The Presidency: Painful Reappraisals

One prediction in President Kennedy's State of the Union message last January has proved to be dismally accurate. "The news," he said, "will be worse before it is better." Last week, as John F. Kennedy closed out the first 100 days of his Administration, the U.S. had suffered a month-long series of setbacks rare in the history of the Republic. First came Russia's man-in-space triumph. Then the shockingly bungled invasion of Cuba. Finally, and belatedly, came the sickening realization that U.S.-backed Laos was about to go down the Communist drain.

Loss in...

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