John F Kennedy is often remembered as
one of the most popular American
presidents of all time but his life was
cut all too short when he was
assassinated in 1963 we've learned a lot
about JFK in the decades since his death
here's how it all changes the historical
narrative on January 20 of 1961 Kennedy
kicked off his presidency with a
masterful speech his inaugural address
possessed a powerful balance of Hope and
foreboding as it issued warnings to
America's potential enemies and urged
allies across the globe to band together
against the common enemies of man then
came a quote for the ages and not what
your country can do for you ask what you
can do for your country
Kennedy saw greatness on the horizon and
he needed his fellow Americans to join
him but it turns out that the iconic
quote might have been inspired by an
important figure from JFK's past a
notebook was discovered in 2011 that
belonged to George st. John former
headmaster of the Choate School in
Connecticut a teenage JFK sat through
st. John's sermons and the Headmaster's
notes included this familiar sounding
quote from Harvard Dean LeBaron Briggs
the youth who loves his alma mater will
always ask not what can she do for me
but what can I do for her even before it
breaks this quote came to light
historian Thurston Clarke pointed out in
a 2004 book about Kennedy's inauguration
that st. John was known to say it's not
what choke does for you but what you can
do for choked Inga Arvid was a
journalist and beauty queen in her
native Denmark but to JFK she was Inga
Bingham and he was her Boston being
according to Kennedy scholar Nigel
Hamilton
Arvid was the great love of Kennedy's
life when Arvid first met the future
president in 1941 she was married to one
of the world's richest men four years
older than Kennedy Arvid acted as a sort
of mentor she critiqued his writing
dispensed political advice and gave very
hands-on lessons about the birds and the
bees
unfortunately Adolf Hitler also enjoyed
knowing her Harvard had interviewed
Hitler who called her quote a perfect
example of Nordic beauty she was
extremely chummy with the German Fuhrer
and her husband may have been a Nazi
agent suspecting that Arvid was a spy
FBI agents kept a close watch on her
they even eavesdropped on her pillow
talk with JFK Kennedy's father
understandably didn't want him sleeping
with a possible
I mean so he put a stop to the romance
for decades Americans have perceived the
Cuban Missile Crisis which was
dramatized in the 2000 film thirteen
days as a game of apocalyptic chicken
that started when an unprovoked Soviet
Union placed nuclear weapons in Cuba
luckily JFK had the fortitude and
prudence needed to prevent an
apocalyptic calamity he made the Soviets
back down with nary a concession by
America that a series of offensive
missile sites is now in preparation on
that imprisoned Island but it turns out
that that entire narrative is rather
misleading since 1997 scholars have had
access to recordings at Kennedy secretly
made of meetings with his top advisors
and they've been trying to set the
record straight since then the truth is
that JFK inflamed the Cold War by
placing missiles in Turkey and Italy
uncomfortably close to the Soviets
American plots that take out Cuban
leader Fidel Castro further stoked
hostilities the Communists responded
with ominous posturing but Soviet
premier Nikita Khrushchev knew that the
US had a much larger Arsenal and even
though Kennedy spread the lie that the
u.s. forced the Soviets to unilaterally
remove their missiles JFK withdrew
American missiles as well
however he threatened to scrap the
arrangement if the Soviets disclosed
that fact people often associate JFK
with vim and vigor but they probably
don't think of another V word vomiting
that's one of the many symptoms
associated with an adrenal disorder
called Addison's disease that was one of
the multiple ailments that Kennedy
grappled with throughout his life while
projecting an image of physical
robustness to the public he was so ill
that his father had put cortisone
treatments in safe deposit boxes around
the country if he ever needed him
because of his Addison's disease Kennedy
spent much of his presidency and
physical misery due to severe back
trouble and Addison's which in addition
to the vomiting causes infections
fatigue joint and muscle pain depression
skin discoloration and various abdominal
problems with the help of his family JFK
mostly hid his ailing health however
political rivals caught wind of his
condition and tried to expose him during
the 1960 presidential race Democratic
hopeful and JFK's future running mate
lyndon b johnson told the press via his
aides that JFK had Addison's disease but
the revelation was dismissed as a smear
during that year's general election
Richard Nixon supposedly orchestrated a
Watergate style break-in to obtain JFK's
medical records though he failed well
before Kennedy became president the
United States had become involved in the
Vietnam War but it wasn't until the Gulf
of Tonkin incident of 1964 that America
opted to wage a full-tilt military
campaign against North Vietnam had
Kennedy still been president then that
escalation may never have happened
pentagon documents that became
Declassified in 1997 revealed that in
October 1963 JFK ordered the withdrawal
of 1,000 military personnel from Vietnam
by the end of the year
publicly Kennedy called withdrawal
quotes a deep mistake but behind closed
doors he rejected the Joint Chiefs of
staff's advice to take overt action and
instead instructed them to take
decidedly less action by leaving roughly
a month after JFK's withdrawal order the
South Vietnamese president who had
fallen out of favor with the US military
was assassinated JFK was killed three
weeks later and when Lyndon Johnson
assumed the presidency he bolstered both
military and CIA operations almost
immediately experts disagree on whether
Kennedy would have followed through with
the exit plan but according to Johnson's
former deputy national security adviser
Kennedy planned to have most US forces
out of Vietnam by the end of 1965 check
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