John F. Kennedy
The Promise Revisited

March 28-30, 1985

The fourth Presidential Conference presented by the Hofstra Cultural Center was John F. Kennedy: The Promise Revisted on March 28-30, 1985. The Conference featured a gathering of scholars and leaders of the Kennedy era who discussed and evaluated the man, his presidency and the myth.

One of the highlights of the conference was an address by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the President's youngest brother. Other participants at the conference included McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to President Kennedy; William Johnson, Chief Archivist, John F. Kennedy Library; Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Special Assistant to President Kennedy; Scott Carpenter, Astronaut, Mercury-Man-in-Space Project, NASA, 1959; John Lewis and Simeon Booker, Participants of the first Freedom Ride, 1961; Herbert S. Parmet, Author of JFK: The Presidency of John F. Kennedy; and Pierre Salinger, Press Secretary to President Kennedy. The banquet speaker was Theodore C. Sorensen, Special Counsel to President Kennedy.

Panel topics included "Legal Initiatives of the Kennedy Administration," "Staff Recollections," "Disarmament and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty," "Science and Space," "Civil Rights," "The Cuban Missile Crisis," "JFK: Building the Image," and "John F. Kennedy and the Media." In addition there were also several exhibitions, Artists of the Kennedy Era, Books Manuscripts and Political Memorabilia: John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1917-1963, and Photos and Cartoons: Kennedy: Images of a Man.

Conference Director:
Paul Harper

Papers and presentations from the conference were complied into a book, John F. Kennedy: The Promise Revisited, edited by Paul Harper and Joann P. Kreig. The book was published by Greenwood Press in 1988. The list price of the book is $72.50.

"A good sampling of research is this collection of 23 papers from a 1985 conference at Hofstra University. The topics, varied if not perfectly balanced encompass the missile crisis, fiscal policy, and other standard questions, as well as less traveled ground such as Indo-American relations and the influence of William Lederer and Eugene Burdick's The Ugly American on the era. The conclusions are varied too, with Kennedy appearing neither a saint nor a scoundrel." - The Library Journal