The title of this symposium is, by itself, a dramatic statement of a unique, historical fact. You chose well when you decided to celebrate “The Primary that made a President”, the only primary that ever made a President, a primary which occurred right in this state in our lifetime. We were part of that historic event. Many of us never experienced a more important political event, because, let us recall, that primary launched a President, who, even today, almost 30 years after his death, is, along with FDR, the most revered and admired and beloved political figure in this century.
More than Eisenhower or Churchill? More than Woodrow Wilson or Teddy Roosevelt? More than Konrad Adenauer or Georges Clemenceau?
The answer is “yes”...more revered, remembered more nostalgically, than any political figure in this century.
Fifteen years ago in Central Russia -- beyond the Ural Mountains -- my wife and I were staying overnight in a hotel 2,500 miles, at least, from any other Americans, 5,000 miles away from any place Kennedy had ever visited!! I went for an early morning walk with a Russian friend. Returning to the hotel at 8:00 a.m. for breakfast, I saw three or four hundred people standing in the plaza in front of the hotel, standing behind a rope drawn across the plaza to prevent them from blocking the hotel entrance. I asked my Russian friend, “Why are all these people standing there looking up at the hotel?” He didn’t know, so he asked a nearby policeman, and then said to me..."These people are standing here because they heard a rumor that someone related to President Kennedy is staying in the hotel”...When he explained that I was a brother-in-law of Kennedy, and that Kennedy’s sister, Eunice, was actually a guest in the hotel, the crowd moved toward me with outstretched arms to shake my hand, to touch my clothes, to look into my face because I was related to a man they had never seen, whose language they could not speak, whose government was locked in a “cold war” with their own.
Kennedy had reached them...somehow or other, he had touched their hearts. He represented something they wanted; filled some need, represented some hope or ideal they cherished. Though Kennedy had already been dead ten or more years, he was not forgotten, not even in the Asiatic part of the Soviet Union.
Nor has he been forgotten here in West Virginia, -- the place and the people whose votes thirty years ago catapulted Kennedy into the national and world stage.
What did we learn then? What did the West Virginia Primary teach us?
What difference does it make now? Are we gathered here like war veterans just to relive a famous battle or victorious campaign? Are we indulging merely in reveries of the past, telling old war stories? Or does the West Virginia primary reveal something, or many things, important for today, and for the future?
I think we did learn one, or two, or three profound truths here in West Virginia, -- truths relevant for today, truths which we can see even now changing the face of the political and moral landscape of the world...in Central Europe, in Africa, in the Middle East...Maybe soon, here in our own country, once again, these truths will raise our own sights and hearts.
First of all, the West Virginia Primary proved that ordinary people are more perceptive about human nature, more capable of evaluating character, and more responsive and open-hearted in responding to honest, truth-telling talk than so-called “experts” realize. Kennedy never underestimated the intelligence of the voters. He never talked down to them, never played to their prejudices or emotions, never manipulated them, or sought to arouse their fears or less noble qualities of their spirit. He trusted their brains; he appealed to their better nature; he had confidence in their humanity.
Secondly, Kennedy never ducked an issue, never tried to avoid a difficult problem. That’s why he explained his religious beliefs and convictions, and at the same time, his commitments to our American Constitution and separation of Church and state, without equivocation or double-talk, without any trace of dissimulation or artifice.
Many times in this state I saw people listening to Kennedy from inside their houses, peeking out from behind drawn curtains, unwilling to appear near Kennedy in public, but anxious to hear his voice and see his figure...For they thought that maybe, this time, there was a politician they could trust.
He did not speak in long, complicated sentences. He did not use big words or flowery, oratorical language. He spoke man to man, down to earth, about jobs, about poverty, about religious prejudice, about his plans for America. He never talked down...to anybody...anywhere.
Third, we learned in the West Virginia Primary that Kennedy was willing to stake his political future on the voters in a state far distant in every way from his own. Why? Because he had confidence in their intelligence, in their honesty, in their humanity. He believed they would vote for him if he told them the truth...even if he did talk with a Yankee accent. Moreover, he had courage! He was willing to stake his future on West Virginia!
Kennedy’s confidence in West Virginians was not misplaced. His honesty with them was exactly the same honesty and clarity and directness that reached across the world and touched even those Russians in Central Asia.
What difference does this West Virginia Primary make even now? I believe this primary tells us that the leaders of America today should follow Kennedy’s example in West Virginia. They should be telling the Russians, and the peoples of all the Eastern bloc, and in South Africa, in simple, straight-forward, honest language what we believe, what we are willing to do with them if they are ready to join with us, what the problems are and will be, what the difficulties are and will be, where we stand, what we expect of them, and what we can do and what we cannot do!
Yesterday, a political poll taken in seven countries over all of Europe, and including the USSR, revealed this astonishing fact:
When asked whom they would prefer if given a chance to vote for a President of the United States of Europe, twice as many Europeans voted for Gorbachev as compared to his nearest rival! Mitterand, the President of France, was second; Thatcher of Great Britain was third; Kohl of Germany was fourth; Andreatti of Italy fifth and so on.
Why does Gorbachev, a Marxist who can’t speak English or French or German outpoll the leaders of the Western European nations? Because he talks language that ordinary man and woman can understand. He holds out hopes for the peace and unity they desire. They think they see him pulling down the walls, not us reducing military strength and armaments...not us trying to reorganize life for everyone...so that everyone will have a better chance, a new hope, for peace and prosperity.
Even if Gorbachev is a liar, even if he’s just an unreconstructed Communist not fit to be trusted, he is showing that talking sense to people, being honest and visionary for Europe, as Kennedy was in West Virginia, is the most effective way to speak and act politically!!! Anywhere and everywhere!!!
I’ll never forget my days in West Virginia, nor the marvelous human beings I met here. Andy Houveras and his wife, Pat; Bob Emerson and Roberta; Judge Ferguson and his son, C.W.; Frank Lombardo, Mike Pistera, Bob Meyers, David Fox, Bob McDonough, Matt Reese; Bill Hogg down in Williamson.
I’ll never forget the Pritchard Hotel in Huntington where we got free hotel rooms for our campaign headquarters. I’ll never forget Cabell County, Wayne County, Lincoln County, Mingo County. I still treasure a handsome cigarette box that Jack Kennedy gave me after the victorious West Virginia campaign. He inscribed the box, -- “To Sarge Shriver, Wanted, dead or alive in Mingo County.”
He gave me too much credit for his victories south of the Kanahwa; but “Dead or alive,” a big part of me will always be here in West Virginia! It was in West Virginia that I learned, with Kennedy as my teacher, that an honest man talking sense can win an election as long as he truly respects the people, the specific human beings to whom he is addressing his words. Let us pray that our country will be blessed soon, once again, with a courageous and intelligent leader, who can, like Kennedy, win in West Virginia, and launch a new and better era in our nation’s history. West Virginia sent Kennedy on his way to glory! Even though history, it is said, never repeats itself, let us hope and pray that another American leader will have the wisdom to come to West Virginia, tell his story to the solid, battle-proven people of this state, and from here go onward to lead our country and the world. We surely need such a leader today!
