The Mature (i.e. Liberal) JFK

Kennedy, by Theodore C. Sorensen. Harper, $10.00 During the 1960 Presidential campaign, the Kennedy forces had at their disposal a “Nixopedia” which, according to the late President’s factotum, Theodore C. Sorensen, was “a somewhat unwieldy collection of everything Nixon had said and how he had voted on every subject, supplemented daily during the campaign by notations on glaring inconsistencies between his past and present, or North and South speeches.” The “Nixopedia” was put to good use during the campaign. Four years later, the Democrats had a field day exhuming ancient—and embarrassing— quotes attributed to Barry Goldwater. Because the Republican nominee had changed his mind over the years on some issue or other was obviously a sign of opportunism or, at worst, instability, according to the Democrats.

But not with John F. Kennedy. When JFK changed his mind on some issue or other, according to Mr. Sorensen in his new book Kennedy, it was a sign of growth and maturity. “The fact that Lasky and other critics could discover inconsistencies between his congressional, senatorial, and Presidential positions did not surprise or dismay Kennedy. ‘We all learn,’ he observed in 1960, ‘from the time you are born to the time you die. . . . Events change . . . conditions change, and . . . you would be extremely unwise … to pursue policies that are unsuccessful.”

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Victor Lasky

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Kennedy, by Theodore C. Sorensen. Harper, $10.00 During the 1960 Presidential campaign, the Kennedy forces had at their disposal a “Nixopedia” which, according to the late President’s factotum, Theodore C. Sorensen, was “a somewhat unwieldy collection of everything Nixon had said and how he had voted on every subject, supplemented daily during the campaign by notations on glaring inconsistencies between his past and present, or North and South speeches.” The “Nixopedia” was put to good use during the campaign. Four years later, the Democrats had a field day exhuming ancient—and embarrassing— quotes attributed to Barry Goldwater. Because the Republican nominee had changed his mind over the years on some issue or other was obviously a sign of opportunism or, at worst, instability, according to the Democrats.

But not with John F. Kennedy. When JFK changed his mind on some issue or other, according to Mr. Sorensen in his new book Kennedy, it was a sign of growth and maturity. “The fact that Lasky and other critics could discover inconsistencies between his congressional, senatorial, and Presidential positions did not surprise or dismay Kennedy. ‘We all learn,’ he observed in 1960, ‘from the time you are born to the time you die. . . . Events change . . . conditions change, and . . . you would be extremely unwise … to pursue policies that are unsuccessful.”