What a good interview and a well written story. The thing I notice the most is that the writer of the article is really objective. He characterizes Kennedy views by actually printing what Kennedy says. It’s not like today where you get 5 paragraphs of writers opinion and 1 line from the figure in question.
My working hypothesis is that, for all practical purposes, the NY Times was President Roosevelt's mouthpiece.
FDR sent Ambassador Kennedy to Britain when "appeasement" was popular, and so then was Kennedy.
But around this time in 1938, Roosevelt's (& others') views on appeasement began to change, while Kennedy's did not. That's why we see, as Homer points out, a very cagy interview.
For what it's worth -- I have several books on FDR or Churchill in which Kennedy is sometimes mentioned. And of them all, only one is truly respectful of Kennedy. Can you guess which one?
Yes, none other: Patrick Buchanan, "The Unnecessary War" puts a quote from Old Joe at the very core of Buchanan's argument:
page 298:
In March 1939, Chamberlain "guaranteed" Poland and several other European countries against a German invasion. Writes Buchanan:
Chamberlain had known all along his guarnatee was worthless. He had confided as much to Joe Kennedy, who wrote in his diary, "Chamberlain says the futility of it all is the thing that is frightful; after all they cannot save the Poles; they can merely carry on a war of revenge that will mean the destruction of the whole of Europe."