Posted on 02/06/2010 5:19:17 AM PST by reaganaut1
The other main area of lying [besides health] centered on [John F. Kennedy's] curriculum vitae. In 1940 his thesis was written for him by a number of people, including Arthur Krock of the New York Times, and Joe's personal speechwriter, who described it as a 'very sloppy job, mostly magazine and newspaper clippings stuck together.' But, processed, it not only allowed Jack to graduate cum laude but also appeared in book form as Why England Slept. Old Joe and his men turned it into a 'bestseller,' partly by using influence with publishers such as Henry Luce, partly by buying 30,000-40,000 copies, which were secretly stored at the family compound in Hyannisport. It was the same story with Profiles in Courage, which began as a 'disorganised, somewhat incoherent melange from secondary sources' and was turned by professional writers into a readable book. By 1958 it had sold nearly 125,000 copies and, after intense lobbying by Joe, Krock, and other Kennedy satraps, it won Jack the Pulitzer prize for biography. Those who suggested the book was ghostwritten were sued for libel or even, at Joe's request, investigated by the FBI.
Old Joe's neatest trick was to turn Jack into a war hero. In view of Jack's health, all Joe's skill at manipulation was needed to get him into the navy, secure him an immediate commission, and advance him in the service, especially since, while a young officer working in naval intelligence, he was detected by the FBI having an affair with a Danish woman suspected of being a Nazi spy. Jack was in charge of a PT boat which was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer. Father Joe's management got him a medal for rescuing a crew member.
I’ll give him credit for picking up his crew, and for saying that he didn’t actually deserve the medal he was awarded. But the myth made him president, and he used the myth when it suited him. Honor does not seem to be a trait expressed in the Kennedy genome, and the ability to safely navigate around water, in any of its phases, certainly does not exist in that family.
http://artists.letssingit.com/dion-lyrics-abraham-martin-and-john-wphd6kx
“Didn’t you love the things that they stood for” is a line from “Abraham, Martin and John” written by Dick Holler, performed by Dion DiMucci.
He was a polictician, that is what policticians do.
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