Kennedy
Created by Ashton Gleckman
Narrated by Peter Coyote
History Channel No. of episodes 8
Production
Executive producers Jon Kamen, Dave Sirulnick, Ashton Gleckman, Eli Lehrer, Mary E. Donahue, Zachary G. Behr
Production company RadicalMedia
When I noticed the History Channel had another documentary about the life of John F. Kennedy, I decided to watch more out of a sense of nostalgia than anything else. After all, in the sixty years since his assassination, hadn’t just about everything been covered? Along with hundreds of documentaries and fictional shows, there were thousands of books, and every facet of his life and death was still ongoing hot debate all over the internet. Hell, there’s even a Steven King novel about it. Pretty good novel (11/22/63) even if the alternative history had he not been shot was…disturbing. Well, this is King, after all.
But the sixtieth anniversary had just passed, and I was feeling a bit maudlin. Biden is an exception, but you look at a lot of elected officials and wonder if we’re capable of electing anything other than corrupt and fascistic morons any more.
This latest incarnation does pretty well. Most documentaries outside of the lunatic fringe, which believes that Nixon, Connolly, LBJ and Donald Duck all conspired to kill Kennedy, tend to be hagiographies, usually in the ‘farewell, noble prince’ vein. So we all know about his war record (PT-109, and yes, I’m old enough to remember the song) and his actions with Cuba and Russia, his relations with LBJ and Congress, all of that. We know about his daddy and his brothers, and his generally poor health.
This eight-parter is suitably comprehensive, and a lot more even-handed than most. It discusses, for instance, Kennedy’s doubts about getting into the whole civil rights struggle, until southern demagogues forced his hand. It also showed that Kennedy’s responses on both the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Berlin blockade weren’t as predestined as people generally supposed.
One thing that was new to me as I watched was just how gaunt Kennedy was. He was very nearly emaciated, a result of health problems and the ensuing pain, a situation well-hidden by good tailoring and makeup. It brought home just how chronically ill the man was, and spoke of his spirit and determination in battling that.
Also, I learned just how close to nuclear war we really came during the missile crisis. I knew it was a close call. The documentary reveals that the blockading forces dropped dummy depth charges—the aquatic equivalent of flash-bang grenades—to ward off Soviet craft. One went off near a Soviet sub. The captain followed protocol to determine if a war had begun. Unable to communicate with Moscow, he polled his officers. A unanimous conclusion that an American attack had been launched was needed before the sub would fire its missiles. All thirteen officers had to agree. Twelve did. The remaining one had fallen ill and was temporarily indisposed. By the time he was able to report for the council, the captain had learned that it wasn’t an attack. That notification arrived only five minutes before the missing officer reported for duty. It was that close.
Even if you know the Kennedy story well, there is new info to be gleaned, and newcomers would learn much about America’s youngest and arguably most complex president.
Now on the History Channel.