[Misc] JFK Assassination 59 years on

[Lenny Rider]

The Vietnam war had already started - some years before, in fact - Kennedy was sending more and more military assistance, even if he'd stopped short of actual troops. There's no way that he wouldn't have reacted as LBJ did.

The JFK assassination is the first news memory that I had. I didn't hear about it that evening but at breakfast the next morning, my parents looked gobsmacked. Personally, I was more looking forward to a new TV series that evening, called Dr Who. I wonder who remembers that now

Thanks for that, I was always under the impression JFK was against the war, he’d previously as a Senator written a paper saying the North Vietnamese were effectively unbeatable.

 

[The Clamp]

Who?

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Seemed like a decent bloke. Too bad CIA had to kill him off, but it is what it is.

The Kennedy's were all scumbags.

Everyone of them was cheating on the wife. Multiple times.

 

[Swansman]

The Kennedy's were all scumbags.

Everyone of them was cheating on the wife. Multiple times.

To quote Sven the Man:
'Why can I not have more than one woman at once?'

 

[Zeberdi]

'Why can I not have more than one woman at once?'

Work on your chat up lines?

 

[lasvegan]

CS Lewis died that day, so much more an important figure in world history.

 

[Robinjakarta]

I can categorically confirm I wasn’t stood behind a picket fence on a grassy knoll.

I hope you weren't in a depository.

 

[Robinjakarta]

Definitely a "where were you when..". Aged 14, I had just left Whitehawk boys club and was getting a bag of chips in Whitehawk Road.

I too was 14. I'd got home from school, was standing in front of the mantelpiece in the living room when my mum told me the President had been shot and they were playing 'dead' music on the TV. Remember it like it was yesterday.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

I was 10 and in our sitting room at home when it came on the news. Remember it vividly and the effect it had on my parents. The only other things I remember from that era are the 1966 World Cup - not just the final but the Argentina match as well - and Aberfan, which was just awful.

 

[Goldstone1976]

Seemed like a decent bloke. Too bad CIA had to kill him off, but it is what it is.

You’ve made it clear on here that you subscribe to a fair number of ‘conspiracy theories’.

A genuine question: are there any mainstream ones to which you do not subscribe? Moon landings? Alien visitations? Aliens stored in Area 51? 9/11?

I ask simply out of curiosity.

 

[Hugo Rune]

He stayed over one Saturday night in the little Sussex village I grew up in, about 2 months before his assassination. Perhaps he should have stayed there and quit his role instead of returning to the States to meet his death.

 

[Gwylan]

CS Lewis died that day, so much more an important figure in world history.

As did Aldous Huxley. He and Lewis's passing would have been completely unnoticed by the wider world.

SImilar to Profokiev dying on the same day as Stalin

 

[Lenny Rider]

I was 10 and in our sitting room at home when it came on the news. Remember it vividly and the effect it had on my parents. The only other things I remember from that era are the 1966 World Cup - not just the final but the Argentina match as well - and Aberfan, which was just awful.

Was there any legal recourse for Aberfan?

Can you imagine the media coverage and subsequent court cases if it happened today?

I worked with one of the embalmers, the late Colin Twigger, who was sent by the National Association to Wales in the aftermath to help with the casualties. The first person they think died was the farmer whose far house was between the coal heap and the village, and they could only identify him by his wrist watch

Do anyone remember if they had a minutes silence at the Goldstone the following Saturday?

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Was there any legal recourse for Aberfan?

Can you imagine the media coverage and subsequent court cases if it happened today?

I worked with one of the embalmers, the late Colin Twigger, who was sent by the National Association to Wales in the aftermath to help with the casualties. The first person they think died was the farmer whose far house was between the coal heap and the village, and they could only identify him by his wrist watch

Do anyone remember if they had a minutes silence at the Goldstone the following Saturday?

Just having looked at Wikipedia (yes, I know), there was a thoroughgoing public inquiry - the longest ever on record up to that date. There was no doubt that it was the NCB’s fault, which was uncontested, as was compensation. But I don’t think anything ever happened. But having seen things on the TV about it comparatively recently, it was an appalling story. It must have been pretty distressing for your colleague Colin and others to deal with that.

My daughter lives in South Wales and we’ve been to Aberfan. It’s chilling when you go there, and even when driving past it. Always brings a tear to my eye.

 

[Swansman]

You’ve made it clear on here that you subscribe to a fair number of ‘conspiracy theories’.

A genuine question: are there any mainstream ones to which you do not subscribe? Moon landings? Alien visitations? Aliens stored in Area 51? 9/11?

I ask simply out of curiosity.

Moon landings - not particularly likely the 1969 one happened, no. Too many Hollywood people involved in early NASA.
Alien visitations - if the universe is as big as claimed, it is near impossible that we haven't had visitors
Aliens stored in Area 51 - not seen any compelling evidence that this is the case so this one might well be false
9/11 - may or may not have happened as described, but the executive arm (the CIA) of the yankee banks as well as the US govt had the strongest motifs to make it happen

"Mainstream" theories that seem unlikely: flat earth, the Jewish global conspiracy (there is a global conspiracy but it doesn't have any ethnic or religious origin), Marxist conspiracy theory (the idea that 'socialists' and 'communists' are taking over the world is... a funny one as it would serve no purpose), WW2/holocaust denial (politically a far more complex war than people think, but it did indeed happen and so did the killings of millions of jews).

 

[Lenny Rider]

Just having looked at Wikipedia (yes, I know), there was a thoroughgoing public inquiry - the longest ever on record up to that date. There was no doubt that it was the NCB’s fault, which was uncontested, as was compensation. But I don’t think anything ever happened. But having seen things on the TV about it comparatively recently, it was an appalling story. It must have been pretty distressing for your colleague Colin and others to deal with that.

My daughter lives in South Wales and we’ve been to Aberfan. It’s chilling when you go there, and even when driving past it. Always brings a tear to my eye.

I wonder what happened to the child who ‘famously’ didn’t go to school that day due to illness?

How has his life panned out, always knowing he was here by fate alone?

Colin had a lifetime in the funeral business but was always very deep when talking about Aberfan

 

[Brovion]

My grandma cried this morning as she does every morning of the anniversary. She was privileged to meet him once she told me, and in her eyes he was the greatest person to ever have lived. I'm not one for conspiracy theories, just gonna say still a tragic thing that happened.

My wife's aunt (a native New Yorker) met him as well when she was a schoolgirl in the early 1960s. They heard he was staying in a hotel near where they lived, so they bunked off school and snuck in to the hotel. It says a lot for the security of the time that not only where they able to hang around the hotel until they found out which room he was in, but they were able to go to the room and knock on the door - which was answered by Kennedy himself. He invited them in and talked to them for about an hour, then gave them both a signed photo.

I remember his assassination. A newsflash came on the TV and I remember my Dad shouting "Oh God no!" Even I knew who he was (I was six). I couldn't tell you who the Prime Minister of the UK was but everybody knew of President Kennedy. They'll never be another US President so popular in Britain and Ireland, he was the young leader of the Free World, the ultimate breath of fresh air that the post-war world badly needed. So respected was he in the UK that after he died an acre of English land at Runnymede (where the Magna Carta was signed) was given as a gift to the USA and is classed as American soil. There's a memorial there.

 

[Lenny Rider]

My wife's aunt (a native New Yorker) met him as well when she was a schoolgirl in the early 1960s. They heard he was staying in a hotel near where they lived, so they bunked off school and snuck in to the hotel. It says a lot for the security of the time that not only where they able to hang around the hotel until they found out which room he was in, but they were able to go to the room and knock on the door - which was answered by Kennedy himself. He invited them in and talked to them for about an hour, then gave them both a signed photo.

I remember his assassination. A newsflash came on the TV and I remember my Dad shouting "Oh God no!" Even I knew who he was (I was six). I couldn't tell you who the Prime Minister of the UK was but everybody knew of President Kennedy. They'll never be another US President so popular in Britain and Ireland, he was the young leader of the Free World, the ultimate breath of fresh air that the post-war world badly needed. So respected was he in the UK that after he died an acre of English land at Runnymede (where the Magna Carta was signed) was given as a gift to the USA and is classed as American soil. There's a memorial there.

Brovion do you think had he lived he’d have made the world a better place?

 

[Saladpack Seagull]

We were having a carpet laid, and I had to ask Mum why the (American) carpet fitter was so upset.......

 

[Brovion]

Brovion do you think had he lived he’d have made the world a better place?

Who knows? If I was being cynical I'd say probably not. 'All political careers end in failure' as Enoch Powell (I think) said. Also I think there's a limit as to how much 'good', or 'bad', a single politician can do on their own, even popular and charismatic ones.