JFK: 50 Years Later

This past week-end saw the 51st anniversary of the inauguration of John Fitzgerald Kennedy as President of the United States. Among the many reflections on his truncated life was an unusual one by columnist Jason Lewis that focused on his physical disabilities. According to Lewis, who relied on liberal biographer Richard Reeves for much of his research:

JFK was secretly hospitalized in dozens of instances, was given last rites three times, and was essentially kept alive "by complicated daily combinations of pills and injections." There were massive amounts of cortisome injections to fight off Addison's disease, a life-threatening ailment at the time, more steroids for a pre-war back condition that resulted in spinal fusions and botched surgeries (he was wearing a back brace the day he died); a chronic stomach condition, most likely ulcerative colitis, that kept Kennedy in agony and battling debilitating bouts of diarhhea, painkillers, hormones, stimulants, sleeping pills, and a cholesterol count somewhere around 400."

JFK endured all this, while his spin doctors worked with an obliging national press, to project the image of a vigorous, outdoors-loving, young knight in shining armor.

His daughter's denial notwithstanding, JFK's legacy as conservative or liberal is unclear. He enjoyed the company of Barry Goldwater, pushed supply-side tax cuts, hand-delivered a re-election check for $1,000 from his father to Richard Nixon, whom he considered brilliant, rejected quotas, demurred on civil rights issues, and was opposed to withdrawing US troops from Southeast Asia. That his little brother Teddy pushed the liberal agenda perhaps makes us tend to view JFK's ideology as leaning more in that direction than is warranted. Pragmatism was always a big consideration.

Personal escapades aside, a formidable strength of character may be JFK's most amazing legacy. To face his duties, day after day, despite great physical suffering, may make him more of a hero than even the portrait of a brave survivor of PT-109's sinking. Pity for the morale of all handicapped persons that JFK could not share the extent of his own physical limitations.