Letters to my Granddaughter: No. 5

By | June 17, 2023

Letters to My Granddaughter, No. 5  (the JFK Election)

[June 17, 2023]  I was a young kid when Dwight D. Eisenhower was in office, but I do not remember him.  Politics was beyond my understanding and appreciation for what that meant.  As a eight-year-old, I wasn’t totally ignorant, just nearly so.  To me, they were faces in the newspaper and speeches on the family radio.  When I heard about the president, it was all blah, blah, blah.

In the upcoming presidential election in 1960, my parents were voting for Richard Nixon.  I tried unsuccessfully convincing them to vote for John F. Kennedy, more commonly known by his initials JFK.  It was obvious why I took an immediate liking to JFK.  He was a World War II hero from a respectable family, religious (a Catholic), young and exciting, and had a cool-sounding accent, being from Massachusetts.  Running against JFK, Nixon was old, boring, stiff, and talked oddly.

Much to my glee, Kennedy was elected in a very close race.  We heard, at the time, that cheating by the Democrat political machine in Chicago may have helped carry the state of Illinois for him.  At the time, I didn’t know what that meant.  All I knew was that my man was president.

Early in JFK’s tenure, the U.S. supported an invasion force to throw out the Communists in Cuba.  Known as the Bay of Pigs, it was a failure for the main reason that Kennedy withheld air and naval support to the American-supported invaders.  Cuban President Fidel Castro hung on by his fingernails, but the incident elevated Communism in the eyes of the world.  I was disheartened.  I knew Communism was evil because its followers stated a desire to destroy America and take over the world.

Then, in late 1962, one of our U2 spy planes flying over Cuba would discover Soviet Union missiles pointed at America.  We were told these were nuclear missiles, and so our school began “duck and cover” drills created to show us how to protect ourselves from a nuclear explosion.  When our teacher gave the signal, we would dive under our desks, which would protect us from a nuclear blast.  The girls hated it, and I liked it.  And so began what would later be called the Cold War, a heightened state of tension between America and the USSR.

And I sadly remember John F. Kennedy’s assassin in 1963.  It was a Friday, just before we were to line up for lunch, when we heard the news from our teacher.  Some kids cried, some sat in stunned silence, and others, like me, just sat there.  I was still a fan of JFK, but less enthusiastically by then.  He was still a hero to me, and I had a better knowledge of his heroism after watching the movie “PT 109,” which starred Cliff Robinson as Lieutenant (j.g.) John F. Kennedy.

Presidential elections are every four years; nothing, however, seems to change in Washington.  JFK represented change, which is partly why I liked him.  The grand plan was for America to enter a new age where we all put aside our differences and got to work.  Kennedy was killed before his policies had a good chance to take hold.  While they were somewhat utopian, maybe they would have worked and in my naivety, we would have had peace in our time.  But we’ll never know. —————

—————

NOTE: See all my letters here: https://www.theleadermaker.com/granddaughter-letters/

—————

Please read my books:

  1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
  2. “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).
Author: Douglas R. Satterfield

Hello. I provide one article every day. My writings are influenced by great thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Jung, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Jean Piaget, Erich Neumann, and Jordan Peterson, whose insight and brilliance have gotten millions worldwide to think about improving ourselves. Thank you for reading my blog.

21 thoughts on “Letters to my Granddaughter: No. 5

    1. Dead Pool Guy

      Gibbie, one thing you will find here in Gen. S’s personal blog is that there is a big mixup of topics and ideas. One of the advantages is folks in the forums add a lot to each blog post by Gen. Satterfield and we are held to that by Gen. S. He is really a godsend to those of us who want to understand a little about how a successful leader thinks. Now with his “letters to my granddaughter” we are finding out something about the building blocks of his thinking and that is good for us all.

      Reply
  1. Chopper

    Loved ir, as others. Can’t wait until the next letter.

    Reply
  2. The Observer

    Gen. Satterfield. My whole family is now reading your blog. 😃

    Reply
  3. Fred Weber

    Great series of letters. I’m looking forward to more.

    Reply
  4. KRause

    Another letter to your granddaughter nailed.
    On another note, did you see that the LA Dodgers lost their game last night? It was a close one but at least they lost. When the “nuns of perversion” were up there getting their awards, there was almost nobody in the stands. Hurray for the fans. Walk out. I also saw that there was a huge peaceful protest outside the stadium that might have had a thousand people. Inside the stadium, may a few hundred. Keep up supporting America and not the perverts who want to groom your children.

    Reply
      1. Bryan Z. Lee

        BOYCOTT the LA Dodgers. Figures they are in California, the state of fruits and nuts. Lots and lots of fruits and nuts, including their Governor who is the master fruit.

        Reply
        1. Emma Archambeau

          Gov. Newsom, the master fruit, wow, let us know what you think. Oh, I fully agree.

          Reply
  5. Sally Anne

    The day before graduation from MP school, we all got drunker than a skunk. I woke up the following morning on a bare mattress under a row of bathroom urinals and couldn’t remember anything. And it was daylight. ” —- Gen. Satterfield, Sir, to tell the truth, I nearly spit my coffee out my nose when I read this. I get it !!!!!!! If you’ve never been in the military, you will not really understand but to wake up in daylight (while in training) is like the worse sin of all (other than losing your rifle). Loved it. I hope your granddaughter gets it too. Let us know what she has to say.

    Reply
    1. Wild Bill

      I think we all can learn something from these “letters.”

      Reply
      1. Hiratio Algiers

        Yep!!!!!! Keep these going Gen. Satterfield, and BTW, I just your book in the mail and plan on reading it this weekend. I have a couple of friends who have “55 Rules for a Good Life” and they say the book is AMAZING, full of great advice. One of my friends is a housewife and she is now a big fan of yours too. Keep your books coming our way. I’ll be sure to get my copy.

        Reply
  6. Deplorable John

    Great series, thank you Gen. Satterfield for writing letters to your granddaughter. Maybe she just might want to learn more about you.

    Reply
  7. Harry Donner

    Great continuing series of letters to your grandkids (granddaughter). I plan on doing the same thing. I figure that they just might want to read what I was thinking “long ago” by the time they read it. I hope to have grandchildren, anyway.

    Reply
    1. Melo in Chicgo

      Harder today, Gen Z and the Millenials aren’t having many kids and those they do have are when they are older and thus, we are older too. And, then only 1 or 2. Sad for us all.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.