John F. Kennedy's pre-war diary reveals an apparent secret admiration for the Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler, claims a new book that discloses once secret journal entries made by the former president while he was a young man touring Germany in 1937.
The book was recently released in Germany and is titled "John F. Kennedy — Among the Germans. Travel diaries and letters 1937-1945."
In the book, the author notes that after visiting Hitler's Bavarian holiday home in Berchtesgaden and a tea house built atop a mountain for the Führer, Kennedy wrote in his journal: "Who has visited these two places can easily imagine how Hitler will emerge from the hatred currently surrounding him to emerge in a few years as one of the most important personalities that ever lived."
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During the same visit, another Kennedy observation could have been taken directly from racist Nazi propaganda literature.
"The
Nordic races certainly seem to be superior to the Romans," the 21-year-old Kennedy wrote during a tour through the Rhineland.
The controversial remarks did not end there, notes the Daily Mail.
In an August 1937 diary entry, Kennedy proposed that the world’s hostility toward Nazi Germany stemmed from a jealousy for what the regime had accomplished rather than the actual actions of Hitler and the Nazis.
"The Germans really are too good — therefore people have ganged up on them to protect themselves," he wrote.
Kennedy also asks in his diary, "What are the evils of fascism compared to communism?"
At one point it appears the Kennedy believes Fascism was right for Germany at that time, when he concludes: "Fascism? The right thing for Nazi Germany."
Kennedy also praises Hitler's autobahns as "the best roads in the world."
The former president's reflections of the Nazi regime and Hitler were not all positive.
"Hitler seems to be as popular here as Mussolini in Germany, although propaganda is probably his most powerful weapon," the 35th President wrote.
In a post-war journal entry, Kennedy says of Hitler that "his boundless ambition for his country made him a threat to peace in the world, but he had something mysterious about him. He was the stuff of legends."
After the war, Kennedy walking through a destroyed Berlin described the city as having "an overwhelming stench of bodies – sweet and nauseating."
Looking at this writings as a whole, observers note that Kennedy expresses both an aversion and attraction for Nazi Germany in his journal prior to the war.
Kennedy would later fight in World War II as a Navy Lieutenant against the Japanese in the Pacific. He also lost his older brother, Joseph Kennedy Jr., a pilot who died battling the Nazis over England.
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From 1938 to 1940, Kennedy’s father, Joe Kennedy, was the U.S ambassador to Great Britain.
While serving as ambassador, Joe Kennedy opposed America's entry into World War II and routinely
expressed sympathy for Hitler and Nazi Germany, the Daily Caller notes.
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