“LIFE IS UNFAIR”
THE TRUTHS AND LIES ABOUT JOHN F. KENNEDY
Eddy Joseph Neyts
“LIFE IS UNFAIR” THE TRUTHS AND LIES ABOUT JOHN F. KENNEDY
By Eddy Joseph Neyts
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Like so many people of the Baby Boomers generation, indelibly etched in my memory is where I
was on Friday November 22, 1963 at 12.30 PM, the infamous moment when President John
Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. I was fifteen years old. The silence in my room was shattered
when my mother came upstairs to deliver the terrible news that President Kennedy had been shot in
Dallas, Texas. Like so many people all over the world I wept. And I wept again, 45 years later (at
Dan’s place in Lexington, in Boston Massachusetts), on November 4, 2008, when it was confirmed
that Barack Obama being elected the first black President in American history. On that occassion,
of course, they were tears of joy. The huge impact on me of both events is difficult to explain.
But Kennedy’s death certainly ignited a deep passion of mine. I started collecting newspapers,
articles, magazines, and books about him, reading everything I could find on the amazing man. As
time passed, hundreds of books were written on President Kennedy’s life, family and his
administration and I bought every one I could get. Today my private library is certainly the richest
private collection on the subject, and, of course, I have read every one of them!
My goal in this, my own account of his life, is to be as accurate as possible on historical facts and
dates concerning John Fitzgerald Kennedy – something which cannot be said of many of the books
published on the subject during the past fifty years. While writing this book, I was often asked if I
would be the one who tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Have I succeeded ? Yes and
no, because on certain facts in his life, his personal life, it’s impossible to find the truth : you,
reader will decide if I have uncovered some truths in his political accomplishments and failures.
I would claim modestly that I have certainly come closer to the truth about JFK – at least as close
an investigator, fond of history and passionate for the truth, can get.
And if the reader has learned something from the results of my extensive research, it will be a great
satisfaction to me.
Where I quote other works on JFK, the relevant book is referenced in my notes.
However, in my opinion, many authors have been hasty and very sloppy in their historical
approach towards John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Some of them have embellished their research for
sensationalism, and their abusive, gossipy approach has marred the actual history.
Sheldon Stern, who was the historian at the John F. Kennedy library in Boston from 1977 to 1999,
says that some Kennedy biographers have manipulated the evidence and invent “truths” to suit their
purposes. Now I have been given the opportunity to write a book with a totally different approach.