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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, November 22, 2003

EDITORIAL
JFK's legacy: How well do we honor it?

Today, on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, let us not dwell on the stubbornly persistent conspiracy theories about his death, or the lingering "what if" questions that dog his memory: Might we have avoided the Vietnam War had he lived? Would his health have failed? Would his philandering eventually have become public?

Instead, let us honor as his legacy his contributions to peace, to equal rights and social justice, and to service.

"I don't believe," said former defense secretary Robert S. McNamara, "the average citizen understands how close we came not just to war but to nuclear war in October 1962. At 4:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon, Oct. 27, 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously recommended we attack Cuba within a day and half.

"It wasn't until 29 years later in January 1992 that in Havana we learned at that moment in time there were about 80 or 90 tactical warheads to be used against an invasion force and another 60 or 70 to be used with intermediate-range missiles against the American East Coast. That's how close we came to it."

Kennedy, said McNamara, "believed that the primary responsibility of any president was to keep the nation out of war as far as possible."

• • •

Kennedy called on his fellow citizens "to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out — 'rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation' — a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."

• • •

"It should be clear by now," said Kennedy, "that a nation can be no stronger abroad than she is at home. Only an America which practices what it preaches about equal rights and social justice will be respected by those whose choice affects our future."

• • •

"Life in the Peace Corps," said Kennedy, "will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed — doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language. But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps — who works in a foreign land — will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace."

Kennedy founded the Peace Corps in 1961. When he died, 7,300 volunteers were serving. That number peaked in 1966 at 15,000, declining to 6,678 serving today.

• • •

"I look forward," said Kennedy, "to a great future for America, a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose."

• • •

Kennedy's shortcomings are now well known, but his youthfulness, his hope, his promise buoy us today. His legacy, on balance, is an impressive one.