Truman, Harry S, 228, 285, 300, 405, 637
Marshall Plan and, 244–46
Tubirdy, Dorothy, 681
Tuchman, Barbara W., 648
Tully, Grace, 154
Tung, Le Van, 722
Tunney, Varick John, 385, 400
Tuohy, William J., 465
Turnure, Pamela, 406, 550, 692–93
Turpin, Vic, 392
Udall, Stewart, 482, 626
Ugly American, The (Lederer andBurdick), 562–63
United Nations, 244, 263, 285, 376, 455, 477, 482, 711, 734
Cuba and, 492, 496, 499, 502–4, 521, 629, 633, 702, 729
founding of, 226—27
Vagnozzi, Egidio, 428
Valenti, Jack, 734
Vallee, Rudy, 96
Vandiver, Ernest, 459–60
Varona, Manuel Antonio de “Tony, ”500–501, 511
Vaught, Johnny, 617
Victoria, Queen of England, 326
Vidal, Gore, 483
Vienna Summit, 522, 525, 527, 529–31, 533–34, 536–40, 629, 635, 656
Vietnam, 437, 452, 485, 492, 516, 562
coup in, 720–27
France and, 288–93, 328, 375–76, 716
JFK on, 328–29, 375–76, 672, 716–28
JFK’s visit to, 289–91
RFK and, 290–91, 719–22
Virginia, University of:
RFK as student at, 269, 273–75, 385, 555
Ted as student at, 385, 583–84
Von Post, Anne Marie, 317–18
Von Post, Gunilla, 317–19, 324–26, 341, 345, 347–49, 359, 680
von Stroheim, Erich, 58
Wade, Preston, 526, 528, 547
Waldrop, Frank, 70, 174, 589
Walker, Edwin A, 617
Walker, Ruth “Pussy, ” 92–93
Wallace, George, 707–8
Wallace, Mike, 368
Wallace, Robert, 403
Walsh, David, 184
Walsh, John, 696
Walsh, Thomas J., 586–87
Warburg, James, 72
Washington, George, 573
Watkins, Arthur, 343
Watson, Edwin M., 180
Watts, James, 169–70
Weisl, Edwin, 109
Weisl, Edwin, Jr., 109
Welby, Gavin, 317
Welch, Joseph, 342
Welles, Sumner, 142–43, 150, 155
Wendell, Barrett, 17
Wenner-Gren, Axel, 174
West, Mae, 39, 56
West Virginia primary (1960), 422, 423, 427, 430–31
White, John, 174–76, 550
White, Theodore, 97, 430, 467, 577–78
Whitehead, T. North, 148
Whitelaw, Aubrey, 82–83
Whitten, Thomas, 385
Why England Slept (J. F. Kennedy), 145, 158–59, 186, 229
Why I’m for Roosevelt (J. P. Kennedy Sr. and Krock), 108, 304
Wiener, Mickey, 422
Wild, Payson S., 102
Wiley, Alexander, 342
Williams, Bonnie, 446–47
Williams, Byard, 347
Williams, Edward Bennett, 370–71
Williams, Harrison, 72
Williams, Harry, 739–40
Williams, Nancy, 100
Willkie, Wendell, 151–56
Willy, Wilford, 214–15
Wilson, Bill, 445, 450
Wilson, David, 60
Wilson, Patricia, 203, 207–8, 212
Wilson, Philip D., 340
Wilson, Robin Filmer, 203
Wilson, Woodrow, 451, 467
Winchell, Walter, 105, 176, 693
Winmill, Joan, 264–65, 268–70
Wisconsin primary (1960), 416–17, 419, 421
Wofford, Harris, 473, 483
civil rights and, 459–61, 554, 557–58
JFK’s 1960 presidential campaignand, 458–61, 463, 558
Wood, Holton, 49, 183–84
Wood, Leonard, 32
World War I, 31–36, 122, 143, 185, 225, 235, 367, 648
World War II, 136–57, 160–63, 204–15, 244, 281, 283, 285, 292, 300, 316, 324, 383, 426–27, 434, 455, 484, 531, 578, 629, 639, 646–47, 677
anti-Semitism in, 114–15, 122, 128, 136–38, 141, 150–52, 222, 527
Britain bombed in, 148–51, 192, 227–28
casualties in, 140–41, 143, 152, 186–89, 193–94, 205, 207, 210, 212, 215, 238, 264
D-Day in, 209–10, 231, 455, 655
draft in, 160
FDR and, 119–23, 130, 139–40, 142, 149–53, 155–56, 162, 180–81
Harvard University and, 238, 240
honoring veterans of, 685–87
isolationism in, 113, 119–20, 122, 125, 130, 142–43, 146–47, 150, 152–53, 157, 160–62, 175
JFK and, 134, 140–41, 143–45, 160–63, 167–68, 172, 175–77, 181–96, 198–203, 206–7, 212–14, 221, 223, 225, 227–29, 232–35, 252, 275, 294, 327, 350, 374, 385, 426–27, 429, 435, 439, 444, 479, 481, 627, 677, 686
Joe Jr. and, 82–83, 129–30, 140, 143, 152–53, 162–63, 167–68, 171–72, 181, 187, 195–207, 209–15, 219–21, 233–34, 258, 275, 385, 397, 429, 685–87
Joe Sr. and, 83, 112–15, 119–23, 130, 136, 139–54, 156–57, 160–63, 167–68, 176–77, 180–82, 186–87, 194–96, 203, 207, 219, 221, 233–34, 258, 639
Pearl Harbor bombing in, 175, 180, 642, 646
Spanish Civil War and, 125–28, 132, 139, 197, 204
Wrightsman, Charles, 539
Wynne, Bud, 99
Yale University, 73, 372, 383, 554
Harvard’s rivalry with, 19, 24–27, 110–11, 239–40, 302, 332, 334–36, 369
Yarborough, Ralph, 733
Yarmolinsky, Adam, 480, 542
Young Melbourne, The (Cecil), 134–35, 146
Acknowledgments
The manuscript of The Kennedy Men ran 1, 100 pages, and it was a major imposition to ask busy people to read it looking for errors. No one read with a more knowing eye than did Myer “Mike” Feldman, President Kennedy’s deputy counsel. Sheldon Stern, the longtime historian at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, carefully read these many pages. Fellow Kennedy authors Burton Hersh, Nigel Hamilton, Gus Russo, and Dan Moldea read the book, each with his own unique expertise. Kerry McCarthy, who is Joseph and Rose Kennedy’s grand-niece and a historian of the family, gave the manuscript a judicious reading. Sam Halpern, a former high-ranking CIA official, read the Cuban material. Professor Barton Bernstein of Stanford University read the White House chapters. So did former Senator Harris Wofford, who served in the Kennedy administration. Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale read the material on President Kennedy’s health, as did Dr. David V. Becker, professor of radiology and medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York Presbyterian Hospital. Others who read all or part of the manuscript included Vesna Leamer, Lee Tomic, Count Alexandre De Bouthri Báthory, Joy Harris, Herb Gray, Jim Morrissey, Howard Reed, Raleigh Robinson, Patrick Flynn, and Diane Leslie. In an act of great generosity, Kristina Rebelo Anderson, the prominent investigative journalist, took weeks away from her important book on mercury poisoning to copyedit and fact-check the entire manuscript before I submitted it to my publisher. Of course, none of these people are responsible for any errors that may remain in the book or interpretations that are mine alone.
The Kennedy Men has a great deal of new material in it largely because many people put great trust in its author. For the eleven years that Evelyn Lincoln served as John F. Kennedy’s secretary, she kept a secret archive, including many documents that were to have been destroyed. She willed these papers to Robert White. Interspersed through much of this book, they are by far the most important private trove of Kennedy documents in the world. White, a prominent collector, has generously given me first-time use of all these documents.
Patricia Coughlan has given me the material that Robert Coughlan, her husband, accumulated while he was writing Rose Kennedy’s autobiography, Times to Remember. These materials include many
hours of taped interviews with Kennedy family members that are among the most intimate, candid interviews they have ever given. I would like to thank the late Jim Connor and his widow, Pat, for their friendship and support. Mary Lou and Kerry McCarthy gave me the first-time use of many unique photos from the Loretta Kennedy Connelly Collection.
I must also especially thank Gunilla Von Post for allowing me the first-time use of the letters that John F. Kennedy wrote her during their love affair. I had these letters verified by an expert, but it is common knowledge among those close to the Kennedys that Von Post’s story is true. Janet Fontaine, who was Joseph P. Kennedy’s mistress for a decade, also cooperated with me. Her only request was that I treat her story with dignity, a promise that I hope I have kept. During the West Virginia primaries, when candidate Kennedy was losing his voice, Fontaine was the stewardess on his plane. Kennedy communicated by writing messages on sheets of paper, many of which Fontaine saved. I thank Mrs. Fontaine and the Forbes Magazine Collection, the current owner of the documents, for permission to use the notes. Profesor James MacGregor Burns has graciously given me permission to quote from his revealing 1959 interview with the then Senator John F. Kennedy.
Although we live in a culture of mistrust, I was extremely blessed by the people who talked to me. Some of these sources spoke with me for the first time, and most of them spoke with compelling candor and depth. This is not in any way an authorized book, and I am especially grateful to the various Kennedys I have interviewed during the writing of my books on their family: Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Joan Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Patricia Kennedy Lawford, Jean Kennedy Smith, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Robert Kennedy Jr., Christopher Kennedy, Douglas Kennedy, Timothy Shriver, Mark Shriver, Anthony Shriver, Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, and Rory Kennedy.
I am not including in these acknowledgments the names of people I interviewed for volume 2 of this work, The Kennedy Men, 1963—2003. Those people I have interviewed about the Kennedys over the years about the period through 1963, or who have helped me in other ways, include: Sam Adams, Kristina Rebelo Anderson, Andrew, Duke of Devonshire, Manuel Angulo, Carl Anthony, Bradley Earl Ayers, Bobby Baker, Larry Baker, Charles Bartlett, Dr. David Becker, Ed Becker, Edward Behr, Arnold Beichman, Kai Bird, Brad Blank, Marvin Blank, Joseph Boccehir, Ben Bradlee, Ham Brown, Joan Winmill Brown, Dino Brugioni, Robert Bunshaft, Nina Burleigh, Dan Burns, John Burns, Fox Butterfield, William C. Chapman, Blair Clark, Adam Clymer, Fred Cohen, Jeanne Conway, Alan K. Corsair, Pat Coughlin, Archibald Cox, John Henry Cutler, Mark Dalton, Zel Davis, Cartha DeLoach, Ann Denove, Ahmed Desouky, Frank Dillow, Dr. Mauro G. Di Pasquale, Joe Dolan, Janet Donovan, Luella Hennessey Donovan, William Douglas-Home, Robert Duffy, Milt Ebbins, Luis Estevez, Paul B. Fay Jr., Myer Feldman, Bob Filardi, Tom Finneran, Carey Fisher, Benedict Fitzgerald, Patrick Flynn, Wally Flynn, Janet Des Rosiers Fontaine, Harry Fowler, Alan Gage, John Kenneth Galbraith, Patty McGinty Gallagher, Barbara Gamarekian, Nancy Gardiner, Joe Gargan, Wilson Gathings, Chuck Glynn, Fred Good, Milton Gould, Arthur Grace, John Greenya, Edwin Guthman, Milton Gwirtzman, David Hackett, Alexander Haig, Sam Halpern, Geraldine Hannon, Pamela Harriman, Colonel Jack Hawkins, Bob Healy, Deirdre Henderson, Burton Hersh, Seymour Hersh, Sally Roche Higgins, Gerri Hirshey, Claude Hooton Jr., Maria Hooton, David Horowitz, Ron Howard, William Hundley, Q. Byrum Hurst, Mrs. Max Jacobson, Terry Kahn, Professor William Kaufman, Pierce Kierney, Malcolm Kilduff, Tom Killefer, Harvey Klemmer, Peter Kornbluh, Bryant Larson, Paul Lazarro, Helen Leamer, Evelyn Lincoln, Dick Livingston, Grayston Lynch, Scott Malone, Phil Manuel, Francis McAdoo, Mrs. James McCahey, Senator Eugene McCarthy, Kerry McCarthy, Mary Lou McCarthy, Lisa McCormick, Robert J. McDonnell, Priscilla Johnson McMillan, Lynn McTaggart, Elizabeth Mehren, Joe Miller, Melody Miller, Stanley Montunnas, Paul Morgan, Joe Naar, Timothy Naftali, Bob Neal, Pat Newcomb, Larry Newman, John Nolan, Ken Norwick, Mark Obenhaus, Mirko Obradovic, Ivanka Ostojic, Joe Paolella, June Payne, Charles Peters, Barrett E. Prettyman Jr., Dick Prentice, Robert Purdy, Charles Rappleye, Marcus Raskin, Coates Redmon, Martha Sweatt Reed, Howard Reed, Jewel Reed, Shafica Reed, Marie Rider, Marilyn Riesman, Bill Robinson, Terri Robinson, Nick Rodis, Teno Roncalio, Maurice Rosenblatt, John Rosenthal, James Rousmaniere, Mary Ryan, Pierre Salinger, Roberto San Roman, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., John Seigenthaler, Joe Shimon, Ed Shorter, Hugh Sidey, Lorraine Silberthau, George Smathers, Liz Smith, Mark Soden, Augustus Soule Jr., Betty Coxe Spalding, Chuck Spalding, Dan Stewart, Pat Lawford Stewart, Anthony Summers, Bruce Sundlun, Bill Sutton, Kingsley Swan, Lee Tomic, Michael Tomic, Seymour Topping, Walter Trohan, Dorothy Tubirdy, William Vanden Heuvel, Sue Vogelsinger, Gunilla Von Post, Frank Waldrop, Edwin Weisl Jr., Richard Whalen, John White, Bonnie Williams, David Wilson, Bill Wilson, Nadine Witkin, and Holton Wood.
I must also acknowledge Melody Miller in Senator Edward Kennedy’s office. I have disagreed with her at times over matters concerning the family she loves so much and serves so well, but I’ve always known that I was dealing with a person of the highest integrity and honor. I am also deeply indebted to the many other authors whose work I have found insightful.
I will not list here the various libraries and research institutions I visited since they are listed in the endnotes. I would, however, like especially to thank Harriet Young of Orlando, Florida, for giving me her wonderful collection of Kennedy materials that she has collected over a lifetime of interest in the family. I would like to make special note of the foreign relations series on the U.S. State Department web site. The documents about the Kennedy administration have been wonderfully annotated, and they are accessible to everyone. This speaks eloquently of a government agency that is not afraid of the truth.
The Kennedy Men employs dialogue and long narrative scenes in many places. These passages are neither invented nor imaginative reconstructions, but are based on sources cited in the endnotes including interviews, oral histories, diaries, letters, and tapes. The most important of these sources are the wide range of telephone conversations and meetings secretly recorded by President Kennedy from the summer of 1962 until his death. The Kennedy Men is the first book to make full use of these recordings. Kennedy intended these tapes for his own personal purposes. There is no indication that he thought that historians would ever use them. They are hardly the calculated utterances of a president aware that he is being recorded for posterity. The Kennedys destroyed some of these tapes before they were given to the Kennedy Presidential Library; others probably would have been destroyed if Kennedy’s secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, had not secreted them away. I transcribed many of these tapes. In a few places where I was not sure of the speaker, I asked Myer Feldman and Sheldon Stern to listen and to give their best judgments.
At the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, I would especially like to thank Megan F. Desnoyers, who, during her tenure as the acting archivist, performed splendid service to the American public. Allan Goodrich and his associate in the audiovisual division, James Hill, do an exemplary job. In the library itself, Maura Porter, June Payne, and Steve Plotkin have unfailingly helped to answer my endless questions. My stays in Boston were always a pleasure thanks in part to Skip Brandt, the security director at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. As always, Kenneth Norwick, my literary attorney, offered astute advice.
My agent, Joy Harris, is legendary for her commitment to her authors. In taking this book to William Morrow, she brought me into contact with the best team of professionals with whom I have ever worked. Paul Bresnick originally acquired the book before his early retirement. Meaghan Dowling gave the manuscript a deeply nuanced, sensitive edit, only one of the many contributions she made to this project. Her assistant, Kelli Martin, is a backup catcher whom the New York Mets should consider signing. Sharyn Rosenblum is a sterling publicist who daily performs at least one miracle for a William Morrow author. Other members of the William Morrow team that I would like to thank include its publisher, Michael Morrison, Lisa Gallagher and Libby Jordan in marketing, Brenda Segel and Michele Corallo in sub rights, Cindy Buc
k and Andrea Molitor in copyediting, and Jim Fox in legal, with whom I am working for the third time.
Mike Foster is now a teacher and librarian and did not work for me full-time, as he did on The Kennedy Women, but he was still highly helpful. Don Spencer is now working in television, but he has continued to transcribe all my interviews. I could not have written this book in the time I did without Zootsoftware, and I want to thank Tom Davis, the program’s inventor, for his support.
I must mention my daughter, Daniela, whose valuable work as a teacher helps to inspire me, and my two brothers, Edward and Robert. Many times these past years I have thought that you do not have to be a Kennedy man to have great and true brothers. I want to thank Vesna Obraduvic Learner, my wife, last of all. Vesna’s contributions are immeasurable. She helps me in the research and is forever running out to the library, tracking down some fact or another. She saves me from innumerable errors, the least of which would have appeared in the pages of my books. By rights, I should dedicate every word that I write to her, and in a way, I do.
About the Author
LAURENCE LEAMER is the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestseller The Kennedy Women. He has written for numerous publications, including Harper’s, Playboy, The New Republic, New York, Washingtonian, and the New York Times Magazine. He lives in Washington, D.C., and Palm Beach, Florida.
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For audio excerpts of John F. Kennedy’s secret tapes, speeches, and other archive materials go to www.kennedymen.com.
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The Paper Revolutionaries:
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