JFK, Stripped of “Camelot”

[“Alan J. Levine, Possibly America’s Last Great Living Historian, on british Historian Max Hastings’ Book on the Cuban Missile Crisis.”

Full disclosure: Nicholas Stix freelanced for Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture from 1992-1999, where he wrote a series of classic articles (e.g., “black English,” “Crime Stories,” and The black Nationalism of George S. Schuyler”). In 1999, editor-in-chief Thomas Fleming purged him, while cheating Stix out of a publication and fee (he didn’t even pay him a “kill fee”) for a profile he’d written of new york city mayor Rudy Giuliani, and on which Stix had worked app. 150 hours (and which would have earned him only $150).

The purge was apparently part of a one-sided proxy war by Fleming, following the departure of Ted Pappas, who had been the magazine’s managing editor for ten years, during which time Pappas had carried Fleming. Around that time, a highly placed source told Stix that Fleming had attended a meeting of the League of the South in a state of extreme inebriation, where he had engaged in a stream of profanity. Another member told Fleming to immediately stop cursing, and when Fleming persisted, punched him out. Fleming never thanked Pappas for his service, but simply posted a terse note on the letters page, saying that he no longer worked there.

Stix concluded from Fleming’s misconduct at Chronicles that Pappas had been Stix’ “rabbi” at the magazine.

Nicholas Stix’ Chronicles archive.]


Jackie Kennedy was America's most beautiful, tasteful, and heroic First Lady. However, she was also the creator of the Camelot Myth. (How heroic was Jackie? Just take a look at the Zapruder film of the communist Lee Harvey Oswald's assassination of the President. Mrs. Kennedy risked being also killed, throwing her body across that of her mortally wounded knight, as if she were a Secret Service agent.)

By David in TN
tuesday, november 21, 2023 at 5:32:00 p.m. est

Alan J. Levine, America's Last Great Living Historian, wrote “John F. Kennedy Remembered Without Tears.”

The essay is in the November Chronicles Magazine.

“On this anniversary, the media will probably continue to prop up the legends of the 1960s, especially those concerning JFK. Once again, the old stories will be trotted out, with perhaps a few modifications, to cover certain embarrassing matters that have become too public. JFK will be presented as a glamorous war hero, unmatched orator, an author and devotee of the arts and intellectual pursuits, the man who got us to the moon, furthered civil rights and liberal causes. He’ll be portrayed as the victor in the Cuban Missile Crisis, the greatest crisis of the Cold War, and the man who saved the world from nuclear war almost single-handedly, except for the help of his brother, against the reckless advice of most of his advisers. Finally, to many, JFK is the man who would have saved us from Vietnam, if only he had lived.

N.S.: Ted Sorensen (1928-2010) at his White House desk. Sorenson ghostwrote Profiles in Courage, which I read at the age of eight. All I recall of it was a sentence that ran on for over one full page. Since everyone knew that the late President was a genius, and everything he did was great, I concluded that one of the signs of genius was in being able to write never-ending sentences. The book, part of Joe Kennedy Sr.'s campaign to put his son in the White House, sought to depict JFK as a great intellectual. In an earlier chapter of said campaign, Kennedy Sr. engaged new york times columnist Arthur Krock to "edit" Jack's Harvard master's thesis, Why England Slept, into a book, which with the senior Kennedy's publishing pull and Krock's press connections, was turned into a bestseller. Whether Jack Kennedy had ever written any of the thesis/book, or even read it, has never been publicly determined.

Pulitzer-prize winner Arthur Krock (1886-1974) was called the “dean of Washington newsmen.” Krock edited Jack's Harvard master's thesis, Why England Slept, into a bestselling book. Had Krock ghosted the thesis, as well?

“All these mythmaking portraits were marshalled by veterans of his administration, such as former White House Counsel Ted Sorensen and the historian and former White House Special Assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr. They have been repeated to this day, notably in Mark K. Updegrove’s recent book, Incomparable Grace (2022), which is far from the most extreme example of Kennedy worship.

Kennedy "court historian" Arthur Schlesinger Jr. was given a no-show job as "Albert Schweitzer Professor of the Humanities" at my grad school alma mater, the City University Graduate School. We once rode in the elevator together. I didn't say anything to him. (I stood under indictment for years there for a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Eventually, the departmen chairman offered me a plea bargain: an M.A. and time served.)

“Despite all this adulation, the real JFK was a man who can only be described with a four-letter word: Fake.

“Of all American presidents, JFK’s reputation for honesty and nobility is the most fraudulent. Kennedy was something fortunately rare in a modern democratic country, at least until recently; a man whose WHOLE LIFE was a lie, whose reputation has so little basis in truth that it requires explanation.”

David in TN: The previous time Mr. Levine wrote on this subject he didn’t use the term “until recently.” Now he does. As he continues, Mr. Levine gives the explanation.

JFK & Jackie in the Inauguration Day limo: Who was the real giant? To this day, pretenders to her throne hopelessly attempt to imitate her!