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JFK on tape: Economy, election, VietnamPresidential library declassifies more tapes
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- President Kennedy was concerned that a downturn in the economy could cost him the 1964 election, according to tapes released Wednesday by the Kennedy Library. "I don't think the country can take another recession," Kennedy said. "Otherwise we are liable to get all the blame for the deficit and none of the advantage of the stimulus in the economy." Earlier in that same meeting, Kennedy said, "I think [the recession] ruined Nixon in '60." The conversation, taped on December 6, 1962, was part of 15 hours of Kennedy-era recordings the library has declassified and made available for research. (JFK Library) Kennedy was assassinated November 22, 1963, and he was replaced in office by Lyndon Johnson, who won re-election in 1964. The newly released recordings span a nearly two-month period and cover "wide-ranging subject matters, including the economy and its political implications, the crisis in the Congo, Cuba and Latin America following the Cuban Missile Crisis, military assistance to Vietnam, and American relations with France and the European Community," the JFK Library said in a news release. Noted presidential historian Douglas Brinkley agrees. "What's interesting in these 15 hours of tapes is, it seems to be he's taking a pulse of the war through the tapes," Brinkley told CNN's Aaron Brown. Vietnam was also a topic of presidential meetings included in the new tapes. At a bipartisan legislative leaders meeting on January 8, 1963, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara assessed Vietnam. "There are a number of disquieting indications of possible trouble to come," McNamara said, according to excerpts provided by the library. In another meeting on Vietnam less than a month later, Gen. Earle Wheeler recommends to the president that the United States maintain its current level of support for the South Vietnamese government. "The Vietcong are not bleeding in this war," Wheeler told Kennedy. "The South Vietnamese are bleeding." Wheeler added that some blood "needs to be let in order to make Ho Chi Minh recognize that he can't fight this war for free." He was referring to the North Vietnamese leader. The recordings were made in the Cabinet Room and Oval Office between December 6, 1962 and February 2, 1963, the library said. The complete release totals more than 15.5 hours of recordings of which "21 minutes 18 seconds remain classified," according to the library. Approximately 110 hours of meeting tapes remain to be reviewed before they can be released, the library's news release said. Processing of presidential recordings will continue in chronological order. The library will host the first-ever National Presidential Tapes Conference on Presidents' Day weekend, February 16 and 17. The conference will examine "the history of the presidential taping systems and [the tapes'] impact on each president's leadership and legacy," the library said. The first items from the Kennedy Library's presidential recordings were opened to public research in June 1983, the library said. Over the past 20 years, library staff members have reviewed and opened all of the telephone conversations and a large portion of the meeting tapes.
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If you are running for re-election in 1964 what is it you worry about most -- recession? That is what I'm worried about … I don't think the country can take another recession.
