Nation: The Last Week

President Kennedy spent his last days in pursuit of reelection.

In his campaign for a second term, he planned to waste little time or energy on the U.S. South, which his strategists thought might already be beyond his reach because of the civil rights issue. But there were two Southern states, the region’s most populous, that Kennedy had no intention of writing off. They were Florida, with its 14 electoral votes, and Texas, with 25, and it was to these that he went on his final journeys.

During one ten-hour stretch in Florida, the President inspected the new Army-Air Force Strike Command headquarters, made three speeches in Tampa, flew to Miami for another. A sparse, unenthusiastic crowd appeared on the 71-mile route of his motorcade into Tampa, and his receptions were cool.

Only at a Tampa meeting attended by 4,000 members of the Florida State Chamber of Commerce did the President give one of his better performances, gently but effectively chiding businessmen for opposing his fiscal and economic policies.

True Story. He began by telling a story about how Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon, flying to Miami with a leading Florida businessman a year or so ago, spent most of his time explaining how the man’s company would benefit if the Administration’s investment-credit tax bill were passed. When the plane landed, the man said to Dillon: “I am very grateful to you for explaining the bill. Now tell me just once more why it is I am against it.”

“That story,” President Kennedy said, “is unfortunately not an exaggeration. Many businessmen who are prospering as never before during this Administration are convinced, nevertheless, that we must be antibusiness.

“We have liberalized depreciation guidelines to grant more individual flexibility, reduced our farm surpluses, reduced transportation taxes, established a private corporation to manage our satellite communication system, increased the role of American business in the development of less developed countries, and proposed to the Congress a sharp reduction in corporate as well as personal income taxes, and a major deregulation of transportation, and yet many businessmen are convinced that a Democratic Administration is out to soak the rich.”

When Kennedy concluded, his audience heartily applauded, and the President was plainly pleased. Yet that night, after a disappointing reception in Miami, he might well have been discouraged by his Florida trip, read a humdrum speech about Latin American policy in listless fashion.

Warm Crowds. Returning to Washington, Kennedy reviewed plans for a January fund-raising banquet on the third anniversary of his inauguration, joined Jackie in greeting 700 guests at the annual White House reception for the Justices of the Supreme Court. It was Jackie’s first appearance as hostess at an official White House function since the death last August of her infant son. And then, next day, John and Jacqueline Kennedy left for Texas.

This was more like it. Wherever they went—in San Antonio, Houston and Fort Worth—the crowds were large, warm, and plainly in love with Jackie. Kennedy had been warned that Texas was enemy territory, indeed, Adlai Stevenson, who had been roughed up by a Texas crowd only last month, advised Kennedy Aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr. that some Dallasites had voiced concern over the President’s safety. Now, with such fears apparently unrealized, President Kennedy was exuberant.

On the morning of his last day of life, he arose early, left his Fort Worth hotel, walked with buoyant stride through a slight mist to a nearby parking lot, where several thousand Texans were waiting behind barricades to see him. Explaining why Jackie had not accompanied him, the President laughed. “Mrs. Kennedy,” he said, “is busy organizing herself. It takes a little longer, you know, but then she looks so much better than we do.” And indeed she looked lovely when, wearing a pink wool suit and pillbox hat, she joined her husband at a breakfast sponsored by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce.

Next on the President’s schedule was Dallas, and during the flight there he put the finishing touches on a speech he meant to deliver at noon. Its concluding words: “We in this country, in this generation, are—by destiny rather than choice—the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask therefore that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility—that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint—and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of ‘peace on earth, good will toward men.’ That must always be our goal—and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. Or, as was written long ago: ‘Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.’ ”

The Last Ride. At the Dallas airport, nearly 5,000 people were waiting. The President, in a dark blue suit, stepped from his plane smiling happily. He and Jackie were met by a committee that gave her a bouquet of red roses. Their car was ready to leave, but Kennedy had to shake hands with some voters. Jackie, her roses cradled in her left arm, also touched the outstretched hands. After a few minutes she started to walk away, but, noticing that her husband was still at it, smiled fondly, said “There he goes,” and returned.

Finally, at 11:50 a.m. C.S.T., they entered the presidential limousine and began to drive into Dallas.