What began as an interest in learning more about Joseph P. Kennedy, father of President John F. Kennedy (JFK), evolved into a revisit of JFK's assassination and his personal and political life in his adult years.  I have updated my article on the assassination of JFK, JFK Revisited, http://www.thepurplemuse.com/id36.html .  Since my last blog on this topic I have read The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour M. Hersh and The Poison Patriarch - How the Betrayals of Joseph P. Kennedy Caused the Assassination of JFK by Mark Shaw.  Both books provided additional insight into various facets of JFKs life, the assassination and Jack Ruby's trial.

I think this most important take away from all the books I read on this subject area in recent months is that most of what I learned about JFK and Jackie Kennedy as a young person was a total lie.  There was no Camelot in any form at any time.  It was all a public relations gimmick with no truth to back it up. JFK was having multiple adulterous affairs simultaneously. He frequently had sexual liaisons with young female members of the White House staff and prostitutes.  Jackie Kennedy spent much of her time away from her husband and the White House purposely because the marriage was a sham.  White House officials, Secret Service and other government officials gave Kennedy cover for his behavior during his time in office and in their published memoirs after his death.

In addition Kennedy lied about his health.  He took a variety of prescription drugs for his medical problems and other drugs so he could be "up" as needed for his personal and professional life.

JFK did some good things during his short time in office but caused as many problems as he solved.  This becomes clear when events like the Cuban Missile Crisis are examined in detail.  When assassinating Fidel Castro is one of your primary missions in life, it isn't too surprising that Castro might look for help from the USSR.

In the end JFK, Robert Kennedy and Edward Kennedy followed in their father's, Joseph P. Kennedy, footsteps.  They learned a lot from their father.  And much of what they learned was not positive.  One could easily make the case they all of these guys were really bad guys in many respects.  They all did some really despicable things.

After reading The Patriarch, Mary's Mosaic, The Dark Side of Camelot and The Poison Patriarch one thing is very clear, Camelot never existed.

TPM

 Earlier today the US government released the Obamacare sign-up statistics for October, the first month of enrollment.  Approximately 106,000 people signed up, 27,000 people signed up on the Federal Exchange and 79,000 people signed up on the state exchanges.  These are extremely low numbers, well below any expectation for the first month.  In addition, an estimated 5 million people with individual insurance have received cancellation notices for their existing medical insurance and most face major cost increases under the Obamacare plans.  In addition it appears that millions more people that work for small businesses will lose their existing insurance next year due to employer cost increases.  This is in addition to the technical problems that are plaguing the Obamacare Federal exchange web site.

Now that millions of people are facing the loss of their health insurance at the beginning of 2014 some Democrats, mostly those facing election in 2014, are beginning to panic.  They fully realize that their opponents will be able to use the negative impact of Obamacare as a political weapon during the election campaign.  I suggest to the Democrats that their problems have just begun.  It appears that many people with major medical problems and non-Obamacare compliant medical insurance today will lose their insurance at the end of the year and have no insurance beginning in January.  With the massive changes in the health care system that are coming, it is likely that some number of unhealthy, previously insured, now uninsured people will die early in 2014.  Having lost their insurance, doctors and hospitals some number of people will lose their ability to keep themselves alive.  Obamacare will turn into Obamadeath for these people.  Can you imagine a family member telling that story in a 2014 campaign commercial or appearance?  It is almost guaranteed to happen the way things stand today.

In typical US fashion some lawyers are now developing legal theories that the US government committed fraud through President Obama's repeated statements over three years that everyone could keep their health care plans, if they liked what they had.  When to we think the first wrongful death lawsuit caused by Obamacare will hit the court system?

Millions of people are being hurt by Obamacare.  Some number of people have been or will helped by Obamacare.  Big brother government has reached a new level in the US and is not going well.  Will the people react strongly to the impact of Obamacare and change the direction of the US government significantly in the 2014 elections?  We shall see!

TPM

I recently posted my thoughts on David Nasaw's book, The Patriarch - The Remarkable Times of Joseph P. Kennedy.  My comments on the book were positive and I recommended it to those that are interested in learning more about the Kennedy family.  While I was reading the book I occasionally went on-line to find out more details regarding some of the points made by the author.  My feeling was that there might be some important history that Nasaw "left out" of The Patriarch.

A short time after posting my blog I was looking around my local bookstore and found a book that was new to me.  Mary's Mosaic - The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision for World Peace by Peter Janney was first published in 2012. The book was updated with new information and republished earlier this year.  The story and the information provided in the book are startling.  I had never heard of Mary Pinchot Meyer before I read this book.  I did not know about her relationship with JFK.  What was even more startling is that she is not mentioned in The Patriarch. At some time in the near future I am going to update my article, JFK Revisited, http://www.thepurplemuse.com/id36.html, with information presented in Mary's Mosaic and some other sources.  However, there are a few things in this book that I believe should have been discussed in The Patriarch but were not.

The Patriarch addresses JFK's relationship with his wife, Jackie Kennedy, and acknowledges that JFK had a number of relationships with other women during his marriage. Many of us remember that the time the Kennedy family occupied the White House was referred to as the American Camelot. The handsome war hero President, Jack Kennedy, his beautiful highly educated wife, Jackie and their two young children were presented to us as a wonderful family unit leading the country. What is now clear and Mary's Mosaic clearly presents that this was far from the truth.

While JFK married Jackie it never stopped him from having extensive extramarital relationships.  When one reads Mary's Mosaic it appears that JFK only got married because he needed to be married, and have children, if he wanted to be elected President.  Jackie was simply part of the staging for JFK's political career.  JFK was never devoted to his wife in the way most of us believe is appropriate.

The Patriarch avoids discussing the extremely stressed marriage between JFK and Jackie after the Democratic convention in 1956. Jackie was pregnant with their first child after having miscarried at least once before. The Patriarch states that JFK left his pregnant wife with her mother and stepfather and went to Europe for a vacation.  This is true. However, The Patriarch doesn't tell the rest of the story.  This pregnancy was Jackie's stillborn daughter.  It was bad enough that JFK left his pregnant wife at a critical time.  But he didn't return immediately after finding out the baby was stillborn.  JPK had to convince his son to return to his wife. What is clear is that the marriage was highly volatile. Jackie wanted a divorce and had reasonable justification. However, JPK knew that JFK would never be elected President if he was a single, divorced, Catholic man with no children.  JPK, JFK and company were on a timetable and a divorce wasn't in their plans. In the end JPK negotiated a business deal with Jackie to keep her in the marriage and to keep JFK's Presidential aspirations on track.

There are many, many people mentioned in The Patriarch.  However, Mary Pinchot Meyer is not one of them.   Mary's relationship with JFK, in all of its facets as explained in Mary's Mosaic, was history making.  It appears she changed the course of history to some degree because of her relationship with JFK.  Mary was murdered by the CIA within a year of JFK's assassination because she new too much and was preparing to tell the world what she knew. JPK was a living as a shell of the man he once was when JFK was assassinated. His role in guiding JFK's career was over by then. He was no longer able to impact JFK's female relationships.

Why were JFK's female relationships so important?  Why not focus on the huge political issues of his day like Civil Rights, the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and Viet Nam?  Much of The Patriarch concerns the relationship of Joe and Rose Kennedy with their children.  How many times have we been told about Joe and Rose's wonderful family? The bottom line is that the parenting style of Joe and Rose had a fundamental impact of the character development of JFK.  JFK was a brilliant, articulate, but very flawed man due to his relationship with his mother and father. Much of what we saw on TV about JFK and his family was a charade. Do we want leaders that tell us only part of the truth? Do we want leaders to purposely misrepresent facts to us? I think not.

Mary's Mosaic is an amazing book. Peter Janney took years to research the massive amount of detail contained in the book.  He had to overcome the fact that his own father, a CIA employee, was involved in the cover-up of Mary Pinchot Meyer's murder.

I believe that one day the citizens of the US and the world will know enough detail about the assassination of JFK to close the book on the story.  We are getting closer but we haven't gotten all the way there yet.  For those that think that the Warren Commission report is accurate I have one thought for today.  Mary Pinchot Meyer would have never been murdered if Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone.  She was killed by a professional or team of professionals.  Her death and all events that surrounded her death demonstrate that there is a lot more to the JFK assassination story than a lone assassin.

TPM