John F. Kennedy has inspired a library’s worth of published works exploring everything from his relationships with friends and women to the whirlpool of theories about his death in Dallas.
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Here are five of the most interesting:
1. “They Killed Our President: 63 Reasons to Believe There Was a Conspiracy to Assassinate JFK” by Jesse Ventura with Dick Russell and David Wayne – “Gov. Ventura’s book is the most user-friendly and I have yet to see anyone in any of Gov. Ventura’s riveting media appearances withstand his research and arguments,”
said Forbes contributor Cedric Muhammad. “It may be best to start here for a combination of breadth and depth on the subject.”
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2.“Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath,” by Mimi Alford – Alford described being requested by Kennedy to give his confident Dave Powers oral sex in JFK’s presence – something that embarrassed both her and Powers; she also talked about sex with JFK on her first day on the job as a White House intern. “Alford's tale ought to occasion further reassessment of a president we already knew to be morally compromised,”
wrote Timothy Noah in the New Republic.
3. “The Search for JFK” by Joan Blair and Clay Blair – These authors were the first to uncover inconsistencies in stories about JFK’s war years, relationships, medical history, and health. “The Blairs’ other findings about Kennedy’s affairs and his scholarly pretensions have become standard biographical fare,”
said the New Republic. “In reading the Blairs’ book, I not only learned a lot about John Kennedy, but I also learned how to research a biography. ... Question everything about a person’s history.”
“Aspiring investigative journalists could also do worse than to read the Blairs’ book,” he continued. “It’s a guide of how to find out things the authorities don’t want you to know.”
4. “If Kennedy Lived: The First and Second Terms of President John F. Kennedy: An Alternate History” by Jeff Greenfield – Kennedy’s death at the age of 46 not only cemented the foundations of the Camelot myth, it started a nation wondering what might have happened “if only ...” That speculation has taken the form of everything from science fiction to Jeff Greenfield’s book, an extrapolation of what the two terms of the Kennedy administration might have been like, and what they might have meant for American and world history through today. It’s not always what you’d expect.
5. “Camelot’s Court” by Robert Dallek – One of the more prolific Kennedy writers, Dallek penned this look into Kennedy’s more-or-less trusted circle of advisers in time for the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination. Using Kennedy’s womanizing as an establishing shot for how he viewed the people around him – mostly as tools for his use – Dallek examined Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War. Time and again, Dallek wrote, Kennedy relied on “the experts” – with mixed and sometimes disastrous results.
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