For those of you who wish to maintain your illusions about President John F. Kennedy, do not read THE DARK SIDE OF CAMELOT. Published in 1997, it was written by Seymour M. Hersh, one of this country’s premier, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporters. Fully documented with exhaustive and compelling authority, it paints a multi-faceted picture of deceit in both JFK’s personal as well as his professional life.

To begin with, JFK “suffered” from satyriasis. This is the male version of nymphomania, an uncontrollable or excessive sexual appetite. Kennedy bedded every good-looking woman in sight, was often indiscreet in front of the Secret Service assignees who were forced to witness his cavorting in the White House and other places. The women included professionals as well as party girls. For the last approximately twenty years of his life, JFK suffered from venereal disease for which he was often treated with heavy doses of penicillin. Four of the women came close to destroying his political career: Marilyn Monroe, who was making her unhappiness with the state of their relationship known when she died; Judith Exner, who was simultaneously seeing both JFK and Sam Giancana, the Chicago Mob boss, and running large sums of money from Kennedy to Giancana; Suzy Chang, also involved in the scandal that brought down Profumo in England; and Ellen Rometsch, perhaps the most dangerous of all, and subsequently discovered to be an East German spy.

Then there was Kennedy’s obsession with getting rid of Fidel Castro. Ever since the humiliation of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, both Jack and his brother Bobby plotted with the CIA as well as Giancana to eliminate Castro. It never happened, of course, but the brothers never gave up conspiring to accomplish what would have been, naturally, a highly illegal act. Ironically, on November 22, 1963, when JFK was himself being assassinated, a CIA officer was meeting with a disaffected Cuban national to provide him with a device to kill Castro.

The background information on JFK’s father and grandfather are revealing and non-complimentary in the extreme. A lot of material is included regarding what amounted to the buying of the 1960 election by JFK’s father.

Interestingly, the Kennedy brothers had a deep enmity for VP Lyndon Johnson. Bobby particularly hated him, partly because of his personal perception of Johnson, and partly because the VP stood in the way of Bobby succeeding his brother in the presidency. It was known among JFK intimates that he planned to dump Lyndon as his running mate in the 1964 election, and Kennedy associates had amassed a lot of background investigative material with which to paint Johnson as crooked, if necessary. JFK’s assassination ended all that.

The super-rich often feel that common laws and morals do not apply to them. The Kennedy family certainly epitomized that failing. Both Jack and Bobby were hard-nosed political bulldogs, willing to go to extreme to obtain what they wanted. In Bobby’s case, as his brother’s Attorney General, he often was called upon to act to protect or cover up or issue denials to prevent Jack from ending up politically damaged by his various misdeeds.

I have always felt that November 22, 1963 was the end of “the good ol’ days.” All hell broke loose in the rest of that incredible decade. One question that we’ll never be able to answer is what would have happened in Vietnam had JFK lived. The evidence indicates he was just waiting until his reelection in ’64 to begin disengaging us. He didn’t want to appear soft on Communism before achieving his second term. Yet, any one of many political realities could have changed that.

In sum, I recommend Hersh’s book if you are open to a less idealistic view of the JFK years.

Comments:

Very interesting, indeed. Great synopsis! Thanks.

They say that we have this in our gene.Hmm must have miss
something there.Men cheat and not they come up with some sort
of gene in our body.No wonder I feel weird at times.

I am going to get the book, but I am not surprised. I once met Eunice Shriver who was certainly not gracious and didn't feel that common courtesy was necessary.

This was all known but it was at a time when there was an 'agreement' that the women and his illness were off limits--don't know if we were better off then or now when every 'pimple', personal or not, is exposed--I am glad that both candidsates agree that family, especially their children is off limits!