Kennedy Administration, John F.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was president of the United States for a mere 1,036 days. During that brief tenure, no major domestic legislation was passed affecting U.S. drug policies. That said, the [Page 443]Kennedy administration witnessed several important transitions in narcotics enforcement as well as the ratification of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs by the United Nations (UN).

The Kennedy administration saw the retirement of Harry J. Anslinger from his post as commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Narcotics, a position he had held since 1930. Anslinger himself admitted to being surprised by his 1961 reappointment by Kennedy as the young president's administration demonstrated a proclivity for cultivating younger civil servants. His reappointment aside, it is often asserted that Anslinger was forced out ...