Kouin Galvin The Matter Of TheKennedy C CTER Gary Allen is author of None Dare Call It Conspiracy; The Rockefeller File; Kissinger: Secret Side Of The Secretary Of State; Jimmy Carter/Jimmy Carter; and, Tax Target: Washington. He is an AMERICAN OPINION Contributing Editor.

• HUMORIST Tom Anderson has hold his head up . That's true enough. quipped that an article on Teddy What we intend to deal with here is Kennedy's character would have to be how Edward Moore Kennedy got the one of the shortest literary pieces in way he is. history. As far as Anderson is con­ The last time that the private life cerned, Kennedy has no character, pe­ of a Presidential candidate was a ma ­ riod. After Chappaquiddick, when jor campaign issue was in 1884, when Teddy showed up at Mary Jo Kopech­ Grover Cleveland's illegitimate child ne's funeral wearing a neck brace, was the subject of great controversy. Tom remarked that he needed it to Since that time there has been a sort

JANUARY, 1980 1 Then there are the important character im­ plications. Can a man who consistently lies to his own wife be trusted not to lie to the country? Similarly, does compulsive adultery reveal an unstable and self-destructive personality? If so, what are the chances that it will effect his judgment and reactions in a time of crisis?

of gentleman's agreement among pol­ late whether more people have be­ iticians and the press that the subject trayed their country over sex or love not be discussed. Frankly, the general than out of greed for money. Certain­ fear is that it might open up a Pan­ ly more military secrets have been dora's box. And it is argued both that a divulged in pillow talk than have ever Presidential candidate is entitled to been microfilmed by spies in dark of-. personal privacy and that what one fices. does in private .life has no bearing Then, there are the character im­ upon public performance. But when plications. Can a man who consistent­ the personal immorality of a Presi­ ly lies to his wife be trusted not to lie dential candidate is so compulsively a to the country? Is a compulsive Don part of a candidate's lifestyle that it Juan the victim of a neurosis which becomes an international scandal the will be revealed in his policies and ac­ subject must be faced. tions as President? Similarly, does We are well aware that the movie such behavior reveal the deep-seated fan magazines and tabloids have self-hatred of an unstable personal­ been leering and sniggering at the ity? Is the man self-destructive? If Kennedys for two decades. They are, so, will it effect judgment or reac­ of course , interested only in pander­ tions in a time of crisis? ing to the prurient mobs who amuse More strictly moral questions also themselves by watching members of arise. Can believing Christians and that family as if their lives were a Jews, for instance, vote for a habitual daytime soap opera. Such publishing adulterer? If a man compulsively is, to our mind, reprehensible. But flouts one of the Ten Command­ when it comes to Presidential politics ments, is he likely to hold sacred the there are serious issues involved here remaining nine? If so, how many of which deserve considerable thought. the Commandments can a man utter­ First of all, a man who is scandal ly ignore and still command the sup­ prone is also blackmail prone. This is port and respect of moral men and why women have been effective spies women? since long before Mata Hari compro­ Of course the practitioners of Sec­ mised her first general. Governments, ular Humanism, which now passes organized crime, and unscrupulous for the state "religion, " hold that all operators have all used sex as leverage the above questions are nonsense and to influence the actions of those with therefore irrelevent. These advocates political power. One can only specu- of the "new morality" include the

2 AMERICAN OPINION powers that be at the New York . The Founding Father Times, the Washington Post, Time Many books have dealt with the magazine, Newsweek, and at CBS and powerful influence of Joseph P . NBC. The mass media want to define Kennedy, the so-called Founding the issues for the 1980 campaign just Father, on his sons Joe Jr., Jack, Bob­ as they have done in past elections. by, and Teddy. Old Joe Kennedy was And the character of the candidates is a textbook case of the domineering not on their check list. But millions of father who did everything possible to citizens who are concerned about the shape the character and training of morality of their country and the ex­ his sons. To try to fathom Teddy ample its leaders set for their children without studying his relationship to care very much. How can we raise our his father and older brothers is like children to respect God, family, and trying to understand the American country, they are asking, if the Presi­ South without knowledge of the Civil dent of the United States behaves like War. Errol Flynn with a college diploma? Joe Kennedy was not your typical The fact is that the quality of a father, anxious to see his children President's character is the most im­ succeed. He was a driven and vindic­ portant subject that voters should tive man who saw his children as consider. After all, we will be electing weapons with which to take revenge a man who can single-handedly com­ on those he hated. Old Joe's grand­ mit us to war; who can declare a na­ father came to Boston during the tional emergency and invoke Execu­ Irish potato famine in 1848. Joe's tive Orders which give him power over father, Patrick Joseph, started life as the American people and their econ­ a common laborer - and through am­ omy to a degree undreamed of even by bition and hard work rose to be a re­ the fabled Oriental potentates of old. spected barkeep. A man with a flair Any man who seeks such a position is for organization, P.J., as he was called, going to have to forfeit his privacy. organized the Irish-American precincts What the baker does after he is for some of the town politicians. through kneading his dough for the Using his political connections, he got day is none of our business. If the his son Joseph into Boston Latin High owner of the hardware store is a liber­ School, then the best public prep tine, that's a problem for him, his school in the country. From there, wife, and minister to worry about. Patrick Joseph was able to gain ad­ But the character of the men being mission for Joe to Harvard, no mean considered for President of the accomplishment for an Irish Catholic United States is everybody's business. in those days. People are cruel, and there will This is believed by many to have naturally be rumors about anyone who been at the heart of the neurosis is rich and powerful. It can be argued which drove Joe Kennedy. During the that anytime a Kennedy has shaken last half of the Nineteenth Century, hands with an attractive woman, gos­ the Irish were regarded by the Boston sips and scandal sheets have sought to aristrocracy as nearly sub-human. turn it into a full-blown romance. But This attitude filtered down through what is known of the Kennedy men the middle class, and it was not un­ and their misbehavior with women common for a help-wanted sign in a goes far beyond rumors. Theirs is, ap­ Boston store window to specify that parently, an unbridled compulsion. "No Irish Need Apply." The Cabots And there is a reason for it. (Continued on page seventy-five.)

4 AMERICAN OPINION From page four fulness to their wives, but their wives found it worthwhile to continue as CHARACTER wives and mothers." This lasted for were speaking only to the Lowells, and years - until Teddy's wife Joan the Lowells were speaking only to couldn't take it any longer. Undoubt­ God, but nobody who was anybody in edly the flagrant philandering has Brahmin Boston would speak to a caused great suffering among the Kelly or an O'Toole on any basis but other Kennedy women too, but they as to a menial. This attitude died apparently rationalized that it came hard, and still flickered until J .F.K. with the territory. was elected President. If Joe Kennedy practiced a double Though admitted to Harvard, the standard he was not so hypocritical as Irish barkeeper's son found himself to deny it. On the contrary, boasting excluded from the "right" social of his conquests was a topic of con­ clubs and from the company of the versation he rated with money, poli­ sons of America's first citizens, for tics, and horse racing. He said his which he yearned. Whether it was be­ philosophy was a simple one: "A mis­ cause of his personality or his morals, tress is a mistress, nothing more; have or as he suspected because of his fun with them, take them out, spoil humble origin, he bore the grudge them, but never fall in love with them until he died. After Harvard, when and never let them affect your wife the ambitious Joe Kennedy made a or your family." fortune in banking, he was still never Occasionally Joe did not follow his accepted, was excluded from the own advice. Having made a fortune in more prestigious clubs, and was not the banking business in Boston, he included in the better social circles. moved his family to New York in 1922 Every snub, real and imagined, made to get them away from the WASPish­ the highly sensitive social climber more ness that so disturbed him. Once they anxious for revenge on those he be­ were safely ensconced in Gotham, lieved disdained him as a nouveau father Joe hopped a train to Los riche Mick. Angeles to try his hand at producing The device for his revenge would movies in Hollywood. As the Pulitzer­ be his children. He would test his sons winning reporter Fred Sparks puts it, by fire, and forge them into a weapon "His reason was simple: In the early with which he would punish the blue 1920s, the tinsel town was producing bloods from the land of the bean and instant millionaires." A Kennedy col­ the cod. Joe Kennedy was determined league observed: "The fact that it was to have one of his sons become the called 'Sodom and Gomorrah with first Irish Catholic President of the Electricity' may have also had some­ United States. thing to do with his move." Joe bought Old Joe's thirst for revenge against a studio which later became RKO and the Yankee Establishment did not, of began churning out epics at the rate course , supplant his thirst for life. of one a week. His pot-boilers includ­ And he had the morals of an alley cat ed such long-forgotten films as A - one of the many traits which the Poor Girl's Romance, Red Hot Hoofs, boys picked up from their father. and The Dude And Th e Stenogra­ Pearl Buck, long close to the family pher. They won no Oscars, but they and an ardent political supporter of filled the movie houses and made him the clan, wrote that "the Kennedy a millionaire. men were never celebrated for faith- Within a year of his arrival in Hol-

JANUAR Y, 1980 75 lywood, columnist Louella Parsons times on election day. Rose, who had predicted: "Mr. Kennedy is the indus­ learned from her rascal papa that try's coming Napoleon." He was soon " boys will be boys," looked the other infamous for having the warmest way while her husband cavorted. And casting couch in town and would open­ Joe loved flaunting it , because the ly squire young lovelies in hischauf­ adulterous affair with Gloria Swan­ feur-driven Pierce Arrow for all the son drove the Boston Yankees crazy. world to see. The Founding Father was Kennedy was .meanwhile playing a "constant companion" of Greta politics. He was an early supporter of Garbo, Jean Harlow, Janet Gaynor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and one ofthe Anita Page, Marion Davies, and plums he asked for and received for Norma Shearer - all major-league his efforts was appointment as U.S. beauties of that era. His reputation as Ambassador to Great Britain. The a lothario was such that even Rudolph dispatching of an Irish Catholic to the Valentino once asked him: "Joe, how Court of St. James's was just the do you do it? All those pretty girls." thing to make the Republican Anglo­ Kennedy's best girl, however , was philes of Boston fume. But Ken­ Gloria Swanson, a woman of extraor­ nedy's diplomatic career came to an dinary beauty. It is widely believed inglorious .end as he let it be known that Joe came very near to breaking that he thought Britain would be de­ his golden rule of not falling in love feated by Germany in short order and with a mistress and their affair be­ that America should stay out of the came the talk of Hollywood. A retired war. Right as he might have been, a director claimed that during this pe­ horrified F.D.R. recalled Kennedy, riod Old Joe was giving Hollywood a who returned home in disgrace. Any bad name: dreams of absolute revenge against "Joe Kennedy's dating Gloria his enemies, of himself becoming Swanson shook up the industry. At the President, were dashed forever. From time, the industry was trying to im­ now on it would be up to the boys . prove its image and there was Joe run­ But, if Joe Kennedy was in politi­ ning around with ladies who were not cal exile he was not in social exile. He his wife. The senior Kennedy became sent Rose and the children to Hyan­ fairly notorious as a successful nisport and threw himself into the so­ womariizer, especially after his con­ cial life of the Manhattan nightclubs nection with Gloria Swanson." with a vengeance. It was a lifestyle he The late Hollywood columnist continued for more than twenty years, Hedda Hopper wrote: "In Joseph until felled by a stroke. In fact, short­ Kennedy, Gloria Swanson found a ly after John Kennedy was elected friend, patron saint and bankroll, all President, the Founding Father again in one and the same person. They found himself falling for one of his made several movies together. Despite mistresses. He became ·infatuated this, Gloria accompanied Mr. and with a beautiful model whom he began Mrs. Kennedy to Europe. Itmust have seeing eight or nine nights in a row. . been a trying trip for Rose Kennedy. I One evening she left a message saying often wondered howshe weathered it." she could not go out to dinner because Mother Rose suffered her humili­ she had an appointment. Later that ation.in silence. She was the daughter night Joe arrived alone at The Stork of "Honey" Fitzgerald,a famous Club and was flabbergasted to see his .Boston .mayor who had insisted his girl friend leaving on the arm of his ward heelers vote at least eleven son Jack.

76 AMERICAN OPINION The Kennedy boys labored to emu­ of this, Joseph Kennedy Jr. was an late their father in all things. Wheth­ Army pilot stationed in England. er papa Joe personally encouraged his From there he exchanged frequent sons in promiscuity and adultery, or letters with his two-year younger they just followed his example, is not brother Jack, then stationed in Vir­ known outside the family. But for ginia. Hank Searls, who authored Joe Kennedy women were something Joe Jr.'s biography and was privy to to be used and exploited, then cast family papers, wrote: "Some of Joe's aside. The more this shocked and correspondence with Jack seemed to angered his enemies the better. And hint that the brothers were engaged in while the father pushed his sons to a neck-and-neck international race win at whatever they did, by fair for female conquests." Father Joe means or foul, the principles of mo­ saw the letters and gloated of this sex­ rality, integrity, and ethics were not ual immorality: "They're chips off part of his course in how to live. That the old block." is natural enough, for those were sub­ When he had leave, Joe Jr. shared a jects that Joseph Kennedy knew Dorchester Hotel room in London with nothing whatever about. a friendly American correspondent. One day the outraged manager com­ Joseph Kennedy Jr. plained to the scribe: "What with the The apple of Old Joe's eye was war and all, we're quite tolerant. But, Joseph Kennedy Jr., his eldest son. there's a limit! The other night your Probably the handsomest of the Ken­ friend [Joe] entertained four young nedy boys, Joe Jr. was reputedly the ladies, one right after the other. king Casanova of the clan. He was While I admire his enterprise, that's intelligent, witty, charming, and had the sort of thing that can give a hotel a adopted the morals of his father. A bad name." Harvard buddy described him by say­ Meanwhile, Joe Sr. planned fer­ ing: "J oe turned into a rather obses­ vently for the day when he could at­ sive and highly skilled girl chaser, a tend his son's inaugural as President gallant young man who coolly played of the United States. And it undoubt­ the field, dazzling with his looks, edly would have happened had not the charm and social background, but young Kennedy bravely volunteered never attaching to one companion for for a near-suicidal mission in which very long." his plane exploded in flight. The po­ Father Joe footed the bill for the litical mantle was passed to Jack, who girl collecting, providing his eldestson would not disappoint his father, with a big bankroll for his extrava­ either as a polished politician or as a gant social life, and family retainers lothario in the image of the older man. were always available for fixing traffic tickets or sending flowers to John Kennedy's Example young ladies he decided to stand up. A number of books have been writ­ Super competitive like all Kennedys, ten on the personal misbehavior of young Joe went after women with the John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Research determination of a hawk pursuing a was no problem since he made very mouse. It was said that, if seduction little attempt to disguise his penchant had been an international sport, Joe for womanizing, which was common Jr. would have competed in the knowledge among the Washington Olympics. press and those who had covered his When World War II interrupted all campaigns. But John F. Kennedy did

JANUARY, 1980 77 not have to worry about what the so­ businessman whose yacht was being called newshawks would write about used to refuel Nazi submarines oper­ his sexual immorality because the ating in U.S. waters. Little Inga was subject was taboo. definitely what in the good old days The vast majority of reporters, was known as a security risk. Itwas too being "Liberal," were not about to bad for her that she had not been broach the subject since it would jeop­ intimate with Stalin instead of those ardize their ideological favorite. And Deutschlanders. the small coterie of Conservatives The F.B.I. had Inga's apartment were apparently afraid to touch the bugged, and when it was discovered subject for fear of being denounced that she had a lover from O.N .I. they as vicious scandal mongers intent on figured they had a real, live Mata defiling the holy name of a Prince of Hari situation in which sex was being Camelot who everyone knew was the used to extort information. The em­ devoted husband of Princess Jacque­ barrassed Navy wanted to discharge line . Kennedy immediately and possibly So Jack did what he pleased. And prosecute him. what he pleased was to disgrace the Jack and Inga-Binga, who was al­ Presidency with round after round of ready married, were discussing mar­ sexual romps. riage when the foam hit the fan. He For the first few years after his was sent to the Pacific and Inga took death it was absolute heresy even to off for Hollywood where she became suggest that Kennedy was given to in­ a gossip columnist. fidelities. This was the period in Had it not been for the influence which devoted Kennedy worshippers of his father, the former Ambassa­ bought framed pictures at the dime dor, J.F.K. might have spent the war stores which showed J.F.K. with his swabbing the deck of a cellblock at eyes turned towards heaven and the Leavenworth instead of becoming a hint of a halo over his head. But, as war hero in the Pacific. Ironically, it time went by, the truth about the was to get him out of this jam that he man's womanizing began to emerge. It was sent to the Pacific where as cap­ was a compulsion he had apparently tain of a P.T. boat he was sunk by a developed at his father's knee. Japanese destroyer. There is no . Early in World War II, naval Lieu ­ doubting Kennedy's heroism once the tenant John F. Kennedy began having craft was sunk, but a destroyer running an affair with a beautiful Danish girl over a P .T. boat is like a jackrabbit named Inga Arvad, or Inga-Binga as being run over by a buffalo. Men Jack called her. Inga was a columnist with experience in the area theorize for the Washington Times-Herald that Jack and his crew had fallen while Jack was with the Office of asleep during the boring patrol duties Naval Intelligence. Unfortunately off Guadalcanal. But the family's for the young naval officer, Inga was public-relations men turned Jack into under investigation by the F.B.I., a hero over the affair. which suspected that she might be a John Kennedy was elected to Con­ Nazi spy. It seemed that before em­ gress in 1946 in a campaign designed, migrating to the United States she financed, and run by his father. had been very close with Adolf Hitler Years later Joe Sr. admitted: "I got and Hermann Goring, who were wide­ Jack into politics. I was the one. He ly suspected of being Nazis. She had wanted to be a poet; something like also been the mistress of a Swedish that. I told him Joe was dead, now it

JANUARY, 1980 79 was his responsibility." Old Joe con­ back of our car. He came out and said, fided to family friend James Mac­ 'You're a mean *******.' " Gregor Burns during the congressional Jack was no more enthused about campaign: "With all the money I am taking on the responsibilities of mar­ spending I could elect my chauffeur." riage when he returned. Kitty Kelley The routine of legislating, how­ reveals: "A Newport friend of ever, bored Jack to tears, so much of Jackie's, who was also close to JFK, his time was spent with show girls in remembers spending the evening be­ New York City. After a number of fore the engagement announcement close encounters of the first, second, appeared in the papers at a party with and third kinds, Jack came under in­ Kennedy. 'He went out to dinner with tense pressure from his father to get my wife and myself, got very drunk, married "before your roving eyes get and later took a woman home and you in some kind of an ugly jam." spent the night with her. But before Shortly after J.F.K. was elected to that we were together for about three the Senate in 1952, at age thirty-five, hours and he never once mentioned he was introduced to Jacqueline the engagement announcement com­ Bouvier at the home of his friend, ing out the next day, which you've got newsman Charles Bartlett. to admit doesn't sound like a man in It may have been a marriage of love and looking forward to getting convenience for both parties. Jack married." needed a wife for political respecta­ Jack Kennedy undoubtedly felt bility and Jackie was on the rebound that marriage would interfere with from a broken engagement to a New his compulsive wenching. As it turned York society banker. The story of the out, it hardly slowed him at all . The cynical romance as told in great de­ marriage was Joe's idea, supported by tail by Washington journalist Kitty the concern of his sisters. Jack's taste Kelley in her bestselling book Jackie in women had been running to street Oh! is too long and entangled to be girls and stunning show-business reported here. Most readers will types who hadn't read a book since probably conclude that these two at­ Dick And Jane Visit Grandma. So tractive opportunists deserved each when his son brought Jackie home to other. meet father, the older man was de ­ So unexcited was Jack about get­ lighted. She was not only highly edu­ ting married that soon after he and cated, but out of the social register­ Jackie agreed to an engagement something which Joe Kennedy's fam ­ J .F.K. took off for France with his ily had never been. This would be the old Harvard roommate, Torby Mc­ perfect wife to help Jack in his as­ Donald, and his current girl-chasing sault on the Presidency. pal, Senator George Smathers of The Kennedy-Bouvier wedding Florida. While in France, J.F.K. en­ was the social event of the year, but gaged in a torrid affair with a French J.F.K. was determined not to let,it woman who coincidentally was also civilize him. As with the rest named Jackie. According to Senator of the Kennedy brothers, Jack had Smathers: "Jack didn't want to leave been raised to be selfish and self-cen­ - he was having such a great time. tered. Women were simply to be used Then I made him leave. I told him he'd and exploited. And, according to his destroy himself. I said, 'You're going closest friend, Senator Smathers: to screw everything up - badly.' So I "No one was off limits to Jack - not got his suitcase and threw it in the your wife, your mother, your sister. If

JANUARY, 1980 81 he wan ted a woman, he'd take her. give up his teddy bear. While Old J oe ... Jack was driven in that regard apparently did not bribe Jackie to stay more than any man I've ever known. with his wandering son, he took great .. . I don 't know how the women ever care to shelter and support her. Bu t, tolerated it." says Kelley, strong as he was, the In other words , J ohn F. Kennedy senior Kennedy was not able to shield was not just a normal, healthy male as her from all the internal strains whic h his defenders would have us believe. became so intensified within her po­ He was sick; perverted, by any normal litical marriage that, growing more measure. And it ran in the family. depressed and despairing, she even tu­ The neurotic father had created a ally decided to submit herself to a nest of attractive but twisted prog­ psychiatric clinic for electroshock eny. Even the sisters kept lining up therapy . So much for Camelot . their brother with women after he Not even the Presidency slowed was married. Family came first. Jack's sick compulsion. If anything it Jackie was well aware that her hus­ provided more opportunities. The band was compulsively unfaithful. 1960 campaign was turned into a vir­ She was na turally hurt and humili­ tual Roman orgy by Kennedy and his ated by Jack's constant flin gs. Ac­ buddies of the so-called Ra t Pack. cording to friends, she sometimes This group consisted of Jack's broth­ teased him about them, but usually er-in -Iaw Peter Lawford, Frank Sin­ she punished him by going on one of atra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis her famo us shopping sprees. The Jr. The Ra t Pack had a stash in almost story has circulated for years that a every major city. They also had con­ fed-up Jackie planned to give Jack nections with glamorous movie star­ his walking papers, but that Joe Sr . lets who were eager to meet the hand­ bribed her with an enormous sum to some candidate. Among the Holly­ remain married to his lecherous son so wood luminaries romantically linked that J .F.K. could achieve his father's to the political Valentino were Jayne lifetime goal of reaching the White Mansfield, Kim No vak, Rhonda House. Kitty Kelley denies that this Fleming, Janet Leigh, and Angie story is true. She writes: Dickinson. Like father, like son. "T he stories of Jackie threatening And all of this was one long way divorce were not only untrue but out from the harmless sport the Kennedy of character for a woman who knew defenders would have us believe it was. innately that a casual liaison without During the campaign Sinatra intro­ any emotional involvement could nev­ duced the candidate to Judy Camp­ er threaten her marriage. This is not to bell in Las Vegas. Campbell was a say that she was immune to the hurt "party girl" who had earlier had an of Kennedy's affairs, because she affair with Sinatra. John Kennedy was not. But in her mind they had and the raven-haired beauty became nothing to do with him as her hus­ friends in the only way he knew. Ted­ band. They were all part of the politi­ dy Kennedy met her at the same time cal man, and to Jackie politics was and the brothers contested for her power and power was promiscuous, affections. Jack won. part of a game little boys must play The Village Voice printed this ver ­ when they are vulnerable." sion of the attempted pick-up based Playing power games was some­ on information provided by Campbell: thing Jack Kennedy learned from his " She took an immediate liking for father before he was old enough to Jack Kennedy, who asked her to lunch

JANUARY, 1980 83 the next day before the party split up There are some indications that after the midnight show and she took Momo Giancana used his influence to off with Ted Kennedy for a round of try to get Kennedy elected on the basis gambling. At the end of the evening that he might have some leverage in a Ted began pressing her to join him in Kennedy Administration because of his campaign trip [for his brother] to their mutual mistress. According to Denver the next morning, but she re­ the Village Voice of February 1, 1976: fused, mentioning her planned lunch "After Kennedy was elected he with his brother, at which point he [Giancana] told Judith that he had became childishly tempermental and thrown his weight behind Kennedy tried to hustle her into changing her during the tight race. It is to be re­ plan s. He finally left her room and membered that the election was de­ made his way to the airport, butra ther cided in Illinois, and that Illinois was tha n leaving, as planned, he called her decided in Chicago while Sa m Gian­ persistently until she left for lunch. cana was the undisputed boss of or­ J udith later learned that Jack Ken­ ganized crime." nedy shared her opinion of Ted's ten­ After Hoover informed Kennedy dency to childishness; on several occa­ that his girl friend was also the mis­ sions he expressed to her his doubts tress of two Mafia gangsters, the that Ted would act responsibly enough President dropped her like a hot to­ to fulfill what he saw as the destiny mato. The story became public in 1975 for all the Kennedy brothers - the when the Senate Intelligence Com­ presidency." mittee was investigating the C.I.A. The Campbell business was for and discovered that both Roselli and Jack the beginning of a tawdry affair Giancana had been involved in a that lasted for two years and included C.I.A. attempt to assa ssinate Castro. almost daily telephone calls from the Before he could be called to testify White House to Mrs. Campbell and in fron t of a grand jury, Giancana some twenty trysts in the White House was murdered in his Oak Park, Illi­ while Jacqueline was traveling. When nois, home. Roselli wound up floating Jackie was gone, Jack habitually be­ in Biscayne Bay. haved in the White House like a Tom The President's romance with the cat. Mafia moll was discovered quite by We focus on this affair because accident. Had their affair continued, of the political consequences. For just and had Kennedy not been assassi­ as Judy was not Jack's only playmate, nated, the Mafia might have had a he was not hers. One day in 1962, J. direct line into the Whi te House and Edgar Hoover invited the President to been able to blackmail the President lunch and broke the bad news. Judith of the United States. Such is the po­ Campbell had been introduced to tential of the "harmless" little af­ Sam " Momo" Giancana, a Mafia don fairs of the Kennedys. from Chicago, by their mutual friend, No proof has ever come to light Frank Sinatra. The F.B.I. had a tap on that J.F.K. was ever compromised by Momo's telephone and discovered a Soviet agent, but how tough would it that Judy was making calls to the have been to put a modern-day Mata President in the White House from Hari next to the knight of Camelot? the home of a honcho in the Interna­ Time magazine for December 29, tional Pizza Conspiracy. She was also 1975, described how incredibly easy it " dating" Memo's lieutenant, Johnny was for any attractive woman to gain Roselli , during this period. access to the Kennedy bedroom:

84 AMERICAN OPINION "It was apparently not uncommon day her murderremains unsolved. Her -for some of Kennedy's closest :male diary was burned by James Angleton, friends to send willing young women who later became the C.I.A.'s chief of to the White House. One newspaper counterintelligence. Angleton was a columnist was once overheard telling close friend of Mary's ex-husband, a smashing brunette how to get into C.I.A . official Cord Meyer. the mansion with a note that he want­ A great deal more is now known ed to deliver to Kennedy. Kennedy about the personal misbehavior of later called the columnist back to John Kennedy in the White House confirm: 'I got your message - both and out of it. So much, and in such of them.' Secret Service agents would detail, that there cannot be the slight­ pass such women under presidential est doubt that if the American people instructions although they worried had been aware of even ten percent of about it. More frequent visitors, in­ it they would not elect another Ken­ cluding a number of airline steward­ nedy as national dog catcher. And esses, underwent full Secret Service yet ... . investigations." One J .F.K. affair definitely had Teddy Follows The Pattern security overtones. In 1976, it was re­ Now comes Senator Edward Moore vealed that Kennedy had carried on a Kennedy, a man very much in the tra­ two-year "romance" with Washington dition of his father Joe and his broth­ artist Mary Meyer, former wife of er John. high C.I.A. official Cord Meyer. The youngest of the Kennedy sons, While she was the President's mistress and the last of nine children, Teddy she kept a diary and also confided in Kennedy was more pampered and James Truitt, an executive at the spoiled than the rest. Parents, broth­ Washington Post, who kept notes. A ers, sisters, maids, and servants all ca­ limousine delivered Mary to the tered to the pudgy, cheerful, Edward White House on the average of two or Moore Kennedy. As an adolescent he three times a week. According to Truitt: became aware of the constant phi­ " My notes show that after one landeringof his father and brothers, such dinner the night of July 16, 1962, absorbing their philosophy that Mary and Jack went into the bedroom women were to be used. They were a and Mary told him, 'I have something challenge, dating was a contest, and if special for you.' She took out a snuff you made a conquest it earned you box with six marijuana cigarettes in­ braggingrights within the family. side and JFK said, 'Let's try it.' ... Since Jack was fourteen years old­ Mary said that at first JFKdidn't er than Teddy, and his father was seem to feel anything, but then began getting up in years by the time Teddy to laugh and told her: 'We're having.a became a teenager, J.F.K. became al­ White House conference on narcotics most a second father to Ted. Robert here in two weeks!' .. . . They Sherrill writes in The Last Kennedy: smoked three of the joints and then ". .. there was still one way for the JFK told her: 'No more . Suppose the weight of the old man's.hand to reach Russians did something now.' " through and shape, indirectly and to a .On October 12, 1964, less than a lesser extent, the mind of Teddy. This year .aft er J.F.K.'s death, Mary was by wayof.Jack, who was in later Meyer was assassinated on a sidewalk years identified by Teddy as 'like a near her house. Police said she'd been combination father and brother to slain by "a lone gunman," and to this me.' " One can almost picture young

JANUARY, 1980 85 Teddy as a high schooler being regaled that he and Amanda were running by Jack's tales of repeated sexual with the "in crowd ;" conquests. Teddy grew up in the same Then the late Arthur Egan discov­ immoral tradition. ered that Kennedy, Tunney, Amanda Burton Hirsh, author of Th e Edu­ Burden, and a never-identified fourth cation Of Edward Kennedy , relates female left Rockland, Maine, on that as a studentTeddy was girl crazy. September 2, 1972, for a four -day "College girls who went out with Ted­ love cruise aboard Kennedy's power dy," writes Hirsh, "reported back that sloop the Curragh, Egan went to Rock­ he made his expectations clear almost land to interview taxi drivers and , immediately." The youngest Kennedy others who had seen the foursome was about as subtle as a rapist. converge on the yacht. Although Mrs. Following Harvard, he went to the Burden's photo was identified as one University of Virginia law school of the two women on the boat, Ken­ where he shared a room with John nedy's office claimed that the two Tunney, son of the former heavy­ ladies cruising with the Senators were weight boxing champion. An attorney Kennedy sisters. It turned out that who attended law school with the one of the sisters, Eunice Shriver, had Kennedy-Tunney duo recalls that spent the weekend on the campaign young women were going in and out of trail with her husband, then Senator their room at all hours of the day and George McGovern's running mate for night. One night this parade so alarmed Vice President. Richard Drayne, who a suspicious neighbor that he called handles Senator Kennedy's press rela ­ the police reporting what he assumed tions, must have a black book with an was a call-girl ring. encyclopedia of ready alibies. As with brother Jack, marriage and When he attended Charles de a political career only increased Ted­ Gaulle's funeral in France the conti­ dy's compulsion. After Chappaquid­ nental papers reported that Teddy dick, his indiscretions began to hit the was nightclubbing to the wee hours press with the frequency of the base­ with an Italian princess. They printed ball box scores. Since Teddy is as rec­ a photo to prove it, but Drayne de­ ognizable as a McDonald's hamburger scribed the report as " preposterous." stand, and made little attempt to be Also among the long chain of women discreet, the society columns were linked to Kennedy is Page Lee Hufty, full of his escapades. In 1972, for ex­ daughter of a wealthy banker and ample, Teddy Kennedy was repeated­ Standard Oil heiress. Then he hit the ly linked with Amanda Burden, a headlines when he spent a weekend at wealthy and beautiful New York so­ Aspen, Colorado, with former captain cialite, daughter of CBS founder of the Olympic ski team Suzy Chafee. William Paley. Mrs. Burden was soon You undoubtedly remember Suzy in the process of divorcing "Liberal" from those repulsive Suzy Chapstick political activist Carter Burden, a commercials on television. former assistant to Robert Kennedy The most notorious woman linked and a great-great grandson of Com­ recently with this man who would be modore Cornelius Vanderbilt. Ken­ President is Margaret Trudeau, nedy not only hit the press for precip­ estranged wife of former Canadian itating the divorce in New York but Premier Pierre Trudeau. In fact Mar­ was also widely reportedto have spent garet is one of the reasons why Pierre a great deal of time in Hollywood is the form er Premier. A thirty-year­ where the Los Angeles Times recorded old quasi-hippy who uses drugs, Mrs.

JANUARY, 1980 87 Trudeau now finances her high living spoiled and egotistical man-child by writing kiss-and-tell memoirs. And must be sheer hell. Ted married Joan Margaret includes Teddy on the long Bennet while still in law school. A list of men with whom she has had great beauty, yet shy and convent ed­ affairs. "I'll always love him very, ucated, Joan came from a very re­ very deeply. I'll always be loyal to peo­ spectable, conservative family. Like ple who have touched me and who I brother Jack, Teddy considered mar­ have touched and who have loved me riage a necessity for his political and who I have loved," the Associated career. A law-school classmate of Press quoted Canada's former first Kennedy's told a reporter: "Teddy lady as saying. Margaret has been really never wanted to get married. called a ticking time bomb that could But politics was his real love, and as a destroy Teddy. Catholic politician he had to have a But Edward Kennedy has more proper Catholic wife and many, many brass than a boiler factory. Reporter children." Lester David provides some examples: Since marriage had not slowed the "At a banquetin New York City, he cavorting of any of the other Ken ­ met the beautiful wife of a corre­ nedy men, Ted undoubtedly felt that spondent for a popular magazine and he would be free to continue his play­ was so smitten he followed her to her boy life. But Joan was unlike the apartment. The young woman, at other Kennedy wives. A moral woman first flattered by the attention, fi­ from a conservative background she nally became angry and told the door­ took her marriage vows seriously and man not to allow him upstairs. expected Ted to do likewise. While "Ted and his wife Joan were hosts other Kennedy wives understood that to a large group of friends at a dinner they were supposed to look the other dance in Washington, each seated at way while their husbands engaged different tables. It grew late, and compulsively in adultery, Joan had most of the people had left, but Ted­ not been taught in the convent how to dy was still raring to go. He got up on deal with gross, flaunted, and unre­ the dance floor with the blonde mar­ pentant immorality. Gradually she ried daughter of one of the country's began to drink to ease the pain. most famous industrialists and per­ There were other problems associ­ formed a most suggestive dance. Joan ated with being a Kennedy. Joan did sat with her back to the floor, chat­ not like the hedonism and shallowness ting and trying to ignore the whole of the Washington political swirt thing. And the legend and the power of the "On a plane to New York from family made demands she was un­ Paris, Ted reportedly met a French willing to meet. Seeing the family up actress, .who introduced the man be­ close, she was doubtless repulsed. side her as her fiance. Ted ignored In January 1971, Joan Kennedy him and invited.her to a party that started seeing a psychiatrist three evening. Later, he called forher in the times a week. There were the usual lobby of her hotel, but she was accom­ carefully planted'reports that she had panied by her fiance. 'What's he do­ found "herself and everything would ing here?' Ted demanded. 'I'm not be fine. Then Joan was arrested and taking him to any party!' And off he pleaded guilty to drunken driving. went, leaving them staring after him." Her problems with alcohol had devel­ You can imagine that for a sensi­ oped in the wake of Chappaquiddick tive woman to be married to this .and grew worse as the stories of her

88 AMERICAN OPINION husband's compulsive adultery were my self-esteem altogether, but it was everywhere. To top it off, her twelve­ difficult to hear all the rumors. And I year-old son, Teddy Jr., was striken began thinking, well, maybe I'm just with bone cancer and lost a leg. Th e not attractive enough or attractive Washingtonian reports how pathetic any more, or whatever, and it was aw­ the drinking became: fully easy to then say, Well, after all, "Acquaintances saw this coming. you know, if that's the way it is, I One, a long-standing journalistic might as well have a drink. friend of the Kennedy family, re­ " It wasn 't my personality to make a members stopping at Kennedy's house lot of noise. Or to yell or scream or do in Hyannisport a couple of summers anything. My personality was more ago to talk and have a drink. As he was shy and retiring. And so rather than leaving Kennedy suggested that the get mad, or ask questions concerning visitor hadn't had a chance yet to say the rumors about Ted and his girl hello to Joan, and led him around to friends, or really stand up for myself the back of the house. Joan lay at all, it was easier for me to just go crumpled up, passed out in the back and have a few drinks . . . . I found seat of one of the Kennedy cars. 'She out that alcohol could sedate me. So I was a rag mop,' the friend observes. didn't care as much. And things didn't 'I've seen drunks often enough, but hurt so much." what I was looking at there was the When Joan went to Boston the result of a two- or three-day bender. I Kennedy publicists actually put out think Kennedy just wanted me to see releases to the press that the couple what he was up against. If something were " closer than ever ." Joan joined got printed, he was prepared for that." Alcoholics Anonymous and Ted is­ Oh yes, poor Ted. He wanted his sued statements about how proud and friends in the press to know that if he happy he was that she was now talking chases women - well, as you see, it's publicly about her problem. He tries Joan's fault. to play down the estrangement, but Rumors of divorce were widely cir­ Joan makes it clear that he must call culated, but it is doubtful that a devout before his occasional visits. It is now a Catholic like Joan could seek a di­ "his and hers" marriage. An honor­ vorce, and Teddy's political career able and loyal woman, she has made would be finished by such a move . So dutiful statements in support of Ted­ Joan and Teddy separated and she dy's candidacy, and has said she will moved to Boston. In an interview with live in the White House if he is elect­ Joan Braden published in McCalis of ed. This pledge is taken with a grain August 1978, Joan Kennedy made it of salt by most observers who describe clear that it was her husband's infi­ Joan as too fragile to withstand Ted­ delity that was at the heart of her dy's assaults without returning to the drinking. Mrs. Kennedy admitted: bottle. "People ask whether the newspaper And Time magazine of November stories about Ted and girls hurt my 5, 1979, gives us a clue as to what she feelings. Of course they hurt my really thinks of Ted: feelings. They went to the core of my ". . . though their separation is self-esteem. When one grows up feel­ supposed to be temporary, she some­ ing that maybe one is sort of special times seems unnerved by their infre­ and hoping that one's husband thinks quent reunions. One woman friend so, and then suddenly thinking maybe recalls a scene a few months ago when he doesn't .... Well, I didn't lose the Senator's car pulled up in front of

JANUARY. 1980 89 J oan 's apartment as she stood nearby. tion. While I was talking to people for 'Oh ******,' said Joan,' here he this article, it seemed as if alm ost comes. I'm getting out of here ,' and everybody in that world had anoth er she strode rapidly away." anecdote to offer. There is a pattern Here we have a man who has de­ to these anecdotes. The type of wom­ stroyed his own wife through constant anizing that Kennedy is associated betrayal, but who claims to be able to with is a series of short involvements solve all of the nation's problems if - if they can be called that - after we will just give him the power. Ken­ which he drop s the lady." nedy loves himself and he loves pow­ Like his father and brother Jack, er, but there are many who doubt he Teddy uses a woman and forgets her. loves our country any more than he His method of obtaining these "dates" loves his wife. If he is indeed capable tells us much about the man 's total of loving only himself, he will likely lack of character. Says Lessard: seek to use our country as a means to " Sometimes he hasn't even met the his own selfish ends, just as he used woman previou sly. She has been J oan and continues to use a myriad picked out by one of his cohorts as the adulterous playmates. type of woman who appeals to him , In the December 1979 issue of Th e and asked if she would like to have a Washington Monthly, Suzannah Les­ 'date' with the senator. The idea sard, a "Liberal" who is a staff writer evidently is lunch and a dalliance, for the N ew Yorker, details the over and out, on with the pressing touchy issue of Teddy's womanizing schedule. The picture does not ex­ in an article entitled " Kennedy' s clude longer relationships, but the Woman Problem - Women's Kennedy short-term pa ttern evidently is a deep Problem." Ms . Lessard writes: part of Kennedy's nature, as well as "Jack Kennedy's philandering was an image that Kennedy seems in some known to members of the press, but way to enjoy ...." carefully kept secret by them. It was It may add to his image with the passed on to the public only as an aura trendy folks, but in Middle America of dashing charisma. In contrast, the it means the man is twisted and im­ philandering of his brother Edward moral. Straight and moral people seems to have been quie tly taken for don't act the way Teddy does. He is a granted as a matter of indifference. cold, calculating, and totally corrupt Even Kennedy himself hardly both­ man. But, his supporters continue to ers to deny it .. .." Ms. Lessard con­ try to explain it away. The Chicago tinues: " ... the press, while refrain­ Tribune quotes a friend as dismissing ing from directly addressing the sub­ his constant and flagrant immorality ject (except for Chappaquiddick), in these terms: "He's just a fun-loving doesn 't suppress it either." Irishman with a roving eye and a Lessard believes Kennedy's com­ strange marriage." pulsive adultery reflects the shallow­ That is a libel of the Irish, among ness in his personality. She observes: whom loyalty, honor, and the laws of "Within the world of politics and God are respected. And the reason journalism Kennedy's womanizing is that his marriage is strange is that he widely known - to the many women is a compulsive lecher and liar . Unlike who have been approached themselves, her sisters-in-law, Joan Kennedy for example, and to reporters and would not or could not put up with it . others who have been around Ken­ We are about to discover, alas, wheth­ nedy and have seen the pattern in ac- er the American people will. • •

90 AMERICAN OPINION