CHAPTER ONE A FUTURE PRESIDENT John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29 1917 in Brookline Massachusetts a town near Boston He was the second of nine children four boys and five girls born to Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and Joseph Patrick Kennedy The Kennedy family was Irish Catholic and wealthy and it had a political history Rose’s father John Francis Fitzgerald was once the mayor of Boston Young Kennedy was named for his grandfather but went by the nickname Jack As a child Jack was sickly At various times he suffered from chicken pox measles scarlet fever and whooping cough The scarlet fever put him in the hospital for a month when he was three years old When he was thirteen Jack began suffering from pain in his midsection A few years later doctors diagnosed the problem as colitis a digestive disease These early experiences foreshadowed the state of health Jack would have for the rest of his life Growing Up Kennedy Being a Kennedy came with privileges and challenges As part of a wealthy family Jack grew up in a large home with housekeepers and nannies The Kennedys also had a summer home in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod Massachusetts where family 10
The Kennedy family at their summer home in Hyannis Port Massachusetts in 1931 From left to right Robert John Jack Eunice Jean Joseph Sr Rose Patricia Kathleen Joseph Jr and Rosemary members enjoyed sailing swimming and playing touch football Jack had plenty of siblings to play with but in the Kennedy family even play was taken seriously Jack’s father Joseph Kennedy Sr pushed his children to be competitive particularly his sons On one occasion he suggested his oldest sons Joe and Jack have a bicycle race They did and had a head-on collision that resulted in Jack getting twenty-eight stitches For the elder Kennedy doing well in sports was not enough The determined and successful businessman wanted his boys to succeed at everything they tried Jack enjoyed history and English but he was not a top student in other subjects In 1936 he enrolled at Harvard University where his older brother Joe was already a student While Kennedy was at Harvard his father was appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom and the rest of the family moved there Kennedy took several trips overseas 11
Kennedy’s Poor Health Poor health plagued Kennedy throughout his life In 1937 doctors prescribed steroids for his chronic abdominal pain caused by colitis The medication led Kennedy to develop osteoporosis a weakening of the bones in Jack’s lower back He began experiencing back pain in 1940 and had his first back surgery in 1944 but the pain continued Kennedy also had Addison’s disease which affects the adrenal glands Some of its effects are weight loss weakness and low blood pressure Kennedy tried to combat his many medical issues with medication including painkillers for his back testosterone to help him gain weight and a sleep aid During his presidency he took up to twelve medications each day One doctor Hans Kraus told the president that the painkiller injections in his back could do more harm than good Kraus warned You are going to end up in a wheelchair You won’t be able to walk Yet the terrible pain spurred Kennedy to continue using pain medication to visit his family and to tour other European nations The experiences sparked his interest in government and history He also kept up on current events especially European politics While his father was an ambassador Kennedy learned about the political unrest in Europe that would soon lead to World War II 1939 1945 For his senior thesis Kennedy explained his thoughts on how Britain had not been ready to fight Germany in the war His thesis was published as the book Why England Slept in 1940 the same year he graduated from Harvard It went on to become a best seller 12
Fighting in World War II In 1941 shortly after Kennedy graduated from college the United States entered World War II fighting against Germany and Japan Jack and his older brother both joined the US Navy While Joe flew fighter planes in Europe Jack commanded PT-109 a patrol torpedo PT boat in the South Pacific On the night of August 2 1943 while on patrol Kennedy and his twelve-man crew happened upon a Japanese destroyer ship that rammed into and tore through their PT boat The attack killed two crewmen sent some overboard and injured others including Kennedy who hurt his already-injured back Kennedy found an injured crewman in the water and got him to a floating chunk of the destroyed boat Along with other survivors they Kennedy far right and the crewmen of PT-109 were attacked by a Japanese ship while on patrol in August 1943 Following the incident the surviving crew were stranded on a nearby island for nearly a week 13
