John F. Kennedy [Paperback]

The very thought astonishes: Almost 42 years have now passed since President John F. Kennedy was slain at age 46 by an assassin's bullet on that freeway entrance ramp in Dallas. To those of a certain age, it seems like only yesterday.

Is 42 years enough historical distance to allow an unbiased account of his life and his presidency? Michael O'Brien, a retired history professor from the University of Wisconsin and biographer of several other political figures from the recent past (Philip Hart, Theodore Hesburgh, Joseph McCarthy) has made the effort in this massive (905-page) account of Kennedy's life. It is detailed almost to the point of overwhelming the reader with data; it will probably --- perhaps this is a validation of O'Brien's effort at impartiality -- both please and outrage just about everyone, whether friend or foe of his subject.

O'Brien stresses Kennedy's insatiable thirst for information about every problem that came his way, his willingness to listen to everyone whose advice he thought might be worth hearing, and his decisiveness once his mind was made up. He also emphasizes Kennedy's tendency to allow political considerations to color important decisions and the wide gulf that often separated what really went on in his administration from what the public was deliberately led to believe.

One of the author's tactics is to assemble a motley chorus of historians, politicians, journalists and acquaintances whose on-the-record public comments tend to back up his own interpretations. Most of the time he will summarize all sides of an important question and then, in cases where controversy still persists, allow Kennedy the benefit of the doubt. For example, O'Brien concludes that Kennedy's Pulitzer-winning book PROFILES IN COURAGE was not entirely ghost-written, as his detractors have claimed, though it did benefit from the work of several other wordsmiths and researchers.

Questions of relative emphasis arise as one reads. Kennedy's lifelong history of serious illness is traced in great detail, as is also the influence on him of his imperious father and his ambitious brother Bobby, both important threads in Kennedy's story. But O'Brien gives equal if not greater weight to an exhaustive account of Kennedy's voracious sexual appetite, devoting several full chapters to it and threading it through other sections of his narrative as well. This seems overdone. It would be a shame if public perception of this truly probing and informative biography were to be based mainly on its laundry list of JFK's bed partners.

The 1963 assassination itself, too, is dispatched in a couple of pages at the very end of the book. Given O'Brien's penchant for thorough research and multiple interpretations of events, one wonders why he simply ignored the controversy around the event itself and its subsequent effect on world history.

One answer might be that no room could be found for such things in this behemoth of a book -- but room might well have been made if less space had been devoted to trivia about his sex life, his dinner parties, and whose job it was to cut his toenails.

The author's industrious digging, while often clogging his narrative with unnecessary detail, also turns up insightful quotations that sum up a situation in a few words (Jacqueline Kennedy on her husband's family: "They never relax, even when they're relaxing." A staffer on JFK: "I never heard of a President who wanted to know so much.").

O'Brien does not gloss over Kennedy's politically inspired reluctance to denounce Joseph McCarthy, the unprincipled Red-hunting Wisconsin demagogue, or his initial timidity in ducking a leadership role in the civil rights struggle --- but he does give JFK credit for later reversing himself on the latter issue. There is constant emphasis on the young President's wit, charm and youthful energy. One of O'Brien's chorus of historians sums up the author's own viewpoint: "To a large extent, his style was as important as his substance."

The book's size has caused the publisher to eliminate O'Brien's footnotes. If you want to consult them you can either go online to the publisher's website or write to the Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. It might be worth the trouble.

--- Reviewed by Robert Finn

My fascination with John F Kennedy comes from when I first saw him riding down Lehigh Avenue in Philadelphia in 1959 when I was 9 years old. He was running for president back then. After he became president I used to like watching him on TV verbally sparring with news reporters. What a difference in how the "powder-puffs" we have today on TV avoid, hide and pretend we have no problems. I'm definitely no Democrat but JFK had a lot more courage, intellegence and insight than most of who you see on the scene today in political arenas. He had a specail way of moving people to action that just doesn't seem to exist anymore. Hopefully someone else will eventually come along again like him who actually becomes an excellent president. Maybe someone like Sarah Polin?

I'm also a big fan of well-written biographies and found this book to be amazing. What I liked about this book is how different aspects of JFK's life were catagorized and separated so that you could gain a real insite to how John Kennedy must have looked at the world. I liked that the author did not spend very much time on his assassination since there are already too many theories, stories and legends about that unfortunate incident.

JFK appears to have been the consumate listener which to me is probably why he was so smart about common sense aspects. He listened and did not want to block that part of life out since it does make a positive difference. And yes he liked the ladies (he was so charasmatically attractive does that surprise anyone?) and he seems to have taken his job as president seriously. He often went to the people whenever he needed to really get an important point across. Had he remained president that wind-bag who took over, president Johnson, would have went back to his ranch in Texas instead of helping to kill so many young people during Viet Nam.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a more realistic idea of who JFK was, what he was really about and what his principles really were.

Michael O'Brien's magisterial book offers a necessary rejoinder to the "Dark Side of Camelot" school of thought. While still criticizing Kennedy's reckless behavior, O'Brien presents Kennedy as a thoughtful and engaged politician with tangible accomplishments including arms control, civil rights, and tax policy. O'Brien explains how political realities limited Kennedy's ability to implement more liberal policies.

O'Brien aims for a comprehensive understanding of Kennedy and his political work, which includes addressing past writers. Consequently his length is understandable. Non-academic readers will appreciate that the book is not cluttered by footnotes, but scholars may find them on a website.