The World was Brainwashed with Camelot....
"The public image of the Kennedy White House was one of glamour and high culture. Jackie Kennedy set the fashion world abuzz with her clothes, invited famous thinkers and artists to visit the White House, created a "White House Fine Arts Committee," and, in general, made the most of her role as First Lady. The beautiful Jackie, the handsome, vigorous president, and their young children, Caroline and John Jr., seemed to be a model First Family. Beneath the surface, though, things were not so pretty. Jackie felt lonely and isolated from her husband, who was occupied with affairs of state and with his almost compulsive womanizing. His most prominent mistresses during his White House years were the film star and international sex symbol Marilyn Monroe, and a woman named Judith Campbell Exner, who was also the mistress of a mob boss. But there were many others in addition, including those with whom JFK had countless brief, semi-anonymous flings. All of this was kept secret from the general public, of course, as was JFK's continuing struggle with Addison's Disease–papers were loathe to risk lawsuits by publishing rumors, especially when the Justice Department was in the hands of JFK's brother Robert.
But Worse...
The Kennedy brothers, assisted by the slightly unstable, paranoiac FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, had no qualms about using their power against their political opponents. Illegal wiretapping, something Hoover had been practicing for years, expanded drastically under JFK. Robert Kennedy used the wiretaps against the Mafia and other underworld types, but also authorized spying on public figures.
And More...
The first election JFK won was his grandfather Honey Fitz's congressional seat. Critical to the win was Joe's money. It didn't hurt when a second Joseph Russo was placed on the ballot. The first Joseph Russo was a leading contender for the House seat but the two Russo names split his vote total. JFK's election to the U.S. Senate was again largely the result of Joe's money and connections. Bobby Kennedy was his brother's official campaign manager.
During the Democratic primaries for the 1960 presidential election, JFK's most important victory came in West Virginia. Large sums of Kennedy money--at least $2 million ($11 million in today's dollars) and possibly twice that--bought votes. The paymasters included JFK's brothers, Bobby and Ted Kennedy. The primary was effectively stolen from Hubert Humphrey.
At the democratic convention, JFK came in with enough delegates for a first ballot nomination. He made a surprise choice of Lyndon Johnson as a running mate. No one, including JFK, had wanted Johnson on the ticket. LBJ was a close friend of J. Edgar Hoover, who had provided him with much information about JFK's personal life. JFK admitted in private that he chose Johnson because, "those bastards are trying to frame me."
Prior to the 1960 election, the CIA had unassailable evidence of a Nixon bribe; a copy of a check for $100,000 that had been deposited in Nixon's checking account in a California bank. This was given by a former business partner of Albert Göring (brother of Field Marshall Hermann Göring). The men in the upper echelons of the CIA disliked the dishonorable Nixon—who had publicly and vehemently disavowed ever accepting any bribes—and strongly favored JFK in the election.
In the 1960 presidential election, Joe Kennedy made a deal with Sam Giancana. This former Al Capone hit man was the most influential gangster in the powerful organized crime syndicate in Chicago. The deal was for Giancana to get out the JFK vote among the rank and file in the mob controlled unions and siphon campaign funds from the corrupt Teamster's union fund. What Giancana would get in return is unknown. JFK's stolen win in Illinois was crucial to his narrow general election victory of less than one tenth of one percent of the popular vote.
In 1960, Hoover was five years short of the mandatory retirement age for government workers (70). Through illegal wiretaps, he knew the election corruption went far beyond Illinois. Allegations of fraud were filed in eleven states. The day after the election, JFK announced he would reappoint Hoover as FBI director. Another JFK appointment was his brother Bobby as Attorney General. This choice was forced on Jack by his dad. With his brother the Attorney General, the investigation into election fraud was stopped in its tracks. Nothing was done after the Justice Department forwarded a report to the Attorney General that the Illinois election was stolen.
During the election, JFK railed against the "missile gap", a supposed shortcoming of U.S. nuclear missile capability compared to that of the Soviet Union. Through briefings with high ranking officials Kennedy knew no such gap existed, but it became an issue to the electorate worried about nearby Cuba. JFK was more vocal in bashing Cuba than his opponent, Vice President Richard Nixon. Both of them knew of Eisenhower's top secret plans to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro and to invade Cuba though Nixon, as VP, couldn't bash Cuba too much or it would jeopardize that plan. Eisenhower and Nixon had hoped that the Castro overthrow would occur prior to the 1960 election. Under the direction of the Eisenhower administration, the CIA involved the Mafia in plotting the assassination of Fidel Castro as early as August 1960. The CIA contact, Johnny Rosselli (believed to be personally responsible for 13 Mafia murders), was a top man directly responsible to Sam Giancana. Giancana was supposed to arrange the Castro hit in October 1960 for Eisenhower and Nixon while he was also working to steal the election for Kennedy. Giancana made no attempt to kill Castro before the election.
Castro was preparing for an invasion based on JFK's tough talk, his awareness of invasion plans, and the expected Republican response to JFK's accusations that they were soft on Cuba. Nixon believed JFK's manipulation of the Cuba issue beat him in the election. He saw Kennedy men as "the most ruthless group of political operatives." In his memoirs, Nixon wrote:
From this point on I had the wisdom and wariness of someone who had been burned by the power of the Kennedys and their money and by the license they were given by the media. I vowed that I would never again enter an election at a disadvantage by being vulnerable to them – or anyone – on the level of political tactics.
The lesson he learned appears to have led Nixon to the presidency, a re-election, and the disgrace of a forced resignation.
The Kennedys planned to have Jack as president for two terms followed by Bobby as president for two terms. To move Bobby closer to the presidency for the 1968 election, the Kennedys planned to dump Vice President Lyndon Johnson from the 1964 ticket. In 1963, they supplied documents about Johnson and some of his illegal financial dealings to Republicans.
And More...
In public, JFK took responsibility for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. His popularity soared to an 83% approval rating. In private, he blamed the CIA and the military brass for the debacle and drew the circle of decision-makers ever tighter around himself and Bobby. Though inexperienced in foreign policy, the Kennedys began back channel communications with Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev and spent the next 18 months negotiating foreign policy secretly. Bobby Kennedy, just 35 years old, within the first six months of JFK's presidency had become the president's legal advisor, political advisor, protector, best friend, and most influential foreign affairs advisor.
The Kennedy administration accomplished little in domestic legislation. For the first two years of his administration, Kennedy did not respond to calls from black leaders for passing comprehensive civil rights legislation. The Democrats held a narrow majority in Congress and many of the Democratic seats were held by Southerners who opposed such legislation. JFK needed the white Southern vote to win re-election in 1964 so his approach to civil rights was a cautious, noncommital one. In February 1963 Kennedy submitted a watered down civil rights package to Congress, but he did little to promote its passing and it quickly expired. Anguished by the (televised) violence of Southern segregationists against those promoting civil rights, Kennedy announced on June 11, 1963 that he would send comprehensive civil rights legislation to Congress. The legislation had not yet passed when JFK was assassinated. Kennedy's efforts to cut taxes and increase funding for education died in Congress, leaving his administration with a legacy in which no significant legislation was passed. (Note: This material was drawn largely from PBS's website as Hersh had little to write about regarding legislation pushed or passed through Congress by Kennedy.)
John Kennedy seemed to have it all; looks, charm, intelligence, a sense of humor, power, and the Kennedy fortune. He was a man's man and a woman's man. He was also impatient, self-absorbed, zealously loyal to his family, a womanizer, an adulterer, physically unhealthy, dishonest, and extremely reckless. John Kennedy was a notorious penny-pincher who never carried cash and thus was never able to pay his share of a restaurant or bar bill.
JFK adored his father and maternal grandfather, his brother Bobby was his closest friend, but he had little time or use for his mother nor for women as peers in general. He often called women he knew "kid" because he couldn't remember their names; even the names of his lovers. Hersh speculates that JFK's craving for women and compulsive need to shower (as often as five times a day) may have been linked to a lack of mothering.
He not only considered women as less than equals, he often referred to the poor, the blacks, and the Jews, as "poor bastards". He showed almost no empathy and, like the majority of people of his time, accepted inequalities based on race, gender, and religious belief.
Though he won a Pulitzer Prize for his autobiography Profiles in Courage, it is likely the book was largely ghostwritten and it is the case that his dad's money kept it on the bestseller list and Joe's connections won it the Pulitzer.
JFK had an undistinguished legislative output in the Senate, but his looks and personal appeal and Joe Kennedy's planning, connections, and money were behind marketing efforts that made him a national celebrity.
During JFK's presidency, his desire and demand for loyalty resulted in his capable staff serving him poorly as they preferred to please him rather than enlighten him.
What the public saw in JFK was an attractive, glamorous, hardworking President devoted to country, wife and family. Four former secret service men who were assigned the Kennedy presidential detail were interviewed for The Dark Side of Camelot. They reported they saw a president obsessed with sex, willing to take enormous risks to gratify that obsession, a president who came late many times to the Oval Office and who was not readily available for hours during the day."
Bottom line, he was a rich spoiled scumbag (My opinion)