Would The World Be A Better Place If Kennedy Have Lived To Serve A Second Term?

 

Brent Cooper

Trial and appellate counsel for Cooper & Scully (1993–present)July 9

Would the world be a better place if JFK had lived to serve another term as president?

There are some assumptions in your question. That if he lived he would be re-elected. JFK was in Dallas because he desperately needed Texas to be re-elected. His approval rating had fallen steadily, though still above 50%.

What do we know would have happened in a second term? Kennedy had told advisors privately he wanted out of Vietnam. Could he have done it. The president of South Vietnam was assassinated a couple of weeks before JFK. Would Kennedy have had to have been able to withdraw from Vietnam without appearing soft on Communism? If he was in his second and last term he may not care. That is the reason he took no action in his first term. So there was a good probably would get out of Vietnam. So when LBJ took over he faced the same issue JFK faced. He was a first term president looking to be re-elected and was hamstrung on the Vietnam war as Kennedy was. What was really needed was s second term President who did not care about being re-elected.

Who would be his VP? There is discussion among the conspiracy group that he was going to drop LBf in 1964. They argue that was a motive for LBJ’s alleged involvement in the assassination. But go back to the first paragraph. If Kennedy desperately needed Texas, dropping LBJ would doom his chances of re-election. LBJ still had lot of clout, particularly in Texas. He was vindictive enough to scuttle Kennedy’s chances of re-election. Kennedy knew this. LBJ would be the VP.

What about Civil Rights? Most historians believe Kennedy could not have gotten the Civil Rights bills through Congress. Read the fourth volume of Caro’s biography of LBJ. LBJ was able to do it because of two reason. JFK’s death. And superior legislative skills. If LBJ had been VP and not President, I am not sure he gets it done. So passage of the Civil Rights Bills are delayed.

The Space Race would continue. The country was behind it. But Kennedy’s death gave added emphasis to it. Would Kennedy have been able to get the funding needed to land on the moon by the end of the decade? Probably not. We would still have the Space race but would not land a man on the moon and bring him back by 1969.

But would the world be a better place if Kennedy were re-elected? I think so. I think the dynamics brought by LBJ contributed to the problem. LBJ did not have the relationship with the press JFK did. The Vietnam War would have ended. The draft would have ended. I do think the Civil Rights bills would have been delayed. But, the country and the world would have been a better place under Kennedy than LBJ.