Bonus Episode: JFK - The Pleasure of His Company ☘️

Tomorrow, May 29th, is JFK's birthday. Given the efforts over the years to recast him as everything from a closet Communist to a right-wing neocon to an all-around jerkwad, I wanted to do something different for this bonus episode. The purpose here is not sackcloth and ashes, but rather to focus on the positives.

Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-His-Company-Jr-Paul/dp/B0006BOBQ2

https://www.amazon.com/Battling-Wall-Street-Kennedy-Presidency/dp/1615776680

https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Last-President-World-Kennedy/dp/B0B92L1HT3

https://www.amazon.com/President-Nobody-Remember-November-Issue/dp/B003X5KPB8

JFK with his glasses on: https://www.reddit.com/r/Presidents/comments/11ueeuc/very_rarely_seen_photos_of_jfk_wearing_eyeglasses/

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1944/06/17/survival-jfk-second-world-war

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/day-history-august-2-jfk-saves-pt109-crew-collision-japanese

https://www.amazon.com/Promises-Kept-John-Kennedys-Frontier/dp/0195046412

https://www.history.com/shows/kennedy

JFK's press conference re: Steel Crisis: https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-press-conferences/news-conference-30 (if you listen to it, you can hear the aggravation in his voice)

https://nypost.com/2020/01/11/john-f-kennedy-paintings-of-brooklyn-waterfront-hit-the-auction-block/

https://www.rrauction.com/auctions/lot-detail/3421257057323-a-pair-of-j-f-k-60-signed-original-sailing-watercolors

Need more? You can visit the website at: https://consaracytheories.com/ or my own site at: https://saracausey.com/. Don't forget to check out the blog at: https://consaracytheories.com/blog. 

Transcript

Transcription by Otter.ai.  Please forgive any typos! 

Welcome to con-sara-cy theories. Are you ready to ask questions you shouldn't and find information you're not supposed to know? Well, you're in the right place. Here is your host, Sara Causey. 

Hello, Hello, and thanks for tuning in. In tonight's bonus episode, I wanted to do something special, something a bit different from the norm. Tomorrow evening, I will be releasing episode 19 About thin thread and the domestic spying apparatus before September one one. We have the tendency in this country to imagine that domestic spying really started in earnest post September one one. And admittedly, the events of September one one, along with the anthrax attacks, that threw gasoline on an open fire. But that's the thing the fire already was burning before September one one. I'll also be talking about James Bamford's book, The Shadow factory, and the nightmare fuel that he gives us about what goes on in the Nov Sierra alpha. And that book is several years old. So you can imagine it's only gotten worse since then, these power grabs don't tend to subside, and slow down. Now, when power is grabbed, it tends to only get worse and worse as time goes on. So whatever other episodes or blog posts that I may produce that someone chooses to read or not read, I really hope that people will tune in, because they need to understand what's being done, the implications of it, the consequences of it. Now, with that being said, Tomorrow is May 29, which is JFK his birthday. And I don't want to take this bonus episode to get sackcloth and ashes. I feel like there's room for that on November 22. It's up to us and the younger generations, I'm in the younger part of Gen X. And so when we think about the excerpt, the millennials, Gen Z, etcetera, people who were not alive when Kennedy was alive, not alive when Kennedy was murdered, it's going to be up to us to keep the information going to make sure that this event doesn't fade into obscurity. And we wake up one day in a world where no one cares. And we've already seen this video of Noam Chomsky saying, well, people die all the time. If one of them was JFK, who knows who really killed him, and who even cares? I'll release an episode to talk about that video in more depth down the road. But man, that's painful. That is raw. But in this episode, I don't want to talk about JFK is murder. As I said, there's room to do that later. And it should be done. I was thinking about this. Because if I were a ghost, if I were a spirit that had crossed onto the other side, and every time that someone thought about me, it was automatically Oh, that person, that event, that awful, national psychic scar that got left on an entire country, and they felt crestfallen and depressed. I think I'd be awfully sad about that. mean, I'm not sure what range of emotions that spirits possess on the other side when we go to the other side of the veil, but I don't think I'd be super happy if every time somebody thought about me, it was like, oh, oh, that, that saying that awful thing? Like, what about my friends and family? What about the times that I made somebody laugh? What about the times that I taught somebody a new skill, or I helped somebody out? Why does everything about me have to be this worst possible moment? I don't even have any responsibility for it. It was I was the victim of a crime. But yet people automatically hear my name and go, Oh, God, yeah, that that awful thing. Whenever somebody writes to me, and they say that they read a blog post, or they listened to a podcast episode, and it caused them to ask questions, or it caused them to think about something in a different way. It helped them to solve a problem. I feel really electrified by that. That's one of the reasons why I'm here one of the reasons why I do what I do. As I always say, I don't have any sponsors out here. Nobody pays me to sit here and do these podcast episodes or to write my blog. It's a labor of love. I pay to do this. I'm doing this because I want to do it. And I think it's really awesome if it causes somebody to think it causes somebody to look at a an issue or a problem in a different way. It opens their mind and expands their horizons and I know I would feel awful if people only thought about my worst possible moment, not even anything that I did myself. But this thing that was done to me, then never thought about any of the other things that are happier and more joyful. I took the title of this podcast episode from a book that was written by Paul B. Fay, who had known JFK in the Navy. And he wrote a book titled the pleasure of his company. And I thought, Well, that's certainly a warm fuzzy. It's different from JFK was a sex fiend. He was a drug head, he was a loser. He had no deep ideology. If he did anything positive, it happened on accident, because he was a real sumbitch. At least there are some other voices that are like no, wait a minute, he wasn't like that. What? Why are we trying to totally drag his character through the mud. So I wanted to talk about some of those lighter moments, that happier things, little factoids and pieces of information that you might know or that you might not know. But to do it in a way that's much more lighthearted and much more uplifting. So that when we hear his name, we're not automatically drawn to November 22. We need to also think about what did this man do in his life? Who was he? What What would it have been like if you were hanging out and having a cup of coffee or drinking a glass of scotch with him? What could you have expected to happen? So let's saddle up just for a little while and take this ride.

Not long ago, I read Donald Gibson's book battling Wall Street, the Kennedy presidency, I checked it out from a library and I knew after only just a couple of chapters, I wanted to go ahead and buy it to add to my permanent library. If you've never read it, I highly recommend it. I think you should check it out. The introduction to this book is titled finding Kennedy. In this Donald Gibson writes, there are too many John F Kennedy's there is the aimless Kennedy and the ambitious Kennedy, there is Kennedy the liberal and Kennedy the conservative. There is Kennedy, the hawk and Kennedy the Dove, there is the Kennedy who was a friend and a servant of the East Coast, big business interests, and the Kennedy who was anathema to the power brokers. There are other images, some of which are closer to the truth than others. Though the complete truth about any person is unattainable. That does not mean that there is no real persona to be understood. Nor does it mean that all opinions are equal. Hmm. In the attempt to understand anything, a man a president and economic crisis, it is possible to move from a state of ignorance to a state of partial even substantial knowledge. In the process. Total truth may remain forever elusive, but one can get closer to it. The various judgments about John F Kennedy cannot all be accurate unless he was a political chameleon, who would make even the most flexible of lizards green with envy. John Kennedy's political colors did not shift and change as president and before he had a very definite and coherent set of goals and a consistent overall strategy to achieve them. He was a practical politician and leader. In the pursuit of his objectives. He was aware of what was immediately possible and what was necessary. If compromise was unavoidable. He took what he could get end quote. That passage was one of the things that inspired me to record this bonus episode, because as I was reading it, I was just nodding my head and agreement. Yes, exactly. There are too many JFK s, JFK the vapid moron. He didn't have any deep ideology. But then at the same time, we're supposed to think that he was some kind of Mafia, sympathizing criminal mastermind, a bad boy, a murderer, somebody that was bloodthirsty. He's been compared to a Reagan asked neocon But then we're also supposed to think that he was a communist sympathizer, and it's like, something here just doesn't make sense. Somebody has to be wrong. All of these disparate portrayals cannot possibly be true all at the same time. Something is fishy in all of this.

In the preface for her book, America's last president, what the world lost when it lost John F. Kennedy, Monica Wesak rights. As a child I was always perplexed about who John F Kennedy was clips of him speaking evoked in May a childlike intuition that he was a good person, a great leader, but then I heard press stories about endless affairs, mob dealings, and Castro popup attempts. I had the impression that all he did while at the White House was sleep around and plot Castro's death. And the only reason he made it to the White House was because his father bought him the election and the mob rigs and votes are so the story goes, it did not occur to me that there might be a deliberate propaganda campaign to paint him in a superficial and negative light I did not even understand what propaganda was. I did not think about it much. But anytime his name came up, I wondered who was this guy? And why did he seem so contradictory? Was he simply a complex figure like the rest of us, but on a grander scale, I wanted to understand more. So one day as an adult, I picked up a biography on JFK. Unfortunately, that book did not help me understand him better. In fact, it portrayed the same contradictory popular culture image I had seen on TV. But with time, I began to delve deeper and eventually fell down the proverbial rabbit hole in my quest for the truth and quote, yeah, I would agree with that. I'm not sure what her age is, who knows, maybe I should reach out to her and have her as a guest on the podcast one day, I think that would be a lot of fun.

For me, as an Xer someone born toward the end of Gen X, I can say the same thing, or at least something very similar. I can't say as I had any childlike intuitions about the man because I never cared. As I've said many times, publicly and privately, I don't like politicians. I'm not a fan of politicians period. As a genre as a category of person I tend to think, honest, people who get into that line of work quickly become corrupted. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. As the famous quote says, and the higher up you go, the worse they stink. I never had any interest in the life of JFK never really had any interest in his murder either. It just sort of happened. I mean, on a long weekend, I think actually looking back on it, it was around Memorial Day weekend, I think I started watching Oliver Stones film on a ride around JFK, his birthday, not even knowing that and having no significance to me whatsoever. It was one of those things like Hey, I like conspiracy theories. I don't believe I've ever watched this movie. And it's one of like, the granddaddy of all conspiracy theories. Why not? And I was like, holy shit. If even a fraction of this is true, you know, this is Hollywood. Unlike the accusation that gets leveled at those of us in Gen X, that we all as an entire generation, we all went to the theater and watched Oliver Stones film, we all believed it, and thought that we were watching actual literal history. And then we caused a big stink. I didn't assume that I was watching actual literal history, I knew that I was watching a Hollywood film. And my thought was if even a scintilla of this, just a fraction of this is true, we should all be asking a hell of a lot more questions. I mean, it really sparked a sense of outrage in me. Not a surprise, per se, because I think anybody from the government, if their lips are moving, they're lying to you. I'm firmly in the generation of people I think that our trust our feelings of Yeah, okay, maybe so about the government are just gone. obliterated straight to hell. I was watching an episode of Family Feud one night, I don't want to get too far afield because it's supposed to be about JFK. But it was watching an episode of Family Feud one night. And the question was, how much on a scale of one to 10? How much do you trust the government? And this man was like zero. And I'm like, Huh, you already know what time it is. Shit. I thought we should all be asking a lot more questions because this situation is super fishy. And as I started to read more about it and the inconsistencies in the discrepancies, I was like, Yeah, this situation stinks to high heaven. And for me, it was like okay, I've read quite a bit about this man's debt. Who was he who eat who even was this guy? Where I would say that my experiences mirror Monaco's is that same thing I just always heard with a guy was a womanizer. He was a louse. He was a no good and ne'er do well, he had connections to the mob. He hated Castro. There was all that uproar. Early on in his presidency, he botched up the Bay of Pigs and then there was the Cuban Missile Crisis. Maybe the guy was just like a good looking airhead. But he really wasn't any good as a president. He wasn't anything to write home about as a person. And as I started to read, and I had similar experiences to Monica because you find a lot of mainstream biographies that are even if they appear to be friendly in their tone, ostensibly, they seem to be friendly or Obstet. Ostensibly, they seem to be objective, at the very least, they're generally not. There's generally a lot of hate that gets flung in JFKs direction. And it's really hard I'm working to even see people who claim that they were his friends when he was alive, turn on him and just shank him in the back and mercifully. I started to read. And it's like, Wait a minute. I think there was a lot more to this guy than just the idea that he was some vapid himbo. He looked good. He dressed well, he photographed well, like in Richard Condon's book winter kills, which I will review in a future podcast episode. His stand in for JFK in that book, Timothy Keegan is described as being nothing but red herring teeth. mean that's so often what we're told about JFK, good looking guy. Nice smile easy on the eyes had a cute little wife and a cute little family. But when you scratch the surface, or gird what a garbage can. In reading about his policies, his actual thoughts, it was like, Well, wait a minute. He doesn't seem that vapid to me. I'm gonna read just a bit more from the preface and Monica's book. The more I learned about his policies, his challenges his leadership style, and more than anything, his courage, the more impressed I became. I realized that the public image of him as a careless, thoughtless self involved Playboy obscured the depth of what he was trying to achieve and the intensity of opposition he faced, I felt cheated out of understanding our true history. And as an extension, out of understanding the world around me end quote. I would add to that I also felt cheated out of getting to know who he was truly, as I've said before, all roads lead to Rome. If you can trash who he was trash his legacy, make him seem like he was just a garbage can. Then it always comes back to the basic thesis. We didn't lose much on November 22. I mean, yeah, it wasn't anything great. I have a vintage magazine titled The President nobody knew by PSL publishing that has some interesting little factoids in it, and some really cool photographs as well. One of their injuries is the President wore glasses. He lost his reading glasses regularly. He was farsighted, he had just had his prescription changed in October, he often kept them on his forehead, twirl them by the earpiece bit on them. When he knew he was being photographed. He always took them off about the president's ear they write, being fairly tall, six foot even he had to bend slightly with most guests to hear in confidence what they had to say, the Speaker of the House and actor, a governor and ambassador from Nicaragua and three former presidents of the United States, they all had a few private words they wanted to import into the world's most valuable ear. He was an excellent listener, and he had a disconcerting faculty of being able to repeat nearly word for word what you said to him in months past, your own words coming back from such a high source could be very flattering or devastating if you had to eat them later. Under the section the bad back, they write his bad back left him in constant touch with pain. He wore a medical corset and used a lift in his left shoe. While campaigning, he felt good enough to jump a fence, planning a symbolic tree in Ottawa, he heard it again. Getting off crutches. The only public sign was the grimace he made taking that awkward straight down step from his helicopter. A visitor saw him tried to lift a gift rifle off the floor, but he couldn't. He dragged it across his office by the barrel.
In his book and unfinished life, Robert Dallek who he's one of the mainstream historians were allowed to trust whatever He tells us is true because he's a mainstream and old white guy, mainstream historian. In his book, he talks about JFKs, various and sundry health problems. I'm on page 76. Now of the paperback copy. There are intriguing questions about Jack's medical history that remain difficult if not impossible to resolve in 1937. The first clinical use of adrenal extracts, corticosteroids or anti inflammatory agents became possible with the preparation of de Oca. This drug was administered in the form of pellets implanted under the skin. It is now well known that Jack was treated with de Oca in 1947. After his official diagnosis of Addison's disease, a disease of the adrenal glands characterized by a deficiency of the hormones needed to regulate blood sugar, sodium and potassium and the response to stress. It is named after the 19th century English physician Thomas Addison, but there are earlier references to Jack implanting pellets early in 1937, and a handwritten note to Joe Jack worried about getting his prescription. Probably the parathyroid extract or de Oca filled in Cambridge ordering stuff here. He wrote his father, I would be sure you get the prescription some of that stuff as it is very potent and he Jack's Doctor seems to be keeping it pretty quiet. Nine years later and night In 46, Paul Fay one of Jack's friends watched him implant a pellet in his leg. He remembers Jack using a little knife to just barely cut under the surface of the skin, trying not to get blood and then underneath and put his tablet underneath the skin and then put a bandage over it, which this I'm just going to put in the sound say that sounds pretty grisly to have to do this, and then hopefully this tablet would dissolve by the heat of the body and be absorbed by the bloodstream. Thus, before the diagnosis of Addison's Jack may have been on steroids still in an experimental stage with great uncertainty as to dosage, which may have been successfully treating his colitis, but at the possible price of his stomach, back and adrenal problems. Physicians in the 1930s and 1940s did not realize what today is common medical knowledge, namely that adrenal extracts are effective in treating acute ulcerative colitis, but can have deleterious long term chronic effects including osteoporosis with vertebral column deterioration and peptic ulcers. In addition, chronic use of corticosteroids can lead to the suppression of normal adrenal function and may have caused or contributed to Jack's Addison's disease. It is also possible that the de Oca had little impact on Jack's back or adrenal ailments. Unlike synthetic corticosteroids, which did not become available until 1949. The additional de Oca compounds did not have the sort of noxious side effects associated with the later compounds. Nevertheless, by 1942 28, varieties of de Oca or adrenal extracts had become available. And since no one can say which of these Jack may have been using or exactly what was in them, it remains conceivable that the medicine was doing him more harm than good. Jack could also have been suffering from celiac and immune disease common to people have Irish ancestry and characterized by intolerance to gluten a complex mixture of nutritionally important proteins found in common food grains such as wheat, rye, and barley. Although Jack would manifest several symptoms associated with the disease, chronic diarrhea, osteoporosis and Addison's. Other indications of celiac, stunted growth and children iron deficiency anemia and family history were absent. The presence of persistent severe spastic colitis now described as irritable bowel syndrome, and the possibility that he had Crohn's disease an illness marked by intestinal inflammation and bleeding as well as back and adrenal problems also diminish, though do not eliminate the likelihood that Jack had celiac disease of the small intestine, not the colon. Moreover, despite many hospitalizations at some of the country's leading medical centers after 1950, when celiac was first identified, none of his doctors suggested such a diagnosis. However, the fact that physicians in the 50s and 60s did not readily recognize the disease in adults leave such a diagnosis as a possibility. From September 1934 to June 1935 Jack senior year that shone Infirmary had kept close watch on Jack's blood count. In turn, Joe passed the results on to the Mayo doctors. At that time there was also concerned that Jack might be suffering from leukemia, a fatal disease resulting from uncontrolled proliferation of the white blood cells. With the benefit of current knowledge it seems likely that the changes in Jack's blood counts were a reaction to the drugs he was taking. When he fell ill the following year, Dr. William Murphy of Harvard advised that Jack had a grand new low cytosis a drug induced decrease of granular white blood corpuscles which made him more susceptible to infections in quote. Wow, a lot going on there. I've read about his various allergies whether you're talking about like seasonal allergies, allergies to pet hair, allergies to food, stomach problems, intestinal distress, he had the bad back he may have even had some issues with the the actual vertebrae as well as osteoporosis. He was injured after all in the war.

In speaking about the incident on the PT 109, The New Yorker writes, then the Japanese crashed into the 109 and cut her right into the sharp enemy forefoot struck the PT on the starboard side about 15 feet from the bow and crushed diagonally across with a racking noise. The PTS wouldn't hold hardly even delayed the destroyer. Kennedy was thrown hard to the left in the cockpit and he thought this is how it feels to be killed. In a moment he found himself on his back on the deck looking up at the destroyer as it passed through his boat. There was another loud noise and a huge flash of yellow red light and the destroyer gloat. Its peculiar raked, inverted y stack stood out in brilliant light, and later in Kennedy's memory and quote. So JFK already has a bad back going into the situation. It's made even worse by the PT 109. Nevertheless, he swims several miles to help rescue the surviving crew. And in fact, one of his crewmates had on a life jacket and he put the strap of the life jacket in his teeth to help keep this man alive as he was swimming.

 Even this incident did not diminish his love of the water. Returning now to the president nobody knew. The most worn thumb through book in his downstairs library at the White House was one on fishing boats. He loved to spend weekends on the honey Fitz. He liked to sit on board and read or swim from the ladder or watch his family water ski or follow yachting races.

He liked to play golf and also toss a football around although obviously because of his various injuries and health concerns, he had some limitations. He also liked to swim, play some tennis, sail, and fish. In their section titled about the White House. In a day he might have 20 Whitehouse appointments and once 100 People were counted entering his West Wing Oval Office, he could talk on the phone signal and aid and make notes all at once. He started work before he hit the desk in bed with newspapers at 730. After only a few hours of sleep. He was an insomniac. In his office at nine he took a dip before the morning was over. He liked his rocker and sat visitors opposite on the sofa. He was restless once he sat down on an antique that exploded and sent him sprawling on the floor. Not totally funny since he had a bad back. I'm just picturing it in my mind. The longer he stayed in the White House, the faster he seemed to move, the more accustomed he was to the PC set. Did he like the presidency? He quipped, I have a nice home, the office is close by and the pay is good. He would sit in that rocking chair because it was supposed to be better for his back. I also kind of think it might have been good for times when he had to fidget. So here's another image that I can picture so perfectly. In his book promises kept. Irving Bernstein talks about all the mess that happened with US Steel, where Kennedy had gotten the unions to agree to their side of the bargain. And the steel companies were not supposed to do a price hike. But then they did and he felt like he had been double crossed. So he confers with some of his advisors. And Bernstein reports that one of them said there should have been a speedometer on his rocking chair. He was so mad and he was so aggravated about that whole thing. There should have been a speedometer on the rocking chair. And I thought somehow I can picture that perfectly in my mind's eye.

In the section titled The Long day they write, sometimes he just gave out those who watched him and traveled closely with him knew his moods and his temper, just how much he could take. There was a limit, though he could outdistance everyone except his younger brother, his father, who should no remark that he worked as hard as any human being he had met, his aides could expect calls at midnight, tough assignments and chores that taxed. It was no less than he expected of himself. He was a restless man. And so he slept lightly. He would push himself in a campaign in the White House during a crisis. In his homework preparation for conferences in play, it would show around the eyes mostly last year to sort of coincide with the 60th anniversary of Kennedy's murder. The History Channel produced a mini series, I think it was eight episodes, called Kennedy and I watched it. I didn't really know exactly what to expect. But overall, I think it was pretty good. One of the things that they talked about was the campaign efforts that Jack made like after he comes home from the Second World War and his career in politics really get started. Whenever he was running for the House of Representatives in Massachusetts. I mean, he was young, and there were other politicians that would have been much more favorable. Like they would have had a higher name and brand recognition, if you will. And he just absolutely worked his tail off. There was no luncheon, there was no meeting that was too small. It didn't matter if somebody said, Hey, my grandma's bridge club of about 20 Women wants a speaker would you go, Hey, we're gonna have a garden party. We're gonna have an ice cream social at the church. Would you come to the Rotary Club? Would you come to Kiwanis? If he got invited to go speak somewhere? He would do it? There was no, that's too small. I'm too good for that. I mean, you would think especially what we hear about Joe was going to buy him all of these elections and they were running around with the mafia. You would think that Jack would have just sat around doing nothing. The hell with it. I'll just lay up and party and then I'll put in some effort maybe a week before the election and my daddy will just buy this for me, but he actually did the opposite. He went out and campaigned his tail off. In fact, they told a story of a parade. And then think about to you know, he has these fresh injuries. He already has a variety of health problems. And he has these fresh injuries at times, he's having to just get around as best he can on crutches. He walks in this parade in a suit, and it was very hot that day, and he actually collapsed from heat exhaustion, he gets rehydrated gets back up and goes back after it. Now that shows some tenacity that shows some real work ethic. I have heart problems, plural and wish I didn't. And there are times when I get tempted to feel sorry for myself. And I'm like, you know if he could do that, I got no excuses, man, I gotta get up off my butt and keep moving forward. So for me, it's like we hear these stories. And I'm like, but yeah, this is the guy we're supposed to hate. This is the guy that we're supposed to think is a complete piece of trash. Kind of not seeing it that way.

Under the section press conference, they write if anything, he invented a new kind of press conference for TV. He glowed on the screen a master of the techniques, he came fully prepared, because he had an amazing mind for details. He was hardly, if ever hard put to answer a question. He knew how to use a press conference in the steel crisis when he laid into the big companies before millions of viewers he had actually cooled down since the crisis had begun. I'm going to run in and say that's pretty interesting. If I can find the link to it again, I'll drop it so that you can hear it you you can hear the anger in his voice, at least I can I can tell that he's fuming when he's at that press conference. But he deliberately generated an angry heat before the cameras since he gained weight, especially around the gels. Well, that's not very flattering from White House cooking. He'd go on a four day crash diet before an appearance it wasn't vanity so much is an awareness that his physical appearance made all the difference to the press and the public. As a matter of fact, that press conference is in the public domain. So I'll play a clip for you.

 The simultaneous and identical actions of United States Steel, and other leading steel corporations. Increasing steel prices, by some $6 a ton constitute a wholly unjustifiable and irresponsible defiance of the public interest in this serious hour in our nation's history, when we are confronted with grave crises in Berlin and Southeast Asia, when we are devoting our energies to economic recovery instability, when we are asking reservists to leave their homes, and families for months on end, and service man to risk their lives and fall were killed in the last two days in Vietnam, and asking union members to hold down their wage request. At a time when restraint and sacrifice are being asked of every citizen. The American people will find it hard as I do. To accept a situation in which a tiny handful of steel executives whose pursuit of private power and profit exceeds their sense of public responsibility can show such utter contempt for the interests of 185 million Americans. If this rise in the cost of steel, is imitated by the rest of the industry, instead of rescinded. It would increase the cost of homes, autos, appliances, and most other items for every American family. It would increase the cost of machinery and tools to every American businessman and farmer. It would seriously handicap our efforts to prevent an inflationary spiral. From eating up the pensions of our oldest citizens and our new gains and gains in purchasing power. It would add Secretary McNamara informed me this morning an estimated $1 billion to the cost of our defenses at a time when every dollar is needed for national security and other purposes. It will make it more difficult for American goods to compete in foreign markets, more difficult to withstand competition from foreign imports, and thus more difficult to improve our balance of payments position and stem the flow of gold. And it is necessary to stem it for our national security if we're going to pay for our security commitments abroad, and it would surely handicap our efforts to induce other industries and unions to adopt responsible price and wage policies. The facts of the matter are that there is no justification for an increase in steel prices. The recent settlement between the industry and the Union, which does not even take place until July 1, was widely acknowledged to be non inflationary. And the whole purpose and effect of this administration's role, which both parties understood, was to achieve and agreement which would make unnecessary any increase in prices. Steel output per man is rising so fast that labor costs per ton of steel can actually be expected to decline in the next 12 months. And in fact, the acting commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics inform me this morning that and I quote, employment costs per unit of steel output in 1961. Were essentially the same as they were in 1958. Unquote. The cost of major raw materials, steel scrap and coal has also been declining. And for an industry which has been generally operating at less than two thirds of capacity, its profit rate has been normal, and can be expected to rise sharply this year. In view of the reduction in IO capacity, they a lot has been easier than that of 100,000 steel workers thrown out of work. In the last three years, the industry's cash dividends have exceeded $600 million in each of the last five years. And earnings in the first quarter of this year, were estimated in the February 28 Wall Street Journal, to be among the highest in history. In short, at a time when they could be exploring how more efficiency and better prices could be obtained, reducing prices in this industry, in recognition of lower costs, their unusually good labor contract their foreign competition and their increase in production and profits which are coming this year. A few gigantic corporations have decided to increase prices, and ruthless their three god of their public responsibilities. The steel workers union can be proud that it abided by its responsibilities and this agreement. And this government also has responsibilities which we intend to meet. The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are examining the significance of this action in a free competitive economy. The Department of Defense and other agencies are reviewing its impact on their policies of procurement. And I am informed that steps are underway by those members of the Congress who plan appropriate inquiries into how these price decisions are so quickly made, and reached and what legislative safeguards may be needed to protect the public interest, price and wage decisions in this country. Except for a very limited restrictions, in the case of monopolies, and national emergency strikes are and ought to be freely and privately made. But the American people have a right to expect in return for that freedom, a highest sense of business responsibility for the welfare of their country, and has been shown in the last two days. Some time ago, I asked each American to consider what he would do for his country. And I asked the steel companies in the last 24 hours, we had their answer. 

You can just about picture the steam coming out of his ears. But remember, this is the guy that we're supposed to hate. Standing up for John and Jane Q Public and lambasted these big corporations we're all supposed to hate him.

Returning now to the president, nobody knew under the title they wanted to touch him. Whoever is President becomes our history a pass that civilians know only from a distance and so people like to touch him to shake his hand to feel him. It makes real for a sudden moment when he represents and symbol from a distance. But more of course, Kennedy was popular. He had style youth great promise talent and sex appeal. There were twice as many people interested in him as an Ike or Harry Truman. He had doubled the mail and quadrupled the visitors to the White House. It was amazing. Under the heading studies and solemnity, he wouldn't talk about the burdens of being President. You didn't have to ask if he felt it. It showed in his face. It is an utterly lonely responsibility and no one can really share it. This is because from all the possible solutions his advisors offer in a crisis, there is only one he can choose, and he is solely responsible. In the end, the buck stops here said Truman's reminder. At the end of the book, there's this heartbreaking picture that shows the President's engagements Thursday, November 21. At 10:45am It says depart south lawn for Texas. And then in front of that ledger is a couple of photographs, a little two picture picture frame of Jack and Caroline. 

Kennedy was also a voracious reader, not only of newspapers, but of books. He liked historical books as well as fictional novels. And as I've said before, generally speaking, if you hear about a book that Kennedy liked, it will not steer you wrong. He seemed to have very good taste in books. Jackie said that he read all the time and in a variety of different places the bathtub, walking, sailing, wherever the mood struck him to read something he would stop and read. He wrote several books as well. He also did some painting, I'll drop a link. So if you want to take a look at some of his paintings, you can I don't think he was overly impressed with them himself. But hey, they're not bad.

Paul Fay chooses to open his book, The pleasure of his company with a quote from Ben Bradlee. Even though in the end I agree with James DiEugenio's thesis that Bradlee turns out to really be a false friend to Kennedy. I do believe this statement to be true. You could see a laugh coming in his eyes before you could hear it from his lips. 

But remember, this is the guy that we're all supposed to hate. I don't know about you, but I don't really walk away from this information feeling anything but affection.

Stay a little bit crazy. And I will see you in the next episode.

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