An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963 by Robert Dallek
p. 84: JFK’s transfer: Chief of the Bureau of Navigation to JFK, Jan. 14, 1942, Box 11A, PP.
p. 84: “They shagged”: Robert J. Donovan OH.
p. 84: “Jack finds”: Rose Kennedy to Children, Feb. 16, 1942, Box 4A, PP.
p. 84: “just seemed”: Billings quoted in Hamilton, 450. See Inga Arvad to JFK, Jan. 19, 20, 26, 27, 1942, Box 4A, PP.
p. 85: FBI wiretaps: D. M. Ladd to J. Edgar Hoover, Feb. 6, 1942; and J. R. Ruggles to Hoover, Feb. 23, 1942, O&C File, FBI Microfilm.
p. 85: “We are so well matched”: Inga Arvad to JFK, Jan. 26, 1942, Box 4A, PP.
p. 85: On Joe’s role in breakup, also see Doris Goodwin, 634-35.
p. 85: “There is one thing”: Mar. 11, 1942; also KK to JFK, Mar., n.d., 1942, all in Box 4A, PP.
pp. 85-86: Back problems: See JFK to Billings, Mar. 11, April 9, 1942, NHP; Rose Kennedy to Children, Mar. 27, 1942, Box 4A, PP; typed medical history and record, beginning April 13, 1942; and handwritten clinical record, May 21 to June 10, 1942; Chief of Bureau of Navigation to JFK, May 8, 1942, Box 11A, PP.
p. 86: “I have a feeling”: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 635; she also cites evidence of JFK’s thoughts of renouncing Catholicism.
p. 87: “This goddamn place”: JFK to Billings, Summer 1942, NHP.
p. 87: On the PTs, see Hamilton, 497-503.
p. 88: On Jack’s entrance into the PT service and his medical concerns, including JPK’s letter to Joe Jr., see Admiral John Harllee OH and Hamilton, 507.
p. 88: “He was in pain”: Quoted in Hamilton, 517-18.
p. 88: “This job”: JFK to Billings, Jan. 30, 1943, NHP.
p. 88: “his whole attitude”: Rose Kennedy to Children, Oct. 9, 1942, Box 4A, PP; Doris Goodwin, 646-47.
p. 88: “causing his mother”: Quoted in Goodwin, 647.
p. 89: “conscientious”: JFK, Report on Fitness, Feb. 11, 1943, Box 11, PP.
p. 89: “Kennedy was extremely”: Harllee OH.
p. 89: Meeting with Walsh and reassignment: Sen. David Walsh to John F. Fitzgerald, Dec. 21, 1942, Box 585, PPP. Harllee, in his OH, says he saw Walsh’s letter to the Navy Dept. Commander, MTB Squadron Four, to JFK, Jan. 8, 1943, Box 11, PP.
p. 89: “way to war”: Quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 51.
p. 89: “gastro-enteritis”: JFK Navy Medical Record, Dec. 15, 1944, entries for Jan. 12-13, 1943, Box 11A, PP.
pp. 89-90: “Re my gut” and “be stuck in Panama”: JFK to Billings, May 6, 1943, NHP.
p. 90: On JFK’s transfers, see Orders for Feb. 11, 19, 20, Box 11, PP. Also, Hamilton, 521-22.
p. 90: “Your friend Jock”: JFK to Billings, Jan. 30, 1943, NHP.
p. 90: “I’m extremely glad”: Quoted in Hamilton, 537-38.
p. 91: “That slowed me”: JFK to Billings, May 6, 1943, NHP.
p. 91: “to watch out”: Macdonald quoted in Meyers, 38.
p. 91: “among the gloomier”: Quoted in Hamilton, 535.
p. 91: “all the nuns”: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 651.
p. 91: “picture that I had”: Quoted in ibid., 533; JFK to Dad & Mother, May 14, 1943, Box 5, PP; JFK to Billings, May 6, 1943, NHP.
p. 92: “It’s not bad”: JFK to Billings, May 6, 1943, NHP.
p. 92: “It’s one of the”: Quoted in Hamilton, 533.
p. 92: “I always like”: JFK to Mother & Dad, Sept. 12, 1943, Box 5, PP.
p. 92: “He never said”: Ibid.
p. 92: “If they do that”: JFK to Dad & Mother, May 14, 1943, Box 5, PP.
p. 93: “Have been ferrying” and “Just had an inspection”: Quoted in Hamilton, 539-41.
p. 93: “A great hold-up”: JFK to Dad & Mother, May 14, 1943, Box 5, PP.
pp. 93-94: “that many Annapolis”: Harllee OH.
p. 94: “this heaving puffing”: Quoted in Sorensen, 19.
p. 94: On the PTs and “Let me be honest”: Blair, 174, 156. JFK to KK, June 3, 1943: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 650. Bulkley, At Close Quarters, with an Introduction by JFK.
p. 94: “When the showdown comes”: JFK to Dad & Mother, May 14, 1943, Box 5, PP.
p. 94: “had become somewhat cynical”: JFK to Mother & Dad, Sept. 12, 1943, Box 5, PP.
pp. 94-95: For the Guadalcanal, New Georgia, and Solomon Islands campaign in general, see Dear and Foot, 511-15, 791-96, 855-63, 918.
p. 95: On the failure of the PTs, see Blair, chap. 17, and 215-16 and 229 for the quotes.
p. 95: “least effective action”: Cooper, 151.
pp. 95-96: Questions were raised: Hamilton, 554-72; the quotes are on 567-69. A controversy also erupted between the captain of the Japanese destroyer and his commanding officer, who was using the destroyer as a flagship, as to whether the collision with JFK’s boat was accidental or on purpose. See Katsumori Yamashiro, the commander of the Japanese flotilla of August 1-2, 1943, to JFK, Nov. 15, 1958, Sept. 9, 1960, Jan. 20, 1961, Aug. 1, 1962, and the translated article by Kohei Hanami, the destroyer’s captain, “The Man I Might Have Killed Was Kennedy,” Nov. 2, 1960, all in Box 132, POF.
p. 96: “terrible thing”: JFK to Mother & Dad, Sept. 12, 1943, Box 5, PP.
pp. 96-97: For the sinking and rescue, see Memorandum to Commander MTB Flotilla One: Sinking of PT 109 and Subsequent Rescue, Aug. 22, 1943, Box 6, PP; History of PT 109, n.d., Box 132, POF; Robert King Interview: The PT-109 Crew Rescue: The Scouts’ Stories, MS 84-57, JFKL; New York Times, Aug. 20, 1943, June 4, 1961; Doris Goodwin, 654-57; and Hamilton, 577-602.
p. 97: “In human affairs”: Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 378.
p. 98: JFK as hero: Hamilton, 598, 602, 605; New York Times, Aug. 20, 1943; Boston Globe, Aug. 19, 1943.
p. 98: “It certainly should occur”: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 658-59.
p. 98: “None of that hero”: Quoted in Blair, 310-11.
p. 98: “It was easy”: Quoted in Sorensen, 18.
p. 98: “Lieb, if I get”: Quoted in Hamilton, 598-99. John Hersey, “Survival,” The New Yorker, June 17, 1944.
p. 99: “God save this country”: Sorensen, 19.
p. 99: “I’d like you to meet”: Quoted in Hamilton, 592.
p. 99: “report to sick bay”: Quoted in Blair, 179-81.
p. 99: “exactly what the Dr.”: JFK to Dad and Mother, Aug. 10, 1943, JPK Papers, JFKL.
p. 99: “I imagine he’s”: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 659.
p. 99: “It was a question”: Quoted in Blair, 310.
p. 99: “he wanted to”: Quoted in Hamilton, 608.
pp. 99-100: “symptoms of fatigue”: JFK, Medical History, Aug. 9, 16, 1943, Box 11A, PP.
p. 100: For the gunboat combat, see JFK to Billings, Sept. 15, 1943, NHP; JFK to Dad, Oct. 30, 1943, and JFK to Family, Nov. 1, 1943, Box 5, PP; and Hamilton, 606-27.
p. 100: “just God damned”: Quoted in Hamilton, 616-17.
p. 100: Health problems: See Report of Physical Exam, Oct. 20, 1943, Box 11A, PP.
p. 100: “I just took the physical”: Quoted in Blair, 301.
p. 100: “I looked as bad”: Quoted in Hamilton, 626.
pp. 100-101: His stomach pain: see [Medical] Report:-Kennedy, J. F., 11-23-43, G.I.; JFK Medical History, U.S. Naval Hospital, Chelsea, Mass., Nov. 25, 1944, Box 11A, PP; Commander A. P. Cluster to JFK, Dec. 21, 1943, and Chief of Naval Personnel to JFK, Jan. 7, 1944, Box 11, PP.
p. 101: “definitely not in good shape”: Ron McCoy, Inga’s son, to author, Dec. 10, 2002.
p. 101: “in reasonably good shape”: Quoted in Blair, 315.
p. 101: “He is just the same”: Rose Kennedy to Children, Jan. 31, 1944, JPK Papers.
p. 101: On his need for an operation, see JFK to Paul “Red” Fay, Feb. 21, 1944, quoted in Fay.
p. 101: “Once you get your feet”: JFK to “Johnny” [Hersey], n.d., NHP.
p. 101: On his fevers and complexion, see Joseph Timilty interview with Nigel Hamilton, NHP.
p. 101: “with nothing more”: JFK to Billings, May 3, 1944, NHP.
p. 102: For the Lahey surgeon
p. 102: “an interesting complication”: U.S. Naval Hospital, Neuro-Surgery, Dr. Heintzelman, Aug. 4, 1944, Box 11A, PP.
p. 102: Several medical problems: Dr. Sara Jordan to Captain Conklin, July 14, Aug. 1, 1944, Box 11A, PP. See Clinical Record, JFK, entries from Aug. 5 to Nov. 16, 1944, and Medical History, JFK, entries Aug. 4-Nov. 25, 1944, Box 11A, PP.
p. 103: “In regard to”: Quoted in Sorensen, 44.
p. 103: “Am still in”: JFK to Billings, Nov. 1944, NHP.
p. 103: “clearly indicate”: Dr. B. H. Adams to MO in C, Nav. Hosp, Chelsea, Mass., Dec. 1, 1945, and to the Surgeon General, Dec. 1, 1944, Box 11A, PP.
p. 103: “present abdominal symptoms”: Medical Record, JFK, Dec. 15, 1944, entry for Dec. 6, 1944, Box 11A, PP.
p. 103: Incapacity for naval service: R. T. McIntire, Chief of Bureau, to BUPers., Jan. 18, 1945, and Sec. of Navy James Forrestal to JFK, Mar. 16, 1945, Box 11, PP.
p. 104: “unstable back”: Quoted in Interview with Dr. Elmer C. Bartels, n.d., NHP.
p. 104: The expert on steroids is Dr. Eugene Strauss, who described the problem with dosages in the early use of steroids to Dr. Jeffrey Kelman. Conversation with Dr. Kelman. Also see Jonathan D. Adachi and Alexandra Papaioannou, “Corticosteroid-Induced Osteoporosis: Detection and Management,” Drug Safety, vol. 24, no. 8 (2001), 607-24, which demonstrates that osteoporosis can begin within three months after taking steroids.
p. 104: On the development and availability of DOCA by 1937, see Medvei, 476-78.
p. 104: “getting along well”: JPK to Paul Fay, Mar. 26, 1945, Paul B. Fay Papers, JFKL.
p. 104: “he looked jaundiced”: Quoted in Hamilton, 680.
p. 104: “so bad”: JFK to Billings, Feb. 20, 1945, NHP.
pp. 104-5: On his health from May 1945 to November 1946, see Hamilton, 687, 703, 712, 721-22, 768-69, 793-94.
p. 105: “gastro-enteritis”: Navy Medical History, JFK, entries for Aug. 3, 4, 5, 1945, Box 11A, PP.
p. 105: For the June 1946 medical crisis, see Blair, 560-62.
p. 105: On JFK’s negligence about his medication, see Dr. Elmer C. Bartels Interview, n.d., NHP.
p. 105: “slow atrophy”: Dr. Dorothea E. Hellman to Joan and Clay Blair, Mar. 31, 1977; and Dr. Elmer C. Bartels Interview, NHP. On Eunice Kennedy and whether JFK’s Addison’s disease was a primary or secondary form, I am grateful for the counsel of Dr. Wayne Callaway, a Washington, D.C., endocrinologist in a conversation on April 30, 2002.
p. 106: “much impressed”: JK [Joe] Jr. to JFK, Aug. 10, 1944, Box 4A, PP. For the background to Joe’s military service, see Doris Goodwin, 683-84.
p. 106: The mission and its dangers: Davis, 104-6.
p. 106: “intending to risk”: JK Jr. to JFK, Aug. 10, 1944, Box 4A, PP.
p. 106: “If I don’t come back”: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 688.
p. 107: The U.S. Air Force report, Aug. 14, 1944, JFKL.
p. 107: The 2001 explanation: William G. Penny to John F. Kennedy Library, Aug. 14, 2001, JFKL.
p. 107: “You know how much”: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 693.
p. 108: “defined his,” “Forever in his,” and “I’m shadowboxing”: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 698-99.
p. 108: “The pattern of life”: KKH to JFK, Oct. 31, 1944, Box 4A, PP.
p. 108: “The news of”: KKH to Family, Feb. 27, 1945, Box 4A, PP.
p. 108: “Luckily I am”: KKH to Billings, Nov. 29, 1944, Box 4A, PP.
p. 108: “His sense of”: Quoted in Sorensen, 14.
Chapter 4: Choosing Politics
p. 111: “The desire to enhance”: Doris Goodwin, 500.
p. 112: “in the next generation”: Collier and Horowitz, 75; and also 82.
p. 112: “for people to take”: See Memo “About Nov. 10, 1941,” in Speech and Book File, Nov. 11, 1941-Jan. 23, 1942; also Speech and Book Material, Oct. 1941-Jan. 1942. Both in Box 11, PP.
p. 112: “I never thought”: JFK to Billings, Feb. 12, 1942, NHP. Also Memo, Feb. 14, 1942, Speech and Book Material, N.Y. office, 1937-1943, Box 11, PP; JFK to JPK, Feb. 25, 1942, Box 4A, PP; and JFK to KK, Mar. 10, 1942, also Box 4A, PP.
p. 113: “spent most of his time”: Quoted in Blair, 191, and Hamilton, 543.
p. 113: “He made us all very conscious”: Quoted in Hamilton, 629.
p. 113: “Let’s Try an Experiment”: In box of JFK Articles, 1941-1949, JFKL.
p. 114: For the response to JFK’s article, see Blair, 364-65; Parmet, Jack, 128-30; Hamilton, 688.
p. 114: “labor was going to be”: Quoted in Blair, 365-67.
p. 114: For JFK’s newspaper work, see Blair, 371-72; Parmet, Jack, 131-32. Also see Louis Ruppel to Dr. Paul O’Leary, April 23, 1945, Box 11, PP, demonstrating JPK’s part in arranging the assignment.
p. 114: “But if he’s going”: JPK to KK, May 1, 1945, Box 4A, PP.
p. 115: They received good value: Blair, 371-76; Hamilton, 692-95.
p. 115: “dressed for a black-tie evening”: Krock, 350.
pp. 115-16: The dispatches are in a box containing JFK Articles, 1941- 1949, JFKL. [“Cannot be overcome completely”: April 3, 1945; “a skeleton”: May 4, 1945; “the world organization that will come”: May 7, 1945.] They are also in POF, Box 129.
p. 116: “Things cannot be forced”: Quoted in Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, 88.
p. 116: On England: May 28, June 24, July 10, 1945, articles in JFK Articles, 1941-1949, JFKL.
pp. 116-17: For JFK’s travels with Forrestal, see Millis and Henderson.
p. 117: “the plane doors opened”: Blair, 387.
p. 117: “I never thought at school:” JFK Tape 39: “Memoir entry concerning entrance into politics,” Oct. 1960, Recordings, JFKL. On possible motives for the recordings, see Timothy Naftali, “The Origins of ‘Thirteen Days,’” Miller Center Report, The University of Virginia, vol. 15, no. 2 (Summer 1999). I am indebted to Naftali for helping me clarify the date of the 1960 recording.
p. 117: “When the war is over”: Fay, 152.
p. 118: “I got Jack” and “It was like being”: Blair, 356.
p. 118: “Dad is ready”: Fay, 152.
p. 118: “God! There goes”: Collier and Horowitz, 172-73.
p. 118: “Yes. In fact” and “didn’t want to”: Blair, 356-57.
p. 118: “said he thought”: Quoted in Blair, 367.
p. 118: “I take it that you”: Billings to JFK, Jan. 1, 1946, Box 4A, PP.
p. 118: “I am returning”: JFK to Billings, Feb. 20, 1945, NHP.
p. 118: “I am certain”: George St. John Jr. to Rose Kennedy, Aug. 22, 1945, Choate Collection: Outline of Kennedy Letters, Box 1, PP.
p. 118: “Jack arrived home”: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 705-6.
p. 119: “terribly exposed and vulnerable”: Quoted in ibid., 698-99.
p. 119: Joe Jr. “used to talk”: McCarthy, 19.
p. 119: “to be built for politics”: Mark Dalton OH.
p. 119: “He spoke very fast”: James Reed OH.
p. 119: “A lot of people”: Billings Interview, CBS Interviews, JFKL Audio-Visual Archive.
p. 119: “Knowing his abilities”: Billings OH.
pp. 119-20: “He asked every sort of”: Barbara Ward Jackson OH.
p. 120: “decisions of war and peace”: JFK Tape 39: “Memoir entry concerning entrance into politics,” Oct. 1960, Recordings, JFKL.
p. 120: “Legislation on”: Ibid.
p. 120: “was drawn into politics”: O’Donnell and Powers, 46.
p. 120: “Few other professions”: JFK, Harvard Alumni Bulletin, May 19, 1956, 645-46.
p. 120: “The price of politics”: Ed Plaut interview with JFK, n.d., in Ralph G. Martin Papers, Boston University.
p. 121: “a politician came up”: Ibid.
p. 121: “smart and cunning” and “There is something”: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 699-700.
p. 121: “whatever success”: Quote
p. 121: “But a father”: JPK interview, Martin Papers.
p. 121: “I just called people”: Quoted in Martin and Plaut, 131.
pp. 121-22: “his reputation as”: O’Donnell and Powers, 65.
p. 122: “became heated at”: Parmet, Jack, 138.
p. 122: Joe made the front page: Boston Globe, April 15, 17, 29, 1945. Also see Collier and Horowitz, 177-79; Parmet, Jack, 143-44; Hamilton, 686-87.
p. 122: On Curley: Hamilton, 674, and Blair, 398-99.
p. 123: “the job Joe”: Look, June 11, 1946, 32-36.
p. 123: “I’m just filling”: Quoted in Martin and Plaut, 136.
p. 123: “If Joe had lived”: JFK Interview, Martin Papers. Also John J. Droney OH.
p. 123: “I was as thin”: Quoted in Blair, 461.
p. 123: JFK’s urinary tract problems: Dr. Vernon S. Dick to Dr. William P. Herbst, Mar. 20, 1953, Dr. Janet Travell files on JFK’s medical history, which include some pre-presidential medical records as well as a daily record of JFK’s ills and medications during his presidency, JFKL. Dr. Gerald W. Labiner, who served as a Fellow at the Lahey Clinic from 1953 to 1955 and had discussed JFK’s health problems with Dr. Elmer C. Bartels, told me that Kennedy had gonorrhea: Conversation, Oct. 31, 2002. This was confirmed by William Herbst Jr.: Conversation, Nov. 22, 2002.
p. 124: “As far as backslapping”: Ed Plaut interview with JFK, n.d., in Martin Papers.
p. 124: “didn’t think he” and “He wasn’t a mingler”: William F. Kelly OH; and Hamilton, 743-44.
p. 124: “I think it’s more of a personal reserve”: Plaut interview with JFK, n.d., in Martin Papers.
p. 124: “in a voice somewhat”: Damore, 87.
p. 124: “‘Eunice you made me’”: Mary McNeely OH.
pp. 124-25: “many a night”: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 707.
p. 125: “You must organize”: Drew Porter to JFK, Feb. 9, 1946, PPP.
p. 125: “Jack had a funny”: Rose Kennedy, 317-18.
p. 125: “Like a boy”: Daniel F. O’Brien OH.
pp. 125-26: “You’re not going”: O’Donnell and Powers, 49.
p. 126: He “would rather not”: Blair, 442-43. Also Hamilton, 756.
p. 126: “a shot later on”: O’Brien OH.