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Early Life

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Born Brookline, Mass. (83 Beals Street) May 29, 1917

With these few simple words, handwritten on a notecard, Rose Kennedy recorded the birth of her second son – a handsome blue-eyed boy who, although named after his maternal grandfather, would become known as ‘Jack’.

The family’s fortunes had continued to improve in the three years since the Fitzgerald-Kennedy marriage. By the time of Jack’s birth, they lived a comfortable upper-middle-class life in the Boston suburb of Brookline. Over the years, Joe would successfully try his hand at a number of businesses, including stock market speculation, movie producing, and liquor importation. By 1927, the family had moved to the exclusive suburb of Riverdale, New York.

The Kennedy family home in Brookline

Despite the privileged circumstances of his birth, Jack was unlucky in his health. A sickly child, he suffered from numerous childhood illnesses, including whooping cough, chicken pox, and measles. And then, three months shy of his third birthday, Jack contracted a virulent strain of scarlet fever – a potentially deadly disease in these days prior to the discovery of penicillin. For a time, it appeared that Jack would succumb to the illness, but after a month in hospital, he began to recover. He would continue to struggle with ill-health for the rest of his life.

Despite spending much of his childhood confined to a hospital bed or cooped up in a sanatorium, Jack did manage to attend school. In 1931, after a brief and unhappy stint at the Catholic Canterbury High School, the fourteen-year-old boy enrolled at Choate, an exclusive Episcopalian boarding school in Connecticut.

At Choate, Jack excelled socially and, to a lesser extent, academically. He made friends easily, and despite being a disruptive influence in class, scored relatively well in tests. His schoolmasters, however, were exasperated by his unwillingness to take instruction, resulting in his near expulsion on at least one occasion.

Before leaving Choate in 1935 (graduating 65^th out of his class of 110), Jack was interviewed by a school psychologist about his obstreperous behaviour. During this conversation, the seventeen-year-old Jack revealed, perhaps inadvertently, feelings of inadequacy: ‘If my brother were not so efficient, it would be easier for me to be efficient,’ he said, ‘he does it much better than I do.’

The brother referred to here is Joseph Junior, Jack’s elder brother. Sharing his father’s outlook and disposition, and being more robust than his sibling, Joe Jr had always been Joe Sr’s favoured son, thus bearing the weight of his family’s considerable expectations. In fact, not long after Joe Jr’s birth, Honey Fitz had declared (only slightly facetiously) that his parents had ‘already decided that he is going to Harvard, where he will play on the football and baseball teams and incidentally take all the scholastic honours. Then he is going to be a captain of industry until it’s time for him to be President for two or three terms. Further than that has not been decided.’

The Kennedy family, 1931

(L-R: Robert, Jack, Eunice, Jean, Joe Sr, Rose, Patricia, Kathleen, Joe Jr, Rosemary)

Perhaps due to the poor state of his health, no such plans were made for Jack. And so, although the Kennedy clan would eventually swell to nine children, Joe Jr was the sibling with whom Jack felt he had to compete – indeed, this atmosphere of fraternal competitiveness would ultimately dictate much of the direction of Jack’s entire life.

The Harvard Years

Upon leaving Choate, Jack embarked on the first of numerous European visits in his lifetime. Travelling with his father, he set sail for England to study for a year at the London School of Economics (LSE). By now, Joe Sr’s wealth had increased dramatically, and although rumours persisted that not all the Kennedy fortune had been acquired entirely legitimately, the family’s social standing and influence had nonetheless improved significantly. A sojourn at the LSE seemed like an ideal way to continue the young man’s cultivation.

However, in late July, not long after arriving, Jack fell seriously ill, and despite a lengthy hospital stay and numerous tests, a definitive diagnosis was not possible. He returned to the United States in mid-October when his mystery illness began to improve.

Emerging from the shadows of his father and brother (both of whom attended Harvard), Jack chose to study at Princeton University. His Princeton career did not last long though – his recurring, and as yet undiagnosed, illness relapsed just a month into his studies, forcing him to withdraw.

In 1936, after much cajoling from his father, Jack agreed to apply to Harvard. True enough, his father’s advice proved sound when, just three days after submitting his application, he received a notice of acceptance from the alma mater of so many family members. And so, despite significant resistance on his part, and like so many other aspects of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s life, he found himself following a path which had been charted by his domineering father.

At Harvard, where he studied for a Bachelor of Science in International Affairs, Jack’s academic record was uninspiring. Despite displaying a keen intelligence, his grades were far from stellar. Although he loved competitive sport, his less-than-robust physicality meant that he never matched his older brother’s achievements on the football field. By all accounts, Jack showed little interest in campus politics, preferring instead to leave all such politicking to Joe Jr, who was two years ahead of him. Indeed, it seems Jack only came into his own in his final two years – a period which coincided, rather tellingly, with his brother’s graduation. During this time, he became more involved in his studies and was increasingly fascinated by international affairs.

Taking a semester off from his studies, Jack travelled to Europe during the winter of 1938 and the spring and summer of 1939. By now, Joe Sr had himself become involved in politics, being appointed as Ambassador to Great Britain by President Roosevelt in December 1937 – a position which provided Jack with a unique vantage point from which to view the unfolding European crisis, and the increasing aggression of Nazi Germany. In the event, Jack was present in the visitors’ gallery of the House of Commons when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain took to the floor to explain his government’s decision to declare war on Germany.

Ambassador and Mrs Kennedy, 1940

The main result of Jack’s European vacations was his final year thesis, which examined Britain’s policy of Appeasement in the face of Nazi aggression. This 148-page document, entitled Appeasement in Munich, was his most serious academic effort. Its objective was not to apportion blame for the failure of Appeasement, but rather to understand why Britain had found itself, once again, on the verge of war.

Meanwhile, debate raged at home about the relative merits of a possible US intervention in the worsening European conflict. Indeed, so topical was this issue, Appeasement in Munich was published as a book, called Why England Slept, in 1940. The publication posted impressive sales figures, selling more than 80,000 copies in the US and the UK. The success of his first foray into authorship highlighted, not for the last time, Jack’s ability to tap into the zeitgeist. And so, despite a lacklustre start to his college career, his profile was in the ascendancy by the time he graduated in 1940.