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You tempt all the Gods of the world by diving into the Court of St James’s as an expert … if you don’t realize that soon enough, you are going to be hurt as you were never hurt in your life.

Boake Carter, friend of Joe Kennedy1

In the fall of 1937, Joe Kennedy entered the Oval Office with Jimmy Roosevelt, the son of the President and one of his closest friends.

‘Joe, would you mind taking your pants down?’

Joe looked at the President, incredulous. ‘We couldn’t believe our ears,’ recalled the President’s son, who had arranged the meeting.

‘Did you just say what I think you said?’ asked Kennedy.

The President replied, ‘Yes, indeed.’

James Roosevelt recalled that ‘Joe Kennedy undid his suspenders and dropped his pants and stood there in his shorts, looking silly and embarrassed.’ The President told Kennedy, ‘Someone who saw you in a bathing suit once told me something I now know to be true. Joe, just look at your legs. You are just about the most bow-legged man I have ever seen. Don’t you know that the ambassador to the Court of St James’s has to go through an induction ceremony in which he wears knee britches and silk stockings? Can you imagine how he’ll look? When photos of our new ambassador appear all over the world, we’ll be a laughing stock. You’re just not right for the job, Joe.’2

Having been chairman of the SEC and later of the Maritime Commission, Joe had been angling for the position of Secretary of the Treasury. When it was made clear by FDR that he was not in the running, he set his mind on Ambassador to the Court of St James’s, egged on by Rose. Kennedy, as an Irish-American, had no great love for England, but with Hitler’s rise and Mussolini’s march through Ethiopia it was now one of the most important diplomatic posts in the world.