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Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.
Kennedy in 1938
44th United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
In office March 8, 1938 – October 22, 1940
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Robert Worth Bingham
Succeeded by	John Gilbert Winant
1st Chair of the U.S. Maritime Commission
In office April 14, 1937 – February 19, 1938
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Emory S. Land
1st Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
In office June 30, 1934 – September 23, 1935
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	James M. Landis
Personal details
Born	Joseph Patrick Kennedy (1888-09-06)September 6, 1888 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	November 18, 1969(1969-11-18) (aged 81) Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, U.S.
Resting place	Holyhood Cemetery
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Rose Fitzgerald ​(m. 1914)​
Children	Joseph Jr. John Rosemary Kathleen Eunice Patricia Robert Jean Edward
Parents	P. J. Kennedy Mary Augusta Hickey
Relatives	Kennedy family
Education	Harvard University (AB)
Occupation	Businessman Investor Philanthropist Politician
Signature

Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr. (September 6, 1888 – November 18, 1969) was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and politician. He is known for his own political prominence as well as that of his children and was a patriarch of the Kennedy family, which included President John F. Kennedy, attorney general and senator Robert F. Kennedy, and longtime senator Ted Kennedy.

Kennedy was born into a political family in East Boston, Massachusetts. He made a large fortune as a stock and commodity market investor, and later rolled over his proceeds by dedicating a substantial amount of his wealth into investment-grade real estate and a wide range of privately controlled businesses across the United States. During World War I he was an assistant general manager of a Boston area Bethlehem Steel shipyard; through that position he became acquainted with Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In the 1920s Kennedy made huge profits by reorganizing and refinancing several Hollywood studios; several acquisitions were ultimately merged into Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) studios. Kennedy increased his fortune with distribution rights for Scotch whisky. He owned the largest privately owned building in the country, Chicago's Merchandise Mart.

Kennedy was a leading member of the Democratic Party and of the Irish Catholic community. President Roosevelt appointed Kennedy to be the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which he led from 1934 to 1935. Kennedy later directed the United States Maritime Commission. Kennedy served as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1938 to late 1940. With the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Kennedy was pessimistic about Britain's ability to survive attacks from Nazi Germany. During the Battle of Britain in November 1940, Kennedy publicly suggested, "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here ." After a controversy regarding this statement, Kennedy resigned his position.

Kennedy was married to Rose Fitzgerald; the couple had nine children. During his later life he was heavily involved in the political careers of his sons. Three of Kennedy's sons attained distinguished political positions: John served as a U.S. senator from Massachusetts and as the 35th president of the United States, Robert as the U.S. attorney general and as a U.S. senator from New York, and Ted as a U.S. senator from Massachusetts.

Early life and education

Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr. was born on September 6, 1888, at 151 Meridian Street in East Boston, Massachusetts. Kennedy was the elder son of Mary Augusta (née Hickey) Kennedy and businessman and politician Patrick Joseph "P.J." Kennedy. Kennedy attended Boston Latin School, where he excelled at baseball and was elected class president before graduating in 1908.

Kennedy then attended Harvard College, where he gained admittance to the prestigious Hasty Pudding Club but was not invited to join the Porcellian Club. Kennedy graduated in 1912 with a bachelor's degree in economics.

Business career

Kennedy set his future sights on embarking on a business career upon his graduation from Harvard. During his mid to late 20s, he made a large fortune as an active commodity and stock investor; he then reinvested much of his proceeds into film studios, real estate, and shipping lines. Although Kennedy never built a significant business from scratch, his timing as both buyer and seller was excellent.

Various criminals, such as Frank Costello, have boasted they worked with Kennedy in mysterious bootlegging operations during Prohibition. Although his father was in the whisky importation business, scholars dismiss the claims. The most recent and most thorough biographer David Nasaw asserts that no credible evidence has been found to link Kennedy to bootlegging activities. When Fortune magazine published its first list of the richest people in the United States in 1957, it placed Kennedy in the $200–400 million group, which is equivalent to roughly 3.2 billion dollars in 2023.

Early ventures

Kennedy's first job after graduating from Harvard was a position as a state-employed bank examiner, where the job allowed him to learn a great deal about the banking industry. In 1913, the Columbia Trust Bank, in which his father held a significant share, was under threat of takeover. Kennedy borrowed $45,000 (equivalent to $1.4 million in 2023) from family and friends and bought back control. At the age of 25, he was rewarded by being elected the bank's president. Kennedy told the press he was "the youngest" bank president in America. In May 1917, Kennedy was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts Electric Company, New England's leading public utility at the time.

Kennedy emerged as an astute businessman who possessed an eye for value, both with regard to his shrewd entrepreneurial acumen and savvy investment foresight. For example, as an active real estate investor, he turned a handsome profit from his privately-controlled ownership of Old Colony Realty Associates, Inc., an investment company which bought distressed real estate throughout the United States.

Although he was skeptical of American involvement in World War I, Kennedy sought to participate in wartime production as an assistant general manager of Fore River, a major Bethlehem Steel shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. There, he oversaw the production of transports and warships. Through this job, he became acquainted with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Wall Street and stock market investments

In 1919, Kennedy joined Hayden, Stone & Co., a prominent stock brokerage firm with offices in Boston and New York, where he became an expert dealing in the unregulated stock market of the day, engaging in tactics that were later considered to be insider trading and market manipulation violations. He happened to be on the corner of Wall and Broad Streets at the moment of the Wall Street bombing on September 16, 1920, and was thrown to the ground by the force of the blast. In 1923, he established his own investment company. Kennedy subsequently became a multi-millionaire as a result of taking "short" positions following the 1929 stock market crash.

Kennedy was enlisted in 1924 to help stabilize the stock of John D. Hertz's Yellow Cab Company, a taxi cab operator, against a bear raid; afterward, Hertz suspected Kennedy of carrying out such a raid against the stock himself. In 1933, he helped establish a "stock pool" that bought large quantities of stock in Libbey-Owens-Ford (LOF), an auto-glass manufacturer, and wash-traded huge volumes of stock among themselves while promoting the outright fraud that their company was related to Owens-Illinois, a glassmaker that made bottles which presumably would have profited from the imminent repeal of Prohibition.

1929 Wall Street Crash

Kennedy later claimed he understood that the rampant stock speculation of the late 1920s would lead to a market crash. It is said that he knew it was time to get out of the market when he received stock tips from a shoe-shine boy, but no evidence has been found of the anecdote and the first known version of the same tale was associated to Bernard Baruch in 1957. Kennedy survived the crash "because he possessed a passion for facts, a complete lack of sentiment and a marvelous sense of timing".

During the Great Depression, Kennedy shrewdly increased his wealth by devoting most of it into investment-grade real estate. In 1929, Kennedy's fortune was estimated to be $4 million (equivalent to $71 million in 2023). By 1935, his wealth had increased to $180 million (equivalent to $4 billion in 2023). He also acquired enough capital to establish million-dollar trust funds for each of his nine children that guaranteed lifelong financial independence.

Investments

Hollywood

Kennedy generated windfall profits from reorganizing and refinancing several Hollywood film studios. He began with film distribution in New England, buying first movie theaters in Massachusetts, but quickly moved on to industry-wide arrangements and production. While still at Hayden, Stone & Co., Kennedy boasted to a colleague, "Look at that bunch of pants pressers in Hollywood making themselves millionaires. I could take the whole business away from them." One small studio, Film Booking Offices of America (or FBO), specialized in Westerns produced cheaply. Its owner was in financial trouble, and asked Kennedy to help find a new owner. Kennedy formed his own group of investors and bought it for $1.5 million.

In March 1926, Kennedy moved to Hollywood to focus on running film studios. At that time, film studios were permitted to own exhibition companies, which were necessary to get their films on local screens. With that in mind, he bought controlling shares in Keith-Albee-Orpheum Theaters Corporation (KAO), which had more than 700 vaudeville theaters across the United States that had begun showing movies. In October 1928, he formally merged his film companies FBO and KAO to form Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) and made a large amount of money in the process. Kennedy had no interest in vaudeville; he just wanted the theaters, which he planned to convert to movie houses for the film booking interests he ran in cooperation with Radio Corporation of America (RCA). As the developer of photophone, a sound system for the new "talkies", RCA needed to forge a connection with Hollywood to sell its product. At the same time Kennedy knew that he needed to compete in the new market of sound films and to do so he would have to have access to a technology that was not proprietary.

Keen to buy the Pantages Theatre chain, which had 63 profitable theaters, Kennedy made an offer of $8 million (equivalent to $142 million in 2023). It was declined. He then stopped distributing his movies to Pantages. Still, Alexander Pantages declined to sell. However, when Pantages was later charged and tried for rape, his reputation took a battering, and he accepted Kennedy's revised offer of $3.5 million (equivalent to $62.1 million in 2023). Pantages, who claimed that Kennedy had "set him up", was later found not guilty at a second trial. The girl who had accused Pantages of rape, Eunice Pringle, confessed on her deathbed that Kennedy was the mastermind of the plot to frame Pantages.

Many estimate that Kennedy made over $5 million (equivalent to $88.7 million in 2023) from his investments in Hollywood. During his three-year affair with film star Gloria Swanson, he arranged the financing for her films The Love of Sunya (1927) and the ill-fated Queen Kelly (1928). The duo also used Hollywood's famous "body sculptor", masseuse Sylvia of Hollywood. Their relationship ended when Swanson discovered that an expensive gift from Kennedy had actually been charged to her account.

Liquor importing

As soon as it became legal to do so, Kennedy ventured into liquor importing. One of his shipping ventures he was involved in was the importation of large shipments of high-priced Scotch where he earned a handsome profit in the process. Various contradictory "bootlegging" stories surrounding Kennedy have circulated but historians have not accepted them. At the start of the Franklin Roosevelt administration in March 1933, Kennedy and future Congressman James Roosevelt II founded Somerset Importers, a business entity that acted as the exclusive American agent for Haig & Haig Scotch, Gordon's Dry Gin and Dewar's Scotch. Kennedy kept his Somerset company for years. In addition, Kennedy purchased spirits-importation rights from Schenley Industries, a Canadian distillery and liquor company. Though he possessed substantial investments in various shipping lines that imported significant shipments of liquor, Kennedy himself drank little alcohol. He so disapproved of what he considered a stereotypical Irish vice that he offered his sons $1,000 not to drink until they turned 21.

Real estate

Kennedy reinvested the proceeds he made from liquor importing into various residential and commercial real estate ventures, much of it concentrated in New York City, and the Hialeah Park Race Track in Hialeah, Florida. The most important purchase of his real estate investment career was marked by the land acquisition of the largest privately owned building in the country, Chicago's Merchandise Mart (the world's largest building at the time), which gave his family an important base in that city and an alliance with the Irish-American political leadership there to lay the groundwork for realizing his sons' future political ambitions. The Merchandise Mart's revenues became a principal source of wealth that formed much of the Kennedy family's private fortune, including being a source of funding for financing his sons' future political campaigns.

Political career

SEC Chairman (1934–1935)

In 1932, Kennedy supported Franklin D. Roosevelt in his bid for the presidency. This was his first major involvement in a national political campaign, and he donated, lent, and raised a substantial amount of money for the campaign.

In 1934, Congress established the independent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to end irresponsible market manipulations and dissemination of false information about securities. Roosevelt's brain trust drew up a list of recommended candidates for the SEC chairmanship. Kennedy headed the list, which stated he was "the best bet for Chairman because of executive ability, knowledge of habits and customs of business to be regulated and ability to moderate different points of view on Commission."

Kennedy sought out the best lawyers available, giving him a hard-driving team with a mission for reform. They included William O. Douglas and Abe Fortas, both of whom were later named to the Supreme Court. The SEC had four missions. First was to restore investor confidence in the securities market, which had collapsed on account of its questionability, and the external threats supposedly posed by anti-business elements in the Roosevelt administration. Second, the SEC had to get rid of penny-ante swindles based on false information, fraudulent devices, and get-rich-quick schemes. Thirdly, and much more important than the frauds, the SEC had to end the million-dollar maneuvers in major corporations, whereby insiders with access to high-quality information about the company knew when to buy or sell their own securities. A crackdown on insider trading was essential. Finally, the SEC had to set up a complex system of registration for all securities sold in America, with a clear set of rules, deadlines and guidelines that all companies had to follow. The main challenge faced by the young lawyers was drafting precise rules. The SEC succeeded in its four missions, as Kennedy reassured the American business community that they would no longer be deceived and taken advantage of by Wall Street. He trumpeted for ordinary investors to return to the market and enable the economy to grow again. Kennedy's reforming work as SEC Chairman was widely praised on all sides, as investors realized the SEC was protecting their interests. He resigned from the SEC in September 1935.

Chairman of U.S. Maritime Commission (1937–1938)

In 1936, Roosevelt sought Kennedy's help on the campaign, and Kennedy responded with his book I'm for Roosevelt, which he had published and made sure was widely distributed. The book presented arguments for why businessmen should support Roosevelt and the New Deal, told from the perspective of Kennedy's own personal endorsement. The book had significant impact in the business community and after his re-election, Roosevelt appointed Kennedy as Chairman of the United States Maritime Commission, which built on his wartime experience in running a major shipyard. Kennedy spent only ten months at the Commission.

Relationship with Father Charles Coughlin

Father Charles Coughlin, an Irish Canadian priest near Detroit, became the most prominent Roman Catholic spokesman on political and financial issues in the 1930s, with a radio audience that reached millions every week. Having been a strong supporter of Roosevelt since 1932, in 1934 Coughlin broke with the president, who became a bitter opponent and a target of Coughlin's weekly anti-communist, anti-Semitic, far-right, anti–Federal Reserve and isolationist radio talks. Roosevelt sent Kennedy and other prominent Irish Catholics to try to tone down Coughlin.

Coughlin swung his support to Huey Long in 1935, and then to William Lemke's Union Party in 1936. Kennedy strongly supported the New Deal (Father Coughlin believed that the New Deal did not go far enough, and thought that Franklin Roosevelt was a tool of the rich) and reportedly believed as early as 1933 that Coughlin was "becoming a very dangerous proposition" as an opponent of Roosevelt and "an out and out demagogue". In 1936, Kennedy worked with Roosevelt, Bishop Francis Spellman and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) to shut Coughlin down. When Coughlin returned to the air in 1940, Kennedy continued to battle against his influence among Irish Americans.

Despite his public disputes with Coughlin, it has also been acknowledged that Kennedy would also accompany Coughlin whenever the priest visited Roosevelt at Hyde Park. A historian with History News Network also stated that Coughlin was a friend of Kennedy as well. In a Boston Post article of August 16, 1936, Coughlin referred to Kennedy as the "shining star among the dim 'knights' in the Administration".

Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1938–1940)

In 1938, Roosevelt appointed Kennedy as the United States ambassador to the Court of St James's (United Kingdom). Kennedy hoped to succeed Roosevelt in the White House, telling a British reporter in late 1939 that he was confident that Roosevelt would "fall" in 1940 (that year's presidential election).

Kennedy and his family retreated to the countryside during the bombings of London by German aircraft in World War II. In so doing, he damaged his reputation with the British. This move prompted Randolph Churchill to say, "I thought my daffodils were yellow until I met Joe Kennedy".

Kennedy developed a reputation as a defeatist.

High society

According to the U.S. National Archives:

In London, the American Ambassador and his wife soared to the heights of British society. In the spring of 1938...the couple luxuriated in the warmth of English hospitality, hobnobbing with aristocrats and royalty at the many balls, dinners, regattas, and derbies of the season. The highlight was surely the April weekend that they spent at Windsor Castle, guests of King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth.

While getting dressed for an evening at Windsor Castle soon after he arrived, Kennedy paused in momentary reflection and remarked to his wife, "Well, Rose, this is a helluva long way from East Boston, isn't it?"

On May 6, 1944, Kennedy's daughter, Kathleen, married William "Billy" Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, the elder son of the Duke of Devonshire. The union was disapproved by Rose Kennedy due to Hartington being an Anglican. Unable to reconcile their religious backgrounds, Hartington and Kathleen were married in a civil ceremony. Hartington, a major in the Coldstream Guards, was killed in action in 1944.

Appeasement

Kennedy rejected the belief of Winston Churchill that any compromise with Nazi Germany was impossible. Instead, he supported Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. Throughout 1938, while the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Germany intensified, Kennedy attempted to arrange a meeting with Adolf Hitler. Shortly before the Nazi bombing of British cities began in September 1940, Kennedy once again sought a personal meeting with Hitler without the approval of the U. S. Department of State, in order to "bring about a better understanding between the United States and Germany".

Anti-British sentiment

When war came in September 1939, Kennedy's public support for American neutrality conflicted with Roosevelt's increasing efforts to provide aid to Britain. "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here ", he stated in the Boston Sunday Globe of November 10, 1940. With German troops having overrun Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France, and with daily bombings of Great Britain, Kennedy unambiguously and repeatedly stated that the war was not about saving democracy from National Socialism (Nazism) or from Fascism. In an interview with two newspaper journalists, Louis M. Lyons of The Boston Globe, and Ralph Coghlan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kennedy said:

It's all a question of what we do with the next six months. The whole reason for aiding England is to give us time ... As long as she is in there, we have time to prepare. It isn't that fighting for democracy. That's the bunk. She's fighting for self-preservation, just as we will if it comes to us. ... I know more about the European situation than anybody else, and it's up to me to see that the country gets it.

Isolationism

Kennedy's views became inconsistent and increasingly isolationist. British MP Josiah Wedgwood IV, who had himself opposed the British government's earlier appeasement policy, said of Kennedy:

We have a rich man, untrained in diplomacy, unlearned in history and politics, who is a great publicity seeker and who apparently is ambitious to be the first Catholic president of the U.S.

Antisemitism

According to Harvey Klemmer, who served as one of Kennedy's embassy aides, Kennedy habitually referred to Jews as "kikes or sheenies". Kennedy allegedly told Klemmer that " individual Jews are all right, Harvey, but as a race they stink. They spoil everything they touch." When Klemmer returned from a trip to Germany and reported the pattern of vandalism and assaults on Jews by Nazis, Kennedy responded, "Well, they brought it on themselves."

On June 13, 1938, Kennedy met in London with Herbert von Dirksen, the German ambassador to the United Kingdom, who claimed upon his return to Berlin that Kennedy had told him that "it was not so much the fact that we want to get rid of the Jews that was so harmful to us, but rather the loud clamor with which we accompanied this purpose. himself fully understood our Jewish policy." Kennedy's main concern with such violent acts against German Jews as Kristallnacht was that they generated bad publicity in the West for the Nazi regime, a concern that he communicated in a letter to Charles Lindbergh.

Kennedy had a close friendship with Viscountess Astor, and their correspondence is replete with anti-Semitic statements. According to Edward Renehan:

As fiercely anti-Communist as they were anti-Semitic, Kennedy and Astor looked upon Adolf Hitler as a welcome solution to both of these "world problems" (Nancy's phrase). ... . Kennedy replied that he expected the "Jew media" in the United States to become a problem, that "Jewish pundits in New York and Los Angeles" were already making noises contrived to "set a match to the fuse of the world".

By August 1940, Kennedy worried that a third term for President Roosevelt would mean war. Biographer Laurence Leamer in The Kennedy Men: 1901–1963 reports: "Joe believed that Roosevelt, Churchill, the Jews, and their allies would manipulate America into approaching Armageddon." Nevertheless, Kennedy supported Roosevelt's third term in return for Roosevelt's promise to support Joseph Kennedy Jr. in a run for Governor of Massachusetts in 1942. However, even during the darkest months of World War II, Kennedy remained "more wary of" prominent American Jews, such as Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter, than he was of Hitler.

Kennedy told the reporter Joe Dinneen:

It is true that I have a low opinion of some Jews in public office and in private life. That does not mean that I. ... believe they should be wiped off the face of the Earth. ... Jews who take an unfair advantage of the fact that theirs is a persecuted race do not help much. ... Publicizing unjust attacks upon the Jews may help to cure the injustice, but continually publicizing the whole problem only serves to keep it alive in the public mind.

Resignation

From late 1939 onwards, Kennedy began to suspect that Roosevelt and the State Department were excluding him from decision-making and communiqués pertinent to his ambassadorial duties. Roosevelt had started to communicate in secret with Winston Churchill (at this time First Lord of the Admiralty, later Prime Minister). In early 1940, Roosevelt also sent personal representatives (Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles, and General William Donovan) on fact-finding missions to London and other European capitals, without advising Kennedy beforehand, thereby causing the ambassador great embarrassment and annoyance. As a result, Kennedy was, for much of 1940, determined to resign his post, although Roosevelt insisted he remain in London. In late October 1940, Roosevelt invited Kennedy to return to Washington for a pre-election consultation, Kennedy used this visit to announce his resignation. Kennedy agreed to make a nationwide radio speech to advocate Roosevelt's reelection. Roosevelt was pleased with the speech because, Nasaw says, it "rallied reluctant Irish Catholic voters to his side, buttressed his claims that he was not going to take the nation into war, and emphasized that he alone had the experience to lead the nation in these difficult times." Kennedy finally submitted his resignation at the White House on December 1, 1940, but agreed to remain Ambassador until a successor was chosen in early 1941.

For the rest of the war, relations between Kennedy and the Roosevelt administration remained tense, especially when Joe Jr., a Massachusetts delegate at the 1940 Democratic National Convention, vocally opposed Roosevelt's unprecedented nomination for a third term, which began in 1941. Kennedy may have wanted to run for president himself in 1940 or later. Having effectively removed himself from the national stage, Joe Sr. spent World War II on the sidelines. Kennedy stayed active in the smaller venues of rallying Irish-American and Roman Catholic Democrats to vote for Roosevelt's re-election for a fourth term in 1944. Kennedy claimed to be eager to help the war effort, but as a result of his previous gaffes, he was neither trusted nor invited to do so.

Alliances

Kennedy used his wealth and connections to build a national network of supporters that became the base for his sons' political careers. He especially concentrated on Irish-American communities in large cities, particularly Boston, New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh and several New Jersey cities. Kennedy also used Arthur Krock of The New York Times, America's most influential political columnist, for decades as a paid speechwriter and political advisor.

A political conservative (John F. Kennedy once described his father as being to "the right of Herbert Hoover"), Kennedy supported Richard Nixon, who had entered Congress with John in 1947. In 1960, Joe Kennedy approached Nixon, praised his anti-Communism, and said "Dick, if my boy can't make it, I'm for you" for the presidential election that year.

Alliance with Senator Joseph McCarthy

Kennedy's close ties with Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy strengthened his family's position among Irish Catholics, but weakened it among liberals who strongly opposed McCarthy. Even before McCarthy became famous in 1950, Kennedy had forged close ties with the Republican Senator. Kennedy often brought him to his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts as a weekend house guest in the late 1940s. McCarthy at one point dated his daughter Patricia.

When McCarthy became a dominant voice of anti-Communism starting in 1950, Kennedy contributed thousands of dollars to McCarthy, and became one of his major supporters. In the 1952 U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts, Kennedy apparently worked a deal so that McCarthy, a Republican, would not make campaign speeches for the Republican ticket in Massachusetts. In return, Congressman John F. Kennedy, running for the Senate seat, would not give any anti-McCarthy speeches that his liberal supporters wanted to hear.

At Kennedy's urging in 1953, McCarthy hired his 27-year-old son, Robert F. Kennedy, as a senior staff member of the Senate's investigations subcommittee, which McCarthy chaired. In 1954, when the Senate was threatening to condemn McCarthy, Senator John Kennedy faced a dilemma. "How could I demand that Joe McCarthy be censured for things he did when my own brother was on his staff?" asked John.

By 1954, Robert and McCarthy's chief aide Roy Cohn had fallen out with each other, and Robert no longer worked for McCarthy. John had a speech drafted calling for the censure of McCarthy, but never delivered it. When the Senate voted to censure McCarthy on December 2, 1954, Senator Kennedy was in a hospital and never indicated how he would cast his vote. Joe Kennedy strongly supported McCarthy to the end.

Involvement in sons' political careers

Kennedy's connections and influence were turned into political capital for the political campaigns of his sons: John, Robert, and Ted.

Kennedy had been consigned to the political shadows after his remarks during World War II ("Democracy is finished"), and he remained an intensely controversial figure among U.S. citizens because of his suspect business credentials, his Roman Catholicism, his opposition to Roosevelt's foreign policy, and his support for Joseph McCarthy. Although his own ambitions to achieve the U.S. presidency were thwarted, Kennedy held out great hope for his eldest son, Joe Jr., to seek the presidency. However, Joe Jr., who had become a U.S. Navy bomber pilot, was killed over the English Channel in August 1944 while undertaking Operation Anvil. After grieving over his dead son, Joe Sr. turned his attention to his second son, John, for a run for political office.

When John F. Kennedy was asked about the level of involvement and influence that his father had held in his razor-thin presidential victory over Richard Nixon in 1960, he would joke that on the eve of the election his father had asked him the exact number of votes he would need to win: There was no way he was paying "for a landslide". Kennedy was one of four fathers (the other three being George Tryon Harding, Nathaniel Fillmore, and George H. W. Bush) to live through the entire presidency of a son.

Historian Richard J. Whalen describes Kennedy's influence on John's policy decisions in his biography of Kennedy. Kennedy was influential in creating the Kennedy Cabinet, which included Robert Kennedy as U.S. attorney general, although he had never argued or tried a case.

Personal life

Marriage and children

On October 7, 1914, Kennedy married Rose Fitzgerald, the eldest daughter of Boston Mayor John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, in the private chapel of Archbishop William Henry O'Connell in Boston. After a two-week honeymoon, the couple settled at 83 Beals Street in the Boston suburb of Brookline, Massachusetts.

Joseph and Rose Kennedy had nine children. Their nine children were Joseph Jr. (1915–1944), John, called "Jack" (1917–1963), Rose Marie, called "Rosemary" (1918–2005), Kathleen, called "Kick" (1920–1948), Eunice (1921–2009), Patricia (1924–2006), Robert, called "Bobby" (1925–1968), Jean (1928–2020), and Edward, called "Ted" (1932–2009). Three of the Kennedys' sons attained distinguished political positions: John F. Kennedy served as a U.S. representative from Massachusetts (1947–1953), a U.S. senator from Massachusetts (1953–1960), and as 35th president of the United States (1961–1963), Robert F. Kennedy served as U.S. attorney general (1961–1964) and as a U.S. senator from New York (1965–1968), and Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy served as a U.S. senator from Massachusetts (1962–2009). One of the Kennedys' daughters, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded the Special Olympics for disabled people, while another, Jean Kennedy Smith, served as U.S. ambassador to Ireland.

As Kennedy's business success expanded, he and his family lived in increasing prosperity in Massachusetts, New York, around Washington, D.C., London, as well as the French Riviera. Their two permanent homes were located in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts and Palm Beach, Florida.

Kennedy engaged in numerous extramarital relationships, including relationships with actresses Gloria Swanson and Marlene Dietrich and with his secretary, Janet DesRosiers Fontaine. He also managed Swanson's personal and business affairs.

Lobotomy of Rosemary Kennedy

When Rosemary Kennedy was 23 years old, doctors told Joseph Kennedy Sr. that a form of psychosurgery known as a lobotomy would help calm her mood swings and stop her occasional violent outbursts. (Accounts of Rosemary's life indicated that she was intellectually disabled, although some have raised questions about the Kennedys' accounts of the nature and scope of her disability.) Rosemary's erratic behavior frustrated her parents; her father was especially worried that she would shame and embarrass the family and damage his political career and that of his other children. Kennedy requested that surgeons perform a lobotomy on Rosemary. The lobotomy took place in November 1941. Kennedy did not inform his wife about the procedure until after it was completed. James W. Watts and Walter Freeman (both of George Washington University School of Medicine) performed the surgery.

The lobotomy was a disaster, leaving Rosemary Kennedy permanently incapacitated. Her mental capacity diminished to that of a two-year-old child; she could not walk or speak intelligibly and was incontinent. Following the lobotomy, Rosemary was immediately institutionalized. In 1949, she was relocated to Jefferson, Wisconsin, where she lived for the rest of her life on the grounds of the St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children (formerly known as "St. Coletta Institute for Backward Youth"). Kennedy did not visit his daughter at the institution. In Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, author Kate Clifford Larson stated that Rosemary's lobotomy was hidden from the family for twenty years. In 1961, after Kennedy suffered a stroke that left him unable to speak, his children were made aware of Rosemary's location. The lobotomy did not become public knowledge until 1987. Rosemary Kennedy died from natural causes on January 7, 2005, at the age of 86.

Dr. Bertram S. Brown, director of the National Institute of Mental Health who was previously an aide to President Kennedy, told a Kennedy biographer that Kennedy referred to Rosemary as mentally retarded rather than mentally ill in order to protect his son John's reputation for a presidential run. Brown added that the family's "lack of support for mental illness" was "part of a lifelong family denial of what was really so".

Illness and death

On December 19, 1961, at the age of 73, Kennedy suffered a stroke. He survived but was left paralyzed on his right side. Thereafter, he suffered from aphasia, which severely affected his ability to speak. He remained mentally alert, regained certain functions with therapy, and began walking with a cane. His speech also showed some improvement. Kennedy began to experience excessive muscular weakness, which eventually required him to use a wheelchair. In 1964, Kennedy was taken to The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential in Philadelphia, a medical and rehabilitative center for those who have experienced brain injury.

Kennedy's son Robert was assassinated on June 5, 1968, while running for president. He died the following morning at the age of forty-two. In the aftermath of Robert's death, Kennedy made his last public appearance when he, his wife, and son Ted made a filmed message to the country. He died at home in Hyannis Port the following year on November 18, 1969, two days before what would have been Robert's 44th birthday. He was 81 years old. He had outlived four of his children. He was buried at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts. Kennedy's widow Rose was buried next to him following her death in 1995 at age 104, as was their daughter Rosemary in 2005.

See also

• Kennedy curse
• Kennedy family

• Biography
• Business
• Film
• United States
• Politics

References

1. ^ "Generations of the Kennedy Family | American Experience | PBS". www.pbs.org.
2. "Joseph Kennedy | Biography, Facts, & Family". Encyclopedia Britannica. September 4, 2023.
3. ^ Hilty, James (April 4, 2000). Robert Kennedy: Brother Protector. Temple University Press. ISBN 9781566397667 – via Google Books.
4. Watson, William E.; Halus, Eugene J. Jr. (November 25, 2014). Irish Americans: The History and Culture of a People: The History and Culture of a People. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781610694674 – via Google Books.
5. "All the Tragedy That Has Led to Belief in a Kennedy Curse". E! Online. August 2, 2019.
6. David Nasaw, The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy (2012) pp. 168-69.
7. Okrent, Daniel (April 26, 2010). "The Biggest Kennedy Myth". The Daily Beast. The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC. Retrieved April 7, 2013.
8. Nasaw, pp. 79–81.
9. "What is $300,000,000 in 1957 worth in 2023?".
10. ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
11. Smith, Richard Austin (November 1, 1957). "The Fifty-Million-Dollar Man". Fortune. sidebar: "America's Biggest Fortunes".
12. Kessler, p. 25.
13. "Joseph P. Kennedy - JFK Library". www.jfklibrary.org.
14. Kessler, p. 27.
15. Dallek, Robert (2003). An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963. p. 21.
16. "A Rise to Prominence: John F. Kennedy's Paternal Lineage". National Park Service.
17. "Joseph P. Kennedy - JFK Library". www.jfklibrary.org.
18. Logevall, Fredrik (2021). JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956. Random House. p. 45.
19. Beverly Gage, The Day Wall Street Exploded, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 156.
20. ^ Bernuth, Lauren Von (March 22, 2018). "Joseph Kennedy & How He Built The Kennedy Family Fortune Through Insider Trading". Archived from the original on October 27, 2021. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
21. Chernow, Ron. The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance. Grove Atlantic. p. 307.
22. Nasaw, p. 192.
23. Ronald, Susan (2021). The Ambassador: Joseph P. Kennedy at the Court of St. James's 1938-1940. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 13.
24. Shiller, Robert J. (2020). Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events. Princeton University Press. p. 237. ISBN 9780691212074. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
25. "Essay: The Merits of Speculation", Time, September 22, 1967.
26. Nasaw, p. 92, 131
27. Kessler, pp. 60–61.
28. Dallek, Robert (2003). An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963. p. 22.
29. Nasaw, p. 66
30. Black, Conrad (2012). "The Peculiar Life of Joseph Kennedy". The National Interest (122): 69–80. JSTOR 42896563.
31. Beauchamp, Cari (2009) Joseph Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years p. 23, Knopf, New York. ISBN 978-1-4000-4000-1.
32. "Joseph P. Kennedy - JFK Library". www.jfklibrary.org.
33. Goodwin, Doris Kearns (1987). The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys. St. Martin's Press. pp. 345–46.
34. Kessler, p. 53
35. ^ Richard J. Whalen, The Founding Father, 1964.
36. Haupert, Michael J. (2012). Entertainment Industry: A Reference Handbook. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 7.
37. "Joseph P. Kennedy - JFK Library". www.jfklibrary.org.
38. Kessler, p. 57.
39. Anger, Kenneth (1984). Hollywood Babylon II. New York: E. P. Dutton, Inc. p. 35.
40. Beauchamp, Cari (2010). Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years. Vintage Books. pp. 297–298. ISBN 978-0-307-47522-0.
41. ^ Beauchamp, Cari (2009) Joseph Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years pp. 263–5, Knopf, New York. ISBN 978-1-4000-4000-1.
42. Kessler, p. 86.
43. Nasaw, pp. 79–81.
44. Roos, Dave (April 26, 2023). "How Joseph Kennedy Made His Fortune (Hint: It Wasn't Bootlegging)". History.com.
45. "Smashing Mythology: Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr. and Bootlegging". National Park Service.
46. Nasaw, p. 611.
47. Leamer 308.
48. "The Kennedy Wealth". PBS American Experience.
49. How Joe Kennedy Made His Millons. Life. January 25, 1963. p. 70.
50. "Big 'Mart' Bought by Joseph Kennedy". The New York Times. July 22, 1945.
51. James Langton, "End of the house that Joe built". The Sunday Telegraph via the Ottawa Citizen, March 22, 1998: A10.
52. "Joseph P. Kennedy - JFK Library". www.jfklibrary.org.
53. Di Nunzio, Mario R. (2011). Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Third American Revolution. ABC-CLIO. p. 55. ISBN 9780313392832.
54. Nasaw, p. 208
55. Nasaw, p. 216
56. Nassau, The Patriarch, pp. 219–228
57. "Joseph P. Kennedy – JFK Library". www.jfklibrary.org.
58. "Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society". www.sechistorical.org.
59. "Joseph P. Kennedy - JFK Library". www.jfklibrary.org.
60. Leamer 93; Brinkley 127.
61. Maier pp. 103–107.
62. Smith pp. 122, 171, 379, 502; Alan Brinkley, Voices of Protest (1984) p. 127; Michael Kazin, The Populist Persuasion (1995) pp. 109, 123.
63. JoEllen M Vinyard (June 7, 2011). Right in Michigan's Grassroots: From the KKK to the Michigan Militia. University of Michigan. p. 148. Retrieved July 21, 2018. kennedy coughlin.
64. ^ "Joseph Kennedy and the Jews" Edward Renehan, Jr., History News Network, accessed July 21, 2018
65. Maier, Thomas (March 25, 2009). The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings: A Five-Generation History of the Ultimate Irish-Catholic Family. Basic Books. pp. 498–. ISBN 978-0-7867-4016-1.
66. Whitehead, Philip (October 11, 1992). "The bootleg politician: He could have anything he wanted, except the thing he wanted most. So Joe Kennedy used his money and the vast influence it bought to promote the next generation. But how had he made the fortune that bought the presidency?". The Independent. Archived from the original on June 17, 2022. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
67. Simons, Graham M. (April 30, 2020). The Secret US Plan to Overthrow the British Empire: War Plan Red. Frontline Books. ISBN 9781526712059 – via Google Books.
68. Maier, Thomas (October 28, 2014). When Lions Roar: The Churchills and the Kennedys. Crown. ISBN 9780307956811 – via Google Books.
69. Browne, Blaine T. (October 10, 2019). Mighty Endeavor: The American Nation and World War II. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781538114919 – via Google Books.
70. See Eyewitness."
71. Kessler, p. 157
72. Nasaw, pp. 564-572.
73. Hersh 64.
74. ^ Hersh 63.
75. "The Roosevelts and the Kennedys". Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. November 22, 2013.
76. ^ Boston Sunday Globe, November 10, 1940.
77. Davis, John H. (1993). The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster. S.P.I. Books. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-56171-060-7.
78. Leamer 115.
79. Hersh 64; Renehan 29.
80. Renehan 60.
81. Renehan 26–27; Leamer 136.
82. Renehan, "Joseph Kennedy and the Jews".
83. Leamer 134.
84. Fleming, Thomas. The New Dealers' War: F.D.R. And The War Within World War II, Basic Books, 2001.
85. Renehan 311.
86. Kessler, p. 277
87. Amanda Smith, ed., Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of Joseph P. Kennedy, pp. 408–463.
88. Nasaw, pp. 492–96, quote p. 496.
89. Leamer pp. 152–53; William E. Leuchtenburg, In the Shadow of FDR: From Harry Truman to George W. Bush (2001) pp. 68–73.
90. Leamer pp 313, 434; Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor. American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley -- His Battle for Chicago and the Nation (2001) p. 250; Timothy J. Meagher. The Columbia Guide to Irish American History (2005) p. 150.
91. Leamer p. 349.
92. William Edward Leuchtenburg (2001). In the Shadow of FDR: From Harry Truman to George W. Bush. Cornell University Press. pp. 80–. ISBN 0-8014-8737-4.
93. Kakutani, Michiko (May 24, 1996). "Kennedy and Nixon: An Uneasy Relationship". The New York Times. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
94. ^ Michael O'Brien, John F. Kennedy: A Biography (2005), 250–54, 274–79, 396–400; Thomas C. Reeves, The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy (1982), 442–3; Maier, The Kennedys 270–280.
95. Beauchamp, Cari (January 4, 2012). "Two Sons, One Destiny". The Hive.
96. "Parents at the Inaugurations – Presidents' Parents". Presidentsparents.com. Archived from the original on June 2, 2013. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
97. Kessler, p. 389.
98. ^ Graham, James (October 7, 2014). "The Wedding That Changed American History". Time.
99. DeCosta-Klipa, Nik (May 17, 2017). "Meet Honey Fitz: The 'pixie like' mayor of Boston (and JFK's grandfather)". Boston.com.
100. "Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum.
101. Nasaw, p. 42
102. "Eunice Kennedy Shriver's Death Leaves 2 Living Kennedy Siblings". Associated Press. March 25, 2015.
103. Baranauckas, Carla (August 11, 2009). "Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Influential Founder of Special Olympics, Dies at 88". The New York Times.
104. "Last living sibling of John F. Kennedy celebrates her 91st birthday". IrishCentral.com. February 20, 2019.
105. "Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Personal Papers". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum.
106. Smith, Jeffery K. (2010). Bad Blood: Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, and the Tumultuous 1960s. AuthorHouse. p. 32. ISBN 978-1452084435.
107. Heil, Emily (July 11, 2016). "New Kick Kennedy bio recounts her father's affairs with Hollywood actresses". The Washington Post.
108. "Kennedy and Swanson, as if We Didn't Know: AND JOE The Star-Crossed Love Affair of Gloria Swanson and Joe Kennedy by Axel Madsen (William Morrow/Arbor House: $18.95; 328 pp., illustrated)". February 14, 1988 – via LA Times.
109. Beauchamp, Cari (February 13, 2009). "It Happened at the Hotel du Cap". The Hive.
110. Hosenball, Mark (October 5, 1997). "The JFK–Marilyn Hoax". Newsweek.
111. Welsch 2013, p. 205.
112. Welsch 2013, p. 237.
113. ^ Block, Jennie Weiss (2002). Copious hosting: a theology of access for people with disabilities. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 56. ISBN 9780826413499.
114. "Rosemary Kennedy: The Truth About Her Lobotomy". People. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
115. ^ McNeil, Liz (September 6, 2018). "The Untold Story of JFK's Sister, Rosemary Kennedy, and Her Disastrous Lobotomy". People.
116. ^ Gordon, Meryl (October 6, 2015). "'Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter,' by Kate Clifford Larson". The New York Times.
117. ^ "The exiled Kennedy". The Independent. January 15, 2005. Archived from the original on June 17, 2022.
118. McNeil, Liz (September 13, 2018). "Unseen Letters from JFK's Sister Rosemary, Who Underwent a Lobotomy, Reveal Depth of Her 'Loss'". People.
119. ^ Cornwell, Rupert (January 10, 2005). "Obituaries: Rosemary Kennedy". The Independent. Archived from the original on June 17, 2022. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
120. Kessler, Ronald, The Sins of the Father, Warner Books, 1996, p. 243.
121. Henley, Jon (August 12, 2009). "The Forgotten Kennedy". The Guardian.
122. Leamer, p. 322.
123. Leamer, p. 412, and caption to photo of the house facing p. 650.
124. Collier, Peter; Horowitz, David (1984). The Kennedys. Summit Books. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-671-44793-9.
125. ^ McNeil, Liz (September 3, 2015). "Why Rosemary Kennedy's Siblings Didn't See Her for 20 Years After Her Lobotomy". People.
126. O'Dowd, Niall (November 9, 2020). "Remembering the sad and dreadful life of Rosemary Kennedy". IrishCentral.com.
127. "Sister of President John F Kennedy dies". The Daily Telegraph. January 8, 2005. Archived from the original on January 11, 2022. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
128. Kessler, pp. 252–253.
129. Shorter, Edward (2000). The Kennedy Family and the History of Mental Retardation. Temple University Press. pp. 32–33. ISBN 1566397839.
130. Murawski, Wendy W.; Spencer, Sally (2011). Collaborate, Communicate, and Differentiate!: How to Increase Student Learning in Today's Diverse Schools. Corwin Press. p. 3. ISBN 9781412981842.
131. ^ "People: May 22, 1964", Time, May 22, 1964.
132. "RFK 50 years later: A look back at the assassination of Bobby Kennedy". NBC News. June 6, 2018.
133. "Edward & Rose Kennedy thanks the nation following Robert F. Kennedy's assassination". YouTube. June 15, 1968. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021.
134. Kakutani, Michiko (November 29, 2012). "David Nasaw's 'Patriarch,' on Joseph P. Kennedy". The New York Times.
135. Bradley, Richard (November 13, 2012). "Sins of the Father". BostonMagazine.com.
136. Katz, Alex; Andersen, Travis (September 22, 2011). "Friends, family bid farewell to Kennedy in D.C., Brookline". Boston.com – via The Boston Globe.

Bibliography

• Brinkley, Alvin. Voices of Protest. Vintage, 1983.
• Goodwin, Doris K. The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga. Simon & Schuster, 1987.
• Hersh, Seymour. The Dark Side of Camelot. Back Bay Books, 1998.
• Kessler, Ronald. The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded. Warner, 1996
• Leamer, Laurence. The Kennedy Men: 1901–1963. Harper, 2002.
• Logevall, Fredrik. JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956 (2020) excerpt
• Maier, Thomas. The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings. Basic Books, 2003.
• Nasaw, David. The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy. The Penguin Press, 2012; excerpt
• O'Brien, Michael. John F. Kennedy: A Biography. St Martin's Press, 2005.
• Renehan, Edward. The Kennedys at War: 1937–1945. Doubleday, 2002.
• Renehan, Edward. "Joseph Kennedy and the Jews". History News Network. April 29, 2002.
• Ronald, Susan. The Ambassador: Joseph P. Kennedy at the Court of St. James's 1938-1940 (2021) excerpt
• Schwarz, Ted. Joseph P. Kennedy: The Mogul, the Mob, the Statesman, and the Making of an American Myth. Wiley, 2003.
• Welsch, Tricia (2013). Gloria Swanson: Ready for Her Close-Up. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-62103-991-4.(subscription required)
• Whalen, Richard J. The Founding Father: The Story of Joseph P. Kennedy. The New American Library of World Literature, Inc., 1964.

Primary sources

• Smith, Amanda (ed.). Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of Joseph P. Kennedy. Viking, 2001, the major collection of letters to and from Kennedy

External links

• Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. at IMDb
• The Kennedys – PBS Special Archived March 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
• FBI files on Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.
• Affair with Marlene Dietrich
• Correspondence with the Secretary of State at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
• "Joseph P. Kennedy Sr". Find a Grave. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
• Newspaper clippings about Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

v t e Chairmen of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Kennedy Landis Douglas Frank Eicher Purcell Caffrey Hanrahan McDonald D. Cook Demmler Armstrong Gadsby Cary Cohen Budge Casey B. Cook Garrett Hills Williams Shad Ruder Breeden Levitt Pitt Donaldson Cox Schapiro Walter White Clayton Gensler

v t e John F. Kennedy
35th President of the United States (1961–1963) U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1953–1960) U.S. Representative for MA–11 (1947–1953)
Presidency (timeline)	Transition Inauguration Cabinet Judicial appointments Supreme Court Executive Orders Presidential Proclamations Presidential pardons Presidential limousine Presidential yacht Resolute desk Situation Room Foreign policy Alliance for Progress Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Flexible response Kennedy Doctrine Peace Corps Trade Expansion Act Migration and Refugee Assistance Act USAID Vietnam War Cuba: Bay of Pigs Invasion Cuban Project Cuban Missile Crisis ExComm Soviet Union: Berlin Crisis Moscow–Washington hotline Vienna summit New Frontier Communications Satellite Act Community Mental Health Act Equal Pay Act Executive Order 11110 Federal affirmative action Federal housing segregation ban Fifty-mile hikes Food for Peace Pilot Food Stamp Program Presidential Medal of Freedom Space policy Status of Women (Presidential Commission) University of Alabama integration Voter Education Project All-Channel Receiver Act Oil Pollution Act of 1961 Revenue Act of 1962 Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act of 1961 Wetlands Loan Act
Presidential speeches	Inaugural address American University speech "We choose to go to the Moon" Report to the American People on Civil Rights "Ich bin ein Berliner" "A rising tide lifts all boats" Remarks at Amherst College on the Arts State of the Union Address 1961 1962 1963
Elections	U.S. House of Representatives elections: 1946 1948 1950 U.S. Senate elections in Massachusetts: 1952 1958 1960 presidential primaries 1960 presidential campaign Democratic National Conventions: 1956 1960 U.S. presidential election 1960 debates
Personal life	Birthplace and childhood home Kennedy Compound Hickory Hill La Querida Wexford Navy service: PT-109 Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana Arthur Evans PT-59 Castle Hot Springs Hammersmith Farm Coretta Scott King phone call "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" John F. Kennedy document hoax
Books	Why England Slept (1940) Profiles in Courage (1956) A Nation of Immigrants (1958)
Death	Assassination timeline media coverage reactions in popular culture State funeral Riderless horse attending dignitaries Gravesite and Eternal Flame
Legacy	Bibliography John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Profile in Courage Award Twenty-fourth Amendment Civil Rights Act of 1964 Apollo 11 Moon landing Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Kennedy Space Center Kennedy Round U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development VISTA Cultural depictions films Kennedy half dollar U.S. postage stamps U.S. five cent stamp Lincoln–Kennedy coincidences Operation Sail
Memorials, namesakes	Harvard Kennedy School Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts John F. Kennedy Federal Building (Boston) John F. Kennedy International Airport Boston statue Brooklyn bust Dallas memorial Hyannis memorial London bust Nashua bust Portland memorial Runnymede memorial John F. Kennedy Arboretum John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School John F. Kennedy University (defunct) John F. Kennedy Stadium Kennedy Expressway Mount Kennedy MV John F. Kennedy USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) Yad Kennedy
Family	Jacqueline Bouvier (wife) Caroline Kennedy (daughter) John F. Kennedy Jr. (son) Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (son) Rose Schlossberg (granddaughter) Tatiana Schlossberg (granddaughter) Jack Schlossberg (grandson) Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (father) Rose Fitzgerald (mother) Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (brother) Rosemary Kennedy (sister) Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington (sister) Eunice Kennedy Shriver (sister) Patricia Kennedy Lawford (sister) Robert F. Kennedy (brother) Jean Kennedy Smith (sister) Ted Kennedy (brother) P. J. Kennedy (grandfather) John F. Fitzgerald (grandfather) Pushinka (dog) Billie and Debbie (hamsters) Sardar (horse)
← Dwight D. Eisenhower Lyndon B. Johnson → Category

v t e Robert F. Kennedy
November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968 64th United States Attorney General, 1961–1964 United States senator from New York, 1965–1968
Life	1948 Palestine visit Senate Committee investigation of Labor and Management Cuban Missile Crisis ExComm Civil rights Freedom Riders Voter Education Project Baldwin–Kennedy meeting 1964 Democratic National Convention Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation Mississippi Delta tour Kennedy Compound Hickory Hill home
Electoral	1964 U.S. Senate election 1968 presidential campaign primaries Boiler Room Girls
Speeches	Law Day Address (1961) Day of Affirmation Address (1966) Conflict in Vietnam and at Home (1968) University of Kansas (1968) Ball State (1968) On the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (1968) "On the Mindless Menace of Violence" (1968)
Books	The Enemy Within (1960) The Pursuit of Justice (1964) To Seek a Newer World (1967) Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis (1969)
Assassination	Sirhan Sirhan Ambassador Hotel Conspiracy theories Gravesite
Legacy and memorials	Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building Robert F. Kennedy silver dollar Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Human Rights Award Journalism Award Book Award Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Brooklyn Memorial Landmark for Peace Memorial Arch of Dignity, Equality, and Justice Kennedy–King College Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools Robert F. Kennedy Bridge
Popular culture	Robert F. Kennedy in media Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963 documentary) Robert Kennedy Remembered (1968 documentary) "Abraham, Martin and John" (1968 song) The Missiles of October (1974 docudrama) Kennedy (1983 miniseries) Blood Feud (1983 film) Prince Jack (1985 film) Robert Kennedy and His Times (1985 miniseries) Hoover vs. The Kennedys (1987 miniseries) Thirteen Days (2000 film) RFK (2002 film) Bobby (2006 film) RFK Must Die (2007 documentary) The Kennedys (2011 miniseries) Ethel (2012 documentary) Killing Kennedy (2013 film) Jackie (2016 film) Bobby Kennedy for President (2018 miniseries)
Family, family tree	Ethel Skakel (wife) Kathleen Kennedy (daughter) Joseph Patrick Kennedy (son) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (son) Michael LeMoyne Kennedy (son) Kerry Kennedy (daughter) Christopher G. Kennedy (son) Max Kennedy (son) Douglas Harriman Kennedy (son) Rory Kennedy (daughter) Maeve Kennedy McKean (granddaughter) Joseph P. Kennedy III (grandson) Max Kennedy Jr. (grandson) Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (father) Rose Kennedy (mother) Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (brother) John F. Kennedy (brother presidency) Rosemary Kennedy (sister) Kathleen Kennedy Cavendish (sister) Eunice Kennedy Shriver (sister) Patricia Kennedy Lawford (sister) Jean Kennedy Smith (sister) Ted Kennedy (brother) Patrick J. Kennedy (grandfather) Mary Augusta Kennedy (grandmother) John F. Fitzgerald (grandfather)
Category

v t e Ted Kennedy
February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009 United States Senator from Massachusetts, 1962–2009
Electoral history	U.S. Senate elections in Massachusetts: 1962 (special) 1964 1970 1976 1982 1988 1994 2000 2006 1980 United States presidential election (Democratic primaries) Ted Kennedy 1980 presidential campaign
Books	My Senator and Me: A Dog's-Eye View of Washington, D.C. (2006) True Compass (2009)
Speeches	The Dream Shall Never Die
Family, family tree	Joan Bennett Kennedy (first wife) Victoria Reggie Kennedy (second wife, widow) Kara Kennedy (daughter) Edward M. Kennedy Jr. (son) Patrick J. Kennedy II (son) Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (father) Rose Kennedy (mother) Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (brother) John F. Kennedy (brother presidency) Rosemary Kennedy (sister) Kathleen Kennedy (sister) Eunice Kennedy Shriver (sister) Patricia Kennedy Lawford (sister) Robert F. Kennedy (brother) Jean Kennedy Smith (sister) Patrick J. Kennedy I (grandfather) John F. Fitzgerald (grandfather)
Related	Awards and honors Political positions Kennedy Compound Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act Chappaquiddick incident Mary Jo Kopechne Friends of Ireland Chappaquiddick (2018 film)
Category

v t e Kennedy family
I.	P. J. Kennedy (1858–1929) Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (m.) Rose Fitzgerald
II.	Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (1888–1969) Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. John F. Kennedy (m.) Jacqueline Bouvier Rosemary Kennedy Kathleen Kennedy (m.) William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington Eunice Kennedy (m.) Sargent Shriver Patricia Kennedy (m./div.) Peter Lawford Robert F. Kennedy (m.) Ethel Skakel Jean Kennedy (m.) Stephen Edward Smith Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy (m./div. 1st) Joan Bennett; (m. 2nd) Victoria Reggie
III.	John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) Caroline Kennedy (m.) Edwin Schlossberg John F. Kennedy Jr. (m.) Carolyn Bessette Patrick Bouvier Kennedy Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921–2009) Bobby Shriver Maria Shriver (m./div.) Arnold Schwarzenegger Timothy Shriver Mark Shriver Anthony Shriver Patricia Kennedy Lawford (1924–2006) Christopher Lawford Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Joseph P. Kennedy II Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (m./sep.) Mary Richardson (m. 3rd) Cheryl Hines Michael LeMoyne Kennedy Kerry Kennedy (m./div.) Andrew Cuomo Christopher G. Kennedy Max Kennedy Douglas Harriman Kennedy Rory Kennedy (m.) Mark Bailey Jean Kennedy Smith (1928–2020) William Kennedy Smith Ted Kennedy (1932–2009) Kara Kennedy Edward M. Kennedy Jr. Patrick J. Kennedy (m.) Amy Savell
IV.	Rose Kennedy Schlossberg Tatiana Celia Kennedy Schlossberg John Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg Katherine Schwarzenegger (m.) Chris Pratt Patrick Schwarzenegger Joseph P. Kennedy III Maeve Kennedy McKean Max Kennedy Jr.
Related	Hickory Hill Kennedy Compound Kennedy curse Merchandise Mart The Kennedys (museum) The Kennedys (miniseries) The Kennedys: After Camelot
Category	Kennedy family
m. = married; div. = divorced; sep. = separated.

• Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.
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