Original subtitles

- Previously on "Kennedy"...

- We will gain the inevitable triumph,

so help us God.

- Kennedy comes home a different man.

- Joe Jr.'s death is a knife

into the heart of the Kennedy family.

- World War II was maturing

for a whole generation, of course,

but for John in particular,

he came back with a sense of responsibility.

- Well, he knew that politics was the world.

- He knew, I think, in his heart

that he was destined for greater things.

- To lead us to a fruitful America,

from the state of Massachusetts,

John F. Kennedy!

♪ ♪

- John F. Kennedy lived a life

that would help define an entire generation.

♪ ♪

- Together, we shall save our planet,

or, together, we shall perish in its flames.

- What was it about that guy?

- Looks, style, empathy...

he was incredibly charming.

- Intellectual and progressive.

- He was the future. He was next.

♪ ♪

- President for just over 1,000 days,

Kennedy navigated events and crises

that changed the world.

- Kennedy is feeling the pressure

from the Civil Rights activists.

- This was a country on nuclear war footing.

♪ ♪

- This could be the last mistake

that anybody makes politically.

♪ ♪

- He changed us in the process of his own growth.

- We choose to go to the Moon in this decade

and do the other things,

not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

♪ ♪

- 60 years after his assassination,

we are still fascinated by the triumphs and flaws

of the youngest president ever elected.

- I ask you to join us in all the tomorrows yet to come,

in building America, moving America,

taking this country of ours up, and sending it into the '60s.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- In the spring of 1946,

29-year-old John F. Kennedy

was busy on the campaign trail,

working to make himself known to the people of Boston

as a candidate to represent

Massachusetts' 11th congressional district.

♪ ♪

On June 17, he participated

in the annual Bunker Hill Day parade.

♪ ♪

- There'd be certain days during the campaign

that his back would be bothering him.

And I'd say, do you want to rest?

And he'd say, no.

There's only a short time before the campaign is over.

♪ ♪

- Waving to the masses of people

along the parade route,

things were going well for the candidate

until he collapsed in the street

under the hot summer sun.

♪ ♪

- Jack can barely stand...

can barely walk,

and he campaigns from morning to night.

- Despite the reality of his health conditions

and getting only four to five hours of sleep each night,

he appeared energetic to swarms of onlookers.

At campaign events, he said he stood for free enterprise,

the right to a living wage,

and affordable-housing needs for the working man.

Jack impressed audiences with his heroic service record

and charmed them with his enthusiasm,

candor, and humor.

Joe Kennedy contributed to Jack's campaign financially

and also made countless calls to reporters and editors,

promoting his son's campaign.

Though Joe tried to buy Jack's way toward victory,

Jack sought to earn it through labor and merit.

- I mean, his father had money,

but money doesn't always win campaigns.

You have to work really hard.

- After defeating nine other candidates in the primary,

Election Day arrived.

♪ ♪

Kennedy won a landslide victory,

taking 73% of the vote.

♪ ♪

On January 3, 1947, at the age of 29,

John F. Kennedy officially became a member of Congress.

- He walked into difficult circumstances,

in the sense that the Republicans had won control

of Congress

after a long Democratic period.

So he was a minority member

of the House of Representatives.

And he had no power,

you know, had a tiny office

in the farthest reaches of Capitol Hill.

- As a Congressman, Kennedy showed his interest in

and stance on international affairs

when he supported the Truman Doctrine--

a policy to contain Soviet expansion

following World War II.

- I think everyone who lived through the World War II era

couldn't not think of the world as relevant to you.

After Pearl Harbor, for every American,

it was clear that the world mattered,

and we were not disconnected from it.

♪ ♪

- In 1947, Kennedy embarked on a working trip to Europe.

♪ ♪

- At times when the House was in session,

he just sort of took off for, you know, weeks on end

to travel overseas.

♪ ♪

He was interested in the issues,

interested in just the challenge

of reconstructing Europe after World War II.

♪ ♪

- He was lively at the beginning of the trip,

but his blood pressure began to drop

after arriving in London.

♪ ♪

After being rushed to a hospital in London,

he was diagnosed with Addison's disease--

an incurable condition causing weight loss,

low blood pressure, and weakness

that would plague him for the rest of his life.

♪ ♪

To help with the pain,

Kennedy was prescribed the steroid cortisone.

♪ ♪

- Someone walked in as Kennedy was giving himself

an injection of cortisone for his Addison's disease,

and the person said, you probably get used to that.

And JFK took the needle

and stuck it in the other guy's leg,

and the guy was like, ow.

And he went, that's what it feels like to me

every time I do it--it never feels any better than that.

- But I think what all these health problems fed

was Kennedy's sense he would not live to an old age,

that he would die young.

♪ ♪

- I've always felt, for example,

if you look at the JFK speeches,

there's always a sense of, time is short,

time is running out.

- He knew he had to use his limited time wisely.

With this in mind,

Kennedy wanted to move forward on his political journey.

♪ ♪

Fueled by a driving ambition

to make his mark and create change,

Kennedy began eyeing a spot in the Senate.

♪ ♪

- He'd climb one rung of the ladder,

and he'd stand there for just a microsecond,

take a deep breath,

and then he'd start looking to the next one.

- He increased his public appearances

around Massachusetts,

accepting every invitation he received.

- So, for really about four years,

from, like, '48 to '52, he went home every weekend

and traveled around the state of Massachusetts,

going to any event that would have him,

you know, Boy Scout events, ice cream socials,

church events, anything, rotary clubs.

- From Holyoke to Fall River and Chicopee to Springfield,

he spent a great deal of time on the road,

speaking about issues like education,

labor rights, health care, and taxes.

- So Kennedy built an organization

and just, you know, did all they could to make him

better known throughout the state.

♪ ♪

- Despite being the representative

of a moderately sized district in Boston,

international issues were of particular interest

to Kennedy.

By the end of the 1940s, no international issue

was of greater interest to him than communism.

♪ ♪

- In theory, communism was about everyone being equal

and there not being classes.

Communism, on the one hand, had great faith

that this is the way of the future.

It is inevitable.

On the other hand, you can also help it along.

So you get rid of opposition parties.

In the worst excesses of communism,

people were executed

or died a slower death

by being sent to prison camps.

♪ ♪

The U.S. described communism often as tyranny

versus democracy in the United States.

♪ ♪

- In the mid to late 1940s,

the domino theory took shape.

The domino theory predicted

that if one nation fell to communism,

others would soon follow.

As the Korean War raged on,

many people, including Kennedy,

believed that Asia was most threatened by communism.

With higher office in his sights,

Kennedy decided to visit the region,

meet the leaders of its countries,

and report back to the U.S.

about the spread of communism in Asia.

- He saw this as being the place

where the Cold War would be won or lost--

not in Europe but in the developing world.

- There was a lot of legitimate fear in the United States

about the spread of communism.

♪ ♪

- In the fall of 1951,

Kennedy was yearning for a more powerful voice

in politics.

To achieve that goal, he'd need to improve

his knowledge of foreign policy.

In October, he set out for an arduous trip

that covered more than 25,000 miles

over 6 weeks.

He traveled across the Middle East

and Southeast Asia,

stopping in countries such as Israel,

Pakistan, India,

French Indochina, Korea, and Japan.

Though Kennedy was initially opposed to the idea,

Joe Sr. pressured him

into taking two of his younger siblings on the trip--

sister Patricia, age 27,

and brother Robert, age 26,

known by the family as Bobby.

♪ ♪

A routine schedule was established.

Kennedy would meet with high-ranking leaders

of the country they were visiting,

and afterward, he would speak with journalists

and intellectuals.

♪ ♪

As the trip went on, Kennedy valued Bobby's insights

and relentless energy.

♪ ♪

- He discovers, through seven weeks overseas,

that there is a depth to Bobby

that he had not realized before.

And that really is the beginning

of the close Jack/Bobby relationship

that lasts throughout the rest of Jack's life.

♪ ♪

- After the trip, Kennedy delivered his report,

disparaging what he thought

was an inadequate American response

to critical international problems.

Kennedy now had a new perspective on the world,

the growing threat of communism,

and the effects of colonialism.

He felt that the only way for democracy

to win against communism

was for the native population to support it,

ideologically and militarily on their own,

but with the aid of the West.

When he returned from Asia,

he knew it was time to begin the next chapter

of his political career.

- Our audience, of course, is particularly interested

in your views, because it's been mentioned

that you are a possible or probable candidate

to the United States Senate against Senator Lodge.

Have you decided whether or not you're going to oppose

Senator Lodge this year?

- Well, Mr. Huey, I plan to announce my plans

about what I thought I might do about the end of April.

At that time, I thought I'd make them definite,

but I'm certainly considering it very strongly.

♪ ♪

- On April 6, 1952,

Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Senate.

- I think he saw it

as a more powerful policy-making position,

but I think he also saw it as a politically

more advantageous position to be in.

- Well, politics is about opportunity

and seizing the moment.

Kennedy saw this as his moment.

♪ ♪

- Despite his wealth, family connections,

and his political record thus far,

the campaign would be massive and energy-depleting,

a nonstop effort.

Kennedy would run

against Republican Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.,

who likewise had a rich,

multigenerational family history in politics.

- They were both, you know, wealthy, Harvard-educated,

respected families.

Both of them were centrists politically.

♪ ♪

- If Kennedy was to emerge victorious,

he knew the campaigning methods

for his congressional run

would have to expand and evolve.

When Kennedy was too busy to appear in person,

his brother and campaign manager Bobby took over.

Rough around the edges and cold when he needed to be,

Bobby was relentless and ruthless,

working around the clock for his older brother's campaign.

"I don't care if anyone around here likes me,"

he would say, "as long as they like Jack."

♪ ♪

As the tense race began,

Kennedy went on the campaign trail

and rallied the efforts of friends, family,

and more than 20,000 volunteers.

- ♪ When we vote this November ♪

♪ Let's all remember ♪

♪ Vote for Kennedy ♪

♪ Make him your selection... ♪

- Kennedy raced across Massachusetts,

giving speeches, attending campaign events,

even creating the Kennedy tea party--

gatherings where Kennedy could meet and connect

with female voters.

- ♪ He's your kind of man, so do all that you can ♪

♪ And vote for Kennedy. ♪

♪ ♪

- During the campaign, Kennedy improved his outreach

by making many television appearances.

He even enrolled in a CBS television school,

where he honed his skills in front of a camera.

He'd use these methods

throughout his political career.

- Once TV came to the fore, it was not terribly surprising

that Jack wanted to know how he was coming across

on camera.

And that was something that was always very important to him.

- After months of hard work,

it was November 4th, Election Day.

As Kennedy's mother, Rose, recalled,

it was one of the few occasions

she saw him visibly nervous--

pacing and eager for results.

- The Kennedy/Lodge race was considered

the marquee Senate race of 1952,

because you do have these two glamorous,

wealthy, respected, charismatic,

attractive candidates going head-to-head.

And it was a very tough, close-fought race.

- Suddenly, the campaign headquarters

erupted in celebration.

Kennedy had defeated Lodge by 70,000 votes.

♪ ♪

Though Lodge never congratulated Kennedy

in person,

his concession arrived via telegram later that day.

Kennedy was a United States Senator.

- Kennedy first laid eyes on his future wife

at a Georgetown dinner party in the spring of 1951.

He wouldn't see her again until the spring of 1952.

Like Danish journalist Inga Arvad years before,

this woman fascinated him.

♪ ♪

Born Jaclyn Lee Bouvier on July 28, 1929,

in Southampton, New York,

her mother, Janet, was Irish,

and her father, John "Black Jack" Bouvier,

was of French, Scottish, and English descent.

Raised Catholic like Kennedy,

she also grew up in an environment

of economic and societal privilege.

♪ ♪

She was talented and ambitious even as a child,

taking ballet lessons, learning multiple languages,

and reading often.

♪ ♪

She was a bright yet rebellious child.

One of her teachers described her

as "very clever and full of the devil."

♪ ♪

On the surface, her life seemed idyllic,

though it was anything but.

Her father was an aggressive alcoholic

and a notorious philanderer, often absent from her life.

Black Jack's neglectful behavior

led to a divorce from Janet in 1940

and affected Jackie for the rest of her life.

♪ ♪

Jackie spent her senior year of college in France,

which would be a major influence

on the European aesthetic often associated with her.

She graduated from George Washington University

in 1951,

the same year she met a rising Congressman from Boston.

♪ ♪

When Jackie first met Kennedy,

she thought he was a man who clearly did not want to marry.

But he leaned across the dinner table

and asked for a date

in May 1952.

For Kennedy, who was interested in history,

politics, and literature,

he was at first taken aback by Jackie's intelligence,

then entranced.

♪ ♪

Despite the clear attraction between Kennedy and Bouvier,

others were wary of the relationship.

♪ ♪

Members of Kennedy's inner circle

warned Jackie about his womanizing ways.

- You know, one of the legacies

of being Joe Kennedy's son

was that you learned very early

that men were allowed to fool around,

to have as many lovers as they wanted.

Jack's promiscuity, you know, is learned as a young man

from watching his father.

- They had a sense of entitlement

about what they could do that other people couldn't do,

what they could get away with that other people

would never think that they could get away with.

♪ ♪

- As Jackie processed the news,

she felt it was an inevitable masculine flaw, saying,

"Well, that's what men do."

Despite warnings, she fell for him.

- I mean, she knew that he had that mix of danger and charm,

and I don't think she was kidding herself.

She knew what she was getting into.

♪ ♪

- He liked to play the field.

He liked having all of these girlfriends.

He liked having young women around

and cared little about marriage.

It was his father who actually sort of put the pressure

on him, saying, if you want a national political career,

you can't be this carefree bachelor.

You need to get married. You need to be respectable.

- There is no secret that he was cheating on her constantly

and she was aware of it.

She looked the other way,

in part because that was how she was raised

in the upper echelon of society--to accept it.

But she was devoted to him.

- I would say that there was love throughout, you know?

I would say that, you know, from the beginning,

all the way to the end.

- On the evening of June 24, 1953,

the couple shared dinner at Martin's Tavern in Georgetown.

That evening at booth three, Jack proposed to Jackie,

and she said yes.

♪ ♪

- This looks like a royal wedding.

You know, like, if you look at that church

and you look at those pictures,

it's hard to believe that he was, you know, just a Senator

and she was, you know, just sort of a socialite.

It looks like...

they're, like, the king and queen of some country.

♪ ♪

- Kennedy later sent his parents a note,

which read, "At last I know the true meaning

"of rapture.

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for making me worthy of her."

♪ ♪

Jackie had a certain sense of order

and her own set of standards for furniture,

food, fashion, and aesthetics.

Kennedy, a wealthy man with a carefree style,

had some adapting to do.

The two had interesting intellectual conversations,

where Kennedy found he could speak to her as an equal.

From incoming reports on Indochina

to works by classic writers like Voltaire,

Jackie translated books from French to English for him.

♪ ♪

- Jackie was very well read, you know.

You know, she loved to read, and she loved to write.

She was a very creative person. She loved to paint.

♪ ♪

- By January 1954,

they had settled into their new home

in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

A new chapter in the Kennedy story had begun.

- As Kennedy settled into his position

in the Senate in 1953,

he needed a new legislative assistant,

someone who could conduct research,

provide counsel, and help draft legislative programs.

Ted Sorensen,

a 24-year-old attorney from Nebraska,

was interested in a position.

He was an unlikely choice,

in the words of Robert Dallek--

young, comparatively inexperienced,

and almost entirely unknown.

- He was born in Nebraska in 1928.

He was one of five children.

They were not at all wealthy,

maybe middle class, lower middle class.

He clearly knew, even in college,

that he wouldn't stay in Nebraska.

He somehow felt that he had a larger purpose.

Within weeks of graduating from law school,

he was on the train

from Nebraska to Washington, D.C.

The election had taken place,

and new Senators and members of Congress were coming in.

And that was when he was recommended

to the office of the new Senator

from Massachusetts.

- Sorensen had already received

a job offer from Washington Senator Henry Jackson

but sought an interview with the 35-year-old Kennedy.

- Senator Kennedy and his team

were literally moving into the office.

And he was junior Senator, so it was a small office--

chairs and boxes going in and out.

And they apparently took two chairs

and sat them outside the door in the hall

and had a conversation

that was not longer than 15 minutes.

And the Senator looked at the résumé,

and he apparently said, well, you're not Irish,

and you're not Catholic, and you're not from Massachusetts,

and you didn't go to Harvard.

Then he said, but this looks interesting.

Let's give it a trial run.

- He would later become one of the most important figures

in Kennedy's life.

- Kennedy was very worldly.

He'd traveled all over

and had all kinds of privileges

that Ted could hardly imagine.

- That perspective was very helpful to their collaboration

and to JFK's political prospects,

because it gave JFK a sense of the rest of the country.

♪ ♪

- Within about three months,

the first speechwriting opportunities came.

♪ ♪

- After working as Kennedy's legislative assistant,

Sorensen took on the role of speechwriter.

The two became such a pair that every day after work,

Kennedy would drop off Sorensen

at the bus stop for his journey home.

- Kennedy would sort of lay out what he was thinking.

Sorensen would go off,

sometimes stay up all night and kind of write it

into this lyrical, magical speech.

- JFK would always have comments,

and there'd be lines drawn from here to there,

and certain things crossed out

or question marks about this or that.

So it was very much a partnership.

- Sorensen regularly sat in the front row

at Kennedy's speaking engagements

and made detailed notes about his performance,

providing critical feedback.

This inspired Kennedy

to improve his oratorical prowess.

One of Kennedy's favorite methods

was reading out loud in tandem with recordings

of Sir Winston Churchill's speeches.

- Churchill, one of the great orators of all time--

Kennedy admired him

and understood the power of words

and the power of a great speech.

So he practiced his speeches.

- Sorensen considered Kennedy an enigmatic character

with a youthful spirit,

embodied with a natural sense of leadership,

and a genuine friend.

Their steadfast partnership was a constant

for the remainder of Kennedy's life.

♪ ♪

Sorensen's support was especially vital

when Jack was getting his footing as a young Senator.

♪ ♪

During his years in the Senate,

Kennedy's interests were many and varied.

He focused on both domestic and foreign-policy issues,

ranging from labor, industry, and welfare

to communism and foreign diplomacy.

He was slowly but steadily growing

from a local Massachusetts congressman

into a national politician.

- He played very heavily

on the notion that he thought the United States

was falling behind the Soviet Union.

And he accused the Eisenhower Administration

of not, you know, having

as much defense spending as it should,

allowing the Soviets to surge ahead of the Americans

in the space race.

♪ ♪

- One domestic issue which caught the attention

of both Kennedy and his brother Bobby

was corruption within the trade unions.

- He was known for going against, you know, racketeering

and organized crime.

♪ ♪

- In his later years as a Senator,

Kennedy gained attention when he joined

the Select Committee on Improper Activities

in Labor and Management,

better known as the McClellan Committee.

Bobby was selected as chief counsel.

- Kennedy was a supporter of labor,

but he was also very much against

what he thought were some of the excesses

of the union bosses.

And Jimmy Hoffa, you know, the Teamster's boss,

was considered deeply corrupt.

- The McClellan Committee hearings were televised,

allowing Kennedy to cement himself

as a prominent political figure

on a national stage.

- The whole transaction was in cash.

- I think Kennedy saw

that it was just a real politically explosive issue.

It had that level of prominence.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- As Senator Kennedy's career

gained strength and momentum in Washington,

the condition of his back continued to deteriorate.

- Kennedy, actually, even in his '52 campaign,

spent a lot of it on crutches,

and he was smart enough that when the cameras came,

he would kind of put them off to the side.

- You see him coming down the stairs in the newsreels,

you know, walking--as someone said, he had to walk sideways.

He couldn't just walk straight down the stairs.

His back was killing him.

- His painful condition began at Harvard after he sustained

an injury playing football.

It became worse during the war and had continued to decline

in the years since

due to poor medical treatment and misdiagnosis.

♪ ♪

- Hugh Sidey once reported

that he couldn't pick up a golf club off the floor.

And someone else said he couldn't put his socks on.

- One aide said that Kennedy at one point

told him he would have given up

all of his political success to be pain-free.

It was this--you know, this chronic albatross.

♪ ♪

- In 1954, one year into his Senate term,

Kennedy began to seriously contemplate spinal surgery.

Kennedy's father cautioned him

to think of former president Franklin D. Roosevelt,

who led the country from a wheelchair.

Joe Sr. hoped this image would persuade Jack

to decide against the dangerous operation.

♪ ♪

In the end, Jack elected to go under the knife,

seeking any solution that might alleviate

the agonizing pain he endured every day.

- There was a chance that he would die

on the operating table, and he knew that going in.

But he decided, I would rather take the risk of dying

than live in this extraordinary pain

that I'm living in that is crippling me,

that is leaving me unable to do what I want to do.

♪ ♪

- On October 10, 1954,

Kennedy arrived at the hospital.

Kennedy matriarch Rose

recalled the night before the surgery

and how it affected her husband, Joe.

Despite the risks,

Kennedy moved forward with the surgery.

♪ ♪

The surgery failed, putting Kennedy into a coma.

Anything that could go wrong did.

He contracted an infection,

and his condition took a nosedive.

♪ ♪

As his family rushed to the hospital,

Kennedy received last rites.

♪ ♪

Pope Pius XII sent his words of support.

♪ ♪

Lying motionless in his hospital bed,

Kennedy's life appeared to be ebbing away yet again.

♪ ♪

Like his earlier brushes with death,

Kennedy managed to pull through.

Though by no means healthy or cured of the infection,

his health stabilized enough to transfer him

to the Kennedys' Palm Beach residence,

where he spent the next several weeks

recovering from the operation.

♪ ♪

Jackie was constantly at his side.

She fed him, read to him, and kept him entertained

while he was bedridden.

- When JFK had his spinal surgery, you know,

Jackie was this amazing nursemaid figure in his life.

The love for him was always there.

Even if sometimes, you know, we were to question

whether it was reciprocal,

where she was concerned, it was there,

and you really saw it in the way that she took care of him

in those early days after the operation.

♪ ♪

- By Christmas 1954,

Kennedy still remained at the family's Florida home,

welcoming an array of visitors

that included his close friend Lem Billings.

During this time, Joe Sr. noted

that Kennedy couldn't sleep for more than an hour or two.

So he studied to take his mind off the pain.

To help pass the time,

Kennedy took up the challenge he had envisioned for months--

writing a new book.

Bedridden and lacking energy,

this new writing project was something Jackie thought

pushed her husband forward.

The book, Kennedy decided, would document the life

and legacy of influential United States Senators

who had taken courageous stances

at key moments in history.

- He was looking to forge a political identity,

and he wanted to be--

he wanted to package himself

as this sort of an intellectual,

modern, progressive statesman.

♪ ♪

- Based in Washington at the time,

Ted Sorensen worked with Kennedy

on the writing process,

taking dictation and assisting with research.

By the summer of 1955,

Kennedy and Sorensen had finished

the entire 266-page draft

of the book called "Profiles in Courage."

In a happy coincidence,

Kennedy was also walking without crutches

for the first time in months.

- For months between the winter of 1954

and mid-1955,

while Kennedy recuperated from back surgery,

he collaborated with Sorensen

to write "Profiles in Courage."

The book was published on January 1, 1956.

♪ ♪

- And then allegations start to come out

that it was actually Ted Sorensen

who wrote the book.

And Kennedy saw this as both infuriating

and also possibly devastating to this political image

that he was trying to forge.

Jackie was utterly furious,

and she felt that Sorensen had not disavowed

his role as forcefully as he should have initially.

- It was a genuine collaboration.

Ted would always say he had a hand in it.

That's as far as he would go.

- That book, of course, won a Pulitzer Prize,

sort of gained him some respect as someone

other than a politician.

♪ ♪

- The ideas about democracy,

courage, and sacrifice were there.

The question of how faithfully Kennedy

would stick to those ideas and values

would be tested again and again.

♪ ♪

The presidential election of 1956

would be an important opportunity

for Kennedy to gain momentum on his political journey.

Despite a successful first term

with impressive economic policies,

Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower

was facing health issues.

He had reservations about running for a second term

but eventually returned to the ticket.

An important question bubbled up in Washington,

which Democratic candidate would take on Eisenhower?

The leading hopeful was Adlai Stevenson,

who had run and lost against Eisenhower in 1952.

If Adlai Stevenson was going to campaign

against Eisenhower,

he needed a strong running mate.

Speculation surrounded Kennedy as a viable option.

At first, Kennedy was hesitant,

even surprised when he saw his name suggested in newspapers.

But after some consideration,

he decided this was the necessary next step

in his political career.

♪ ♪

He plowed forward into the political fray

and began to hone his prowess

leading up to the Democratic National Convention

that summer.

- Well, I think he spotted a potential opening for himself.

The nominee was probably going to be Adlai Stevenson again.

So Kennedy, you know,

thought he could butter up Adlai Stevenson

and be chosen as an ideal running mate.

- If Kennedy had any chance

of winning the vice presidential nomination

on the Stevenson ticket,

he would need to prove himself

by openly displaying support for Stevenson's candidacy.

His aides suggested the first step

was helping Stevenson supporter John Lynch

take control

of the Massachusetts Democratic Party,

then chaired by onion farmer William H. "Onions" Burke.

♪ ♪

- You know, the people who encouraged Kennedy to do it

said it was a brilliant move, you know, genius, et cetera.

Those who opposed it

thought it was a stupid waste of his time,

a diversion, you know, allowing himself

to get pulled into the muck of Massachusetts politics.

And Kennedy was persuaded to enter that battle.

- He actually went out and met with Burke

and told him, I'm going after you.

And we're going to beat you.

And Burke was, you know, defiant,

and says, you know, come ahead.

I'm gonna beat you-- stronger terms than that.

♪ ♪

- Shortly before the convention,

Burke was overthrown by Kennedy's team

in a landslide vote.

♪ ♪

Onions Burke was enraged by the development.

♪ ♪

Having overthrown Burke and replacing him

with devoted Stevenson supporter John M. Lynch,

Kennedy had backed Stevenson in a big way,

rallying the entire

Massachusetts Democratic Party behind him.

♪ ♪

Kennedy was determined to continue climbing the ladder.

This was the next rung on his rise to prominence.

- He campaigns vigorously for Adlai Stevenson,

again, getting his name out there

and getting the loyalty and name recognition.

- This strategic move gave Kennedy the influence

he needed to be selected

to lead the Massachusetts delegation

at the 1956 Democratic National Convention.

♪ ♪

He would soon know if his efforts had been enough

to claim the vice presidential nomination.

♪ ♪

Next on "Kennedy"...

- Clearly, he was better prepared than anybody.

- Nobody had ever campaigned like that.

- The impression that stays with me is that what started

as a rather small effort began to grow

and to grow and to grow.

♪ ♪

- The more people saw of him,

the better he did.

- I am today announcing my candidacy

for the presidency of the United States.

♪ ♪