Jack Kennedy - Chris Matthews [181]
56 NAURO ISL NATIVE: Goodwin, p. 760.
56 “On His Majesty’s Service”: Ibid., p. 761.
56 “As a captain”: Dick Keresey quote, Keresey, “Farthest Forward,” American Heritage 49, no. 4 (July/August 1998).
56 Jack had his own account: Letter to Inga, Hamilton, pp. 616–17.
59 “proven himself on foreign soil”: Hometown booster quote, Red Fay, The Pleasure of His Company (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), pp. 156–57.
59 “On the bright side”: Letter from JFK to his parents, Hamilton, p. 611.
60 “We have been having a difficult time”: Letter from JFK to Lem, Pitts, p. 99.
60 At the same time he got off a letter: Jack letter to Lem’s mother, ibid.
60 Before leaving the South Pacific: Describe getting crew members back to States, Hamilton, p. 646.
60 “chronic disc disease”: Thomas Fleming, “John F. Kennedy’s PT-109 Disaster,” Military History Quarterly, February 8, 2011.
60 “His skin had turned yellow”: Macdonald description, Hamilton, p. 655.
61 “extremely heroic conduct”: Parmet, p. 121.
61 “That wound was a savage wound”: Ibid., p. 122.
61 “I’ll never forget Jack sitting”: Spalding quote, Hamilton, p. 640.
61 That August, Joe Jr. was killed: Ibid., pp. 659–60.
61 Jack, up at Hyannis Port: Ibid., p. 662.
62 “clenching and unclenching his fists”: Ibid., p. 660.
62 A month later, another terrible: Leaming, pp. 161–62.
63 “greatest campaign manager”: Author interview with Billy Sutton.
CHAPTER FOUR: War Hero
This chapter benefits from a diary Jack Kennedy kept of his travels through Europe in 1945 and the early weeks of his race for Congress. It was published and edited by Deirdre Henderson as Prelude to Leadership: The European Diary of John F. Kennedy, Summer 1945 (Washington, DC: Regnery, 1995). The jotted-down notes contained here are priceless clues to Jack’s postwar thinking, also a wonderful clue to his studious approach to his new career in politics. I cite it as Diary.
The topic is Jack Kennedy’s first race for Congress. Here again, as in preceding chapters, I have relied on Nigel Hamilton’s remarkable reporting.
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66 “It was written all over the sky”: Hamilton, p. 543.
66 “I think there was probably a serious side to Kennedy”: Ibid., p. 623.
66 All of the other old troubles continued: Parmet, p. 151.
68 Curley, now, was about to abandon: Joe Sr. used former Boston police chief Joseph Timilty as his go-between, Hamilton, p. 674.
69 His father wrangled him a job: Parmet, p. 131.
69 “from the point of view of the ordinary GI”: Diary, p. 85.
70 “I’m not talking about Bohlen”: Author interview with Paul Fay .
72 “We must face the truth that the people”: JFK letter to war buddies, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965), p. 88.
72 “Either wittingly or unwittingly”: Hamilton, p. 703.
73 “He asked every sort of question”: Barbara Ward Jackson, John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program.
73 “We have suffered the loss of nearly 8 hundred thousand young men”: Diary, p. 3.
74 “The clash may be finally and indefinitely postponed”: Ibid., pp. 7–8.
74 “Mr. Roosevelt has contributed greatly to the end of Capitalism”: Ibid., p. 10.
74 “People did not realize what was going on in the concentration camps”: Ibid., p. 58.
74 But he predicted the Red Army’s treatment: Ibid., p. 56.
74 “scared the hell out”: Hamilton, p. 722.
74 “He made me speak into it”: Horton OH.
75 “I’ve made up my mind”: Hamilton, p. 689.
75 “He was never pushed off”: Ibid., pp. 702–3.
75 “A lot of stories have been written”: Ibid., p. 673.
75 When Jack asked Torby Macdonald: Macdonald OH.
75 “I tell you, Dad is ready right now”: Hamilton, p. 679.
76 “Although Jack shammed indifference”: Fay, pp. 2–4.
76 “I had never lived very much in the district”: Presidential recordings, John F. Kennedy Library.
77 “He was very clear about his decision”: Charles Bartlett, John F.