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The Death of a President
s/t: November 20-25, 1963
The author of the bestsellers American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964 and The Last Lion offers a compelling account of President John F. Kennedy's last six days--the only record authorized by the Kennedy family--written with remarkable detail and immediacy, and with an intimacy that is unparalleled in the literature.
The author of the bestsellers American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964 and The Last Lion offers a compelling account of President John F. Kennedy's last six days--the only record authorized by the Kennedy family--written with remarkable detail and immediacy, and with an intimacy that is unparalleled in the literature.
710 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
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About the author
William Manchester
79 books562 followersWilliam Raymond Manchester was an American author and biographer, notable as the bestselling author of 18 books that have been translated into 20 languages.He was awarded the National Humanities Medal and the Abraham Lincoln Literary Award.
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April 27, 2016
I’ve never been particularly interested in the Kennedys in general, John F. Kennedy in particular, or in wild conspiracy theories at all. I love history, to be sure, but history is broad, and there are only so many hours in a day that one can devote to this endeavor. Those hours have been drastically cut by the needs of my nine-month old. Thus, when I have to pick and choose, I will enthusiastically read the nth retelling of the battle of Antietam or the latest theory on Custer’s Last Stand rather than wade into the nutcase-riddled world of the Kennedys.
Indeed, the only reason I desired to read William Manchester’s The Death of a President was a fascinating article in Vanity Fair by Sam Kashner (available at http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/fe...). Kashner’s article details the controversy behind Manchester’s book: how Manchester was originally asked by the Kennedys to write an intimate portrait of Kennedy’s death; how the Kennedys later tried to suppress the book; how Manchester nearly destroyed himself in his effort; and how the Kennedys took control of the book rights, ensuring that no new editions are published.
The story-behind-the-story is fascinating stuff. After reading the Vanity Fair article, I was instantly intrigued with this hard-to-find edition, and its hints of profound truths. It was just like being a kid in a video store (remember those?), told that I couldn’t go behind the curtain into the “adults only” section, and vowing then and there that I would discover what transgressive treasures lay behind that beaded veil. (Turns out it was mostly soft core pornography).
I wasn’t entirely surprised, upon finishing The Death of a President, to discover that the controversy is mostly smoke and mirrors, which would dissipate instantly as soon as the Kennedy estate dropped its obstinate refusal to publish new editions. Reading it now, in 2012, long after all the principal players have died, there is nothing in it that shocks or scandalizes or does anything to change our perception of November 22, 1963 and the following days.
Really, The Death of a President is nothing more than its blunt title implies: a minutely, sometimes fascinating, sometimes irrelevantly detailed retelling of the last days of John Kennedy’s life. It starts on the eve of his trip to Dallas and ends with his burial in Arlington. This takes up 647 pages of relatively-scrunched text in my 1967 hardcover edition. There is also 10 pages devoted to all Manchester’s interviews, and appendices that include maps of the motorcade route, Dealey Plaza, Parkland Memorial Hospital (where Kennedy died), Air Force One, the route Air Force One took from Texas to Washington, and the route of the State Funeral.
If all this seems a bit excessive, well, excessiveness is sort of William Manchester’s raison d’être.
Certainly I enjoyed reading it.
Manchester’s research can only be described as obsessive. His level of detail, nearly unimaginable. I’ve heard criticisms of his work before, but I think that is a function of the way he collects his facts and writes his history. His primary source work is explained in a short essay, and as noted above, he carefully lays out every interview he conducted. This level of preparation allows him to write this story as a novelist, deep inside the heads of each person, giving us not only their perceptions but their thoughts. This is a godlike point-of-view to take, especially for a writer of non-fiction, and Manchester displays a certain level of Mailer-like arrogance in presenting the fruits of his research in such a manner. He also opens himself up to a lot of factual quibbles. By taking one person’s recollection over another, you end up with endless he-said/no-he-said situations that unfairly call into question the book’s ultimate veracity.
The Death of a President is consuming. There are so many details (and so many ridiculous details) that you are transported into this world, whether you like it or not. I happen to like minutiae, so every time Manchester relayed a vehicle identification number or the tail number of Air Force One, I could only shake my head in wonderment. Manchester had access that no other writer ever got, especially with regards to Jackie Kennedy. Indeed, it is the vulnerability that Jackie showed in her interviews – creating an indelible grief-soaked portrait in the book – that eventually caused the Kennedys to turn against Manchester.
To read Manchester’s opus now is to have a fascinating look at late-60s Democratic politics. Manchester was an unabashed admirer of John F. Kennedy (he’d written the fawning Portrait of a President, which got him this job) and the New Frontier. When you read between the lines, there is a distinct dislike and underestimation of Lyndon Johnson. This is communicated by Manchester’s unsupported (and in my opinion, entirely wrong) opinion that had he lived, Kennedy would’ve done every good thing that LBJ did (civil rights, the Great Society) and none of the bad things (Vietnam, defecating with the bathroom door open). In fact, to read Manchester closely is to see his belief that LBJ didn’t do anything except not crash the Kennedy ship.
At the same time, Manchester’s book came out in the midst of Bobby Kennedy’s run for president. Kennedy needed LBJ’s support, so Manchester – who obviously supported the younger Kennedy – had to give grudging credit to LBJ to avoid angering him.
Manchester’s near-embarrassing worship of the Kennedys and their cohorts is The Death of a President’s most glaring flaw. Obviously, he related strongly with the young president, as both men were Pacific War veterans with a literary bent. However, that doesn’t excuse the utter loss of objectivity. He spends a great deal of time flattering the so-called “Boston Mafia” and their sycophantic devotion to John Kennedy. Anyone who stands in the way of the Beantown crew has put their reputation in Manchester’s hands. (For instance, Manchester’s handling of Dallas coroner Earl Rose is manifestly unfair. It’s worth reading Rose’s New York Times obituary for a sensitive recounting of the life of an eminently decent man. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/us/...).
In reality, the Boston Mafia seemed like a bunch of jerks, and Manchester never takes them to task for their undignified treatment of Lyndon Johnson. Manchester and the Mafia never seemed to get it through their heads that the Office of the Presidency of the United States is (a) bigger than one man and (b) not a hereditary right.
More interestingly for a 21st century reader is the elisions. Every time Manchester mentioned Dave Powers and the White House swimming pool – which happened a lot – I thought of Mimi Alford. Alford, of course, famously wrote about her affair with Kennedy, as well as an incident in which JFK encouraged Alford to perform oral sex on Powers. Unsurprisingly, this didn't make it into the book. But Manchester knew, didn't he? He’d almost have to know, right? These are the questions I asked myself every time he mentioned that damn pool.
Since this is a book about John Kennedy’s assassination, it should be mentioned that Manchester’s story includes a lone gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald shooting the President from a window of the Texas School Book Depository. There is no grassy knoll. There is no “triangulation of fire.” There are no shadowy and sinister agents from the CIA or the FBI or the NSA or Cuba or the USSR or NASA or [insert any other agency you want]. There is no Kevin Costner with a badly strained New Orleans accent intoning “back and to the left.”
Even in 1967, though, there were already conspiracy enthusiasts. Manchester rightly brushes them aside. The evidence of Oswald’s guilt is overwhelming and any prosecutor in the country would be happy as a clam to take it into court.
But this isn’t a book about people in their parents’ basements cultivating ridiculous pet theories for reasons that can only be explained by highly-trained and patient psychologists. It isn’t even a book about the “[d]eath of a President.” It’s about the death of a husband, a father, a man. Manchester brings this into stark relief in the beautiful closing of his book:
By the end, through Manchester’s tremendous accrual of factoids, with his dogged insistence on taking you through the assassination minute-by-minute, in his steadfast refusal to engage in conspiratorial nonsense, and even despite his own deep admiration for his subject, he manages to distill a huge historical moment into a human event.
It’s quite possible that The Death of a President is more important now than ever. Thanks to the internet and self-publishing, there is more Kennedy assassination garbage than ever before. People are so committed to the conspiracy that they forget it started with a tragedy.
Indeed, the only reason I desired to read William Manchester’s The Death of a President was a fascinating article in Vanity Fair by Sam Kashner (available at http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/fe...). Kashner’s article details the controversy behind Manchester’s book: how Manchester was originally asked by the Kennedys to write an intimate portrait of Kennedy’s death; how the Kennedys later tried to suppress the book; how Manchester nearly destroyed himself in his effort; and how the Kennedys took control of the book rights, ensuring that no new editions are published.
The story-behind-the-story is fascinating stuff. After reading the Vanity Fair article, I was instantly intrigued with this hard-to-find edition, and its hints of profound truths. It was just like being a kid in a video store (remember those?), told that I couldn’t go behind the curtain into the “adults only” section, and vowing then and there that I would discover what transgressive treasures lay behind that beaded veil. (Turns out it was mostly soft core pornography).
I wasn’t entirely surprised, upon finishing The Death of a President, to discover that the controversy is mostly smoke and mirrors, which would dissipate instantly as soon as the Kennedy estate dropped its obstinate refusal to publish new editions. Reading it now, in 2012, long after all the principal players have died, there is nothing in it that shocks or scandalizes or does anything to change our perception of November 22, 1963 and the following days.
Really, The Death of a President is nothing more than its blunt title implies: a minutely, sometimes fascinating, sometimes irrelevantly detailed retelling of the last days of John Kennedy’s life. It starts on the eve of his trip to Dallas and ends with his burial in Arlington. This takes up 647 pages of relatively-scrunched text in my 1967 hardcover edition. There is also 10 pages devoted to all Manchester’s interviews, and appendices that include maps of the motorcade route, Dealey Plaza, Parkland Memorial Hospital (where Kennedy died), Air Force One, the route Air Force One took from Texas to Washington, and the route of the State Funeral.
If all this seems a bit excessive, well, excessiveness is sort of William Manchester’s raison d’être.
Certainly I enjoyed reading it.
Manchester’s research can only be described as obsessive. His level of detail, nearly unimaginable. I’ve heard criticisms of his work before, but I think that is a function of the way he collects his facts and writes his history. His primary source work is explained in a short essay, and as noted above, he carefully lays out every interview he conducted. This level of preparation allows him to write this story as a novelist, deep inside the heads of each person, giving us not only their perceptions but their thoughts. This is a godlike point-of-view to take, especially for a writer of non-fiction, and Manchester displays a certain level of Mailer-like arrogance in presenting the fruits of his research in such a manner. He also opens himself up to a lot of factual quibbles. By taking one person’s recollection over another, you end up with endless he-said/no-he-said situations that unfairly call into question the book’s ultimate veracity.
The Death of a President is consuming. There are so many details (and so many ridiculous details) that you are transported into this world, whether you like it or not. I happen to like minutiae, so every time Manchester relayed a vehicle identification number or the tail number of Air Force One, I could only shake my head in wonderment. Manchester had access that no other writer ever got, especially with regards to Jackie Kennedy. Indeed, it is the vulnerability that Jackie showed in her interviews – creating an indelible grief-soaked portrait in the book – that eventually caused the Kennedys to turn against Manchester.
To read Manchester’s opus now is to have a fascinating look at late-60s Democratic politics. Manchester was an unabashed admirer of John F. Kennedy (he’d written the fawning Portrait of a President, which got him this job) and the New Frontier. When you read between the lines, there is a distinct dislike and underestimation of Lyndon Johnson. This is communicated by Manchester’s unsupported (and in my opinion, entirely wrong) opinion that had he lived, Kennedy would’ve done every good thing that LBJ did (civil rights, the Great Society) and none of the bad things (Vietnam, defecating with the bathroom door open). In fact, to read Manchester closely is to see his belief that LBJ didn’t do anything except not crash the Kennedy ship.
At the same time, Manchester’s book came out in the midst of Bobby Kennedy’s run for president. Kennedy needed LBJ’s support, so Manchester – who obviously supported the younger Kennedy – had to give grudging credit to LBJ to avoid angering him.
Manchester’s near-embarrassing worship of the Kennedys and their cohorts is The Death of a President’s most glaring flaw. Obviously, he related strongly with the young president, as both men were Pacific War veterans with a literary bent. However, that doesn’t excuse the utter loss of objectivity. He spends a great deal of time flattering the so-called “Boston Mafia” and their sycophantic devotion to John Kennedy. Anyone who stands in the way of the Beantown crew has put their reputation in Manchester’s hands. (For instance, Manchester’s handling of Dallas coroner Earl Rose is manifestly unfair. It’s worth reading Rose’s New York Times obituary for a sensitive recounting of the life of an eminently decent man. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/us/...).
In reality, the Boston Mafia seemed like a bunch of jerks, and Manchester never takes them to task for their undignified treatment of Lyndon Johnson. Manchester and the Mafia never seemed to get it through their heads that the Office of the Presidency of the United States is (a) bigger than one man and (b) not a hereditary right.
More interestingly for a 21st century reader is the elisions. Every time Manchester mentioned Dave Powers and the White House swimming pool – which happened a lot – I thought of Mimi Alford. Alford, of course, famously wrote about her affair with Kennedy, as well as an incident in which JFK encouraged Alford to perform oral sex on Powers. Unsurprisingly, this didn't make it into the book. But Manchester knew, didn't he? He’d almost have to know, right? These are the questions I asked myself every time he mentioned that damn pool.
Since this is a book about John Kennedy’s assassination, it should be mentioned that Manchester’s story includes a lone gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald shooting the President from a window of the Texas School Book Depository. There is no grassy knoll. There is no “triangulation of fire.” There are no shadowy and sinister agents from the CIA or the FBI or the NSA or Cuba or the USSR or NASA or [insert any other agency you want]. There is no Kevin Costner with a badly strained New Orleans accent intoning “back and to the left.”
Even in 1967, though, there were already conspiracy enthusiasts. Manchester rightly brushes them aside. The evidence of Oswald’s guilt is overwhelming and any prosecutor in the country would be happy as a clam to take it into court.
But this isn’t a book about people in their parents’ basements cultivating ridiculous pet theories for reasons that can only be explained by highly-trained and patient psychologists. It isn’t even a book about the “[d]eath of a President.” It’s about the death of a husband, a father, a man. Manchester brings this into stark relief in the beautiful closing of his book:
Unknown to her, the clothes Mrs. Kennedy wore into the bright midday glare of Dallas lie in an attic…in one of two long brown paper cartons thrust between roof rafters. The first is marked “September 12, 1953,” the date of her marriage; it contains her wedding gown. The block-printed label on the other is “Worn by Jackie, November 22, 1963.” Inside, neatly arranged, are the pink wool suit, the black shift, the low-heeled shoes, and, wrapped in a white towel, the stockings. Were the box to be opened by an intruder from some land so remote that the name, the date, and photographs of that ensemble had not been published and republished until they had been graven upon his memory, he might conclude that these were merely the stylish garments which had passed out of fashion and which, because they were associated with some pleasant occasion, had not been discarded.
If the trespasser looked closer, however, he would be momentarily baffled…There are ugly splotches along the front and hem of the skirt. The handbag’s leather and the inside of each shoe are caked dark red. And the stockings are quite odd. Once the same substance streaked them in mad scribbly patterns, but time and the sheerness of the fabric have altered it. The rusty clots have flaked off; they lie in tiny brittle grains on the nap of the towel. Examining them closely, the intruder would see his error. This clothing, he would perceive, had not been kept out of sentiment. He would realize that it had been worn by a slender young woman who had met with some dreadful accident. He might ponder whether she had survived. He might even wonder who had been to blame.
By the end, through Manchester’s tremendous accrual of factoids, with his dogged insistence on taking you through the assassination minute-by-minute, in his steadfast refusal to engage in conspiratorial nonsense, and even despite his own deep admiration for his subject, he manages to distill a huge historical moment into a human event.
It’s quite possible that The Death of a President is more important now than ever. Thanks to the internet and self-publishing, there is more Kennedy assassination garbage than ever before. People are so committed to the conspiracy that they forget it started with a tragedy.
November 22, 2021
In October 2009, Vanity Fair magazine published a cover story regarding Jackie Kennedy and her battle with writer William Manchester. After the assasination of her husband Jack Kennedy, rather than allow a maelstrom of books to appear, Jacqueline Kennedy along with Bobby Kennedy designated William Manchester as the "official" author of the story behind Kennedy's death. Manchester is also the author of "The Making of a President 1960", a book highly admired by Jack Kennedy and therefore a natural choice.
The research took over two years and 1000 people. The effect is awesome. The detail Manchester gets into is excruciating, and heartbreaking. My favorite section is the ten pages wherein he tells, one by one, what each person associated with Jack Kennedy, i.e. family, cabinet members, and the like, where doing at 1221pm Dallas time, the moment he was shot. Later on, I marvelled at the fortitude of the people most intimately involved in the actual moment to survive the trauma.
It's very instructive to note that in occasions of great stress, people behave strangely. The world had gone mad that week
[ immediately following the assasination and throughout the funeral arrangements, etc, :] and it's fascinating to know the great difficulty individuals had in decompressing. Mrs. Kennedy, for example, was given sedatives a number of times after returning to Washington with her husband's body, and yet she was unable to sleep. Likewise, many others confessed to drinking heavily "trying to get drunk," yet the the alcohol had no effect.
In a similar way, the stress on Manchester was great. He suffered what amounts to a nervous breakdown as he completes the manuscript, and still he cannot put it down. He called for a typewriter to be brought to his hospital room and continued to work.
The research took over two years and 1000 people. The effect is awesome. The detail Manchester gets into is excruciating, and heartbreaking. My favorite section is the ten pages wherein he tells, one by one, what each person associated with Jack Kennedy, i.e. family, cabinet members, and the like, where doing at 1221pm Dallas time, the moment he was shot. Later on, I marvelled at the fortitude of the people most intimately involved in the actual moment to survive the trauma.
It's very instructive to note that in occasions of great stress, people behave strangely. The world had gone mad that week
[ immediately following the assasination and throughout the funeral arrangements, etc, :] and it's fascinating to know the great difficulty individuals had in decompressing. Mrs. Kennedy, for example, was given sedatives a number of times after returning to Washington with her husband's body, and yet she was unable to sleep. Likewise, many others confessed to drinking heavily "trying to get drunk," yet the the alcohol had no effect.
In a similar way, the stress on Manchester was great. He suffered what amounts to a nervous breakdown as he completes the manuscript, and still he cannot put it down. He called for a typewriter to be brought to his hospital room and continued to work.
March 24, 2011
As with most books I tend to read about the Kennedys, this one broke my heart. It's a long book, and since it only deals with the four days from the start of the Dallas trip on 21st November through to the state funeral on 25th November, the level of detail is exhaustive. It's not an intrusive or ghoulish book - the author was personally asked by Jackie to write it, and the tone is very respectful. The last quarter of the book is where it really shines - the description of the preparations for and the passage of the funeral are just heartbreaking. Luckily, it was written before Bobby's assassination, because having that as a coda would probably have finished me off. As it was, there were numerous parts where I had to put the book down and walk away for a while.
May 30, 2017
This book is nothing short of a masterpiece and Manchester was independently diligent in his efforts to research, compile, report, write, and then to have the full sweep of events recorded for the sake of history. This history that Manchester wrote on was written close to the time of the assassination and separate from the Warren Commission. The particular book I read was a loaner to me from a retired US Army Colonel whom I have had many discussions with over Manchester's many other works. Before reading this book I had read "American Caesar: The Life of General Douglas MacArthur 1880 - 1964"; "Goodbye Darkness"; all three volumes of "Last Lion" which is a personal treasure to me; and then ironically a book I couldn't afford on any website became a loaner. It is a goal of mine to have this book one day for my library. The cover of this book is the 1996 reprint version of the original and unchanged book that was released in 1967.
Manchester does an excellent job with co-eval observation in this book. For everything that Kennedy was - Oswald was not. Two people; one historic event; and the loss would be immediate, final, and felt. It's no wonder that so many conspiracy theories evolved from this event. Though Jackie Kennedy and Robert Kennedy didn't want a book published on this tragedy they came to realize they needed one authorized, truth and embarrassments had to come out along with the research of the event.
Later and before the book was published we see that RFK would receive a 15 minute standing ovation at the '64 Democratic National Convention; while, LBJ would receive a 5 minute standing ovation. The '64 election was in part an emotional election less than a year after the assassination. President Kennedy would merely spend 2 years, 10 months, and 2 days in office - "greatness" is questionable; but sorrow is not a question any more than youth during his time in the Whitehouse.
When I finished this book I felt empty, I read this in honor of the 50th anniversary of the assassination and I am glad that I did. The book made me feel empty merely because I wanted the story to continue; however, we know how other impacted lives since have either continued or finished. "Empty" in this case for me is the equivalent of sorrow. In the end I think of a woman that was a wife, a girl that was a daughter, and a boy who was a son - all three lost an anchor of life based on the relationships that could never be further developed.
This book is a brilliant account of one of three tragic national events in the last 100 years. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 are the other two for the collective conscience of our nation. I encourage any person to read this book and if you can separate the emotion from the event you will see that the facts are what they are and they must be accepted; no matter how difficult Oswald was the lone gunman but more importantly there was havoc that followed and this book captures all of the details as they occurred.
Edit: I meant to add when I first wrote my review that for all the sadness in this historic and accurate account of the assassination, he manages still to squeeze in only a bit of humor along the way. The most noticeable occurs in the last full paragraph of page 614. I found myself laughing aloud for a moment and as this was near the end of the book I felt it was appropriate. Reading the whole book to this point and at this location made a serious subject sort of slip from mind for a mere moment. Again, fabulous book and after reading all of the previous reviews on this site it is apparent that not anyone had caught this or if they had they also failed to mention this.
Manchester does an excellent job with co-eval observation in this book. For everything that Kennedy was - Oswald was not. Two people; one historic event; and the loss would be immediate, final, and felt. It's no wonder that so many conspiracy theories evolved from this event. Though Jackie Kennedy and Robert Kennedy didn't want a book published on this tragedy they came to realize they needed one authorized, truth and embarrassments had to come out along with the research of the event.
Later and before the book was published we see that RFK would receive a 15 minute standing ovation at the '64 Democratic National Convention; while, LBJ would receive a 5 minute standing ovation. The '64 election was in part an emotional election less than a year after the assassination. President Kennedy would merely spend 2 years, 10 months, and 2 days in office - "greatness" is questionable; but sorrow is not a question any more than youth during his time in the Whitehouse.
When I finished this book I felt empty, I read this in honor of the 50th anniversary of the assassination and I am glad that I did. The book made me feel empty merely because I wanted the story to continue; however, we know how other impacted lives since have either continued or finished. "Empty" in this case for me is the equivalent of sorrow. In the end I think of a woman that was a wife, a girl that was a daughter, and a boy who was a son - all three lost an anchor of life based on the relationships that could never be further developed.
This book is a brilliant account of one of three tragic national events in the last 100 years. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 are the other two for the collective conscience of our nation. I encourage any person to read this book and if you can separate the emotion from the event you will see that the facts are what they are and they must be accepted; no matter how difficult Oswald was the lone gunman but more importantly there was havoc that followed and this book captures all of the details as they occurred.
Edit: I meant to add when I first wrote my review that for all the sadness in this historic and accurate account of the assassination, he manages still to squeeze in only a bit of humor along the way. The most noticeable occurs in the last full paragraph of page 614. I found myself laughing aloud for a moment and as this was near the end of the book I felt it was appropriate. Reading the whole book to this point and at this location made a serious subject sort of slip from mind for a mere moment. Again, fabulous book and after reading all of the previous reviews on this site it is apparent that not anyone had caught this or if they had they also failed to mention this.
April 14, 2024
William Manchester's The Death of a President was one of the earliest books written about the Kennedy Assassination. Journalist-historian Manchester (The Arms of Krupp, etc.) conducted a mind-boggling amount of firsthand research, logging hundreds of interviews, scanning Warren Commission files and examining newspaper and press accounts of America's defining political assassination. His book is valuable for that, if nothing else; the book generated controversy in its time for the intimate detail and its characterization of Lyndon Johnson and others, but it's mostly remarkable today for the sheer volume of minutia. We see John F. Kennedy, his wife and inner circle preparing for the Dallas trip, viewing it as a political fire they need to put out; a glum LBJ, elevated from irrelevant Vice President to the Presidency in the most traumatic manner possible; Washington officials scrambling to respond; Dallas, a hotbed of far-right politics and resentment towards the President, struggling to evade responsibility for the deed; witnesses, from bystanders to police and journalists, trying to make sense of the events; and the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, a lifelong loser who used a cheap Italian rifle to raise himself into history. In its best moments, Manchester's tome captures the chaos, uncertainty and stark tragedy attending this event; like all tragedies, it brought out the best in some and the worst in others, from J. Edgar Hoover's boorish phone call to Bobby Kennedy, to the Dallas coroner who fought removal of the President's body from his jurisdiction. The assassination, aftermath and funeral are all ably captured, in what remains an impressive feat of journalism.
But if journalism is indeed the first draft of history, The Death of a President demonstrates why first drafts need to be revised. We can forgive Manchester, perhaps, for not delving into Kennedy's flaws and failures given his subject matter (his womanizing is offhandedly mentioned, along with two glancing mentions of his health issues), or for his raising Jackie Kennedy to near-sainthood for her coolheaded and generous response to the shooting, comforting family members and staffers as she remains soaked in her husband's blood. But the book feels facile in other respects: Manchester is intimately concerned with what happened, but not how or why, resulting in a book that is broad but shallow. He doesn't question the Secret Service's questionable behavior in Dallas, before or during the assassination; maybe we can't fault him for not knowing that the FBI's James Hosty had destroyed (at Hoover's behest) evidence of Oswald's threatening visit to his office, though he interviewed Hosty and cites him repeatedly. But his veneration of JFK contrasts with a petty depiction of Johnson as a coarse, bumptious dolt, a portrayal we can't countenance with Johnson's brilliantly effective command of the office over the next 2-3 years (if not over Vietnam, barely a blip in Manchester's narrative). His portrait of Oswald is even worse: he depicts Oswald's fanatical (if admittedly muddled) Marxism as an affectation, and bizarrely blames the assassination on his wife Marina's refusing to sleep with him (!), managing to be absurdly Freudian and grossly misogynist in one go. In such moments, we wonder if Manchester squandered his judgment on the minutia of JFK's final breakfast, Walter Cronkite's phone conversations or his picayune obsession with Secret Service codenames. The book has its merits as an early, detailed account of the assassination, but has long since been surpassed as a "definitive" chronicle.
But if journalism is indeed the first draft of history, The Death of a President demonstrates why first drafts need to be revised. We can forgive Manchester, perhaps, for not delving into Kennedy's flaws and failures given his subject matter (his womanizing is offhandedly mentioned, along with two glancing mentions of his health issues), or for his raising Jackie Kennedy to near-sainthood for her coolheaded and generous response to the shooting, comforting family members and staffers as she remains soaked in her husband's blood. But the book feels facile in other respects: Manchester is intimately concerned with what happened, but not how or why, resulting in a book that is broad but shallow. He doesn't question the Secret Service's questionable behavior in Dallas, before or during the assassination; maybe we can't fault him for not knowing that the FBI's James Hosty had destroyed (at Hoover's behest) evidence of Oswald's threatening visit to his office, though he interviewed Hosty and cites him repeatedly. But his veneration of JFK contrasts with a petty depiction of Johnson as a coarse, bumptious dolt, a portrayal we can't countenance with Johnson's brilliantly effective command of the office over the next 2-3 years (if not over Vietnam, barely a blip in Manchester's narrative). His portrait of Oswald is even worse: he depicts Oswald's fanatical (if admittedly muddled) Marxism as an affectation, and bizarrely blames the assassination on his wife Marina's refusing to sleep with him (!), managing to be absurdly Freudian and grossly misogynist in one go. In such moments, we wonder if Manchester squandered his judgment on the minutia of JFK's final breakfast, Walter Cronkite's phone conversations or his picayune obsession with Secret Service codenames. The book has its merits as an early, detailed account of the assassination, but has long since been surpassed as a "definitive" chronicle.
August 24, 2016
I classify this historical account as my second summer read as when I think of President Kennedy I also think of Cape Cod.
A few weeks ago our family arrived in Dallas, Texas to attend an extended family evening wedding. In the morning we visited a west end western apparel store where my younger son bought a fine pair of cowboy boots. With time still on our hands we could toast a few beers but with an open bar at Mickey Gilley’s Club ahead of us we needed to pace ourselves. While sitting on the store bench I had a Forrest Gump moment as the saleswoman proceeded to tell me that the Texas School Book Depository building from which Oswald shot Kennedy was an easy walk just a few blocks away, thus no bus, no Uber. We had not planned to see Dealey Plaza but under the circumstances we strolled down the sidewalk to the grassy knoll and curved road, absorbing history. During the Holy Trinity Church ceremony I was made aware that this was the same church from which Father Oscar Huber came from to deliver the Last Rites of the Catholic Church to President Kennedy.
Less than 3 months following the November 22, 1963 death of President Kennedy it was his wife Jacqueline Kennedy, who wished to have the historical incident fully documented. The person she selected, who both knew the president and was most qualified, was William Manchester. The author thrust his full time and energy into the project and close to 50 years following its 1967 release the book remains a powerful chronicle of history. Often books with much documentation lack a proper flow and pace, but I was fully captivated and drawn into the circle of time and events.
The events begin in Washington, D.C. with a reception attended by several guests including Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, whereupon President Kennedy took notice of his 24 year old wife. I had to check the facts and incredibly Douglas was 41 years older than his new bride, who recently graduated from college. Nonfiction can be as wild as fiction.
When President Kennedy was assassinated the best contingency plans crumbled as utter chaos followed. Through in depth interviews Manchester sifted through the vast material. Over time I had forgotten if local, state or federal agencies had full jurisdiction. Manchester shed much light on this subject. William Manchester was also a former Marine and expert rifleman. In a splendid footnote he stated that Oswald’s shots using a scope were not that difficult.
Portions of the book are as emotional as any book I have read and at times the author can be rather humorous. Part of his unique writing style is exemplified by his portrayal of Judge Theron Ward as the judge tried to reconcile the removal process of President Kennedy’s body from Texas. “Holding the receiver with his right hand, the judge waved toward the puddled humanity at the door with his left hand, motioning them to go ahead. The value of the gesture was doubtful. It was like signaling to a bowl game scrimmage from a cheap seat”. Later when the slow moving funeral procession approached the gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery, Manchester noted the scramble. “Where men wound up largely depended upon how athletic their wives were.”
Kennedy once said “My wife is a shy, quiet girl, but when things get rough, she can handle herself pretty well.” Throughout the tragedy the true strong character of Jacqueline shines through revealing her inner strong willed personality.
On a personal note I was in 6th grade when President Kennedy was assassinated. Following the shooting around 1:30 PM EST we remained grief stricken in our geography class watching the black & white television coverage. After school, as a member of the junior high basketball team I attended practice, because even in the president’s home state of Massachusetts life went on.
I recall when President Kennedy was at his Hyannis Port home wooden barriers assisted Secret Service blocking the housing compound from traffic. Kennedy was known to collect his thoughts outside often smoking an H Upmann cigar, along the sandy beach where the ocean met the neighboring rock jetty. Manchester revealed in this book that Rose Kennedy retreated outside to this same location when she heard the news of her son’s death. In 1970 roughly 7 years after JFK’s death I was 18 and temporarily living ½ mile from the Kennedy compound. Having explored much of the Cape’s natural settings I desired to absorb the very element of the salt breeze and waves lapping the sand that President Kennedy knew so well. With the recent deaths of JFK, Bobby and Joseph P., and Ted residing on Squaw Island ¼ mile further away, Rose remained as the compound’s constant resident. With the assistance of a contact I waded around a cove mindful of littoral rights and past the white rowboat labeled PT-109 pulled up on shore towards the grass. I had yet to smoke my first cigar but I did take a book to read in this solitary environment sitting alone on the rocks off the beach behind the manicured lawn and row of houses. With much reflection another great memory was created.
Mrs. John F. Kennedy, who in future years would establish her own career as a publishing editor, made the appropriate decision by choosing Manchester. This historical piece reinforced my thoughts as to why William Manchester is among my favorite authors.
A few weeks ago our family arrived in Dallas, Texas to attend an extended family evening wedding. In the morning we visited a west end western apparel store where my younger son bought a fine pair of cowboy boots. With time still on our hands we could toast a few beers but with an open bar at Mickey Gilley’s Club ahead of us we needed to pace ourselves. While sitting on the store bench I had a Forrest Gump moment as the saleswoman proceeded to tell me that the Texas School Book Depository building from which Oswald shot Kennedy was an easy walk just a few blocks away, thus no bus, no Uber. We had not planned to see Dealey Plaza but under the circumstances we strolled down the sidewalk to the grassy knoll and curved road, absorbing history. During the Holy Trinity Church ceremony I was made aware that this was the same church from which Father Oscar Huber came from to deliver the Last Rites of the Catholic Church to President Kennedy.
Less than 3 months following the November 22, 1963 death of President Kennedy it was his wife Jacqueline Kennedy, who wished to have the historical incident fully documented. The person she selected, who both knew the president and was most qualified, was William Manchester. The author thrust his full time and energy into the project and close to 50 years following its 1967 release the book remains a powerful chronicle of history. Often books with much documentation lack a proper flow and pace, but I was fully captivated and drawn into the circle of time and events.
The events begin in Washington, D.C. with a reception attended by several guests including Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, whereupon President Kennedy took notice of his 24 year old wife. I had to check the facts and incredibly Douglas was 41 years older than his new bride, who recently graduated from college. Nonfiction can be as wild as fiction.
When President Kennedy was assassinated the best contingency plans crumbled as utter chaos followed. Through in depth interviews Manchester sifted through the vast material. Over time I had forgotten if local, state or federal agencies had full jurisdiction. Manchester shed much light on this subject. William Manchester was also a former Marine and expert rifleman. In a splendid footnote he stated that Oswald’s shots using a scope were not that difficult.
Portions of the book are as emotional as any book I have read and at times the author can be rather humorous. Part of his unique writing style is exemplified by his portrayal of Judge Theron Ward as the judge tried to reconcile the removal process of President Kennedy’s body from Texas. “Holding the receiver with his right hand, the judge waved toward the puddled humanity at the door with his left hand, motioning them to go ahead. The value of the gesture was doubtful. It was like signaling to a bowl game scrimmage from a cheap seat”. Later when the slow moving funeral procession approached the gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery, Manchester noted the scramble. “Where men wound up largely depended upon how athletic their wives were.”
Kennedy once said “My wife is a shy, quiet girl, but when things get rough, she can handle herself pretty well.” Throughout the tragedy the true strong character of Jacqueline shines through revealing her inner strong willed personality.
On a personal note I was in 6th grade when President Kennedy was assassinated. Following the shooting around 1:30 PM EST we remained grief stricken in our geography class watching the black & white television coverage. After school, as a member of the junior high basketball team I attended practice, because even in the president’s home state of Massachusetts life went on.
I recall when President Kennedy was at his Hyannis Port home wooden barriers assisted Secret Service blocking the housing compound from traffic. Kennedy was known to collect his thoughts outside often smoking an H Upmann cigar, along the sandy beach where the ocean met the neighboring rock jetty. Manchester revealed in this book that Rose Kennedy retreated outside to this same location when she heard the news of her son’s death. In 1970 roughly 7 years after JFK’s death I was 18 and temporarily living ½ mile from the Kennedy compound. Having explored much of the Cape’s natural settings I desired to absorb the very element of the salt breeze and waves lapping the sand that President Kennedy knew so well. With the recent deaths of JFK, Bobby and Joseph P., and Ted residing on Squaw Island ¼ mile further away, Rose remained as the compound’s constant resident. With the assistance of a contact I waded around a cove mindful of littoral rights and past the white rowboat labeled PT-109 pulled up on shore towards the grass. I had yet to smoke my first cigar but I did take a book to read in this solitary environment sitting alone on the rocks off the beach behind the manicured lawn and row of houses. With much reflection another great memory was created.
Mrs. John F. Kennedy, who in future years would establish her own career as a publishing editor, made the appropriate decision by choosing Manchester. This historical piece reinforced my thoughts as to why William Manchester is among my favorite authors.
February 3, 2012
In research for my work, I recently needed to obtain copies of the Look magazine issues that originally serialized this book. The articles about JFK's death made for fascinating reading, a true triumph of descriptive journalism. The details were telling and the depth truly astounding. It's this kind of reporting that makes me wistful for the heyday of journalism. Bloggers, schmoggers.
December 24, 2013
Farewell to the President
I am writing this entry one week after the 50th Anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination. The question asked of everyone who appears to be of a certain age is: “Where were you when JFK was assassinated? Do you remember?” My question is: “Is there anyone old enough to remember, who can’t?” My own memory remains vividly etched. I was in the 7th grade and it was lunch time at Montebello Junior High in Montebello, CA. Aimlessly wandering about waiting for classes to resume, the PA system grabbed my attention. I believe it was the school’s principal who spoke: “Attention please, attention everyone; we have terrible news to share. The President has been shot.” Before he could finish his sentence a buzzing wave swept the school yard, a singular question on all of our lips: “Which gang was responsible for the death of our Student Body President?” You see, I went to a fairly violent school & that was the only “assassination” our youthful minds could wrap our heads around. Moments later he finished his statement & while the Student Body President was very much alive, our President was not.
I’ve been meaning to read this book for over 40 years. Manchester’s account of the days leading up to & following the assassination was noted for its brilliant application of detail applied like lacquer, one coat after another, building in gloss & shine till nearly blinding. Finally, upon the eve of this anniversary I steeled up the nerve to confront it. I knew it would be a painful exercise – much more so than that fateful day for me on my school lunch yard.
Manchester manages this tour de force by meticulously documenting not two or three, four, five, ten or twelve but hundreds of personal, emotionally roiling snapshots of real people caught in the vortex of a President’s assassination. These personal vignettes are each touching, real & connected, raw passion rising from page after page like a shimmer of heat from wet pavement, smacking you hard, bringing back the now, from more than 50 years ago. There’s the Dallas police sergeant, tongue-tied, who so desperately only wanted to let the former First Lady know how terrible he felt, but couldn’t find the words, spastically blurting out at the last possible moment his name & “Ma’am” in a barely audible voice, his singular token of condolence. Is a stolen bible a big thing? It is when the theft is perpetrated by a charlatan who managed to breach the security perimeter at the airport, conning Sarah Hughes, the judge who administered the oath to LBJ, into handing over JFK’s personal family bible. Toward the end of the book, as the nation is bidding farewell to its Commander in Chief, Manchester’s photographic literary lens captures that heart rending moment when Jacqueline & Caroline Kennedy kneel before JFK’s flag draped coffin & kiss the flag gently while murmuring their love - your heart just breaks.
An ironic twist to Manchester’s treatment of this tight window surrounding Kennedy’s assassination (November 20 – November 25, 1963) is that for such a momentous, historic shaping event, Manchester’s tome is a book comprised of details, tons of them. Small decisions became large ones in the scope of things. As a reader, I found myself silently saying weren’t most of them trivial, like which church to select & how far should they walk & what about the protocol of who gets seated first & who might be offended & then again, in the scope of things, recognizing that Kennedy was the 1st President to be assassinated in the 20th century, there really were no small details. Manchester must be applauded for treating these details as brush strokes upon a canvass, so dense with swatches of different hues that the vision created was of a forest, not individual trees. Without the minutia so meticulously researched & reported, much of the narrative vibrancy that propelled his book forward would have been sacrificed.
One cannot ignore the controversy surrounding the publication of Manchester’s book. Literally commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy & JFK’s brother Robert to pen the official story of the President’s death; they nonetheless attempted to block the book’s publication. According to an article published in Vanity Fair Mrs. Kennedy voiced strong objections due to some scenes that reported her smoking. Allegedly, she also dissented with Manchester’s treatment of LBJ – too harsh. And then, believe it or not, when she learned how much Manchester was going to earn from ancillary revenue sources she felt that violated the deal she & Robert Kennedy had negotiated with him. Obviously, at the end of the day the book was published, even more so, very little was edited out to satisfy the Kennedy family. The power of the book plowed through their objections.
And that is the final impression left for me – a powerful saga, glistening in its respect of the tragedy’s gravity, awash in a litany of snippets, personal & not so, significant & small, courageous & craven, all indelible, meaningful forever, of a President’s demise & of a nation bidding him farewell.
I am writing this entry one week after the 50th Anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination. The question asked of everyone who appears to be of a certain age is: “Where were you when JFK was assassinated? Do you remember?” My question is: “Is there anyone old enough to remember, who can’t?” My own memory remains vividly etched. I was in the 7th grade and it was lunch time at Montebello Junior High in Montebello, CA. Aimlessly wandering about waiting for classes to resume, the PA system grabbed my attention. I believe it was the school’s principal who spoke: “Attention please, attention everyone; we have terrible news to share. The President has been shot.” Before he could finish his sentence a buzzing wave swept the school yard, a singular question on all of our lips: “Which gang was responsible for the death of our Student Body President?” You see, I went to a fairly violent school & that was the only “assassination” our youthful minds could wrap our heads around. Moments later he finished his statement & while the Student Body President was very much alive, our President was not.
I’ve been meaning to read this book for over 40 years. Manchester’s account of the days leading up to & following the assassination was noted for its brilliant application of detail applied like lacquer, one coat after another, building in gloss & shine till nearly blinding. Finally, upon the eve of this anniversary I steeled up the nerve to confront it. I knew it would be a painful exercise – much more so than that fateful day for me on my school lunch yard.
Manchester manages this tour de force by meticulously documenting not two or three, four, five, ten or twelve but hundreds of personal, emotionally roiling snapshots of real people caught in the vortex of a President’s assassination. These personal vignettes are each touching, real & connected, raw passion rising from page after page like a shimmer of heat from wet pavement, smacking you hard, bringing back the now, from more than 50 years ago. There’s the Dallas police sergeant, tongue-tied, who so desperately only wanted to let the former First Lady know how terrible he felt, but couldn’t find the words, spastically blurting out at the last possible moment his name & “Ma’am” in a barely audible voice, his singular token of condolence. Is a stolen bible a big thing? It is when the theft is perpetrated by a charlatan who managed to breach the security perimeter at the airport, conning Sarah Hughes, the judge who administered the oath to LBJ, into handing over JFK’s personal family bible. Toward the end of the book, as the nation is bidding farewell to its Commander in Chief, Manchester’s photographic literary lens captures that heart rending moment when Jacqueline & Caroline Kennedy kneel before JFK’s flag draped coffin & kiss the flag gently while murmuring their love - your heart just breaks.
An ironic twist to Manchester’s treatment of this tight window surrounding Kennedy’s assassination (November 20 – November 25, 1963) is that for such a momentous, historic shaping event, Manchester’s tome is a book comprised of details, tons of them. Small decisions became large ones in the scope of things. As a reader, I found myself silently saying weren’t most of them trivial, like which church to select & how far should they walk & what about the protocol of who gets seated first & who might be offended & then again, in the scope of things, recognizing that Kennedy was the 1st President to be assassinated in the 20th century, there really were no small details. Manchester must be applauded for treating these details as brush strokes upon a canvass, so dense with swatches of different hues that the vision created was of a forest, not individual trees. Without the minutia so meticulously researched & reported, much of the narrative vibrancy that propelled his book forward would have been sacrificed.
One cannot ignore the controversy surrounding the publication of Manchester’s book. Literally commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy & JFK’s brother Robert to pen the official story of the President’s death; they nonetheless attempted to block the book’s publication. According to an article published in Vanity Fair Mrs. Kennedy voiced strong objections due to some scenes that reported her smoking. Allegedly, she also dissented with Manchester’s treatment of LBJ – too harsh. And then, believe it or not, when she learned how much Manchester was going to earn from ancillary revenue sources she felt that violated the deal she & Robert Kennedy had negotiated with him. Obviously, at the end of the day the book was published, even more so, very little was edited out to satisfy the Kennedy family. The power of the book plowed through their objections.
And that is the final impression left for me – a powerful saga, glistening in its respect of the tragedy’s gravity, awash in a litany of snippets, personal & not so, significant & small, courageous & craven, all indelible, meaningful forever, of a President’s demise & of a nation bidding him farewell.
July 4, 2017
Written in 1967 this is the only account of the JFK assassination authorised by the Kennedy family. It is a fascinating read and a very detailed insight into the days, the hours, the moments of the trip to Dallas, the assassination, the emergency room at Parkland, the return to Washington, the lead up to the President's funeral and the funeral itself. We get a very close and personal look at all the main players and what they were thinking and doing. Jacqueline Kennedy especially stands out for her strength, poise and bravery as she led a country into mourning with class and dignity. We see how the death of JFK affected not only those close to him but a whole nation and even the whole world. We see the reaction too of his children, Caroline and John Jr and even their own bravery and amazing instinct to comfort those adults around them that were falling apart. Conspiracy theories aside this was a very touching and moving account of one of the biggest events in US history. A must read for any JFK fan.
March 5, 2012
Truthfully I did not read this entire book. It's almost 700 pages and exhaustingly detailed. But I read enough to know that this is a great historical record of a tremendous week in American history. It's thorough, interesting, painful, and sometimes so political and raw that you can't believe it got published at all, especially with Jacqueline's blessing* and only 3 years after JFK's assassination. It's a gutsy book, it really is, and it also takes a strong stomach to read because my god, his death was brutal, and so was the aftermath.
Jacqueline commissioned the book originally but ultimately fought its publication--largely because it hit too close to home in some parts. This is very believable--but also why it's such a gift to have this record at all.
Jacqueline commissioned the book originally but ultimately fought its publication--largely because it hit too close to home in some parts. This is very believable--but also why it's such a gift to have this record at all.
May 20, 2015
This is an extremely detailed history of the John F. Kennedy Assassination. Manchester is a skilled and thorough historian. It is packed with details and covers a very short span of time in exhansuting detail.
Although I did enjoy it, there are a few places where it is a bit dry---but also several very good and gripping descriptions. Since this is one of the early histories of the Kennedy assassination, it is a good starting point.
Manchester does seem to support the Warren Commission report, but whether you agree with his conclusion or not, there is a wealth of information in this book.
Although I did enjoy it, there are a few places where it is a bit dry---but also several very good and gripping descriptions. Since this is one of the early histories of the Kennedy assassination, it is a good starting point.
Manchester does seem to support the Warren Commission report, but whether you agree with his conclusion or not, there is a wealth of information in this book.
October 6, 2016
Five stars is an especially high threshold for this book. I know these events from other reading, and so I wasn't sure what another chronicler could add. Plus, I paid for this one after seriously considering some other choices, so buyer's remorse at any repeated or less than inspiring material was all but inevitable.
It was brilliant. I am in awe that a writer who could encompass the decades and the miles of Winston Churchill's impact could focus his intensity on a few days without overwhelming or manipulating the reader. He accomplishes this with well-chosen scenes, Even, like Shakespeare, comic relief in the midst of pathos. Manchester can also step back from his serious treatment of a most serious subject and admit the limits of his, and the reader's perspective. We might be wrong, but attempting to come to terms with this weighty weekend more than half a century ago is worth the risk.
It was brilliant. I am in awe that a writer who could encompass the decades and the miles of Winston Churchill's impact could focus his intensity on a few days without overwhelming or manipulating the reader. He accomplishes this with well-chosen scenes, Even, like Shakespeare, comic relief in the midst of pathos. Manchester can also step back from his serious treatment of a most serious subject and admit the limits of his, and the reader's perspective. We might be wrong, but attempting to come to terms with this weighty weekend more than half a century ago is worth the risk.
April 3, 2016
Magnificent. There are no other words. This is one of the best books I've ever read. I cried through much of it, which is why it took me so long to read.
I could not understand the mood in Dallas at the time. One of the more haunting facts was reading about school children in a wealthy suburb of Dallas cheering when told the President had been assassinated. What kind of people teach their children that kind of hate and intolerance?
So many other impressions from the book, I'll have to come back and edit.
I could not understand the mood in Dallas at the time. One of the more haunting facts was reading about school children in a wealthy suburb of Dallas cheering when told the President had been assassinated. What kind of people teach their children that kind of hate and intolerance?
So many other impressions from the book, I'll have to come back and edit.
July 28, 2020
Utterly fascinating, and revealing; Notwithstanding Jackie, and the Kennedy's, gutless retraction of their prior approval, and its resultant bowdlerization, it still has more than enough detail left to stun the reader. e.g. In the months prior to Kennedy's visit, there were ads in Dallas newspapers calling for his assassination.
July 25, 2020
I suppose this book was exactly what was needed back in ‘67: a detailed account of the Kennedy assassination that related the facts in as much detail as possible while ignoring or refuting all the insane conspiracy stuff that was already popping up around it. But there are few surprises in it now. The intense amount of detail is nuts and can be a chore to work through. Yet it still felt sometimes like we were missing bits. The focus is rightly on the Kennedy side of things, but I was surprised at how little effort he put into explaining Oswald. He’s a violent nut, apparently, with no firm convictions of his own apart from a desire to lash out against society. About right, so far as I know, but when everyone else gets 600+ pages describing their every action it’s odd to say the least that Oswald is passed over in summation. Perhaps it simply wasn’t possible to get the intimate access needed back in the days when this was still a deeply emotive event. But that is the danger of history books written so close in time to the events covered: they lack something in perspective.
It is a good book; very detailed. If you ever want the days surrounding the assassination laid out in crystal detail this is the place to start.
It is a good book; very detailed. If you ever want the days surrounding the assassination laid out in crystal detail this is the place to start.
December 12, 2021
This is probably the most detailed and surprisingly personal narrative of the JFK assassination I've read ... granting, of course, that I've not read many as I completely despise conspiracy theories of any kind.
It is extraordinarily detailed, and perhaps too much so: the narrative is fast-paced and intense right up until JFK is pronounced dead, and then it slows way down into minutiae related to planning the funeral. This might be quite interesting to many readers, particularly those whose living memories evoke images from their television screens or perhaps even at the service itself if they happened to take any part in the ceremonies. For others, well ... it does take up just over half the book. What keeps it read-able, however (aside from the historical value), is the fact that it really delves into the thoughts, memories, and feelings of the people most directly involved in those four November days. Jackie, in particular, emerges as a strong, capable, unbelievably dignified individual with a keen sense of the importance of image and symbolism for the whole nation.
Published four years after the assassination, the book does deal significantly more in hagiography than I was expecting. Don't expect to find JFK the man here: there is only JFK the saintly martyr and legend. I'm still looking for a good book that deals honestly with JFK the man, so feel free to send me your recommendations: I'm interested neither in the saint nor the sinner, but the complex and indeed extraordinary but nevertheless mortal man.
It is extraordinarily detailed, and perhaps too much so: the narrative is fast-paced and intense right up until JFK is pronounced dead, and then it slows way down into minutiae related to planning the funeral. This might be quite interesting to many readers, particularly those whose living memories evoke images from their television screens or perhaps even at the service itself if they happened to take any part in the ceremonies. For others, well ... it does take up just over half the book. What keeps it read-able, however (aside from the historical value), is the fact that it really delves into the thoughts, memories, and feelings of the people most directly involved in those four November days. Jackie, in particular, emerges as a strong, capable, unbelievably dignified individual with a keen sense of the importance of image and symbolism for the whole nation.
Published four years after the assassination, the book does deal significantly more in hagiography than I was expecting. Don't expect to find JFK the man here: there is only JFK the saintly martyr and legend. I'm still looking for a good book that deals honestly with JFK the man, so feel free to send me your recommendations: I'm interested neither in the saint nor the sinner, but the complex and indeed extraordinary but nevertheless mortal man.
November 28, 2014
A book that I had to read and had to hunt down on Amazon to obtain. Published in 1967, William Manchester's 'The Death of a President' is a flawed historical account of November 20 to November 25 1963. For those readers old enough to recall those searing days, memories will be reignited. For those who came after Camelot, they will be transported back in time through it's yellowing pages, (760+), (350,000 words), to an epicentre of twentieth century political history.
In March 1964, Jacqueline Kennedy and Robert Kennedy entered into an agreement with the author to write 'an extensive account describing the events surrounding the death of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963.' RFK stated that 'members of the Kennedy family will place no obstacle in the way of publication of this work.' Manchester made very many factual errors in this epic account that he rushed to have published, in spite of tremendous pressure on him to delete much of his treatment of Johnson.
It has to be remembered that in these early years after the assassination, many writers and media commentators followed the official line of Oswald as the lone nut and no conspiracy.
However as a historical work 'The Death of a President' can only be seen as a shambles, as unfortunate as the authors decision to keep his working papers and documents in a bank vault long into the 21st century.
In March 1964, Jacqueline Kennedy and Robert Kennedy entered into an agreement with the author to write 'an extensive account describing the events surrounding the death of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963.' RFK stated that 'members of the Kennedy family will place no obstacle in the way of publication of this work.' Manchester made very many factual errors in this epic account that he rushed to have published, in spite of tremendous pressure on him to delete much of his treatment of Johnson.
It has to be remembered that in these early years after the assassination, many writers and media commentators followed the official line of Oswald as the lone nut and no conspiracy.
However as a historical work 'The Death of a President' can only be seen as a shambles, as unfortunate as the authors decision to keep his working papers and documents in a bank vault long into the 21st century.
September 5, 2009
This book is a fascinating, highly detailed account of the hours leading up to JFK's death up until moments after RFK and Jackie leave his grave after his burial. Manchester is/was one our top historians (Churchill biographer) and Jackie asked him to write this account. His story was too much for her to bear though and she sued to prevent publication. She obviously lost and thank goodness for us. The book is a long one and as mentioned takes place over a short time span (like 24 it is in real time).
The best part about this book for me was a toss up between how horrible the event was for those involved and how Manchester made the reader feel that and the chaos and disorder our government can spin off into when it's leader is murdered.
The best part about this book for me was a toss up between how horrible the event was for those involved and how Manchester made the reader feel that and the chaos and disorder our government can spin off into when it's leader is murdered.
September 14, 2009
This is a very long and detailed book describing the weekend of the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963. I read an interesting article in a recent Vanity Fair about the publication of the book. Since it had been sitting on my shelf for some years I got it down to leaf through and in no time I was hooked. I've read several books by Manchester and admire his writing. He always notes the telling details and the Kennedy book is chock full of them. Lots of things those of us watching TV or those who read about the events in the million books about it written in later years would never know. It is worth the week or so it takes to read it.
September 10, 2012
I re-read this book once a year. Written in 1967, Manchester's book predates all of the 80s and 90s looney tunes who shoot up a restaurant, school or shopping mall, but his description of JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald resonates. Written decades before "going postal" became a synonym for a nutcase who just starts shooting, Manchester nails the psychology of a killer. What he says about Oswald is the same thing that is said about every spree killer and wannabee who makes the nightly news.
The book is so much more than that. You understand and empathize with the participants and you start to cry because you know how it is going to end. Sometimes history does not have a happy ending.
The book is so much more than that. You understand and empathize with the participants and you start to cry because you know how it is going to end. Sometimes history does not have a happy ending.
September 6, 2024
I read this book a very long time ago. Written right after the death of President Kennedy.
It is well written. Heartbreaking, for sure.
I was the same age as John Jr. and don’t remember his father at all.
This book helped shed light on that awful day. Still so many questions after all these years that will never be answered since most of the key people are now gone.
What if they had just skipped Dallas? What would the future have been like?
It is well written. Heartbreaking, for sure.
I was the same age as John Jr. and don’t remember his father at all.
This book helped shed light on that awful day. Still so many questions after all these years that will never be answered since most of the key people are now gone.
What if they had just skipped Dallas? What would the future have been like?
November 9, 2014
This past November marked the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination I was listening to NPR conducting an interview with Philip Shenon about his book A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination. During the interview Shenon mention the fact the William Manchester had access to the Warren Commission report before it was released to the public. He also discussed how Manchester spent more time interviewing Jackie Kennedy along with other principals then the Warren Commission had. In July I finished Robert Caro’s forth volume of his LBJ biography The Passage of Power that also used Manchester’s Death of a President as a key source for those fateful days in November.
The final item that pushed me into finding a copy and reading it was an article by Sam Kashner in Vanity Fair called A Clash of Camelots published in 2009 and can be found here http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/fe...
The backstory on Manchester’s struggle to write and then publish the book is clearly worthy of its own book one day.
As to the book itself it’s a masterpiece of language and narrative. Manchester’s goal is to presents the events of these four days in November to the reader without getting distracted by conspiracy theories. Manchester interviewed in person all the key players of the events depicted with the exception of President Johnson who responded in writing to submitted question. In addition to the interviews and since the project was establish by Jackie and Bobby Kennedy Manchester has access to the Kennedy Presidential Papers even before the library had been opened.
Manchester does take advantage of the fact that every reader opening the pages of his book are familiar with the events of November 22, 1963. But what he does is fill in the gaps by spending moments of that trip from Love Field to Dealey Plaza with each of the key participants explaining where they were and what there reactions were to the events that had taken place.
Any student of history also has to look at this book as a masterpiece of modern historiography. From the interviews to the documents to the narrative this is the key document that explains the events of the assassination and how the Federal government responded in the days afterwards. It’s the history of the sudden end and start of administrations.
And lastly as an emergency manager it’s an excellent source on continuity of government during a national crisis. Having work on continuity of operations plans it’s interesting that some of the issues presented in those hours after the assassination are still area that we need to ensure information is exchanged properly between agencies.
Overall if you are interested in the events surrounding the assassination and are looking for a neutral narrative this book is mandatory reading to get a full understanding about those four days in November.
The final item that pushed me into finding a copy and reading it was an article by Sam Kashner in Vanity Fair called A Clash of Camelots published in 2009 and can be found here http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/fe...
The backstory on Manchester’s struggle to write and then publish the book is clearly worthy of its own book one day.
As to the book itself it’s a masterpiece of language and narrative. Manchester’s goal is to presents the events of these four days in November to the reader without getting distracted by conspiracy theories. Manchester interviewed in person all the key players of the events depicted with the exception of President Johnson who responded in writing to submitted question. In addition to the interviews and since the project was establish by Jackie and Bobby Kennedy Manchester has access to the Kennedy Presidential Papers even before the library had been opened.
Manchester does take advantage of the fact that every reader opening the pages of his book are familiar with the events of November 22, 1963. But what he does is fill in the gaps by spending moments of that trip from Love Field to Dealey Plaza with each of the key participants explaining where they were and what there reactions were to the events that had taken place.
Any student of history also has to look at this book as a masterpiece of modern historiography. From the interviews to the documents to the narrative this is the key document that explains the events of the assassination and how the Federal government responded in the days afterwards. It’s the history of the sudden end and start of administrations.
And lastly as an emergency manager it’s an excellent source on continuity of government during a national crisis. Having work on continuity of operations plans it’s interesting that some of the issues presented in those hours after the assassination are still area that we need to ensure information is exchanged properly between agencies.
Overall if you are interested in the events surrounding the assassination and are looking for a neutral narrative this book is mandatory reading to get a full understanding about those four days in November.
October 17, 2012
In order to appreciate Death of a President, it must be read with an eye to the context of the time. It was one of the first books on the assassination, and the first to be written with use of extensive interviews of the First Lady, the Attorney General and countless other witnesses to the Kennedy Presidency, Assassination and the aftermath.
This is to say that when this book was released, Kennedy was bathed in the glow of martyrdom, and is even referred to as a martyr. His marriage to Mrs. Kennedy has not a jot of anything other than pure adoration flowing in both directions. He is goodness and genius, pure and simple, and that's reasonable given that this is only three years after his murder and the focus of the book is not on criticism, but timetable.
As a chronology of the events in Dallas and afterward, Death of a President is indispensable, and has obviously served as a template for countless chronologies of tragedy which have followed. We know every step from the moment JFK arises on the morning he leaves Washington for the last time, through to the visit that RFK and the First Lady pay to Arlington late that final Monday evening. Everything is discussed in exhaustive detail, and Manchester gets his information from numerous sources.
Some of the information is extraneous and, to my mind, unnecessary. The spat between Yarborough and Connally goes on for many, many pages and even now that I've completed the book, I don't see why such an exhaustive review is necessary to understanding the chronology of the assassination. It could have been covered in paragraph or, at most, a page.
Death of a President is a meaty, heavy, in some cases tiring read. There is a lot of information to digest here, and most of it matters to understanding the thought processes of those involved. It requires attention and time to read it properly; if you're looking for something to curl up with as a chance to read a few pages before going to sleep, this may not be the right choice. If you are looking for a way to immerse yourself in history, and are willing to tune out the rest of the world while you inhabit a tragic November weekend, make time for this. It is not a quick or easy read, but it is an important and worthwhile one, and well worth the effort.
This is to say that when this book was released, Kennedy was bathed in the glow of martyrdom, and is even referred to as a martyr. His marriage to Mrs. Kennedy has not a jot of anything other than pure adoration flowing in both directions. He is goodness and genius, pure and simple, and that's reasonable given that this is only three years after his murder and the focus of the book is not on criticism, but timetable.
As a chronology of the events in Dallas and afterward, Death of a President is indispensable, and has obviously served as a template for countless chronologies of tragedy which have followed. We know every step from the moment JFK arises on the morning he leaves Washington for the last time, through to the visit that RFK and the First Lady pay to Arlington late that final Monday evening. Everything is discussed in exhaustive detail, and Manchester gets his information from numerous sources.
Some of the information is extraneous and, to my mind, unnecessary. The spat between Yarborough and Connally goes on for many, many pages and even now that I've completed the book, I don't see why such an exhaustive review is necessary to understanding the chronology of the assassination. It could have been covered in paragraph or, at most, a page.
Death of a President is a meaty, heavy, in some cases tiring read. There is a lot of information to digest here, and most of it matters to understanding the thought processes of those involved. It requires attention and time to read it properly; if you're looking for something to curl up with as a chance to read a few pages before going to sleep, this may not be the right choice. If you are looking for a way to immerse yourself in history, and are willing to tune out the rest of the world while you inhabit a tragic November weekend, make time for this. It is not a quick or easy read, but it is an important and worthwhile one, and well worth the effort.
March 9, 2015
I found this Fascinating and had a very hard time putting it down to do things that had to be done. As a person who thought he knew all there was to know about the JFK assassination, while reading this book I discovered new and interesting facts that I didn't know or had forgotten. As I was reading this book, I started having flashbacks at the age of 7 in Brownfield TX, The announcement that JFK had been Assassinated in Dallas TX, My Teacher Mrs. Zimmerman crying and school being dismissed early, The enormous crowds filing around the Flag covered casket The church and the funeral procession, the casket on the gun carriage, the riderless horse with the sword and boots backwards in stirrups, the 21 cannon salute, John John saluting his father's casket and finally Mrs. Kennedy lighting the torch. Those events indwell-ed in my mind forever, I only wished I would of payed more attention to everything going on instead of wanting to go outside and play. this book brought emotions that I thought were long forgotten. I so caught up in minute by minute, day by day happenings that I had so many visual Pictures. I don't Like to go into details of the book, I want let the readers discover the events absorb them as there happening and and processing the information for the first time. As a amateur Presidential Historian with personal knowledge of the events, I want to say this is a must read people interested in the JFK Presidency.
August 8, 2019
This book was not exactly what I thought it would be. It was no summarization of conspiracy theories and investigative mistakes. Instead, it was a minute by minute retelling of exactly what it felt like to be a witness to the death of a president. Not a moment is spent considering the idea that there might have been a second shooter who assisted Lee Harvey Oswald, but the reader does learn how long Jacqueline Kennedy refused to change out of her blood-stained pink suit, how heavy the casket felt to the men who had the honor of carrying it, and how little John wondered if his daddy had taken Air Force One to heaven. This book cuts through the decades of martyrdom and sensationalism to give us a glimpse of what it actually felt like to be close to someone like JFK, to watch his life snuffed out senselessly and prematurely, to have to mourn him in full public view, and to wonder what more he could have done. It is not exactly an unbiased account as the author is a clear admirer of the Kennedys, but it is packed with facts, such as where those closest to JFK were as the fatal shot was fired, each at their mundane daily tasks as their life was forever altered. I appreciate the unique, more personal, view of the tragedy that this book offers.
February 6, 2014
One of the most difficult books I have read.
I kept putting it down after reading just a few papers, perhaps subconsciously hoping that this wasn't going to happen if I simply didn't read it.
The last portion was just as difficult, having to put the book down repeatedly because of the tears in my eyes.
Manchester did an unbelievable job documenting the few days before and after the assassination of President Kennedy.
What stands out most to me is the amount and intensity of blatant hatred that existed in Dallas and the south at that time. Classrooms in Dallas erupted into applause when the children were told that the president had been murdered. Those that spoke out against the hatred in Dallas after the assassination were ostracized or worse. Dallas felt no shame.
I kept putting it down after reading just a few papers, perhaps subconsciously hoping that this wasn't going to happen if I simply didn't read it.
The last portion was just as difficult, having to put the book down repeatedly because of the tears in my eyes.
Manchester did an unbelievable job documenting the few days before and after the assassination of President Kennedy.
What stands out most to me is the amount and intensity of blatant hatred that existed in Dallas and the south at that time. Classrooms in Dallas erupted into applause when the children were told that the president had been murdered. Those that spoke out against the hatred in Dallas after the assassination were ostracized or worse. Dallas felt no shame.
May 13, 2020
Very moving and eloquently written.
I’ve waited 50 years to read this book. I’m so glad I finally took the time to do so. It’s just the facts - no conspiracy theories. It is so eloquently written and parts do invoke tears. It’s well worth the time to read especially if you were a child if this era.
I’ve waited 50 years to read this book. I’m so glad I finally took the time to do so. It’s just the facts - no conspiracy theories. It is so eloquently written and parts do invoke tears. It’s well worth the time to read especially if you were a child if this era.
July 30, 2020
Resoconto dettagliato e approfondito, minuzioso e preciso dei giorni che vanno dal 21 al 25 novembre 1963. Lavoro encomiabile. Il libro porta i limiti dell’epoca in cui fu scritto, ma merita davvero. Se siete appassionati dell’argomento, leggetelo.
July 28, 2023
I had heard that this book was very detailed from multiple sources, but I was still surprised just how detailed it was. It gave an amazing perspective into the minute to minute actions of tons of people around all of these events. While interesting, personally I didn’t need to know about all of those emotions and peoples’ thoughts every step of the way. I listened to this on Audible, and I don’t know if I would have made it through if I read it. Still I’m glad I made it to the end. For what he set out to do, he nailed it. It’s just way more detail, some of it not relevant unless you’re very interested in every aspect of the events, than I’d prefer.
March 15, 2023
After three months of reading, I am feeling sentimental about this book! 700 pages dedicated to five days in U.S. history- are you kidding?? The author’s dedication to every detail was the most wonderful part. If you have any interest in the history of our nation- please read!!!
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