Joseph P. Kennedy | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Kennedy in 1938 | |
| 44thUnited States Ambassador to the United Kingdom | |
| In office March 8, 1938 – October 22, 1940 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Robert Worth Bingham |
| Succeeded by | John Gilbert Winant |
| 1st Chair of theUnited States Maritime Commission | |
| In office April 14, 1937 – February 19, 1938 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Emory S. Land |
| 1st Chair of theUnited States Securities and Exchange Commission | |
| In office June 30, 1934 – September 23, 1935 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | James M. Landis |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Joseph Patrick Kennedy (1888-09-06)September 6, 1888 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | November 18, 1969(1969-11-18) (aged 81) |
| Resting place | Holyhood Cemetery |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Parent |
|
| Relatives | Kennedy family |
| Education | Harvard University (AB) |
| Occupation |
|
| Signature |  |
Joseph Patrick Kennedy (September 6, 1888 – November 18, 1969) was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and politician. Known for his own political prominence as well as that of his children, he was the patriarch of theKennedy family.
Kennedy was born into a political family inEast Boston, Massachusetts. After making a large fortune as a stock and commodity market investor, he invested in real estate and a wide range of privately controlled businesses across the United States. DuringWorld War I, he was an assistantgeneral manager of a Boston areaBethlehem Steel shipyard; through that position, he became acquainted withFranklin D. Roosevelt, who was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In the 1920s, Kennedy made huge profits by reorganizing and refinancing severalHollywood studios; several acquisitions were ultimately merged intoRadio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) studios. Kennedy increased his fortune with distribution rights forScotch whisky. He owned the largest privately owned building in the country, Chicago'sMerchandise Mart.
Kennedy was a leading member of theDemocratic Party and of theIrish Catholic community. President Roosevelt appointed Kennedy to be the first chairman of theSecurities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which he led from 1934 to 1935. Kennedy later directed theUnited States Maritime Commission. He served as theUnited States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1938 to late 1940. With the outbreak ofWorld War II in September 1939, Kennedy was pessimistic about Britain's ability to survive attacks fromGermany. During theBattle of Britain in November 1940, Kennedy publicly suggested, "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here [in the United States]." After a controversy regarding this statement, Kennedy resigned his position.
Kennedy marriedRose Fitzgerald and had nine children. During his later life, he was heavily involved in the political careers of his sons. Three of Kennedy's sons attained distinguished political positions:John F. Kennedy served as a U.S. senator from Massachusetts and as the 35th president of the United States,Robert F. Kennedy served as theU.S. attorney general and as a U.S. senator from New York, andTed Kennedy was a U.S. senator from Massachusetts. Kennedy was also the father ofSpecial Olympics founderEunice Kennedy Shriver andU.S. Ambassador to IrelandJean Kennedy Smith.
Joseph Patrick Kennedy was born on September 6, 1888, at 151 Meridian Street inEast Boston, Massachusetts.[1][2] Kennedy was the elder son of Mary Augusta (née Hickey) Kennedy and businessman and politicianPatrick Joseph "P.J." Kennedy.[1] Kennedy attendedBoston Latin School, where he excelled atbaseball and was elected class president[3] before graduating in 1908.[1]
Kennedy then attendedHarvard College, where he gained admittance to the prestigiousHasty Pudding Club but was not invited to join thePorcellian Club.[3] Kennedy graduated in 1912[4] with a bachelor's degree in economics.[5]
Kennedy set his future sights on embarking on a business career upon his graduation from Harvard. During his mid-to-late 20s, he made a large fortune as an active commodity and stock investor; he then reinvested much of his proceeds into film studios, real estate, and shipping lines. Although Kennedy never built a significant business from scratch, his timing as both buyer and seller was excellent.[6]
Various criminals, such asFrank Costello, boasted that they worked with Kennedy in mysteriousbootlegging operations duringProhibition.[7] Although his father was in the whisky importation business, scholars dismiss the claims. The most recent and most thorough biographerDavid Nasaw asserts that no credible evidence has been found to link Kennedy to bootlegging activities.[8] WhenFortune magazine published its first list of therichest people in the United States in 1957, it placed Kennedy in the $200–400 million group, equivalent to about $3.2 billion in 2023.[9][10][11]
Kennedy's first job after graduating from Harvard was a position as a state-employed bank examiner. This job allowed him to learn a great deal about the banking industry. In 1913, the Columbia Trust Bank, in which his father held a significant share, was under threat of takeover. Kennedy borrowed $45,000 (equivalent to $1.4 million in 2024) from family and friends and bought back control. At the age of 25, he was rewarded by being elected the bank's president. Kennedy told the press he was "the youngest" bank president in America.[12] In May 1917, Kennedy was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts Electric Company, New England's leading public utility at the time.[13]
Kennedy emerged as an astute businessman who possessed an eye forvalue, possessing shrewd entrepreneurial acumen and savvy investment foresight. For example, as an activereal estate investor, he turned a handsome profit from his privately controlled ownership of Old Colony Realty Associates, Inc., an investment company which bought distressed real estate throughout the United States.[14]
Although he was skeptical of American involvement inWorld War I,[15] Kennedy sought to participate in wartime production as an assistant general manager ofFore River, a majorBethlehem Steel shipyard inQuincy, Massachusetts. There, he oversaw the production of transports and warships.[16] Through this job, he became acquainted with Assistant Secretary of the NavyFranklin D. Roosevelt.[13]
In 1919, Kennedy joinedHayden, Stone & Co., a prominentstock brokerage firm with offices in Boston and New York, where he became an expert dealing in the unregulatedstock market of the day, engaging in tactics that were later considered to beinsider trading andmarket manipulation violations.[17] He happened to be on the corner of Wall and Broad Streets at the moment of theWall Street bombing on September 16, 1920, and was thrown to the ground by the force of the blast.[18] In 1923, he established his own investment company.[19] Kennedy subsequently became a multi-millionaire as a result of taking "short" positions following the 1929 stock market crash.[19]
Kennedy was enlisted in 1924 to help stabilize the stock ofJohn D. Hertz'sYellow Cab Company, a taxi cab operator, against abear raid; afterward, Hertz suspected Kennedy of carrying out such a raid against the stock himself.[20] In 1933, he helped establish a "stock pool" that bought large quantities of stock inLibbey-Owens-Ford (LOF), an auto-glass manufacturer, andwash-traded huge volumes of stock among themselves while promoting the outright fraud that their company was related toOwens-Illinois, a glassmaker that made bottles which presumably would have profited from the imminent repeal of Prohibition.[21][22]
Kennedy later claimed he understood that the rampant stock speculationof the late 1920s would lead to a market crash. It is said that he knew it was time to get out of the market when he received stock tips from a shoe-shine boy, but no evidence has been found of the anecdote and the first known version of the same tale was associated toBernard Baruch in 1957.[23] Kennedy survived the crash "because he possessed a passion for facts, a complete lack of sentiment and a marvelous sense of timing".[24]
During theGreat Depression, Kennedy shrewdly increased his wealth by devoting most of it to investment-grade real estate. In 1929, Kennedy's fortune was estimated to be $4 million (equivalent to $73.2 million in 2024).[10] By 1935, his wealth had increased to $180 million (equivalent to $4.13 billion in 2024).[10] He also acquired enough capital to establish million-dollartrust funds for each of his nine children that guaranteed lifelong financial independence.[25]
.jpg)
Kennedy generated windfall profits from reorganizing and refinancing several Hollywoodfilm studios. He began with film distribution in New England, buying firstmovie theaters inMassachusetts,[26] but quickly moved on to industry-wide arrangements and production.[27][28] While still at Hayden, Stone & Co., Kennedy boasted to a colleague, "Look at that bunch of pants pressers in Hollywood making themselves millionaires. I could take the whole business away from them."[29] One small studio,Film Booking Offices of America (FBO), specialized inWesterns produced cheaply. Its owner was in financial trouble, and asked Kennedy to help find a new owner. Kennedy formed his own group of investors and bought it for $1.5 million.[13]
In March 1926, Kennedy moved to Hollywood to focus on running film studios.[30] At that time, film studios were permitted to own exhibition companies, which were necessary to get their films on local screens. With that in mind, he bought controlling shares inKeith-Albee-Orpheum Theaters Corporation (KAO), which had more than 700vaudeville theaters across the United States that had begun showing movies.[31] In October 1928, he formally merged his film companies FBO and KAO to formRadio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO)[32] and made a large amount of money in the process. Kennedy had no interest in vaudeville; he just wanted the theaters, which he planned to convert to movie houses for the film booking interests he ran in cooperation withRadio Corporation of America (RCA).[33] As the developer ofphotophone, a sound system for the new "talkies", RCA needed to forge a connection with Hollywood to sell its product. At the same time Kennedy knew that he needed to compete in the new market of sound films and to do so he would have to have access to a technology that was not proprietary.[13]
Keen to buy thePantages Theatre chain, which had 63 profitable theaters, Kennedy made an offer of $8 million (equivalent to $146.5 million in 2024). It was declined. He then stopped distributing his movies to Pantages. Still,Alexander Pantages declined to sell.[35] However, when Pantages was later charged and tried for rape, his reputation took a battering, and he accepted Kennedy's revised offer of $3.5 million (equivalent to $64.1 million in 2024). Pantages, who claimed that Kennedy had "set him up", was later found not guilty at a second trial. The girl who had accused Pantages of rape,Eunice Pringle, was rumored to have confessed on her deathbed that Kennedy was the mastermind of the plot to frame Pantages.[36][37] This rumor was later debunked by Pringle's daughter, Mary Worthington.[38] Kennedy made over $5 million (equivalent to $91.6 million in 2024) from his investments in Hollywood. During his three-year affair with film starGloria Swanson,[39] he arranged the financing for her filmsThe Love of Sunya (1927) and the ill-fatedQueen Kelly (1928). The duo also used Hollywood's famous "body sculptor", masseuseSylvia of Hollywood.[39] Their relationship ended when Swanson discovered that an expensive gift from Kennedy had actually been charged to her account.[40]
Kennedy ventured into aspects of the legal liquor business duringProhibition in the United States. As soon as it became legal to do so, Kennedy ventured into liquor importing. One of his shipping ventures he was involved in was the importation of large shipments of high-pricedScotch whisky where he earned a handsome profit in the process. Various contradictory "bootlegging" stories surrounding Kennedy have circulated but historians have not accepted them.[8][41][42] At the start of the Franklin Roosevelt administration in March 1933, Kennedy and future CongressmanJames Roosevelt II obtained the exclusive rights to import some alcoholic beverage brands to the United States from Great Britain, before Prohibition ended,[43][44] and later founded Somerset Importers, a business entity that acted as the exclusive American agent forHaig & Haig Scotch,Gordon's Dry Gin,Dewar's Scotch,King William IV Scotch Whisky,[45][46][47] and Riondo Puerto Rico Rum, and other imported drinks.[48][49] Kennedy kept his Somerset company for years.[50] In addition, Kennedy purchased spirits-importation rights fromSchenley Industries,[51] a New York City liquor company with a Canadian distillery.[32] Though he possessed substantial investments in various shipping lines that imported significant shipments of liquor,[52] Kennedy himself drank little alcohol. He so disapproved of what he considered astereotypical Irish vice that he offered his sons $1,000 not to drink until they turned 21.[53]
Kennedy reinvested the proceeds he made from liquor importing into various residential and commercial real estate ventures, much of it concentrated in New York City, and theHialeah Park Race Track inHialeah, Florida.[54][55] The most important purchase of his real estate investment career was marked by the land acquisition of the largest privately owned building in the country, Chicago'sMerchandise Mart (the world's largest building at the time), which gave his family an important base in that city and an alliance with theIrish-American political leadership there to lay the groundwork for realizing his sons' future political ambitions.[56] The Merchandise Mart's revenues became a principal source of wealth that formed much of the Kennedy family's private fortune, including being a source of funding for financing his sons' future political campaigns.[57]
In1932, Kennedy supportedFranklin D. Roosevelt in his bid for the presidency. This was his first major involvement in a national political campaign, and he donated, lent, and raised a substantial amount of money for the campaign.[13]
In 1934, Congress established the independentSecurities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to end irresponsible market manipulations and dissemination of false information about securities.[58] Roosevelt's brain trust drew up a list of recommended candidates for the SEC chairmanship. Kennedy headed the list, which stated he was "the best bet for Chairman because of executive ability, knowledge of habits and customs of business to be regulated and ability to moderate different points of view on Commission."[59]
In his address to the Boston Chamber of Commerce on November 15, 1934 Kennedy said, "Deplorable loss was the consequence of ill-considered conception, preparation, and execution. We don't want the staccato tempo of much of the frenzied financing of the late twenties." Kennedy continued, "We have the tremendous task of educating the American public to protect itself against high-pressure salesmanship. No law has ever been devised or administered which successfully eradicated crookedness. The Federal Government, however, hopes to fill a much needed want,hopes to be a vigorous factor in the relentless war on stock frauds."[60]
Kennedy sought out the best lawyers available, giving him a hard-driving team with a mission for reform. Notably, he selectedWilliam O. Douglas andAbe Fortas, both of whom were later appointed to the Supreme Court. Douglas eventually became SEC Chairman in 1937.[61] The SEC had four missions. First was to restore investor confidence in the securities market, which had collapsed on account of its questionability, and the external threats supposedly posed by anti-business elements in the Roosevelt administration. Second, the SEC had to get rid of penny-ante swindles based on false information, fraudulent devices, andget-rich-quick schemes. Thirdly, and much more important than the frauds, the SEC had to end the million-dollar maneuvers in major corporations, whereby insiders with access to high-quality information about the company knew when to buy or sell their own securities. A crackdown on insider trading was essential. Finally, the SEC had to set up a complex system of registration for all securities sold in America, with a clear set of rules, deadlines and guidelines that all companies had to follow. The main challenge faced by the young lawyers was drafting precise rules. The SEC succeeded in its four missions, as Kennedy reassured the American business community that they would no longer be deceived and taken advantage of by Wall Street. He trumpeted for ordinary investors to return to the market and enable the economy to grow again.[62] Kennedy's reforming work as SEC Chairman was widely praised on all sides, as investors realized the SEC was protecting their interests. He resigned from the SEC in September 1935.[63]
In1936, Roosevelt sought Kennedy's help on the campaign, and Kennedy responded with his bookI'm for Roosevelt, which he had published and made sure was widely distributed. The book presented arguments for why businessmen should support Roosevelt and theNew Deal, told from the perspective of Kennedy's own personal endorsement. The book had significant impact in the business community and after his re-election, Roosevelt appointed Kennedy as Chairman of theUnited States Maritime Commission,[64] which built on his wartime experience in running a major shipyard. Kennedy spent only ten months at the commission.[13]
FatherCharles Coughlin, anIrish Canadian priest nearDetroit, became the most prominent Roman Catholic spokesman on political and financial issues in the 1930s, with a radio audience in the millions every week. Having been a strong supporter of Roosevelt since 1932, in 1934 Coughlin broke with the president, who became a bitter opponent and a target of Coughlin's weekly anti-communist, anti-Semitic, far-right, anti–Federal Reserve and isolationist radio talks. Roosevelt sent Kennedy and other prominent Irish Catholics to try to tone down Coughlin.[65]
Coughlin swung his support toHuey Long in 1935, and then toWilliam Lemke'sUnion Party in 1936. Kennedy strongly supported the New Deal (Father Coughlin believed that the New Deal did not go far enough, and thought that Franklin Roosevelt was a tool of the rich) and reportedly believed as early as 1933 that Coughlin was "becoming a very dangerous proposition" as an opponent of Roosevelt and "an out and out demagogue". In 1936, Kennedy worked with Roosevelt, BishopFrancis Spellman and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (laterPope Pius XII) to shut Coughlin down.[66] When Coughlin returned to the air in 1940, Kennedy continued to battle against his influence among Irish Americans.[67]
Despite his public disputes with Coughlin, it has also been acknowledged that Kennedy would also accompany Coughlin whenever the priest visited Roosevelt at Hyde Park.[68] A historian withHistory News Network also stated that Coughlin was a friend of Kennedy as well.[69] In aBoston Post article of August 16, 1936, Coughlin referred to Kennedy as the "shining star among the dim 'knights' in the [Roosevelt] Administration".[70]
In 1938, Roosevelt appointed Kennedy as theUnited States ambassador to the Court of St James's (United Kingdom). Kennedy hoped to succeed Roosevelt in the White House,[71] telling a British reporter in late 1939 that he was confident that Roosevelt would "fall" in1940 (that year's presidential election).[69]
Kennedy and his family retreated to the countryside during the bombings of London by German aircraft in World War II. In so doing, he damaged his reputation with the British.[72] This move promptedRandolph Churchill to say, "I thought my daffodils were yellow until I met Joe Kennedy".[73]
Kennedy developed a reputation as adefeatist.[74] His pessimism on the prospect of afeared German invasion of England was reflected in that on 17 May 1940, the U.S. Embassy advised the 4000 Americans then living in Britain to return home "as soon as possible." A sterner message in June warned "that this may be the last opportunity for Americans to get home until after the war."[citation needed] Many Americans chose to remain, and on 1 June 1940, the 1st American Squadron of theHome Guard was formed in London. They had average strength of 60–70, and were commanded by General Wade H. Hayes.[citation needed] Kennedy opposed themustering of citizens from a then-neutral power, fearing that in the event of invasion, a civilian squadron would make all U.S. citizens living in London liable to be shot by the invading Germans asfrancs-tireurs.[75][76]
According to the U.S. National Archives:
In London, the American Ambassador and his wife soared to the heights of British society. In the spring of 1938...the couple luxuriated in the warmth of English hospitality, hobnobbing with aristocrats and royalty at the many balls, dinners, regattas, and derbies of the season. The highlight was surely the April weekend that they spent atWindsor Castle, guests of KingGeorge VI and his wife, QueenElizabeth.[77]
While getting dressed for an evening at Windsor Castle soon after he arrived, Kennedy paused in momentary reflection and remarked to his wife, "Well, Rose, this is a helluva long way from East Boston, isn't it?"[78]
On May 6, 1944, Kennedy's daughter,Kathleen, marriedWilliam Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, the elder son of theDuke of Devonshire. The union was disapproved by Rose Kennedy due to Hartington being an Anglican. Unable to reconcile their religious backgrounds, Hartington and Kathleen were married in a civil ceremony. Hartington, a major in theColdstream Guards, was killed in action on September 9, 1944.[79]
Kennedy rejected the belief ofWinston Churchill that any compromise withNazi Germany was impossible. Instead, he supported Prime MinisterNeville Chamberlain's policy ofappeasement. Throughout 1938, while the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Germany intensified, Kennedy attempted to arrange a meeting withAdolf Hitler.[80] Shortly before theNazi bombing of British cities began in September 1940, Kennedy once again sought a personal meeting with Hitler without the approval of the U. S. Department of State, in order to "bring about a better understanding between the United States and Germany".[81]
When war came in September 1939, Kennedy's public support for American neutrality conflicted with Roosevelt's increasing efforts to provide aid to Britain.[82] "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here [in the United States]",[83] he stated in theBoston Sunday Globe of November 10, 1940. With German troops having overrunPoland,Denmark,Norway,Belgium, theNetherlands,Luxembourg, andFrance, and with daily bombings of Great Britain, Kennedy unambiguously and repeatedly stated that the war was not about saving democracy from National Socialism (Nazism) or from Fascism. In an interview with two newspaper journalists,Louis M. Lyons ofThe Boston Globe, and Ralph Coghlan of theSt. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kennedy said:
It's all a question of what we do with the next six months. The whole reason for aiding England is to give us time ... As long as she is in there, we have time to prepare. It isn't that [Britain is] fighting for democracy. That's the bunk. She's fighting for self-preservation, just as we will if it comes to us. ... I know more about the European situation than anybody else, and it's up to me to see that the country gets it.[83]
Kennedy's views became inconsistent and increasinglyisolationist. BritishMPJosiah Wedgwood IV, who had himself opposed the British government's earlier appeasement policy, said of Kennedy:
We have a rich man, untrained in diplomacy, unlearned in history and politics, who is a great publicity seeker and who apparently is ambitious to be the first Catholic president of the U.S.[84]
According to Harvey Klemmer, who served as one of Kennedy's embassy aides, Kennedy habitually referred to Jews as "kikes or sheenies". Kennedy allegedly told Klemmer that "[some] individual Jews are all right, Harvey, but as a race they stink. They spoil everything they touch."[81] When Klemmer returned from a trip to Germany and reported the pattern of vandalism and assaults on Jews by Nazis, Kennedy responded, "Well, they brought it on themselves."[85]
On June 13, 1938, Kennedy met in London withHerbert von Dirksen, the German ambassador to the United Kingdom, who claimed upon his return to Berlin that Kennedy had told him that "it was not so much the fact that we want to get rid of the Jews that was so harmful to us, but rather the loud clamor with which we accompanied this purpose. [Kennedy] himself fully understood our Jewish policy."[86] Kennedy's main concern with such violent acts against German Jews asKristallnacht was that they generated bad publicity in the West for the Nazi regime, a concern that he communicated in a letter toCharles Lindbergh.[87]
Kennedy had a close friendship withViscountess Astor, and their correspondence is replete with anti-Semitic statements.[88] According to Edward Renehan:
As fiercely anti-Communist as they were anti-Semitic, Kennedy and Astor looked upon Adolf Hitler as a welcome solution to both of these "world problems" (Nancy's phrase). ... . Kennedy replied that he expected the "Jew media" in the United States to become a problem, that "Jewish pundits in New York and Los Angeles" were already making noises contrived to "set a match to the fuse of the world".[89]
By August 1940, Kennedy worried that a third term for President Roosevelt would mean war. Biographer Laurence Leamer inThe Kennedy Men: 1901–1963 reports: "Joe believed that Roosevelt, Churchill, the Jews, and their allies would manipulate America into approachingArmageddon."[90] Nevertheless, Kennedy supported Roosevelt's third term in return for Roosevelt's promise to supportJoseph Kennedy Jr. in a run forGovernor of Massachusetts in 1942.[91] However, even during the darkest months of World War II, Kennedy remained "more wary of" prominent American Jews, such as Associate JusticeFelix Frankfurter, than he was of Hitler.[92]
Kennedy told the reporter Joe Dinneen:
It is true that I have a low opinion of some Jews in public office and in private life. That does not mean that I. ... believe they should be wiped off the face of the Earth. ... Jews who take an unfair advantage of the fact that theirs is a persecuted race do not help much. ... Publicizing unjust attacks upon the Jews may help to cure the injustice, but continually publicizing the whole problem only serves to keep it alive in the public mind.[93]
In some cases, however, Kennedy proved more willing to help Jewish refugees than FDR. Shortly after Kristallnacht, he lent his name to a proposal byGeorge Rublee the chair of the London-based Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, to provide havens for German Jews in thinly populated areas in Africa, North America, and South America. He hoped to defray the enormous costs, including ships and temporary camps, through financing by governments and Jewish organizations.[94]
Publicity about the Kennedy Plan included a sympathetic front-page story in theNew York Times and an article inLife which declared that if "his plan for settling the German Jews, already known as the ‘Kennedy Plan’, succeeds, it will add new luster to a reputation that may well carry Joseph Patrick Kennedy into the White House." Roosevelt quickly threw cold water on his enthusiasm by denying any knowledge of the plan. In private, he vented at Kennedy’s "grandstanding," and rebuked him by announcing that henceforthMyron Taylor was to be the official spokesman on refugee issues. There is no indication that the president considered the plan on its merits.[95]
From late 1939 onwards, Kennedy began to suspect that Roosevelt and theState Department were excluding him from decision-making and communiqués pertinent to his ambassadorial duties. Roosevelt had started to communicate in secret with Winston Churchill (at this time First Lord of the Admiralty, later Prime Minister).[96] In early 1940, Roosevelt also sent personal representatives (under Secretary of StateSumner Welles, and General William Donovan) on fact-finding missions to London and other European capitals, without advising Kennedy beforehand, thereby causing the ambassador great embarrassment and annoyance.[97] As a result, Kennedy was, for much of 1940, determined to resign his post, although Roosevelt insisted he remain in London. In late October 1940, Roosevelt invited Kennedy to return to Washington for a pre-election consultation, Kennedy used this visit to announce his resignation. Kennedy agreed to make a nationwide radio speech to advocate Roosevelt's reelection. Roosevelt was pleased with the speech because, Nasaw says, it "rallied reluctant Irish Catholic voters to his side, buttressed his claims that he was not going to take the nation into war, and emphasized that he alone had the experience to lead the nation in these difficult times." Kennedy finally submitted his resignation at the White House on December 1, 1940, but agreed to remain Ambassador until a successor was chosen in early 1941.[98]
For the rest of the war, relations between Kennedy and the Roosevelt administration remained tense, especially when Joe Jr., a Massachusettsdelegate at the1940 Democratic National Convention, vocally opposed Roosevelt's unprecedented nomination for a third term, which began in 1941. Kennedy may have wanted to run for president himself in 1940 or later. Having effectively removed himself from the national stage, Joe Sr. spent World War II on the sidelines. Kennedy stayed active in the smaller venues of rallying Irish-American and Roman Catholic Democrats to vote for Roosevelt's re-election for a fourth term in1944. Kennedy claimed to be eager to help the war effort, but as a result of his previous gaffes, he was neither trusted nor invited to do so.[99]
Kennedy used his wealth and connections to build a national network of supporters that became the base for his sons' political careers. He especially concentrated on Irish-American communities in large cities, particularly Boston, New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh and several New Jersey cities.[100] Kennedy also usedArthur Krock ofThe New York Times, America's most influential political columnist, for decades as a paid speechwriter and political advisor.[101]
A political conservative (John F. Kennedy once described his father as being to "the right ofHerbert Hoover"),[102] Kennedy supportedRichard Nixon, who had entered Congress with John in 1947. In 1960, Joe Kennedy approached Nixon, praised hisanti-Communism, and said "Dick, if my boy can't make it, I'm for you" for the presidential election that year.[103]
Kennedy's close ties withRepublican SenatorJoseph McCarthy of Wisconsin strengthened his family's position among Irish Catholics, but weakened it among liberals who strongly opposed McCarthy. Even before McCarthy became famous in 1950, Kennedy had forged close ties with the Republican Senator. Kennedy often brought him to his home inHyannis Port, Massachusetts, as a weekend house guest in the late 1940s. McCarthy at one point dated his daughterPatricia.[104]
When McCarthy became a dominant voice of anti-Communism starting in 1950, Kennedy contributed thousands of dollars to McCarthy, and became one of his major supporters. In the1952 U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts, Kennedy apparently worked a deal so that McCarthy, a Republican, would not make campaign speeches for the Republican ticket in Massachusetts. In return, Congressman John F. Kennedy, running for the Senate seat, would not give any anti-McCarthy speeches that his liberal supporters wanted to hear.[104]
At Kennedy's urging in 1953, McCarthy hired his 27-year-old son, Robert F. Kennedy, as a senior staff member of theSenate's investigations subcommittee, which McCarthy chaired. In 1954, when the Senate was threatening to condemn McCarthy, Senator John Kennedy faced a dilemma. "How could I demand that Joe McCarthy be censured for things he did when my own brother was on his staff?" asked John.[104]
By 1954, Robert and McCarthy's chief aideRoy Cohn had fallen out with each other, and Robert no longer worked for McCarthy. John had a speech drafted calling for the censure of McCarthy, but never delivered it. When the Senate voted to censure McCarthy on December 2, 1954, Senator Kennedy was in a hospital and never indicated how he would cast his vote. Joe Kennedy strongly supported McCarthy to the end.[104]
Kennedy's connections and influence were turned into political capital for the political campaigns of his sons: John, Robert, and Ted. Kennedy was influential in creatingJohn's cabinet, which included Robert asU.S. attorney general, although he had never argued or tried a case.[105] He was one of four fathers (the other three beingGeorge Tryon Harding,Nathaniel Fillmore, andGeorge H. W. Bush) to live through the entire presidency of a son.[106]
Kennedy had been consigned to the political shadows after his remarks during World War II ("Democracy is finished"), and he remained an intensely controversial figure among U.S. citizens because of his suspect business credentials, his Roman Catholicism, his opposition to Roosevelt's foreign policy, and his support for Joseph McCarthy. Although his own ambitions to achieve the U.S. presidency were thwarted, Kennedy held out great hope for his eldest son, Joe Jr., to seek the presidency. However, Joe Jr., who had become aU.S. Navy bomber pilot, was killed over theEnglish Channel in August 1944 while undertakingOperation Anvil. After grieving over his dead son, Joe Sr. turned his attention to his second son, John, for a run for political office.[107]
On October 7, 1914, Kennedy marriedRose Fitzgerald,[108] the eldest daughter of Boston MayorJohn F. Fitzgerald,[109] in the private chapel ofArchbishopWilliam Henry O'Connell in Boston.[110] After a two-week honeymoon, the couple settled at83 Beals Street in the Boston suburb ofBrookline, Massachusetts.[111]
Joseph and Rose Kennedy had nine children:[112]Joseph Jr. (1915–1944),John (1917–1963),Rose Marie "Rosemary" (1918–2005),Kathleen (1920–1948),Eunice (1921–2009),Patricia (1924–2006),Robert (1925–1968),Jean (1928–2020), andEdward (1932–2009). Three of the Kennedys' sons attained distinguished political positions: John F. Kennedy served as a U.S. representative from Massachusetts (1947–53), a U.S. senator from Massachusetts (1953–1960), and as 35th president of the United States (1961–63); Robert F. Kennedy served as U.S. attorney general (1961–64) and as a U.S. senator from New York (1965–68); and Edward M. Kennedy served as a U.S. senator from Massachusetts (1962–2009). One of the Kennedys' daughters,Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded theSpecial Olympics for disabled people,[113] while another,Jean Kennedy Smith, served as U.S. ambassador to Ireland.[114]
As Kennedy's business success expanded, he and his family lived in increasing prosperity inMassachusetts,New York, aroundWashington, D.C., London, as well as theFrench Riviera. Their two permanent homes were located inHyannis Port, Massachusetts, andPalm Beach, Florida.[115][116]
Kennedy engaged in numerous extramarital relationships,[117] including relationships with actressesGloria Swanson[108][118] andMarlene Dietrich[119] and with his secretary, Janet DesRosiers Fontaine.[120] He also managed Swanson's personal and business affairs.[121][122]
When Rosemary Kennedy was 23 years old, doctors told Joseph Kennedy Sr. that a form ofpsychosurgery known as alobotomy would help calm her mood swings and stop her occasional violent outbursts.[123][124] (Accounts of Rosemary's life indicated that she was intellectually disabled,[125][126] although some have raised questions about the Kennedys' accounts of the nature and scope of her disability.[127]) Rosemary's erratic behavior frustrated her parents; her father was especially worried that she would shame and embarrass the family and damage his political career and that of his other children.[127][126] Kennedy requested that surgeons perform a lobotomy on Rosemary. The lobotomy took place in November 1941.[125][128] Kennedy did not inform his wife about the procedure until after it was completed.[129]James W. Watts andWalter Freeman (both ofGeorge Washington University School of Medicine) performed the surgery.[130]
The lobotomy was a disaster,[125] leaving Rosemary Kennedy permanently incapacitated.[123] Her mental capacity diminished to that of a two-year-old child; she could not walk or speak intelligibly and wasincontinent.[131] Following the lobotomy, Rosemary was immediately institutionalized.[132] In 1949, she was relocated toJefferson, Wisconsin, where she lived for the rest of her life on the grounds of the St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children (formerly known as "St. Coletta Institute for Backward Youth").[133] Kennedy did not visit his daughter at the institution.[134] InRosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, author Kate Clifford Larson stated that Rosemary's lobotomy was hidden from the family for twenty years.[135] In 1961, after Kennedy suffered astroke that left him unable to speak, his children were made aware of Rosemary's location.[135] The lobotomy did not become public knowledge until 1987.[136] Rosemary Kennedy died from natural causes[137] on January 7, 2005, at the age of 86.[129]
Dr.Bertram S. Brown, director of theNational Institute of Mental Health who was previously an aide to President Kennedy, told a Kennedy biographer that Joseph Kennedy referred to Rosemary as mentally retarded rather than mentally ill in order to protect his son John's reputation for a presidential run. Brown added that the family's "lack of support for mental illness" was "part of a lifelong family denial of what was really so".[123][138][139][140]
On December 19, 1961, at the age of 73, Kennedy suffered a stroke. He survived, but was left paralyzed on his right side. Thereafter, Kennedy suffered fromaphasia, which severely affected his ability to speak. He remained mentally alert, regained certain functions with therapy, and began walking with a cane. Kennedy's speech also showed some improvement.[141] He began to experience excessive muscular weakness, which eventually required him to use a wheelchair. In 1964, Kennedy was taken toThe Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential in Philadelphia, a medical and rehabilitative center for those who have experienced brain injury.[141]
Kennedy's son Robert was shot on June 5, 1968 whilerunning for president. He died the following morning at age 42.[142] In the aftermath of Robert's death, Kennedy made his last public appearance when he, his wife, and son Ted made a filmed message to the country.[143] Kennedy died at home in Hyannis Port the following year on November 18, 1969, two days before what would have been Robert's 44th birthday; he was 81 years old.[144] Kennedy had outlived four of his children.[145] He is buried atHolyhood Cemetery inBrookline, Massachusetts. Kennedy's widow, Rose, is buried next to him following her death in 1995 at age 104, as is his daughter Rosemary after her death in 2005.[146]
... Haig & Haig Scots Whisky, Gordon's Gins, Dewar's Scotch Whiskey, King William IV Scotch Whisky, and Riondo Puerto Rico Rum.... During a 1933 trip to Europe with Jimmy Roosevelt (FDR's son), Kennedy became involved in the import business and became the U.S. agent for Haig & Haig Ltd., John Dewar and Sons, Ltd. and Gordon's Dry Gin Company Ltd.. With these new contacts, Kennedy arranged for his company, Somerset Importers, to stockpile liquor imports for the end of Prohibition.
King William IV was a John Gillon brand and was distributed from U.K. by Ainslie & Heilbron. and exclusively Imported to USA by Bluebell in NYC
shipping crate side contained King William IV brand blended Scotch whisky that was produced by John Gillon & Company Ltd. of Glasgow, Scotland
Once, when Robert Kennedy was running for the Presidency, he had a lunch with an impassioned young woman who worked with Cesar Chavez. "Your father owned Cutty Sark," she said accusingly. "He did not," Kennedy said. "Well then, he owned Schenley's," she said. "I don't know," he said calmly, "but whatever my father owned he doesn't own it anymore." He was not angry. The man who had arranged the lunch said, in the four years he had worked for Kennedy, that that was the only time he heard him speak of his father in that way.
kennedy coughlin.
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| New office | Chair of theUnited States Securities and Exchange Commission 1934–1935 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom 1938–1940 | Succeeded by |
Chairmen of theUnited States Securities and Exchange Commission | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968 | ||
| Life |  | |
| Electoral | ||
| Speeches |
| |
| Books |
| |
| Assassination | ||
| Legacy and memorials |
| |
| Popular culture |
| |
| Family, family tree |
| |
February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009 | ||
| Electoral history |  | |
| Books | ||
| Speeches | ||
| Family, family tree |
| |
| Related | ||
