Their Last Suppers: Legends of History and Their Final Meals (8 page)

• Heat butter gently and slowly stir in flour.
  
• When it is a smooth paste, remove from heat, slowly add stock and watercress, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
  
• Puree in a blender, return to heat, add cream, and serve.
  

JOHN F. KENNEDY

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the twenty-fifth president of the United States, was born into the wealthy Kennedy family in 1917. Using the family name and money helped him serve three terms in the House of Representatives, running as a Democrat from Massachusetts. On becoming the first Roman Catholic president, he adopted an ambitious and liberal program called the New Frontier and embraced civil rights, admiring the stance of dynamic black leaders such as Martin Luther King. Much of his progressive legislation was eventually blocked by a U.S. Congress that was resistant to any leveling of the playing fields for the country’s minorities.

Kennedy summed up his feelings of frustration in a witty way: “The United States Government is sitting down at Geneva in talks with the Soviet Union. I cannot understand why the city council of Albany, Georgia, cannot do the same for its own American citizens.”

Within a week of taking office, Kennedy was being guided toward the infamous Bay of Pigs fiasco, a CIA project to remove Castro from power in Cuba. He was assured by his joint chiefs of staff that the Cuban exiles being trained for the invasion were well prepared, even though the force included sixty-year-old Catholic priests, musicians, factory workers, and lawyers. He gave the green light, and the force left the Nicaraguan port of Puerto Cabezas on April 10.

Within 6 days it was all over. Castro had some 1,200 prisoners, and the Kennedy administration was humiliated. Astonishingly, in early May a Gallup poll revealed Kennedy to be more popular than ever, with a whopping 82 percent of the population supporting him. Kennedy quipped to his aides, “It’s just like Eisenhower; the worse I do, the more popular I get.”

The next year his firm stance against the Soviet Union placing missiles in Cuba brought him even more plaudits, and although the Vietnam war was starting to unravel around him, Kennedy’s enthusiastic launch of the space program and creation of the Peace Corps kept Americans’ minds focused on what looked like exciting new frontiers for their country and their dynamic, handsome young president.

However, behind the smiling good looks and relaxed demeanor, newly declassified documents reveal a president who went through daily agonies due to severe medical ailments. At one point he was taking eight types of medication a day and eight injections at a time for a naval injury that had shattered three vertebrae in his back. Methadone, codeine, methylphenidate, chlordiazepoxide, gamma globulin, and testosterone were administered daily to control colitis, urinary tract infection, and Addison’s disease, a life-threatening condition of the kidneys. The handsome, athletic president the country so looked up to sometimes could not even put on his socks in the morning without assistance. The files show he took painkillers, antianxiety drugs, stimulants, and sleeping pills as well as hormones. And in times of stress he took extra doses.

However, there was one part of his anatomy that seemed to work just fine. For all the medical problems he endured, one aspect that doesn’t seem to have been impaired was his sex life. In later years, despite the efforts of his powerful family to keep
his reputation pristine, affair after affair finally became public knowledge—most famously of all, his relationship with movie star Marilyn Monroe.

The press of the day loyally refused to pursue any rumors about their hero the president, who was leading America to a brighter tomorrow. The pictures of him and his wife, Jacqueline, always looked the epitome of wedded bliss, and women flocked to have their hair or makeup done “the Jackie way.” She would eventually move on from being married to the most powerful man on earth, to being married to the richest—Greek shipping owner Aristotle Onassis.

Kennedy made a tough Texan, Lyndon Johnson, his vice president, and in a move to reduce infighting in the Democratic Party, he elected to take a tour of Texas in late November 1963. Waking up in Fort Worth, Texas, on Friday, November 22, the president stretched and went downstairs for breakfast with local Democratic dignitaries before moving on to Caswell Air Force Base, where he boarded Air Force One, while the Johnson party flew behind in Air Force Two.

When they landed in Dallas on a bright sunny day at 11:39 a.m., a decision was made to leave the bulletproof glass bubble top off the presidential limousine because the temperature was a pleasant 76°F, and the president would have more access to the people eager to see him.

The twenty-four-car motorcade swept through Dallas, with more than 250,000 Texans straining to get a look at their dynamic president. As the convoy moved into Dealey Plaza, 5 minutes from the hotel and lunch, the president was waving his arms at a group of schoolkids when suddenly a shot rang out, followed by another. The president fell forward, and Governor John Connally, who was traveling with him, was also hit. Accelerating away from the ambush the limousine raced to the nearest medical facility. Although they reached the hospital within 6 minutes, President Kennedy was declared dead at 12:55 p.m., to a shocked nation.

To this day the controversy over who killed JFK goes on. A drifter named Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested immediately, but he was himself shot by nightclub owner Jack Ruby only 2 days later. The Warren Commission in 1963 concluded that there could only
have been one gunman, but in 1979 another special commission concluded that “there was more than one assassin and a wider conspiracy.” Some speculate it was revenge by Castro or the Mafia, or that the CIA was behind the assassination of their own president.

Recent investigations have found that as many as forty-two people connected to the event were murdered or disappeared in the months after Kennedy’s death. His relationship with Marilyn Monroe and other women finally came to light, tarnishing the image of the “Camelot” he had sought so hard to project. Thousands of pages of records concerning his murder lie frozen by Congress to this day, implying that the true perpetrators of his death still lie hidden somewhere in top-secret files.

MENUS

John F. Kennedy’s last meal in Dallas was a simple breakfast.

Menu

Soft-Boiled Eggs

Bacon, Toast, Marmalade

Orange Juice, Coffee

Favorite Dinner

Hyannis Clam Chowder

Roast Quail Veronique with Mimosa Salad

Stone Crab á la Kennedy

Maltaise Sauce

• Fry the salt pork in a heavy skillet until crisp; remove and set aside.
  
• Cook the onions in the salt pork fat until golden brown.
  
• Add the potatoes and the cloves.
  
• Add the natural juice from the clams and the water.
  
• Cover and simmer until the potatoes are almost cooked.
  
• Add the salt pork, clams, and 2 tbsp butter. Simmer for no more than 5 minutes.
  
• In a separate saucepan, heat the milk to below boiling and pour the chowder into a hot tureen, then add the heated milk, the rest of the butter, and the paprika. Season to taste and serve in heated bowls.
  

• Preheat oven to 450°F.
  
• Wash and wipe the quail dry and rub their insides with salt and pepper.
  
• Stuff each bird with the wild rice mixed with a little of the melted butter and tie with string.
  
• Place the quail in a shallow roasting pan, brush with butter, and roast for 5 minutes at 450°F. Lower the heat to 325°F and roast for another 20 minutes, basting often with butter.
  
• When done, remove the birds and keep warm.
  
• Deglaze the pan with the wine and bouillon and bring to a boil, then add the grapes and let them poach for 5 minutes. Cut the bread and fry in a little butter. Arrange the toast on a serving platter and sprinkle on the ham, julienned.
  
• Place the quail on top and spoon half the sauce over them. Serve the rest in a sauceboat.
  

The large claws of the crabs caught on the eastern seaboard of the United States and Florida are delicious when in season.

• Boil them lightly with a dash of seafood spices and a pint of ale.
  
• Serve cold with maltaise sauce.
  

Another method
:

• Crack the legs, place in shallow baking pan, brush with butter, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and bake at 350°F for about 8 minutes.