An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963 (Morland Dynasty) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

" An Unfinished Life" is Robert Dallek's superb biography of John F. Kennedy. Dallek carries JFK's story from his ancestry through to his post-mortem assessment. Through the course of this thorough biography, he follows two consistent themes, Kennedy's health and womanizing.

The story is a fascinating one. Beginning with his Boston Irish politician grandfathers, Patrick Kennedy and John F., Honey Fitz, Fitzgerald, the reader is led to understand how JFK was guided into his political career. The smaller, sickly brother of heir apparent Joe, Jr., John's education and naval service were directed by his overbearing and ambitious father Ambassador, Joseph P. Kennedy. After graduation from Choate, JFK pursued studies at the London School of Economics, Princeton, Stanford and Harvard. It was at Choate that his health became a lifelong problem, primarily centered on adrenal gland insufficiency, gastrointestinal disorders, and back pain. It was also at Choate that JFK began a lifelong practice of womanizing.

Both of Kennedy's afflictions influenced his naval service. His cavorting with a suspected NAZI spy resulted in his transfer out of Naval Intelligence and into a desk job. Through family and political influence, his medical history was overlooked when transferring to the PT service. It was as commander of PT 109 that he achieved military glory. While on a night patrol a Japanese destroyer sideswiped his boat, setting up a JFK's heroic rescue of a burned crewman and strenuous efforts to avoid capture by the enemy and achieve rescue by American forces. Impressions that this incident started his back problems are shown to be incorrect because they were pre-existing conditions and by his survival efforts and his later command of another boat before deteriorating health sent him back to the states and discharge.

Back in civilian life after Joe, Jr. had been killed, Joe, Sr. arranged for an open U.S. House seat that John won. Through this and his Senate career, during which he amassed a lackluster record, John was often absent due to health problems. Resentment over his failure to vote on the censure motion against his friend, Joseph McCarthy would follow him for the rest of his life.

His bid for the 1956 vice-presidential nomination was an important step in making JFK a national figure. After angling for Stevenson's endorsement, Team Kennedy launched into a floor fight when Adlai turned the decision over to the convention. Failure engendered a determination to win the presidential nomination in 1960.

The planning for the 1960 campaign began at Hyannisport and ended there on election night. Dallek does an excellent job of guiding the reader through the primaries, principally Wisconsin and West Virginia, the convention maneuvers, the debates with Nixon and the assessment of how and why Kennedy won.

Upon moving into the White House, JFK was confronted with a series of crises starting with the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, followed by the unsettling Vienna summit with Khrushchev, the Berlin Missile Crisis, the rising Civil Rights movement and the over through of President Diem in South Vietnam. One gets the sense that events controlled Kennedy and that he responded to them, on the whole, rather well. The Democratic political disunity in Texas that drew him to his death is explained as well as the step by step events culminating in the president's assassination.

This book gives the reader a lot of information and many things to think about. I believe that it is a fairly objective treatment of its subject, showing his strengths while not overlooking his weaknesses. I arrived at a new appreciation of Kennedy, both positively and negatively. It has whetted my appetite to learn more about him. A book that accomplishes that merits a strong endorsement.

Unlike any other biography of U.S. President J. F. Kennedy 'An Unfinished Life' sheds new light on the life of one of America's most interesting political figure of the 1960's. Drawing on previously undisclosed medical records of JFK, Robert Dallek is in a position to provide the reader with new aspects about Kennedy's life. Dallek clearly shows the many challenges Kennedy faced during his presidency. Although many of these were politcal in nature, the toughest (and also the most enduring) challenge to Kennedy was his chronic health problems.

The consideration of the Kennedy's medical history gave Dallek the opportunity to set his foot on in the puzzle of Kennedy's life.

One might claim a biography considering medical records and the like runs the risk of adopting a style which is characteristic for tabloid newspapers, but Dallek easily fends off any such criticism. Throughout its more 600+ pages the book remains commited to a high-level standard of a serious biographical investigation.

For those who are intersted in the life of JFK and do not mind a comprehensive poltical analysis, this book may be of certain interest.