“On the bright side”: Sandler, The Letters of John F. Kennedy, p. 29.
“It would certainly be nice,” “We have been having a difficult time”: Pitts, Jack and Lem, p. 99.
“The war goes slowly here”: James W. Graham, Victura: The Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea (ForeEdge, 2014), p. 74.
“The Japs have this advantage”: Sheldon Stern, The Week the World Stood Still: Inside the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis, (Stanford University Press), pp. 25–28
“Not much news to report”: Blair and Blair, The Search for JFK, p. 291.
“They will not send anyone back,” “Feeling fine”: Blair and Blair, Ibid, p. 294.
“When I read that we will fight the Japs”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and his Times, p. 50.
Details and dialogue of PT 59 rescue of Marines: Donovan, PT 109, pp. 174-184; Blair and Bair, The Search for JFK, pp. 296-297; Greg Bradsher, “Operation Blissful: How the Marines Lured the Japanese Away from a Key Target—and How ‘The Brute’ Got Some Help from JFK”, Prologue magazine, National Archives, Fall 2010.
“What the hell are you doing here?,” “Never mind that”: Keresey, PT 105, p. 153.
“There were Japs on the shore and the Marines were in the water”: Maurice Kowal interview by Frank J. Andruss Sr., courtesy of Frank Andruss Sr. “What would you think of this?” “Jesus Christ, Mr. Kennedy, there’s no way. We don’t know what’s up there!,” “I hope he doesn’t go through with this”: Hamilton, JFK: Reckless Youth, p. 622.
Note: Mysteriously, two different versions of Kennedy’s medal citation were published: one in Robert Donovan’s 1961 book PT-109, which was written with Kennedy’s cooperation; and another that appeared in Kennedy’s Navy biography and is signed by the highest authority.
The Donovan version, which may have been the draft language that Kennedy’s squadron commander Al Cluster composed for a proposed Silver Star, was undated, and signed by South Pacific Commander Admiral William Halsey. It read: “For heroism in the rescue of three men following the ramming and sinking of his motor torpedo boat while attempting a torpedo attack on a Japanese destroyer in the Solomons Islands area on the night of August 1-2, 1943. Lieutenant Kennedy, Captain of the boat directed the rescue of the crew and personally rescued three men, one of whom was seriously injured. During the following six days, he succeeded in getting his crew ashore, and after swimming many hours attempting to secure aid and food, finally effected the rescue of his men.”
The second citation, signed by Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal and dated May 19, 1944, was the final version: “For extremely heroic conduct as Commanding Officer of Motor Torpedo Boat 109 following the collision and sinking of that vessel in the Pacific War Theater on August 1-2, 1943. Unmindful of personal danger, Lieutenant (then Lieutenant, Junior Grade) Kennedy unhesitatingly braved the difficulties and hazards of darkness to direct rescue operations, swimming many hours to secure aid and food after he had succeeded in getting his crew ashore. His outstanding courage, endurance and leadership contributed to the saving of several lives and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”
The second version clearly reflects a fuller investigation of the facts of the incident. The reference to Kennedy attempting a torpedo attack is deleted. Despite Kennedy’s claims that he was in the process of doing this when the Amagiri hit, the awards board must have correctly concluded that he simply had no time for it. The reference to “personally” saving three men is correctly deleted, as Kennedy personally saved only Patrick McMahon, and is replaced with “contributed” to the “saving of several lives.” Also, the reference that Kennedy “finally effected the rescue of his men” is deleted, perhaps because someone in the review process recognized the critical impact of Coastwatcher Reginald Evans and his scout network. But the citation clearly states that it is for “extremely heroic conduct” by Kennedy. In the eyes of the U.S. government, he was a legitimate hero.
The main mystery is why John F. Kennedy would have made the incorrect, more favorable version available to author Donovan to be presented to the world as the official citation. It was possibly either an oversight on Kennedy’s part—or a deception. If it was the latter, it would not be out of character for Kennedy, who, for example, as a presidential candidate, allowed his medically-diagnosed Addison’s Disease to referred to publicly, and inaccurately, as a “slight adrenal deficiency.”
On June 12, 1944, six days after D-Day in Europe, in a small presentation at the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Chelsea, Massachusetts, Kennedy was formally awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his actions after the sinking of the PT 109, a medal that Joseph Kennedy Sr. had lobbied his friend the Secretary of War James Forrestal to arrange. The commanding officer of the hospital, a doctor named Captain Frederick L. Conklin pinned the medal on Kennedy in a small ceremony that took place against a stark brick wall. Apparently no one in his family was able to attend the ceremony, but a few photographs were taken.
Thomas Warfield retired as a Rear Admiral and died in 1988. In January 1944 he was awarded a Silver Star “for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action as Commander of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron TEN (MTB-10), operating against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands Area in 1943.” In extreme contrast to the memories of naval personnel who remembered Warfield as a commander who led from the rear rather than the front, the citation language described Warfield in exalted, heroic terms: “During the New Georgia Campaign, Commander Warfield personally led his boats on many daring patrols and, with extreme skill and fearless devotion to duty, attacked enemy barges and aircraft. On one occasion, he made a land reconnaissance trip to Kolombangara in order to obtain information concerning hostile installations and barge routes and later, boldly passed outside our own lines on Vella Lavella and penetrated deep into Japanese territory, remaining for a week to search for suitable base sites. Without thought of the great hardships or the ever-present danger, he gained information of the utmost importance and timeliness, thereby contributing to the success of our forces in that vital area. His inspiring leadership and cool courage in the face of grave peril were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”
Chapter 12: The Winged Chariot
“But at my back I always hear”: Handwritten notation made by JFK on page 150 of 1951 travel journal, book 2, October–November, John F. Kennedy Personal Papers, Boston Office, 1940-1956, Personal File, JFKL.
“None of that hero stuff”: Inga Arvad. “Kennedy Lauds Men, Disdains Hero Stuff,” Boston Globe, January 11, 1944.
“What joy to see him”: Beauchamp, “Two Sons, One Destiny,” Vanity Fair, December 2004.
According to Kennedy’s Navy biography, his 1944 postings were: “Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training, Center, Melville, Rhode Island 15 Feb. 1944–Mar. 1944”; “Submarine Chaser Training Center, Miami, Florida Mar. 1944–30 Oct. 1944”; “Naval Hospital, Chelsea, Massachussetts, May 1944–Dec. 1944”. For some six months, Kennedy was shuttling between Florida and the Chelsea Naval Hospital. Research by Clay and Joan Blair for The Search for JFK found that Kennedy had unsuccessful spinal surgery that summer at New England Baptist Hospital, after which he was diagnosed with colitis, which explained his eating problems in the South Pacific and confirmed the colitis diagnosis that triggered his separation from the PT 59. Doctors recommended he be retired from the Navy on account of chronic colitis, not for a back injury as was often reported. He was placed on the retirement list on March 1, 1945.
Background on the Stork Club and JFK’s experiences there: Ralph Blumenthal, Stork Club: America’s Most Famous Nightspot and the Lost World of Café Society (Little, Brown, 2), pp 1, 2, 15, 212, 213, 259.
“From the late 1930’s to the mid-1950’s”: Pete Hamill, “The In Crowd,” New York Times, May 7, 2.
“If you were at the Stork”: Luis Quintanilla, Elliot Paul, Jay Allen, All the Brave (Modern Age Books 1939), p. 10.
“What appe
aled to me about the Kennedy story”: Hellmann, The Kennedy Obsession, p. 42.
“He drew me a map of the area”: Hamilton, JFK: Reckless Youth, p. 644.
“I realize, of course, that his fate”: Herbert Parmet, Jack: The Struggles of John F. Kennedy (Dial Press, 1980), p. 119.
“Hersey’s ‘Survival’ produces John F. Kennedy”: Hellmann, The Kennedy Obsession, p. 61.
Campbell on myth: Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (New World Library, 2008), p. 23.
“What I really want to know”: Sandler, The Letters of John F. Kennedy, p. 37.
“he had completed probably more combat missions”: “Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.,” http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/The-Kennedy-Family/Joseph-P-Kennedy-Jr.aspx.
“I’m now shadowboxing”: Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, p. 698.
“I can feel Pappy’s eyes,” “I’ll be back here with Dad”: David Koskoff, Joseph P. Kennedy: A Life and Times, p. 405.
“It was like being drafted”: Beauchamp, “Two Sons, One Destiny.”
“My brother Joe was the logical one”: John Davis, The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster, p. 135.
“I got Jack into politics. I was the one”: Koskoff, Joseph P. Kennedy, p. 405.
On April 22, 1946 press release: David Powers Papers, JFKL.
“There’s our man, son”: Parmet, Jack, p. 160.
“No one was ever unaware”: Hamilton, Reckless Youth, p. 755.
“He wasn’t much of a braggart”: Interview with Dan Fenn.
“I remember the New England Hardware Banquet”: William J. Sutton Oral History, JFKL.
JFK traced his confidence to these speeches: James Cannon audiotape of dinner party conversation, January 5, 1960, audiovisual archives, JFKL.
“My story about the collision”: Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, p. 714.
“Christ!” “We had millions of them!”: Hamilton, Reckless Youth, p. 755.
“Blanketing the district with copies”: O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, p. 66.
Chapter 13: Mission to Tokyo
Details of the JFK-RFK trip to Japan in 1951 are from interview with Gunji Hosono’s daughter Haruko Hosono (interviewed by her daughter Fumiko Miyamoto; among other details, the elder Ms. Hosono recalled her father’s first impressions upon meeting JFK in 1951, which he shared with her the same night in 1951); Robert F. Kennedy, Just Friends and Brave Enemies (Harper & Row, 1962), pp. 1–4; Robert F. Kennedy’s Pre-Administration papers, 1951, Mid-East & Asia, Patricia Kennedy Immunization Record, Robert F. Kennedy Passport, Travel Diary, 10/5/51–11/2/51, JFKL; Charles O. Daly Papers: Japan-related correspondence (including correspondence with John Gardiner) JFKL; Tokuji Hosono, “The Achievements of Activities and Scholarship of Gunji Hosono the Uncrowned Internationalist” (in Japanese), Takushoku University paper, January 31, 2001; John F. Kennedy Personal Papers, Boston Office Files, Personal, Box 11, Political Miscellany 1945–1956, Asian trip 1951; John F. Kennedy Personal Papers, Boston Office, 1940–1956, Personal File, 1951 travel journal, book 2, 1951, October–November.
One of the exceedingly few documents at the JFKL referring to JFK’s sudden evacuation from Tokyo is a handwritten undated note in John F. Kennedy Personal Papers, Boston Office Files: Personal Box 11, Political Miscellany 1945–1956, Asian trip 1951; on Pan American Airways letterhead from “Ridgeway” that reads: “Am sorry to learn that illness has interrupted your trip. I extend to you my best wishes for a speedy recovery and a pleasant and profitable continuance of your journey.” General Matthew Ridgway was the head of the occupation authority at the time and may have met with Kennedy before Kennedy fell ill. Some accounts have added Korea to Kennedy’s Asia trip itinerary, and Kennedy mentioned Korean affairs in his post-trip broadcast, but the author has not come across documentation that places John, Robert, or Patricia Kennedy as having touched down in Korea during this trip. I have estimated the dates of the Kennedy’s stay in Tokyo in November 1951 from passport and visa forms and hotel records in the JFKL files above.
“they didn’t think he would live”: John Fitzgerald Kennedy—As We Remember Him (Courage Books, 1965), p. vi.
“by the standards of modern civilization”: John W. Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (Norton, 2), p. 550.
Hosono-Hanami-JFK postwar contacts, “flabbergasted,” “It had been years,” “a ghostly visitor from the past,” Hanami career, JFK meeting Fujio Onozeki: Bill Hosokawa, “John F. Kennedy’s Friendly Enemy,” American Legion Magazine, June 1965.
Chapter 14: The Greatest Actor of Our Time
In Senate office Kennedy kept PT 109 model and rescue coconut: “The U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy Story,” 1958 campaign promotional film, JFKL.
Richard Donahue and Charles Peters on 1960 West Virginia primary: “50th Anniversary of 1960 West Virginia Democratic Primary,” Kennedy Forum event, C-SPAN broadcast, May 12, 2010.
Broder on Kennedy’s reaction: David S. Broder, “How the 1960 West Virginia Election Made History,” Washington Post, May 16, 2010.
FDR, Jr’s attack on Humphrey, “Of course, Jack knew,” “I always regretted my role,” “RFK was already a full-blown tyrant”: David Pietrusza, 1960: LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon: The Epic Campaign That Forged Three Presidencies (Sterling, 2008), pp. 122-124.
“pain in the ass:” interview with Richard Donahue.
Kirksey family interactions with JFK: Interviews with Jack Kirksey and Hoyt Grant.
Details of PT 109 movie production: Nicholas J. Cull, “Anatomy of a Shipwreck: Warner Bros., the White House, and the Celluloid Sinking of PT 109,” in E. Smyth, ed., Hollywood and the American Historical Film (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 138-164; Lawrence Suid, Sailing on the Silver Screen: Hollywood and the U.S. Navy (Naval Institute Press, 1996), pp. 151-158; Ted Johnson, “Making of John F. Kennedy Biopic ‘PT 109’ Was Hardly Smooth Sailing,” Variety, August 13, 2013.
“just this side of the Bobbsey Twins:” Thomas Reeves, A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy (Free Press, 1991), p. 311.
Details of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy trip to Japan, 1962: Interviews with Ethel Kennedy, Susie Wilson, John Seigenthaler Sr., Brandon Grove. Also: Robert F. Kennedy, Just Friends and Brave Enemies (Harper & Row, 1962), pp. 57–68; Jennifer Lind, “When Camelot Went to Japan,” National Interest, July 1, 2013; Megan Dick, “The Kennedy Heritage and U.S.-Japan Relations,” in “The United States and Japan in Global Context: 2014,” Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; Brandon Grove, Behind Embassy Walls: The Life and Times of an American Diplomat (University of Missouri Press, 2005), pp. 90–92; Edwin O. Reischauer, My Life Between Japan and America (Harper & Row, 1986), pp. 254–55; Pacific Stars and Stripes, February 7, 1962; The Man Who Shook Hands With 10, Japanese, United States Information Agency film, 1962, JFKL; “Ethel Skakel Kennedy gets hit in the stomach by accident in Japan,” newsreel clip posted on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36SLwEBMY7M as of March, 7, 2015; “Travels with Bobby and Ethel Kennedy,” manuscript by Susie Wilson, courtesy of Susie Wilson; Robert F. Kennedy Attorney General Papers—Box 40: Dr. Gunji Hosono Correspondence, 1962–1964, Box 44: Japan, 1958–1964, Boxes 263–64, 267–68: Goodwill Trip, Japan, February 1–28, 1962: Correspondence and News Clippings.
“I cannot overemphasize”: “Letter From the Ambassador to Japan (Reischauer) to the Under Secretary of State (Ball) Tokyo, February 12, 1962,” Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XXII, Northeast Asia, Document 351.
RFK meets Kohei Hanami: Interview with John Seigenthaler Sr.
“Kennedy’s most characteristic quality”: Norman Mailer, “Superman Comes to the Supermarket,” Esquire, November 1960.
Kennedy’s first moments in the Oval Office, “What the hell do I do now?,” “There were the marks of a navy vet:”: Hugh Sidey, Time, December 1, 1980.
Oval Office JFK mementoes: K
enneth P. O’Donnell and David F. Powers with Joe McCarthy, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye (Pocket Books, 1973), pp. 250–51; Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy (Harper & Row, 1965), p. 375; JFKL Oval Office exhibit dated 1998.
“He was an incendiary man”: Gerard S. Strober and Deborah H. Strober, Let Us Begin Anew: An Oral History of the Kennedy Presidency (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 156.
“Kennedy was a magnificent natural leader: Interview with Myer Feldman for Inside the Oval Office.
“When he came into the room”: Interview with Pedro Sanjuan for Inside the Oval Office.
“He treated us more as colleagues”: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 374.
“I can’t imagine a better boss”: Interview with Myer Feldman for Inside the Oval Office.
“Everybody on the staff”: Interview with Ralph Dungan for Inside the Oval Office.
Kennedy and Secret Service agent: James N. Giglio, The Presidency of John F. Kennedy (University Press of Kansas, 1991), p. 257; Ralph G. Martin, Hero for Our Time: An Intimate Story of the Kennedy Years (Macmillan, 1983) p. 245.
“They always give you their bullshit”: Richard Reeves, President Kennedy: Portrait of Power (Simon & Schuster, 2011), p. 363.
Clint Hill on JFK: Interview with Clint Hill.
In 2015, Kennedy aide Melody Miller recalled in an email to the author, “I know from my long time on Sen. Edward Kennedy’s staff and dealing with his interviews about his brothers, that the war impacted John Kennedy as it did the others of his generation. They may have been young, but they grew up faster and were more seasoned and mature for their age when they came home, especially when they’d been in combat. It made a huge difference during the Cuban Missile Crisis as President Kennedy knew the horrors of war first hand. Men had died in front of him, and he’d saved others from death. He lost his older brother. He knew the grief of family loss, as well as that of buddies lost. He also now had children of his own that he wanted to be safe and to inherit a peaceful word. I’ve been fortunate to have a ringside seat to a lot of people who made history during my forty years on the RFK and EMK Senate staffs, and I feel strongly about the legacy of President Kennedy. He was not perfect, but he was wise beyond his years. I had the memorable experience of personally meeting him in the Cabinet Room of the White House where he signed my copy of Profiles in Courage. He was even more than wise. He was incandescent.”
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