{"id":288,"date":"2023-05-25T11:21:29","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T15:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/?page_id=288"},"modified":"2023-05-25T11:21:29","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T15:21:29","slug":"in-their-own-words","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/spring-2023\/features\/in-their-own-words\/","title":{"rendered":"In their own words"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Andrew J. Concatelli<\/em><\/p>\n

Marc Selverstone \u201984 knows why President John F. Kennedy continues to captivate the hearts and minds of Americans, 60 years after his assassination.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis was a life unfinished,\u201d says Selverstone, associate professor in presidential studies and chair of the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia\u2019s Miller Center of Public Affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cCut down at 46, seemingly with still so much promise ahead of him, and after coming through the fire of the Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy represented what for many people was the best of the United States\u2014progressive, vibrant, with a young, attractive family,\u201d Selverstone says. \u201cThere was a hope that we were on the cusp of great things\u2014charting a course on the \u2018New Frontier,\u2019 entering the Space Age. Although Lyndon Johnson was able to realize and extend elements of JFK\u2019s program, the promise and opportunity that Kennedy symbolized were cut short.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through his work in the Presidential Recordings Program, Selverstone preserves and studies Kennedy\u2019s legacy using JFK\u2019s own words. Kennedy was one in a series of sitting U.S. presidents\u2014from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Richard M. Nixon\u2014who recorded their phone calls and meetings. The Presidential Recordings Program makes these formerly secret White House tapes accessible to citizens, journalists, policymakers, scholars, students, and teachers while providing historical context and scholarly analysis of the recordings.<\/p>\n

\"Marc
Selverstone\u2019s most recent book, The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment to Vietnam<\/em>, was published in 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Selverstone\u2019s new book, The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment to Vietnam<\/em>, uses these recordings, alongside declassified documents, memoirs, and oral histories, to explore the question of whether Kennedy would have gotten the United States out of the Vietnam War had he lived and pursued his own plans. \u201cThe loss of Kennedy\u2019s capacity for real discernment, judgment, and prudence\u2014characteristics he displayed during the missile crisis\u2014was, for some, keenly felt when the country plunged ever deeper into Vietnam,\u201d Selverstone says.<\/p>\n

The presidential recordings offer a unique window into the process of policy making and the use of power, illuminating the decisions made by Kennedy and other presidents. \u201cLiving in a democracy,\u201d Selverstone says, \u201cit\u2019s important that we have a better understanding of the policies that our leaders carry out in our name.\u201d<\/p>\n

The era documented on the tapes in some ways marks the beginning of the modern presidency, when presidents became more adept at using the media to reach the public and the media became more energetic in covering presidents, Selverstone says. \u201cThe tapes capture a period when American political life was undergoing seismic shifts. They provide the ability to listen in as presidents and their advisers try to work through the challenges associated with Vietnam, the war on poverty, the civil rights movement, health care, housing, urban unrest, the environment, education, and more. To be a fly on the wall during that moment is really extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Selverstone didn\u2019t major in political science or history while at Trinity but says he always had an inquisitive mind that was ready to grapple with big questions through his study of philosophy. \u201cI had never experienced anything like my first philosophy class. The challenging subject matter, the approach to thinking, the rigor, the discipline\u2014that stayed with me,\u201d he says. \u201cOne of the gifts that Trinity gave me came through my study of philosophy. It encouraged me to develop some habits of mind that were important as I continued my studies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drew A. Hyland, Charles A. Dana Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, remembers Selverstone as an engaged and intelligent student. Hyland has seen generations of Trinity philosophy majors enjoy successful careers in any field they choose. \u201cPolitical philosophy is one of the most important branches of philosophy.\u00a0No doubt, Marc can call on the philosophers we studied\u2014 Plato, Aristotle, Marx, Rousseau, Camus\u2014for insights into the contemporary political scene,\u201d Hyland says. \u201cI\u2019ve always believed that the most important learning goal of philosophy was to make the students more thoughtful.\u00a0Obviously, Marc learned this well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marc
Marc Selverstone \u201984, associate professor in presidential studies and chair of the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia\u2019s Miller Center of Public Affairs
Photo by Dominique Attaway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After teaching high school social studies for several years, Selverstone decided to go back to school, earning a master\u2019s in international affairs from Columbia University. He worked in Washington, D.C., for a Connecticut congressman who served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee but realized he was drawn to the academy. A Ph.D. in history from Ohio University and a dissertation about the emergence of Cold War anti-communism during the Truman presidency ultimately led to Selverstone being recruited by UVA\u2019s Miller Center in 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe study of these tapes was relatively new at the time, as they were just being released to the public,\u201d Selverstone says. \u201cThe Miller Center gave me the opportunity to teach, do research, and to transform my dissertation into a published monograph, all the while working with these fascinating materials. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been here for more than 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Selverstone contributes to the Miller Center\u2019s public and academic programs and teaches a course on the United States and Vietnam. He is general editor of the Presidential Recordings Digital Edition<\/em>, which publishes the center\u2019s transcripts and adorns them with footnotes, annotations, and introductory essays. Scholars and authors use these materials widely in academic works and in content for general audiences. \u201cOne of my goals is to make this collection more readily accessible to the public, especially to institutions of higher education and to secondary schools,\u201d Selverstone says.<\/p>\n

Barbara A. Perry, Gerald L. Baliles Professor and director of presidential studies at UVA\u2019s Miller Center, says that Selverstone\u2019s ongoing work with the recordings demonstrates the relevance they continue to hold today. \u201cWhether listening to FDR\u2019s conversations with civil rights advocates, Kennedy\u2019s meetings during the Cuban missile crisis, Johnson\u2019s verbal arm-twisting, or Nixon\u2019s Watergate cover-up plans, Marc unearths historic gems that can guide current officials on crucial decisions related to social justice, political corruption, and defense policy,\u201d Perry says.<\/p>\n

\"vintageOne of the takeaways from listening to the recordings, Selverstone says, is grasping the enormous complexity of the president\u2019s job. \u201cPresidents are continually leapfrogging from one challenge or crisis to another,\u201d he says. \u201cThe president is not just the chief executive but has become so much more, including political standard-bearer, legislative leader, commander-in-chief, consoler-in-chief\u2014the very face of our democracy at home and of the nation abroad. There\u2019s so much expected of the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Selverstone believes these recordings ultimately help to humanize presidents, including those such as Kennedy who have taken on a near-mythical status. \u201cTo hear them work through problems, to hear the emotion and frustration in their voices, it encourages us to develop some empathy and gain better insight into the job at hand,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd this should encourage us to think harder about how the institution might be transformed so that those who inhabit the Oval Office can achieve more success\u2014not just for themselves, but really for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

DID YOU KNOW?<\/strong>The presidents were well aware of \u201csecret White House tapes.\u201d According to the Miller Center, \u201cBetween 1940 and 1973, six consecutive American presidents [FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon] secretly taped thousands of their meetings and telephone conversations. These exchanges took place in the White House and in the Executive Office Building, at Camp David and at the LBJ Ranch, and during travel. From Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose infrequent recordings yielded only eight hours of taped material, to Richard M. Nixon, whose voice-activated system captured 3,400 hours of discussion, the White House tapes constitute a unique and irreplaceable source for the study of U.S. history and American government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Selverstone says that the presidents\u2019 reasons for making these secret recordings included using them as a verbatim record to refute misquoting or misrepresentation, as a source of information for writing their memoirs, and as a way to privately review what was said during important meetings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Andrew J. Concatelli Marc Selverstone \u201984 knows why President John F. Kennedy continues to captivate the hearts and minds of Americans, 60 years after his assassination. \u201cHis was a life unfinished,\u201d says Selverstone, associate professor in presidential studies and chair of the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia\u2019s Miller Center of Public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":274,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-288","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIn their own words - The Trinity Reporter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/spring-2023\/features\/in-their-own-words\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In their own words\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Andrew J. Concatelli Marc Selverstone \u201984 knows why President John F. 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