America’s letters to Dallas in 1963 | Opinion
Select JFK letters in the Cabell collection have received cursory attention from journalists over the years as examples of the fury directed at Dallas. The outright viciousness of some of the attacks does rival the bile that we see in social media today.
“During the past four days I have read, heard and seen how the people of Dallas reacted to this worldly sorrow. I know I speak for many who share my feelings that Dallas should not be ashamed. … It could have happened anywhere, anywhere in this great wide world. It was just a very short time ago that the president visited our state, and it could have happened here, in Miami, or elsewhere, but HATE chose Dallas.
“You’ve taught us to loathe the lowly ignorance of your citizens — to loathe your lack of national respect, and to loathe your complete absence of pride in your country. You’ve made Texas a dirty word … I would rather be in the presence of a leper with festering sores than what I consider to be unspeakable — untouchable hoodlums!”
“It might be recalled that Dallas has been a hotbed of criticism of President Kennedy and his administration by outspoken rightest groups,” Cronkite intoned. “Only two weeks ago, Ambassador Adlai Stevenson of the United Nations was in an incident in Dallas where he was besieged by pickets — far-right pickets — outside of a speech he made there. And he was struck in the head by a picket sign by an outraged conservative who felt we should not be in the United Nations.
Sorting through the old cards, letters and telegrams from those days is like walking across a grave, re-creating the politics and the fears of the Cold War and carrying the sentiments of people long dead. While the letters contain some of the same unfiltered nastiness we see in social media today, it took thought and a different kind of effort for these writers to pen and post their vitriol.
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