Description

Coming to Terms with John F Kennedy offers a nuanced assessment of the thirtyfifth president whose legacy and impact people continue to debate to this day Stephen F Knott examines Kennedy through the lens of five critical issues his interpretation of presidential power his approach to civil rights and his foreign policy toward Cuba the Soviet Union and Vietnam Knott also explores JFKs assassination and the evolving interpretations of his presidency both highly politicized subject matters What emerges is a president as complex as the authors shifting views about him

The passage of sixty years from working in the Kennedy Library to a career writing about the American presidency has given Knott a broader view of Kennedys presidency and allowed him to see how both the Left and the Right and members of the Kennedy family distorted JFKs record for their own purposes

Despite the existence of over forty thousand books dealing with the man and his era this book offers something new to say about this brief but important presidency Knott contends that Kennedys presidency for better or for worse mattered deeply and that whatever his personal flaws Kennedys lofty rhetoric appealed to what is best in America without invoking the snarling nativism of his least illustrious successor Donald Trump