Kennedy's Vision vs. Cold War Reality: America's Broken Promise

Kennedy's Idealism and the Cold War Context

President Kennedy's term of office arrived at a transitional moment in American history, when the idealism of the 1950s was slowly beginning to give way to the harsh realities of the Cold War. Foreign policy concerns were not the only issues plaguing the Kennedy administration. Domestic challenges were perhaps even more pressing. Shifting social norms generated problems related to race, class, gender, and power. Moreover, the anti-Communist scare was pushing the administration toward an aggressive interventionist policy unprecedented in American history. Involvement in Vietnam, committing American troops to a remote war, eventually sparked a massive anti-war movement. Kennedy's assassination shook the nation and ushered in a new era of social unrest. Civil rights and a widespread mistrust of government would define the following decade of American history.

When Kennedy referred to "the larger freedom and a more equal and spacious society…one more step toward realization of…the promise of American life," he was being idealistic. In spite of some measurable progress, America has not consistently moved toward the promise of greater freedom, liberty, and justice.

1945–1965: Cold War Intervention and Domestic Unrest

The era between 1945 and 1965 was defined by the escalation of the Cold War, which witnessed America moving away from its founding promises. Specific events that illustrate this retreat include the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution — two among many markers of a new world order in which the United States was assuming the role of global police. The anti-Communist scare was rooted in a fear of nuclear catastrophe, yet it became a systematic means of saturating the American public with propaganda. Initially, Americans tacitly approved of intervention under the assumption that American-style capitalism was superior to socialist or communist alternatives. By 1965, however, whispers of unrest were already audible.

As Oakes puts it, "Kennedy supported the containment of communism" but "sometimes helped to thwart third world independence and democracy in the name of anti-Communism by intervening in the domestic affairs of supposedly independent countries" (p. 852). By 1965, social unrest of another kind was also gripping the United States. Race riots and what the lecture describes as a "mini civil war" in Birmingham erupted, signaling that the promise of equality remained unfulfilled at home even as the government policed ideology abroad.

1965–1985: The Illusion of Progress and the Imperial Presidency

Between 1965 and 1985, America was witnessing what Oakes calls "the apparent decline of social class differences" (p. 821). The key word here is apparent: social class differences remained stark, and were especially pronounced along racial lines. This apparent decline "reinforced the sense of homogeneity," according to Oakes (p. 821) — a sense of homogeneity that was dangerous, as it blinded many Americans to the ongoing realities of social injustice.

The lecture refers to the "Imperial Presidency" of the Nixon administration and its gross abuses of power. Collusion with tyrannical governments abroad made America's commitment to freedom and justice in foreign policy appear almost hypocritical. By 1985, America was clearly drifting away from its founding ideals. "People participated more in organized religion," too, which further complicated the politics of social justice (Oakes 821). Burgeoning religious conservatism, the so-called "family values" movement, and the infiltration of politics by right-wing special interest groups would fracture the nation in ways Kennedy could scarcely have imagined. Yet as Kennedy himself put it, "a knowledge of history is…a means of strength" (2). Learning from the mistakes of the past remains essential to preventing their repetition.