John Fitzgerald Kennedy came to power at a time of great change in America. He was a man of powerful political ambition who believed that the only real qualification for the most powerful job on earth was to want it strongly enough. He was only the second Roman Catholic ever to run for President, achieving it with the narrowest of margins, only 118,574 votes over Richard Nixon, who had been the incumbent Vice President under Eisenhower. At his death, the country mourned officially for thirty days. Flags flew at half-mast and government officials put three martini lunches on hold, and then it would be business as usual.
Life goes on.
Except this time, the death of a major public figure, or more likely, the way he died, made things different. People queued five deep to walk past the eternal flame at Arlington Cemetery. A thousand people walked up 5th Avenue in New York, each holding a candle in memory of Jack Kennedy. Magazines and newspapers worked overtime producing memorial editions and bookshops were soon overflowing with volumes about the Kennedys. In England, British Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home said when he heard the news, The mind and heart stood still.