Hail to the Chiefs Part XXXV: JFK
"We'll raise a glass to JFK and a dozen more besides..." - The Pogues
"We're going to climb that hill together, even if it takes us all day." - Edward M. Kennedy
Let's get the usual JFK biography out of the way first. Once upon a time a child was born of Boston Irish royalty. *insert fleeting note about Joseph P. Kennedy, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy....and Mayor Honey Fitz.* He was the second oldest of 9 children....although we won't say much about his sisters. He was a hero in World War II in the Pacific. *insert PT boat story here*
After World War II, since brother Joe had died, JFK was the heir apparent. *insert meteoric rise through Congress here* He married Jacqueline Bouvier. Then he became president. *insert theme song from Camelot here* Except for his unfortunate philandering *insert footage of Marilyn Monroe here* ...he was the perfect president...young, handsome and full of new ideas all tragically cut short because of his assassination on November 22, 1963.
Here's my big issues with how I initially learned about JFK. 1. This is less of an issue now, but when I was growing up there was a tendency to beatify him because of his unfortunate death, and exaggerate what his skills really were. 2. A tendency to dwell on either the scandals, such as his numerous affairs...or conspiracy theories about his death. 3. JFK, at least with how I first read about him, seemed to be looked at in isolation. In my mind you can't really talk about just one Kennedy. It's an ensemble piece, where it took several people to contribute to the image, and the various accomplishments and failures. If there is one person that could be identified as the star of the show, it's not JFK at all, but his father.
Joseph Patrick Kennedy was born in Boston on September 6, 1888. He was the grandson of Irish immigrants, and the son of P.J. Kennedy: tavern owner, and major community leader. Hard working, and ambitious, he attended first the famous Boston Latin School and then Harvard. At the time, it was not common for Catholics to attend the protestant-affiliated Harvard. Kennedy was frustrated by never achieving social acceptance at Harvard. First by not gaining membership into the Porcellian Club, and in later years by not receiving an honorary doctorate. Kennedy's anger at this rejection further fueled his determination to obtain wealth and power.
On October 8, 1914, Kennedy married Rose Fitzgerald. Rose was the oldest daughter of Boston mayor John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald. Bright and adventurous, she was initially slated to go to Wellesley for college. However her father caved to pressure from a Cardinal, and made her go to Convent of the Sacred Heart instead. Doris Kearns Goodwin suggests that if she'd been allowed to go to Wellesley, with her drive and ambition, she may have had a promising political career herself. Instead she channeled her energies towards being a very devout Catholic.
I don't think it was a particularly happy marriage. Although it was a pretty successful partnership. Kennedy made arrangements so Rose could continue her passion for travel, and take vacations, usually with her sisters. Rose managed the household like a general, and turned a blind eye to Kennedy's numerous affairs. Kennedy's most famous mistress, Gloria Swanson, once remarked "That Rose must be a saint, a fool or just a better actress than me."
Often Joseph Kennedy is described as a bootlegger. This is probably true, as he did provide the alcohol for his Harvard class reunion in the 1920's during Prohibition. However, it is a gross oversimplification of Kennedy's business dealings. Part of what I find intriguing about him is his almost uncanny knack to be at the right place at the right time. Kennedy started out in banking. Eventually, he became heavily involved in speculation on the stock market. However, he managed to keep a level head despite the stock market mania of the day. He pulled his money out of the stock market in the spring of 1929. There's a comment that is usually attributed to him "When even shoeshine boys start giving you stock tips, it's time to sell." During the late 20's Kennedy was also investing in Hollywood, and was the owner of RKO. (So pretty much if you're interested in the Great Depression or Golden Age Hollywood, you are going to love reading about Joseph Kennedy.)
However, ultimately, Kennedy's long term ambitions were for his large family. He established trust funds for all 9 children that they would be free to use how they wished once they turned 21. His goal was for all of his children to be independent both financially, and intellectually. (He was actually delighted when Joe Jr. and Jack argued at length with him one night at the dinner table. He found it more important that they were working together than that they agreed with his point of view.) Despite his busy work schedule he made it a priority to spend quality time with all of his children, and wrote to all of them regularly. Jackie Kennedy later privately called him a "tiger mother" and thought he was the more nurturing parent of the two.
Oldest child Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. was born 1915. He was the golden child, and very blatantly the favorite of both Joe Sr. and Rose. Also they both shared the attitude that if you raised the first child right, the others would follow suit. Joe Jr. took his leadership role among the siblings very seriously. His younger siblings adored him, and did follow his lead. However, he could also be a bully. Robert Kennedy once commented "I used to lie in bed sometimes and hear the sound of Joe banging Jack's head against the wall." While Joe was the dutiful oldest child, and jumped through every hoop he was expected to....he lacked the intelligence and imagination of some of his younger siblings.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born May 29, 1917. He would have been 95 this month. Jack had a definite rebellious streak, which annoyed his mother to no end. Once when Rose was taking the children to Mass, she told them to pray for a happy death. Jack responded that he'd rather "pray for two dogs."
Jack Kennedy spent a good portion of his childhood plagued with illness. (Probably partly caused by his as yet undiagnosed Addison's Disease.) Robert Kennedy once commented "If a mosquito bit Jack Kennedy, the mosquito would die." Jack Kennedy also had lifelong back trouble. It started with one leg being 3/4 of an inch shorter than the other, and was further aggravated by a college football injury. Though of course the myth is it all started in World War II. Partly because of all the time spent recovering from one illness or another, Jack became a voracious reader, mostly of history. A habit he would continue the rest of his life.
In high school, Jack Kennedy was expelled, although later reinstated, because of creating the "Muckers Club." Pretty much a group of boys dedicated to playing pranks. Jack and his father had a meeting with the headmaster about the expulsion. However, when the headmaster stepped out for a minute, Joe Kennedy winked at his son and said "If that Muckers Club had been mine, it wouldn't have started with an M."
Rosemary Kennedy was born in 1918. It was pretty quickly determined that she was what today we'd call cognitively disabled. At the time, children with cognitive disabilities were usually institutionalized. However, Joe and Rose were determined that she would have as normal a life as possible. Rosemary had special tutors, went to special schools, and often had extra attention from her mother. Younger sister Eunice would also become very protective of Rosemary.
For a while, the efforts seemed to work, somewhat. She was probably at her happiest at a school in England until World War II started. However, in her early 20's, back in the United States, she began to act up. There are different theories about why. Some think it was a hormone issue. Some suspect that she was just frustrated that she couldn't keep up with her brighter more coordinated siblings. Whatever the cause, she began running off regularly. As she was a very beautiful young woman, this prospect was doubly terrifying to her parents.
Joe Sr. had heard of a new surgical procedure called the lobotomy. From his understanding, it would remove the part of Rosemary's brain that made her frustrated, and she could spend the rest of her life content. He secretly took her to have the procedure, without consulting Rose. The results were a disaster, basically leaving Rosemary little more than a vegetable. Kennedy had Rosemary institutionalized at St. Coletta in Jefferson Wisconsin, where she remained until her death in 2005. He informed the rest of the family that Rosemary was now teaching. Rose Kennedy did not uncover the truth until Joe Sr. was incapacitated by a stroke. Rose later discussed the matter with Doris Kearns Goodwin and seemed to have very thinly veiled rage about it. The family would not speak openly about Rosemary again. Although it should be be noted that Eunice Kennedy was later a key player in establishing the Special Olympics, and Jean Kennedy was also involved with causes for the disabled.
Kathleen Kennedy or "Kick" was born in 1920. She had a very lively personality. She, Joe Jr. and Jack would come to be known as "the golden trio."
Eunice Kennedy was born in 1921. She was probably the most naturally political of the Kennedy siblings. Doris Kearns Goodwin suggested that if she had been born a generation later, she would be the one that would have become president. Apparently she was also quite formidable during the Kennedy football games.
Patricia Kennedy was born in 1924. The most introverted of the Kennedy clan, she's probably most famous for her troubled marriage to Rat Pack member Peter Lawford.
Robert Kennedy was born in 1925. His own father more than once referred to him as "the runt of the litter." Smaller than the others, shy and sensitive, he was a favorite of Rose Kennedy who called him "my little pet." He would eventually develop a rather fierce persona, and have a reputation for being "ruthless."
Jean Kennedy, born in 1928, is the last surviving Kennedy sibling. She was ambassador to Ireland during the Clinton administration.
Edward Moore Kennedy was born in 1932. When he was 7 he received his first communion from Pope Pius XII. Definitely not one of the more intellectual Kennedys, he had a lively personality, and his father commented that he was "a good salesman." Joe Sr. made an effort to spend one on one time as often as he could with his younger sons. With Bobby, it tended to be a very sober conversation. With Teddy, there tended to be a lot of laughs.
In the 1930's Joe Sr. was a key player in the FDR campaign. However, right hand man to Roosevelt Louis Howe was not a Kennedy fan. So initially Joe Sr. found himself waiting for an appointment to a position that never came. Finally, in a stroke of genius, Roosevelt made Kennedy the head of the new Security and Exchange commission that would be creating regulations for the stock market because "it takes a thief to catch a thief."
In 1938 Roosevelt appointed Kennedy to be the Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Initially it seemed like it would be the crowning achievement of his career, possibly also pave the way to a presidential candidacy.
And initially it seemed to go well. The 9 Kennedy children were the darlings of London. Joe Jr. and Jack took advantage of their London base as a jumping off point to explore what was happening in other parts of Europe. Joe Jr., in particular, sent some interesting dispatches from Hitler's Germany, and Civil War Spain.
Joe Sr. became very close to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He was very supportive of Chamberlain's appeasement policy. These days when we think about the appeasement policy, we tend to think of Chamberlain caving in to Hitler's bullying. However, Chamberlain was legitimately concerned that war with Germany would result in a huge number of British casualties and ultimately be the end of the British Empire, and he was right on both counts. Also, something you especially see from Joe Jr.'s letters...even though the younger Kennedy was disturbingly cavalier about the state of Hitler's Germany (he was mostly just impressed by the economic gains...)...he did make a valid point that there were plenty of monsters to go around. Which persecution to go after? Hitler persecuting the Jews? Stalin persecuting the Ukrainians? What about Mussolini or Franco?
Joe Sr., who was really in over his head, initially looked like he'd be able to bow out gracefully. He made one of his most famous speeches to endorse FDR for his third term saying: "After all, my wife and I have given nine hostages to fortune. Our children and your children are more important than anything else in the world. The kind of America that they and their children will inherit is of grave concern to us all." After the speech, Kathleen Kennedy sent a note to support her father that she jokingly signed "Your 4th hostage."
However, Kennedy then permanently finished his public career, by mouthing off to a group of reporters in a conversation he never made clear should have been off the record. With comments like "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here" he cemented his reputation as an appeaser, a defeatist....and probably where part of his anti-semitic reputation comes from as well. From then on, his role in the family would be to work in the background for his sons' efforts.
As the war started, Joe Jr. joined the navy as a pilot, based out of England. Jack, despite all of his health issues, managed to get some strings pulled, and joined the Navy in the Pacific on that famous PT boat. Kathleen, who had fallen in love with England, and was restless staying home in the U.S., went to England as a Red Cross volunteer.
In 1943 Jack's PT Boat was split in half by a Japanese destroyer. Jack led all the crew members to safety on a nearby island, including dragging one crew member along in the water by grabbing the strap of his lifeboat jacket with his teeth. Later Jack would downplay the incident. When asked how he became a hero he'd say "It was easy. They cut my PT boat in half."
In May of 1944 Kathleen made some waves in the family when she....gasp.....married a protestant! The strictest Catholics in the family: Rose and Bobby....let her know they did NOT approve. However Joe Jr. came through for her and gave her away at the wedding.
In August, Joe Jr. was killed in a high risk air mission called Operation Aphrodite. A month later Kathleen's husband Billy was killed in combat as well. Teenaged Robert Kennedy would serve in the Naval reserves before the war was out on the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.
At this point in the Kennedy myth, we picture Joe Sr. at the gravesite telling JFK "Well now that your brother is gone, YOU have to run for president."
But really....no member of the family even thought of him as a politician at that point. Jack was the intellectual....Joe Sr. had Jack's senior thesis "Why England Slept" published. If anything he was expected to become a writer.
However, when the House seat for the 11th congressional district became available in 1946, Jack went for it. He served 3 terms in the House. It wasn't the best fit. Most of Jack's political experience was on the international level. Suddenly he was representing the local interests of Massachusetts, a state that he knew more as a vacation home than anything else. He wasn't a particularly good congressman but of course....he was a hottie, a good speaker and he had that magic last name going for him.
In his first term, within a short period of time, Kathleen Kennedy was killed in a plane crash, and Jack was diagnosed with Addison's Disease. At the time, with the treatments available, he was estimated to only survive into his mid 40's. Jack had an especially fatalistic attitude during this part of his life. Fortunately for him, the new development of cortizone helped bring him relief from the disease. During political campaigns, they spun it as malaria left over from his experiences in the Pacific.
In 1952 Jack defeated incumbent senator and Boston Brahmin Henry Cabot Lodge for the senate seat. The same year he began dating Jacqueline Bouvier, who he married in 1953. And to get the topic out of the way that tends to dominate Kennedy biographies: yes, like his father, he had numerous extramarital affairs, including with Marilyn Monroe. When Jackie found out, Joe Sr. offered her a million dollars not to leave her husband. She accepted the offer. Brothers Joe Jr. and Teddy were also notoriously promiscuous. Although there isn't any conclusive evidence on Bobby. (Personally I like to hope he was the nice Catholic boy that he painted himself to be.)
Opting for back surgery in 1956, during his convalescence Jack collaborated on "Profiles in Courage" with Ted Sorenson. The book, of course, was credited to John F. Kennedy, but long rumored to be ghost written. Ted Sorenson came clean about his co-writing status in his 2008 autobiography. One criticism Jack would later receive from fellow senators is they wished he showed "less profile and more courage."
The biggest criticism of Jack in the senate was how he avoided speaking up about McCarthyism. Fellow Irish Catholic Joe McCarthy had been a family friend of the Kennedys. Bobby Kennedy had even worked for him.
1956 was also the year that it was decided the delegates would select the vice-presidential candidate as well as the presidential one. Against his father's wishes, Jack put his hat in the ring. It would be the only political contest that he ever lost. However, he also became a nationally recognized figure from the attempt.
In 1960 Jack Kennedy became the Democratic candidate for president running against Vice-President Richard Nixon. One thing I find fascinating about the 1960 election is the stark contrast between the two candidates. Both were larger than life, and both were ultimately tragic figures. However Kennedy had the easy-going charisma, and it's nearly impossible to talk about him without mentioning the rest of the clan. Nixon on the other hand, while equally intelligent, was never quite comfortable in his own skin, and even with those who knew him best, always stood alone.
While television had been a mainstream medium for the Eisenhower administration, the 1960 presidential election was the first where it proved to be a deciding factor during the Kennedy-Nixon debates. Kennedy, despite his plethora of health issues, was tanned, had discreetly had some make-up applied, and looked like the picture of health and vitality. Nixon, who was actually quite healthy, due to coming off of an illness, his five o'clock shadow, and his tendency to sweat profusely under the camera lights, looked so ill that his own mother called him up to see if he was all right.
It's not quite clear how Lyndon Johnson ultimately became the vice-presidential nominee. Some accounts make it look like a monumental case of miscommunication. Others suggest that JFK was pulling the strings the whole time. Regardless, it's doubtful that Lyndon Johnson was ever Bobby Kennedy's first choice. LBJ and RFK utterly loathed each other. LBJ's nickname for Bobby was "That little shit-ass."
Kennedy just barely squeaked out a victory, with a mere 100,000 vote lead over Nixon. He became both the youngest elected president, age 43, and the first Roman Catholic president.
One thing that struck me about the early days of the Kennedy administration was the sheer optimism and exuberance of everybody involved with the administration. There seemed to be a spirit of "Our generation is going to be the one that saves the world!" Which, like with so many idealists....is both inspiring and infuriating. Kennedy staff member and historian Arthur Schlesinger phrased it this way: "Euphoria reigned; we thought for a moment that the world was plastic and the future unlimited."
As a jaded member of whatever the heck generation I belong to, part of me smiled and shook my head. I figured it was a more innocent optimistic time, before Vietnam and before Watergate. However then I came across this passage when Schlesinger was comparing and contrasting JFK to FDR. "Roosevelt was born thirty-five years earlier in a different century and a different world. He had grown up in those days of glowing hope which were shattered but not wholly extinguished by the First World War." Just more evidence that, as Gogol Bordello so wisely said, "There were never any good old days." Kennedy himself was at the eye of the storm and wasn't quite as deeply affected by the excitement around him.
The Bay of Pigs fiasco soon put to rest any notions that the Kennedy administration could do no wrong. To really grossly oversimplify the situation, Bay of Pigs was a leftover coup from the coup-happy Eisenhower administration. The idea was that a few Cuban refugees would invade Cuba, and the rest of the country would rise up and join them. Kennedy foolishly allowed himself to be rushed into the decision.
Although the Cuban revolution had occurred in 1959, for nearly two years Fidel Castro was rather coy about what his allegiances were. For two years the United States tried to woo him into not going communist. But by January 1961, not long before the Kennedy inauguration, Castro declared Khrushchev his BFF.
I often find it difficult to get my brain around just how freaked out people were about communism at the time. For me, the winter of 6th grade, we were studying the iron curtain, and I was doing a report about Yugoslavia. That spring, the Berlin Wall came down. By 8th grade, Germany was reunified. 9th grade we had a foreign exchange student from the former East Germany who told me how she and her mother had been walking along the Berlin Wall, not very long before it fell, saying "This wall has to come down some day." By the time I was 19, I visited the former East Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.
However in 1961, more countries were becoming communist, or sympathetic to communism, all the time. Having a communist country just 90 miles from the United States had a lot of Americans especially freaked.
Probably the biggest error in judgement about the Bay of Pigs was underestimating Castro's power, and how many Cubans were loyal to him. (Case in point....Castro is still around today!) Kennedy was devastated by the whole debacle. Jackie later commented it was the only times she ever saw him cry.
A good portion of Kennedy's foreign affairs was the whole balancing act of the Cold War. On the one hand, the United States needed to appear strong to discourage the Soviets from invading the United States or any of their allies. Bay of Pigs was definitely an error of trying too hard to seem tough. I also suspect, having a father who had been branded as a coward and an appeaser made the Kennedy brothers all the more determined to show their might. Of course the problem with trying TOO hard to seem strong and tough is, at the other extreme the Soviets could start a nuclear war. Despite a bad start, I think Kennedy got a lot better at the delicate balance as his administration went on. 1961 also saw a crisis of Laos potentially going communist. (It stayed neutral, at least in name, until the mid 70's.) There was also tension over Berlin, which ultimately resulted in the construction of the Berlin Wall in August, 1961.
Also in 1961, pushing forward an idea from Kennedy's Congress days, the Peace Corps was founded. The idea was by sending volunteers to help out in developing countries, they could become "missionaries of democracy." Everybody thought the Peace Corps was a long shot, so Jack put brother-in-law Sargent Shriver in charge, figuring if the project crashed and burned it was easier to fire a relative without too much political fall-out. Still around today, the Peace Corps remains one of the strongest innovations from the Kennedy administration.
On the home front, the country had fallen in love with Jackie Kennedy....who HAAAATED the term "first lady." She thought it sounded like the name of a race horse, and preferred to be called Mrs. Kennedy. One thing I hadn't realized about her was the White House renovation was much more than just a mere makeover. She wanted the White House to be a sort of living museum of American History. Even before the inauguration, Jackie was raiding the stacks in the Library of Congress to get a detailed history of the White House and how it had been furnished and decorated historically.
In December of 1961, Joseph Kennedy suffered a severe stroke. While he survived, he never was able to speak again, except for being able to say the word "no." For the next years, he would watch 2 sons be assassinated, and Teddy's presidential aspirations dashed after Chappaquiddick, and all he could say is "no." You don't get much more Greek tragedy than that.
In 1962 Kennedy an address at Rice University that is seen as a catalist in the space race. "We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." The Apollo program, besides ultimately resulting in the first man on the moon, also resulted in an enthusiasm and additional spending on math and science education.
The other most famous speech from 1962 was when Kennedy went to Berlin and declared "Ich bin ein Berliner." We know now his grammar was not quite right, and he was declaring himself a jelly donut. (He actually practiced for an hour on the pronunciation of his jelly donut-hood....) The citizens of West Berlin figured out what he meant however, and were elated. Kennedy was actually a bit disconcerted by the high energy of the crowd, commenting that he suspected that they would have rushed the Berlin Wall to knock it down if he had told them to. Plus I suspect as a World War II veteran.....seeing a crowd of Germans hyped up by a speech brought back some unsettling memories.
Although I have to say, my favorite words on this event are those of Eddie Izzard:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mu02xUgE4k]
1962 was also when a young comedian named Vaughn Meader released an album called "First Family" which featured his rather uncanny impression of the president. Jackie thought it was abysmal, but the president reportedly gave it out as Christmas presents, but thought that Meader sounded more like Teddy. The entire album and it's sequel from 1963 can be heard on spotify. I'd especially recommend the tracks "Relatively Speaking" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVGi3wR2Edo "The Brothers Three" (about how similar all 3 Kennedy brothers sounded) and the inadvertantly poignant track "1996" which is a retired Jack and Jackie Kennedy talking in a year that neither of them lived to see. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqw_cvgrz0s&list=UUTKpL8a9G7EJKwD8T-gTWPQ&index=1&feature=plcp Vaughn Meader's career was one of the lesser known casualties of the Kennedy assassination.
The most serious event in 1962 was the Cuban missile crisis in October. Surveillance photos revealed that the Soviets were placing missiles on Cuba. There was a 13 day standoff, probably the closes the United States and the Soviet Union came to nuclear war. Kennedy was getting a wide range of advice from attacking to sticking with diplomatic measures. Ultimately they went the diplomatic route, and found a way for the Soviets to remove the missiles without the Americans rubbing their face in it and declaring a victory. Secretary of State Dean Rusk later said "We were eyeball to eyeball and the other guy just blinked."
One of the more interesting accounts of the Cuban missile crisis is the Robert Kennedy book "Thirteen Days", released a year after his death. My favorite part is when he lays aside his Attorney General role for a moment, and actually shows that the president was his brother. "We stared at each other across the table. For a few fleeting seconds it was almost as though no one else was there and he was no longer the President. Inexplicably, I thought of when he was ill and almost died; when he lost his child; when we learned that our oldest brother had been killed; of personal times of strain and hurt."
In the Schlesinger book "1000 Days" it wasn't until 600 pages in that domestic policies even began to be mentioned. Foreign policy was definitely the higher priority for Kennedy. One thing I found interesting is his goals to cut taxes and reduce the bureaucracy. Both he and Eisenhower at times demonstrate just how much the Democrat and Republican parties have changed over the past 50-60 years. Kennedy also attempted to reform the foreign service which was in a particularly bad mess after the years of McCarthyism. There were all sorts of policies that made absolutely no sense like sending somebody with background in East Asian languages and cultures to the Caribbean.
Kennedy also talked a little bit about creating a program to decrease poverty, but it is doubtful that it would ever be the priority for him that it was for Johnson and Bobby Kennedy.
Kennedy also promoted what would eventually become the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Always awkward with Congress, it is doubtful he would have been able to get the legislation through as quickly as Johnson did. Civil Rights also was just not a passion for him like it was for Bobby. Like other presidents before and after him, Kennedy ultimately moved on this issue because circumstances of the times forced him to.
Vietnam, while it had always been a minor worry in the background, did not emerge as a major issue until November, 1963. The supposedly democratic South Vietnam was rather corrupt, and did not have the best history with human rights. Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem persecuted Buddhists to the extent that monks began setting themselves ablaze in protest. In early November, 1963, there was a coup. Diem and his wife were assassinated. In a case of too little too late, Kennedy realized he had taken Vietnam for granted, and it needed to become a top priority.
But of course, first he had to go on a routine campaign trip to Dallas. Partway through the parade through downtown Dallas, Kennedy was assassinated. Personally, I don't worry much about how it happened. It was probably Lee Harvey Oswald, although he could have been a patsy for somebody else. Kennedy certainly didn't have a lack of enemies. Although to paraphrase Jackie, finding out how he died wouldn't change anything, he's still dead.
The question that intrigues me is what would have happened in Vietnam if Kennedy had survived. One of the myths is that we would not have gotten involved. The thing is, Kennedy had all the same staff members that would have given him the same bad advice they gave Johnson. Although I'm inclined to think with Kennedy's stronger background in foreign affairs and diplomacy, he probably wouldn't have screwed it up as badly.
Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president before Air Force one left Dallas. That night Robert Kennedy could be heard crying out in his room "Why, God, why?" Jackie had the presence of mine to request books from the Library of Congress on Abraham Lincoln's funeral proceedings, so they could do something similar.
But the stories of the Kennedys and the presidency do not quite end there. Bobby Kennedy, after 9 months of walking around like a zombie, opted to run for senator in New York State. My mother, a high school student in New York State, remembers writing a paper denouncing him as a "carpetbagger." Bobby got the Senate seat but proved to be just as miserable and awkward in the legislative branch as Jack had been.
Bobby became intrigued by Civil Rights and bringing attention to poverty. Far more of an idealist than his brother, he went to see "Man of La Mancha" on Broadway 3 times, and would frequently listen to "The Impossible Dream" to psych himself up.
Crowds were very enthusiastic about his speeches. Privately he'd comment how he knew it was all really for his brother. But publicly when somebody commented on the borderline mania of the crowds, Bobby quipped "I'm a Beatle!"
After being on the fence for many months, in early 1968 Bobby Kennedy decided to run for president. His campaign had only been going for a few months when he was assassinated in a Los Angeles hotel. A housekeeper for Joe and Rose Kennedy commented that while the family had been quiet and stoic for Jack's death, when Bobby died there was screaming.
This made 36 year old Teddy the head of the family. In July, 1969, he was attending a party on the island of Chappaquiddick with former staffers for Bobby's campaign. He left early with a woman named Mary Jo Kopechne. Somehow he drove the car off the road and it submerged. Teddy got out of the car, but did not report the incident to the police until the next day. Kopechne was found drowned, and it was suspected that she probably would have survived. When Joe Sr. heard about about the incident, he began to refuse food, and died that November.
Teddy would wait to run for president until 1980. Besides the lingering memories of Chappaquiddick, ultimately what killed the campaign, was when he was asked outright why he wanted to be president, and he could not come up with a good answer.
The thing is, unlike his brothers, Teddy enjoyed being a senator, and actually showed a flair for it. He spent 47 years in the Senate, longer than any of his brothers had ever lived, and is one of the most accomplished senators the United States has ever had. While there is no excusing the crime of Chappaquiddick, in the end, Ted managed to find a measure of redemption.
The Kennedy mystique and legacy continues to live on. One reason why I came to this entry with a great deal of bias is, in the early 1970's, a Salvatorian priest decided to found a school in St. Nazianz, Wisconsin based on the ideals of John F. Kennedy called "John F. Kennedy Preparatory School" or "JFK Prep" with the motto being the Kennedy line "To lead the land we love." This was the school where my parents met, and where I spent a great deal of time for my first two years.
One of my friends very accurately said researching the Kennedys is like researching the Beatles. There are tons and tons of books, but of course most of them are utter crap. Over the years I've managed to find some good ones including:
"Founding Father" by Joseph Whalen - Originally researched for the 1964 election, Whalen interviewed contemporaries of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Most Kennedy biographies worth their salt will reference this book.
"The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys" by Doris Kearns Goodwin - Thanks to some faulty citations, this book is no longer in print due to accusations of plagiarism. However, it's one of the best narratives of the Kennedy and Fitzgerald clans that I have come across, and one of the few that had access to the Joseph Kennedy archives. I especially enjoyed her description of Boston in the days of Honey Fitz.
"Thirteen Days" by Robert Kennedy - posthumous book of Robert Kennedy's take on the Cuban Missile Crisis
"A Thousand Days" by Arthur Schlesinger - A very detailed play by play description and analysis of all the major policies and events in the Kennedy administration by one of his staff members, who was also a noted historian.
"Jacqueline Kennedy : Historic Conversations" by Jacqueline Kennedy and Arthur Schlesinger. This is one where I'd recommend the audiobook version. Schlesinger interviewed Jackie just a couple of months after the assassination. In the audio version, it's like you are in the room with her. You can hear her smoking, and occasionally getting interrupted by one of the kids.
"Conversations With Kennedy" by Ben Bradlee. Bradlee is most famous for being the editor of the Washington Post during the Woodward and Bernstein era. However, he and his wife at the time would regularly socialize with the Kennedys.
"Robert Kennedy: His Life" by Evan Thomas - Where I got the bulk of my information about Bobby Kennedy.
"Kennedy and Roosevelt" by Michael Beschloss - another one of the rare books to have access to the Joseph Kennedy archives. It is about the relationship between Joseph Kennedy and FDR. Not a bad book, but the subject matter is covered better elsewhere.
"Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of Joseph P. Kennedy" by Amanda Smith - Letters to and from Joseph Kennedy. The ones I found most fascinating were the letters back and forth from him and his children right before World War II started.
Finally.....as this blog has gotten borderline Tolstoy length....as I usually end with a song, he's one I'll always associate with the Kennedys:
"We're going to climb that hill together, even if it takes us all day." - Edward M. Kennedy
Let's get the usual JFK biography out of the way first. Once upon a time a child was born of Boston Irish royalty. *insert fleeting note about Joseph P. Kennedy, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy....and Mayor Honey Fitz.* He was the second oldest of 9 children....although we won't say much about his sisters. He was a hero in World War II in the Pacific. *insert PT boat story here*
After World War II, since brother Joe had died, JFK was the heir apparent. *insert meteoric rise through Congress here* He married Jacqueline Bouvier. Then he became president. *insert theme song from Camelot here* Except for his unfortunate philandering *insert footage of Marilyn Monroe here* ...he was the perfect president...young, handsome and full of new ideas all tragically cut short because of his assassination on November 22, 1963.
Here's my big issues with how I initially learned about JFK. 1. This is less of an issue now, but when I was growing up there was a tendency to beatify him because of his unfortunate death, and exaggerate what his skills really were. 2. A tendency to dwell on either the scandals, such as his numerous affairs...or conspiracy theories about his death. 3. JFK, at least with how I first read about him, seemed to be looked at in isolation. In my mind you can't really talk about just one Kennedy. It's an ensemble piece, where it took several people to contribute to the image, and the various accomplishments and failures. If there is one person that could be identified as the star of the show, it's not JFK at all, but his father.
Joseph Patrick Kennedy was born in Boston on September 6, 1888. He was the grandson of Irish immigrants, and the son of P.J. Kennedy: tavern owner, and major community leader. Hard working, and ambitious, he attended first the famous Boston Latin School and then Harvard. At the time, it was not common for Catholics to attend the protestant-affiliated Harvard. Kennedy was frustrated by never achieving social acceptance at Harvard. First by not gaining membership into the Porcellian Club, and in later years by not receiving an honorary doctorate. Kennedy's anger at this rejection further fueled his determination to obtain wealth and power.
On October 8, 1914, Kennedy married Rose Fitzgerald. Rose was the oldest daughter of Boston mayor John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald. Bright and adventurous, she was initially slated to go to Wellesley for college. However her father caved to pressure from a Cardinal, and made her go to Convent of the Sacred Heart instead. Doris Kearns Goodwin suggests that if she'd been allowed to go to Wellesley, with her drive and ambition, she may have had a promising political career herself. Instead she channeled her energies towards being a very devout Catholic.
I don't think it was a particularly happy marriage. Although it was a pretty successful partnership. Kennedy made arrangements so Rose could continue her passion for travel, and take vacations, usually with her sisters. Rose managed the household like a general, and turned a blind eye to Kennedy's numerous affairs. Kennedy's most famous mistress, Gloria Swanson, once remarked "That Rose must be a saint, a fool or just a better actress than me."
Often Joseph Kennedy is described as a bootlegger. This is probably true, as he did provide the alcohol for his Harvard class reunion in the 1920's during Prohibition. However, it is a gross oversimplification of Kennedy's business dealings. Part of what I find intriguing about him is his almost uncanny knack to be at the right place at the right time. Kennedy started out in banking. Eventually, he became heavily involved in speculation on the stock market. However, he managed to keep a level head despite the stock market mania of the day. He pulled his money out of the stock market in the spring of 1929. There's a comment that is usually attributed to him "When even shoeshine boys start giving you stock tips, it's time to sell." During the late 20's Kennedy was also investing in Hollywood, and was the owner of RKO. (So pretty much if you're interested in the Great Depression or Golden Age Hollywood, you are going to love reading about Joseph Kennedy.)
However, ultimately, Kennedy's long term ambitions were for his large family. He established trust funds for all 9 children that they would be free to use how they wished once they turned 21. His goal was for all of his children to be independent both financially, and intellectually. (He was actually delighted when Joe Jr. and Jack argued at length with him one night at the dinner table. He found it more important that they were working together than that they agreed with his point of view.) Despite his busy work schedule he made it a priority to spend quality time with all of his children, and wrote to all of them regularly. Jackie Kennedy later privately called him a "tiger mother" and thought he was the more nurturing parent of the two.
Oldest child Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. was born 1915. He was the golden child, and very blatantly the favorite of both Joe Sr. and Rose. Also they both shared the attitude that if you raised the first child right, the others would follow suit. Joe Jr. took his leadership role among the siblings very seriously. His younger siblings adored him, and did follow his lead. However, he could also be a bully. Robert Kennedy once commented "I used to lie in bed sometimes and hear the sound of Joe banging Jack's head against the wall." While Joe was the dutiful oldest child, and jumped through every hoop he was expected to....he lacked the intelligence and imagination of some of his younger siblings.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born May 29, 1917. He would have been 95 this month. Jack had a definite rebellious streak, which annoyed his mother to no end. Once when Rose was taking the children to Mass, she told them to pray for a happy death. Jack responded that he'd rather "pray for two dogs."
Jack Kennedy spent a good portion of his childhood plagued with illness. (Probably partly caused by his as yet undiagnosed Addison's Disease.) Robert Kennedy once commented "If a mosquito bit Jack Kennedy, the mosquito would die." Jack Kennedy also had lifelong back trouble. It started with one leg being 3/4 of an inch shorter than the other, and was further aggravated by a college football injury. Though of course the myth is it all started in World War II. Partly because of all the time spent recovering from one illness or another, Jack became a voracious reader, mostly of history. A habit he would continue the rest of his life.
In high school, Jack Kennedy was expelled, although later reinstated, because of creating the "Muckers Club." Pretty much a group of boys dedicated to playing pranks. Jack and his father had a meeting with the headmaster about the expulsion. However, when the headmaster stepped out for a minute, Joe Kennedy winked at his son and said "If that Muckers Club had been mine, it wouldn't have started with an M."
Rosemary Kennedy was born in 1918. It was pretty quickly determined that she was what today we'd call cognitively disabled. At the time, children with cognitive disabilities were usually institutionalized. However, Joe and Rose were determined that she would have as normal a life as possible. Rosemary had special tutors, went to special schools, and often had extra attention from her mother. Younger sister Eunice would also become very protective of Rosemary.
For a while, the efforts seemed to work, somewhat. She was probably at her happiest at a school in England until World War II started. However, in her early 20's, back in the United States, she began to act up. There are different theories about why. Some think it was a hormone issue. Some suspect that she was just frustrated that she couldn't keep up with her brighter more coordinated siblings. Whatever the cause, she began running off regularly. As she was a very beautiful young woman, this prospect was doubly terrifying to her parents.
Joe Sr. had heard of a new surgical procedure called the lobotomy. From his understanding, it would remove the part of Rosemary's brain that made her frustrated, and she could spend the rest of her life content. He secretly took her to have the procedure, without consulting Rose. The results were a disaster, basically leaving Rosemary little more than a vegetable. Kennedy had Rosemary institutionalized at St. Coletta in Jefferson Wisconsin, where she remained until her death in 2005. He informed the rest of the family that Rosemary was now teaching. Rose Kennedy did not uncover the truth until Joe Sr. was incapacitated by a stroke. Rose later discussed the matter with Doris Kearns Goodwin and seemed to have very thinly veiled rage about it. The family would not speak openly about Rosemary again. Although it should be be noted that Eunice Kennedy was later a key player in establishing the Special Olympics, and Jean Kennedy was also involved with causes for the disabled.
Kathleen Kennedy or "Kick" was born in 1920. She had a very lively personality. She, Joe Jr. and Jack would come to be known as "the golden trio."
Eunice Kennedy was born in 1921. She was probably the most naturally political of the Kennedy siblings. Doris Kearns Goodwin suggested that if she had been born a generation later, she would be the one that would have become president. Apparently she was also quite formidable during the Kennedy football games.
Patricia Kennedy was born in 1924. The most introverted of the Kennedy clan, she's probably most famous for her troubled marriage to Rat Pack member Peter Lawford.
Robert Kennedy was born in 1925. His own father more than once referred to him as "the runt of the litter." Smaller than the others, shy and sensitive, he was a favorite of Rose Kennedy who called him "my little pet." He would eventually develop a rather fierce persona, and have a reputation for being "ruthless."
Jean Kennedy, born in 1928, is the last surviving Kennedy sibling. She was ambassador to Ireland during the Clinton administration.
Edward Moore Kennedy was born in 1932. When he was 7 he received his first communion from Pope Pius XII. Definitely not one of the more intellectual Kennedys, he had a lively personality, and his father commented that he was "a good salesman." Joe Sr. made an effort to spend one on one time as often as he could with his younger sons. With Bobby, it tended to be a very sober conversation. With Teddy, there tended to be a lot of laughs.
In the 1930's Joe Sr. was a key player in the FDR campaign. However, right hand man to Roosevelt Louis Howe was not a Kennedy fan. So initially Joe Sr. found himself waiting for an appointment to a position that never came. Finally, in a stroke of genius, Roosevelt made Kennedy the head of the new Security and Exchange commission that would be creating regulations for the stock market because "it takes a thief to catch a thief."
In 1938 Roosevelt appointed Kennedy to be the Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Initially it seemed like it would be the crowning achievement of his career, possibly also pave the way to a presidential candidacy.
And initially it seemed to go well. The 9 Kennedy children were the darlings of London. Joe Jr. and Jack took advantage of their London base as a jumping off point to explore what was happening in other parts of Europe. Joe Jr., in particular, sent some interesting dispatches from Hitler's Germany, and Civil War Spain.
Joe Sr. became very close to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He was very supportive of Chamberlain's appeasement policy. These days when we think about the appeasement policy, we tend to think of Chamberlain caving in to Hitler's bullying. However, Chamberlain was legitimately concerned that war with Germany would result in a huge number of British casualties and ultimately be the end of the British Empire, and he was right on both counts. Also, something you especially see from Joe Jr.'s letters...even though the younger Kennedy was disturbingly cavalier about the state of Hitler's Germany (he was mostly just impressed by the economic gains...)...he did make a valid point that there were plenty of monsters to go around. Which persecution to go after? Hitler persecuting the Jews? Stalin persecuting the Ukrainians? What about Mussolini or Franco?
Joe Sr., who was really in over his head, initially looked like he'd be able to bow out gracefully. He made one of his most famous speeches to endorse FDR for his third term saying: "After all, my wife and I have given nine hostages to fortune. Our children and your children are more important than anything else in the world. The kind of America that they and their children will inherit is of grave concern to us all." After the speech, Kathleen Kennedy sent a note to support her father that she jokingly signed "Your 4th hostage."
However, Kennedy then permanently finished his public career, by mouthing off to a group of reporters in a conversation he never made clear should have been off the record. With comments like "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here" he cemented his reputation as an appeaser, a defeatist....and probably where part of his anti-semitic reputation comes from as well. From then on, his role in the family would be to work in the background for his sons' efforts.
As the war started, Joe Jr. joined the navy as a pilot, based out of England. Jack, despite all of his health issues, managed to get some strings pulled, and joined the Navy in the Pacific on that famous PT boat. Kathleen, who had fallen in love with England, and was restless staying home in the U.S., went to England as a Red Cross volunteer.
In 1943 Jack's PT Boat was split in half by a Japanese destroyer. Jack led all the crew members to safety on a nearby island, including dragging one crew member along in the water by grabbing the strap of his lifeboat jacket with his teeth. Later Jack would downplay the incident. When asked how he became a hero he'd say "It was easy. They cut my PT boat in half."
In May of 1944 Kathleen made some waves in the family when she....gasp.....married a protestant! The strictest Catholics in the family: Rose and Bobby....let her know they did NOT approve. However Joe Jr. came through for her and gave her away at the wedding.
In August, Joe Jr. was killed in a high risk air mission called Operation Aphrodite. A month later Kathleen's husband Billy was killed in combat as well. Teenaged Robert Kennedy would serve in the Naval reserves before the war was out on the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.
At this point in the Kennedy myth, we picture Joe Sr. at the gravesite telling JFK "Well now that your brother is gone, YOU have to run for president."
But really....no member of the family even thought of him as a politician at that point. Jack was the intellectual....Joe Sr. had Jack's senior thesis "Why England Slept" published. If anything he was expected to become a writer.
However, when the House seat for the 11th congressional district became available in 1946, Jack went for it. He served 3 terms in the House. It wasn't the best fit. Most of Jack's political experience was on the international level. Suddenly he was representing the local interests of Massachusetts, a state that he knew more as a vacation home than anything else. He wasn't a particularly good congressman but of course....he was a hottie, a good speaker and he had that magic last name going for him.
In his first term, within a short period of time, Kathleen Kennedy was killed in a plane crash, and Jack was diagnosed with Addison's Disease. At the time, with the treatments available, he was estimated to only survive into his mid 40's. Jack had an especially fatalistic attitude during this part of his life. Fortunately for him, the new development of cortizone helped bring him relief from the disease. During political campaigns, they spun it as malaria left over from his experiences in the Pacific.
In 1952 Jack defeated incumbent senator and Boston Brahmin Henry Cabot Lodge for the senate seat. The same year he began dating Jacqueline Bouvier, who he married in 1953. And to get the topic out of the way that tends to dominate Kennedy biographies: yes, like his father, he had numerous extramarital affairs, including with Marilyn Monroe. When Jackie found out, Joe Sr. offered her a million dollars not to leave her husband. She accepted the offer. Brothers Joe Jr. and Teddy were also notoriously promiscuous. Although there isn't any conclusive evidence on Bobby. (Personally I like to hope he was the nice Catholic boy that he painted himself to be.)
Opting for back surgery in 1956, during his convalescence Jack collaborated on "Profiles in Courage" with Ted Sorenson. The book, of course, was credited to John F. Kennedy, but long rumored to be ghost written. Ted Sorenson came clean about his co-writing status in his 2008 autobiography. One criticism Jack would later receive from fellow senators is they wished he showed "less profile and more courage."
The biggest criticism of Jack in the senate was how he avoided speaking up about McCarthyism. Fellow Irish Catholic Joe McCarthy had been a family friend of the Kennedys. Bobby Kennedy had even worked for him.
1956 was also the year that it was decided the delegates would select the vice-presidential candidate as well as the presidential one. Against his father's wishes, Jack put his hat in the ring. It would be the only political contest that he ever lost. However, he also became a nationally recognized figure from the attempt.
In 1960 Jack Kennedy became the Democratic candidate for president running against Vice-President Richard Nixon. One thing I find fascinating about the 1960 election is the stark contrast between the two candidates. Both were larger than life, and both were ultimately tragic figures. However Kennedy had the easy-going charisma, and it's nearly impossible to talk about him without mentioning the rest of the clan. Nixon on the other hand, while equally intelligent, was never quite comfortable in his own skin, and even with those who knew him best, always stood alone.
While television had been a mainstream medium for the Eisenhower administration, the 1960 presidential election was the first where it proved to be a deciding factor during the Kennedy-Nixon debates. Kennedy, despite his plethora of health issues, was tanned, had discreetly had some make-up applied, and looked like the picture of health and vitality. Nixon, who was actually quite healthy, due to coming off of an illness, his five o'clock shadow, and his tendency to sweat profusely under the camera lights, looked so ill that his own mother called him up to see if he was all right.
It's not quite clear how Lyndon Johnson ultimately became the vice-presidential nominee. Some accounts make it look like a monumental case of miscommunication. Others suggest that JFK was pulling the strings the whole time. Regardless, it's doubtful that Lyndon Johnson was ever Bobby Kennedy's first choice. LBJ and RFK utterly loathed each other. LBJ's nickname for Bobby was "That little shit-ass."
Kennedy just barely squeaked out a victory, with a mere 100,000 vote lead over Nixon. He became both the youngest elected president, age 43, and the first Roman Catholic president.
One thing that struck me about the early days of the Kennedy administration was the sheer optimism and exuberance of everybody involved with the administration. There seemed to be a spirit of "Our generation is going to be the one that saves the world!" Which, like with so many idealists....is both inspiring and infuriating. Kennedy staff member and historian Arthur Schlesinger phrased it this way: "Euphoria reigned; we thought for a moment that the world was plastic and the future unlimited."
As a jaded member of whatever the heck generation I belong to, part of me smiled and shook my head. I figured it was a more innocent optimistic time, before Vietnam and before Watergate. However then I came across this passage when Schlesinger was comparing and contrasting JFK to FDR. "Roosevelt was born thirty-five years earlier in a different century and a different world. He had grown up in those days of glowing hope which were shattered but not wholly extinguished by the First World War." Just more evidence that, as Gogol Bordello so wisely said, "There were never any good old days." Kennedy himself was at the eye of the storm and wasn't quite as deeply affected by the excitement around him.
The Bay of Pigs fiasco soon put to rest any notions that the Kennedy administration could do no wrong. To really grossly oversimplify the situation, Bay of Pigs was a leftover coup from the coup-happy Eisenhower administration. The idea was that a few Cuban refugees would invade Cuba, and the rest of the country would rise up and join them. Kennedy foolishly allowed himself to be rushed into the decision.
Although the Cuban revolution had occurred in 1959, for nearly two years Fidel Castro was rather coy about what his allegiances were. For two years the United States tried to woo him into not going communist. But by January 1961, not long before the Kennedy inauguration, Castro declared Khrushchev his BFF.
I often find it difficult to get my brain around just how freaked out people were about communism at the time. For me, the winter of 6th grade, we were studying the iron curtain, and I was doing a report about Yugoslavia. That spring, the Berlin Wall came down. By 8th grade, Germany was reunified. 9th grade we had a foreign exchange student from the former East Germany who told me how she and her mother had been walking along the Berlin Wall, not very long before it fell, saying "This wall has to come down some day." By the time I was 19, I visited the former East Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.
However in 1961, more countries were becoming communist, or sympathetic to communism, all the time. Having a communist country just 90 miles from the United States had a lot of Americans especially freaked.
Probably the biggest error in judgement about the Bay of Pigs was underestimating Castro's power, and how many Cubans were loyal to him. (Case in point....Castro is still around today!) Kennedy was devastated by the whole debacle. Jackie later commented it was the only times she ever saw him cry.
A good portion of Kennedy's foreign affairs was the whole balancing act of the Cold War. On the one hand, the United States needed to appear strong to discourage the Soviets from invading the United States or any of their allies. Bay of Pigs was definitely an error of trying too hard to seem tough. I also suspect, having a father who had been branded as a coward and an appeaser made the Kennedy brothers all the more determined to show their might. Of course the problem with trying TOO hard to seem strong and tough is, at the other extreme the Soviets could start a nuclear war. Despite a bad start, I think Kennedy got a lot better at the delicate balance as his administration went on. 1961 also saw a crisis of Laos potentially going communist. (It stayed neutral, at least in name, until the mid 70's.) There was also tension over Berlin, which ultimately resulted in the construction of the Berlin Wall in August, 1961.
Also in 1961, pushing forward an idea from Kennedy's Congress days, the Peace Corps was founded. The idea was by sending volunteers to help out in developing countries, they could become "missionaries of democracy." Everybody thought the Peace Corps was a long shot, so Jack put brother-in-law Sargent Shriver in charge, figuring if the project crashed and burned it was easier to fire a relative without too much political fall-out. Still around today, the Peace Corps remains one of the strongest innovations from the Kennedy administration.
On the home front, the country had fallen in love with Jackie Kennedy....who HAAAATED the term "first lady." She thought it sounded like the name of a race horse, and preferred to be called Mrs. Kennedy. One thing I hadn't realized about her was the White House renovation was much more than just a mere makeover. She wanted the White House to be a sort of living museum of American History. Even before the inauguration, Jackie was raiding the stacks in the Library of Congress to get a detailed history of the White House and how it had been furnished and decorated historically.
In December of 1961, Joseph Kennedy suffered a severe stroke. While he survived, he never was able to speak again, except for being able to say the word "no." For the next years, he would watch 2 sons be assassinated, and Teddy's presidential aspirations dashed after Chappaquiddick, and all he could say is "no." You don't get much more Greek tragedy than that.
In 1962 Kennedy an address at Rice University that is seen as a catalist in the space race. "We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." The Apollo program, besides ultimately resulting in the first man on the moon, also resulted in an enthusiasm and additional spending on math and science education.
The other most famous speech from 1962 was when Kennedy went to Berlin and declared "Ich bin ein Berliner." We know now his grammar was not quite right, and he was declaring himself a jelly donut. (He actually practiced for an hour on the pronunciation of his jelly donut-hood....) The citizens of West Berlin figured out what he meant however, and were elated. Kennedy was actually a bit disconcerted by the high energy of the crowd, commenting that he suspected that they would have rushed the Berlin Wall to knock it down if he had told them to. Plus I suspect as a World War II veteran.....seeing a crowd of Germans hyped up by a speech brought back some unsettling memories.
Although I have to say, my favorite words on this event are those of Eddie Izzard:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mu02xUgE4k]
1962 was also when a young comedian named Vaughn Meader released an album called "First Family" which featured his rather uncanny impression of the president. Jackie thought it was abysmal, but the president reportedly gave it out as Christmas presents, but thought that Meader sounded more like Teddy. The entire album and it's sequel from 1963 can be heard on spotify. I'd especially recommend the tracks "Relatively Speaking" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVGi3wR2Edo "The Brothers Three" (about how similar all 3 Kennedy brothers sounded) and the inadvertantly poignant track "1996" which is a retired Jack and Jackie Kennedy talking in a year that neither of them lived to see. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqw_cvgrz0s&list=UUTKpL8a9G7EJKwD8T-gTWPQ&index=1&feature=plcp Vaughn Meader's career was one of the lesser known casualties of the Kennedy assassination.
The most serious event in 1962 was the Cuban missile crisis in October. Surveillance photos revealed that the Soviets were placing missiles on Cuba. There was a 13 day standoff, probably the closes the United States and the Soviet Union came to nuclear war. Kennedy was getting a wide range of advice from attacking to sticking with diplomatic measures. Ultimately they went the diplomatic route, and found a way for the Soviets to remove the missiles without the Americans rubbing their face in it and declaring a victory. Secretary of State Dean Rusk later said "We were eyeball to eyeball and the other guy just blinked."
One of the more interesting accounts of the Cuban missile crisis is the Robert Kennedy book "Thirteen Days", released a year after his death. My favorite part is when he lays aside his Attorney General role for a moment, and actually shows that the president was his brother. "We stared at each other across the table. For a few fleeting seconds it was almost as though no one else was there and he was no longer the President. Inexplicably, I thought of when he was ill and almost died; when he lost his child; when we learned that our oldest brother had been killed; of personal times of strain and hurt."
In the Schlesinger book "1000 Days" it wasn't until 600 pages in that domestic policies even began to be mentioned. Foreign policy was definitely the higher priority for Kennedy. One thing I found interesting is his goals to cut taxes and reduce the bureaucracy. Both he and Eisenhower at times demonstrate just how much the Democrat and Republican parties have changed over the past 50-60 years. Kennedy also attempted to reform the foreign service which was in a particularly bad mess after the years of McCarthyism. There were all sorts of policies that made absolutely no sense like sending somebody with background in East Asian languages and cultures to the Caribbean.
Kennedy also talked a little bit about creating a program to decrease poverty, but it is doubtful that it would ever be the priority for him that it was for Johnson and Bobby Kennedy.
Kennedy also promoted what would eventually become the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Always awkward with Congress, it is doubtful he would have been able to get the legislation through as quickly as Johnson did. Civil Rights also was just not a passion for him like it was for Bobby. Like other presidents before and after him, Kennedy ultimately moved on this issue because circumstances of the times forced him to.
Vietnam, while it had always been a minor worry in the background, did not emerge as a major issue until November, 1963. The supposedly democratic South Vietnam was rather corrupt, and did not have the best history with human rights. Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem persecuted Buddhists to the extent that monks began setting themselves ablaze in protest. In early November, 1963, there was a coup. Diem and his wife were assassinated. In a case of too little too late, Kennedy realized he had taken Vietnam for granted, and it needed to become a top priority.
But of course, first he had to go on a routine campaign trip to Dallas. Partway through the parade through downtown Dallas, Kennedy was assassinated. Personally, I don't worry much about how it happened. It was probably Lee Harvey Oswald, although he could have been a patsy for somebody else. Kennedy certainly didn't have a lack of enemies. Although to paraphrase Jackie, finding out how he died wouldn't change anything, he's still dead.
The question that intrigues me is what would have happened in Vietnam if Kennedy had survived. One of the myths is that we would not have gotten involved. The thing is, Kennedy had all the same staff members that would have given him the same bad advice they gave Johnson. Although I'm inclined to think with Kennedy's stronger background in foreign affairs and diplomacy, he probably wouldn't have screwed it up as badly.
Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president before Air Force one left Dallas. That night Robert Kennedy could be heard crying out in his room "Why, God, why?" Jackie had the presence of mine to request books from the Library of Congress on Abraham Lincoln's funeral proceedings, so they could do something similar.
But the stories of the Kennedys and the presidency do not quite end there. Bobby Kennedy, after 9 months of walking around like a zombie, opted to run for senator in New York State. My mother, a high school student in New York State, remembers writing a paper denouncing him as a "carpetbagger." Bobby got the Senate seat but proved to be just as miserable and awkward in the legislative branch as Jack had been.
Bobby became intrigued by Civil Rights and bringing attention to poverty. Far more of an idealist than his brother, he went to see "Man of La Mancha" on Broadway 3 times, and would frequently listen to "The Impossible Dream" to psych himself up.
Crowds were very enthusiastic about his speeches. Privately he'd comment how he knew it was all really for his brother. But publicly when somebody commented on the borderline mania of the crowds, Bobby quipped "I'm a Beatle!"
After being on the fence for many months, in early 1968 Bobby Kennedy decided to run for president. His campaign had only been going for a few months when he was assassinated in a Los Angeles hotel. A housekeeper for Joe and Rose Kennedy commented that while the family had been quiet and stoic for Jack's death, when Bobby died there was screaming.
This made 36 year old Teddy the head of the family. In July, 1969, he was attending a party on the island of Chappaquiddick with former staffers for Bobby's campaign. He left early with a woman named Mary Jo Kopechne. Somehow he drove the car off the road and it submerged. Teddy got out of the car, but did not report the incident to the police until the next day. Kopechne was found drowned, and it was suspected that she probably would have survived. When Joe Sr. heard about about the incident, he began to refuse food, and died that November.
Teddy would wait to run for president until 1980. Besides the lingering memories of Chappaquiddick, ultimately what killed the campaign, was when he was asked outright why he wanted to be president, and he could not come up with a good answer.
The thing is, unlike his brothers, Teddy enjoyed being a senator, and actually showed a flair for it. He spent 47 years in the Senate, longer than any of his brothers had ever lived, and is one of the most accomplished senators the United States has ever had. While there is no excusing the crime of Chappaquiddick, in the end, Ted managed to find a measure of redemption.
The Kennedy mystique and legacy continues to live on. One reason why I came to this entry with a great deal of bias is, in the early 1970's, a Salvatorian priest decided to found a school in St. Nazianz, Wisconsin based on the ideals of John F. Kennedy called "John F. Kennedy Preparatory School" or "JFK Prep" with the motto being the Kennedy line "To lead the land we love." This was the school where my parents met, and where I spent a great deal of time for my first two years.
One of my friends very accurately said researching the Kennedys is like researching the Beatles. There are tons and tons of books, but of course most of them are utter crap. Over the years I've managed to find some good ones including:
"Founding Father" by Joseph Whalen - Originally researched for the 1964 election, Whalen interviewed contemporaries of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Most Kennedy biographies worth their salt will reference this book.
"The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys" by Doris Kearns Goodwin - Thanks to some faulty citations, this book is no longer in print due to accusations of plagiarism. However, it's one of the best narratives of the Kennedy and Fitzgerald clans that I have come across, and one of the few that had access to the Joseph Kennedy archives. I especially enjoyed her description of Boston in the days of Honey Fitz.
"Thirteen Days" by Robert Kennedy - posthumous book of Robert Kennedy's take on the Cuban Missile Crisis
"A Thousand Days" by Arthur Schlesinger - A very detailed play by play description and analysis of all the major policies and events in the Kennedy administration by one of his staff members, who was also a noted historian.
"Jacqueline Kennedy : Historic Conversations" by Jacqueline Kennedy and Arthur Schlesinger. This is one where I'd recommend the audiobook version. Schlesinger interviewed Jackie just a couple of months after the assassination. In the audio version, it's like you are in the room with her. You can hear her smoking, and occasionally getting interrupted by one of the kids.
"Conversations With Kennedy" by Ben Bradlee. Bradlee is most famous for being the editor of the Washington Post during the Woodward and Bernstein era. However, he and his wife at the time would regularly socialize with the Kennedys.
"Robert Kennedy: His Life" by Evan Thomas - Where I got the bulk of my information about Bobby Kennedy.
"Kennedy and Roosevelt" by Michael Beschloss - another one of the rare books to have access to the Joseph Kennedy archives. It is about the relationship between Joseph Kennedy and FDR. Not a bad book, but the subject matter is covered better elsewhere.
"Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of Joseph P. Kennedy" by Amanda Smith - Letters to and from Joseph Kennedy. The ones I found most fascinating were the letters back and forth from him and his children right before World War II started.
Finally.....as this blog has gotten borderline Tolstoy length....as I usually end with a song, he's one I'll always associate with the Kennedys: