stonewalling his military on Nam and their sons might not have had to go? I do think they would have eventually won because of the hawkish nature and draw in Korea, America wanted a win. Let's kick some Vietnam butt.
The only thing I do know for sure was the expediency of Johnson signing the order to create the Vietnam War after taking office. That was priority 1 and the fact his family had stock and were friends with the Bell Helicopter people, a company struggling until that order was signed and the blood money came pouring in.
But the most interesting part of being a kid in Arkansas was that the loudest voice in opposition to Vietnam was our very own William Fulbright. I remember calls for him to resign, get a recall going, he's a traitor. My Dad hated what he was doing and was a hawk himself and ex military and believed we had to fight Communism wherever it was. The one thing that everyone was overlooking was Fulbright was considered the smartest man in Washington but I guess this time he was just stupid.
A few years before my Dad passed away, we reminisced about that time and heated arguments we got into over the war. We ended up in shouting matches and I left the house most of the time. But years later we were much calmer, my Dad paused and said "you were right, Bill Fulbright was right. All we did was kill 60,000 of our own people and countless others and accomplished nothing except I no longer believed that my country would do the right thing. That war changed how I looked at our leaders". That was a profound comment coming from him and resonated within me.
America is hard to define in my mind. I love my country and hate it's leaders. I can only define America by beginning with what it is not. It is not in Washington, DC. They are capable of anything for power including murder.