Lord Longford
Ed. Dall'Oglio
pagg: 356
JFK, born John Fitzgerald Kennedy (Jack for close friends), was the 35 President of the United States of America (elected for the Democratic Party) from the 20 January 1961 to the 22 November 1963, the day of his assassination.
The author of the biography, Lord Longford aka Frank Packenham, was an English politician (belonging to the Labor party) and writer.
Kennedy's biography is a very interesting book from several points of view. If someone asked me what struck me most during the reading, I would reply: "Several things, from the historical point of view, the huge number of important events that took place under your rule. It makes me think of the affair known as the Bay of Pigs, the blockade of Cuba, the blockade and construction of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War and the increase in conflict in Laos and Vietnam. From the point of view of the civil rights struggle, the relationship between Kennedy and Martin Luther King and the stance in favor of equal rights between whites and blacks come to mind but also the fact that Kennedy was the first American president of Catholic religion.
If instead we take a look from the military point of view it is immediately necessary to think of Kennedy as a war hero, in the cold blood had as commander in chief in the case of the blockade of Cuba, initiatives in favor of disarmament but also the increase in funds dedicated to the defense and, perhaps, above all, to the distrust of the military class! At least to believe what Lord Longford writes in his book. The thing already emerged in the Bay of Pigs affair and then, later, on the occasion of the blockade of Cuba. It was then that Kennedy, after hearing the military experts of the Air Force who were proposing for an air attack, said: "These big guys military leaders have a great advantage from them: if we listened to them and did what they would like us to do, none of us would be alive to tell them they were wrong. "
But who was John Kennedy? American from the state of Massachusetts, born in the small town of Brookline, near Boston, on May 29, 1917. John was the second child of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald, belonging to two very prominent Boston families, of Irish descent, very involved in politics and business. Joseph was one of the richest and most powerful men in America, an American ambassador to Britain.
It is no secret that the election of the son to president is also due to the use that the father made of his immense patrimony. Joe Kane, his cousin, claimed that politics was like war, according to him three things were needed to win it, first the money, the second the money and the third the money.
The family was very close, the children, nine, were always in competition with each other, driven by parents to always win. John was not much of a student, but he certainly had many chances and, after the death of his first son during a training flight during World War II, he took his place. The father wanted the eldest to become president of the United States, John immediately picked up his legacy and threw himself headlong into the enterprise.
In the meantime he had become a war hero.
In 1941 John tried to join the Army and Navy but was discarded due to spinal problems. After a few months of therapy he managed to join the Navy in October 1941. Two months later America will go to war following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7.
In the next two years John worked in Washington where he was in charge of the secret services. At that time he met Inga Arvard, suspected of links with the Nazis, perhaps it was for this reason that he was transferred to Charleston. In Charleston he followed the boat officer course and in the 1943 he went into active service in the South Pacific, as commander of the Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109, a 40-ton torpedo boat with twelve crewmen in addition to it. In July he arrived at the front.
The 2 August, in the wake of a patrol in the waters of the Blackett Strait, in the Solomon Islands, the PT-109 was rammed and split in two by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri.
The accident occurred at half past two in the morning. Kennedy led the survivors to swim on an island, weighing the weight of a wounded man (McMahon), then moving them to another nearby island.
Finally he managed to save the ten men of his crew survivors of the accident thanks to a message written on the shell of a coconut and entrusted to some natives: "Eleven live Indigenous knows the white location of Nauru island".
The 8 August 1943 were safe. Kennedy, for his work, was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal because "His remarkable courage, his resistance and his guidance contributed to the rescue of several lives in accordance with the highest traditions of the US Navy".
John Kennedy spent the rest of the war in the hospital trying to heal from his injuries.
When he returned to civilian life he began his political career that led him to become the 35 ° president of the United States.
Ultimately, the Kennedy described by Lord Longford is not just a biography but a piece of world history that deserves to be read carefully.
Alessandro Rugolo
