America's Greatest 20th Century Presidents (22 page)

After graduating from Choate in 1935, Kennedy had the opportunity to select from a list of prestigious universities.  He travelled abroad to consider studying at the London School of Economics but ultimately chose to enrolled at Princeton, though only for a few weeks due to illness.  He transferred to Harvard, where he remained until graduating.

In fact, illness would be one of the defining features of John’s life, disrupted Kennedy's education throughout his early life.  Many of his problems during this time were gastrointestinal, and he was hospitalized repeatedly to recuperate.  He often spent time at his family vacation home in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, to recover.

Despite illness, Kennedy was a star student at Harvard, and he graduated on time. Although he had ties to the America First Committee, the famous isolationist group that advocated steering clear of World War II, Kennedy’s undergraduate thesis focused on England's appeasement policy towards Nazi Germany, and how it had led to the outbreak of World War II.  This was an important piece of scholarship, and it was later published into a book in 1940 under the title
Why England Slept.
  Young Kennedy took a prominent interest in foreign affairs and was now contributing to the intellectual discussion of the topic.

The Kennedy Family

John Kennedy's family prominence was of enormous importance in spearheading his political career.  Among American presidents, Kennedy stands out for being raised in a family that was intent on producing at least one President of the United States.  The family reared its children with a political dynasty in mind, so understanding the Kennedy family’s origins is crucial to understanding President Kennedy himself.

John Kennedy was a descendant of a man named Patrick Kennedy, an Irish Catholic who immigrated to Boston from County Wexford, Ireland in 1849 amid the Irish Potato Famine.  In Boston, Patrick married another Irish immigrant named Bridget Murphy.  The couple had five children, among them PJ Kennedy, John F. Kennedy's grandfather.  Tragedy, however, struck the family when Patrick died of cholera on November 22
^nd
, 1858, exactly 105 years before his great grandson was assassinated. 

Afterwards, Bridget tended the family by opening a small but modestly successful stationary and liquor store. Her son PJ Kennedy capitalized on this liquor-selling business and became enormously wealthy.  He began importing whisky, often illegally, and reaped enormous profits selling to upper class Bostonians in bars he owned throughout the city. 

PJ Kennedy was the first among John Kennedy's ancestors to engage in politics.  He was elected five times to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and twice to the Massachusetts State Senate.  Though these were relatively modest accomplishments in light of his descendents, PJ lit the flame of political ambition within the Kennedy family.

PJ's son, Joseph P. Kennedy, further expanded the family's political alignment by marrying the daughter of Boston Mayor John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, another member of Boston's growing Irish Catholic political elite.  Together, Rose Fitzgerald and Joseph P. Kennedy had nine children, among them John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy, all destined to be major figures in national American politics. 

Joseph Kennedy Sr.

Joseph P. Kennedy did not simply pass politics onto his children, however.  He first invested heavily in liquor, real estate and movies, and increased the family's wealth.  He was then appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt to become the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a department created by the New Deal to combat illicit investment.  Kennedy, however, was something of a crook, having dealt in the illegal import of whisky during Prohibition.  Regardless, Roosevelt thought Kennedy suited to Chair the SEC, which fought such criminality, because “it takes one to know one.” 

Joseph Kennedy's political prominence reached a peak when Roosevelt selected him to be the war-time Ambassador to Great Britain, the United States' most important World War II ally.  Kennedy's appointment came amid John Kennedy's time at Harvard and inevitably influenced his senior thesis on English foreign policy. 

After serving as Ambassador to Great Britain, Joseph Kennedy began to harbor ambitions of sitting in the White House himself.  These dreams, however, were capped by his own personal destruction.  During the war, Joseph was something of a defeatist, having repeatedly argued that the war was futile, that Hitler would dominate Europe, and that democracy in England would cease to exist.  He became increasingly isolationist, arguing that affairs in Europe were unrelated to American international prominence, and that the defense of Britain was not done in the name of democracy, but only in the interest of British national self-preservation.  Roosevelt detested these views, and removed Kennedy from the position of Ambassador to Great Britain.

This removal and the aftermath destroyed Joseph Kennedy's Presidential hopes.  Information was leaked that he had actually thought that Nazi genocide against the Jews was deserved; the Jews, he thought, had brought it upon themselves.  He didn't morally oppose the extermination of the Jews – he was an anti-Semite – but he merely thought the Germans should have reduced the Jews in a way that generated less negative publicity.

With the US and its allies winning the war, Kennedy's opinions were horribly untenable.  Shortly after victory, the American public learned of the gruesome details of the Holocaust and was outraged.  A man who had essentially endorsed such extermination would never hold political office in the United States, and Joseph P. Kennedy never did. 

His presidential hopes squashed, Joseph Kennedy passed his Presidential ambitions onto his children, creating enormous expectations for the family.  His eldest son, namesake Joseph Kennedy Jr., was the primary target of these lofty goals, and he was primed for a future in politics. However, Joseph Jr. died in combat during World War II, forever altering the Kennedy family’s destiny. Joseph Sr. now turned his attention to his second-eldest son, John, to become the family's Presidential standard-bearer.

Joseph Kennedy Jr.

Military Service and PT-109

Military service was a necessary component in John F. Kennedy's political preparation, and John did have political ambitions of his own.  When he enlisted in the military, however, his elder brother Joseph was still the family’s prize and the one made of presidential material. Kennedy thus tried to join the army, but was disqualified because of his health issues.  He was, however, admitted to the Navy despite objections, due to family connections.  His father's attaché in Great Britain was now a director in the Navy, and gave John the position of ensign.

Like much of Kennedy’s life, Kennedy’s service during the war is still a topic of controversy. Kennedy's service in the Navy was focused in the Pacific Theatre of World War II.  By 1943, Kennedy was a commander of a patrol torpedo (PT) boat, number 109.  In August of 1943, Kennedy's boat, PT-109, was cut in half by a Japanese destroyer.  In addition, boats 162 and 169 were also destroyed in the Solomon Islands. 

Kennedy survived the attack and famously saved nearly a dozen of his crew, one of whom he saved by swimming for several miles while clenching the crew member’s lifejacket with his teeth. A member of the swim team at Harvard, Kennedy also did the bulk of the swimming when looking for food after the survivors reached a deserted island. For this, Kennedy received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. 

Ultimately, Kennedy and the survivors were rescued, but he had suffered a severe injury to his spine that would plague him for the rest of his life.  He was sent to Boston to undergo surgery and recover.  While in the hospital, he and his family learned that his elder brother Joseph had been killed in a bombing mission. 

After recovering, Kennedy re-enlisted in the Navy and served on PT-59.  He was honorably discharged in 1945, just before Japan's surrender and the end of the War.  Kennedy received numerous military awards, among them a Purple Heart and a World War II Victory Metal.  Though he was not yet President and perhaps only held that ambition in the back of his mind, Kennedy had already seen more combat than most Presidents.

Kennedy (far right) and the PT-109 crew

Chapter 2: Early Political Career, 1946-1959

Journalism

Kennedy's first non-military professional experience was in journalism.  John's father arranged for Kennedy to work with the Hearst Chicago-Herald American, an international news service, in April of 1945.  His first assignment was in San Francisco, where he covered the United Nations Conference, an historic moment that witnessed the formation of the modern United Nations. 

John was a prolific writer, and newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst was pleased with John's work. After his stint at the U.N., John was sent to London to cover the post-war British Parliamentary elections.  John predicted that Winston Churchill and the Conservatives would lose the elections; the British people, Kennedy thought, were yearning for change.  His prediction proved correct.  The Labour Party swept the British elections that year, and the great Prime Minister Winston Churchill was removed from Downing Street. 

William Randolph Hearst

Kennedy enjoyed his work with Hearst.  He had numerous opportunities to learn about the effects of World War II on Europe, touring devastated German cities, and he had the opportunity to meet with Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower.  Throughout his time abroad, Kennedy honed his foreign policy bona fides.

House of Representatives