Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated:
1
00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:08,000
They escaped
2
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:11,000
famine and death in Ireland
3
00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:14,000
to begin a new life in
Boston, Massachusetts.
4
00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:21,000
A life of wealth, privilege, and power.
5
00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:24,000
My fellow citizens of the world...
6
00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:26,000
From Irish peasantry
7
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:28,000
to American royalty...
8
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,000
These are the Kennedys.
9
00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,000
Their relationships with each other
10
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:37,000
have impacted both america and the world.
11
00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:44,000
With triumph and glory
12
00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:46,000
comes scandal...
13
00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:47,000
And tragedy.
14
00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,000
Something has happened here.
15
00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:53,000
From one generation to the next -
16
00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:56,000
the Kennedys are more than a family.
17
00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:02,000
They are the great American dynasty.
18
00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,000
America's new ambassador to britain,
19
00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:57,000
Joseph p. Kennedy,
20
00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:59,000
faces a battery of cameras and cameramen
21
00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:01,000
as he's about to depart
for St. James' court.
22
00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:06,000
When president Roosevelt
23
00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:10,000
sends Joseph p. Kennedy
in 1938 across the Atlantic
24
00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:13,000
to be the ambassador
to the United Kingdom,
25
00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,000
he was a star, a celebrity.
26
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:19,000
He had run a studio in Hollywood,
27
00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:23,000
and he was already a
success in business and politics.
28
00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:26,000
He was among the top
twenty richest men in america.
29
00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,000
It was big news.
30
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:32,000
The rise of Joseph Kennedy
31
00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:33,000
is as remarkable
32
00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:36,000
as it is seemingly unstoppable.
33
00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:39,000
Joe Kennedy came from an Irish family
34
00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:42,000
and they worked their way
from the bottom to the top.
35
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:44,000
They were outsiders.
36
00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:47,000
His grandparents came
37
00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,000
during the great potato
famine of the 1840s to Boston.
38
00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:53,000
So, the family is just
two generations removed
39
00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:55,000
from the peasantry of Ireland.
40
00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:56,000
Mr. Joseph Kennedy,
41
00:02:57,000 --> 00:02:58,000
the American ambassador,
42
00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,000
left for Buckingham Palace
43
00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:01,000
to present his credentials to the king.
44
00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:03,000
Having an Irish catholic
45
00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:04,000
in that job
46
00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,000
it was just like the perfect victory
47
00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,000
in the struggle of my grandfather
48
00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:13,000
to feel accepted.
49
00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:16,000
And as for me, I'm delighted to be here.
50
00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:20,000
You cannot underestimate
51
00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:24,000
Joseph Kennedy's ambition in 1938.
52
00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:26,000
My grandfather had
53
00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:30,000
ambitions, right, to be president himself.
54
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:32,000
And what do you think
55
00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:34,000
he finds all england interested in?
56
00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:37,000
What about the family Mr. Kennedy?
57
00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:38,000
Joseph and Rose Kennedy
58
00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:41,000
have nine children.
59
00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:45,000
From the oldest, Joseph junior...
60
00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,000
To the youngest, Ted.
61
00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:50,000
The Kennedys
62
00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:51,000
aren't just any family -
63
00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:54,000
they're a family on a mission.
64
00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:56,000
Kennedys to the left of him,
65
00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:57,000
Kennedys to the right of him
66
00:03:57,000 --> 00:03:59,000
so england's cameramen work overtime
67
00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:00,000
to picture america's
new ambassador to britain
68
00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:02,000
with his nine children.
69
00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:04,000
They lined up
70
00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,000
before the newsreel cameras...
71
00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:07,000
With him come Joseph Jr.
72
00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:09,000
Aged 22, and John aged 21.
73
00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:11,000
Smiled...
74
00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:13,000
Everybody had something to say.
75
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,000
This is my first trip to
Europe and I'm very excited.
76
00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:18,000
I couldn't even sleep last night.
77
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:20,000
There's all these quotes
78
00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:21,000
from newspapers saying
79
00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:23,000
'got eleven ambassadors
80
00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:25,000
for the price of one' or something.
81
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:26,000
Pets corner at the London zoo
82
00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:28,000
is opened by the masters Kennedy
83
00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:29,000
who quickly get on sympathetic terms
84
00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:31,000
with the animals.
85
00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:33,000
So, the whole family
86
00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,000
was accepted with a lot of buzz.
87
00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:38,000
The Kennedys understand
88
00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:41,000
before any other American family
89
00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:42,000
the role of glamor.
90
00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:45,000
And until now, glamor is something
91
00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:48,000
that's really the province of Hollywood.
92
00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:50,000
The Kennedys pull it over
93
00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:51,000
into the province of politics
94
00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:54,000
really for the first time in a modern way
95
00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:55,000
and as a result
96
00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:57,000
everybody is in love with this family.
97
00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,000
The Kennedy family
98
00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:05,000
really represented america on the rise.
99
00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:06,000
An immigrant country,
100
00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:09,000
where anybody could get ahead
101
00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:10,000
if they were smart enough,
102
00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:11,000
if they were ambitious enough -
103
00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,000
people would look at the Kennedys
104
00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:15,000
and they would see the American dream.
105
00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,000
There's a moment
106
00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:20,000
when Joe and Rose, his beautiful wife,
107
00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:22,000
are at windsor castle
with the king and queen
108
00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:24,000
and Joe says
109
00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:26,000
'Rose, we've come a hell of
a long way from east Boston'.
110
00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:34,000
Joseph Kennedy grew up in a Boston
111
00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:36,000
in which protestant patricians
112
00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:37,000
looked down on the Irish.
113
00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:39,000
So, he was constantly
114
00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:42,000
fighting those prejudices,
aware of those prejudices.
115
00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:46,000
Our family were immigrants,
116
00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:48,000
and my grandmother used to tell stories
117
00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:50,000
about how she would
pass signs as a little girl,
118
00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:53,000
saying, 'no Irish need apply.'
119
00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:54,000
and you should never underestimate
120
00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:56,000
the 'I'll show you' motive in history.
121
00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:59,000
Joe Kennedy's insecurity
122
00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:01,000
about being an Irish catholic
123
00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:03,000
fed his drive and his ambition,
124
00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:06,000
and he was going to prove to people
125
00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:09,000
that he was as good as
they thought that he wasn't.
126
00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:13,000
Joe was
127
00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:17,000
a marvelous, a master businessman,
128
00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:19,000
dealmaker, stock manipulator.
129
00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:23,000
My mother, in honor of his birthday,
130
00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:25,000
made this wonderful flag of a bear,
131
00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:28,000
because he was the bear of wall street.
132
00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:30,000
He shorted wall street, you know.
133
00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,000
He was such a force.
134
00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:34,000
He's a rogue, he's a little dodgy.
135
00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:35,000
Cut!
136
00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:36,000
He's a bit of a bad boy
137
00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:38,000
and he's terrifically successful.
138
00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:39,000
Cut!
139
00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,000
Joseph Kennedy tells his children,
140
00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:46,000
and tells Rose, over
and over, and over again,
141
00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:48,000
'i am making all this money,
142
00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:50,000
'so my children don't have to,
143
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:55,000
so, my boys and my girls
can go into public service.'
144
00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:00,000
thank you very much
for asking me to speak.
145
00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:03,000
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
146
00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:04,000
is an astute matriarch
147
00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:07,000
and equally as ambitious for her children.
148
00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:09,000
Rose Kennedy
149
00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,000
had an extraordinarily-refined
political mind,
150
00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:13,000
which is not surprising.
151
00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:15,000
She came from a political family
152
00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:17,000
and her father was the mayor of Boston.
153
00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:19,000
You want me to talk?
154
00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:21,000
Where do I... I talk in here?
155
00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:25,000
The dinner table
156
00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:27,000
was always as much about current events
157
00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:28,000
as it was about food.
158
00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:31,000
They had to be able to explain
159
00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:33,000
what was going on in the world
160
00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:36,000
and they had to be able
to do it in an articulate way.
161
00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:39,000
I kid you not,
162
00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:41,000
my grandmother Rose
would have famous quotations
163
00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:44,000
pinned to her sweaters,
164
00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:46,000
and if the conversation ever lagged,
165
00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:49,000
she'd start memorizing
her famous quotations
166
00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:51,000
because she said, "you never know.
167
00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,000
"Somebody might ask to give you a speech,
168
00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:54,000
and you'd have to say
something appropriate."
169
00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:00,000
Rose Kennedy is deeply religious,
170
00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:02,000
they are one of the most
prominent catholic families,
171
00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:04,000
they go to the pope's coronation,
172
00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:06,000
most of that is coming from Rose.
173
00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:10,000
She trained her children
174
00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:11,000
how to be good catholics
175
00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:14,000
and she trained her sons to be leaders,
176
00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,000
her daughters to raise
lots of catholic children.
177
00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:22,000
Joe Kennedy was phenomenally ambitious
178
00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:23,000
to be rich.
179
00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:25,000
He'd achieved that.
180
00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:27,000
He has a beautiful family.
181
00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:29,000
And he's america's representative
182
00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:30,000
to the court of St. James.
183
00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,000
But he wanted to be
president of the United States.
184
00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:40,000
As war clouds gather over Europe,
185
00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:41,000
a shadow is cast
186
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:44,000
over Joseph p. Kennedy's dreams.
187
00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:47,000
What's clear,
188
00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:49,000
is that Joseph p. Kennedy
189
00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:52,000
ends up on the wrong side of history,
190
00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:54,000
in a dramatic way...
191
00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:06,000
I've been asked
192
00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:08,000
by the newspapermen this afternoon
193
00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:12,000
what the chances were of appeasement.
194
00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:14,000
I said I didn't know what they were.
195
00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:15,000
But they certainly were worth trying.
196
00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:19,000
As america's ambassador in London,
197
00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:22,000
Joseph Kennedy is desperate to prevent war
198
00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:27,000
between Great Britain and Nazi Germany.
199
00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:28,000
He's concerned that
if the British go to war
200
00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:30,000
the United States will go to war.
201
00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:35,000
He believes that war is
ruinous to a country's finances.
202
00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:39,000
Joe Kennedy talked about
203
00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:41,000
how the best role for
america was to remain neutral
204
00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:43,000
and the best role in terms of the Nazis
205
00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:45,000
was to appease them, work with them
206
00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:47,000
and somehow not have
to go to war against them.
207
00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:50,000
He believed
208
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:51,000
that he could make a deal with Hitler
209
00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:54,000
and that Hitler was a rational politician
210
00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:55,000
and statesman.
211
00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:58,000
And in this he was very, very, very wrong.
212
00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,000
He never saw
213
00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:05,000
the moral challenge that Hitler posed.
214
00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:12,000
I have to tell you now;
215
00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:15,000
this country is at war with Germany.
216
00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:19,000
Once war broke out,
217
00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:21,000
ambassador Kennedy wailed,
'it's the end of everything!'
218
00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:28,000
Kennedy is convinced
219
00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:31,000
the Hitler war machine is unstoppable.
220
00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:34,000
England will simply be devoured.
221
00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:38,000
Almost as soon as britain goes to war,
222
00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:39,000
Joe decides
223
00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:41,000
that he's going to send the children home.
224
00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:44,000
The US liner Washington brings home
225
00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:45,000
the biggest group of refugees.
226
00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:47,000
Among returning notables
227
00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:50,000
are Mrs. Joseph p. Kennedy and children.
228
00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:51,000
My wife and I
229
00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:54,000
have given nine hostages to fortune.
230
00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:57,000
Our children and your children
231
00:10:57,000 --> 00:10:59,000
are more important
232
00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:01,000
than anything else in the world.
233
00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:03,000
Joseph is called a coward
234
00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:07,000
for his decision to send his family home.
235
00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:09,000
For his opposition to the war,
236
00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,000
he is branded a Nazi sympathizer.
237
00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:15,000
Roosevelt privately
called Kennedy a fascist.
238
00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:18,000
Once britain was in war,
239
00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:19,000
fighting back
240
00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:21,000
and Joe was still trying to appease,
241
00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:23,000
he was too outspoken
242
00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:25,000
and he was called back to Washington.
243
00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:29,000
President Roosevelt
did not want to appease,
244
00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:31,000
Roosevelt wanted to fight.
245
00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:34,000
And the last thing that fdr needed
246
00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:36,000
was an appeaser as
ambassador to Great Britain.
247
00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:39,000
I've nothing to say until
I've seen the president.
248
00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:40,000
So, he was finished.
249
00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:46,000
Joseph Kennedy
250
00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:49,000
goes from being a legitimate powerbroker
251
00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:51,000
in the United States,
252
00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:53,000
and a player in international politics,
253
00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:55,000
to being a pariah.
254
00:11:57,000 --> 00:11:58,000
When he crashed and burned
255
00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:00,000
as ambassador to Great Britain,
256
00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:03,000
that not only cost him his job,
257
00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:04,000
it cost him his notion
258
00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:06,000
that he could become president
259
00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:08,000
and almost from the moment he realized
260
00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:09,000
that he couldn't do it,
261
00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:11,000
the aspiration was his kids would do it.
262
00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:13,000
Joseph passes his ambitions
263
00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:16,000
on to Joe junior,
264
00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:19,000
Kathleen - known as kick -
265
00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:20,000
and Jack.
266
00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:25,000
He calls them his "golden trio."
267
00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:29,000
His eldest son, Joe junior,
268
00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:32,000
was not only handsome
but also athletically gifted,
269
00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:35,000
he was the heir apparent.
270
00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:38,000
Joe junior's father and mother believed
271
00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:40,000
that he would be the one
272
00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:43,000
to carry the standard for the family.
273
00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:46,000
His younger son Jack
274
00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:49,000
is overshadowed by Joe junior
275
00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:50,000
in his father's mind,
276
00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:53,000
but I think having a bit lower expectation
277
00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:56,000
gave Jack a chance to be himself.
278
00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:58,000
It gave him a kind of freedom to be a kid
279
00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:00,000
in a way that I think
would have been tougher
280
00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:02,000
for Joe junior.
281
00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:05,000
Jack and Kathleen were the closest,
282
00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:08,000
they were both trouble makers.
283
00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:09,000
They were both fun,
284
00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:11,000
mischievous,
285
00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:12,000
and they had each other's backs.
286
00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:16,000
She was very popular among boys
287
00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:18,000
and it was because she was vivacious
288
00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:20,000
and she was charming and she was funny.
289
00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:23,000
She spoke back and she had opinions
290
00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:25,000
and she did sort of stand out.
291
00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:30,000
As america enters the war,
292
00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:33,000
Joseph seizes an opportunity
293
00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,000
to restore the Kennedy name.
294
00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:39,000
Once the United States was in war,
295
00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:41,000
he was smart enough to know
there was no stopping them,
296
00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:42,000
they were going to go in.
297
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:44,000
That was the patriotic thing to do.
298
00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:46,000
Sure enough Joe Kennedy helped them.
299
00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:53,000
Air cadet Joseph p Kennedy junior
300
00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:55,000
reports for preliminary training...
301
00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:57,000
Joe Kennedy was the oldest son
302
00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:00,000
and therefore the most
beholden to please dad.
303
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:02,000
And Joe Kennedy wanted Joe junior
304
00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:04,000
to be president of the United States.
305
00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:06,000
Now it is a front seat
306
00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:07,000
in america's defense for a young man
307
00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:09,000
who saw what happened over there.
308
00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:14,000
Unlike Joe, Jack was not dutiful,
309
00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:16,000
he had a little bit of
a rebellious streak,
310
00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:19,000
gallivanting around, chasing girls.
311
00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:22,000
He was also sick a lot.
312
00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:26,000
When Jack is two years old
313
00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:29,000
he contracts Scarlet fever
314
00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:31,000
and he is basically sick
for the rest of his life:
315
00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:36,000
Fallen arches, bad knees, chronic colds.
316
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:39,000
You name it, he had it.
317
00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:43,000
Jack gets an office job
318
00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:45,000
in the Navy intelligence service
319
00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:47,000
because Jack is disabled
320
00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:50,000
in any number of ways.
321
00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:52,000
It is during that office job
322
00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:55,000
that he takes up with a woman.
323
00:14:58,000 --> 00:14:59,000
She's a Danish journalist
324
00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:02,000
called inga arvad.
325
00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,000
They have this very intense affair
326
00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:08,000
and the problem was that the FBI
327
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:11,000
were recording some of
these romantic sessions.
328
00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:14,000
Inga arvad was a great beauty,
329
00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:17,000
but she was allegedly a German spy
330
00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:19,000
and that made it a bit awkward.
331
00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:23,000
Jack Kennedy is in naval intelligence.
332
00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,000
Is Nazi intelligence
trying to take advantage
333
00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:29,000
of the Kennedys to learn secrets?
334
00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:33,000
The FBI decides to let Joseph Kennedy know
335
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:36,000
what Jack was up to with inga arvad.
336
00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:37,000
He thought that,
337
00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:40,000
in his son's best interests
338
00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:42,000
it was important for
him to go to a war zone,
339
00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:44,000
to wind this thing up.
340
00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:50,000
Realizing Jack's womanizing
341
00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:53,000
could further damage the family name,
342
00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:54,000
Joseph intervenes
343
00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:56,000
to get him posted to the south pacific.
344
00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:02,000
With Joe junior training
as a bomber pilot,
345
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:06,000
two of his "golden trio"
are now in the line of fire.
346
00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:23,000
Joe and Rose raised their children
347
00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:27,000
with the sense that they were superhuman,
348
00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:29,000
invulnerable, golden children.
349
00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:32,000
And they felt that nothing was ever
350
00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:34,000
going to happen to them.
351
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:37,000
But the Kennedys
352
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:39,000
are harboring a painful family secret.
353
00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:43,000
From a young age,
354
00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:46,000
Rosemary, the eldest Kennedy daughter,
355
00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:48,000
was a bit slow.
356
00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:50,000
She was diagnosed
357
00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:51,000
with a learning disability
358
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:53,000
at the age of about six or seven.
359
00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:56,000
It's the moment when
360
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,000
as a debutante she is presented at court,
361
00:16:58,000 --> 00:16:59,000
and this year that thrill was experienced
362
00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:00,000
by miss Rosemary Kennedy,
363
00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:02,000
daughter of the American ambassador.
364
00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:04,000
Her mother decides
365
00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:06,000
that she should have
time at home with tutors
366
00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,000
to help teach her how try to keep up
367
00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:11,000
with the other children in
a way that's very modern.
368
00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:14,000
The standard practice
369
00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:16,000
was that they would
be sent to an institution.
370
00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:18,000
And grandpa and grandma
said, we're not going to do that,
371
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:20,000
we're going to keep Rosemary at home,
372
00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:24,000
we're going to raise her
with her other siblings.
373
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:28,000
As she hit puberty,
374
00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:32,000
Rosemary goes to being somebody
375
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,000
who is quite uncontrollable,
376
00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:36,000
there are sexual urges...
377
00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:38,000
And she is found with men.
378
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:42,000
She's so vulnerable.
379
00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:45,000
It would be very easy for
men to take advantage of her.
380
00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:48,000
Mr Kennedy, in particular,
381
00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:49,000
was afraid she would get pregnant
382
00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:51,000
or she'd get a disease
383
00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:53,000
and what were they to do.
384
00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:56,000
They had tried together,
385
00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:59,000
to find every conceivable cure
386
00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:01,000
for Rosemary.
387
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:03,000
None of them worked.
388
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:06,000
Joe Kennedy
389
00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:07,000
read about this brand-new procedure
390
00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:09,000
called the pre-frontal lobotomy.
391
00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:11,000
Only done on people
392
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:13,000
with the most serious
physical and mental conditions.
393
00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:16,000
Never on somebody like Rosemary.
394
00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:19,000
Joe was convinced
395
00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:22,000
Rosemary's lobotomy
would somehow fix things
396
00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:24,000
and then miraculously she would become
397
00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,000
a perfect Kennedy like
all the other Kennedys.
398
00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:31,000
In the Kennedy family,
399
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:34,000
Joe made the serious decisions.
400
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:39,000
And Rose let him do that.
401
00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:41,000
And so,
402
00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:43,000
without consulting Rosemary's mother...
403
00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:44,000
Or Rosemary herself,
404
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,000
he decides that this is the procedure
405
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,000
that she should have done.
406
00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:51,000
The surgeon
407
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:53,000
gives the patient a local.
408
00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:57,000
And then begins to cut
into the prefrontal lobe.
409
00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:03,000
The surgeon asks the patient to sing,
410
00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:05,000
and the surgeon continues cutting
411
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:07,000
as long as the patient sings.
412
00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:13,000
Rosemary is a very dutiful daughter.
413
00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:17,000
And she sings and she sings and she sings.
414
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:21,000
And when she stops singing,
415
00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:24,000
she has the mental age of a five-year-old.
416
00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:27,000
By the end of the procedure
417
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:29,000
she has basically lost the ability to talk
418
00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:32,000
and it's, it's clear that this
has gone terribly wrong.
419
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:36,000
And Rosemary is then institutionalized
420
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:40,000
from 1941 until she passes, in 2005.
421
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:50,000
I think that experience
422
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:52,000
of having a sister
423
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:55,000
who suffered from
intellectual disabilities,
424
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:59,000
ended up having a ripple effect
425
00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:00,000
on our family
426
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:05,000
and years later my aunt
eunice played a critical role
427
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:08,000
in recognizing the rights of people
428
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:12,000
who have intellectual disabilities.
429
00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:20,000
This is the first tragedy
430
00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:23,000
to befall the Kennedy family.
431
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:27,000
Rose is overwhelmed
432
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:30,000
by what happened to their daughter.
433
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:32,000
But also overwhelmed
434
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:35,000
by the fact that her second son, Jack,
435
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:37,000
who is physically very weak,
436
00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:39,000
enlists for what is probably
437
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:44,000
the most physically
difficult job in the Navy.
438
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:51,000
He is in charge of pt-109,
439
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:55,000
which is a small patrol torpedo boat
440
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:57,000
in the pacific theater.
441
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:03,000
The pt boat is a new type of craft
442
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:04,000
to carry torpedoes
443
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:07,000
to strike the enemy below the belt.
444
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:13,000
Jack has a terrible, terrible back.
445
00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:17,000
And to serve in a pt boat is only going
446
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:19,000
to exacerbate every problem that he's got.
447
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:23,000
Jack Kennedy's pt boat
448
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:25,000
was on patrol
449
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:27,000
on a moonless dark night.
450
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,000
So, they don't see
451
00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:35,000
this giant Japanese ship
452
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:37,000
coming straight at them.
453
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:44,000
It basically slices jfk's boat in half.
454
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:50,000
Jack is thrown to the bulkhead
455
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:52,000
injuring his back.
456
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:57,000
Two of his crew are gone,
457
00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:00,000
and they are surrounded
by burning in the water.
458
00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:12,000
Those back at the base
459
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:14,000
presume the worst.
460
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,000
They presume that there are no survivors
461
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:17,000
and they hold
462
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:19,000
a religious service, a mass,
463
00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:21,000
for Kennedy and his crew.
464
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:24,000
Joe Kennedy gets a telegram
465
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:27,000
that his son is missing
and just sits on the news.
466
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:28,000
He doesn't tell his family.
467
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,000
He doesn't want to scare them.
468
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:34,000
When tragedy struck the Kennedy family,
469
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:37,000
Joe senior didn't share
it with other members,
470
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:41,000
like his wife, the mother of his children.
471
00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:45,000
And so, he lives with
this kind of private agony,
472
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:47,000
wondering whether his second son is dead.
473
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,000
His boat cut in half
474
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:05,000
by a Japanese destroyer
in the south pacific,
475
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:11,000
26-year-old lieutenant
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
476
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:13,000
is missing in action.
477
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:14,000
Kennedy said, "I'm the skipper.
478
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:16,000
We're going to have to swim".
479
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:18,000
And they say, "but skipper,
480
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:20,000
it's miles to the nearest island."
481
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:24,000
One of his men is wounded
482
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:30,000
and Jack, this skinny little guy,
483
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:31,000
tows a man
484
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:35,000
much bigger for miles.
485
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,000
They swam for hours.
486
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:42,000
They found an island,
487
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:44,000
but this was Japanese-occupied territory.
488
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:49,000
Two Solomon Islands natives
489
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:52,000
found them and said,
"well, we will try to help you",
490
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:53,000
but they didn't speak very good English.
491
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:55,000
So, Kennedy took a coconut
492
00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:59,000
and using his knife he
writes out a message
493
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:02,000
that says "11 alive,
native knows position,
494
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,000
need small boat, Kennedy".
495
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:08,000
The coconut reaches allied lines
496
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:11,000
and Kennedy and his crew are rescued.
497
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,000
The point of pt-109 is,
498
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:18,000
it was not regarded by John F. Kennedy
499
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:23,000
or anyone in the vicinity
of that combat zone
500
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:25,000
as any act of heroism.
501
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:28,000
It was a disaster.
502
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,000
Jack should have been court-martialed
503
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:32,000
because he allowed his boat
504
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:34,000
to be in the wrong
place at the wrong time.
505
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:39,000
Joseph Kennedy sees an opportunity
506
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:41,000
to turn disaster into triumph.
507
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:46,000
Joe Kennedy was still
politically connected
508
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:48,000
and immediately intervened,
509
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,000
and it was only through
510
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:52,000
a carefully managed investigation,
511
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:54,000
Joe Kennedy was overseeing it,
512
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:57,000
making sure that the story came out right,
513
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,000
that it became this great, you know,
514
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:03,000
heroic myth of, of jfk saving his crew.
515
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:07,000
Warner brothers
516
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:08,000
bring to the screen,
517
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:10,000
one of the most important
adventures ever filmed.
518
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:12,000
It became a book
519
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:14,000
and, years later, a movie.
520
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:16,000
It was a certification of leadership,
521
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,000
it was a certification of courage,
522
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:21,000
and it became central to
the story of Jack Kennedy.
523
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:24,000
The young man I play
is a fellow from Boston,
524
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:27,000
his name - lieutenant John F. Kennedy.
525
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:28,000
Jack Kennedy
526
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:30,000
becomes the military hero,
527
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:32,000
the kind of selfless man.
528
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,000
And it's an important part
529
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:36,000
of this narrative that's
being crafted around him.
530
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:42,000
Joe junior is jealous.
531
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,000
His little brother is a
hero and Joe junior is not.
532
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:51,000
It was extremely difficult for Joe Jr.
533
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:53,000
He'd always been
534
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:55,000
the oldest brother, the golden boy.
535
00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:01,000
There's a banquet for Jack in Boston,
536
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:04,000
and afterwards Joe came home and wept
537
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:05,000
and said, "I'll show them."
538
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:07,000
And so came that early April morning
539
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:09,000
for a final inspection,
540
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:11,000
they trained long and
hard for these ships.
541
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:13,000
You're on your way, Joe.
542
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:14,000
This is it.
543
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,000
Joe junior leaves
544
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:18,000
to join the allies in Europe,
545
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,000
seizing his opportunity
to be a Kennedy hero.
546
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:24,000
Whether you were British or American,
547
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:28,000
the ultimate in being the dashing war hero
548
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:30,000
was being a pilot,
549
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:31,000
and that's what Joe did
550
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:33,000
and took on the scariest of missions
551
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:36,000
which was flying a liberator bomber
552
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:40,000
going after the greatest
threat to the western alliance
553
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:42,000
which was German u-boats.
554
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:49,000
Kick also joins the war effort,
555
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:53,000
volunteering for the
American red cross in england.
556
00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:58,000
Kathleen Kennedy was a charming girl
557
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:00,000
who wowed the boys
558
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,000
and met one of the richest
559
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:05,000
and most socially prestigious,
560
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:07,000
the oldest son of the Duke of Devonshire.
561
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,000
He was London's most eligible bachelor,
562
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:15,000
he was heir to the Chatsworth estate.
563
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:17,000
He was a catch.
564
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:20,000
Duty calls from lovely Chatsworth,
565
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:22,000
seat of the ducal Devonshire.
566
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:23,000
One would think that Joe and Rose
567
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:26,000
would be completely thrilled
568
00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:29,000
that their daughter had
risen to these dizzying heights,
569
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,000
but unfortunately Billy was suitable
570
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:34,000
in every way except for one,
571
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:36,000
he wasn't Roman catholic.
572
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:40,000
There is a complex of feelings,
573
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,000
Joseph Kennedy saw her romance
574
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:46,000
as a sense that the Kennedys had arrived.
575
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,000
However, what's so interesting
576
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:53,000
is that Rose didn't share
the same sense of success.
577
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:58,000
For her, kick's romance
578
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:01,000
threatened her sense of identity
579
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:02,000
and her sense of the family's identity.
580
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,000
Kick becomes the first
581
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,000
of the Kennedy children to marry,
582
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:12,000
but the union is not
blessed by her parents.
583
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:13,000
Her older brother Joe
584
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:15,000
is by her side on her wedding day
585
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:16,000
and no one else.
586
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,000
They could have been married at Chatsworth
587
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:19,000
with a thousand guests,
588
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:22,000
but instead they were
married in a registry office
589
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:26,000
in what she described as a squalid affair.
590
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:31,000
In the summer of 1944,
591
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:34,000
the Kennedy family gathers at hyannis port
592
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:36,000
on the coast of Massachusetts,
593
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:40,000
but Joe junior sends disappointing news.
594
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:41,000
His father and mother
595
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,000
expected him home any day now.
596
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:46,000
And then in July they
get this strange letter
597
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:50,000
and he says, "I'm part
of a special mission.
598
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:51,000
"But don't worry, it's not dangerous.
599
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:53,000
See you in September."
600
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,000
Joe Kennedy's already
flown his 25 missions,
601
00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:59,000
he could go home.
602
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:00,000
But he volunteers for extra duty.
603
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:08,000
He's going to fly in a
bomber stuffed with explosives
604
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:12,000
towards a secret German
weapon on the French coast.
605
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:15,000
He would set the fuse,
606
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:18,000
and then he would bail out of the plane,
607
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:21,000
along with his co-pilot,
over the English channel.
608
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,000
The plane would be set on
remote, and it would attack
609
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,000
these super guns
610
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:29,000
that were being put in place by Hitler,
611
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,000
on the coast of France
612
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,000
and this was, in Joe
Kennedy junior's mind,
613
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:36,000
the way to be a hero.
614
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:40,000
He said, "in case I don't come back,
615
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:43,000
please tell my father
I love him very much."
616
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:09,000
On August 13th, 1944,
617
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:11,000
the Kennedy family is home.
618
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:15,000
Bing Crosby is on the phonograph
619
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:18,000
singing 'I'll be seeing you.'
620
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:24,000
Joe junior isn't there.
621
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:27,000
He's volunteered for a secret mission.
622
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:30,000
Rose sees two priests
623
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,000
draw up to the family home.
624
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:35,000
They say, "we're here
to speak to Mr. Kennedy",
625
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,000
and she says, "he's napping.
626
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:38,000
Would you like to come in, have some tea?"
627
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:40,000
And they say, "no,
628
00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:42,000
we have some very bad news about Joe."
629
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:45,000
They go upstairs,
630
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:47,000
they tell Joe the terrible news
631
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:50,000
that his beloved son
has been killed in action.
632
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,000
Joe has to then come down
633
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,000
and tell the rest of the assembled clan
634
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,000
that Joe is dead.
635
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:04,000
He said, "there's no time for crying.
636
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:05,000
"We've got to get on with the living.
637
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:07,000
Kennedys don't cry."
638
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:08,000
And Jack says, "he wouldn't want US
639
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:10,000
"sitting here crying over him.
640
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:12,000
We're going to go sailing."
641
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:15,000
And that's what they did.
642
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,000
In Joe Kennedy's rage
643
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:22,000
over the death of his son,
644
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:24,000
he blamed fdr.
645
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:27,000
He said, "that son of a bitch
Roosevelt got my son killed."
646
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:30,000
Obviously an outrageous statement,
647
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:33,000
but it shows the depth
of pain that Joe felt.
648
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:37,000
After his death,
649
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:39,000
it was really jfk who had to step up
650
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,000
and there was actually a moment
651
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:43,000
where his father said,
"okay, you're next..."
652
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:49,000
Just after Joe junior died,
653
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:50,000
Jack said to one of his friends,
654
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:53,000
"I can feel my father's
breath on my neck."
655
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:57,000
After the war,
656
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:01,000
Joe senior pressures Jack
to launch his political career.
657
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:05,000
Jack really wasn't ready
658
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:09,000
for the role that he was about to take on.
659
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:10,000
First of all, he was young.
660
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:13,000
And second of all, all the
attention up to that point
661
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:15,000
had been on grooming Joe.
662
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:20,000
But the Kennedys always find a way
663
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:22,000
to make their dreams come true.
664
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,000
And for Joe Kennedy senior, in 1946,
665
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:28,000
his dream is to have Jack go to congress.
666
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:31,000
The problem is that there is no seat open
667
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:33,000
to run for in Boston.
668
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:36,000
But there is one that's
being held in the 11th district
669
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:40,000
by an infamous politician
called James Michael curley.
670
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:43,000
And Joe buys him off,
671
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:46,000
by retiring his debts and other favors,
672
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:47,000
and makes him go away
673
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,000
and run for mayor,
opening the seat for Jack.
674
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,000
And Jack suddenly finds himself
675
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:55,000
out walking the streets,
676
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:56,000
shaking hands, kissing babies,
677
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:58,000
having to learn to be a politician.
678
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:05,000
From dawn to dusk Kennedy worked.
679
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:10,000
He began the day at
factories at six in the morning
680
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:13,000
and he kept going
681
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:15,000
with meeting after meeting after meeting
682
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:18,000
'til late at night
683
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:23,000
when he would collapse
684
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:25,000
into the bathtub first
685
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:28,000
to ease the pain in his back.
686
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:33,000
Joe Kennedy is smart enough to know
687
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:36,000
that his profile is not good.
688
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:38,000
He was an appeaser.
689
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:40,000
He knows he needs to stay in the shadows,
690
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:42,000
in the background.
691
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:44,000
But, Joe has the money.
692
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:47,000
So, Joe provides the funds
693
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:49,000
to make Jack's career possible.
694
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:52,000
Reader's digest featured John Kennedy
695
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:55,000
as a hero from the pacific war.
696
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:56,000
His father saw to it
697
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,000
that this was given maximum publicity.
698
00:33:58,000 --> 00:33:59,000
I think a hundred thousand copies
699
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:02,000
of the reader's digest
article were purchased
700
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:05,000
by Joe Kennedy senior to help campaign.
701
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:08,000
The father later said,
702
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:10,000
"for the amount of money
I spent on that campaign,
703
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:12,000
I could have elected my chauffeur."
704
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:16,000
That standing of being a war hero
705
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:19,000
is something they know
how to make very good use of.
706
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:23,000
Joe Kennedy's money absolutely helps,
707
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:26,000
but it's pt-109,
708
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:29,000
plus the family's energy,
709
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:31,000
plus the family's political contacts
710
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:32,000
that prove to be
711
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:35,000
a winning combination in 1946.
712
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:42,000
Jack Kennedy was elected
713
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:44,000
to the house of representatives.
714
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:48,000
But Jack's exertions
715
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:51,000
on the campaign trail take a heavy toll.
716
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:53,000
He gets sick
717
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:57,000
and doctors determine that
he has Addison's disease
718
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:00,000
which leads to a weak immune system,
719
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:04,000
making him susceptible
to diseases, and infections.
720
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:08,000
At first, the doctors think
721
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:09,000
that Jack is going to die young,
722
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:12,000
but they're developing
treatments at this time,
723
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:15,000
that can effectively keep Jack alive.
724
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:18,000
The family don't want Jack's illness
725
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:22,000
to become an open story.
726
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:24,000
So, in fact the story
goes out to the press
727
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:27,000
that Jack's suffering from
a recurring bout of malaria.
728
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:31,000
At just 30 years old,
729
00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:33,000
Jack faces his own mortality.
730
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:36,000
He was a fatalist.
731
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:38,000
He talked about death a lot.
732
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:39,000
It didn't scare him,
733
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:41,000
but he had this sense
that it was going to happen,
734
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,000
probably sooner rather than later.
735
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:47,000
And that certainly helped make
him a young man in a hurry.
736
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:02,000
Joseph p. Kennedy
737
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:03,000
had predicted
738
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:05,000
that the best and the brightest
739
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:06,000
of his children's generation
740
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:08,000
would die in a war
741
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:10,000
and now this had happened,
742
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,000
not only to Joe junior
743
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:14,000
but to kick's beloved husband.
744
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:18,000
Kick had defied her family
745
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,000
to marry the love of
her life, Billy hartington,
746
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:24,000
only to lose him.
747
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:26,000
The heir to the Chatsworth estate
748
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:28,000
was killed by a German sniper.
749
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:30,000
The timing was brutal,
750
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:33,000
they had only weeks
together as a married couple
751
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:35,000
before he left
752
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:38,000
and to be widowed so young
753
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:40,000
was devastating.
754
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:43,000
I think Rose Kennedy
755
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:46,000
was very sad about that for Kathleen
756
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:48,000
but there had been terrible
problems in the family
757
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:50,000
over that marriage
758
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:52,000
because Billy hartington was protestant.
759
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:55,000
And she must have a feeling
760
00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:58,000
that Kathleen could come
back to the United States
761
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:01,000
and back into the church
with full membership.
762
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:04,000
Rose prays that this would be
763
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:07,000
the saving grace for Kathleen.
764
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:11,000
But after Billy's death,
765
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:13,000
kick decides to stay in england.
766
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:15,000
England's in her blood.
767
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:17,000
Kick at this time
768
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:20,000
is seriously considering
a career in politics,
769
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:23,000
and becoming a member of parliament.
770
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,000
She's very politically
engaged at this point
771
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:27,000
and then in just a few years
772
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:29,000
all of that just comes to an end.
773
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:36,000
In 1948, Kathleen tells her parents
774
00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:38,000
that she's fallen in love a second time
775
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:41,000
with a British nobleman, an anglican,
776
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:43,000
who is married and has a child.
777
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:46,000
And she tells her parents that as soon as
778
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:49,000
Peter Fitzwilliam's divorce is final,
779
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:50,000
that she will marry him.
780
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:53,000
Peter Fitzwilliam
781
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:54,000
was a bad boy.
782
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:55,000
He was into gambling,
783
00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:59,000
he was into horse races, into women.
784
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:02,000
He was protestant, and he was married.
785
00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:06,000
To be involved with
somebody like Peter Fitzwilliam
786
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:09,000
was the ultimate sin in Rose's eyes.
787
00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:15,000
Rose says kick will be
marrying a divorced man
788
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:18,000
which will mean that
it's not a valid marriage
789
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:19,000
in the eyes of the catholic church
790
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:22,000
and so she has to tell
her beloved daughter
791
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:24,000
that she must disown her
792
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:25,000
if she goes through with the marriage.
793
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:29,000
She really genuinely believed
794
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:33,000
that her daughter's soul would go to hell.
795
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:34,000
I think it was clear to kick
796
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:36,000
that there were no chances
797
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:38,000
getting her mother's approval
798
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:42,000
but she believed there was
some margin with her dad.
799
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:48,000
Her father is coming over to Paris
800
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:51,000
on business in 1948.
801
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:52,000
And she makes an arrangement with him
802
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:55,000
that she and Peter
Fitzwilliam will come meet him
803
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:57,000
and Kathleen's hope is that he will then
804
00:38:57,000 --> 00:38:58,000
give his blessing to the marriage.
805
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:02,000
Before though, they have their meeting,
806
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:05,000
Kathleen and Peter
decide that they will take
807
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,000
a mini holiday in the south of France
808
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:09,000
in the riviera.
809
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:13,000
Fitzwilliam and kick
810
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:16,000
decide to fly down.
811
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:18,000
The weather is terrible,
812
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,000
the pilot says, "we can't
go, it's too dangerous."
813
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,000
But Fitzwilliam is a very reckless man
814
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:24,000
and he insists that they fly.
815
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:29,000
A terrible thunderstorm strikes
816
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:31,000
and they crash into a mountainside,
817
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:33,000
in the rhone valley.
818
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:39,000
The pilot, the co-pilot,
kick, and her fiancĂ
819
00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:40,000
are all lost.
820
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:46,000
Joe Kennedy never sees his daughter again,
821
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:48,000
except in a casket.
822
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:52,000
Jack learns that his beloved sister 'kick'
823
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:54,000
has died in France.
824
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:56,000
Jack Kennedy is a man who doesn't cry,
825
00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:58,000
who rarely shows emotions.
826
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:01,000
But that day Jack Kennedy breaks down.
827
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:07,000
Jack is totally debilitated by grief
828
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:09,000
and he is supposed to organize family
829
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:10,000
to go to the funeral,
830
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:12,000
which is going to be held in england.
831
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:14,000
But, but he can't do it.
832
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:18,000
He got in a car to go to the airport,
833
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:21,000
fly to her funeral,
834
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,000
and didn't get on the plane.
835
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:29,000
Joe was informed,
836
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:31,000
and was the only family member
837
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:33,000
to show up at her funeral.
838
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:37,000
Rose called kick's
death divine retribution.
839
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:46,000
My wife and I have given
nine hostages to fortune.
840
00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:54,000
Joe Kennedy had lost
his oldest son Joe junior,
841
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:56,000
he'd lost his older daughter Rosemary
842
00:40:56,000 --> 00:41:00,000
to a botched lobotomy
that had ended her life
843
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:02,000
as far as the family was concerned.
844
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:07,000
And beloved kick was gone too.
845
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:13,000
There is, woven through the Kennedys,
846
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:14,000
a sense of doom,
847
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,000
and by the late '40s,
848
00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:18,000
only Jack remains of the golden trio.
849
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:23,000
The torch was passed to him.
850
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:28,000
His parents' ambitions
were now his ambitions.
851
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:31,000
The burden of taking the dynasty forward
852
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:33,000
was his burden.
853
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,000
This season
854
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:40,000
on American dynasties: The Kennedys...
855
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:43,000
You're never running against one Kennedy.
856
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:45,000
It's a full family affair.
857
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:47,000
We could see
858
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:49,000
a different world.
859
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:52,000
Confident and unafraid
we must labour on...
860
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:55,000
They've made a lot
more enemies than friends
861
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:58,000
and some of those
enemies are truly dangerous.
862
00:41:58,000 --> 00:41:59,000
With the Kennedys,
863
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:02,000
it's always tragedy and
triumph mixed together.
61851
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get subtitles in any language from opensubtitles.com, and translate them here.