This week saw the 60th anniversary of the assassination of US President John F Kennedy. The Bug’s most senior political commentator provides some very personal reflections on the sad anniversary.
When November rolls around each year I cannot help but recall one of the highlights of my life of public service which has included the provision of tactical and strategic advice to a range of Australian political leaders from all sides of politics.
My mind always takes me back to an event almost 18 months before that dark day in Dallas in November 1963 when the world lost the youthful, dynamic, and charismatic US President John F Kennedy.
It was June 1962 and I was accompanying the then Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies on an official visit to the United States which included a meeting and working lunch with JFK at the White House.
The President knew that Mr Menzies (He was yet to be knighted.) enjoyed a good wine and made sure his glass was always filled.
I must admit that this caused the PM to become initially very lively but then, after several bottles of top-rate Californian reds, somewhat tired and sleepy.
He began to doze off at the table, something JFK diplomatically ignored while engaging me in deep conversation.
Over coffee the President broke out three very large cigars and handed me one while, again very diplomatically, placing one on the table in front of the by-now-snoring Prime Minister.
As he smoked and I coughed, Kennedy spoke frankly about his domestic political problems, especially those he faced in southern states of the US.
By that time of the US political cycle he had already effectively started his re-election campaign for the November 1964 election.
He admitted to me that he may have difficulty carrying the state of Texas and that his Vice-President Lyndon Johnson, himself a Texan, was pressuring him to visit the state to rally Democrats for the fight ahead.
But the President said he was reluctant.
I saw an opportunity to provide some words of support to help him make up his mind.
“If I were you I’d be off to Texas like a shot,” I told JFK. “It seems to me that your Democratic Party followers there would benefit from a visit by a big shot like you and, dare I say, your gracious good lady wife Jackie.
“As far as I can work out, if you don’t go to Texas your reputation there will be shot.
“You’ll face continuing sniping. Voters there will give you the bullet and desert you, and you need that like a hole in the head,” I told him in no uncertain terms.
I could tell Kennedy was very impressed with my advice and was going to take it.
I guessed as much when he said to me: “Rufus, I’m very impressed with your advice and I’m going to take it.”
It was at that moment Menzies began coughing from inhaling the cigar smoke and woke up.
President Kennedy graciously escorted us from the White House to our waiting motorcade outside. (main picture)
We never had the chance to enjoy his company again.
Every year as the tragic anniversary of his death arrives I always spend many contemplating his shocking demise and, like many others, wonder how it could have been avoided.
Rufus Badinage MBE, now retired, is one of Australia’s leading experts on politics and public administration having worked as a senior bureaucrat and political adviser for various state and federal governments.
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