The current president of the United States, Joe Biden, reportedly has Irish blood flowing through him. It is not the only similarity the president shares with predecessors such as the Kennedys. Similar to them, he has a burning desire to put America in the driving seat.
In the recent past, a sport had been very popular in Washington. The participants would be guessing who Donald Trump resembled the most: the populism of Andrew Jackson, the skulduggery of Richard Nixon, or perhaps the great myth-maker Ronald Reagan. However, the time has now come to find the same answers for Joe Biden.
The Connection Between Joe Biden And John F Kennedy
Joe Biden’s Oval Office has a large installation of Franklin Roosevelt. Similar to Roosevelt, Biden is facing a crisis that will affect epochs. Furthermore, he has also prescribed medicine that will ring on for epochs to come. However, there is an even greater resemblance that the oldest man to be president bears, to that of John F Kennedy, the youngest ever to sit on the chair.
President Biden has the moment he met Pope Francis on his desk as a photo. This of course points to his catholic loyalties as a President, the second one arguably in the history of the US. The first one was John F. Kennedy. Biden also has Robert F Kennedy’s bust adjacent to the fireplace. He was the attorney general and the brother of John, the 35th president. Another notable decoration is moon rock which weighs 332g. Apollo brought it back from the moon as a reminder of the success of the missions. It also served as a reminder of Kennedy’s dream that he had started but had not been able to witness it.
In striking similarity, Joe Biden moved away from the raging coronavirus pandemic to rejoice over the successful landing on Mars by the recent rover by NASA. It was also his first address on prime time TV as the president. Moreover, he glossed over the fact that China is well underway of achieving the same feat. The second space race is possibly brewing. The first one happened during Kennedy’s presidency.
Joe Biden And JFK’s Struggle With Foreign Powers
The author of the recently released book “The Kennedys in the World”, Lawrence Hass, stated how important the cold war was in shaping the 35th president’s policies. The space race was significant to the president in as far as America must not be defeated by the Soviets. The president, according to the author, had a great fear of the Soviet’s impact on the battle for influence that his country was fighting at the time. Almost all the countries in the world were deciding on sides at the time, capitalism and the US, or communism and the USSR.
As such, JFK had an obsession with how America was perceived by the world. When he took charge, the US was years behind the Soviets in the space race. Through the first 3 years of the 60s, JFK struggled with it, and then came his desire to land a human on the lunar surface, and also to get him back home safely.
Lyndon Johnson, his vice-president in 1962, had received a memo from the president. It queried whether there was any chance of winning the space race. Johnson was also the chairman of the National Space Council. Haas continues that all the policies on all of these issues had the contemporary foreign policy playing a role in them.
Robert Frost, the American poet, was present at JFK’s inauguration. Kennedy was 43 at the time. Six decades later, Amanda Gorman featured in Joe Biden’s inauguration. Biden is 78 years old. Like the presidents, the poets themselves are stalwarts of the future in a time when the American existence is facing a major crisis.
Haas had been the director of communications under Vice-President Al Gore. He points out the parallels in the eras by pointing out how the world was divided into two parts: the US and the USSR. He opines that current president Joe Biden is facing a similar situation and that he is fully aware of it.
Except currently, the challenge is of Chinese origin. Furthermore, 2008’s great recession and an increasing number of problems in the West have culminated in the current situation. There is a fight over the fundamentals of any method of governance: prosperity, efficiency, and a more secure future.
The author continues that unlike Chinese aggressiveness in promoting their beliefs internationally, the US has remained limited to its own borders in recent years. After President Bush, none of the presidents have been exactly forthcoming with the intent to promote the American brand of democracy and freedom across the world.
He includes a note that says Freedom House, a non-profit organization, has released a report on how freedom has steadily declined over the past decade and a half. However, President Joe Biden has boldly declared that “America is back”. However, the US’ international intents have proved to be as destructive as helpful in the past, and critics are doubtful whether the resumption of it is a good thing.
However, Haas insists on the significance of the US putting up a fight wherever possible. Because if they do not do so, the other ideologies do not sit back and watch either. He further continues that Biden is conscious of this and his criticism of Beijing and Moscow lies bare the fact.
However, Joe Biden has not nearly faced as much trouble as Kennedy over his presidency. Kennedy had to go to major lengths to address the issue. Biden, in 2020, faces nearly no questions on his religious alliances, especially Catholic or Protestant.
The Impact Of The Kennedys On Joe Biden
The book then goes on to chronicle how much importance all the three Kennedy brothers had on the world. Haas writes that they were raised with the attitude to always take stock of the world on a global scale. As such, when they attained power, they brought massive changes.
However, Bobby and Jack Kennedy were assassinated in a span of five years, 1968 and 1963. Ted survived and was an impactful Senator who achieved much in fundamental rights for citizens and workers. More importantly, Haas points out that Ted held enormous influence over almost every foreign power that dared to stand against the US. He was the leader in opposing all the controversial foreign policies of Ronald Reagan and had been hailed as prophetic after the war in 2003 in Afghanistan.
Joe Biden was the Vice-President when Ted Kennedy died. Biden regarded Ted as a mentor. At that moment, Biden had made an emotional statement on the passing. He had said that Ted had brought his faith in the US as a country and idealism back. He mourned over the fact that there will be no one like him anymore.
