[jhbadger]

But why was this article in the New Yorker in 1944? There were thousands of war stories as thrilling or more as the story of the PT 109. The second sentence gives a clue: "Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, the ex-Ambassador’s son and lately a PT skipper in the Solomons...". His story was told because he was the son of Joseph Kennedy, who had been the US ambassador to the UK. And then as now, ambassadorships (at least to pleasant developed countries) were generally gifts to wealthy people like Joseph Kennedy who had helped the current president (FDR in his case) to get elected.

[C1sc0cat]

IMO Joe Kennedy was using his sons to rehabilitate his reputation for being a NAZI sympathiser, and I suspect it was Joseph Kennedy not John that was being groomed for a political career.

[anoraca]

Do you have a reputable source for that claim?

[C1sc0cat]

Joes (Kennedy) Wikipedia entry, and the Kennedy family have been players in democratic politics for decades and decades

[nickff]

It's well known that Joe Kennedy was at least a defeatist (when it came to the British), and arguably a Nazi German sympathizer. Please don't ask for citations on basic, easily verifiable facts, it comes off as lazy, flippant, and ignorant.

[TheRealDunkirk]

And wealthy because he invested heavily in distilleries when it became clear that Prohibition was going to be abolished. As the FA indicates, this is the defining moment of brilliance which should be the stick by which he is measured. Everything else about the Kennedy family came about because of that investment, and the insane returns from it.