by David Nasaw
February 18, 1938: Having done yeoman work for the president at the SEC, contributed to his 1936 reelection effort, then served as first chairman of the Maritime Commission, Kennedy was rewarded with appointment as the first Irish Catholic ambassador to the Court of St. James’s. Here he is being sworn in by Supreme Court justice Stanley Reed, while the president looks on rather amused.
On arriving in Washington, Kennedy made a name for himself as an administration insider. He is seen here talking to Postmaster James Farley with Secretary of Treasury Henry Morgenthau listening in.
June 2, 1938: Kennedy and his oldest daughter, Rosemary, on one of their outings in London. Kennedy, who had, for the most part, lived apart from his children during his years in the picture business and then in Washington, very much enjoyed being in the same city and under the same roof with them in London. Rosemary, who had always had trouble in school, did so well in London that when the rest of the family left for America after Britain declared war on Germany, she remained behind with her father.
Kennedy, Joe Jr., and Teddy, just visible at the far left of the table, dining at the American ambassador’s residence in London, probably in early September 1938, while the rest of the family was still on vacation at their villa in the south of France. Teddy had been sent back to London with his father because he was suffering from tonsillitis.
Kennedy was a forceful, persistent, and loyal advocate of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his policy of appeasing the dictators rather than pushing them into a war Chamberlain and Kennedy were convinced Great Britain was not prepared to fight and could not win. Here we see Chamberlain returning, triumphant, from Munich after negotiating an agreement with Hitler, which gave Germany a large portion of Czechoslovakia, but, according to Chamberlain, preserved “peace in our time.”
March 1939: Kennedy, Rose, and eight of their children (Joe Jr. was traveling in Spain) on their way to a private audience with Pope Pius XII. President Roosevelt had honored Kennedy by asking him to be his representative at the papal coronation.
The family on vacation in the south of France in the summer of 1939. They lived in a nearby villa but rented a beach cabana at the Hôtel Cap d’Antibes, where this photo was taken. Bobby and Jean are in the front row; Jack, Eunice, Kennedy, and Pat in the middle; Kick, Joe Jr., Rosemary, Rose, and Teddy in the rear.
May 4, 1939: Rose and Kennedy with Queen Elizabeth and King George VI at a dinner at the American embassy, held two days before the king and queen sailed to Canada and the United States on state visits. The official photos, released to the press, show all four staring straight ahead. This is a rare picture of a smiling king and queen.
On learning in late August 1939 that Germany and the Soviet Union had signed a nonaggression pact, Kennedy flew back from the south of France to London for consultations with British government leaders. He is pictured here with Lord Halifax, the foreign secretary, after a meeting at Whitehall. Within the week, Germany would invade Poland, and Great Britain and France would declare war on Germany.
December 11, 1939: Kennedy, on home leave from London, visited Boston for a checkup at the Lahey clinic and an informal reception at his old East Boston church. He also visited with his three oldest boys, Joe Jr. at Harvard Law, Jack at Harvard College, and Bobby, who was at Portsmouth Priory in Rhode Island. Note how immaculately dressed Joe Jr., the future politician, is compared to his younger, more carefree brother Jack, in his ill-fitting sports jacket and dark shoes with white socks.
Kennedy remained in London as ambassador through the early stages of the blitz, thoroughly discredited as an appeaser and an opponent of American aid to the British war effort. Roosevelt should have recalled him, but was afraid of angering a still influential Irish Catholic whose support he needed in his campaign for a third term. In October 1940, Kennedy returned to Washington, where to the surprise of many, he endorsed Roosevelt for reelection. He is pictured here two months after the election delivering a radio address on lend-lease, the administration’s plan to assist the British war effort, in which he confused and angered both sides of the debate by refusing to take an unequivocal stand for or against the legislation.
April 1946: One of the rare photos of Kennedy with his son Jack during Jack’s first campaign for Congress. Once his son decided to run for office, Kennedy retreated from public view, fearful that his decidedly unpopular views might damage Jack’s chances for election. This photo was originally taken for a Look magazine feature. Kennedy might have felt obliged to be in it rather than leave the spotlight to his father-in-law, Honey Fitz (at left), the former mayor. As was so often the case, Honey Fitz, is saying something that Jack finds amusing but his father does not.
1948: On the porch of the Hyannis Port house with Eunice and Bobby in either the late summer or early fall of 1948. Bobby, age twenty-three, would that September begin law school at the University of Virginia; Eunice, twenty-seven, was working for the government in Washington
Christmas, 1947: The family gathers for Christmas in Palm Beach. There are two Kennedy children missing: Rosemary, who never returned home after her unsuccessful lobotomy in 1941, and Joe Jr., who, less than three years later, in 1944, was killed when his navy bomber crashed and burned. Kick, to the far left, is leaning into the frame of the photo over Jack. This would be her last Christmas. She would die in a plane crash the following spring.
September 12, 1953: Kissing the bride, with a smiling groom looking on. Kennedy was fond of all his children’s spouses, but if he had a favorite, it might very well have been Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, who adored him as well.
With granddaughter Caroline on November 18, 1960, ten days after her father had been elected president. Kennedy enjoyed nothing more than riding early in the morning with his children when they were young, then with his grandchildren.
When the children were young, Jean overheard a conversation in which her father was referred to as a “bear” because he believed stock prices would fall. From that moment on, “beware of bear” became a family joke among the Kennedys. This photo is probably from 1958, around the time of Kennedy’s seventieth birthday.
January 21, 1961: The president and his father on the reviewing stand during the inaugural parade.
Kennedy suffered a debilitating, near fatal stroke in December 1961. For the first time in more than four decades, he and Rose would spend more time together than apart.
September 7, 1963: An early celebration of Kennedy’s seventy-fifth birthday in Hyannis Port. Jacqueline Kennedy sits next to Kennedy. Standing, from left to right, are Sargent Shriver, Stephen Smith, Ethel Kennedy, John Kennedy, Jean Kennedy Smith, Rose Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Pat Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, and Joan Kennedy.
August 1963: The president and his father at Hyannis Port. No matter how busy the president and the attorney general might be, they found time to fly from Washington to Hyannis Port or Palm Beach to spend time with their father. President Kennedy would be assassinated in November.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
No work of history is possible without archivists and librarians. Some of those who went out of their way to assist me on this project include Verity Andrews, Special Collections Service, University of Reading; Barbara Cline at the LBJ library in Austin; James Edward Cross, Special Collections, Clemson University Libraries; Cynthia Curtner, Boston Latin School archives; Al Davis, Riverdale Country School; Ana Guimaraes, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University; Robert Johnson-Lally, Archdiocese of Boston; Donna Maxwell, Special Olympics; Malgosia Myc, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan; Matthew Schaefer, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; Sister Marguerita Smith, Archdiocese of New York; Father Tom Sullivan, Archdiocese of Worcester; Marc Thomas, Maryland Historical Society; Florence Turcotte, Special and Area Studies Collections, University of Florida; and the staffs of the Cohasset, Quincy, and Palm Beach historical societies.
> I did much of my research at the JFK library in Boston, one of the gems in our nation’s superb Presidential Library system. I would like to thank Paul Kirk, Tom Putnam, Allan Goodrich, Jennifer Quan, Maryrose Grossman, Laurie Austin, and, in particular, Stephen Plotkin, who always found time to answer my calls and locate whatever I was looking for.
One of the drawbacks of taking several years to write a book is that you are unable to thank in person all those who contributed to it. Senator Edward Kennedy was from day one unfailingly generous with his time. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., got me started by sharing his memories and thoughts about Joseph P. Kennedy. My mother, Beatrice Nasaw, as always, served as my chief research assistant as long as she was able.
I am enormously grateful to Jean Kennedy Smith for her encouragement and for answering every question I put to her. Vicki Reggie Kennedy was helpful throughout. Amanda Smith, the author of a superbly assembled and annotated collection of her grandfather’s letters, shared her research with me. I was able to speak with Eunice Kennedy Shriver before her death. I profited as well from conversations with Ethel Skakel Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Jr., Christopher Kennedy, Rory Kennedy, Timothy Shriver, and Ann Gargan. I thank the Shriver family for permitting me to look at and cite letters from Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s personal papers.
Will Swift provided me with much of the research he had done on Kennedy’s years in London. Cari Beauchamp talked to me about Kennedy’s career in Hollywood. FBI historian John Fox helped me secure FBI records. Lucy White showed me letters to Joseph P. Kennedy written by her grandfather, Thomas White. Arthur J. Goldsmith, Jr., sent me letters written by his father, Arthur Goldsmith. William Gowen spoke about his father, Franklin Gowen, and his association with Kennedy at the London embassy and elsewhere. Brian Burns not only took time to talk with me about his father, Judge John Burns, and the role he played in Kennedy’s life, but offered me copies of his father’s letters. Muriel Palmer told me of an incident involving Kennedy from her childhood.
Robert Caro, E. L. Doctorow, Henry Feingold, Arthur Goren, Nigel Hamilton, Susan Hertog, Michael Janeway, Laurence Leamer, Jeff Madrick, Nancy Milford, Anne Navaksy, Victor Navasky, Dan Okrent, Ron Powers, David Rosner, and Richard Whalen were of enormous help.
Steve Brier, Alan Brinkley, Steve Fraser, Joshua Freeman, Robert (K.C.) Johnson, and Thomas Kessner read portions of the manuscript and offered suggestions that guided my final rewrites.
There is no better place to teach, research, and write history than the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. I thank the Graduate Center president and my friend, William Kelly, for his support; and my colleagues in the history department, Martin Burke, Blanche Wiesen Cook, James Oakes, Judith Stein, and the late John Diggins for their assistance. I am greatly in the debt of the graduate students who assisted me with my research: Andrew Battle, Benjamin Becker, Rachel Burstein, Brendan Cooper, Mariel Isaacson, Fabio Mattioli, Brendan O’Malley, and Brian Sholis. Noah Simmons put my endnotes into order; Tracy Robey Masterovaya did yeoman service in fact-checking and securing permissions.
I received research assistance from Lauren Dinger in Boston, Tami Katz in Jerusalem, Ben Kopit in Los Angeles, Sarah Meier in Wyoming, Kelly Kelleher Richter in San Francisco, Alessandro Visani in Rome, and Corey Elliott Walker in Washington, D.C. Marilyn Farnell did photo research for me at the JFK library.
I learned much from conversations with Kennedy family friends and acquaintances, particularly Dr. Henry Betts, John Seigenthaler, Leo Racine, Theodore Sorensen, William vanden Heuvel, and Gore Vidal.
Lindsay Whalen at Penguin Press has, with good cheer and enormous competence, aided me in the final stages of getting the manuscript into publishable form; Sona Vogel did a masterful job of copyediting.
Ann Godoff remains, from my perspective, the best editor there is; Andrew Wylie, the best agent an author could wish for.
There are no words grand enough to express my love and gratitude to Dinitia Smith, my superb in-house editor, who read every word in every draft, and by her presence, persistence, and patience made this a much better book than it would have been without her.
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NOTES
LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVAL DEPOSITORIES
Baker Library Baker Library, Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts
Bancroft Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, California
BPL-EB Boston Public Library, East Boston Branch, East Boston, Massachusetts
Cohasset Cohasset Historical Society, Cohasset, Massachusetts
CUOH Columbia Center for Oral History, New York, New York
CZA Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, Israel
FDRL Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York
HI Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Stanford, California
HHPL Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, West Branch, Iowa
JFKL John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston, Massachusetts
JFKNHS John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site, Brookline, Massachusetts
LBJL Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas
LC Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.
Longfellow Longfellow House–Washington Headquarters National Historic Site, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Mudd Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
NAUK National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, U.K.
NAUS National Archives of the United States, Washington, D.C.
NYPL The New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations, New York City
Ransom Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
SEC Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society
ARCHIVAL COLLECTIONS
AANY Spellman Papers, Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Saint Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, Yonkers, New York
Alsop Joseph Alsop and Stewart Alsop Papers, LC
America First America First Committee Papers, HI
Astor Papers of Nancy Astor, Special Collections, University of Reading, Reading, U.K.
Baker Newton Diehl Baker Papers, LC
Baruch Bernard Baruch Papers, Mudd
Beaverbrook Lord Beaverbrook Papers, House of Lords, Parliamentary Archives, London, U.K.
Berle Adolf A. Berle Papers, FDRL
Blair Clay Blair Papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming
BLS Boston Latin School, Boston, Massachusetts
Boettiger John Boettiger Papers, FDRL
Byrnes James F. Byrnes Papers, Special Collections, Clemson University Libraries, Clemson, South Carolina
Cavanaugh John J. Cavanaugh Papers (JJC), The Archives of the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana.
CBLP Clare Boothe Luce Papers, LC
CHAR Chartwell Papers, Churchill Papers, Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge, U.K.
Clifford Clark M. Clifford Papers, LC
Coblentz Edmond Coblentz Papers, Bancroft
Corcoran Thomas G. Corcoran Papers, LC
Cushing Cushing Papers, Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, Braintree, Massachusetts
DeMille Cecil B. DeMille Productions Records; Arts and Communications Archives; L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
Democrat Democratic National Committee Papers, FDRL
Douglas William O. Douglas Papers, LC
EKSP Eunice Kennedy Shriver Papers, Special Olympics, Washington, D.C.
EMKP Edward M. Kennedy Personal Papers, JFKL
FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington, D.C.
FDRSF President’s Secretary Files, FDRL
FFF Fight for Freedom, Inc., Records, Mudd
Forrestal James V. Forrestal Papers, 20th Century Public Policy Papers, Mudd
Frankfurter Felix Frankfurter Papers, LC
Gannett Frank Ernest Gannett Papers, 1900 Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York
Gressman Eugene Gressman Papers, Bentley Historical Library, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Halifax Papers of the 1st Earl of Halifax (Edward Frederick Lindley Wood), Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York, York, U.K.