Last updated on February 25th, 2024 at 04:01 pm
A popular yet oft disagreed upon subject is John F. Kennedy. His death at a young age and in a public, violent way left a scar on the nation as it also opened the door to a number of theories about whodunit and why. We sat down with Sara Causey, host of thecon-sara-cy theories podcast to discuss the lingering questions we have about JFK all these years later.
We recently listened to your episode “JFK – Warhawk or Peacemaker?” You seem to be one of the few voices in this space who aims for a calmer, more moderate approach.
I tend to think the Buddhist concept of the Middle Path is often the best. JFK tends to be a polarizing figure. Some commentators and authors try to fashion him into a saint while others absolutely drag him through the mud and make him appear to be the worst person ever. As Oscar Wilde once said, “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” I think the truth is somewhere in the middle: neither a perfect person nor a completely worthless degenerate. With Kennedy, there’s so much curiosity about everything – his character, his politics, his legacy, his murder, and even the bawdy, lurid tales of his private life.
Why do people care about this question of whether Kennedy intended to make war or promote peace?
I think it frequently falls into the binary of JFK being a bloodthirsty warmonger versus JFK being a prince of peace who would have brought about utopia. As though, had he lived, we would have flying cars, clean streets, pure water, and zero warfare of any kind. To me, that’s absurd. It’s likewise absurd to suggest that he wanted to obliterate the whole world by hitting the proverbial red button. He had ample opportunities to do that; in my mind, if JFK wanted to blow up half the world, he could have. But he didn’t. It’s also still relevant because it’s unfathomable what kind of world we’d be living in now had the US and USSR deployed nuclear weapons against each other. There’s a quote attributed to Khruschev that the living would have envied the dead if the bombs were actually dropped. Whether the quote is accurate or not, the sentiment surely is.
Is there a notion that the world was better off without Kennedy if he was a warhawk?
Yes, and this is another narrative that drives me crazy. There are journos who have not only intimated but outright said that it was better for Kennedy to die young than to drag the nation through scandals that would have made Watergate look tame. That’s a pretty bold, incendiary statement. In my opinion, it’s also reckless and false. I don’t think any sane person alive now or alive in 1963 would have felt it was preferable for this man to be murdered in broad daylight than to have due process and legal representation in the event of an impeachment. What I’ve found is that it’s usually not an argument about Kennedy being a Cold Warrior of his time; it’s usually a thinly veiled attack towards his entire existence.
Do you think the various conspiracy theories around JFK’s death will ever abate?
No. When people don’t believe they have information that even almost resembles the truth, you create a breeding ground for theories that range from the plausible or perhaps even the highly probable all the way to the utterly bizarre and insane. The subject of Kennedy is really a wellspring not only for various theories around his murder but also about his life itself. Not to mention his Presidential legacy and trying to determine what might have happened had he lived and been elected to a second term.
What sparked your interest in this topic?
It basically happened on accident. Laughs. Last year during a long weekend, I decided to finally watch Oliver Stone’s film JFK. I remember that it touched off a firestorm in the 90s, but I couldn’t recall having ever watched the movie. I did so pretty much on a lark and found it to be incredibly interesting. My thought afterwards was, “Wow. If even a scintilla of this is true, it’s a horrifying story. Everyone should be talking about this. American citizens should want to know the truth regardless of how much time has gone by.”
New episodes of the con-sara-cy theories podcast drop every Wednesday night at 7pm Central / 8pm Eastern time. You can find it on any major podcast provider.
