The Kennedys at War: 1937-1945

There are nine customer reviews to date for THE KENNEDYS AT WAR. This one, once it gets posted, will make ten. Six of the nine customer reviews to date are favorable, and three unfavorable. The three unfavorable have all been written by the same customer, a fellow from Cheyenne, Wyoming, who evidently has an axe to grind with THE KENNEDYS AT WAR. Since multiple votes appear to be allowed, I'll register mine once again. (I'm already one of the six favorable.) I stand by what I've said before. I found the book to be very insightful, enlightening and well-written: just as the reviews in Publisher Weekly, Kirkus and other major publications suggested it would be. As far as original sources are concerned, I see that in addition to interviewing several WWII vets who knew JFK and his brother Joe Jr., the author has also, along with other primary sources, mined previously unpublished correspondence between JPK Sr. and Lady Nancy Astor of Cliveden, copies of this correspondence having been provided to the author by Lady Astor's son, Major Sir John Astor. How is that for an original source?

I learned a lot I had not known before, especially about Joe Jr., Kick and the young Jack. Renehan spins a good story, and is very perceptive in his analysis of the various conflicts, motivations and tensions at work in the family during the war years. Great stuff.

I picked this book up Sunday morning after reading a rave review (written by former RI governor Bruce Sundlun, who is a vet of WWII) in THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL. Nearly three-quarters of the way through, I find it delivers a refreshing and engagingly-written view of the Kennedy family during those troubled and tragic days of war. PT 109 forms only a tiny slice of the really epic story Renehan tells here. There is also Joe Jr.'s troubled life and martyrdom. There is Kathleen Kennedy's troubled coming of age and her young (nearly instantaneous) widowhood. And there is the disaster of JPK Sr.'s years at the Court of St. James's. I respectfully disagree with those who say Renehan has not done much in the way of original resarch. The sections on JPK Sr.'s ambassadorship, for example, seem (from a glance at the footnotes) to be thoroughly grounded in diplomatic correspondence at the FDR Library and in the Cordell Hull Papers, etc. Likewise Renehan has done fresh interviews with vets of the Solomons campaign, etc., etc. Renehan even interviewed the last surviving member of the PT-109 crew, who died last summer.

I came away impressed with Mr. Renehan's prose-style, which engages one immediately and makes one sail through the book. This is, as they say, a "real page-turner." I also came away impressed with the many new sources Renehan has unearthed: aged contemporaries of Joe Kennedy Jr. and Jack who have yielded a great trove of previously-unpublished tales. But the story doesn't stop with Jack and PT-109 or Joe Jr. blowing up with his Liberator bomber over the British coast. No, Mr. Renehan also digs deep into previously unpublished correspondence between the old man, Ambassador Kennedy, and Secretary of State Cordell Hull to document the Ambassador's power-play with Hull and FDR over Chamberlain's policies of appeasement. Mr. Renehan further renders the touching, tragic story of Kick Kennedy and her brief marriage to Billy Hartington in quite a tender and wonderful manner. This book is neither hagiography nor character-assasination. Renehan is not the Kennedys' prosecutor, nor is he their lawyer. He is just a first-class historian, digging up great new information and telling the story straight, as it ought to be told. I recommend THE KENNEDYS AT WAR very highly.