The tragic assassination of the President of the United States – John F. Kennedy – dominates recorded history for November 22. However, another dramatic historical moment was born out of view of the mainstream media and the American people.
On this day in 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed during a motorcade through downtown Dallas, TX. Even in 1963, the idea of the assassination of a sitting president was simple incomprehensible to Americans.
A year earlier, in October of 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis brought American to the threshold of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. President Kennedy’s staunch position tested the will of the Soviets and they eventually blinked and backed down.
Talk of nuclear war was prominent across America and students regularly went through emergency drills in the event the Soviets dropped a nuke on America. A few families in my neighborhood installed bomb shelters in their back yards. America was far from feeling secure.
In the 60s, most parents did not talk to their kids about many of the realities of the world – but that doesn’t mean we were not listening and at least subconsciously aware of grave consequences of nuclear war.
November 22 is also the anniversary of the birth of the anti-establishment generation of the 60s. The assassination of President Kennedy was the beginning of the rebellious, counter-culture generation of the 60s that has become the new establishment in America.
As I look back I have gained a better understanding of the collective impact the Kennedy assassination had on a young generation during the impressionable coming-of-age years. Today’s Boomer generation was raised by an establishment that did not consider how cognizant their children were of the fragile nature of security.
Upon the foundation of subconscious insecurity, the assassination of the President of the United States sent an unnoticed shock wave through an entire young generation. This was the day a young generation unknowingly lost faith in the establishment and sparked the urge to rebel against the establishment.
Less than 3 months after President Kennedy was assassinated – The Beatles arrived in America with a sound and style that defied the establishment. As a young generation was vulnerable to adopting an image and an attitude that challenged the establishment – The Beatles – and soon other bands in the British Invasion of the 60s – provided the opportunity and the physical ways to distinguish their generation from their parents’ generation.
Every year when the anniversary of the Kennedy assassination comes up – I think back on how significant this day was to the young Baby Boomer generation that was affected beyond their innocent knowledge.
This was the day the anti-establishment rock generation of the 60s was born.