Greater impact -- Pearl Harbor or JFK assassination?

... discuss

 

Pearl Harbor got us into a, you know, war and stuff.

 

There are those among us who believe JFK did, too, only less overtly.

 

... that eventually led to the death of the oldest Kennedy brother, so it's a draw. They are equally important.

 

Pearl Harbor, without question.

 

Then why are there so many .. books about the JFK thing, huh? Clearly it was a bigger deal. I said "draw" earlier, but the more I think about it, JFK was clearly more important. I mean, a guy died, alright?

If you don't believe me, go ask that scary ass homeless guy in Dealey Plaza that sells those shitty books he printed at Kinkos . He knows.

Geez.

 

My psychobabbulous take:

JFK's assassination tore off the blanket of domestic safety that many Americans in the 48 contiguous had always felt.

It was the touchstone, bridging event that took us from Leave it to Beaver pre JFK days to the dirty, unkempt, violent America we have become.

 

Well, it exposed that America. It was always there.

 

this is like comparing athletes from different eras. great fodder at the bar, but you can never convince the other guy you're right.

for those who lived through pearl harbor/ww II, that was a defining moment that turned the u.s. into a superpower.

for those of us who were young, the jfk assassination/vietnam/'60s were similarly a reshaping of life as we knew it.

a debate no one can win. my .02: why even try?

 

Since I was born some 10 years after JFK's death, I'm not sure I'm the best person to ask, but I'll say JFK's assassination because it altered this country more than Pearl Harbor.

We were going to get engaged in World War II, all Japan did was expedite our entry. Who knows what would have happened had JFK lived?

 

Not to call you out on such a big day, but -- bull.
If Americans felt so safe pre-JFK, why were their air raid drills, bomb shelters and communist hunts?

 

Both were certainly watershed events, like 9/11, the 1929 stock market crash, and the fall of the Berlin Wall were.

For popular impact, I'd say JFK because we saw it on television (well, not me, I hadn't been born yet.)

But geopolitically, Pearl Harbor was far more impactful. It got us into the war, which resulted in the liberation of Europe and the Pacific and the establishment of a world political dynamic for the next 50 years. It transformed the U.S. into a superpower.

We were playing NFL games 2 days after JFK's death. Take that for what it's worth.