“LIFE IS UNFAIR”
THE TRUTHS AND LIES ABOUT JOHN F. KENNEDY
Eddy J. Neyts
TOME 1
Genealogy
Text of Anna and Dan Fenn
Tribute to Dan H. Fenn Jr.
Author’s note
1. The influence of the parents on John F. Kennedy’s preparation for the Presidency
Quote :
Mothers may still want their favorite son to grow up to be president, but according to a famous Gallup poll of some years ago, they do not want them to become politicians in the process.
Profiles in Courage 1955
1.1 Who was Joseph P. Kennedy ?
1.2 When did Jack Kennedy decide to run for public office ?
1.3 Joe Jr. “The golden boy, compared with Jack the sick one”.
1.4 Jack Kennedy’s possible career instead of politics.
1.5 How did Jack Kennedy meet with Kenneth O’Donnell and Dave Powers ?
1.6 The James Michael Curley pay off.
1.7 How many “family” dollars were invested in the campaign ?
1.8 Jack Kennedy’s first campaign for Congress in 1946.
1.9 Conclusion.
2. Who wrote Profiles in Courage ?
Quote :
Our political life is becoming so expensive, so mechanzed and so dominated by professional politicians and public relations men that the idealist who dreams of independent statesmanship is rudely awakened by the necessities of election and accomplishment.
Profiles in Courage 1955
However detailed may have been our study of his life, each man remains something of an enigma.
Profiles in Courage 1955
2.1 How started the idea of the book ?
2.2 Who helped him writing the book ?
2.3 Who saw him writing the book ?
2.4 The Drew Pearson episode.
2.5 Sorensen’s role in Profiles in Courage.
2.6 Parmet’s prejudicial approach.
2.7 Did Arthur Krock lobby for the Pulitzer Prize ?
2.8 Conclusion.
3. Who elected JFK : A rendez-vous with history
Quote :
“I just received the following wire from my generous daddy : “Dear Jack, don’t buy a single vote more than is necessary. I’ll be dammed if I’m going to pay for a landslide”.
“With a little bit of luck and the help of a few close friends, you’re going to carry Illinois”.
Mayor Richard Daley
“John Kennedy could sell eggs to chickens”
Mc. Donough, West Virginia, campaign director
3.1 His father bought him the election.
3.2 The Franklin Roosevelt Jr. factor in West Virginia.
3.3 Choosing LBJ as his running mate : A labyrinth in search for a Vice President.
3.4 A stolen election with the help of the Chicago mob.
3.5 Calling Mrs. Martin Luther King.
3.6 The TV Debates.
3.7 Bobby as a campaign manager.
3.8 The Jacqueline Kennedy factor.
3.9 The help of the Media.
3.10 The economic factor, three recessions.
3.11 The Missile gap.
3.12 The Religious issue.
3.13 Nixon’s mistakes.
3.14 What was the vote margin in the 1960 Presidential Election.
3.15 Conclusion.
4. JFK and Cuba : From the bay of Pigs to the Cuban Missile Crisis
Quote :
“There is an old saying that victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan. I’m the responsible officer of the government”.
April 21, 1961 to journalist Sander Vanocur.
“I guess this is the week I earn my salary”.
Remark made during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
“The Preservation of work & peace should be our joint concerns”.
Khrushchev October 26, 1962 – letter to JFK.
“These brass hats have one great advantage in their favor. If we listen to them, and do what they want us to do, none of us will be alive to tell them that they were wrong”.
JFK to O’Donnell.
4.1 The Bay of Pigs : a brilliant disaster
4.2 The Cuban Missile Crisis : President Kennedy in total control
4.3 The Scali – Fomin (Feklisov) Meetings
4.4 Three Cuban Cigar stories
4.5 McNamara’s ambiguous point of view on the “Castro assassination”
4.6 The William Attwood – Lisa Howard – Jean Daniel – Castro rapprochement
4.7 Operation Mongoose
4.8 Did Kennedy give a direct order to assassinate Castro ?
4.9 Conclusion
5. Kennedy and the Civil Right Issue. Did he act too slowly ?
Quote :
“One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves. Yet their heirs, their grandsons are not fully free”.
June 11, 1963 the White House
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today !”
Martin Luther King Jr., Lincoln Memorial, August 28, 1963
“Greater than the tread of mighty armies is the idea whose time has arrived”
Victor Hugo
5.1 The RFK – Baldwin meeting May 24, 1963
5.2 The June 11, 1963 Address – August 28, 1963 The March on Washington
5.3 Who ordered the King wiretaps ?
5.4 Was Harris Wofford sent to Africa or was it his own decision ?
5.5 Would Kennedy have replaced J. Edgar Hoover in 1965 ?
5.6 Conclusion
6. The Health Issue : A perfect cover up and a true profile in courage
Quote :
“There is alway inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded, and some men never leave the country, and some men are stationed in the Antartic and some are stationed in San Francisco. It’s very hard in military or personal life to assure complete equality. Life is unfair”.
News conference Washington D.C. March , 1962
“When we were growing up together, we used to laugh about the great risk a mosquito took on bitting Jack Kennedy with some of his blood the mosquito was almost sure to die”.
Robert F. Kennedy, December 18, 1963 Profiles in Courage Memorial Edition
6.1 Kennedy family members on his health.
6.2 Kennedy’s Addison’s Disease.
6.3 How did Kennedy injure his back ?
6.4 Kennedy’s doctors during his Presidency.
6.5 Three Doctors in the White House :
6.5.1 Janet Travell “The Procaine injections”
6.5.2 Max Jacobson “The Quack”
6.5.3 Hans Kraus “The exercise doctor”
6.6 Doctors at war in the White House.
6.7 June 22, 1961 : The day President Kennedy almost died in the White House.
6.8 How did it affect his Presidency.
6.9 A Time Line.
6.10 Conclusion.
7. JFK, The Man, The President. The Character Issue
“Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names”.
“The Presidency is not a good place to make new friends. I’m going to keep my old friends”.
“The point is that you’ve got to live every day like it’s your last day on earth. That’s what I am doing”
JFK to friend George Smathers
In an interview on CBS, 60 minutes by Lesly Stahl in 1998, June 7, with Edward Moore Kennedy
She asked the following question : “Do you think that it is appropriate for Americans to judge our political figures by their personal behavior ?”
Edward M. Kennedy answered : “Yes, to the extant that their personal behaviour reflects on their ability to do the job”.
7.1 His best friend was gay.
7.2 Thomas Jefferson – Sally Hemings story as a character issue.
7.3 JFK More than A President. A Man.
7.4 Conclusion.
Epilogue
TOME 2
Genealogy
Text of Anna and Dan Fenn
Tribute to Dan H. Fenn Jr.
Author’s note
1. “What if” Kennedy and the Vietnam War : An Eternal Controversy.
Quote :
The ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus wrote : “The reward of suffering is experience”. Let this be the lasting legacy of Vietnam.
Robert S. Mc.Namara
“In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them. We can give them equipment. We can send over men out there as advisers but they have to win it, the people of Vietnam against the Communists”.
Interview Walter Cronkite CBS television news Washington DC September 2, 1963
“We would expect to withdraw a thousand men from South-Vietnam before the end of the year”.
President’s news conference Washington DC October 31, 1963
1.1 Torbert Macdonald’s secret mission to Vietnam.
1.2 The Withdrawal plans. Mike Mansfield vs Ken O’Donnell.
1.3 Kennedy’s statements on Withdrawal, CBS – NBC interviews September 2, 9, 1963.
1.4 The withdrawal controversy NSAM 263 vs NSAM 273.
1.5 Would Kennedy have Americanized the War ?
1.5.1 The General Douglas Mc Arthur and General Charles de Gaulle’s warnings.
1.5.2 John Kenneth Galbraith’s letters on the Vietnam war.
1.5.3 Robert Kennedy and the Vietnam War.
1.5.4 The Dean Rusk replacement in 1965.
1.5.5 November 1961, April 1962, August-September 1963. Three turning points in the Vietnam War during Kennedy’s Presidency.
1.5.6 Combat Troops or No Combat Troops.
1.6 Some Statistics.
1.6.1 How many military advisers in Vietnam by November 22, 1963 and how many American casualties during JFK’s Presidency.
1.7 Conclusion
2. The PT 109 story : A true war hero or reckless behavior or both ?
Quote :
A young boy asked him how he became a war hero.
“It was involuntary they sank my boat”.
2.1 John F. Kennedy’s war Career, a chronology.
2.2 What is a PT boat and why his bad reputation.
2.3 Jack Kennedy’s love for PT boats.
2.4 Before 2.30 A.M August 2, 1943 and after the collision. What happened ?
2.5 Jack Kennedy’s low-key treatment on the PT 109 story.
2.6 Conclusion
3. The Joseph McCarthy Censure :
Political Expediency
Lack of courage or an act of family loyalty ?
Quote :
“Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men”
3.1 McCarthyism
3.2 The Kennedy family and Joseph Raymond McCarthy
3.3 Kenneth O’Donnell and Dave Powers. Point of views.
3.4 JFK’s relationship with McCarthy.
3.5 Sorensen 1965-1977-2008. Point of views.
3.6 Conclusion
4. Nepotism, Dynasty or Talent and Hard Work
Quote :
“Well, I think I’ll open the front door of the Georgetown house some morning about 2.00 AM, look up and down the street and, if there’s no one there, I’ll whisper : “It’s Bobby”.
JFK 12, 1960 to Ben Bradlee
On Robert Kennedy : “He’s the only one who doesn’t stick knives in my back, the only one I can count on when it comes down to it”.
JFK attributed.
“I think about my brother every day”
Edward Moore Kennedy attributed.
4.1 What is Nepotism ?
4.2 Was there a Dynasty in the Making ?
4.3 The Saturday Evening Post Story, September 7, 1957.
4.4 Ribicoff asking himself or refusing it.
4.5 Stevenson, Arthur Goldberg and Orville Freeman.
4.6 Bobby Kennedy wanting or not wanting the job.
4.7 Joe Kennedy as the chief lobbyist.
4.8 John Kennedy’s political game in the appointment.
4.9 The perfect Cover Up.
4.10 The Press and other Reactions on the Appointment.
4.11 Robert Kennedy’s record as Attorney General.
4.12 Edward Moore Kennedy, Senator of Massachusetts.
4.13 Conclusion.
5. John F. Kennedy and Congress
“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich”.
“My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it until now”.
Remark on U.S. Steel Conflict
“When I was a Congressman I never realized how important Congress was, but now I do “.
Address and Question and Answer period at the Economic Club of New York
December 14, 1962
“For the greatest enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest- by the myth- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic”.
Yale University, June 11, 1962
5.1 Kennedy’s independent mind and political courage in his years as Congressman and Senator
5.1.1 The James Michael Curley petition
5.1.2 The American Legion
5.1.3 The St. Lawrence Seaway
5.2 John Kennedy : Chairman of a Special Committee
5.3 The McClellan Committee
5.4 President Kennedy and Capitol Hill
5.4.1 The Steel Crisis and its Economic aftermath toward business
5.4.2 The Yale University Commencement Address June 11, 1962
5.4.3 Radio and Television Report to the American people on the State of the National Economy August 13, 1962
5.4.4 Address and Question and answer Period at the Economic Club of New York December 14, 1962
5.5 Kennedy and his economic education
Harold Joseph Laski and the Kennedy’s
5.6 Conclusion
5.6.1 From Economic ignoramus, to the first modern economist in the American Presidency
5.6.2 Kennedy’s performance on Capitol Hill
6. The race to the moon : justified or not ?
Quote :
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”.
Rice University Houston Texas September 12, 1962
6.1 From October 4, 1957 to September 12, 1962
6.2 Kennedy’s prospect of cooperative space ventures with the Soviet Union
6.3 Why did Kennedy decided to go to the Moon ?
6.4 Conclusion
7. Kennedy and the Press
Quote :
“We liked the guy, just plain and simply, we liked the guy. He liked us”.
Hugh Sidey
“There are three things which are real : God, human folly and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension. So we must do what ce can with the third”.
From Aubrey Menen’s Ramayana
7.1 The Televised News Conferences.
7.2 Managing the news.
7.3 What Reporters thought of him as a man, as a President.
7.4 “John’s other wife”. The Blauvelt genealogy.
7.5 Conclusion
8 Jack and Jackie : what kind of marriage was it ?
Quote :
“If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever you do well matters very much”.
Jacqueline Kennedy
“Jack knows she’ll never greet him with, “What’s new in Laos ?””
Robert F. Kennedy attributed
“We are like two icebergs – the public life above the water, the private life is submerged. It is a bond between us”.
Jacqueline Kennedy
“My husband was a romantic, although he didn’t like people to know that”.
Jacqueline Kennedy
8.1 Jacqueline and the Bouvier family.
8.2 When did Jack and Jackie meet for the first time ?
8.3 The 1 million dollar fantasy story.
8.4 Jackie’s five pregnancies.
8.5 Jacqueline Kennedy’s masterpiece : The White House Restoration.
8.6 Jacqueline Kennedy’s look on her marriage.
8.7 Conclusion.
Epilogue