The Patriarch (102 page)

July 19, 1934: Kennedy expected to be rewarded for his service during the campaign with a cabinet position and was infuriated when he was not invited to join the new administration. More than a year and a half after the election, Roosevelt, to the surprise and dismay of almost every member of his inner circle, appointed the ex–Wall Street operator as first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Here Kennedy poses for a press photograph with his fellow commissioners, Ferdinand Pecora and George Mathews on the left and James Landis and Robert Healy on the right. Pecora had served as chief counsel to the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency during its investigation of Wall Street in 1933 and 1934. Landis, a former Harvard Law School professor, had helped draft the 1933 securities legislation. He would serve as Kennedy’s chief adviser on the commission and remain a family friend and adviser for the rest of his life.

February 18, 1938: Having done yeoman work for the president at the SEC, contributed to his 1936 reelection effort, then served as first chairman of the Maritime Commission, Kennedy was rewarded with appointment as the first Irish Catholic ambassador to the Court of St. James’s. Here he is being sworn in by Supreme Court justice Stanley Reed, while the president looks on rather amused.

On arriving in Washington, Kennedy made a name for himself as an administration insider. He is seen here talking to Postmaster James Farley with Secretary of Treasury Henry Morgenthau listening in.

June 2, 1938: Kennedy and his oldest daughter, Rosemary, on one of their outings in London. Kennedy, who had, for the most part, lived apart from his children during his years in the picture business and then in Washington, very much enjoyed being in the same city and under the same roof with them in London. Rosemary, who had always had trouble in school, did so well in London that when the rest of the family left for America after Britain declared war on Germany, she remained behind with her father.

Kennedy, Joe Jr., and Teddy, just visible at the far left of the table, dining at the American ambassador’s residence in London, probably in early September 1938, while the rest of the family was still on vacation at their villa in the south of France. Teddy had been sent back to London with his father because he was suffering from tonsillitis.

Kennedy was a forceful, persistent, and loyal advocate of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his policy of appeasing the dictators rather than pushing them into a war Chamberlain and Kennedy were convinced Great Britain was not prepared to fight and could not win. Here we see Chamberlain returning, triumphant, from Munich after negotiating an agreement with Hitler, which gave Germany a large portion of Czechoslovakia, but, according to Chamberlain, preserved “peace in our time.”

March 1939: Kennedy, Rose, and eight of their children (Joe Jr. was traveling in Spain) on their way to a private audience with Pope Pius XII. President Roosevelt had honored Kennedy by asking him to be his representative at the papal coronation.

The family on vacation in the south of France in the summer of 1939. They lived in a nearby villa but rented a beach cabana at the Hôtel Cap d’Antibes, where this photo was taken. Bobby and Jean are in the front row; Jack, Eunice, Kennedy, and Pat in the middle; Kick, Joe Jr., Rosemary, Rose, and Teddy in the rear.

May 4, 1939: Rose and Kennedy with Queen Elizabeth and King George VI at a dinner at the American embassy, held two days before the king and queen sailed to Canada and the United States on state visits. The official photos, released to the press, show all four staring straight ahead. This is a rare picture of a smiling king and queen.

On learning in late August 1939 that Germany and the Soviet Union had signed a nonaggression pact, Kennedy flew back from the south of France to London for consultations with British government leaders. He is pictured here with Lord Halifax, the foreign secretary, after a meeting at Whitehall. Within the week, Germany would invade Poland, and Great Britain and France would declare war on Germany.

December 11, 1939: Kennedy, on home leave from London, visited Boston for a checkup at the Lahey clinic and an informal reception at his old East Boston church. He also visited with his three oldest boys, Joe Jr. at Harvard Law, Jack at Harvard College, and Bobby, who was at Portsmouth Priory in Rhode Island. Note how immaculately dressed Joe Jr., the future politician, is compared to his younger, more carefree brother Jack, in his ill-fitting sports jacket and dark shoes with white socks.