Kennedy Journal Entry Analysis

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John Olson First Journal Entry Interviewee – Douglas Olson: Age – 71, residence during events: Lincoln, Nebraska. During events, interviewee was a student at the University of Nebraska. Throughout the latter years of the 50’s as well as the early 60’s, the interviewee was as resident of Nebraska, and seemed to consecutively have a distanced experience from the events. However, when asked about the Kennedy assassination as well as the Cuban Missile Crisis, he nevertheless seemed to have strong memory. Seemingly the most significant event to my Dad, the Kennedy assassination consumed the majority of the conversation. In the days following Kennedy’s death, he expressed the country to be in a stand still. The mere thought of a president being assassinated seemed to be such an absurd idea that the nation was in shock. Church memorials and the transportation of the President’s body across the country seemed to consume the media for the next few weeks. However, as the United States was recovering from the devastation, they began to worry about their future under Lyndon Johnson. Before his rise to the…show more content…
In the moments leading up to the standstill, many possible outcomes crossed the minds of U.S. citizens. Many thought that America would not only get bombed, but that this event would lead to the outbreak of WWIII. For the time it lasted, nearly every American was glued to their television, further displaying the role of the media in this era. Also, USSR’s leaders had viewed John F. Kennedy as the little boy leader, but from his strong stance against their advances, they began to regard him as a stronger commander in chief. The Cuban Missile proved to be a crucial moment in the Cold war, but as the interviewee acknowledged, it displayed that the United States was a tougher opponent than they had previously gotten credit

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