June 28, 2025 • 45 mins
Eighty years ago this summer, a young John F. Kennedy took a job as a journalist for Hearst newspapers, filing dispatches in the final days of World War II. His columns capture the mood of a changing world.
Even the most seasoned JFK scholars often overlook this chapter. In today's extra special Very Special Episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Fred Logevall and legendary director Rob Reiner join us to explore the forgotten summer that helped shape Kennedy's worldview.
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Check out Fred Logevall's excellent book: JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century.
Listen to Who Killed JFK? from Rob Reiner and Soledad O'Brien wherever you get your podcasts. And go see Spinal Tap II: The End Continues in theaters this September!
And thanks to our JFK voice actor, Tom Antonellis, for nailing another role.
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Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Joe Pompeo
Produced by Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Jonathan Washington and Josh Fisher
Additional Editing by Mary Dooe
Mixing and Mastering by Josh Fisher
Research and Fact-Checking by Joe Pompeo and Austin Thompson
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
On April twenty seventh, nineteen sixty one, John F. Kennedy's
plane touched down at LaGuardia Airport. It was his first
visit to New York since becoming president. He stepped off
the aircraft and slid into a black limousine, which whisked
him to his suite at the Carlisle on Madison Avenue.
(00:27):
Hours later, a police motorcade accompanied Kennedy south to the
Waldorf Astoria. Outside the hotel, more than three thousand people
jammed Park Avenue to greet the new leader of the
Free world. It was Press Week in New York, an
annual gathering of more than twelve hundred editors, publishers, and
(00:50):
newspaper executives. President Kennedy had come to the Waldorf that
evening to address the American Newspaper Publishers Association. His appearance
was especially newsworthy. One week earlier, US backed forces had
flown the white flag in Cuba. The Bay of Pigs
(01:12):
invasion may have failed to topple the communist government of
Fidel Castro, but it did succeed in escalating the Cold War,
a major foreign policy blunder. Just months into Kennedy's term,
Dressed in white tie, Kennedy approached the lectern in the
(01:33):
Waldorf's dazzling Grand ballroom. His speech was titled The President
and the Press.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Some may suggest that this would be more naturally worded
the President versus the Press, but those are not my
sentiments tonight.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Instead, Kennedy said he had a more sober topic to discuss.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
But I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every
newsman in the nation to re examine his own standards
and to recognize the nature of our country's peril.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
In time of war.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
The government and the press have customarily joined in an effort,
based largely on self discipline, to prevent unauthorized disclosures to
the enemy. In times of clear and present danger. The
courts have held that even the privileged rights of the
First Amendment must yield to the public's need for national security.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
These were perilous times, as evidenced by the situation in Cuba.
War hadn't been declared, but Kennedy wanted the press to
act as if it had. He claimed America's enemies had
learned about covert preparations from simply reading the newspapers that
they'd been able to glean quote the size, the strength,
(02:58):
the location, and the nature of our forces and weapons,
and our plans and strategy for their use. He said
that in at least one instance, details about a secret
satellite mechanism had been published.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
The newspapers which printed these stories were loyal, patriotic, responsible,
and well meaning. Had we been engaged in open warfare,
the undoubtedly would not have published such items. But in
the absence of open warfare, they recognized only the tests
of journalism and not the tests of national security. And
(03:34):
my question, deny it is whether additional tests should not
now be adopted. That question is for you alone to answer.
No public official should answer it for you. No governmental
plan should impose its restraints against Joe Will. But I
would be failing in my duty to the nation, in
(03:55):
considering all of the responsibilities that we now bail and
all of the means at hand to meet those responsibilities,
if I did not command this problem to your attention
and urge its thoughtful consideration.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Kennedy ended his address by affirming his respect and admiration
for the Fourth Estate. He said he shared journalism's obligation
to inform the American people, to give them the facts
to spark debate He wasn't asking those in attendance to
support his administration. He understood their watchdog rule. He not
(04:34):
only accepted the accountability of newspapers, he welcomed it.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And so it is to the printing press, to the
recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the
courier of his news, that we look for strength and assistance,
confident that with your help, man will be what he
was born to be, free and independent.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
The next day, Kennedy's remarks were front page headlines. The
New York Times declared, President urges press limit news that
helps reds. But there was something the Times story didn't mention.
Kennedy wasn't just speaking to America's journalists as their president.
(05:20):
He was speaking as someone who, at least for three
months in nineteen forty five, had been one of them.
Even if you were well versed in other aspects of
JFK's microscopically scrutinized life, you could be forgiven if you
were less familiar with this one, That is, if you
(05:41):
are familiar with it at all.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
I was sixteen and JFK was assassinated.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
That's Rob Reiner, the famous director Spinal Tap. Rob Reiner,
Princess Bride, Rob Reiner, A few good men, Rob Reiner,
and in the podcast space Who Killed JFK. Reiner His
twenty twenty three show spent several weeks atop the Apple
Top podcast charts.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
I had written a paper in high school about the
Cuban missile crisis, so I was focused on him as
a president. I knew, obviously a little bit about him
as a senator. I knew about PT One nine, and
we all knew about his heroics during the Second World War.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
But even Rob Reiner wasn't dialed in on this chapter
of JFK's story.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
As far as him being a journalist, I didn't really
know very much about that, and I'm hearing about it
essentially for the first time here.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
It was a brief and relatively under the radar period
in JFK's life. At the same time, it had a
lasting impact on one of the most iconic presidents in
American history. Welcome to very special episodes and Iheart's original podcast.
(06:56):
I'm your host Danish Schwartz, and this is JFK Is
Forgotten Summer in Journalism.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
Welcome back to very special episodes. I'm Jason English. She
is Danish Schwartz. He is Aaron Burnett, And on this
podcast we tell one great story each week, and I'm
going to start here.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
I love a good prequel.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Better call Saul Wicked the Muppet Babies. Just give me
the back story.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
The Muppet Babies. Did you see Solo? That's the real
test of whether you like a prequel.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
I did see that one, and that is a real test.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
So on the topic of presidential jobs by Osmosis, we've
heard these stories over the years. Barack Obama worked at
Baskin Robbins and Ron Reagan, Joe Biden, they were lifeguards.
Grover Cleveland was a hangman. I don't know if you
guys knew that. He's carried out at least two executions.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Did not know Grover Cleveland.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
The Grover Cleveland. Richard Nixon got to get him in here.
He worked at the Family gas station, naturally, and LBJ
owned the Muzak distribution rights. He was in the radio
business with his wife and they owned Muzak rights and in.
Speaker 6 (08:12):
The Austin area.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
I don't think any of those stories are going to
be worthy of very special episodes.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Oh no, the hangman one sounds kind of interesting.
Speaker 6 (08:22):
Yeah, Hangman and Musach are both interesting angles.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
It's a little dark. I'm talking about the muzak one.
But jfk is a journalist.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, I love it because I actually started as a journalist.
Speaker 6 (08:35):
Yeah, it's right.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
It is my prequel. Jason knew me when.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
I'm looking forward to your presidential run as well.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, I'll be the one to set things right.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
He already got my vote though.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
For John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the seeds of service were planted
at a young age.
Speaker 7 (08:53):
It's often said that he was born into a rich family.
That's not exactly true.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Fred Logoval is one of Kennedy's by biographers.
Speaker 7 (09:01):
His father, Joe Sr. Became extraordinarily wealthy. Let's say the
first ten years of Jack's life is really when he
makes his fortune. You know what's notable about this family,
of course, is that he and his wife Rose instill
in their children, all of them, really, this idea that
they need to think beyond themselves, They need to give
(09:24):
something back, They need to commit themselves at least a
little bit to public service. And I think that's something
that Jack takes in.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
After graduating from Harvard in nineteen forty, Jack had his
eye on law school. His plans changed when the United States'
entry into World War Two seemed inevitable. Jack and his
older brother, Joseph Kennedy Junior, enlisted in the US Naval Reserve.
Speaker 7 (09:52):
Both brothers want to serve in the war. They both
want to see combat, which is an interesting decision on
their port beca as you say, they could have avoided this,
but they both serve and of course get into harm's
way before too long. And in Jack's case, that becomes
as a commander of a pet boat.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
PT boats were small, fast, and heavily armed. Jack's was
the eighty foot PT one oh nine, part of a
fleet in the Pacific theater. As US forces battled the Japanese,
the twenty six year old lieutenant commanded his vessel through
the waters of the Solomon Islands. In terms of combat assignments,
(10:35):
it didn't get much riskier. At the same time, the
mission suited Jack. He had practically grown up on the
sea during summers at the Kennedy Compound, sailing Nantucket Sound
off the coast of Hyanna's Port. Still, no amount of
nautical expertise could have prepared him for the danger he
would face in the wei hours of August second, nineteen
(10:59):
forty three.
Speaker 7 (11:00):
It was a moonless night. They're in the Beckett Straight
in the Solomons. PT boats are patrolling looking for Japanese vessels.
Some of the PT boats had radar. Lieutenant Kennedy's did
not have radar, which really limited what he was able
to perceive on this very dark night. And what happens
(11:23):
is he does not see that a Japanese destroyer is
bearing down on them.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
The Japanese warship slammed into Jack's boat, slicing it in half.
The PT one nine didn't stand a chance. That might
have been the end of John F. Kennedy right then
and there. No Congress, no Jack ee O, no White House,
no Bay of Pigs, no Cuban missile crisis, no Lee
(11:48):
Harvey Oswald, no JFK airports.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
These are the events that change history. He knew what
war was. I mean, obviously Eisenhower did. But here was
a man who really was in the midst of the
horrors of war.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Miraculously, Jack survived, so did most of his crew. They
could see a small island in the distance. Now all
they had to do was swim to safety. Jack had
as good a chance of making it as any. A
few years earlier, he'd competed on the Harvard swim team.
He just hadn't ever trained for a long distance swim
(12:27):
through shark infested enemy waters with a wounded comrade in tow.
Speaker 7 (12:33):
He drags this injured member of his crew for these
three and a half four hours, so he has to
not just swim for himself, but for his comrade. And
they make it to this island, and then they have
to figure out what to do from there. The whole
time there's the possibility, of course, that Japanese will spot them. Ultimately,
(12:54):
they are restored.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
On August twentieth, a front page New York Times headline
claimed Kennedy's son is hero in Pacific. In his book JFK.
Coming of Age in the American Century, Fred Logowl describes
the episode as a pivotal moment.
Speaker 7 (13:12):
His World War two experience, and especially his experience in
the Pacific, has a very important effect on young Jack Kennedy.
I think it boosts his belief that he belongs, that
he can make decisions, that he can be a leader.
So it's a real shot in terms of his self
confidence and his self belief. I also think it shapes
(13:35):
his worldview, his belief that coming out of this war,
the United States needs to play a primary role in
world affairs. It affects how he sees the world, how
he sees the US role in that world. That, I think,
in a way will stay with him till the end
of his days.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
One year after Jack's near death experience in the Pacific,
his older volunteered for a highly perilous operation. Joe Junior's
orders were to fly a plane packed with explosives towards
France and then jump out with the parachute. He didn't
make it.
Speaker 7 (14:14):
It's what kind of suicide mission? Really? The plane will
continue well, it explodes before they can bail.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Joe Junior's death was almost too much to bear for
his father, a former SEC chairman who'd served as the
US ambassador to the United Kingdom earlier in the war.
The Boston Globe reported quote from the time the family
received the Navy telegram, the ex ambassador has kept to
(14:42):
his room. His grief is deep. Joe Junior had been
the golden child and heir apparent of a proud political lineage.
From a young age, his father had been grooming him
for greatness. Now Joe's goal of becoming America's first Catholic
president had been cut tragically short.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
You had Joe Kennedy, who always wanted the family to
be considered legitimate and to be accepted in the political world.
I don't think Jack thought of himself for somebody who
was going to take up that mantle. I think he
always thought his older brother was going to be the one.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
It was a devastating turn of events for the family.
It also had major implications for the Kennedy clan's second
oldest son, because the family's hopes and dreams didn't just
die with Joe Junior. Rather, they were transferred onto Jack.
(15:51):
Following his exploits in the Pacific, Jack sought treatment for
chronic back pain that had ailed him for years. He
ended up up having surgery, which officially put an end
to his military career. On March first, nineteen forty five,
Lieutenant Kennedy was honorably discharged, his future laid out before him.
(16:14):
Still mourning the death of his brother, Jack found himself
at a crossroads. He emerged from his Navy service a
household name, the torchbearer of his family's political ambitions. Politics
was in his blood. In addition, to the roles his
father had played in government. Jack's maternal grandfather had been
(16:35):
a mayor of Boston and a US congressman. His paternal
grandfather had been a state senator. Both of his great
uncles were state senators, and his father's first cousin was
once the mayor of Brockton, Massachusetts. But in that spring
of nineteen forty five, as the war entered its final inning,
(16:56):
Jack had a lot to consider.
Speaker 7 (16:59):
He could go to law school, which he has flirted with,
not because he has a particular interest in the law,
but because it's a career step for somebody who doesn't
maybe quite know what they want to do. He's interested
in journalism, and I think he is thinking about politics.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Jack was already an accomplished writer. Senior year at Harvard,
he wrote a thesis exploring British appeasement in the run
up to World War Two. Joe Senior encouraged his son
to publish it. To make the work commercially viable, they
enlisted Joe's friend Arthur Kroc, the Pulitzer Prize winning Washington
(17:37):
correspondent for The New York Times. In his memoirs, Kroc
would write of Jack's thesis quote, it was remarkable for
the fine perception of the fundamental problems of a peace
loving democracy threatened with dictatorial regimes. Kroc helped Jack turn
the thesis into a book called Why England Slept, with
(18:01):
a forward from Henry Luce, the founder of Time magazine.
It became a best seller, and the book's thesis persuaded
Krock that Jack was quote suited to a career in journalism.
Five years later, as Jack wade career options, Joe Senior
got in touch with his old pal William Randolph Hurst.
Speaker 7 (18:25):
He had known. Joe Senior had known Hurst from his
days as a Hollywood mogul in the nineteen twenties. Late
nineteen twenties, Joe Kennedy became a serious player in Hollywood,
made a good deal of money in Hollywood. Got to
know Hurst at that point, partly through Mariam Davies, and
in the nineteen thirties, Joe Kennedy convinced Hurst to back
(18:49):
Fdr for reelection in nineteen thirty six. So they have
these connections.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Joe Senior helped Jack get a gig as a syndicated
special correspondent for the Hearst Newspapers, which included the San
Francisco Examiner, the Chicago Herald American, and the New York
Journal American. The idea was that Jack would cover the
unfolding post war order from a quote serviceman's point of view.
(19:18):
Hearst got to splash his papers with the byline of
best selling author John F. Kennedy, identified at the top
of each article as a quote. Recently retired p boat
hero and son of former Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, Jack
got to test the journalistic waters while elevating his profile
(19:39):
in a way that could prove advantageous to a future
in politics. His first assignment was a banger. At the
end of April nineteen forty five, Hurst sent him to
San Francisco to cover the founding Conference of the United Nations.
Jack suddenly found himself at the the center of international policymaking,
(20:03):
breathing the same air as illustrious statesman.
Speaker 8 (20:07):
Delegates representing forty six nations came to San Francisco on
April twenty fifth, nineteen forty five, representing almost two thousand
million people, more than eighty percent of humanity, all at war.
When the conference was begun. They came with hope born
of common struggle.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
If you were a cub reporter like Jack Kennedy, this
was the place to be. Kennedy joined twelve hundred accredited
journalists from established scribes like James Rustin, Walter Lippman, and
the Kennedy's friend Arthur Krock, two gossips like Walter Winschell,
Earl Wilson, and Peta Hopper. Describing the media spectacle, Life
(20:55):
Magazine observed a quote like Pilgrim's drawn to Mecca. The
nation's newspapermen flocked to San Francisco. They were all there,
the whys and the witless, the sober and the silly,
the pundits, pontificators, and performing seals. The goal of the
conference was to create a template for global diplomacy in
(21:18):
the interest of preventing future wars. In his first dispatch
on April twenty eighth, Kennedy warned readers not to get
their hopes up.
Speaker 9 (21:29):
There is an impression that this is the conference to
end wars and introduce peace on Earth and goodwill toward nations, excluding,
of course, Germany and Japan. Well, it's not going to
do that.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Kennedy's debut also included a man on the Street interview
with a decorated marine who told him quote, I don't
know much about what's going on, but if they just
fix it so that we don't have to fight anymore,
they can count me in. Kennedy replied, me too, Sarge.
In the evenings, Kennedy swanned about San Francisco with the elite. Kroc,
(22:06):
writing in his memoirs years later, painted some memorable scenes
of the humble Hurst correspondent cutting in on a dance
with the British Foreign Secretary's wife on his bed at
the Palace Hotel, with a high ball in one hand
and a telephone receiver in the other.
Speaker 9 (22:25):
Hello there, Yeah, I want to speak to the managing
editor of the Chicago Herald Examiner. Not in. We'll put
somebody on to take a message. Cook. Will you see
that the boss gets this message as soon as you
can reach him. Thank you. Here's the message. Kennedy will
(22:46):
not be filing tonight.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Tempting as it may have been, Kennedy wasn't there to party.
Over the course of a month, he wrote sixteen columns
at about three hundred words apiece, exactly the most grueling
journalistic assignment, but well worth the rate Hurst was paying
him seven hundred and fifty dollars, which is about thirteen
(23:10):
thousand today, Plus it was exciting work. Kennedy basically had
a front row seat to history, reporting on the birth
of the UN as the Allies declared victory in Europe.
Speaker 7 (23:23):
I mean, it's hard to overstate the symbolic importance of
the San Francisco Conference, Even if the sort of basics
of that world order have already been laid out at
prior conferences among the Allies, there's already a sense that
this is now going to be effectively a two power world.
The United States and the Soviet Union will be the
(23:44):
key players, and the young reporter Jack Kennedy, his stories
filed from San Francisco are so fascinating.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Kennedy's stories weren't exactly straight news, and his point of
view wasn't just that of a serviceman, but someone who
had his own ideas about world affairs.
Speaker 9 (24:04):
May first, this conference from a distance may have appeared
so far like an international football game. Well, that part's
over and they are scheduled tomorrow to get at the
real work of the conference. This will consist of trying
to solve a number of more or less technical problems
(24:24):
upon how these dull problems are settled may depend our
peace in the upcoming years. May sixteenth, The Russians have
recognized our difficult position and have taken full advantage of it.
They have attempted to embarrass Us and the British at
every turn. May eighteenth, there is growing discouragement among people
(24:47):
concerning our chances of winning any lasting peace from this war.
There is talk of fighting the Russians in the next
ten or fifteen years. We have indeed gone a long
way since those hopeful days early in the war when
we talked of union. Now in one world there is
a fundamental distrust between Great Britain and the United States
(25:08):
on the one hand, and Russia on the other.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
The growing distrust between Russia and the US was a
running theme of Kennedy's reportage.
Speaker 7 (25:18):
Kennedy picks up on this. He's as quick as anybody else,
I would argue, at least in terms of the reporting
at the conference, to see how these two players were
going to be the most important players, number one and
number two, how they were destined to come into conflict.
There's a realism in his articles. These pieces stand up
(25:41):
pretty well. If one were to go back now and
read all of them. They're solid in the context of
their time. I would say they're even solid in terms
of what he saw, maybe at least to a degree
before others did, about this new world order.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
The San Francisco Conference carried on until June twenty six,
when the assembled delegates signed the historic Charter of the
United Nations. By then, Kennedy was gone. Another story had beckoned,
this time across the ocean. Kennedy hadn't been to Europe
since nineteen thirty nine. He had visited Germany right before
(26:19):
the invasion of Poland, then he had traveled to London.
On September third, nineteen thirty nine, Kennedy observed Britain's declaration
of war in the House of Commons, where soon to
be Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared, we are fighting to
save the whole world from the pestilence of Nazi tyranny
(26:40):
and in defense of all that is most sacred to man.
Nearly six years later, the Allies had won that fight
and Churchill was up for reelection. The conventional wisdom held
that Churchill's wartime leadership would make him a shoe in,
but one journalist was and so sure In fact, this journalist,
(27:03):
a fresh faced correspondent for the Hearst Papers, had a
hunch that the Prime Minister's days were numbered. In June
nineteen forty five, Kennedy flew to London and checked into
(27:24):
a two room suite at the Grovenor House Hotel. It
was Jack's first international assignment, and he'd gotten business cards
with his Hearst affiliation, John Fitzgerald Kennedy International News Service.
A letter to the US Consul General from the manager
of the news service made it official. This is to
(27:47):
certify that mister John F. Kennedy is on special assignment
in Europe for Hearst Newspapers. The British elections were scheduled
for July fifth. Kennedy arrived just in time for the
frenzied home stretch of the campaigns.
Speaker 7 (28:03):
He's fascinated by electoral politics in a democratic system. Again,
He's grown up experiencing this with his grandfather, Honey fitz
a legendary Boston politician. He has followed elections, you know,
as a student. Now he's seeing it up close, and
I think it absolutely inclines him more as much as
(28:26):
he's enjoying I think the reporting gig to seek out
political possibilities for himself.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Churchill seemed to have the upper hand. At least of
his high approval ratings were any indication. Speaking at a
campaign stop where thousands of cheering supporters lined the streets,
the Prime Minister said, this election is one of great
importance because it comes at a moment when the future
of our country is at stake. Around the same time,
(28:56):
Kennedy filed his latest story lines that appeared with the
article in various Hurst publications sounded ominous. Churchill's defeat possible
in new tide sweeping Europe. Labor rights may defeat Churchill,
says writer. Churchill may lose election. Here's Kennedy in his
(29:19):
own words.
Speaker 9 (29:20):
This may come as a surprise to most Americans, who
feel Churchill is as indomitable at the polls as he
was in the war. However, Churchill is fighting a tide
that is surging through Europe, washing away monarchies and conservative
governments everywhere, and that tide flows powerfully in England. England
is moving towards some form of socialism. If not in
(29:43):
this election, then then surely at the next.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Kennedy's article turned out to be precient. On July twenty sixth,
after all the votes were finally counted, the Labor Party
beat Churchill's Conservative government in a landslide. Croc later said
that Kennedy's writings were quote the only intimation I got
from anyone that Churchill would be defeated.
Speaker 7 (30:08):
Even in one or two of his pieces from San Francisco,
he suggests that the Conservatives are in some trouble, which
too many people seems absolutely crazy. Churchill in trouble politically,
how can that be? He's one of the great leaders
of the twentieth century. I think people already understood. Kennedy
(30:29):
even before he gets to London, says that this is
a possibility. What he then proceeds to do in the
weeks prior to the vote is to follow the campaign,
and he shows a reporter's nos for a good story.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
On the heels of Churchill's defeat, Kennedy wrote.
Speaker 9 (30:49):
England has been hit by some blockbusters in the last
five years, but none of them have a shoko like
today's election results. Explanations for the crushing defeat we're already forthcoming,
and they will be pouring in for the next few weeks.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
It was one of his last dispatches from the United Kingdom,
but Kennedy still had a few more stops on his
tour as a correspondent for Hurst. From England, he traveled
to Paris and then on to Germany. That's where the US,
the Soviet Union, and Great Britain were hashing out a
plan for post war Europe at the Potsdam Conference. The
(31:29):
historical record is a bit fuzzy as to whether Kennedy
actually filed any stories from this last leg of the trip.
It seems like he probably didn't. He did, however, keep
a diary. You can buy a reprint of it for
under ten bucks. It's called Prelude to Leadership, The European
(31:50):
Diary of John F. Kennedy. The diary reflects on the
utter destruction in places like Berlin.
Speaker 9 (31:58):
The devastation is The streets are relatively clear, but there
is not a single building which is not gutted. On
some of the streets, the stench, sweet and sickish from
dead bodies is overwhelming. The people all have completely colorless faces,
a yellow tinge with pale tan lips. They were all
(32:23):
carrying bundles. Where are they going? No one seems to know.
I wonder whether they do.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
In one entry, Kennedy describes a somber conversation with a
young German girl.
Speaker 9 (32:37):
This girl is about twenty two, speaks some English, and
is a Roman Catholic. She said it was difficult to
get to Catholic church after the Nazis came to power,
though it was possible. She thought the Germans were going
to win the war, but the first victories were just shining.
She thought the future of Germany is melancholy.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
The final entry is arguably the most chilling one. Kennedy
writes about his visit to Hitler's bombed out chalet in
the Bavarian Alps, as well as a nearby building.
Speaker 9 (33:09):
After visiting these two places, you can clearly understand how
that within a few years Hitler will emerge from the
hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most
significant figures who ever lived. He had boundless ambition for
his country, which rendered him a menace to the peace
of the world. But he had a mystery about him
(33:29):
in the way that he lived, in the manner of
his death that will live and grow after it. He
had in him the stuff of which legends are made.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
For the record. Kennedyologists who have written about this entry
have noted there's no indication that jfk harbored any sympathies
for the Fear or Nazi Germany.
Speaker 7 (33:49):
What I take away from the diary is a sense
that the world order has fundamentally shifted. In part again,
is based on seeing the destruction all around him, his
awareness that Britain is a faded power, that Britain is
(34:12):
emerging drastically weakened from the war. Now he's seeing that
Germany is destroyed coming out of the war. He understands
that there's going to be a division of Germany. What's
the strength in his analysis is the degree to which
he perceives that this division between East and West, the
(34:32):
United States the leader of one camp, if you will,
and the Soviet Union the leader and the other. That
I think is affirmed for him in these weeks in Germany,
and again I repeat because I think it matters a
conviction that he has, which is that the United States
must become the leader of the West going forward.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
In addition of the diary published in nineteen ninety five, include
an introduction by Hugh Sidney, who covered Kennedy's presidency for Time.
He writes, quote Kennedy shows in his diary that he
has the instincts of a good journalist, the unflagging curiosity,
the eyes, the ears. Others in Kennedy's orbit have described
(35:18):
that spring and summer of nineteen forty five as a
key step in his political evolution. Close friend and speech
writer Ted Sorenson wrote in his own JFK biography quote
in a brief fling at journalism, he had observed the
power politics at Potsdam and the San Francisco UN Conference,
(35:39):
and covered the British election. All this sharpened his interest
in public affairs and public service. Two of JFK's White
House aides said he considered his journalistic dalliances quote the
thing that finally moved Jack Kennedy toward active politics. Having
(36:00):
a close look as a reporter at the post war
political leaders in action, he decided that he might be
able to find more satisfaction and to perform more useful
service as a politician than as a political writer. Kennedy
left Europe in early August as the war was hurtling
(36:21):
toward its catastrophic conclusion in Japan. By the end of
the year, he had made the decision to run for
office in April nineteen forty six, he officially entered the
race to represent his home state's eleventh congressional district. And
while the rest is history.
Speaker 7 (36:41):
Nobody thought of this at the time, but present in
Potsdam are the thirty third President of the United States,
Harry Truman, the thirty fourth President of the United States
Dwight Eisenhower, and the thirty fifth President of the United States,
young Jack Kennedy.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
He was the youngest president ever to be elected. I
was only a teenager, but he felt like one of us.
But here was a guy, he was forty three at
the time, and we thought, Wow, this is somebody that's
almost in our generation, somebody who we actually can look
up to and respect. And he was funny, he had
a quick wit. That guy can be a president. That
(37:21):
was really cool to us. He was a hero to
our generation.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
One day in nineteen sixty, when Kennedy was running for president,
he sat down to dictate some notes. He would do
this from time to time, preparing for the memoirs he
expected to write. On this particular occasion, Kennedy reflected on
his trajectory from pt boat captain to candidate for America's
(37:45):
highest office.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
My brother Joe was killed in Europe as a fire
in August nineteen forty four, and that ended our hopes
for him.
Speaker 10 (37:55):
But I didn't even.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Start to think about a political profess more than a
year later. When the war came. I didn't know what
I was going to do, and I didn't find it
oppressive that I didn't know. Forty four and forty five,
I had been in the hospital for about a year,
recovering from some injuries I received in the Pacific, and
(38:19):
I worked as a reporter covering the San Francisco Conference,
the British election, and the Potsdam meeting tall in nineteen
forty five.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
A few beats later. In the recording, which you can
find online at the website of UVa's Miller Center, Kennedy
explains why journalism didn't captivate him the way politics ultimately did.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
A reporter is reporting what happens. He's not making it
happen underline, making underline reporter. Even the good reporters, the
ones who are really fascinated by what happens and who
find real stickless putting their noses into the center of
even they in a sense are in a secondary profession.
(39:05):
It's reporting what happened coma, but it isn't participating.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
By all accounts, JFK would have made a fine journalist,
and if fate hadn't intervened, maybe that's exactly what he
would have ended up being.
Speaker 7 (39:21):
Let's suppose that Joe Junior survives. He was seen by
his father and others as the one who would enter politics.
So he does so, let's say, and let's say he
rises to the talk or near the talk. I actually
suggest that there are reasons why Joe Kennedy Junior would
not have been as successful as his brother was in politics.
(39:43):
But let's assume that he would have been. I think
Jack Kennedy probably would have pursued, at least in the
early going, a journalistic career, and I think he would
have been successful at it. It's not impossible to imagine
that he stays with that career, that he becomes a
kind of Walter Lippman for a later generation. And because
(40:06):
of his skill as an observer, because of his intelligence,
because of his ability to write pretty well and pretty quickly,
which is important in journalism, a very little reason to
believe that he would have not been highly successful in
that capacity. It's a fascinating scenario.
Speaker 4 (40:26):
He had a curious mind and he had a great
way of expressing himself. Would he have made a great journalist,
Of course he would.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
So this should be a movie. This one a little
added cinematic flair because the great director Rob Reiner gave
us a nice cameo. Here, zaren, have you put your
casting director hat on?
Speaker 10 (40:49):
I did, and in the spirit of Rob Reinder, I
thought a lot about this.
Speaker 6 (40:53):
I wanted to get the casting right.
Speaker 10 (40:54):
He's really good at casting, so I thought, Okay, I
give this one up for Rob, so for casting for
young JFK the guy, the kid looks like him. So
this one was easy. That kid Finn Wolfhart from Stranger Things.
I mean, he's got the floppy hair.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Do you think he looks like JFK?
Speaker 10 (41:08):
Out of all the young actors I was looking at,
he was the closest appearance. Right Tony Goldwyn, the guy
from Law and Order and from Scandal, he looks the
most like a Kennedy. But I think he's too old
now to play young Jack. So I was looking for
a young Jack.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
You know what, I'm gonna give you a crazy pitch,
what young solo himself?
Speaker 6 (41:29):
Whoa that's back?
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (41:32):
Bring him back good jawline poll too Okay.
Speaker 10 (41:36):
Now for Joe Kennedy Senior, for the Father, I thought
Tim Blake Nelson Delmar from O Brother, Where art thou?
He looks like Joe Kennedy Senior. I looked up Joe
Kennedy Senior. I'm like, oh, that's that's a done deal,
Tim Blake Nelson. And then for like William Randolph Hurst,
I thought this one. I was like, okay, once again,
looked at the man difficult face because he has a
kind of like, you know, like that Time Traveler pre
(41:57):
iPhone face. You're like, okay, who am I to get?
Edward Horton was as close as I could get, being
like boom. I think he's got the acting chops. He
can do the gravitas. And then for Winston Churchill, this
was a surprise Patton Oswalden a play for an Oscar.
Speaker 7 (42:10):
Wow, whoa.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
I love when a comedian goes serious, right, I thought
that could be fun because Toby Jones was the other one,
the British actor, but he's already played him, so that
was like, okay, that's too easy. Yeah, British people always
get mad when Americans play Winston Churchill because of the crown.
It was John Letgow, John Lithgow, and they got mad.
But he did a great job.
Speaker 10 (42:30):
So you know, I did not see that though, John Lithgow,
that's an interesting choice.
Speaker 6 (42:34):
He seems like too tall.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
He was great. Yeah, so I think we can give
it to another American.
Speaker 6 (42:39):
Okay, I like that call.
Speaker 5 (42:40):
And John Lithgow, quick aside, will be playing buzz Aldrin
and an upcoming podcast that launches I think it's July ninth.
Speaker 6 (42:49):
Really, yeah, fighting buzz Aldrin, my man.
Speaker 5 (42:53):
Your guy. Maybe we put Rob Reiner in this as
kind of the narrator. He can be like the Peter
falk roll from Yeah where that fits into the narrative.
But let's working.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Then he plays the newspaperman who assigned JFK. A It's
a non historical character, but just the scrappy newspaper man
who's a mentor to JFK in the movie version.
Speaker 6 (43:17):
So that's good, good call, good screenwriting.
Speaker 10 (43:20):
I love to think that one thing about this story
is it's a perfect reminder that a great truth of leadership,
the secret to being a great leader is be a
great storyteller, you know what I mean, Like, think about
all of our great American presidents. They're almost all great storytellers.
Speaker 5 (43:33):
So if JFK the journalist was coming up today, what
would be your advice It start a sub stack focus
on social.
Speaker 6 (43:41):
Wow, that's tough one.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
I would say you, Oh, you have family, money, great,
You'll be just fine.
Speaker 5 (43:52):
Very Special Episodes is made by some very special people.
Today's episode was written by Joe Pompeo. Joe is one
of our regulars. You can find out what else he's
up to at Joe Pompeo dot net. This show is
hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaren Burnett, and Jason English. Our
producer is Josh Fisher. Editing and sound design by Jonathan
(44:13):
Washington and Josh Fisher. Additional editing by Mary Doo, fixing
and mastering by Josh Fisher. A big thanks to our
JFK voice actor, Tom anton Ellis. It's very hard to
do reenactments in an episode that also includes archival audio
of the guy you are re enacting, but I thought
Tom nailed it. Great to work with him again, And
(44:35):
of course big thanks to Rob Reiner for agreeing to
talk to us po see Spinal Tap two in theaters
this September. Thanks to Roco at Rob's Company for helping
coordinate original music by Alis McCoy, research in fact checking
by Austin Thompson and Joe Pompeo. Show logo by Lucy Kintonia.
Our executive producer is Jason English. If you ever want
(44:58):
to email the show, you can reach us a Very
Special Episodes at gmail dot com. Very Special Episodes is
a production of iHeart Podcasts m
On April twenty seventh, nineteen sixty one, John F. Kennedy's
plane touched down at LaGuardia Airport. It was his first
visit to New York since becoming president. He stepped off
the aircraft and slid into a black limousine, which whisked
him to his suite at the Carlisle on Madison Avenue.
(00:27):
Hours later, a police motorcade accompanied Kennedy south to the
Waldorf Astoria. Outside the hotel, more than three thousand people
jammed Park Avenue to greet the new leader of the
Free world. It was Press Week in New York, an
annual gathering of more than twelve hundred editors, publishers, and
(00:50):
newspaper executives. President Kennedy had come to the Waldorf that
evening to address the American Newspaper Publishers Association. His appearance
was especially newsworthy. One week earlier, US backed forces had
flown the white flag in Cuba. The Bay of Pigs
(01:12):
invasion may have failed to topple the communist government of
Fidel Castro, but it did succeed in escalating the Cold War,
a major foreign policy blunder. Just months into Kennedy's term,
Dressed in white tie, Kennedy approached the lectern in the
(01:33):
Waldorf's dazzling Grand ballroom. His speech was titled The President
and the Press.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Some may suggest that this would be more naturally worded
the President versus the Press, but those are not my
sentiments tonight.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Instead, Kennedy said he had a more sober topic to discuss.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
But I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every
newsman in the nation to re examine his own standards
and to recognize the nature of our country's peril.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
In time of war.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
The government and the press have customarily joined in an effort,
based largely on self discipline, to prevent unauthorized disclosures to
the enemy. In times of clear and present danger. The
courts have held that even the privileged rights of the
First Amendment must yield to the public's need for national security.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
These were perilous times, as evidenced by the situation in Cuba.
War hadn't been declared, but Kennedy wanted the press to
act as if it had. He claimed America's enemies had
learned about covert preparations from simply reading the newspapers that
they'd been able to glean quote the size, the strength,
(02:58):
the location, and the nature of our forces and weapons,
and our plans and strategy for their use. He said
that in at least one instance, details about a secret
satellite mechanism had been published.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
The newspapers which printed these stories were loyal, patriotic, responsible,
and well meaning. Had we been engaged in open warfare,
the undoubtedly would not have published such items. But in
the absence of open warfare, they recognized only the tests
of journalism and not the tests of national security. And
(03:34):
my question, deny it is whether additional tests should not
now be adopted. That question is for you alone to answer.
No public official should answer it for you. No governmental
plan should impose its restraints against Joe Will. But I
would be failing in my duty to the nation, in
(03:55):
considering all of the responsibilities that we now bail and
all of the means at hand to meet those responsibilities,
if I did not command this problem to your attention
and urge its thoughtful consideration.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Kennedy ended his address by affirming his respect and admiration
for the Fourth Estate. He said he shared journalism's obligation
to inform the American people, to give them the facts
to spark debate He wasn't asking those in attendance to
support his administration. He understood their watchdog rule. He not
(04:34):
only accepted the accountability of newspapers, he welcomed it.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And so it is to the printing press, to the
recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the
courier of his news, that we look for strength and assistance,
confident that with your help, man will be what he
was born to be, free and independent.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
The next day, Kennedy's remarks were front page headlines. The
New York Times declared, President urges press limit news that
helps reds. But there was something the Times story didn't mention.
Kennedy wasn't just speaking to America's journalists as their president.
(05:20):
He was speaking as someone who, at least for three
months in nineteen forty five, had been one of them.
Even if you were well versed in other aspects of
JFK's microscopically scrutinized life, you could be forgiven if you
were less familiar with this one, That is, if you
(05:41):
are familiar with it at all.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
I was sixteen and JFK was assassinated.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
That's Rob Reiner, the famous director Spinal Tap. Rob Reiner,
Princess Bride, Rob Reiner, A few good men, Rob Reiner,
and in the podcast space Who Killed JFK. Reiner His
twenty twenty three show spent several weeks atop the Apple
Top podcast charts.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
I had written a paper in high school about the
Cuban missile crisis, so I was focused on him as
a president. I knew, obviously a little bit about him
as a senator. I knew about PT One nine, and
we all knew about his heroics during the Second World War.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
But even Rob Reiner wasn't dialed in on this chapter
of JFK's story.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
As far as him being a journalist, I didn't really
know very much about that, and I'm hearing about it
essentially for the first time here.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
It was a brief and relatively under the radar period
in JFK's life. At the same time, it had a
lasting impact on one of the most iconic presidents in
American history. Welcome to very special episodes and Iheart's original podcast.
(06:56):
I'm your host Danish Schwartz, and this is JFK Is
Forgotten Summer in Journalism.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
Welcome back to very special episodes. I'm Jason English. She
is Danish Schwartz. He is Aaron Burnett, And on this
podcast we tell one great story each week, and I'm
going to start here.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
I love a good prequel.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Better call Saul Wicked the Muppet Babies. Just give me
the back story.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
The Muppet Babies. Did you see Solo? That's the real
test of whether you like a prequel.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
I did see that one, and that is a real test.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
So on the topic of presidential jobs by Osmosis, we've
heard these stories over the years. Barack Obama worked at
Baskin Robbins and Ron Reagan, Joe Biden, they were lifeguards.
Grover Cleveland was a hangman. I don't know if you
guys knew that. He's carried out at least two executions.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Did not know Grover Cleveland.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
The Grover Cleveland. Richard Nixon got to get him in here.
He worked at the Family gas station, naturally, and LBJ
owned the Muzak distribution rights. He was in the radio
business with his wife and they owned Muzak rights and in.
Speaker 6 (08:12):
The Austin area.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
I don't think any of those stories are going to
be worthy of very special episodes.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Oh no, the hangman one sounds kind of interesting.
Speaker 6 (08:22):
Yeah, Hangman and Musach are both interesting angles.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
It's a little dark. I'm talking about the muzak one.
But jfk is a journalist.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, I love it because I actually started as a journalist.
Speaker 6 (08:35):
Yeah, it's right.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
It is my prequel. Jason knew me when.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
I'm looking forward to your presidential run as well.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, I'll be the one to set things right.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
He already got my vote though.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
For John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the seeds of service were planted
at a young age.
Speaker 7 (08:53):
It's often said that he was born into a rich family.
That's not exactly true.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Fred Logoval is one of Kennedy's by biographers.
Speaker 7 (09:01):
His father, Joe Sr. Became extraordinarily wealthy. Let's say the
first ten years of Jack's life is really when he
makes his fortune. You know what's notable about this family,
of course, is that he and his wife Rose instill
in their children, all of them, really, this idea that
they need to think beyond themselves, They need to give
(09:24):
something back, They need to commit themselves at least a
little bit to public service. And I think that's something
that Jack takes in.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
After graduating from Harvard in nineteen forty, Jack had his
eye on law school. His plans changed when the United States'
entry into World War Two seemed inevitable. Jack and his
older brother, Joseph Kennedy Junior, enlisted in the US Naval Reserve.
Speaker 7 (09:52):
Both brothers want to serve in the war. They both
want to see combat, which is an interesting decision on
their port beca as you say, they could have avoided this,
but they both serve and of course get into harm's
way before too long. And in Jack's case, that becomes
as a commander of a pet boat.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
PT boats were small, fast, and heavily armed. Jack's was
the eighty foot PT one oh nine, part of a
fleet in the Pacific theater. As US forces battled the Japanese,
the twenty six year old lieutenant commanded his vessel through
the waters of the Solomon Islands. In terms of combat assignments,
(10:35):
it didn't get much riskier. At the same time, the
mission suited Jack. He had practically grown up on the
sea during summers at the Kennedy Compound, sailing Nantucket Sound
off the coast of Hyanna's Port. Still, no amount of
nautical expertise could have prepared him for the danger he
would face in the wei hours of August second, nineteen
(10:59):
forty three.
Speaker 7 (11:00):
It was a moonless night. They're in the Beckett Straight
in the Solomons. PT boats are patrolling looking for Japanese vessels.
Some of the PT boats had radar. Lieutenant Kennedy's did
not have radar, which really limited what he was able
to perceive on this very dark night. And what happens
(11:23):
is he does not see that a Japanese destroyer is
bearing down on them.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
The Japanese warship slammed into Jack's boat, slicing it in half.
The PT one nine didn't stand a chance. That might
have been the end of John F. Kennedy right then
and there. No Congress, no Jack ee O, no White House,
no Bay of Pigs, no Cuban missile crisis, no Lee
(11:48):
Harvey Oswald, no JFK airports.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
These are the events that change history. He knew what
war was. I mean, obviously Eisenhower did. But here was
a man who really was in the midst of the
horrors of war.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Miraculously, Jack survived, so did most of his crew. They
could see a small island in the distance. Now all
they had to do was swim to safety. Jack had
as good a chance of making it as any. A
few years earlier, he'd competed on the Harvard swim team.
He just hadn't ever trained for a long distance swim
(12:27):
through shark infested enemy waters with a wounded comrade in tow.
Speaker 7 (12:33):
He drags this injured member of his crew for these
three and a half four hours, so he has to
not just swim for himself, but for his comrade. And
they make it to this island, and then they have
to figure out what to do from there. The whole
time there's the possibility, of course, that Japanese will spot them. Ultimately,
(12:54):
they are restored.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
On August twentieth, a front page New York Times headline
claimed Kennedy's son is hero in Pacific. In his book JFK.
Coming of Age in the American Century, Fred Logowl describes
the episode as a pivotal moment.
Speaker 7 (13:12):
His World War two experience, and especially his experience in
the Pacific, has a very important effect on young Jack Kennedy.
I think it boosts his belief that he belongs, that
he can make decisions, that he can be a leader.
So it's a real shot in terms of his self
confidence and his self belief. I also think it shapes
(13:35):
his worldview, his belief that coming out of this war,
the United States needs to play a primary role in
world affairs. It affects how he sees the world, how
he sees the US role in that world. That, I think,
in a way will stay with him till the end
of his days.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
One year after Jack's near death experience in the Pacific,
his older volunteered for a highly perilous operation. Joe Junior's
orders were to fly a plane packed with explosives towards
France and then jump out with the parachute. He didn't
make it.
Speaker 7 (14:14):
It's what kind of suicide mission? Really? The plane will
continue well, it explodes before they can bail.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Joe Junior's death was almost too much to bear for
his father, a former SEC chairman who'd served as the
US ambassador to the United Kingdom earlier in the war.
The Boston Globe reported quote from the time the family
received the Navy telegram, the ex ambassador has kept to
(14:42):
his room. His grief is deep. Joe Junior had been
the golden child and heir apparent of a proud political lineage.
From a young age, his father had been grooming him
for greatness. Now Joe's goal of becoming America's first Catholic
president had been cut tragically short.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
You had Joe Kennedy, who always wanted the family to
be considered legitimate and to be accepted in the political world.
I don't think Jack thought of himself for somebody who
was going to take up that mantle. I think he
always thought his older brother was going to be the one.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
It was a devastating turn of events for the family.
It also had major implications for the Kennedy clan's second
oldest son, because the family's hopes and dreams didn't just
die with Joe Junior. Rather, they were transferred onto Jack.
(15:51):
Following his exploits in the Pacific, Jack sought treatment for
chronic back pain that had ailed him for years. He
ended up up having surgery, which officially put an end
to his military career. On March first, nineteen forty five,
Lieutenant Kennedy was honorably discharged, his future laid out before him.
(16:14):
Still mourning the death of his brother, Jack found himself
at a crossroads. He emerged from his Navy service a
household name, the torchbearer of his family's political ambitions. Politics
was in his blood. In addition, to the roles his
father had played in government. Jack's maternal grandfather had been
(16:35):
a mayor of Boston and a US congressman. His paternal
grandfather had been a state senator. Both of his great
uncles were state senators, and his father's first cousin was
once the mayor of Brockton, Massachusetts. But in that spring
of nineteen forty five, as the war entered its final inning,
(16:56):
Jack had a lot to consider.
Speaker 7 (16:59):
He could go to law school, which he has flirted with,
not because he has a particular interest in the law,
but because it's a career step for somebody who doesn't
maybe quite know what they want to do. He's interested
in journalism, and I think he is thinking about politics.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Jack was already an accomplished writer. Senior year at Harvard,
he wrote a thesis exploring British appeasement in the run
up to World War Two. Joe Senior encouraged his son
to publish it. To make the work commercially viable, they
enlisted Joe's friend Arthur Kroc, the Pulitzer Prize winning Washington
(17:37):
correspondent for The New York Times. In his memoirs, Kroc
would write of Jack's thesis quote, it was remarkable for
the fine perception of the fundamental problems of a peace
loving democracy threatened with dictatorial regimes. Kroc helped Jack turn
the thesis into a book called Why England Slept, with
(18:01):
a forward from Henry Luce, the founder of Time magazine.
It became a best seller, and the book's thesis persuaded
Krock that Jack was quote suited to a career in journalism.
Five years later, as Jack wade career options, Joe Senior
got in touch with his old pal William Randolph Hurst.
Speaker 7 (18:25):
He had known. Joe Senior had known Hurst from his
days as a Hollywood mogul in the nineteen twenties. Late
nineteen twenties, Joe Kennedy became a serious player in Hollywood,
made a good deal of money in Hollywood. Got to
know Hurst at that point, partly through Mariam Davies, and
in the nineteen thirties, Joe Kennedy convinced Hurst to back
(18:49):
Fdr for reelection in nineteen thirty six. So they have
these connections.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Joe Senior helped Jack get a gig as a syndicated
special correspondent for the Hearst Newspapers, which included the San
Francisco Examiner, the Chicago Herald American, and the New York
Journal American. The idea was that Jack would cover the
unfolding post war order from a quote serviceman's point of view.
(19:18):
Hearst got to splash his papers with the byline of
best selling author John F. Kennedy, identified at the top
of each article as a quote. Recently retired p boat
hero and son of former Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, Jack
got to test the journalistic waters while elevating his profile
(19:39):
in a way that could prove advantageous to a future
in politics. His first assignment was a banger. At the
end of April nineteen forty five, Hurst sent him to
San Francisco to cover the founding Conference of the United Nations.
Jack suddenly found himself at the the center of international policymaking,
(20:03):
breathing the same air as illustrious statesman.
Speaker 8 (20:07):
Delegates representing forty six nations came to San Francisco on
April twenty fifth, nineteen forty five, representing almost two thousand
million people, more than eighty percent of humanity, all at war.
When the conference was begun. They came with hope born
of common struggle.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
If you were a cub reporter like Jack Kennedy, this
was the place to be. Kennedy joined twelve hundred accredited
journalists from established scribes like James Rustin, Walter Lippman, and
the Kennedy's friend Arthur Krock, two gossips like Walter Winschell,
Earl Wilson, and Peta Hopper. Describing the media spectacle, Life
(20:55):
Magazine observed a quote like Pilgrim's drawn to Mecca. The
nation's newspapermen flocked to San Francisco. They were all there,
the whys and the witless, the sober and the silly,
the pundits, pontificators, and performing seals. The goal of the
conference was to create a template for global diplomacy in
(21:18):
the interest of preventing future wars. In his first dispatch
on April twenty eighth, Kennedy warned readers not to get
their hopes up.
Speaker 9 (21:29):
There is an impression that this is the conference to
end wars and introduce peace on Earth and goodwill toward nations, excluding,
of course, Germany and Japan. Well, it's not going to
do that.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Kennedy's debut also included a man on the Street interview
with a decorated marine who told him quote, I don't
know much about what's going on, but if they just
fix it so that we don't have to fight anymore,
they can count me in. Kennedy replied, me too, Sarge.
In the evenings, Kennedy swanned about San Francisco with the elite. Kroc,
(22:06):
writing in his memoirs years later, painted some memorable scenes
of the humble Hurst correspondent cutting in on a dance
with the British Foreign Secretary's wife on his bed at
the Palace Hotel, with a high ball in one hand
and a telephone receiver in the other.
Speaker 9 (22:25):
Hello there, Yeah, I want to speak to the managing
editor of the Chicago Herald Examiner. Not in. We'll put
somebody on to take a message. Cook. Will you see
that the boss gets this message as soon as you
can reach him. Thank you. Here's the message. Kennedy will
(22:46):
not be filing tonight.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Tempting as it may have been, Kennedy wasn't there to party.
Over the course of a month, he wrote sixteen columns
at about three hundred words apiece, exactly the most grueling
journalistic assignment, but well worth the rate Hurst was paying
him seven hundred and fifty dollars, which is about thirteen
(23:10):
thousand today, Plus it was exciting work. Kennedy basically had
a front row seat to history, reporting on the birth
of the UN as the Allies declared victory in Europe.
Speaker 7 (23:23):
I mean, it's hard to overstate the symbolic importance of
the San Francisco Conference, Even if the sort of basics
of that world order have already been laid out at
prior conferences among the Allies, there's already a sense that
this is now going to be effectively a two power world.
The United States and the Soviet Union will be the
(23:44):
key players, and the young reporter Jack Kennedy, his stories
filed from San Francisco are so fascinating.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Kennedy's stories weren't exactly straight news, and his point of
view wasn't just that of a serviceman, but someone who
had his own ideas about world affairs.
Speaker 9 (24:04):
May first, this conference from a distance may have appeared
so far like an international football game. Well, that part's
over and they are scheduled tomorrow to get at the
real work of the conference. This will consist of trying
to solve a number of more or less technical problems
(24:24):
upon how these dull problems are settled may depend our
peace in the upcoming years. May sixteenth, The Russians have
recognized our difficult position and have taken full advantage of it.
They have attempted to embarrass Us and the British at
every turn. May eighteenth, there is growing discouragement among people
(24:47):
concerning our chances of winning any lasting peace from this war.
There is talk of fighting the Russians in the next
ten or fifteen years. We have indeed gone a long
way since those hopeful days early in the war when
we talked of union. Now in one world there is
a fundamental distrust between Great Britain and the United States
(25:08):
on the one hand, and Russia on the other.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
The growing distrust between Russia and the US was a
running theme of Kennedy's reportage.
Speaker 7 (25:18):
Kennedy picks up on this. He's as quick as anybody else,
I would argue, at least in terms of the reporting
at the conference, to see how these two players were
going to be the most important players, number one and
number two, how they were destined to come into conflict.
There's a realism in his articles. These pieces stand up
(25:41):
pretty well. If one were to go back now and
read all of them. They're solid in the context of
their time. I would say they're even solid in terms
of what he saw, maybe at least to a degree
before others did, about this new world order.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
The San Francisco Conference carried on until June twenty six,
when the assembled delegates signed the historic Charter of the
United Nations. By then, Kennedy was gone. Another story had beckoned,
this time across the ocean. Kennedy hadn't been to Europe
since nineteen thirty nine. He had visited Germany right before
(26:19):
the invasion of Poland, then he had traveled to London.
On September third, nineteen thirty nine, Kennedy observed Britain's declaration
of war in the House of Commons, where soon to
be Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared, we are fighting to
save the whole world from the pestilence of Nazi tyranny
(26:40):
and in defense of all that is most sacred to man.
Nearly six years later, the Allies had won that fight
and Churchill was up for reelection. The conventional wisdom held
that Churchill's wartime leadership would make him a shoe in,
but one journalist was and so sure In fact, this journalist,
(27:03):
a fresh faced correspondent for the Hearst Papers, had a
hunch that the Prime Minister's days were numbered. In June
nineteen forty five, Kennedy flew to London and checked into
(27:24):
a two room suite at the Grovenor House Hotel. It
was Jack's first international assignment, and he'd gotten business cards
with his Hearst affiliation, John Fitzgerald Kennedy International News Service.
A letter to the US Consul General from the manager
of the news service made it official. This is to
(27:47):
certify that mister John F. Kennedy is on special assignment
in Europe for Hearst Newspapers. The British elections were scheduled
for July fifth. Kennedy arrived just in time for the
frenzied home stretch of the campaigns.
Speaker 7 (28:03):
He's fascinated by electoral politics in a democratic system. Again,
He's grown up experiencing this with his grandfather, Honey fitz
a legendary Boston politician. He has followed elections, you know,
as a student. Now he's seeing it up close, and
I think it absolutely inclines him more as much as
(28:26):
he's enjoying I think the reporting gig to seek out
political possibilities for himself.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Churchill seemed to have the upper hand. At least of
his high approval ratings were any indication. Speaking at a
campaign stop where thousands of cheering supporters lined the streets,
the Prime Minister said, this election is one of great
importance because it comes at a moment when the future
of our country is at stake. Around the same time,
(28:56):
Kennedy filed his latest story lines that appeared with the
article in various Hurst publications sounded ominous. Churchill's defeat possible
in new tide sweeping Europe. Labor rights may defeat Churchill,
says writer. Churchill may lose election. Here's Kennedy in his
(29:19):
own words.
Speaker 9 (29:20):
This may come as a surprise to most Americans, who
feel Churchill is as indomitable at the polls as he
was in the war. However, Churchill is fighting a tide
that is surging through Europe, washing away monarchies and conservative
governments everywhere, and that tide flows powerfully in England. England
is moving towards some form of socialism. If not in
(29:43):
this election, then then surely at the next.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Kennedy's article turned out to be precient. On July twenty sixth,
after all the votes were finally counted, the Labor Party
beat Churchill's Conservative government in a landslide. Croc later said
that Kennedy's writings were quote the only intimation I got
from anyone that Churchill would be defeated.
Speaker 7 (30:08):
Even in one or two of his pieces from San Francisco,
he suggests that the Conservatives are in some trouble, which
too many people seems absolutely crazy. Churchill in trouble politically,
how can that be? He's one of the great leaders
of the twentieth century. I think people already understood. Kennedy
(30:29):
even before he gets to London, says that this is
a possibility. What he then proceeds to do in the
weeks prior to the vote is to follow the campaign,
and he shows a reporter's nos for a good story.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
On the heels of Churchill's defeat, Kennedy wrote.
Speaker 9 (30:49):
England has been hit by some blockbusters in the last
five years, but none of them have a shoko like
today's election results. Explanations for the crushing defeat we're already forthcoming,
and they will be pouring in for the next few weeks.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
It was one of his last dispatches from the United Kingdom,
but Kennedy still had a few more stops on his
tour as a correspondent for Hurst. From England, he traveled
to Paris and then on to Germany. That's where the US,
the Soviet Union, and Great Britain were hashing out a
plan for post war Europe at the Potsdam Conference. The
(31:29):
historical record is a bit fuzzy as to whether Kennedy
actually filed any stories from this last leg of the trip.
It seems like he probably didn't. He did, however, keep
a diary. You can buy a reprint of it for
under ten bucks. It's called Prelude to Leadership, The European
(31:50):
Diary of John F. Kennedy. The diary reflects on the
utter destruction in places like Berlin.
Speaker 9 (31:58):
The devastation is The streets are relatively clear, but there
is not a single building which is not gutted. On
some of the streets, the stench, sweet and sickish from
dead bodies is overwhelming. The people all have completely colorless faces,
a yellow tinge with pale tan lips. They were all
(32:23):
carrying bundles. Where are they going? No one seems to know.
I wonder whether they do.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
In one entry, Kennedy describes a somber conversation with a
young German girl.
Speaker 9 (32:37):
This girl is about twenty two, speaks some English, and
is a Roman Catholic. She said it was difficult to
get to Catholic church after the Nazis came to power,
though it was possible. She thought the Germans were going
to win the war, but the first victories were just shining.
She thought the future of Germany is melancholy.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
The final entry is arguably the most chilling one. Kennedy
writes about his visit to Hitler's bombed out chalet in
the Bavarian Alps, as well as a nearby building.
Speaker 9 (33:09):
After visiting these two places, you can clearly understand how
that within a few years Hitler will emerge from the
hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most
significant figures who ever lived. He had boundless ambition for
his country, which rendered him a menace to the peace
of the world. But he had a mystery about him
(33:29):
in the way that he lived, in the manner of
his death that will live and grow after it. He
had in him the stuff of which legends are made.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
For the record. Kennedyologists who have written about this entry
have noted there's no indication that jfk harbored any sympathies
for the Fear or Nazi Germany.
Speaker 7 (33:49):
What I take away from the diary is a sense
that the world order has fundamentally shifted. In part again,
is based on seeing the destruction all around him, his
awareness that Britain is a faded power, that Britain is
(34:12):
emerging drastically weakened from the war. Now he's seeing that
Germany is destroyed coming out of the war. He understands
that there's going to be a division of Germany. What's
the strength in his analysis is the degree to which
he perceives that this division between East and West, the
(34:32):
United States the leader of one camp, if you will,
and the Soviet Union the leader and the other. That
I think is affirmed for him in these weeks in Germany,
and again I repeat because I think it matters a
conviction that he has, which is that the United States
must become the leader of the West going forward.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
In addition of the diary published in nineteen ninety five, include
an introduction by Hugh Sidney, who covered Kennedy's presidency for Time.
He writes, quote Kennedy shows in his diary that he
has the instincts of a good journalist, the unflagging curiosity,
the eyes, the ears. Others in Kennedy's orbit have described
(35:18):
that spring and summer of nineteen forty five as a
key step in his political evolution. Close friend and speech
writer Ted Sorenson wrote in his own JFK biography quote
in a brief fling at journalism, he had observed the
power politics at Potsdam and the San Francisco UN Conference,
(35:39):
and covered the British election. All this sharpened his interest
in public affairs and public service. Two of JFK's White
House aides said he considered his journalistic dalliances quote the
thing that finally moved Jack Kennedy toward active politics. Having
(36:00):
a close look as a reporter at the post war
political leaders in action, he decided that he might be
able to find more satisfaction and to perform more useful
service as a politician than as a political writer. Kennedy
left Europe in early August as the war was hurtling
(36:21):
toward its catastrophic conclusion in Japan. By the end of
the year, he had made the decision to run for
office in April nineteen forty six, he officially entered the
race to represent his home state's eleventh congressional district. And
while the rest is history.
Speaker 7 (36:41):
Nobody thought of this at the time, but present in
Potsdam are the thirty third President of the United States,
Harry Truman, the thirty fourth President of the United States
Dwight Eisenhower, and the thirty fifth President of the United States,
young Jack Kennedy.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
He was the youngest president ever to be elected. I
was only a teenager, but he felt like one of us.
But here was a guy, he was forty three at
the time, and we thought, Wow, this is somebody that's
almost in our generation, somebody who we actually can look
up to and respect. And he was funny, he had
a quick wit. That guy can be a president. That
(37:21):
was really cool to us. He was a hero to
our generation.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
One day in nineteen sixty, when Kennedy was running for president,
he sat down to dictate some notes. He would do
this from time to time, preparing for the memoirs he
expected to write. On this particular occasion, Kennedy reflected on
his trajectory from pt boat captain to candidate for America's
(37:45):
highest office.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
My brother Joe was killed in Europe as a fire
in August nineteen forty four, and that ended our hopes
for him.
Speaker 10 (37:55):
But I didn't even.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Start to think about a political profess more than a
year later. When the war came. I didn't know what
I was going to do, and I didn't find it
oppressive that I didn't know. Forty four and forty five,
I had been in the hospital for about a year,
recovering from some injuries I received in the Pacific, and
(38:19):
I worked as a reporter covering the San Francisco Conference,
the British election, and the Potsdam meeting tall in nineteen
forty five.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
A few beats later. In the recording, which you can
find online at the website of UVa's Miller Center, Kennedy
explains why journalism didn't captivate him the way politics ultimately did.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
A reporter is reporting what happens. He's not making it
happen underline, making underline reporter. Even the good reporters, the
ones who are really fascinated by what happens and who
find real stickless putting their noses into the center of
even they in a sense are in a secondary profession.
(39:05):
It's reporting what happened coma, but it isn't participating.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
By all accounts, JFK would have made a fine journalist,
and if fate hadn't intervened, maybe that's exactly what he
would have ended up being.
Speaker 7 (39:21):
Let's suppose that Joe Junior survives. He was seen by
his father and others as the one who would enter politics.
So he does so, let's say, and let's say he
rises to the talk or near the talk. I actually
suggest that there are reasons why Joe Kennedy Junior would
not have been as successful as his brother was in politics.
(39:43):
But let's assume that he would have been. I think
Jack Kennedy probably would have pursued, at least in the
early going, a journalistic career, and I think he would
have been successful at it. It's not impossible to imagine
that he stays with that career, that he becomes a
kind of Walter Lippman for a later generation. And because
(40:06):
of his skill as an observer, because of his intelligence,
because of his ability to write pretty well and pretty quickly,
which is important in journalism, a very little reason to
believe that he would have not been highly successful in
that capacity. It's a fascinating scenario.
Speaker 4 (40:26):
He had a curious mind and he had a great
way of expressing himself. Would he have made a great journalist,
Of course he would.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
So this should be a movie. This one a little
added cinematic flair because the great director Rob Reiner gave
us a nice cameo. Here, zaren, have you put your
casting director hat on?
Speaker 10 (40:49):
I did, and in the spirit of Rob Reinder, I
thought a lot about this.
Speaker 6 (40:53):
I wanted to get the casting right.
Speaker 10 (40:54):
He's really good at casting, so I thought, Okay, I
give this one up for Rob, so for casting for
young JFK the guy, the kid looks like him. So
this one was easy. That kid Finn Wolfhart from Stranger Things.
I mean, he's got the floppy hair.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Do you think he looks like JFK?
Speaker 10 (41:08):
Out of all the young actors I was looking at,
he was the closest appearance. Right Tony Goldwyn, the guy
from Law and Order and from Scandal, he looks the
most like a Kennedy. But I think he's too old
now to play young Jack. So I was looking for
a young Jack.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
You know what, I'm gonna give you a crazy pitch,
what young solo himself?
Speaker 6 (41:29):
Whoa that's back?
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (41:32):
Bring him back good jawline poll too Okay.
Speaker 10 (41:36):
Now for Joe Kennedy Senior, for the Father, I thought
Tim Blake Nelson Delmar from O Brother, Where art thou?
He looks like Joe Kennedy Senior. I looked up Joe
Kennedy Senior. I'm like, oh, that's that's a done deal,
Tim Blake Nelson. And then for like William Randolph Hurst,
I thought this one. I was like, okay, once again,
looked at the man difficult face because he has a
kind of like, you know, like that Time Traveler pre
(41:57):
iPhone face. You're like, okay, who am I to get?
Edward Horton was as close as I could get, being
like boom. I think he's got the acting chops. He
can do the gravitas. And then for Winston Churchill, this
was a surprise Patton Oswalden a play for an Oscar.
Speaker 7 (42:10):
Wow, whoa.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
I love when a comedian goes serious, right, I thought
that could be fun because Toby Jones was the other one,
the British actor, but he's already played him, so that
was like, okay, that's too easy. Yeah, British people always
get mad when Americans play Winston Churchill because of the crown.
It was John Letgow, John Lithgow, and they got mad.
But he did a great job.
Speaker 10 (42:30):
So you know, I did not see that though, John Lithgow,
that's an interesting choice.
Speaker 6 (42:34):
He seems like too tall.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
He was great. Yeah, so I think we can give
it to another American.
Speaker 6 (42:39):
Okay, I like that call.
Speaker 5 (42:40):
And John Lithgow, quick aside, will be playing buzz Aldrin
and an upcoming podcast that launches I think it's July ninth.
Speaker 6 (42:49):
Really, yeah, fighting buzz Aldrin, my man.
Speaker 5 (42:53):
Your guy. Maybe we put Rob Reiner in this as
kind of the narrator. He can be like the Peter
falk roll from Yeah where that fits into the narrative.
But let's working.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Then he plays the newspaperman who assigned JFK. A It's
a non historical character, but just the scrappy newspaper man
who's a mentor to JFK in the movie version.
Speaker 6 (43:17):
So that's good, good call, good screenwriting.
Speaker 10 (43:20):
I love to think that one thing about this story
is it's a perfect reminder that a great truth of leadership,
the secret to being a great leader is be a
great storyteller, you know what I mean, Like, think about
all of our great American presidents. They're almost all great storytellers.
Speaker 5 (43:33):
So if JFK the journalist was coming up today, what
would be your advice It start a sub stack focus
on social.
Speaker 6 (43:41):
Wow, that's tough one.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
I would say you, Oh, you have family, money, great,
You'll be just fine.
Speaker 5 (43:52):
Very Special Episodes is made by some very special people.
Today's episode was written by Joe Pompeo. Joe is one
of our regulars. You can find out what else he's
up to at Joe Pompeo dot net. This show is
hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaren Burnett, and Jason English. Our
producer is Josh Fisher. Editing and sound design by Jonathan
(44:13):
Washington and Josh Fisher. Additional editing by Mary Doo, fixing
and mastering by Josh Fisher. A big thanks to our
JFK voice actor, Tom anton Ellis. It's very hard to
do reenactments in an episode that also includes archival audio
of the guy you are re enacting, but I thought
Tom nailed it. Great to work with him again, And
(44:35):
of course big thanks to Rob Reiner for agreeing to
talk to us po see Spinal Tap two in theaters
this September. Thanks to Roco at Rob's Company for helping
coordinate original music by Alis McCoy, research in fact checking
by Austin Thompson and Joe Pompeo. Show logo by Lucy Kintonia.
Our executive producer is Jason English. If you ever want
(44:58):
to email the show, you can reach us a Very
Special Episodes at gmail dot com. Very Special Episodes is
a production of iHeart Podcasts m
Host
Jamie Loftus
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