The Kennedy Brothers: The Rise and Fall of Jack and Bobby

Author:Mahoney, Richard D. [Mahoney, Richard D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Published: 2011-04-30T21:00:00+00:00

Rendezvous

1963

April 9, 1963

Washington, D.C.

If there was one man in the long list of Joe Kennedy’s enemies whose ascent to fame had coincided with his descent into disgrace, it was Sir Winston S. Churchill. On the afternoon of April 9, from his wheelchair, the former ambassador looked out from a second-story window of the White House and watched as his son Jack made the former British prime minister an honorary American citizen at a ceremony held in the Rose Garden. Churchill’s son Randolph accepted the honor on behalf of his father, who was watching the ceremony on closed-circuit television in Great Britain.

Perhaps if his stroke had not robbed him of his voice or his ability to walk, Joe might have stopped it, or at least given Jack a piece of his mind. Then again, perhaps not. Joe Kennedy had long understood the trade: the vengeance of his enemies had required him to fade from public view and work his deals from the shadows. All for Jack. Now, bent over and drooling, he was a wreck of a man imprisoned in a wheelchair. He was vanishing. But his son was president. His son carried his name. The only sign left of his titanic will were those flashing blue eyes and his frequent screams of “No! No! No!”

That evening, at a small family dinner, the president teased his father about the ceremony for Churchill. “All your good friends showed up, didn’t they, Dad?” Jack then went down the list of Joe Kennedy’s enemies who had attended that day. “Bernard Baruch . . . Dean Acheson . . . he’s on both offense and defense, isn’t he, Dad?”1 The teasing was meant to engage him, distract him, and in the habitat of the Kennedys, it was the truest sign of affection.

Jackie was far gentler with her father-in-law. She took pains to introduce Ben Bradlee, who also attended the ceremony, as “Beebo” Bradlee’s son, reminding Joe Sr. that he had once coached a baseball team at Harvard on which Bradlee’s father had played. “You remember your friend Beebo,” Jackie said. “You said how much better looking he was than Ben.” “No! No! No!” was the response. 2

Jackie and Kennedy cousin Ann Gargan had taken on the difficult chore of helping the old man walk to dinner — something he resolutely demanded to do. With Jackie supporting him on one side and Gargan on the other, kicking his right leg forward between steps, they managed to get him to the table. Bradlee later wrote, “The evening was most moving — sad and joyous at the same time, as the old man’s children tried to involve him, while he could only react with the sparkle of his eyes and a crooked smile.”

Bobby suggested that he and Teddy sing a two-part harp harmony, which they did. The ambassador tilted his head back to get a better look at them. Then Teddy provided an encore with his imitation of John Fitzgerald, Honey Fitz, Rose Kennedy’s father and the former mayor of Boston, “bearing down on the distinctive lisp to much applause.

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