JFK and the ripples of an Ottawa tree-planting
A simple act of international goodwill might have cost U.S. president his life
Throughout our lives we often reflect upon certain outcomes that might have ended differently had events transpired in an alternate way. What if we hadn’t gone to that party where we met our future spouse? What if we had taken a different route home the night of a car crash? How would history be different if the Titanic had never hit that iceberg? Our lives and world history constantly evolve based on the detours of fate, and one of the greatest alterations in history happened one sunny day in 1963 when a country lost its president in a tragedy that continues to reverberate.
The day John F. Kennedy was assassinated is surrounded by a number of theories and what ifs. The death of JFK on Nov. 22, 1963, can be attributed to so many factors of fate that it is hard to fathom all the occurrences that could have played out differently. But looking at these what ifs, there is one element closely connected to the city of Ottawa that might have played a role on the dreadful day in Dallas.
In 1961, Kennedy arrived in Ottawa for a state visit, his first foreign trip following his inauguration. He addressed a joint session of Parliament while visiting with prime minister John Diefenbaker and the governor general, Georges Vanier. Greeted by an enthusiastic crowd upon landing at Uplands Airport, JFK and his wife, Jacqueline, were whisked through a series of events throughout Ottawa.
At about 6:30 p.m. on May 16, the Kennedys were brought to Rideau Hall to join the governor general in a tree-planting ceremony to mark his visit to Canada. This simple gesture of goodwill between nations in front of the cameras showed a young, energetic American president who brought a sense of hope and pride to many people throughout the world.
With the cameras rolling, the youthful JFK grasped a shovel and began ceremoniously digging into a mound of dirt beside a pre-planted young oak tree, and shovelled several spadefuls of dirt into the open hole. It was a moment that the president might have regretted for the rest of his life.
The moment was captured on film for the world to see, but what the public didn’t see was that Kennedy had wrenched his back, reawakening an injury that had been so carefully treated.
In 1954, Kennedy had undergone a delicate operation to alleviate intense back pain he had endured since his youth, which subsequently required the use of crutches and a special back brace. Seven years later, due to the simple act of shovelling dirt, the intense pain had returned and Kennedy would require treatment and need to wear a back brace again.
Kennedy hid his pain well during the ceremony, even from White House staff. In archival footage, the president betrays no sign of pain as he and Jacqueline walk the grounds of Rideau Hall, but it was impossible for him to conceal it for long.
Three weeks later, on June 8, 1961, White House press secretary Pierre Salinger announced that the president had injured his back in Ottawa. According to newspaper articles that day in the Pittsburgh Press and the Miami Herald, Salinger explained that the president had experienced “an immediate pain while planting the tree in Ottawa, but made no mention of it.”
The articles said “he kept it secret from his White House staff” and used crutches only when not in public. Salinger went on to say the injury was being treated and that the president’s doctor is “confident it will remedy itself with proper treatment.”
Treatment for his injured back continued until his death in 1963, and according to the 2003 book An Unfinished Life, by Robert Dallek, the president used a rocking chair to put less pressure on the muscles and nerves of his lower back, in addition to a series of Procaine injections, a variation of novocaine that helped to ease the pain. The concealed back brace also assisted JFK in maintaining an image of youthful vitality while in the public eye.
It is the maintenance of that youthful image that might have cost the president his life, for on the day he was assassinated, he was wearing the back brace, which many believe contributed to the fatal outcome of that tragic day.
The first bullet from assassin Lee Harvey Oswald struck Kennedy in the back, tearing through soft tissue before exiting and striking Texas governor John Connally in the front seat. Connally immediately slumped over and was protected, but Kennedy’s elaborate back brace kept him sitting upright and unprotected in his seat. Seconds later, a second bullet struck the president in the back of his head, mortally wounding him.
It’s impossible to say with any certainty that a canvas brace worn to alleviate back pain incurred by a ceremonial treeplanting in Ottawa was responsible for the death of JFK when so many other variables come into play. Determining the exact reasons why the world lost John F. Kennedy that day in 1963 are, at most, speculation. His legacy continues to fascinate and endure in our minds and hearts and will probably continue to do so in the years to come.
The tree JFK planted in 1961 remains on the grounds of Rideau Hall, strong and healthy, the very image of vitality he portrayed to the world on the day he planted it.