Kennedy's Last Days: The Assassination That Defined a Generation (9 page)

Joseph Kennedy Sr. with his two oldest sons, Joe Jr. and John, in Florida in 1931.
[JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

CHAPTER FIVE

1945–1946

Chicago, Illinois, and Boston, Massachusetts

T
HE LONG WAR FINALLY ENDS.
Nazi Germany surrenders on May 7, and Japan surrenders on August 14. Soldiers and sailors return home with high hopes. The American economy is strong, so men and women can find jobs and buy homes. John Kennedy is working in Chicago as a reporter writing about the founding of the United Nations and even traveling to Britain to report on elections there. But he hears from his father almost every day. And his father wants him to run for office.

1946

So, less than six months after the war ends, John Fitzgerald Kennedy is one of 10 candidates running in the Democratic primary of Boston’s Eleventh Congressional District. Veteran politicians in Boston don’t give him a chance of winning. But JFK doesn’t mind being the underdog. He recruits a well-connected fellow World War II veteran named Dave Powers to help run his campaign. Powers, a rising political star in his own right, is at first reluctant to help the skinny young man who introduces himself by saying, “My name is Jack Kennedy. I’m a candidate for Congress.”

The day after the surrender of Germany was declared V-E day (Victory in Europe day). It is still celebrated in some countries.
[© Bettmann/Corbis]

Schoolchildren in Chicago celebrate V-E day.
[© Corbis]

But Powers watches in awe as Kennedy stands before a packed hall on a cold Saturday night in January 1946 and gives a dazzling campaign speech. The occasion is a meeting of Gold Star Mothers, women who have lost sons in World War II. Kennedy speaks for only 10 minutes, telling the assembled ladies why he is running for office. The audience cannot see that his hands shake anxiously. But they hear his well-chosen words as he reminds them of his own war record and explains why their sons’ sacrifices were so meaningful, speaking in an honest, sincere voice about their bravery.

Dave Powers was with Kennedy during all his campaigns. He heard Kennedy’s first speech in Boston in 1946 and his last in Fort Worth in 1963.
[© Bettmann/Corbis]

Then Kennedy pauses before softly referring to his fallen brother, Joe: “I think I know how all you mothers feel. You see, my mother is a Gold Star Mother, too.”

Kennedy’s campaign slogan was “More jobs, more housing, more industry.”
[© Corbis]

Women surge toward him when the speech concludes. Tears in their eyes, they reach out to touch this young man who reminds them of the sons they lost, telling him that he has their support. In that instant, Dave Powers is convinced; he goes to work for Kennedy right then and there. It is Dave Powers who seizes on
PT-109
as a vital aspect of the campaign, mailing voters a reprint of a story about the August nights in 1943 that show the selfless bravery of a wealthy young man for whom some might otherwise not be inclined to vote.

Thanks to Dave Powers’s insistence on making the most of the
PT-109
story, John F. Kennedy is elected to Congress on November 5, 1946.

The White House swimming pool was built for President Franklin Roosevelt. The press briefing room was constructed over it in 1970.
[JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

CHAPTER SIX

FEBRUARY 1961

The White House 1:00
P
.
M
.

T
HE PRESIDENT OF THE
U
NITED
S
TATES
is on schedule. Almost every afternoon, at precisely 1:00
P.M.,
he slips into the heated indoor pool located between the White House and the West Wing. John Kennedy does this to soothe his aching back. The pain is constant and so bad that he often uses crutches or a cane to get around, though rarely in public. He wears a back brace, sleeps on an extra-firm mattress, and receives regular injections of an anesthetic to ease his suffering. Aides know to look for a tightening of his jaw as a sign that the president’s back is acting up. The half hour of breaststroke and the heat of the pool are part of Kennedy’s physical therapy.

The White House staff is getting used to the new president and his family. Very little that was unexpected happened in the White House during the eight years the previous president, Dwight Eisenhower, lived there.

But now everything has changed. The Kennedys are much less formal than the Eisenhowers. Receiving lines are being abolished, giving formal functions a more casual feel. The first lady is readying the East Room for performances by some of America’s most notable musicians, such as cellist and composer Pablo Casals, opera singer Grace Bumbry, jazz artist Paul Winter, and even full symphony orchestras.

Still, the White House is a serious place. The president’s daily schedule revolves around periods of intense work followed by breaks for swimming and family time. He wakes up each morning around seven and reads the newspapers in bed, including the
New York Times
,
Washington Post
, and
Wall Street Journal
. Kennedy is a speed-reader; he can read and understand 1,200 words per minute. He is done with the newspapers in just 15 minutes, and then moves on to a pile of briefing books, reports prepared by his staff that summarize information about events going on around the world.

The president then has his usual breakfast in bed: orange juice, bacon, toast slathered in marmalade, two soft-boiled eggs, and coffee with cream.

Kenny O’Donnell was Robert Kennedy’s roommate at Harvard College. The two were also on the football team. This portrait was taken in 1961.
[JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

He is in the Oval Office at nine o’clock sharp. He sits back in his chair and listens as his appointments secretary, Kenny O’Donnell, maps out his schedule. Throughout the morning, as Kennedy takes calls and listens to advisers brief him on what is happening in the rest of the world, he is interrupted by his handpicked staff. In addition to Dave Powers, who is now special assistant to the president, and Kenny O’Donnell, there are also the former Harvard history professor Arthur Schlesinger Jr.; Ted Sorensen, the Nebraska-born special counselor and adviser; and Pierre Salinger, the former child prodigy pianist who serves as press secretary.