The Steel Crisis: 72 Hours that Shook the Nation

The Democrat, after just a year in office, was concerned about potentially rising inflation. His administration set an informal but well-publicized target of having wage increases and price hikes match productivity increases. Meanwhile, Steelworkers' bargaining over a contract with the nation's steel companies was getting nowhere.

The administration intervened. It didn't want a rerun of the 4-month steel strike of 1959 under GOP President Eisenhower. Labor Secretary Arthur Goldberg, a longtime union counsel, mediated the talks. The two sides reached agreement on March 31.

But on April 10, Roger Blough, CEO of U.S. Steel, the largest of the firms, with 25% of the market, met Kennedy in the Oval Office and told him the company was immediately raising prices by $6 a ton – and that other steel companies would follow. Six did. The 3.5% hike enraged the president. What he said in public was biting – but he was even more caustic in private.

In an April 11, 1962 press conference, Kennedy called the price hikes "a wholly unjustifiable and irresponsible defiance of the public interest." He criticized "a tiny handful of steel executives whose pursuit of power and profit exceeds their sense of public responsibility." The execs had "utter contempt" for the U.S., Kennedy said.

In private, Kennedy added: "My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it until now." The line quickly became public.