John F. Kennedy

**John Fitzgerald Kennedy** (29 May, 1917 - 14 June, 1942) was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He was a member of the Kennedy family and the second oldest of the nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. During the Second American Civil War, Kennedy was killed in action during the attack on Boston by the Combined Syndicates of America, and was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. Two of Kennedy's brothers, Robert and Joseph Jr., would go on to be president of the United States and vice president of the United States respectively. He has since been nicknamed **"The Forgotten Kennedy"**, due to being overshadowed by his siblings.

Kennedy is most known for his 1940 college thesis *Why England Slept*, which examined the actions of the government of the United Kingdom following the First Weltkrieg, and how their actions caused the British Revolution. This thesis was later transformed into a book, which became a bestseller in Canada and Europe upon release. Many contemporary political scientists and scholars hold that Kennedy's analysis of the revolution is still the foremost book on the subject.

## Early life and Education

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born outside Boston in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917, at 83 Beals Street, to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., a businessman and politician, and Rose Kennedy (née Fitzgerald), a philanthropist and socialite. His paternal grandfather, P. J. Kennedy, served as a Massachusetts state legislator. Kennedy's maternal grandfather and namesake, John F. Fitzgerald, served as a U.S. Congressman and was elected to two terms as Mayor of Boston. All four of his grandparents were children of Irish immigrants. Kennedy had an older brother, Joseph Jr., and seven younger siblings: Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean, and Edward.

Kennedy lived in Brookline for the first ten years of his life. He attended the local St. Aidan's Church, where he was baptized on June 19, 1917. He was educated through the 4th grade at the Edward Devotion School, the Noble and Greenough Lower School, and the Dexter School; all located in the Boston area. Kennedy's first exposure to politics was touring the Boston wards with his grandfather Fitzgerald during his failed gubernatorial campaign in 1922. His father amassed a private fortune through a variety of activities and established trust funds for his nine children that guaranteed lifelong financial independence. His business kept him away from home for long stretches, but Joe Sr. was a formidable presence in his children's lives, nevertheless. He encouraged them to be ambitious, emphasizing political discussions at the dinner table, and demanding a high level of academic achievement from each of them. Christmas and Easter holidays were spent at their winter retreat in Palm Beach, Florida.

Young John attended the Riverdale Country School – a private school for boys – from 5th to 7th grade, and was a member of Boy Scout Troop 2 in Bronxville, New York. In September 1930, Kennedy, then 13 years old, was shipped off to the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut, for 8th grade. In April 1931, he had an appendectomy, after which he withdrew from Canterbury and recuperated at home. In September 1931, Kennedy started attending Choate School, a prestigious preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut. Rose had wanted John and Joe Jr. to attend a Catholic school, but Joe Sr. thought that if they were to compete in the political world, they needed to be with boys from prominent Protestant families. John spent his first years at Choate in his older brother's shadow and compensated with rebellious behavior that attracted a clique. Their most notorious stunt was exploding a toilet seat with a powerful firecracker. In the next chapel assembly, the headmaster, George St. John, brandished the toilet seat and spoke of certain "muckers" who would "spit in our sea", leading Kennedy to name his group "The Muckers Club", which included roommate and lifelong friend Lem Billings. Because of their stunts, the Club members were nearly expelled. However, they were later called back into the study and were told they would not be expelled.

During his years at Choate, Kennedy was beset by health problems that culminated with his emergency hospitalization in 1934 at Yale New Haven Hospital, where doctors suspected leukemia. While sick, Kennedy became a passionate reader, reading authors and characters like Sir Walter Scott and King Arthur. In June 1934, he was admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota; the ultimate diagnosis there was colitis. Kennedy graduated from Choate in June of the following year, finishing 64th in a class of 112 students. He had been the business manager of the school yearbook and was voted the "most likely to succeed." One teacher later said that Kennedy was "not as steady as his brother Joe, but still showed flashes of brilliance."

Kennedy initially enrolled in Princeton University, but was forced to drop out after two months due to a gastrointestinal illness. He was then hospitalized for observation at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. He convalesced further at the family winter home in Palm Beach, then spent the spring of 1936 working as a ranch hand outside Benson, Arizona under Jack Speiden.

In September 1936, Kennedy enrolled at Harvard College, and his application essay stated: "The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a 'Harvard man' is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain." He wrote occasionally for *The Harvard Crimson*, the campus newspaper, but had little involvement with campus politics, preferring to concentrate on athletics and his social life. Kennedy played football and was on the JV squad during his sophomore year, but an injury forced him off the team, and left him with back problems that would plague him for the rest of his life. He won membership in the Hasty Pudding Club and the Spee Club, one of Harvard's elite "final clubs".

## College Thesis

When the Second American Civil War broke out, Kennedy wrote a letter to his father in 1938, asking for permission to drop out of college and go fight in the conflict. Joseph Sr. refused to let him drop out, instructing his son to remain at Harvard University for the time being.

While Kennedy was an upperclassman at Harvard, he began to take his studies more seriously and developed an interest in political philosophy. He made the dean's list in his junior year. Kennedy would also join the Harvard College Democrats club. In 1940, Kennedy completed his thesis, "Consequences of the British Peace", about the effects of the Treaty of Versailles and the slow post-war build up to the British Revolution. Rather than castigating the austerity policies that Prime Minister Austen Chamberlain and the First National Government then pursued, it is notable for taking the uncommon stance that continued defence spending would have bankrupted the government, leading to a far more violent syndicalist revolution. It was rated *magna cum laude* by Professor Henry A. Yeomans and *cum laude plus* by Professor Carl J. Friedrich. However, Kennedy's father, keen to elevate his son's reputation, encouraged Kennedy to convert the thesis into book form and publish it. He then enlisted the highly influential publishing magnate Henry Luce to write the foreword, and his friend Arthur Krock, former bureau chief of *The New York Times*, to assist in redrafting the thesis. After it was published in 1940, the book sold 80,000 copies in Canada, becoming popular with the British diaspora in the country. The book was later translated into German, and later became a major success in the German Empire. The book became popular due in no small part to the timing of its release, with reviewers in America praising Kennedy's analysis of the syndicalist movement in Britain. Kennedy bought a Buick convertible with the income from the book's North American sales.

## Joining the U.S. Navy

Kennedy had wanted to attend Yale Law School, but canceled and again attempted to join the military. By 1941, Kennedy's older brother was already serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve, and Kennedy himself wished to join. On September 24, 1941, Kennedy, with the help of his father, joined the U.S. Naval Reserve. He was commissioned an ensign on October 26, 1941. With Washington, D.C. having fallen to the Syndicalists in 1938, the chain of command of the U.S. military was broken slightly. Kennedy was often trained by Canadian military officers, due to a shortage of American manpower in the Northeast of the country.
Kennedy hoped to be the commander of a PT (patrol torpedo) boat, but his health problems seemed almost certain to prevent him from active duty. Kennedy's father intervened by providing misleading medical records and convincing PT officers that his presence would bring publicity to the fleet.

## Death

In June 1942, while Kennedy was on leave in Boston, Massachussetts, several pro-Syndicalist organizations in the city rose up and began fighting against the Federalist and Canadian forces stationed there. Brutal fighting took place all over the city, with trade unionists getting into shoot outs with Canadian soldiers and the remaining members of the Boston Police Department. Additionally, Combined Syndicates soldiers began streaming into the city. Kennedy reportedly took up a defensive position on Beacon Street, attempting to halt the advance of the Syndicalist rioters. He was shot in the head, dying instantly. His body was never recovered, supposedly being buried in an unmarked grave.

## Legacy

In 1946, the Navy named a destroyer after him, the USS *John F. Kennedy* aboard which his younger brother, the future U.S. President Robert F. Kennedy, briefly served.