Letter: Kennedy did care about a minimum wage
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.ROBIN BLAKE, in his review of Richard Reeves's book President Kennedy ('Initial magic of the man that nobody knew', Sunday Review, 9 October), could have scrutinised Richard Nixon's self-serving misrecollection of what Kennedy said to him in April 1961 about presidential priorities and the minimum wage: 'Who gives a shit if it's dollars 1.15 or dollars 1.25 in comparison to something like this?' Instead, Blake supposes the quote to be evidence of Kennedy's 'scant interest in domestic policy'.
The JFK-Nixon meeting took place in the wake of the Bay of Pigs debacle. It's fanciful to believe that Kennedy would have asked for Nixon's opinion about presidential priorities. Nor would he have said that 'foreign affairs is the only important issue for a President to handle'. He may have reflected ruefully that had he not spent so much time in February and March cajoling Congress to pass his Minimum Wage Bill he would have been better able to discover the flaws in the CIA- Nixon plan to land Cuban dissidents on Cuba and topple Castro.
His meetings on the minimum wage may, therefore, be among 'the key White House meetings of JFK's 1,057 days in office'. There is no reference to them in Reeves's highly selective book.
Michael Meadmore
London W12
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments