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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview with Deborah and Gerald Strober
Aired November 22, 2003 - 07:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Throughout the day, we're remembering the 40th anniversary of the assassination of JFK. Each year, thousands of people visit Arlington National Cemetery, where the president's grave is marked by an eternal flame. Also burning seem to be the eternal questions about what exactly happened that day. A recent poll shows 75 percent of the public still believes more than one person was involved in Kennedy's assassination. And in a poll that asked how would JFK go down in history, 85 percent say he'll be remembered as either a great or a good president.
For more on JFK, we're joined by Gerald Strober and Deborah Strober, authors of "The Kennedy Presidency: An Oral History of the Era."
Well, good morning to you both.
DEBORAH STROBER, AUTHOR, "THE KENNEDY PRESIDENCY": Good morning.
GERALD STROBER, AUTHOR, "THE KENNEDY PRESIDENCY": Good morning, Andrea.
KOPPEL: I read in the introduction of your book, you said one of the main reasons that the two of you decided to compile this oral history was to get at whether JFK was myth or substance, what kind of a chief executive he really was and whether or not we were -- our image of him was affected, as I'm sure it was for many people, by what happened 40 years ago today.
What did you find out?
DEBORAH STROBER: I think America's view of him today is impacted by his assassination. A fiercely attractive, witty, marvelous raconteur cut down in the prime of his life and America lost its innocence on that day.
GERALD STROBER: I think it was the triumph of style over substance. The two bookend themes or buzz words, as we would say today, of the Kennedy presidency were New Frontier at the beginning, Camelot at the end. There was not a great deal that was new. Kennedy was a cold warrior, going back to the themes of the '50s, against the Soviet Union. He was unable to put together a comprehensive plan through Congress because he had been a lackluster congressman and senator, had not made the sufficient contacts in Congress to get a program through.
We had the fiasco of the Bay of Pigs. The Kennedys moved tremendously gingerly on the civil rights movement, to the astonishment of some of the people in that burgeoning movement.
At the end, Jackie and Theodore White propagated the idea of Camelot, this great shining moment. So much perception, very little substance.
KOPPEL: It sounds like you're saying, Gerald, that his legacy might not have been quite as warm and fuzzy, if you will, had he survived to live through that first term.
GERALD STROBER: Absolutely, Andrea. And, also, there's no guarantee that he would have been elected to a second term, particularly if the Republicans had nominated the moderate, Nelson Rockefeller, rather than the extremist Barry Goldwater. So it's possible we would have had a one term presidency with very little legacy to talk about.
KOPPEL: Deborah, take us back to this day 40 years ago and help us to appreciate just how JFK's assassination affected the American people.
DEBORAH STROBER: OK. He came in, as you remember, exhorting the American people to do what they could do for their government, not the other way around, the youth. It was Jackie and Jack and those two adorable children. It was a package, if you will, American royalty. And so when he was cut down on that day, there was just a numbing sense of grief, of disbelief, if denial, total denial by many people, it cannot be. And the images of that entire weekend -- I mean we didn't have, you know, round the clock coverage, as we do now with cable stations, but as much as we could get, Americans were glued to their sets.
And so many of us on that Sunday morning watched as Oswald was gunned down before our eyes.
KOPPEL: And it really was a loss of innocence.
DEBORAH STROBER: Oh, yes, absolutely. I mean, Americans -- I mean Kennedy was really the first post-war president, in a sense, because Truman and Eisenhower were holdovers from another era. Kennedy was the promise of a new world to a new generation of American voters.
GERALD STROBER: And, you know, Andrea, perhaps the greatest legacy of the Kennedy presidency is the ongoing speculation about was this a conspiracy, was Oswald the lone assassin?
Here, 40 years to the day, we still don't have the answers to these questions.
KOPPEL: Before I let both of you go, just very quickly, what were you doing 40 years ago today?
DEBORAH STROBER: Oh, goodness, I was riding a bus on Second Avenue in Manhattan going downtown to do some Friday afternoon things and somebody had a little portable radio. We didn't have the earphones and so on that we have today. And I hear the announcement and there's a lot of confusion and somebody, the announcer intones that Kennedy and Johnson have been killed and that McCormick is now the president, the Speaker of the House.
KOPPEL: Gerald?
GERALD STROBER: Andrea, I was in the basement of the Bethany Baptist Church in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, at a meeting of civil rights advocates who were drafting a telegram at that very moment to be sent to the New York City Council of Churches objecting to the fact that the Council was going to award its Family of Man medallion to President Kennedy, because the feeling was that Kennedy had not moved quickly enough or forcefully enough on civil rights.
As we were drafting the telegram, a man came down the stairway shouting, "President Kennedy has been shot!"
KOPPEL: Gerald Strober, Deborah Strober, authors of "The Kennedys: An Oral History of the Era."
Thank you both for coming in today.
GERALD STROBER: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 22, 2003 - 07:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Throughout the day, we're remembering the 40th anniversary of the assassination of JFK. Each year, thousands of people visit Arlington National Cemetery, where the president's grave is marked by an eternal flame. Also burning seem to be the eternal questions about what exactly happened that day. A recent poll shows 75 percent of the public still believes more than one person was involved in Kennedy's assassination. And in a poll that asked how would JFK go down in history, 85 percent say he'll be remembered as either a great or a good president.
For more on JFK, we're joined by Gerald Strober and Deborah Strober, authors of "The Kennedy Presidency: An Oral History of the Era."
Well, good morning to you both.
DEBORAH STROBER, AUTHOR, "THE KENNEDY PRESIDENCY": Good morning.
GERALD STROBER, AUTHOR, "THE KENNEDY PRESIDENCY": Good morning, Andrea.
KOPPEL: I read in the introduction of your book, you said one of the main reasons that the two of you decided to compile this oral history was to get at whether JFK was myth or substance, what kind of a chief executive he really was and whether or not we were -- our image of him was affected, as I'm sure it was for many people, by what happened 40 years ago today.
What did you find out?
DEBORAH STROBER: I think America's view of him today is impacted by his assassination. A fiercely attractive, witty, marvelous raconteur cut down in the prime of his life and America lost its innocence on that day.
GERALD STROBER: I think it was the triumph of style over substance. The two bookend themes or buzz words, as we would say today, of the Kennedy presidency were New Frontier at the beginning, Camelot at the end. There was not a great deal that was new. Kennedy was a cold warrior, going back to the themes of the '50s, against the Soviet Union. He was unable to put together a comprehensive plan through Congress because he had been a lackluster congressman and senator, had not made the sufficient contacts in Congress to get a program through.
We had the fiasco of the Bay of Pigs. The Kennedys moved tremendously gingerly on the civil rights movement, to the astonishment of some of the people in that burgeoning movement.
At the end, Jackie and Theodore White propagated the idea of Camelot, this great shining moment. So much perception, very little substance.
KOPPEL: It sounds like you're saying, Gerald, that his legacy might not have been quite as warm and fuzzy, if you will, had he survived to live through that first term.
GERALD STROBER: Absolutely, Andrea. And, also, there's no guarantee that he would have been elected to a second term, particularly if the Republicans had nominated the moderate, Nelson Rockefeller, rather than the extremist Barry Goldwater. So it's possible we would have had a one term presidency with very little legacy to talk about.
KOPPEL: Deborah, take us back to this day 40 years ago and help us to appreciate just how JFK's assassination affected the American people.
DEBORAH STROBER: OK. He came in, as you remember, exhorting the American people to do what they could do for their government, not the other way around, the youth. It was Jackie and Jack and those two adorable children. It was a package, if you will, American royalty. And so when he was cut down on that day, there was just a numbing sense of grief, of disbelief, if denial, total denial by many people, it cannot be. And the images of that entire weekend -- I mean we didn't have, you know, round the clock coverage, as we do now with cable stations, but as much as we could get, Americans were glued to their sets.
And so many of us on that Sunday morning watched as Oswald was gunned down before our eyes.
KOPPEL: And it really was a loss of innocence.
DEBORAH STROBER: Oh, yes, absolutely. I mean, Americans -- I mean Kennedy was really the first post-war president, in a sense, because Truman and Eisenhower were holdovers from another era. Kennedy was the promise of a new world to a new generation of American voters.
GERALD STROBER: And, you know, Andrea, perhaps the greatest legacy of the Kennedy presidency is the ongoing speculation about was this a conspiracy, was Oswald the lone assassin?
Here, 40 years to the day, we still don't have the answers to these questions.
KOPPEL: Before I let both of you go, just very quickly, what were you doing 40 years ago today?
DEBORAH STROBER: Oh, goodness, I was riding a bus on Second Avenue in Manhattan going downtown to do some Friday afternoon things and somebody had a little portable radio. We didn't have the earphones and so on that we have today. And I hear the announcement and there's a lot of confusion and somebody, the announcer intones that Kennedy and Johnson have been killed and that McCormick is now the president, the Speaker of the House.
KOPPEL: Gerald?
GERALD STROBER: Andrea, I was in the basement of the Bethany Baptist Church in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, at a meeting of civil rights advocates who were drafting a telegram at that very moment to be sent to the New York City Council of Churches objecting to the fact that the Council was going to award its Family of Man medallion to President Kennedy, because the feeling was that Kennedy had not moved quickly enough or forcefully enough on civil rights.
As we were drafting the telegram, a man came down the stairway shouting, "President Kennedy has been shot!"
KOPPEL: Gerald Strober, Deborah Strober, authors of "The Kennedys: An Oral History of the Era."
Thank you both for coming in today.
GERALD STROBER: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
