Schlesinger Jr. believed that Kennedy’s relentless emphasis on the gap between America’s achievements and its promise worked: “He wisely decided to concentrate on a single theme and to hammer that theme home until everyone in America understood it—understood his sense of the decline of our national power and influence and his determination to arrest and reverse this course. He did this with such brilliant success that, even in a time of apparent prosperity and apparent peace, and even as a Catholic, he was able to command a majority (though such a slim majority) of voters.” Kennedy made the
...more
