consequence of the many mentions of Kennedy's plan to withdraw troops throughout the film, contrary to Johnson's decisions to head even more into the conflict.

In similar fashion, involvement in Vietnam is mentioned by Bobby Kennedy in the biopic about the First Lady entitled *Jackie*. After JFK's death, Bobby says to Jackie that the president's death is a waste, and that his administration could have done more. He cites domestic and foreign matters that could have had a better outcome, had the president lived, among which, the involvement in Vietnam. He can be heard saying: "We could have done so much. Civil Rights, the space program. Vietnam... We teed up Vietnam. Now Johnson gets to knock it down." [01:09:42]

It can be argued that, in the films from this corpus, Vietnam is only briefly mentioned because a further analysis of Kennedy's tactics in Vietnam could have tarnished his image, and because Vietnam represents the ambivalence that characterizes JFK as commander in chief, between belligerence and appeasement. To defend this idea, it can also be added that in the films in which the Vietnam war is mentioned, it therefore becomes part of the Camelot myth and the "what ifs" that contributed to build Kennedy's legacy, and the negative aspects of the war are not addressed. Nevertheless, Vietnam is not the only international conflict on which Kennedy's tactics as president were unclear. Indeed, Cuba represented another source of dilemma.

### 3) Cuban-American relations

JFK's complicated relations with Cuba and by extension the mafia are marked again by ambivalence. In order to understand these relations, it seems important to explain links between notable mobsters such as Sam Giancana and Kennedy, and their involvement in the Bay of Ppigs event. On top of that, the background of rivalries between the USSR and the United States over Cuba shall be pointed out in order to get a full understanding of the origins of the Cuban Crisis.

Indeed, Sam Giancana, the leader of the Chicago mob at the time of Kennedy's presidency, played an important role in JFK's election, as "Giancana knew Joseph Kennedy, [...] [who] asked Giancana for help in rounding up votes for his son's 1960 presidential campaign. Illinois was critically important in the 1960 campaign, and Giancana's ability to deliver votes in Chicago may well have clinched the presidency for John F. Kennedy."<fnref n="196" /> Yet this was not the end of his intervention in the Kennedy administration and Giancana can be said to have played an important role in the Cuban-American relationships during Kennedy's time in office. Indeed, in 1960, Giancana, among other mob leaders, was contacted by the

<footnote n="196">196 The Mob Museum. "June 1975: Chicago Mob Boss Sam Giancana Murdered." The Mob Museum</footnote>
CIA in order to kill Castro. Although it is debated whether Kennedy knew about it or not, scholar Mark White advances an interesting point:

Beginning in 1960, the CIA made sustained efforts to kill Fidel Castro, initiatives that included hiring mafia bosses, such as Giancana, to organize an assassination. Hence the agency was in league with Giancana to murder Castro at the same time that Giancana was seeing a woman with whom Kennedy was sleeping. [...] Kennedy's affair with Campbell is relevant to this issue as she represented a nexus between the president and Giancana, a key figure in the CIA/Mob effort to kill Castro. It increases the chances that Kennedy did know about the assassination plots, especially given Campbell's claims that JFK had asked her to arrange meetings with Giancana and that she had passed on written messages between the two men. Khrushchev's decision to deploy missiles in Cuba was in part a response to America's antiCastro policy.<fnref n="197" />

Although Giancana and other mob leaders helped the Kennedy administration in its attempt to kill Castro, they did not manage to do so, and the Bay of Pigs invasion that followed was a total failure for Kennedy, as *Killing Kennedy* demonstrates. Indeed, thanks to archive images of news reports and of American prisoners on the Cuban beaches, and most importantly thanks to the commentator's voiceover, the utter failure of the invasion of the Bay of Pigs is revealed: "Beaches were not prepared by air or artillery bombardment. Those able to move beyond the beaches were trapped in swamp or high growth which was burned off, and the fire forced them out one by one into the hands of Castro's forces, prisoners of war, dupes of the United States government." [00:11:47] Castro was even waiting for the rebels on the beaches, as one of the Joint Chiefs mentions: " 'Right now, the rebels are pinned down here, on the beach. Castro himself is there.' 'Castro? On the beach?' 'In a T-34 tank,' " [00:11:04] and as the news coverage explains: "Castro knew the battle plan beforehand, prepared an ambush and assigned himself a prominent role in the battle." [00:10:55] In the film, the depiction of the few days during which the Bay of Pigs events happened also shows that the relations between Kennedy and the Joint Chiefs were ambivalent, if not hostile, as previously seen in this analysis. Indeed, the blame for JFK's belligerence and his lack of experience that led to the failure of the Bay of Pigs falls on the Joint Chiefs, as he "[was] told [that] the plan would work. You told me those men will be met by anti-Castro forces. And where are they? Are they there?" [00:11:28] As a consequence, in *Killing Kennedy*, although Kennedy was the commander in chief, and although leaks reveal his clear involvement in the TV news report shown in the film a little later on, the blame needs to fall on someone else: "And here on the beaches around the Bay of Pigs, the invasion floundered and the search for scapegoats began. The issue has been sharpened further by disclosure of the President's

<footnote n="197">197 White in Morgan, Iwan W., ed. *Presidents in the Movies*. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2011: 144</footnote>
behind-the-scenes role.” [00:13:33] In similar fashion, Kenny blames the Joint Chiefs during
the Cuban Crisis for the stain that the Bay of Pigs left on JFK's portrait in *Thirteen Days*:
“This... This is a set-up. The Chiefs want to go in. They need to redeem themselves for the
Bay of Pigs. They gotta go in this time. They got to do it right.” [00:56:10]

On top of that, in the films from this corpus, the only reference to Giancana, who
helped the Kennedy administration in its entreprise to kill Castro, occurs in *Killing Kennedy*,
when Bobby and John discuss the president's womanizing problem, and more precisely, Judith
Campbell Exner. [00:22:01] Once again, a negative aspect of Kennedy's presidency, that is to
say, the use of Giancana in the Castro assassination plot, is not mentioned, and this omission
thus protects the president's portrait. What it mentioned about Giancana on the contrary is
Bobby's investigation against him for his role as a mob leader: "'Sam Giancana is a mobster.'
'I'm aware of who Sam is.' 'Jesus Christ Jack. I'm investigating Sam Giancana for
racketeering!'" [00:22:01] Indeed, once appointed attorney general, one of RFK's top
priorities was to get rid of mobs: "one of President Kennedy's first steps when he took office
was to appoint his brother, Robert Kennedy, attorney general, and one of Robert's priorities
was going after the Mob."<fnref n="198" /> As far as *Thirteen Days* is concerned, as White points out¹⁹⁹, in
order for the film to be more complete, a certain background on Giancana would have been
necessary, owing to the fact that the film revolves around the Cuban Missile Crisis and
Cuban-American relationships. Nonetheless, once again, information appear to have been
selected as to what would constitute the background of the films in order to polish Kennedy's
image.

A year after the Bay of Pigs events, in 1962, Cuban-American relationships did not
improve as the Cuban Crisis broke. Yet, this time, Kennedy managed to resolve the conflict in
a peaceful manner. Nonetheless, this resolution is also a source of ambivalence in a way as it
was not a total victory on Kennedy's part. Indeed, in order to understand the Cuban Crisis, it
seems important to focus on its origins, which are obscured in *Thirteen Days* as they would
otherwise stain Kennedy's utterly positive portrait in the film. "I wanna see limited military
option" [*Killing Kennedy*, 00:27:28] and "It never was my intention to invade Cuba anyway
until they put the missiles in there," [*Thirteen Days*, 01:44:34] is what Kennedy can be heard
telling his advisors in films, yet as White explains,

> Examination of the roots of the crisis has induced some historians to conclude that Kennedy at the very least played a significant role in bringing it about. Clearly there would have been no missile crisis had Khrushchev not decided in the spring of 1962 to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba. But a good many scholars now agree

<footnote n="198">198 The Mob Museum. "June 1975: Chicago Mob Boss Sam Giancana Murdered." The Mob Museum
199 *White in* Morgan, Iwan W., ed. *Presidents in the Movies*. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2011: 143-144</footnote>
that his missile ploy was in part a response to Kennedy's hostility toward Castro, manifested by the Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961, Operation Mongoose, U.S. military maneuvers in the Caribbean, the ejection of Cuba from the Organization of American States, the establishment of a strict economic embargo on Cuba, and ongoing CIA attempts to assassinate Castro (which Kennedy probably endorsed and about which Khrushchev may have had an inkling). [...] In other words, had Kennedy not appeared so hostile to Cuba and hawkish on defense, it is unlikely that the Soviet leader would have felt the need to install the missiles in Cuba that were the trigger for the October 1962 crisis. Kennedy's handling of the Cuban issue, therefore, was something of a curate's egg—in other words, good only in parts. It earned high marks for his management of the missile crisis, low marks for his ill-considered policies prior to October 1962.²⁰⁰

On top of that, *Thirteen Days* shows that Kennedy has learned a lesson from the failure of the Bay of Pigs and emphasizes his wish to secure his country and the world by peaceful means. As a consequence, he is called “weak” by Dean Rusk for his reluctance to launch air strikes on Cuba: “Let's hope appeasement doesn't run in the family. I feel weakness does.” [00:23:31] This quotation, as mentioned earlier on, is also a reference to Kennedy's father, who advised Franklin Delano Roosevelt to find agreements with Nazi Germany instead of fighting during the war. The peak of tension in the film is reached on Friday, October 26th when Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara confronts Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Anderson, over the firing of starshells on Soviet ships. The confrontation between Kennedy, through McNamara, and the military, through Anderson, is encapsulated in the argument between both men:

'That ship was firing starshells. [...] Get out of our way, Mr. Secretary. The navy has been running blockades since the days of John Paul Jones.'

'I believe the President made it clear that there would be no firing on ships without his express permission.'

'With all due respect, Mr. Secretary, we were not firing on that ship.' 'What the hell was that?'

'Firing on a ship means attacking the ship. We were not attacking that ship. We were firing over it.'

'This was not the President's intention when he gave that order. What if the Soviets don't see the distention? What if they make the same mistake I just made? There will be no firing anything near any Soviet ships without my express permission, now is that understood, Admiral? Is it?'

'Yes, Sir.'

'And I will only issue such instructions when ordered to by the President.'
[01:34:49]

On the one hand, the military is represented following old-fashioned directives, notably by quoting John Paul Jones, a naval hero of the American War of Independence. Furthermore, it is also portrayed as dangerous and unwilling to open to new strategies. On the other hand, Kennedy is criticized for his youth, which in fact pushes him to reflect upon the situation in
order to avoid dramatic consequences, or in other words, in order to avoid a second Bay of Pigs. The film pictures Kennedy as a man looking for modern ways of communication, as McNamara suggests: “John Paul Jones… you don't understand a thing, do you, Admiral? This isn't a blockade. This is language, a new vocabulary the likes of which the world has never seen. This is President Kennedy communicating with Secretary Khruschev.” [01:36:17] Yet in fact, in 1962, Kennedy was considerably torn between belligerence and appeasement, as

> A somewhat rose-tinted view of JFK is also conveyed by the way his management of the missile crisis is either presented or concealed. For example, at the start of the crisis declassified documents and other sources make clear that Kennedy was strongly in favor of an air strike on the missile sites in Cuba. [...] If he had felt it necessary to make a snap decision, the evidence indicates he would have opted for a military strike, to which Khrushchev would have presumably retaliated in some way. [...] In *Thirteen Days*, however, the sense of JFK's early hawkishness is muted. [...] The evidence suggests that it was not until the third day of the crisis, after the ExComm debate had evolved so as to encompass the idea of blockading Cuba as well as the military alternatives, that JFK showed signs of countenancing a nonmilitary approach. Hence the portrayal in *Thirteen Days* of Kennedy's initial handling of the missile crisis is skewed in his favor.<fnref n="201" />

In addition, the film also suggests that the Turkey missiles deal that allowed to resolve the crisis was Kennedy's idea: “We get a hold of Walter Lippmann, and we leak the idea of pulling our Jupiter missiles out of Turkey, and the Soviets pull their missiles out of Cuba,” [01:22:32] when in fact, “there is no solid evidence for this.”<fnref n="202" /> On the contrary, the idea comes from Khrushchev in *Killing Kennedy*. [00:32:24] On top of that, during the meeting between Soviet Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Dobrynin and Bobby Kennedy, Dobrynin is the one who raises the conditions for peace. Indeed, as *Thirteen Days* emphasizes, one of the primary conditions given by the Soviets is that the United States will not seek to remove Castro from power: “At this moment, the President is accepting the terms of Secretary Khrushchev's letter of Friday night. If the Soviet Union halts construction, immediately removes the missiles, and submits to U.N. Inspection, the United States will pledge to never invade Cuba or aid others in that enterprise.” [02:09:32] Furthermore, the second condition asked by the Soviets in order to find peace and resolve the conflict in the film is the removal of the Jupiter missiles in Turkey. At first, the Kennedy administration refuses to remove its missiles, but once Dobrynin lets Bobby Kennedy understand that the refusal to remove the missiles of Turkey would lead to war, Bobby's answer shifts: “Now, our Jupiter missiles in Turkey are obsolete and have been scheduled for withdrawal for some time. This withdrawal should take place within, say, months.” [02:10:30] This scene suggests that

<footnote n="201">201 White in Morgan, Iwan W., ed. *Presidents in the Movies*. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2011: 144-145</footnote>

<footnote n="202">202 *Ibid.*: 145</footnote>
the Soviets are the ones in power in the decision process, as they impose their conditions; and
Bobby's reaction to Dobrynin's threats are a proof of the power relation in this negociation.

As far as other films dealing with Kennedy's life are concerned, *JFK* also mentions the
mafia a few times throughout the film. Indeed, the film focuses on Attorney Jim Garrison and
his team, who investigate the conspiracy theories that surround the President's death. In the
film, the mob is turned into one of JFK's enemies and not one of his allies once again. As one
of Jim Garrison's associates states it : "We should be investigating our Mafia leads here in
New Orleans. I can buy that a hell of a lot easier than the Government. Ruby's all Mob, knows
Oswald, sets him up. Hoffa - Trafficante - Marcello, they hire some guns and do Kennedy and
maybe the Government doesn't want to open up a whole can o'worms there because it used the
Mob to get to Castro." [02:22:54] Yet except for him, the other members of Jim Garrison's
team do not believe that the mafia could have played a role in Kennedy's assassination.

As demonstrated, relationships between Cuba, the Mafia and the Kennedy administration were ambivalent. The mafia represented a source of help for Kennedy in certain times during his presidency rather than a problem. Nonetheless, the only times during which it is mentioned in films about Kennedy is to dissociate the president and the mafia. On top of that, what seems important to point out is the lack of background on the mafia's role in Cuban-American relations during JFK's presidency, and more often, the total absence in films. This problem appears even greater when films dealing directly with the Cuban Missile Crisis, like *Thirteen Days*, are concerned. In the end, "in its laudatory view of JFK, and in its depiction of him as a moralistic, progressive leader, *Thirteen Days* is emblematic of the general postassassination thrust in American popular culture to remember Kennedy by idealizing him. It is representative of the way in which film and television have sustained the myth of Kennedy's presidential brilliance—a myth in which the nuances and contradictions of his life and political career are obscured."<fnref n="203" /> Finally, it can be argued that the situation at home was not less complicated than on the international level. On the next part, Kennedy's ethnic background shall be exposed in order to understand his positions on Civil Rights, in a challenging political context, embodied by the Republican party.

### 4) Ethnicity

Kennedy's relation to ethnicity seems to represent another problem and thus a source of ambivalence in Kennedy's life and presidency, and as a consequence in films. It could be argued that his relation to ethnicity may have influenced his decisions in the fight for Civil Rights: his complex relation with the army, because of his background, led to compromises

<footnote n="203">203 White in *Morgan, Iwan W., ed. Presidents in the Movies*. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2011: 147</footnote>
when it came to African American rights. Kennedy seemed eager to act, but did not in order
not to vex Republicans and WASPS, and risk his reelection.

Indeed, Kennedy's background can convey a sense of sympathy as he was a Catholic
Bostonian with Irish origins in a country and region dominated by WASPs: White Anglo-
Saxon Protestants, which means that he, and his family before him, were met by difficulties to
integrate the governing class because of prejudices on their origins and religion. Kennedy's
accent and faith came from his Irish background. Indeed, the Irish settled massively in Boston
in the second part of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, spreading a certain
accent and the catholic faith in the region as a consequence. Because of those differences and
the fear that they represented, they were ostracized by the Protestant majority:
"Industrialization in the 1840s attracted Irish Catholic immigrants, whose lack of skills and
education confirmed Protestant stereotypes about Catholics' incompatibility with political
independence and freedom of conscience. The Know-Nothing movement and Native
American Party enjoyed brief success in the 1850s by appealing to northeastern Protestants,
who feared an unholy alliance between a southern oligarchy of slaveowners and the American
Catholic Church."<fnref n="204" /> Kennedy's ancestors were part of those Irish immigrants, as the
"Fitzgerald family was from the rural County Limerick village of Bruff in western Ireland.
Between 1846 and 1855, some of the Fitzgeralds migrated to America to escape the
devastating potato famine. [...] During the same period that the Fitzgeralds migrated to
America, Patrick Kennedy, a cooper, left his ancestral home in Dunganstown, County
Wexford, and sailed for the United States."<fnref n="205" /> Like most Irish at the time, they started as
underdogs, and "had to overcome the harsh, widespread discrimination against Irish-Catholic
immigrants at that time. The early Kennedys and Fitzgeralds worked as peddlers, coopers and
common laborers; later they became clerks, tavern owners and retailers."²⁰⁶ It was only after
decades of settlement that the families made their ways into politics, when both of JFK's
grandfathers served as Boston politicians.

Although Bostonians started to make their ways into political careers, an Irish and
Catholic president was still something unachievable at the time, as Alfred E. Smith illustrates.
Indeed, Al Smith was the 1928 Democratic candidate for the presidency, but prejudices
towards his Irish origins, and most of all his religion, led to a total failure and a landslide
victory for Hoover, which in turn led both parties to avoid Catholic candidates afterward.<fnref n="207" />

<footnote n="204">204 Carty, Thomas. *A Catholic in the White House?: Religion, Politics, and John F. Kennedy's Presidential Campaign*. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004: 15</footnote>

<footnote n="205">205 JFK Library and Museum. "John F. Kennedy and Ireland | JFK Library." JFK Library and Museum website.
206 *Idem*.</footnote>

<footnote n="207">207 Carty, Thomas. *A Catholic in the White House?: Religion, Politics, and John F. Kennedy's Presidential Campaign*. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004: 7 and 11</footnote>
The second ever Catholic candidate to be nominated by a party was Kennedy, but religion once again proved to be the main point of contention in 1960. Indeed, Kennedy faced waves of criticism as a candidate, and the circulation of "Mass-produced pamphlets, from extreme anti-Catholic organization, recapitulated the centuries-old belief that the Roman Catholic pope ruled as a living antichrist."208 On top of that, "Some Protestant ministers argued that Catholics, including Kennedy, would inevitably choose loyalty to the pope above allegiance to the United States,"209 and "Others feared that clerical pressures would determine Kennedy's political decisions. One colleague declared that 'Irish priests' would manipulate a Catholic president 'as if he were their toy.'"210 As a consequence, the Democratic party got dissolved: "'Religious bias was the principle obstacle to election victory. It was always there, in every state.' By Sorennsen's account, "life-long Democrats who were Protestant" abandoned the Democratic Party "in droves" due to Kennedy's Catholicism."211

This resentment can notably be felt in *LBJ*, as Kennedy's faith is questioned in the film by Johnson: "A Catholic won in a Catholic state. Big fucking deal. You think he could do that in West Virginia? This country is not gonna elect a Catholic president." [00:09:48] But it is also questioned by the whole country throughout news reports on TV, and the turning point that the primary elections in West Virginia represented in the presidential race is mentioned: "His victory today was bolstered, in part by the large Catholic presence in Wisconsin. [...] The next real test for Mr. Kennedy will be in West Virginia." [00:09:17] In fact, the victory in the state came from the "Catholic voters [who] overwhelmingly supported Kennedy [...] some West Virginians even endorsed Kennedy merely to demonstrate the state's religious tolerance. In this 95 percent Protestant state, Kennedy's repeated pledges to support the absolute separation of church and state allayed libertarian doubts, and he won easily."212 The news report of the astounding victory also appears in *LBJ*: "In a surprising upset Senator John Kennedy has won the West Virginia primary. Many believed the issue of his religion was insurmountable." [00:11:05] After his victory at the Democratic Convention, the party was reunited under JFK, and his "repeated endorsements of absolute church-state separation allayed libertarian doubts, and liberal organizations and individuals rapidly provided Kennedy with the necessary cachet to distinguish the party's nominee from Republican standard-bearer

<footnote n="208">208 Carty, Thomas. *A Catholic in the White House?: Religion, Politics, and John F. Kennedy's Presidential Campaign*. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004: 3</footnote>

<footnote n="209">209 *Ibid.*: 5-6</footnote>

<footnote n="210">210 Carty, Thomas. "The Catholic Question: Religious Liberty and JFK's Pursuit of the 1960 Democratic Presidential Nomination." *The Historian* 63, no. 3 (2001): 577-99: 577</footnote>

<footnote n="211">211 Carty, Thomas. *A Catholic in the White House?: Religion, Politics, and John F. Kennedy's Presidential Campaign*. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004: 2</footnote>

<footnote n="212">212 Carty, Thomas. "The Catholic Question: Religious Liberty and JFK's Pursuit of the 1960 Democratic Presidential Nomination." *The Historian* 63, no. 3 (2001): 577-99: 591-592</footnote>
Richard Nixon.”<sup>213</sup>

Yet, Kennedy's religion remained a subject of criticism, to which he responded in a speech in September 1960 in which he stated: “I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me.”<sup>214</sup> But opposition did not end when Kennedy became president, as his conflicts with the army and Joint Chiefs during the Cuban Crisis in *Thirteen Days* discussed earlier on notably illustrated.

Although they were powerful Irish-Americans and Catholics, John and Bobby Kennedy, but also Kenny O'Donnell, were still considered as underdogs in the WASP-dominated establishment as the film points out. It can be argued that the appearance of churches in the film are made to reassert the importance of Kennedy's religion during critical moments of the crisis [00:43:37 and 1:12:21]. These churches can be identified as Catholic churches. Indeed, the first time Kennedy is seen in church is during a mass, on “Sunday, October 21<sup>st</sup>.” [00:43:40] Sunday mass is an important feature of the Catholic religion; and in fact, Catholics were required to fast for three hours until mass on Sundays until 1964, which, it can be noted, is not the case of the O'Donnell family in the film, as Mrs. O'Donnell asks if “everybody [is] ready for church?” [02:14:21] whereas the family is having breakfast in its dining room. The second time a religious building is present in *Thirteen Days* is when Kenny stops in front of a church which offers to confess and “pray for peace,” as inscribed on a hand-written sign. [01:12:32] After a tilt shot, which allows to see the church's stained glass windows, the name of the building can be seen on top of the sign: “Columbia Catholic Church” [01:12:31], reasserting the place of the Catholic religion for Kennedy and Kenny. The particular moments during which the churches are featured in the film may convey the impression that churches are places in which men, and especially the President in the film, are allowed to take a break to think before crucial events happen, as White also explains: “Toward the end of the first week of the crisis, Kennedy is shown with his family in church, looking thoughtful. Likewise, in the second week of the crisis O’Donnell decides to go into a church he is walking past so that he can pray for peace. In other words, religious scruples, not just Cold War imperatives, are presented as the guiding influence on Kennedy and his advisers at this dangerous juncture.”<sup>215</sup>

Eventually, in order to point out JFK's Bostonian origins in films, what mostly stands out is Kennedy's Bostonian accent in the productions. Yet, although the accent serves as a way

<footnote n="213">213 *Ibid.*: 593</footnote>

<footnote n="214">214 JFK Library and Museum. “ADDRESS TO THE GREATER HOUSTON MINISTERIAL ASSOCIATION.” JFK Library and Museum website.</footnote>

<footnote n="215">215 White in *Morgan, Iwan W., ed. Presidents in the Movies*. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2011: 141</footnote>
for him, but also for Bobby and Kenny, to distinguish themselves from the others, the attempt
was, each time, one of the most recurrent subjects of criticism about the films. Critics all seem
to agree on the difficulty to render the Bostonian accent, and thus quote: "Kenny O'Donnell
(played by Kevin Costner wrestling with the vowels and post-vocalic Rs of a Boston
accent)"<fnref n="216" /> and "As O'Donnell, Costner assumes a New England accent that toward the
beginning brings a touch of Vaughn Meader to a role that otherwise demands little beyond a
variety of stern looks,"<fnref n="217" /> Vaughn Meader being a humorist who impersonated JFK. The same
opinion is given on Michael C. Hall's accent in *The Crown*: "Michael C. Hall, of *Dexter* fame,
plays JFK, and he makes the tragic mistake of going all-in on Kennedy's famous New
England accent. Almost no actor has *ever* been able to make that accent work on screen, and
Hall's is one of the worst examples of the bunch."<fnref n="218" /> As far as *LBJ* is concerned, the bad
accent was even noted as part of The Catalyst's review title: "At a Theater Near You: LBJ:
Bad Accents and Fake Noses in the Shadow of JFK," and the article features the following
comment and caricature: "Other flaws in the film include the Kennedy brothers' drawl; it was
a stretch to try and emulate the classic Massachusetts accent."<fnref n="219" />

<figure><img src="image_13.png" /><figcaption>Figure 10: caricature from The Catalyst's review on *LBJ*</figcaption></figure>

The three other productions selected for this analysis on the other hand received
different reviews. *PT-109*, and thus Cliff Robertson, were ranked last by the MTV ranking
"JFK ON SCREEN: RANKING THE BEST (AND WORST) ACCENTS" in fact because
"Robertson didn't change his voice to sound like him at all."<fnref n="220" /> James Marsden's accent in
*The Butler* is not what caught the attention of critics, although he prepared for it: "Marsden
prepared for the role by listening to podcasts of JFK's speeches, and yet getting the Kennedy
accent right was 'virtually impossible,' the actor told Conan O'Brien."<fnref n="221" /> What caught

<footnote n="216">216 Doherty, Thomas. "Review of Thirteen Days." *The Journal of American History* 88, no. 3 (2001): 1211–13: 1212</footnote>

<footnote n="217">217 Simon, Art. "Review of Thirteen Days." *Cinéaste* 26, no. 2 (2001): 43–44: 44</footnote>

<footnote n="218">218 Evangelista, Chris. "The Crown Season 2 Review: Netflix's Royal Drama Is Better Than Ever." *Film* (blog), December 8, 2017.</footnote>

<footnote n="219">219 The Catalyst. "At a Theater Near You: LBJ: Bad Accents and Fake Noses in the Shadow of JFK." *The Catalyst*, November 16, 2017, sec. Life.</footnote>

<footnote n="220">220 Sullivan, Kevin P. "JFK On Screen: Ranking The Best (And Worst) Accents." *MTV News*, sec. Movies.</footnote>

<footnote n="221">221 No author. "JFK Portrayal Was a Challenge for Screen Actors." *Gulf News*.</footnote>
attention was the fact that “McConaughey reportedly felt he would struggle with Kennedy's Boston accent and refused the role,”<fnref n="222" /> showing how unique the Kennedy accent is. McConaughey even explained in an interview that the accent was what defined the role according to him: “*The Butler*, it's not going to happen for me. It was going to take some good hard work on my part for sure -- and it was more than an accent. I've done accents before. And you can see you can tell when it's just coming out from the neck up. When you see it done well, they walk different, they sit different -- it's coming out of their feet.”<fnref n="223" /> Finally, of all the productions, *Killing Kennedy* is the one that stands out in terms of accent, and Rob Lowe was praised for “doing a fine Boston accent,”<fnref n="224" /> which is also considered the highlight of the film. *Killing Kennedy* was consequently ranked first by the MTV ranking of JFK's best accents on screen.<fnref n="225" /> What is interesting to note about all these comments on the Bostonian accent is that it seems to serve a twofold purpose: it sets Kennedy, his brother and Kenny apart in a positive and negative way at the same time. Indeed, it is positive as it enhances the men, their accomplishments as outcasts, and their attachment to their origins, thus making them unique compared to the WASP community that surrounds them, especially the army in the films. Yet, the accents have an ambivalent impact on the audience as their poor and forced performances sometimes draw more attention than storylines and casts them as underdogs.

All these elements thus convey a sense of support for JFK, whose relation to ethnicity first appears fraught with pitfalls, but whose origins make him unique. But it could be argued that his difficulties to fit in the Northern establishment because of his religion, and his difficulties to ally with Southern Democrats because of his origins compelled him to neglect civil rights for strategical and political purposes: Civil Rights were not a priority for Republicans at the time, and vexing the party could have cost Kennedy his reelection in November 1963. Indeed, a line from *The Butler* suggests that Kennedy's actions towards the African-American population were in fact calculated and that the president purposely waited to call for the Civil Rights Bill in 1963, thus conveying contradictory feelings and provoking ambivalence: “Bobby told the President that they shouldn't be worried about the Negro sit-ins. Polls showed the US does not support Civil rights.” [00:50:44] In fact, Kennedy's involvement, or lack of involvement in the Civil Rights movements originates from his years in Congress and went on later on during his presidential campaign, as he realized the importance of Civil Rights, not as fundamental rights denied to a part of the population but as

<footnote n="222">222 Daniels, Colin. "James Marsden to Play JFK in The Butler." Digital Spy, July 21, 2012.</footnote>

<footnote n="223">223 Puchko, Kristy. "Matthew McConaughey Will Not Play JFK In Lee Daniels' The Butler." CINEMABLEND, June 7, 2012.</footnote>

<footnote n="224">224 Johnson, Adrienne. ""Killing Kennedy' Makes You Feel Nothing." *The News&Observer*, November 10, 2013.</footnote>

<footnote n="225">225 Sullivan, Kevin P. "JFK On Screen: Ranking The Best (And Worst) Accents." *MTV News*, sec. Movies.</footnote>
a factor influencing votes.<fnref n="226" />

Thus, after some controversial votes while in Congress such as when he opposed the 1957 Civil Rights Act<fnref n="227" />, Kennedy needed to mend his positions and to do so, he publicly supported King's wife when Martin Luther King Jr. was sent to prison in 1963. Yet, the leads did not originate from Kennedy himself, and taking King's defense was not one of his ideas, showing that he did not hold the issue at heart.<fnref n="228" /> Because of such actions, Kennedy won African American support and eventually votes, that allowed his election as President of the United States: "Across the nation, more than 70 percent of African Americans voted for Kennedy, and these votes provided the winning edge in several key states. When President Kennedy took office in January 1961, African Americans had high expectations for the new administration."<fnref n="229" /> Nonetheless, after the election, Kennedy did not match with the high expectations that African Americans saw in him. Indeed, JFK delayed any action on Civil Rights, arguing that Congress would block initiatives<fnref n="230" /> and that it would, as a consequence, alienate southern support on other matters and heighten violence.<fnref n="231" />

It can be argued that, on the issue of Civil Rights, Kennedy's ambition to be reelected in 1964 so that he could potentially do more was a virtuous idea, yet, the liberties and lives of people were at stake. Nonetheless, reelection took over: "Theodore Hesburgh, a member of the United States Civil Rights Commission and later its Chairman, says of John Kennedy, 'he felt sincerely about the issue [of civil rights] . . . and the fact that we ought to do something about it. But it wasn't a great crusade with him.' "<fnref n="232" /> Still, before his death, Kennedy asked Congress for a Civil Rights Bill in a televized speech on the evening of June 11th 1963 that would later build the foundation of Johnson's Civil Rights reforms. Yet, the bill appears late in spite of the situation, and as the Kennedy Library itself explains: "President Kennedy may have been reluctant to push ahead with civil rights legislation, but millions of African Americans would not wait. Eventually, the administration was compelled to act."<fnref n="233" />

To conclude, JFK's presidency appears to be full of ambivalence. He seems torn between belligerence and appeasement, and thus JFK's life, and the films dealing with his life, convey first a sense of sympathy for the man, who struggled with a complex situation both at

<footnote n="226">226 Stern, Mark. "John F. Kennedy and Civil Rights: From Congress to the Presidency." *Presidential Studies Quarterly* 19, no. 4 (1989): 797-823: 798-799</footnote>

<footnote n="227">227 *Ibid.*: 801</footnote>

<footnote n="228">228 *Ibid.*: 812</footnote>

<footnote n="229">229 JFK Library and Museum "Civil Rights Movement | JFK Library." JFK Library and Museum website.</footnote>

<footnote n="230">230 Stern, Mark. "John F. Kennedy and Civil Rights: From Congress to the Presidency." *Presidential Studies Quarterly* 19, no. 4 (1989): 797-823: 815</footnote>

<footnote n="231">231 *Ibid.*: 816</footnote>

<footnote n="232">232 *Ibid.*: 817</footnote>

<footnote n="233">233 JFK Library and Museum "Civil Rights Movement | JFK Library." JFK Library and Museum website.</footnote>
home and internationally, and who was criticized for and opposed by other politicians and by
the army because of who he was. Yet on the other hand, the fact that he was sometimes eager
to act, or acted out of personal interests, put the country and the world in danger. As a
consequence, on many different occasions he simultaneously convey feelings of antipathy.

Yet, all the elements mentioned in this part are somehow only alluded to in the films.
Other misbehaviors on the other hand appear to be more obvious and are thus tackled more
directly in productions, creating an even greater ambivalence in shocking scenes that
contribute to further deconstruct JFK's portrait.

## II)When the Hero becomes a Villain

As previously seen, heroes and villains are two contradictory characters. The hero is benevolent and helps others, whereas the villain is out of self-interest and does not care about people. When it comes to Kennedy, it can be argued that the hero transitions into a villain when his portrait is revised. Indeed, following the revelations and gradual availability of Kennedy's papers since the 1980s, scholars, and then productions, have started to nuance Kennedy's portrait according to new discoveries. The transition started with forgiveable elements – such as his health problems – but little by little, more ambivalent and disrupting sides of Kennedy's personality appeared in films and series – such as his addiction to drugs as a way to relieve his pain or his bully behavior with women, until *The Crown* presented the President in an entirely negative way in 2017. This part shall thus introduce the most ambivalent elements featured in films and conclude on the future of Kennedy's image.

### 1)Health

The first topic which really is tackled in films and which allows to deconstruct
Kennedy's heroic image is health. Kennedy in fact did not match entirely with the attributes
associated with heroes such as physical strength for example, attributes cited in the second
part of this analysis, because of his poor health. Yet, this topic, which is the most recurrent
negative topic concerning JFK in the films selected for this analysis, remains the most
forgiveable to present. Indeed, as his health problems were out of his control, they thus create
a feeling of ambivalence in the audience: Kennedy's health arises the sympathy and pity of the
audience, but at the same time, the treatments he decided to seek challenge his image as a
great leader, as this analysis shall demonstrate through its corpus.

As a consequence, it seems important for this paper to review Kennedy's health in
order to analyze how it is presented in films, and to do so, Robert Dallek's *An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963* will be used, as it appears to be the most objective and complete biography, notably on medical records. As Dallek explains, Kennedy's health problems started early in his life and went on through his teenage years. Because of his different ailments, JFK gained no weight growing up and was thus diagnosed with spastic colitis in 1934. The treatment found by the doctors for his colitis was DOCA pellets (desoxycorticosterone acetate pellets to put under the skin). As Dallek explains, the use of DOCA pellets may have pulled the trigger of Kennedy's other health problems, such as his weak back and his adrenal dysregulation, causing the destruction of his lower spine and the diagnostic of his Addison's disease later on.<fnref n="234" />

As a consequence, in 1938, Kennedy started to suffer from back pains. Although he failed the military physical entry tests for this reason, the future president nonetheless asked his father to pull strings in order to manage to let him enroll, which he did in 1941. No mention of Kennedy's colitis was featured in his file as Dallek points out. After a series of medical issues which forced him in and out of duty, Kennedy was sent to the Pacific in 1943 to ride the PT-109 on the Salomon islands. The first hint of Kennedy's poor health in this corpus is in fact to be found in *PT-109*: although it is possible to attribute his gesture to the shock of the crash, Kennedy is nonetheless pictured holding his back in pain for a few seconds after the Japanese destroyer hits the PT-109 [01:21:58], thus suggesting his back ailments. In 1944, JFK finally undergone a back operation but suffered from muscle spasms afterward, which were treated with narcotics. In October 1944, he was declared unfit for service.

After finally being diagnosed with the Addison disease in 1947, Kennedy nonetheless campaigned for Congress at the beginning of the 1950s, but his back led him to undergo two surgeries in 1953 and 1954, the first one of which nearly killed him. Although colitis, diarrhea, dehydration, prostatitis, urinary tract infections, fevers, weight loss and respiratory difficulties had come back around 1955, Kennedy nonetheless ran for the democratic primaries and for presidency in 1960. As Dallek indicates, after his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles, "his disappointing performance convinced him in the future to increase the amounts of steroids he normally took whenever he faced the stress of giving a major speech or press conference."<fnref n="235" /> As a consequence, Kennedy started to secretly see Dr. Max Jacobson during the campaign, who had the reputation to treat "celebrities with 'pep pills,' or amphetamines, that helped combat depression and fatigue. Jacobson, whom

<footnote n="234">234 Dallek, Robert. *An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963*. Hachette UK, 2003: 76</footnote>

<footnote n="235">235 *Ibid.*: 275</footnote>
patients called 'Dr. Feelgood,' administered back injections of painkillers and amphetamines that allowed Kennedy to stay off crutches, which he believed essential to project a picture of robust good health.”<fnref n="236" /> *Killing Kennedy* is quite explicit about Kennedy's back pain and injections, as the products and needles used are presented in a close-up a medical tray [00:27:57] just before a doctor, potentially Jacobson although he is not named, injects them into Kennedy's lower back [00:28:06 and 00:28:10] and says “Anti-spasmodic. [...] Hydrocortisone. [...] And testosterone.” [00:28:05]

<figure><img src="image_14.png" /><figcaption>Figure 11: Close-up the syringes used by the doctor (probably Jacobson) in *Killing Kennedy*. McCormick, Nelson. *Killing Kennedy*. 2013.</figcaption></figure>

*The Crown* goes even further in the episode from season two featuring Kennedy and entitled "Dear Mrs. Kennedy" as Dr. Jacobson, or "Dr. Feelgood" is mentioned [00:46:17], and his "cocktails [...] [of] vitamins, but other substances too" [00:46:18] are as well. Yet, as McDermott recalls "the problem is that he [made people feel better] using his own concoction of amphetamines and steroids. He lost his medical license in 1975 following a state investigation into the laboratory where he made his serums, which showed them littered with rat droppings and other toxic materials."<fnref n="237" /> The main difference between *Killing Kennedy* and *The Crown* lies in the fact that JFK is injected in his back in *Killing Kennedy* while he is directly injected in the forearm in a dark setting in *The Crown*, somehow picturing him as a drug-addict. [00:46:18]

<footnote n="236">236 Dallek, Robert. *An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963*. Hachette UK, 2003: 398</footnote>

<footnote n="237">237 McDermott, Rose. "The Politics of Presidential Medical Care: The Case of John F. Kennedy." *Politics and the Life Sciences* 33, no. 2 (2014): 77–87: 84</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_15.png" /><figcaption>Figure 12: Scenes of injections in *Killing Kennedy* (left - McCormick, Nelson. *Killing Kennedy*. 2013), and *The Crown* (right - Daldry, Stephen. *The Crown, Season 2 Episode 8*. 2017.)</figcaption></figure>

In addition, Kennedy does not care about what he is injected with and he is pictured becoming violent whenever he is deprived of his medication, as he leans backward, nearly in trance, when injected. What is interesting to note in this scene from the series is the fact that when Kennedy is pictured as a violent man, the shot is obstructed by an object, as if the camera was hidden [00:46:01] and as if this behavior was not Kennedy's normal behavior, as if it was something to be ashamed of, and thus something that should not be shown or should be concealed.

Thus, once elected president, as Dallek remarks in his book<fnref n="238" />, Kennedy embarked the American people with him on an adventure but denied them the opportunity to know what they got into. Indeed, each important period of his presidency is also marked by important health problems and thus by treatments that could have impaired his judgement while dealing with the different crises he had to face. For example, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, “he took 10 additional milligrams of hydrocortisone and 10 grains of salt to boost him before giving a brief report to the American people on the dismantling of the Soviet missile bases in Cuba,”<fnref n="239" /> and this is what is going on in the injection scene in *Killing Kennedy* as JFK discusses the Cuban Missile Crisis with Jackie while he is being injected. [00:27:58] In similar fashion, *The Butler* is quite open when it comes to Kennedy's health during the Civil Rights crisis as the President is pictured lying on the floor, probably easing his back as he asks Cecil, who is bringing his pills: “'On an average, how many pills do you think I take a day Cecil?' 'About... 103, sir.' ” [00:59:29] After this sequence, Cecil helps the President to get up and Kennedy can be heard groaning while holding his back in pain.

On top of that, not only was Jacobson a questionable doctor, but JFK was in fact

<footnote n="238">238 Dallek, Robert. *An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963*. Hachette UK, 2003: 300</footnote>

<footnote n="239">239 *Ibid.*: 576</footnote>
seeing two different professionals at the same time. Indeed, Janet Travell, another doctor appointed by JFK and who had been treating Kennedy's health, and especially his back, since 1955, did not know that someone else was giving Kennedy injections that could have had fatal outcomes when mixed with her own treatments. Indeed, "To relieve his suffering, which in the spring and summer of 1961 had become almost unbearable, Travell injected him with procaine two or three times a day. [...] Travell's shot were in addition to the concoction of painkillers and amphetamines that Max Jacobson was administering."<fnref n="240" /> As a consequence, Kennedy was recommended by another doctor, Dr. Hans Kraus, to stop the back injections and to start exercising to strengthen his back and, as Dallek explains, the president thus alienated Travell in 1962 and started swimming exercises which considerably improved his back condition.

Although Travell's methods also appeared questionable, she nonetheless recommended Kennedy to use a rocking chair to ease his back, which became one of the symbols of his presidency, as McDermott explains: "She had a rocking chair in her office and this object, which soon become a veritable symbol of his presidency, immediately alleviated some of the pain in his back."<fnref n="241" />. Indeed, it is featured in a certain number of films from this corpus as the element testifying of Kennedy's back problems, even in *LBJ*, in which there appears to be no mention of Kennedy's health problems, and thus no mention of his back problems, except for the rocking chair present in the Oval Office.

<figure><img src="image_16.png" /><figcaption>Figure 13: Top left: *President John F. Kennedy Sitting*, picture by Paul Schutzer/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images, 1961 ; Others : screenshots from the films selected for this corpus. Donaldson, Roger. *Thirteen Days*. 2000. McCormick, Nelson. *Killing Kennedy*. 2013. Reiner, Rob. *LBJ*. 2017.</figcaption></figure>

<footnote n="240">240 Dallek, Robert. *An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963*. Hachette UK, 2003: 472</footnote>

<footnote n="241">241 McDermott, Rose. "The Politics of Presidential Medical Care: The Case of John F. Kennedy." *Politics and the Life Sciences* 33, no. 2 (2014): 77–87: 78</footnote>
One last film from this corpus does not deal directly with Kennedy's health, except for the presence of the rocking chair and a suspicious cold, yet, it has been much more criticized by scholars than *LBJ* as it deals with the Cuban Crisis. Indeed, as White points out in Morgan, as Kennedy's treatment may have had an effect on his decisions during the Cuban Missile Crisis, directors should have included scenes explicitly showing the injections Kennedy received in *Thirteen Days*:

> Had the makers of *Thirteen Days* chosen to incorporate aspects of Kennedy's private life into their movie, it would have done more than merely serving the purpose of enlivening the film's narrative. In particular, JFK's continued reliance on quack doctor Max Jacobson, initially enlisted during the 1960 presidential campaign, was arguably relevant to his handling of the missile crisis. [...] [Archives] confirm that Jacobson treated Kennedy during the early days of the missile crisis, which prompts speculation that his initial belligerence in contemplating an air strike on the Soviet emplacements was due in some measure to the steroids and speed.<fnref n="242" />

In addition, the only element to be truly mentioned in the film concerning Kennedy's health is a fake cold he is said to have caught in Chicago when in fact, the cold is just an excuse to go back to Washington: "The president has a cold, he is canceling the remainder of his trip and returning to Washington at the advise of his doctor." [00:38:45] Kennedy's health is thus only mentioned publicly as a lie in *Thirteen Days*.

Finally, although Kennedy suffered from numerous diseases throughout his life, his back remained the most important element concerning his health. Indeed, as Dallek puts it, if Kennedy's back had been in better shape on the day of his assassination, he may not have received the last bullet that killed him: "Were it not for a back brace, which held him erect, a third and fatal shot to the back of the head would not have found its mark."<fnref n="243" /> The back brace can actually be seen in *Killing Kennedy* as the president gets ready on the morning of the 22nd of November 1963 in Dallas. [01:01:46]

All in all, the presentation of Kennedy's poor health may arouse feelings of sympathy from the audience, but it distances him from the ideal image that he built throughout his life at the same time. The management of his various ailments while president also connects him with the anti-hero status as he was on drugs while managing the country to a certain extent, and this was dangerous for the nation and the people. In addition, trusting and asking different doctors to administrate him different types of drugs at the same time could have killed him and once again endangered the country. Kennedy's health thus represents the first major

<footnote n="242">242 White in *Morgan, Iwan W., ed. Presidents in the Movies*. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2011: 143</footnote>

<footnote n="243">243 Dallek, Robert. *An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963*. Hachette UK, 2003: 694</footnote>
element tackled directly in productions, contributing to the feeling of ambivalence and to the deconstruction of his ideal depiction in films. Yet, it can be argued that JFK's health problems were out of his control and could excuse his use of drugs to cure his ailments. His use of dangerous back channels in order to resolve the Cuban Crisis, on the contrary, is less forgivable.

## 2)Back Channels

As previously demonstrated by this paper, Kennedy is celebrated in films about the Cuban Missile Crisis for his pacifist position during the conflict and his wish to engage in a deal with Soviet Premier Khrushchev in order to save the world from a nuclear war that could have destroyed it. Nonetheless, in the two productions dealing with American-Soviet relationships, only *Thirteen Days* shows how Kennedy managed to come to the outcome now written in history.

Indeed, in *Thirteen Days*, back channels are essential to the narrative as they allow the President and Premier to agree on a deal. Back channels are thus embodied in the film by Aleksandr Feklisov [00:40:41], who, as suggested earlier, conveys mystery and distrust because of his black turtlenecks and his smirks. Furthermore, Feklisov's role in politics is not justifiable as the Kennedy administration does not know for whom he speaks: "The truth is, Mr. President, we don't even really know whom [Feklisov] speaks for." [01:39:24] Yet, as Kenny O'Donnell later discovers by looking at Feliksov's and Khrushchev's files side by side, Feliskov was sent by Khrushchev because they were "war buddies." [01:41:59] His participation in the back channel thus first appears risky as, as McCone recalls in the film that "The alternative, Mr. President, is that this could be a trap. [...] Why else would they approach us in this way? It's deniable. The Soviets have done nothing but lie to us. This could be more of the same." [01:38:50] Nonetheless, Feklisov is used by Kennedy as a back channel as Kenny suggests that he may be a new and more effective channel to speak with the Soviet Premier: "That may be why Khruschev's introducing this guy. We've been burned by his usual players in the formal channels, so he brings in an honest broker." [01:39:08]

In addition, later on, the film also displays a secret meeting held on the 27th of October 1962. [02:07:38] Indeed, because "the Kennedy brothers suspected RFK's interlocutor of having become a source of disinformation about Soviet missile activities in Cuba, they switched the back channel from Bolshakov to the Soviet ambassador, Anatoly Dobrynin."<fnref n="244" /> Together, the Attorney General and Soviet ambassador secretly met and agreed on the terms

<footnote n="244">244 Naftali, Tim. "JFK Had His Own Russian Back Channel. It Helped to Prevent War." *Slate Magazine*, May 27, 2017</footnote>
of the deal that put an end to the Missile Crisis. It seems important to note that, on both
occasions, although Kennedy's administration agrees to deal with back channels, JFK never
meets directly with any of the men and thus is never associated with any of them.

Yet, it appears relevant to point out that before turning to Feliksov and Dobrynin,
Kennedy used another back channel, who happened to be “RFK's interlocutor” as Naftali put
it: Georgi Bolshakov. Indeed, as Yuhas and Naftali explain: “From 1961 through the Cuban
missile crisis, for instance, Kennedy sent his brother Robert to hold secret talks with Soviet
spy Georgi Bolshakov. Recordings also reveal that Kennedy decided to pursue negotiations
against the advice of his cabinet, and with his brother’s help”<fnref n="245" /> and “Starting in late May
1961, Robert [and Bolshakov] would meet at least 35 times [...] Unsurprisingly, the press and
public knew nothing about these meetings. But Kennedy also kept most of them a secret from
the rest of his administration. [...] the FBI might have caught whiff of these tête-à-têtes, but
the CIA was in the dark.”<fnref n="246" /> Nonetheless, although scholars point out his importance in the
passing of information between the White House and the Kremlin, Bolshakov is not featured
in *Thirteen Days*. This might be explained by the fact that Bolshakov represented a greater
risk than Feklisov and Dobrynin as he lied to Robert Kennedy, and thus came to represent a
source of portential risk. On top of that, it could be argued that he could not be represented on
screen as his depiction would have acknowledged on screen that JFK lied to the public, the
press, but also to his closest advisors, as Naftali explained. His association with the Kennedy
administration would thus have tarnished Kennedy's image if featured in the film.

Although back channels may have allowed to protect the world from an international
nuclear conflict, they appear as a risk. The totality of the US government and the American
people were not aware of these meetings, which could potentially have allowed the Soviets to
collect information about the United States in order to attack the country later on. As Thomas
puts it: “Back channels can be a terrible idea. They can sow confusion by subverting normal
diplomacy and, potentially, precipitate disaster by expressing the unchecked will and wiles of
headstrong leaders.”<fnref n="247" /> Nonetheless, back channels are not the issue most tackled in films.
JFK's womanizing habit is, with Kennedy's health, the most recurrent subject to be featured in
films when it comes to the darker sides of JFK's personality, as the last part of this analysis
shall point out.

<footnote n="245">245 Yuhas, Alan. "JFK: Declassified Documents Reveal a Cunning and Cagey President." *The Guardian*, October 7, 2015, sec. US news.</footnote>

<footnote n="246">246 Naftali, Tim. "JFK Had His Own Russian Back Channel. It Helped to Prevent War." *Slate Magazine*, May 27, 2017</footnote>

<footnote n="247">247 Thomas, Evan. "Opinion | We May Owe Our Lives to a Back Channel with Russia." *Washington Post*, June 2, 2017, sec. Opinions.</footnote>
### 3) Women

Eventually, although Kennedy is recognized in films as a family man and thus as a good husband as this analysis showed earlier on, some productions nonetheless also nuanced his portrait on this point, as this paper shall finally demonstrate.

Indeed, although he was dubbed the “playboy”<fnref n="248" /> of Washington by newspapers in 1947, the president was protected by the press in the 1950s and 1960s since, at the time, a president's personal life was a line not to cross for journalists according to Hagood<fnref n="249" />, but more recent revisionist works influenced the production of films, leading them to picture Kennedy as a womanizer having extra-marital affairs. Hagood suggests that Kennedy's womanizing habit, which he developed at an early age, can be explained by the fact that his father also had extra-marital affairs with many women and that the whole family knew about it.<fnref n="250" /> That is why in college, JFK exchanged letters with his friend Lem Billings, in which he describes his affairs: “went down to the Cape with five guys from school – EM [Edward Moore, Joe Sr.'s administrative assistant and confidant] got us some girls thru another guy – four of us had dates and one guy fucked 3 times, another guy 3 times (the girl a virgin!) + myself twice,”<fnref n="251" /> and “Still can't get used to co-eds but am taking them by my stride. Expect to cut one out of the herd and brand her shortly, but am taking it very slow as do not want to be known as the beast of the East.”<fnref n="252" /> These selected quotations point out how Kennedy objectified women from a young age. They also show his obsession for sex, which went on once he was elected in Congress and later on as president, as he

> had affairs with several women, including Pamela Turnure, Jackie's press secretary; Mary Pinchot Meyer, Ben Bredlee's sister-in-law; two White House secretaries playfully dubbed Fiddle and Faddle; Judith Campbell Exner, whose connections to mob figures like Sam Giancanna made her the object of FBI scrutiny; and Mimi Beardsley, a 'tall, slender, beautiful' nineteen-year-old college sophomore and White House intern, who worked in the press office during two summers. (She 'had no skills,' a member of the press staff recalled. 'She couldn't type.') There were also Hollywood stars and starlets and call girls paid by Dave Powers, the court jester and facilitator of Kennedy's indulgences, who arranged trysts in hotels and swimming pools in California, Florida, and at the White House.<fnref n="253" />

The only two productions from this corpus in which JFK's strong attraction to women

<footnote n="248">248 Dallek, Robert. *An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963*. Hachette UK, 2003: 151</footnote>

<footnote n="249">249 Hagood, Wesley O. *Presidential Sex: From the Founding Fathers to Bill Clinton*. Wesley Hagood, 1996: 139</footnote>

<footnote n="250">250 *Idem*.</footnote>

<footnote n="251">251 Dallek, Robert. *An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963*. Hachette UK, 2003, quoting a letter from Kennedy to Lem Billings: 47</footnote>

<footnote n="252">252 *Ibid.*: quoting a letter from Kennedy to Lem Billings 48</footnote>

<footnote n="253">253 *Ibid.*: 476</footnote>
is present, *Killing Kennedy* and episode eight of the second season of *The Crown*, thus manifest the president's womanizing habit on screen. Indeed, Kennedy's objectification of women in films can be considered a source of ambivalence, as it serves to glamorize the president by presenting him as a handsome playboy who wants to live life at its fullest, considering his health problems. Yet, it simultaneously arouses contradictory feelings as it emphasizes his lewdness and contempt for women. JFK's playboy attitude is especially shown in episode eight of season two of *The Crown*. Indeed, while JFK is delivering a speech, he is surrounded by women. Wide shots allow to show the whole audience listening, yet, only specific women are in focus. [00:35:46, 00:35:50 and 00:36:18] Those women are attentive, but they are not presented nor named, and thus their anonymity could suggest their universal dimension, in other words, they could be any of the women attracted to and seduced by JFK or with whom JFK had affairs. On the other hand, although those women are drawn by what Kennedy is saying, the first unsettling element comes from the fact that they are targetted and thus in focus because Jackie is looking at them: the audience thus sees Jackie's point of view, and understands that the playboy is in fact an adulterous man.

<figure><img src="image_17.png" /><figcaption>Figure 14: Screenshots from “Dear Mrs. Kennedy”: Top left: the whole audience, composed of men and women, listening to JFK delivering his speech, Others: the specific women in focus, targetted by Jackie. Daldry, Stephen. *The Crown, Season 2 Episode 8*. 2017.</figcaption></figure>

In similar fashion, after the speech, the President can be seen with these women, whispering in the ear of one of them while holding another one, [00:37:07] once again suggesting a glamorous attitude with ladies. Yet, the close-up of his hand on the back of that specific woman may suggest a form of contempt and power, but also a fetishism. Indeed, as Mulvey indicates in her article entitled “Visual pleasure and narrative cinema,” women can represent a threat for men because of their absence of a penis. As a consequence, in films, to cope with this threat, there is a “substitution of a fetish object or turning the represented figure itself into
a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous.”<sup>254</sup> In the scene from the episode of *The Crown* selected here, Mulvey's theory applies as only a part of the woman's back can be seen. She is thus cut and only one part of her body is here to represent her, thus objectifying her and turning the playboy into a possessive man, finally making the scene disturbing.

<figure><img src="image_18.png" /><figcaption>Figure 15: screenshot from “Dear Mrs. Kennedy”, showing JFK's hand on the back of an anonymous woman.
Daldry, Stephen. *The Crown, Season 2 Episode 8*. 2017.</figcaption></figure>

In her article, Laura Mulvey also introduces the idea that genders play a role in film narratives and that these roles are always attributed the same way when it comes to the gaze: males are active, they look and act, females are passive, they are the ones watched, they stop the story. Indeed, the pleasure of looking, scopophilia, is central in films, as Mulvey explains, and so: “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. [...] The presence of woman is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her presence tends to work against the development of a story line, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation.”<sup>255</sup> Mulvey's theory applies in *Killing Kennedy*, as Fiddle and Faddle and Judith Campbell Exner are present, yet they do not add any narrative element to the story, which revolves around Kennedy's presidency and assassination. In addition, Fiddle and Faddle, the two secretaries, can be seen skinny-dipping with the president in the White House pool [00:21:00], an activity which was not a secret as Flanagan explains:

> The overheated White House swimming pool [...] was, according to a number of respected sources (among them Seymour Hersh and three on-the-record Secret Service agents), the locus of endless lunchtime sex parties. Two young secretaries named Priscilla Wear and Jill Cowen—the now infamous Fiddle and Faddle—

<footnote n="254">254 Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” *Screen* 16, no. 3 (October 1, 1975): 57–68: 64</footnote>

<footnote n="255">255 Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” *Screen* 16, no. 3 (October 1, 1975): 57–68: 62</footnote>
often left their desks to splash and skinny-dip with Jack, returning to their desks
with wet hair so they could go on with their important work of autographing his
photographs and wondering how to type.<fnref n="256" />

This activity may also convey ambivalent feelings as it disrupts the dynamic established
throughout the film: the presentation of Kennedy as a rather good husband. The skinny
dipping scene in *Killing Kennedy* thus suggests that his marriage with Jacqueline Bouvier in
1953 was just a way for him to be taken more seriously into politics after his playboy years in
Congress. After the scene, Jackie goes to the pool only to find a floating bra [00:21:33], which
does not only suggests her husband's philandering, but also that the two secretaries can be
reduced to an object, and here an intimate or sexual object.

<figure><img src="image_19.png" /><figcaption>Figure 16: screenshot of the floating bra in *Killing Kennedy*, which can be interpreted as a reduction of the women who had affairs with Kennedy. McCormick, Nelson. *Killing Kennedy*. 2013.</figcaption></figure>

In similar fashion, Judith Campbell Exner is only shown through a photograph in the film.
[00:21:47] It could be argued that she is a cut-out, or a one dimensional “icon” to use
Mulvey's term. Indeed, through this photograph, Judith Campbell Exner is not given any
depth nor character, she is flat and her story is not developed and appears as a parenthesis in
the narrative.

<footnote n="256">256 Flanagan, Caitlin. "Jackie and the Girls." *The Atlantic*, June 13, 2012, sec. Politics.</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_20.png" /><figcaption>Figure 17: screenshot from *Killing Kennedy* showing the image accompanying the only mention of Judith Campbell Exner in the film. McCormick, Nelson. *Killing Kennedy*. 2013.</figcaption></figure>

Jackie, contrary to the women with whom her husband is seen having affairs, is given more importance. She is often the focalizer, as previously seen in the selected episode of *The Crown*. Yet, the difference between the two treatments she receives by her husband in *Killing Kennedy* and *The Crown* creates a sense of ambivalence because of the discrepancies they present. Indeed, in *Killing Kennedy*, she brings elements to the narrative: she discusses critical matters with her husband such as the Bay of Pigs invasion or the Cuban Missile Crisis and she is central to the story in Dallas. In the episode of *The Crown* however, the treatment she receives by her husband suggests once again his contemptuous habit to use women as objects. Indeed, the episode suggests that, after Jackie criticized Queen Elizabeth and Buckingham Palace during their 1961 visit to London, the Queen decided to embark on bold geopolitics and visit Ghana. There, she showed that she was a good leader and that she was not “boring” as the First Lady thought she was and, by dancing with Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah, she managed not to let Ghana fall to communism. Because of this, Kennedy told Jackie in a scornful manner: “I just wanted to thank you that's all. For the second time in recent weeks you've been instrumental in changing a significant matter of foreign policy.” [00:38:02] The positions in which Kennedy and his wife appear in this scene, that is to say the fact that Kennedy stands up and lights a cigarette, and the fact that Jackie is sitting motionless on the bed, suggests a relation of power. Kennedy, mocking Jackie, goes on to explain, as he smirks and pushes her shoulder with his:

> 'And an African state that was fast running into the arms of the Communists has been turned around and kept in the West.' 'Oh. What does that have to do with me?' 'Dreary Queen, Thick-Ankles?' 'What?' 'Her Majestic Dullness? The Incurious Crown? Apparently, just some of the things you said about her at a dinner in London, which then got back to Queen Elizabeth and, it seems, spurred
her on. Without those insults, she wouldn't have defied a Cabinet, risked her
reputation and gone to Ghana, against all advice, to bring President Nkrumah back
on side, but she did. Pulled off some incredible stunt with a dance. And it's all
thanks to you.' [00:38:14]

This quotation suggests that Kennedy only thanked his wife for her participation as an object
in geopolitical affairs, and he does not care about her feelings or what her insults might have
caused. In other words, he is "perfectly fine with using his wife for political means."<fnref n="257" />

All in all, in the productions of this corpus featuring JFK's philandering, although the
female audience in *The Crown* may highlight JFK's appeal, female characters are represented
in such a way that they are objectified. They do not bring elements to the story and they are
not given depth either. They can be reduced to objects, instruments, or body parts thus
suggesting Kennedy's contempt for women. For these reasons, this episode of the series
allows to link JFK to the #MeToo movement mentioned in the first part of this analysis, and
to a certain extent, to all the revisionist movements that emerged in the past 40 years. Indeed,
the depiction of JFK's attitude towards women in *The Crown* shows that an evolution is
present in the representation of the 35th president in films, and that the path appears to be
leading towards more rigorous portraits of JFK in cinematic productions in the future.
Episode 8 of the second season of the series could thus be considered a "turning point" in the
depiction of the President in cinematic productions. Indeed, it is the first time that Kennedy's
portrait is presented as totally negative on screen, so it can be considered the result of the
revisionists movements that seek to challenge JFK's ideal portrait. On the other hand, recent
polls and testimonies seem to confirm that JFK is still largely appreciated by the public, as the
first part of this analysis demonstrated. As a consequence, the coming years and decades will
tell what turn JFK's legacy will take. Will the tradition of protection and excuses take over
once again? Or is deterioration of the portrait only starting, and will it continue to nuance
Kennedy's image to the point that films will influence poll results? If Scott is right when he
argues that "It is only the start of symbiotic storylines and fantastic fables that will continue to
trace the movements of incumbents and their personalities from the Oval Office to TV series
and films for the foreseeable future and beyond"<fnref n="258" /> then the future will probably offer more
depictions of the 35th president, which shall in turn dictate the turn its legacy will take,
providing scholars with new opportunities of research.

<footnote n="257">257 Evangelista, Chris. "The Crown Season 2 Review: Netflix's Royal Drama Is Better Than Ever." *Film* (blog), December 8, 2017.</footnote>

<footnote n="258">258 Scott in *Morgan, Iwan W., ed. Presidents in the Movies*. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2011: 42</footnote>
Conclusion

To conclude, as they follow certain rules imposed by historical and political films, but
also as some of the productions from this corpus received funds from protectors of Kennedy's
image, the films under study show an idealized portrait of the President at first sight. The man
fits into the classical definitions of heroism and is displayed in films as the hero fighting
villains for his country and for the greater good. This is further emphasized by the fact that
Kennedy's natural temper can be considered close to qualities attributed to heroes, but also by
the fact that he crafted and protected his image so remarkably well while alive that even
decades after his death, some of the negative sides of his personality are still unknown to most
of the population. Yet, although the man is mostly idealized in films and series, nuances are
starting to appear in his portrait. Indeed, according to the revelations, testimonies, and the
gradual availability of his personal papers since the 1980s, Kennedy's image in productions
adopts, little by little, more and more ambivalent elements. The ones most dealt with, such as
his health, can be considered easily forgiven as they were somehow out of his control. Films
then also started to tackle his womanizing behavior – a less forgiveable trait – but also the
back channels he used during the Cuban Crisis – this time a risky political move that could
have cost the lives of millions, if not the end of the world as we know it today. On top of that,
other political decisions or facets of his character such as the Vietnam war, the role of the
mafia in Cuban-American relations, and the delayed Civil Rights bill are only briefly
mentioned. These elements, if featured in more depth in films, could have further stained
Kennedy's ideal image in popular culture, or at least made it closer to whom JFK appeared to
be in life. Yet as they are not, and as historical and political films follow certain rules as
mentioned earlier on, films and series contribute to the preservation of Kennedy's legacy,
which is in fact still rather enduring, even more than 60 years after his death, as polls and
testimonies have proven in the first part of this analysis.

What was interesting to see through the research process that this paper required is that
Kennedy's image is *expected* to be obviously positive at first sight, notably because of the
influence of Kennedy's control of his own image while alive. But what is surprising is the
discovery of other facets, darker elements of his personality in films, which are usually best
known by scholars but unknown to the general public, and which provoke ambivalent feelings
as a consequence.

The conclusion of this paper is, however, not quite surprising. Films and series overall
protect Kennedy, and his legacy lives on. Nonetheless, as this analysis showed that political
films remain a prolific genre, it could be argued that more nuanced and more negative portraits of the man are expected to appear on screen in the future, as it already was the case with Episode 8 of the second season of *The Crown*. These future productions might, in the long run, change the conclusion of this thesis.

From the six pieces of work selected for this corpus, the two most recent ones are *The Crown* (2017) and *LBJ* (2017), but other productions dealing with Kennedy himself or with the Kennedy family in general are also contemporary to those two, such as *Jackie*, which came out in 2016, *The Kennedys: After Camelot*<fnref n="259" />, from 2017, *Chappaquiddick*<fnref n="260" />, released in 2017, and the fifth episode of the second season of *Timeless*<fnref n="261" />, called “The Kennedy Curse”, which is from 2018. *Jackie*, as previously seen, is a biopic about the First Lady, but as a consequence, the film displays the strong affection she had for her husband, and mostly shows how she took control of Kennedy's image and legacy after her interview with Theodore H. White for *Life Magazine* in December 1963, which forged the Camelot legend. *The Kennedys: After Camelot* and *Chappaquiddick* both deal with later events, such as Ted Kennedy's – JFK's younger brother – involvement in a single-car crash after he left a party, which resulted in the drowning of 28 year-old Mary Jo Kopechne. Indeed, after rescuing himself from the sinking car, Ted Kennedy left his companion to drown in the waters of the island of Chappaquiddick, Massachussetts in 1969. Although the story casts a dark shadow on the Kennedy name, it nonetheless also shows that the Kennedy family is still a subject of interest for directors and the public. Indeed, it appears to be quite rare that directors nowadays choose to focus on local politicians, who happen to be the brothers of late presidents, who themselves happen to have died decades ago now.

As far as *Timeless* and *The Crown* are concerned, both prove once again that Kennedy still is a particular source of interest. Indeed, although the series *Timeless* features lots of Presidents, as the main characters travel through time to protect the course of History, Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Roosevelt, Wilson and Reagan only appear for a few seconds in their respective episodes.<fnref n="262" /> On top of that, Nixon is not even seen clearly on screen in the episode called “The Watergate Tapes.”<fnref n="263" /> Kennedy on the contrary is involved in two episodes, and he is the central figure of one of them called “The Kennedy Curse,” in which his character is a 17 year old Kennedy taken to 2018. On top of that, this episode of *Timeless* serves to reinforce

<footnote n="259">259 Cassar, John, and Katie Holmes. *The Kennedys: After Camelot*. Intuition Film Productions, Muse Entertainment Enterprises, Three Putt Productions, 2017.</footnote>

<footnote n="260">260 Curran, John. *Chappaquiddick*. Apex Entertainment, Chimney, DMG Entertainment, 2018.</footnote>

<footnote n="261">261 *Timeless*. MiddKid Productions, Kripke Enterprises, Davis Entertainment, 2016.</footnote>

<footnote n="262">262 *Ibid.*: in order: Season 1 Episode 2: “The assassination of Abraham Lincoln,” Season 1 Episode 11:“The World’s Columbian Exposition,” Season 2 Episode 7: “Mrs. Sherlock Holmes,” and Season 2 Episode 8: “The Day Reagan Was shot.”</footnote>

<footnote n="263">263 *Ibid.*: Season 2 Episode 6: “The Watergate Tapes.”</footnote>
the thesis defended by this paper. Indeed, JFK's health and womanizing habit are openly
tackled throughout the episode, showing that the dark sides of his personality originated early
in his life. But two lines seem to be important as they attest that the Kennedy Mystique is still
at work and that his legacy endures: "We need to keep John alive long enough, so we can
return him so he can become arguably the most beloved president of the 20th century,"
[00:06:06] and at the end of the episode: " 'You are going to make the world a much better
place. There are worst fates.' 'Was I a good president?' 'One of the greatest.' " [00:38:40] In
addition, "Atomic City"<fnref n="264" /> revolves around Judith Campbell. As a consequence, Kennedy is
briefly seen at the beginning of the episode, this time as an adult. This episode appears to be
important in the line of productions dealing with Kennedy as it pictures both Judith Campbell,
giving her a major role on screen for the first time, but also Sam Giancana, who was missing
from the corpus of this analysis. The episode thus acknowledges Campbell's role as an
intermediate between the men, but also Kennedy's relation with Giancana. Eventually, it
seems interesting to note that Kennedy was given two episodes in *Timeless* although he was
President for less than three years, whereas other Presidents, who, it can be argued, have
played more critical roles for the country, appear only briefly on screen.

The same phenomenon is present in *The Crown*. Indeed, as previously seen, Kennedy
is one of the only two American presidents given a full episode in *The Crown*. The other
President to be featured in the series is Lyndon B. Johnson, who, like Kennedy, is pictured
having a difficult relationship with Great Britain. Nonetheless, in the only episode in which
another American President is featured, Johnson is constantly compared to JFK: "And then
everybody would laugh at me and they'd say I wasn't no Jack Kennedy," [00:17:07] and " 'I
met him once. Kennedy. I was left distinctly... underwhelmed.' 'Margaret.' 'I'm sorry. Did I say
something wrong? I do know these days one's not allowed to think anything other than what a
great statesman Kennedy was.' 'Say nothing Lyndon.' 'Of course he'll say nothing. He was his
loyal deputy, which I think I can understand better than most. The frustrations and
resentments that can build up from a life as number two. The support act. Even of someone
you adore.' "[00:29:51] As these recent productions showed, Kennedy is still often the most
represented of all 46 American Presidents, and each time, although he is criticized for his
behavior or political positions, the outcome tends to remain positive in the end.

Just like in films and series, Kennedy still manages to be everywhere, even nowadays.
Indeed, his time still resonates in everyday life and, as his memory is preserved, the elements
of his life the public is mostly confronted with today are rather positive. For example, each

<footnote n="264">264 *Timeless*. MiddKid Productions, Kripke Enterprises, Davis Entertainment, 2016, Season 1 Episode 3: "Atomic City"</footnote>
time a step forward is reached in space, the public is reminded of Kennedy's 1962 address at
Rice University, which started the American Space Conquest, which allowed the creation of
many technological advancements without which it would be impossible to live today. In
similar fashion, the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement throughout the 2010s and more
importantly its actions these past few years following the murders of many black Americans
by white police officers recall the situation of the country in the 1960s. Finally, the JFK
Library and Museum in Boston launched the “Profile in Courage Award”, which seeks to
recognize “a public official (or officials) at the federal, state, or local level whose actions
demonstrate the qualities of politically courageous leadership in the spirit of *Profiles in
Courage*, President Kennedy’s 1957 Pulitzer prize-winning book, which recounts the stories
of eight U.S. Senators who risked their careers by embracing unpopular positions for the
greater good,” and which is now a tradition since 1989.<fnref n="265" /> But last year, in 2020, as the
Coronavirus pandemic struck the world, the JFK Library awarded a special prize called the
“Covid Courage” which celebrates those who “are risking their own health to help heal the
sick, protect our most vulnerable, and provide critical support services to citizens across the
country.”<fnref n="266" /> Once again, this award proves that Kennedy manages to be everywhere all the
time.

It can be argued that Kennedy's memory is so greatly protected that his negative sides
are somehow “excused” each time by his supporters. Even though his portrait has suffered
some degradations because of the revisionist movements, he nonetheless is a legend now. His
experience in the Pacific turned him into a hero, his family provokes feelings of nostalgia for
a period which most of his supporters have never lived, the comparison between JFK and
King Arthur, and between his administration and the knights of the round table is unsettlingly
dreamy, his assassination lead people to regret him when he did not do much politically
speaking, and his large smile and charisma, which have charmed people for decades now,
seem forever unfading. Legends are the stuff of films, and the Kennedy era will probably
remain *the* reference for utopia, and the man will probably remain *the* reference for the hero.
Though long dead now, the world has not seen the end of John F. Kennedy.

<footnote n="265">265 JFK Library and Museum “The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.” JFK Library and Museum website.</footnote>

<footnote n="266">266 JFK Library and Museum “Events and Awards: Profile in Courage Award | JFK Library.” JFK Library and Museum website.</footnote>
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