Ep. 21D – The Kennedys as Boomer Icons, Part V: Presidency

The fifth episode in our series on the rise of the Kennedy family as a political dynasty begins by contrasting the anti-expert populist image of current HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with the ethos of the mid-20th Century Kennedys, who were striving to be accepted by the Establishment. We then do a deep dive into the presidency of John F. Kennedy, discussing behind-the-scenes dramas, including: the president's marginalization of VP Lyndon B. Johnson; his attempts to manipulate and pressure the news media; his efforts to present an image of tough-minded pragmatism rather than sentimental idealism; his management of his hidden health problems; his reckless womanizing, including a likely affair with troubled actress Marilyn Monroe; and his schemes to ensure his brother Ted was elected to the US Senate during 1962. We conclude with a discussion of the fact that, although JFK & his administration had many positive accomplishments & legacies, the idealized "Camelot" image that some Baby Boomers maintain about his presidency is unrealistic, as Pres. Kennedy shared many of the flaws & hypocrisies common to other prominent politicians of this era.

Transcript

                  Welcome once again to the “From Boomers to Millennials” podcast, which provides in-depth portraits of a variety of significant 20th Century figures. Welcome to Episode 21D, entitled “The Kennedys as Boomer Icons, Part V: Presidency.” This episode supplements our previous full-length episodes about John F. Kennedy’s presidency by providing an unflinching behind-the-scenes examination of one of the most idealized & mythologized administrations in modern US history.

But before getting into stories from the White House in the early 60s, we have to bestow this month’s featured podcast honor upon the Age of Napoleon podcast. Host Everett Rummage provides a compelling glimpse at one of the most brilliant & destructive world leaders in 19th Century history. He takes you through the life of Napoleon Bonaparte from his humble Corsican beginnings to his youthful Enlightenment-based revolutionary idealism, through his astounding military accomplishments, and finally to his stage of imperial, warmongering hubris. He also paints a vivid portrait of the world Napoleon inhabited, and assesses how the Napoleonic Wars affected the rest of Europe.  In recent episodes, he has discussed the Peninsular War in Iberia, which is of particular interest to me as someone who recently spent time in Spain. You can check out Everett’s show at his website, ageofnapoleon.com, or download it on your favorite podcast app. 

With the confirmation one year ago, in February 2025, of Robert F. Kennedy Junior as US Secretary of Health & Human Services, it is clear that, for better or worse, the Kennedy family of Massachusetts continues to have an outsized impact on American politics. It has been over 90 years since they first became prominent in the national political scene, when (in 1934) tycoon Joseph P. Kennedy, Senior was appointed as the First Chairman of the federal Securities and Exchange Commission by President Franklin D. Roosevelt back (for details, see Part I of this miniseries, our Episode 16A). In Part II, we introduced RFK Junior’s uncle, the most famous Kennedy ever, at least so far, future President John Fitzgerald Kenedy (see Episode 16B). In Part III, we profiled the life and career of Bobby Junior’s father, Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy Senior (see Episode 17A). RFK Junior shares with his father a combative style and a knack for making headlines, but in many other ways, he is very different from his well-known family predecessors. Allow me to explain.

In the first half of the 20th Century, the Kennedys were obsessed with legitimizing themselves in the eyes of the country’s East Coast Establishment, by obtaining Ivy League degrees and political offices in Washington DC. They were always affiliated with the Democratic Party in New England, which was the political home for most 20th Century Irish Catholics (in the Northeastern states, the Republican Party had been dominated mostly by middle-class Anglo-Saxon Protestants). As the Democratic Party became more predominantly liberal over the course of the 1960s and 70s, the politically engaged Kennedys generally also became more progressive in their views (in Part III, we discussed how Bobby Kennedy Senior moved Left over the course of his career in public service). Likewise, his son Robert Junior, long before becoming a member of the Trump cabinet, started his legal career as a self-identified liberal environmental lawyer, and until recently, he affiliated with the Democratic Party. However, when RFK Junior became a champion of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, he started down an anti-Establishment path that eventually led him to join the right-wing populist coalition making up Donald Trump’s Republican Party. Now, Robert Junior is a prominent member in a disruptive new American political regime that often scoffs at professional experts, and sometimes even chafes at constitutional limits on executive power.

The current political ethos of RFK Junior is that of a maverick championing a contrarian point of view and expressing a dogged opposition to mainstream scientific elites, which is very different from the image and ideology of his father & his uncle. While the current HHS Secretary accuses powerful media, academic, & corporate interests of being engaged in plots against the public, during the 1950s, Senator John F. Kennedy attempted to ingratiate himself to those very Establishment institutions as he laid the groundwork for a presidential campaign. In Part IV of this miniseries, we discussed how JFK released a (probably ghostwritten) book, Profiles in Courage, that helped establish his intellectual bona fides, and he did everything he could to promote a favorable image in television & print media (see Episode 18B). In Episode 16, we discussed how JFK’s 1960 presidential campaign succeeded in part because he was able to convince non-Catholic voters that his religious affiliation would not affect his conduct in office. In Episodes 16 and 17, we recounted that after winning the election, John F. Kennedy reached out to ally himself with the so-called “wise men,” pillars of the Democratic Party’s Eastern Establishment, for advice on policy & personnel. 

                  Biographer Robert Dallek notes that JFK’s extremely narrow margin of victory over Republican nominee Richard Nixon in the 1960 election made Kennedy cautious about his Cabinet picks. Unlike some more recent presidents, he actually recognized that he did not have an overwhelming mandate to remake the government along partisan or ideological lines. President Kennedy chose C. Douglas Dillon as his Treasury Secretary & Robert McNamara as his Defense Secretary in part because both were moderate Republicans who could help provide him with a reputation as a bipartisan leader. Dallek reports that JFK also disappointed some of his liberal advisors by keeping Allan Dulles on as the head of the CIA & by retaining J. Edgar Hoover as the FBI Chief, instead of choosing new leadership for the national security agencies. This also signaled moderation & bipartisanship, but Dallek notes that JFK (quote) may also “have been guarding against damaging leaks from Hoover about his private life.” We will provide more information on that issue later in this episode.

After JFK’s famous January 1961 inaugural address, in which he urged Americans to “ask what you can do for your country” (discussed in Episode 17), almost three-quarters of the US public told pollsters that they approved of the new president – a level of popularity almost unimaginable for any President to achieve here in our incredibly politically divided 21st Century United States. The charismatic Kennedy had the good fortune to be elected in a less cynical & divided era, an age when most Americans had a high degree of trust in political leaders from both parties. Kennedy maintained his early popularity by holding televised press conferences almost every week, which Dallek argues (quote) “allowed him to put his intelligence and wit on display.”

The Kennedys managed to craft an image that appealed to both common people and cosmopolitan elites. The textbook Liberty Equality Power notes (quote) “JFK and Jackie basked in media attention. They hobnobbed with movie stars and hosted prominent intellectuals” (close quote). The First Lady would often wear “designer clothing.” An invitation to the White House had always seemed prestigious, but the Kennedys helped usher in an image of the presidency that was less stuffy and more modern, informal, and “hip.” The Kennedys also helped to bring high culture to Washington DC by pushing forward the establishment of what would become the Kennedy Center. According to the center’s website, the idea of “a new public auditorium in the nation’s capital” actually began under the Eisenhower Administration, and Ike signed the National Cultural Center Act in 1958, authorizing its creation. The Kennedy Center site states that (quote) President John F. “Kennedy took the lead in raising funds for the new National Cultural Center, kicking off a $30 million fundraising campaign in November of 1962, holding special White House luncheons and receptions [for the center], [and] appointing his wife Jacqueline” as its honorary chairwoman. Whatever one may think about JFK, this positive cultural legacy is something that no future president could ever possibly tamper with – oh wait . . . I have just been told that the Kennedy Center has been Trumped. I repeat, the Kennedy Center has now been Trumped. Well, it was a nice legacy for our 35th president while it lasted. 

                  From early on in his administration, President Kennedy struggled over how to best make use of his vice-president, former Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson of Texas. LBJ was a former political rival who was distrusted by the Kennedys (and despised by Attorney General Bobby Kennedy in particular, as discussed in Part III of this series). JFK sent a VP he sometimes clashed with on goodwill tours of Third World countries; his predecessor President Eisenhower had used Vice-President Nixon in the same manner (see Episode 12). There was a good political reason for this, besides just keeping the ambitious veep out of the president’s hair. After the Cuban Revolution, Americans were desperate to prevent other countries in the Global South from falling under the sway of the Soviet Union. Lyndon Johnson was famous for the persuasive abilities that had made him such an effective Senator Majority Leader; he had a great ability to glad-hand and cajole people into supporting his political agenda, which served him well, even when interacting with foreign cultures. Dallek states that when LBJ visited the African nation of Senegal, the US ambassador to that country (quote) “urged him to shun contact with [local] villagers he described as dirty & diseased,” but Johnson, himself a man of humble origins, instead got out of his car & warmly greeted the local population; (quote) “he handed out pens & lighters” and “shook hands with everyone” he met.

                  LBJ’s persuasive abilities might have come in handy closer to home, yet Dallek states that (quote) “the White House had barred Lyndon Johnson, the most skilled legislator in the administration, from a meaningful role in dealing with Congress,” apparently fearful that he might pursue his own agendas & ambitions instead of being a loyal soldier for the Kennedy Administration. Dallek also writes about instances when President Kennedy publicly teased LBJ, which annoyed & embarrassed the veep. While Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were not close, they at least usually got along cordially – something that could not be said of Bobby Kennedy’s relationship with LBJ. Bobby & Lyndon could not stand each other, due to a mutual grudge each of them had held for several years (for details, see Episode 17A). According to Dallek, (quote) “17 years [of age], [and] 6 inches in height, and [clashing communication styles of] ‘southwestern exaggeration against Yankee understatement’ separated them.” He notes that the two men were also more similar than either would like to admit – (quote) “Both men were powerful, at times overbearing, tyrannical characters who did not treat opponents kindly” (close quote).

                  LBJ biographer Robert A. Caro writes in his book The Passage of Power about the vice-president’s sense of purposelessness as the Kennedy administration unfolded. Lyndon could not seem to break into JFK’s inner circle of close confidants, and he sometimes even had trouble getting the president to meet with him or take his calls. LBJ tried his best to flatter & suck up to JFK in hope he would actually give him something important to do, usually in vain. Johnson had been powerful and important as Senate Majority Leader, and now he was in an office with very few formal powers – and the Kennedys were hardly inclined to grant him any extra informal privileges. LBJ was a graduate of humble & obscure Southwest Texas State Teachers College, and he struggled to fit in during White House parties filled with polished Ivy League educated sophisticates. Attendees at these parties were often not much interested in talking with Vice-President Johnson. Some enjoyed the fact that the egotistical and domineering Southern Senator who had once been so powerful and feared had now been reduced to a position with a prestigious title but very little real power. 

According to Caro, sometimes Lyndon Johnson was not even invited to certain fashionable White House parties, and in his absence, attendees would make fun of him behind his back for his folksy & sometimes crude manner of speaking, and for his penchant for telling (quote) “endless, corny stories.” Caro writes that some Kennedy insiders referred to the overbearing Texan and his unglamorous wife Ladybird as (quote) “Uncle Cornpone and his Little Pork Chop” (close quote). These slights got back to Lyndon Johnson, and they fed into his insecurities about his lowly impoverished background, and they also led to occasional self-pitying tirades to those closest to him, complaining about his fall from significance into irrelevance. Of course, LBJ would not be stuck in the shadows forever. But his combination of overwhelming ambition & gnawing insecurity would lead him to missteps during the Johnson presidency – however, that’s a story for another day. 

                  But now we need to refocus on the current president at this point in our story, John F. Kennedy. Although JFK generally had a friendly relationship with the press, he was not above manipulating reporters for the benefit of his administration. Dallek writes (quote) “Kennedy was not as tolerant of the press as he seemed. He believed that its . . . instinctive impulse to be critical of the White House had repeatedly produced unfair attacks on his administration” (close quote). Dallek states that (quote) “Convinced that the Bay of Pigs failure could be attributed partly to press stories that had alerted Castro to an invasion, Kennedy used an April [1961] address” to a publishers’ group as an opportunity to urge the media to “sacrifice some of its traditional freedoms” in the name of “national security.” According to a 2016 article in the Columbia Journalism Review by author Greg Mitchell, (quote) “while displaying affection for a number of reporters, JFK was extremely critical of the media. In the second half of 1962 alone he tried to kill NBC and CBS news specials” that he found unfavorable to his administration (close quote). Mitchell reports that the Kennedys wiretapped two reporters who had (quote) “allegedly revealed classified secrets” in their articles. Mitchell also argues that JFK helped (quote) set in motion illegal CIA domestic surveillance embraced years later by Richard Nixon” (close quote). The Kennedy Administration secretly gave approval to the CIA conducting intelligence operations within US borders, which (quote) violated “the CIA’s charter, under the National Security Act of 1947, which strictly forbade any intelligence activity within US borders” (close quote). As the administration unfolded, some members of the press would begin to grow more distrustful of the White House and the national security agencies, a disillusionment that would only grow among members of the news media during the international & domestic crises of the mid-1960s.

                  One of the reporters in Vietnam who came to distrust the Kennedy Administration was journalist David Halberstam, who later wrote a best-selling critique of American leaders during the Kennedy & Johnson presidencies sarcastically entitled The Best and the Brightest. With the name of his 1972 book, Halberstam made the point that many of these men leading the country were considered to be the finest products of the American establishment, but they still turned out to be dead wrong when it came to the ability of the USA to defeat Communism in Vietnam. Halberstam includes the Kennedy brothers in his criticism.

                  Halberstam claims that JFK’s 1960 campaign (quote) “had summoned the nation’s idealism, but [Kennedy himself] was at least as skeptical as he was idealistic, [and he was] curiously ill at ease with other people’s overt idealism, preferring in private” a darker & more cynical worldview. He trusted pragmatic members of the Establishment at a time when (quote) “rarely had there been such a consensus on foreign affairs: containment was good, [and] Communism was dangerous” (close quote). Halberstam states the Kennedy family enjoyed gaining the support & approval of Washington Establishment patricians like Robert Lovett & Dean Acheson, viewing them as the type of Ivy League WASPs who once would have snubbed a noveau riche Irish Catholic like Joe Kennedy Sr.; now, these same men would (quote) have to “reckon with his sons.” Taking his cues from the tough-minded “Wise Men” who had led the Democratic Party into the Cold War, John F. Kennedy listened to hard-liners who warned him that the State Department was (quote) “filled with sissies in striped pants” who lacked the toughness to stand up to the Communists. Indeed, Robert Dallek notes that JFK was recorded telling advisors that the diplomatic corps was staffed with (quote) “an awful lot of fellows who don’t seem to have cojones,” while “the Defense Department looks as if that’s all they’ve got. They haven’t any brains” (close quote).

                  Halberstam notes that the Kennedys were also skeptical of the influential (quote) “liberal-intellectual wing of the [Democratic] party.” John & Bobby felt that this group’s continued admiration of two-time loser candidate Adlai Stevenson showed that (quote) “liberals would rather lose gallantly than win pragmatically.” Meanwhile, some of those same idealistic liberals, such as former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, were themselves skeptical of the Kennedys; Halberstam reports that Eleanor was concerned that JFK was (quote) “too hard-line in his foreign policies.” Before his inauguration, Eleanor met with Jack and urged him to appoint the diplomatically-minded Stevenson as his Secretary of State, but as we have discussed in prior episodes, JFK refused & instead appointed the more pragmatic Dean Rusk, who eagerly went along with the tough-minded containment policies that had been advocated by George Kennan, Dean Acheson, & other so-called “Wise Men.”

                  As previously mentioned in this podcast, there was a certain sense of machismo within the era’s culture that influenced the Kennedy Administration. Scholar K.A. Cuordileone wrote in an article in the academic Journal of American History that discussed how historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., who served as the in-house intellectual in the Kennedy White House, analyzed a proposed connection between masculine virility and the willingness to stand up to perceived global Communist aggression. Schlesinger wrote his 1949 book The Vital Center at the height of early Cold War tensions and the anti-gay Lavender Scare (discussed back in Episode 4). In the book, Schlesinger had claimed that “effeminate” and “soft” men were attracted to Marxism due to their (quote) “feminine fascination with the rude & muscular power of the proletariat.” Cuordileone notes that Schlesinger continued writing about this theme in a 1958 article in Esquire magazine, entitled “The Crisis of American Masculinity,” which warned that the “conformity” of life in corporate middle management was also a threat to the “individualistic initiative” that he deemed as inherent to true masculinity. 

The Kennedys shared some of this vision; they grew up with a macho father who expected not just his burly firstborn son Joe Junior but also sickly Jack & diminutive Bobby to engage in serious athletic pursuits. JFK had fulfilled his father’s vision by enrolling in the Navy during World War II, despite his secret physical limitations, and he had served heroically (see Episode 16B). It was noted by the intelligentsia that the Kennedy brothers were very fond of using the word “vigor” (often pronounced by them as “vig-ah”), and they advocated a “vigorous” life of intense effort & competition. In December 1960, President-Elect Kennedy published an article, literally called “The Soft American,” which expressed alarm over a study finding that (quote) “American youth lagged far behind Europeans in physical fitness.” In July 1962, the president penned another article for “Sports Illustrated” magazine, entitled “The Vigor We Need,” arguing there was (quote) “an undeniable relationship of physical vigor to our capacity to undertake the enormous efforts of mind and courage and will, which are the price of maintaining the peace and ensuring the continued flourishing of our civilization” (close quote).

In noting these attitudes among the Kennedys and their close associates, I am not saying there is anything wrong with encouraging physical fitness, nor am I criticizing traditional versions of masculinity per se. However, in citing the writings of Halberstam and Cuordlione about the machismo of this era, I am pointing out that a psychological need to avoid appearing (quote-unquote) “soft” may have distorted foreign policy across multiple administrations during the early Cold War. The rumors of a homosexual subculture existing within the State Department sometimes created a perception that diplomatic options were weak & unmanly. Halberstam notes that JFK (as previously referenced) had said his generals had “balls” but lacked “brains,” but with the State Department diplomats there was more of the “opposite” problem. Kennedy would hardly be the only president (or the worst president) to conflate his personal anxieties about his own masculinity with his country’s exertion of power abroad (as recent events arguably have shown). Kennedy & other Cold War presidents often wanted to appear tough and pragmatic; they feared bleeding-heart idealism might be naïve, or even effeminate. The Kennedys bought into a common Cold War paradigm that, without occasional displays of national toughness, the nation’s enemies would perceive them as weak, & try to take advantage of that weakness. Foreign policy calculations genuinely can be difficult, but one hardly has to be a pacifist to see there is a danger of letting an emotional desire to appear tough, rather than coolheaded & logical strategic considerations, guide a president’s decisions on foreign relations.

                  Perhaps some of John F. Kennedy’s desire to project a certain ideal of masculinity was based in a need to compensate for a lifetime of physical infirmities, which he insisted on obscuring from the public. At the start of his presidency, Dallek writes that a reporter bluntly asked Kennedy about rumors that he had Addison’s Disease. JFK denied having the disease, falsely claiming that his health was “excellent.” Robert Dallek, in his book An Unfinished Life, is generally a sympathetic biographer of John F. Kennedy, but he acknowledges that this deception was a disservice to the American public. (Quote) “When he ran for & won the presidency, Kennedy was gambling that his health problems would not prevent him from handling the job. By hiding the extent of his ailments, he had denied voters the chance to decide whether they wanted to join him in this bet,” Dallek contends.

In fact, Kennedy continued to struggle with his health after becoming president. Dallek notes that during the 1960 presidential campaign, JFK had started receiving treatment from Dr. Max Jacobson, a (quote) “New York physician who had made a reputation for treating celebrities” with uppers, and who had earned himself the nickname “Dr. Feelgood” among his famous clients. (Not the one referred to in the Motley Crue song, I’m pretty sure). Jacobson gave the president regular (quote) “back injections of painkillers and amphetamines” that allowed him to walk more easily without pain. Dallek reports that Jack Kennedy did not inform his personal physician (Dr. Janet Travell) or the White House medical staff, that he was receiving these injections from so-called “Dr. Feelgood.” Kennedy’s medical situation was far more serious & difficult than the public learned until decades after his death. Dallek writes that the president had (quote) “stomach and urinary ailments” that “were a daily distraction,” and his extensive medication regimen included (quote) “Codeine sulfate & procaine injections for his pain . . . cortisone for his Addison’s . . . paregoric for his colitis, testosterone to counter weight loss, and Ritalin for night rest” (close quote). Back pain remained his biggest problem, but Jack remained determined to hide his health struggles from the press.

JFK’s father, Joseph Kennedy Senior, who we profiled back in Ep. 16A, had even bigger health problems during the early Sixties. Unlike Jack, the patriarch of the family was receiving too little medical treatment; Joe had dismissed concerns from doctors who urged him to take medications. Dallek states that Joe (quote) “refused to acknowledge any vulnerability,” but despite the tycoon’s wealth & ego, he was indeed vulnerable. In Dec. 1961, JFK and RFK learned that that their father had suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on one side of his body & “unable to speak clearly.” He never made a full recovery, and he struggled to walk & talk for the rest of his life. Joe had invested so much money & effort to get his family into the White House; it is a sad irony that he was largely out of commission for most of his son’s presidency. What is sadder still is that Joe would see 2 of his sons meet violent deaths prior to his own passing at the age of 81 in Nov. 1969.

                  Dallek says for Jack Kennedy, (quote) “A family premium on athleticism, physical beauty, and self-control must have made Joe’s dependency on others for his most basic human needs a painful reminder to JFK of his own vulnerability.” Dallek speculates that all the pressures President Kennedy was under may have contributed to his engagement in a (quote) “more frenetic pace of womanizing than ever.” He indicates that Jack had affairs with multiple secretaries (what we would today call “administrative assistants”), and also with his own wife’s press secretary. Another of JFK’s paramours, Judith Campbell Exner, had (quote) “connections to mob figures like Sam Giancana [that] made her the object of FBI scrutiny.” Dallek reports that the 44-year-old president had an affair with a 19-year-old college sophomore who was serving as a White House intern, and Jack also had a friend who (quote) paid for and “arranged trysts in hotels” with “starlets and call girls” when he was traveling around the country. Historian James T. Patterson notes that by having these affairs, JFK (quote) “exposed himself to blackmail” attempts, including by his own FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, who was well aware of the president’s extramarital activities.

                  Dallek notes that (quote) “If Kennedy had concerns about [his wife] Jackie’s feelings, she helped him minimize them by discreetly avoiding a head-on clash with him over his womaning,” but she knew he was cheating on her. The historian concludes that John’s behavior (quote) “obviously made her angry & unhappy, but she chose to live with it.” A bigger concern for the president were the political risks posed by his promiscuous lifestyle. Dallek states that JFK assumed that while fringe tabloids (quote) “might pick up on gossip about his sex life, the mainstream press would hold to traditional limits when discussing a president’s private behavior.” An aide to Jack’s press secretary later wrote that (quote) “so many people in the press were sleeping around that for them to have gone after Kennedy would have been an act of embarrassing hypocrisy” (close quote). However, JFK became more distrustful of journalists over the course of his administration, and Dallek reports that the president (quote) “was increasingly worried about [potential media] disclosures detailing his much-rumored womanizing.”

                  One relationship of particular potential interest to the media was that between the Kennedys & Marilyn Monroe, the famous actress with the sexy “blonde bombshell” image. In May 1962, Robert Dallek writes that Monroe attended a birthday party for the president in a now-famous (quote) “skin-tight, sequined dress” & sang a breathy rendition of “happy birthday” to the president. After this incident was publicized, the White House had to deny widespread rumors of an affair between JFK & Marilyn. Dallek notes that (quote) “Numerous phone calls listed in the White House logs from Monroe to [President] Kennedy suggest something more than a casual acquaintance.” There is wide speculation and at least some evidence that Monroe actually did have flings with both John & Bobby Kennedy. RFK biographer Larry Tye views these rumors of Bobby & Marilyn having an affair with skepticism, noting that most involve “secondhand” accounts. However, there were documented phone calls between Bobby Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe just a few weeks before the actress’s August 4th, 1962 death, although Tye theorizes that Bobby may have been trying to (quote) “cover up any relationship JFK had with her” rather than carrying on an affair with Marilyn himself.

Of course Marilyn’s entanglements with the Kennedy brothers in the months prior to the film icon’s death has led to conspiracy theories. Tye observes that various authors have made claims that (quote) “Bobby helped her commit suicide or outright murdered her – to cover up [either] his affair [with Marilyn], or JFK’s [dalliance with her]” (close quote).  Some also speculate that the US government, perhaps without the Kennedys’ knowledge, eliminated Monroe to prevent her from going public about her relationships with the President & the Attorney General. According to an article in Vanity Fair magazine by the Irish nonfiction writer Anthony Summers, the emotionally volatile Marilyn was depressed and upset during the Summer 1962 that the Kennedys seemed to have (quote) “cut her off cold.” Summers writes that some Monroe friends & confidants report that Marilyn claimed she had learned (quote) “secrets about what has gone on in Washington,” and she threatened to (quote) “hold a tell-all press conference” if her former intimate contacts in the White House continued to ignore her.

Is there any truth to this theory that a government conspiracy to silence Marilyn Monroe was responsible for her death? Probably not – and in the unlikely event there is, I sincerely hope the Kennedy brothers weren’t in on it. I try to adhere to Occam’s Razor, because the simplest theory is usually more likely to be true than some convoluted conspiracy, therefore I think the 36-year-old actress probably really did kill herself via a barbiturate overdose. When Marilyn was found dead in the bedroom of her home in the prestigious Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, empty pill bottles were found next to her bed, and the toxicology report indicated that she had ingested at least twice as many pills as would be required to kill her, making it very unlikely this had been an accidental overdose. But the circumstances of the last months of her life mean that Marilyn Monroe’s tragic death forever is entangled with the public memory of the Kennedy brothers and their deaths later in the decade.

JFK’s infidelities were not the only source of strain in his marriage to Jackie. During a May 1961 visit to Paris to meet with French President Charles DeGaulle, Dallek writes that the First Lady’s (quote) “command of the French language & expressions of regard for French culture & taste made her an instant hit with the” Parisian public. JFK took political advantage of his wife’s growing popularity on the trip, stating with self-deprecating charm that he was happy to have been (quote) “the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris.” However, Dallek reports that (quote) “When the journalist Marianne Means later interviewed [President] Kennedy for a book on First Ladies, it was clear to her that he had actually resented Jackie’s spectacular emergence from his shadow” (close quote).

                  On other occasions, Jackie Kennedy pushed back on the traditional responsibilities of the First Lady, which also aggravated the president. Jackie complained of boredom with her ceremonial duties, and later confided that she often felt sad & lonely during her time living in the White House. One way she apparently asserted herself was by purchasing furnishings & a wardrobe, in order to make her life in the executive mansion a bit more glamourous. Jackie came from a wealthy family, and she was not accustomed to frugality. Dallek states that one estimate finds her (quote) “personal expenses in 1961 & 1962 exceeded her husband’s annual $100,000 salary” and “nearly half” of this spending “went for clothing” (close quote). JFK sometimes complained to friends that he was irritated by his wife’s excessive spending during their time in the White House.

                  But despite these domestic disturbances, in 1962 the Kennedy family was still at the height of their power, and they jumped at an opportunity to gain additional political influence, due to a Senate seat opening up in Massachusetts. This was the very seat that JFK had held and been re-elected to back in 1958 (see Episode 18B). The Kennedys were close allies of the Massachusetts governor, who appointed a temporary replacement Senator after John F. Kennedy was elected to the White House in 1960. Amazingly, at the behest of the Kennedy family, the governor selected JFK’s former Harvard roommate, a businessman named Benjamin Smith, who basically served as a seat warmer senator until a special election could be held in November 1962. In February ‘62, JFK’s youngest sibling Edward Kennedy, widely known as “Ted,” turned 30 years old, making him eligible to run for the United States Senate. 

While others in his family were enthusiastic about Ted’s candidacy, Dallek reports that the president (quote) “had doubts” because Ted was so young & he had “no credential to speak of other than having worked on his brother’s [past] campaigns.” But Ted nevertheless declared his candidacy, and he ensured the press that his powerful brothers would not be in any way involved in his campaign. Dallek writes (quote) “But of course, JFK, Bobby, and the White House were deeply involved.” JFK’s top speechwriter Theodore Sorensen was dispatched to help write material for Ted Kennedy, and at least one White House staffer (quote) “took a leave of absence” to work full time for Ted’s campaign. According to Dallek, President Kennedy asked his friend, Washington Post managing editor Ben Bradlee, to (quote) “look into the record” of Ted’s likely primary opponent, hoping he would publish facts about that man’s health-related resignation from the Navy and his past receipt of disability benefits. Bradlee declined to publish the story, but Dallek calls the journalistically inappropriate request (quote) “a perfect example of Kennedy hard-ball politics” (close quote). In any case, Ted Kennedy won the Democratic primary by an overwhelming margin of 69% to 30%, and he triumphed in the November 1962 general election over his Republican opponent by a margin of 55% to 42%. Ted would serve in the United States Senate for the next 46 years, until he finally died in office during 2009.

                  The Kennedys’ efforts to manipulate the press behind the scenes are part of a broader pattern of abuse of executive power that became unfortunately common in the Cold War era, a problem that arguably would only become worse & worse during the subsequent presidencies, up to the present day. However, in other respects, the Kennedy White House needs to be given some credit for its efforts at transparency. According to Dallek, JFK began thinking about his legacy after reading The Guns of August, a bestselling book about the origins of World War I, written by the popular historian Barbara Tuchman. To provide a record for future historians, President Kennedy had a taping system installed in the White House. Dallek reports that these tapes have proven to be very helpful to researchers, although a few of them have been “cut and spliced,” most likely to remove embarrassing or sensitive content. Other presidents would keep using the taping system the Kennedys had installed in the Oval Office, which would automatically start running whenever the president took a phone call, something that would be of huge significance to the future presidency of Richard M. Nixon.

                  This episode has been devoted to showing the behind-the-scenes reality of the Kennedy White House, & to debunking the often-sanitized image of JFK. Certainly, the early 60s were a tense time, & there were many American politicians who would have done a far worse job as commander-in-chief. I believe John F. Kennedy deserves much credit for accomplishments such as his deft handling of the terrifying Cuban Missile Crisis, as discussed in Ep. 20. Still, the fact that some subsequent presidencies have engaged in more extreme & destructive dishonesty does not erase the fact that JFK often deceived the American public; much of his image was not as it appeared. The seemingly youthful & robust president in fact had serious health problems; the devoted husband with the picture-perfect family was in fact a neglectful womanizer; the champion of humane initiatives like the Peace Corps in the Third World also approved covert actions to target perceived foreign enemies; and the friendly & witty rapport that JFK demonstrated with the press belied the fact that he pressured journalists not to print certain stories, & he even spied upon some reporters. Of course, the lies concocted by Kennedy’s two immediate presidential successors, Lyndon B. Johnson & Richard M. Nixon, would be worse & more consequential. But President Kennedy also could not resist the temptation to sometimes use the immense power of the Cold War’s imperial presidency to manipulate & mislead the American public. Over time, the American people would get wise to the fact that their government was often not telling them the truth. That reality really began to hit home during the 1970s, & the disillusionment has continued ever since, leading to anti-government paranoia among the US public. Many Americans are now too cynical to believe that the US government would do anything to advance the common good.

                  The extent of John F. Kennedy’s family wealth, health problems, & womanizing were unusual, but in many ways the harsh reality behind the shining Camelot myth was rather typical. To this day, many political candidates use their personal wealth to give them an unfair advantage, and many hide infidelities & health problems from the public. As in any other competitive field, people with a motivation to reach the top of the political hierarchy tend to be unusually ambitious & egotistical. Sometimes their drive can lead them to accomplish great things that make people’s lives better – but while we appreciate these achievements, we do not need to put presidents & politicians on an unrealistic pedestal. I hope this series so far has revealed to listeners a realistic picture of the legendary Kennedy family. In our next full-length episode, we will discuss the crowded final year of John F. Kennedy’s presidency, culminating in his tragic death, which continues to cast a long shadow on the American political landscape. Please join us then, won’t you?