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12/1/1963 - Dirge by Anatole Shub

NOT FOR PUBLICATION INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS AS Bir6aninova Dirge Belgrade Yugoslavia December Nr Richard H Nolte Institute Current World Affairs Nadison Avenue New York N Y Dear Nr Nolte We learned President Kennedy murder private dinner U S Embassy Prague It place while immediate impulse rejoin countrymen perhaps thing The Embassy itself former Schonbrunn Palace acquired United States Charles Crane before founded Institute itself embodi New Frontier generation before phrase coined Noreover guests Czech official official respects their grief sense great A Foreign Ninistry official immediately recalled Cuban crisis October When I think another might those I shudder A young asked angrily Why doesn anyone shoot Presidents world instead country Her father spoke another After those their liver troubles prostate operations stale dogmas hopes Here young strong fresh Who enjoyed spirit death Why should lives young people future their children dictated world We waited someone someone cared about future tired disillusioned At people began dream again Now One could recounting evidences Eastern Europe special grief Jack Kennedy hundreds Prague waiting queues newspapers hundreds Belgrade brought flowers American reading The reaction deeper these Communist countries I observed Vienna colleague Denny Rusinow encountered Italy It universal sorrow death Pope John which learned Czechoslovakia although I suspect reasons large measure identical Yet aptest comment I think friend Prague barely survived Nazi occupation Stalinist Slansky trials I thinking morning after President murder It terrible course world Europe Eastern Europe little affairs Czechoslovakia But worst AS younger Americans world something something something He President others He I wonder feelings about country people ourselves Edmund Wilson wrote The merica I pages Lif magazine country country I The America Jack Kennedy tried bring being country although perha because Lincoln Wilson minority President He first President since Roosevelt ashamed When Allen Ginsberg wrote young generation hunting nigger despair commentary Eisenhower The Wasteland Coolidge period I recall watching televised campaign speech Nixon where Southwest asking colleague afterwards How awful cornball colleague answer cynical serious friend America cornball country It elected Truman elected Eisenhower twice Reader Digest BaturdaY Evening Post could about I consider civllza Of course Nixon knows better smart enough likes Oklahoma City Those fancy Kennedy appeal America whether I still there another America For Gilded Ages always remember country uniquely founded aristo cratic intellectuals Enlightenment ideas Our history aberrations betrayals those ideas slavery cancer start which exorcise Yet through consciousness least American people oldest cities institutions literature there remained tradition Jefferson Adams adisono Repudiated debased twisted buffeted every selfish bigoted complacent tradition somehow rises again deepened Lincoln broadened Wilson Roose invoked consciously youngest Presidents dictu knows words whose promise B believes unique talents Harvard educated wounded Irish politician knows something about bring those promises With freedom because great wealth anything wished chose progressive politician democracy itself affirmation What offered sense possibilities feeling chose might larger point I remember sneering I first heard New Frontier these three years I begun understand perhaps vaguely It leave burrows middle class mediocrity embark pursuit excellence which himself echoing Greeks later cited efini happiness AS It answered slowly reluctantly oorrosion belief indeed How often Truman Eisenhower decades dedicated people anguished counsel blooded brushed aside moment transcen moral idiocy There moments I recall special horror One Eisenhower press conference June baldly revealed nothing East German uprising which begtu morning before which divided Kremlin hesitated hours before deciding Soviet tanks could crush impunity Another moment Oct John Foster Dulles righteous blindness greeted revolutionary Poland Hungary unneces unsolicited quite fatal assurance under circumstance would United States intervene Eastern Europe In neither I think could Jack Kennedy behaved cases I rather suspect would risen He first president since Wilson books Subscribe philosophy history corrosive faith The consolation offered enormous It merely chose write thing contribute arcane private knowledge might himself instead accepting pa_ckaged ventional wisdom bureaucrat briefing Rather sense larger oollective enterprise there controlling intelligence wished everything directly without preconceived ideas courage judgment knowledge We short whatever little might causes freedom peace internationalism causes Charlie Wilson appreciated worth something larger which country spirits mitted could would undone vigorous shrewd young The answer question Who cares first since Roosevelt Presi democracy realized absolutely indispensable Yet Kennedy Presidency sense commitment another sense liberation For eyond policies there style genuinely refreshingly contemporax Norman 5Iailer glimpsed famous Convention piece Esquire where saluted Kennedy uniting person divergent currents erican current traditional public debili tating conventiona derground stream dream hitherto confined books music movies The different Scott Fitzgerald another Iv Leagae Irishman Kennedy happily He lionaire cared money respect generals chair intellectual contempt pedantry political upstart defied convention reputa naturally realized someone would serious possibility perish I looked AS others explaining decision Presi dency decided Why Hatless coatless cigar unconcealed photographers Truman Eisenhower cigarettes daughter cavorting White House loveliest wives tramping among ruins Hellas resembled predecessors Renaissance prince Henry Navarre perhaps young Lorenzo edici portrayed Macchiavelli agnifico miracle freely leader democracy whose imperfections often evident As President Willy Brandt simple phrase peace better As shining Jack golden aspect silver grace God ideal Long weeping continue would false Work I think assume settled passively another twenty years raise Received New York December