The ‘fireside chat’ was being recorded for broadcast this evening in a room full of technicians, equipment and Administration flunkies. It was hardly a relaxed affair. Jackie had found herself in a corner with the kids. She tried to smile. She tried hard to broadcast the regal grace and elegance of that age before the Cuban Missiles War when she’d been the queen of the new Camelot. Like them all she was tired, careful to hide her fears from her children. A log fire crackled in a desultory fashion in the background but the room was a little cool because with all the comings and goings most of the warmth of the fire was constantly being sucked out into the wintery morning.
“It is my dream that one day all Americans will live safe in a nation in which all Americans, regardless of their colour, their creed or their political affiliations exist together in harmony. I dream of a nation at peace with itself. I dream of a nation that embraces its allegiances to its natural allies and seeks an ongoing dialogue with those who would do us ill. I dream of World in which the pen not the sword is the defining instrument of this nation’s foreign policy. But most of all I dream of an America in which the words ‘United States’ are the bed-rock of our democracy, and in which the good-will of all right thinking people is the guarantor of the universal freedoms to which this great country has been dedicated since 1776.”
Jack Kennedy glanced across to his wife. His daughter, six year old Caroline perched on a stool by Jackie’s right hand, three year old John Fitzgerald Kennedy, junior, bored and restless squirmed in his mother’s arms. The President forced a tight-lipped smile for his small family.
“When the Founding Fathers designed the Constitution of the United States of America,” something in him rebelled at such a generic, non-historic usage of the term ‘Founding Fathers’ but politics was an imprecise business and sometimes, compromises were unavoidable, “they had in mind creating a system of government in which no man would ever be their over-lord again. They had had their fill of Kings and Queens, and like the Roman Senate of old, they wanted no Caesar ruling over them. Thus, the Founding Fathers created a governmental system in which there was a surfeit of checks and balances that broadly speaking; remains inalienable despite numerous amendments to the Constitution in the one hundred and eighty-seven years since the Founding Fathers completed their work.” Again, did one count from the Declaration of Independence in 1776, or the Constitutional Convention of 1777, or Independence itself, or the election of the first President, George Washington in 1789, or even, go back to the First Continental Congress in 1774 as one’s starting date? 1776 would have to do. “However, the Founding Fathers, being men of good sense and at heart practical, pragmatic men never intended for Congress to ignore existing treaty obligations — as previously ratified by both Congress and the Senate — or to wage a vendetta against the lawfully constituted Administration in a time of the direst national emergency.”
Actually, Chief Justice Earl Warren had informed him that the Founding Fathers could not be deemed to have made any such assumption. Most of the Founding Fathers were, after all, slave-owning English Tories who simply didn’t like paying their fair share of the tax bill. The political and social standpoints of the majority of the men who had signed the Declaration of Independence would have been deeply offensive to most modern day Americans.
The past, as any historian will confirm, was a different place.
Jack Kennedy focused on the text before him.
“The United States of America faces grave perils, my friends. I have no personal taste for playing the role of a latter day American Caesar. We are not Romans and we do not seek to rule any other nation or people. But when Congress denies the Executive arm of the Government of the Unites States of America the means and the money to enable it to defend its borders and its citizens, something is very wrong. Something is sick within the body politic and like a cancer it must quarantined and cut out before it consumes the body itself.”
They will never, ever forgive me for what I am about to do!
“In consultation with senior members of my Administration, senior members of the Senate, and with the High Command of our armed forces,” he said solemnly, regret leeching from his voice like blood from an open wound, “I have this day written to the Majority and Minority Leaders of Congress and the Senate informing them that if, within twenty-eight days, they are unable to assure me that both Houses are ready to support me in the measures necessary to guarantee the safety and security of our nation, and to respect this nation’s foreign undertakings to other nations, as previously sanctioned by the House of representatives,” the thirty-fifth President of the United States of America took a deep breath, “I will suspend indefinitely both Houses. At that time I will form an Administration of National Unity which will initially include all State Governors.”
Jack Kennedy counted silently: one, two three, four…
He was the man who had ordered a massive, all out strike against the Soviet Union and its allies. Now he was giving Congress twenty-eight days notice that they were next on his list.
“In the interim, I will act as the Commander-in-Chief of the Unites States of America, and take whatever actions I deem fit as circumstances develop to defend our country.” He let this sink in for a moment. “It is of paramount importance to our foreign friends and allies that they know they can rely on treaties and agreements made with your Government. Without trust there can be no such thing as a real friendship, or a real partnership. For that reason I will now read to you what your Government and your Congress signed up to on 4th April 1949 in Washington DC.”
FDR had never read to the American people from a dusty old treaty. But he had ‘chatted’, explaining and contextualising dilemmas and issues which many other politicians hadn’t had the courage to confront. Jack Kennedy had always believed that a leader’s job was not just to lead, but to explain. Nothing, absolutely nothing was as crucial to the exercise of power in a democracy as the informed consent of the people. Perhaps, if he’d remembered that a little earlier in his Presidency the World might not be in such a mess now.
“Article Five of the North Atlantic Treaty stipulates that: The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.” Yes, it was heavy stuff and if you didn’t listen very carefully you weren’t going to ‘get it’. Well, it was about time somebody gave the American people credit for their innate horse sense, decency and patriotism. He was confident that a large number of Americans would listen to every word and that they’d ‘get it’. “Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.”