Electoral College Count map as well as the balance of power for the u. S. House and senate. Stream live or on demand anytime on Election Night, cspan. Org election. Good evening. I am alan price, director of the john f. Kennedy president ial library and museum. On behalf of my library and foundation colleagues i am delighted to welcome all of you who are watching tonights program online, thank you for joining us this evening. I would like to acknowledge the generous support of our underwriters. Lead sponsors, but bank of america and media spots. A robust question and answer period, you will see full instruction on screen for somebody your questions via email or in the comments on are youtube page. We are grateful to have this opportunity to explore president kennedys earlier years in depth protesting the speakers this evening. This is our first major work about president kennedy and many years. Much of Frederik Logevalls research took place in the kennedy archives and we are pleased to learn more about the comprehensive new look at president kennedys formative years. Lets introduce tonights speakers. So glad to welcome Frederik Logevall back to the kennedy library. And and and modern international history, not her of my books including embers of war. Jfk, comingofage in the American Century, to 1956. And george packer, our nonfiction books, our man Richard Holbrook and the end of the American Century. The unwinding, 30 years of american decline which won a National Book award. And blood of the liberals. He is the author ten also the play and editor of the two volume edition of the essays of george orwell. Please join me in welcoming our special guests. Welcome, everybody, theres a couple hundred of you which is fantastic. It is a privilege and the pleasure to talk to Frederik Logevall and get our heads up the present and out of the news for an hour and a half, the great refuge as we try to navigate the storm used years. I know you as the author of two essential book from the vietnam war. People who farted vietnam war served in vietnam when i ask what books i have to read on the war, and and and i know you as a vietnam expert. As an america expert and someone who shares a lot with me in American History and Foreign Policy. We talk about your completely engrossing, the word David Kennedy used, new biography of jfk. Welcome, fred, welcome to the audience. The first question is inevitable but why another biography . There hasnt been a major one in some time but there are dozens. Takes a little bit of puts the chutzpah to wait and what is where this is gone and we thought we knew what there was to know so why did you take this on . Tremendous to be with you and have this opportunity to talk about all this stuff, in a way our most recent books are kind of bookends because mine is the beginning of the American Century and yours is the latter part of the American Century. We can talk about that but great to be on with you. I have been fascinated by john f. Kennedy and the kennedys for a long time, and and the vietnam question. And starting to get attention. Partly interest in the kennedy, and and use kennedys life to tell the story not just of his role but in americas rise, the rise of the United States to great power status to superpower status, on Jack Kennedys life, born in 17, the us entering world war i, dies in 63 which is the zenith of American Power in some ways prior to vietnam so those two things and maybe a third, the materials in the library are so phenomenal and i news this, the levy hosting tonights event. I thought a lot of them hadnt been tapped by a lot of people. So there is something fresh about them. The kind of comprehensive life and times im trying to do here. You know about the material in the library with your vietnam research. I knew about it from the work on vietnam and other researchers, incredible folders, some of them, having been used that much. That is what becomes available. It is part of my prior research. So you zeroed in on documents you knew were there once you committed your self to this project, box 291 of 173 because i know what is there and no one has ever used it. Guest some of this in terms of specific folders, i had to see them myself once i had the sense. David nassars terrific biography of joe seeing year, as historians we all do this, we look to see what other people have done and i can see what david and a few other people have done in terms of particular corrections some of which were open and available prior to that work. And one of the marvelous things about the library has been digitized. Nevertheless some great stuff. Anybody can access from their couch, their stuff available that means you can see without having to darken the doors of this library and its a great collection. How did you approach the genre of biography since i dont think youve written one and it is not the same thing as the history of two years decisionmaking about a war. It is more i would say closer to the problems that confront a novelist because you have to sell your book with characters, especially one character and bring that character to light. All the harder is they know that character so how did you approach the genre, the unknown genre of biography and what models do you use and what guidance do you give yourself as you research and write it . It is so interesting given you yourself authored novel so you have a sense of what you are describing here, that is fascinating to me and you are crazy right, history and biography are not the same thing. Ive come to realize how different they are in some ways. Of course it is about finding evidence, trying to figure out what happened. In this case a particular life but there are similarities between this work and the work ive done previously but also different. I think i had been fascinated by the kennedys, the Great American story. This family is an extraordinary one beginning, i begin the book with the arrival of the kennedys and fitzgeralds in the Nineteenth Century and then joes rise in particular, joe seeing year, and a sickly child emerges from this. I wont say the story would write itself, this has Great Potential for me as a historian, someone interested, would like to see how this would work. And hands can i pop this back to you, how would you answer your own question, to our man. By the time my book came out. Of fading figure in American Foreign policy, dominated many news events in his lifetime or not on the scale of jfk, went into the Foreign Service under jfk, if called to service that inspired him to join the Foreign Service. I felt i needed to grab the reader with the first paragraph and never let the reader go or else they would abandon the project because who cares . That is my great fear, who cares . You didnt have that problem. People care about jfk. I began with the voice of a novelist even though the book has 35 pages of notes, it begins, i knew him as if you were about to hear a long yarn by a restaurant or, the voice that carries the entire book and it gave me a ton of freedom to do things traditional biographies dont do, and it has to be true. I tried to make it sound like a great yarn you would want to sit down and here through a long night of storytelling. We talked about this before but it fits marvelously, it was great fun to talk about. One thing you say in early pages which i thought about. I am paraphrasing. Didnt have a chance to look before we came on. Only in fiction can we ever really get to know a person deep inside. I have thought about that because jack kennedy, many people think, maybe this is truly somewhat elusive. Some people worn merely on you are never going to get close to this guy because of the nature that he has. Because of his mothers emotional attachment. Readers have to tell me if im right about this. I think i can get, given your parameters that only in fiction can we ever really, i hope i get fairly close. I think you do. I wrote this to you personally but sitting there on the book jacket, that brings us so close to jfk, it is an intimate picture, talk about how you achieve that, readers will find it is a page turner, always rate there in the middle of the scene or close to the characters, ironic and detached and observing his own life and everyone else, that is his character but the things that created that character i didnt understand very well until i read this book. Your book doesnt begin, when i enter world war i, and holbrook was born in 1941, the other year the American Century began, tell me about your decision to frame jfks life as the life of the American Century beginning in 1917 and what that means for our understanding of americas rise to global power. The late great harvard historian, a member of the department i am now in, might have been ernie who wrote, this struck me at the time, i was a graduate student, Something Like this, we think of the American Century beginning in 40 or 41 or the late 30s or 1945. In fact americas contribution to the war in 191718 was formidable, because of the degree to which the european powers were decimated by the great conflagration though it wasnt fully evident at the time, europeans understood it was only a matter of time, dominance on the world stage and in a sense it was a delay in the 20s and 30s. I write about this in the book. Do they want the responsibility of leadership, maybe not. I feel comfortable saying 1917 is critical to the American Century, us entry into the war and the bolshevik revolution which is so crucial later on and crucial to jack kennedy. The cold war that defines kennedys public life began in 1917, the true powers of the cold war, their trajectory in collision with each other. You could make that argument. I say to my students i ask a question about when the cold war begin and if you look at the characteristics of the cold war, the greatest characteristics were present in 1917. 2 or 3 more, one of them might be deep ideological schism but some of the things we associate with the cold war, the great arms race, suppression of internal dissidence after world war i in the United States and in the soviet union. A bipolar structure, some of those things may not be present in 1917 but i have had very smart students, interesting students make a pretty compelling case for 1917 as the start date. Host did you have a preconception about jfk going into this . Did you have a picture of him that you were going to then draw or did you begin relatively agnostic and do the research . Guest i think i had a sense, interesting question, when i began for my work on indochina and the fact he visited in 1951. The beginning members of war and asks all these penetrating questions what the french are trying to achieve. I had a sense the common view of Young Jack Kennedy, playboy, wasnt very serious about anything and only later became a mature striving politician. I had a sense that was not correct. The research i did so marvelous they shall be on a doubt that this is a guy who from an early age was serious about policy, deeply curious about the world. That is a half answer. It is suggesting i had an inkling that i wanted to revise and the research actually supports the most riveting pages for the trip to europe, when europe is moving rapidly toward war. Is having a mix of a kind of a rich boys vacation with access, all across the continent, churchill, chamberlain, hitler, does he give a speech . He was a with the first in 37, he decided in 39 nevertheless, almost the degree to which he shows up in a place that becomes a hotspot. I open the premise with him in late august of 39 and carries a message to the us consular official, the senior diplomat in berlin to give him a message to carry back to britain, joe kennedy senior. The message says the germans will attack poland within a week. You have this kind of intrepid guy, benefiting from his fathers connection, he would not see these people if joe senior, the two eldest sons. It is also jfks own early striving. Host lets talk about his parents and relation to them. I felt i understood the character much better from your book, it was really especially his relationship with his father, i wouldnt be the first to say may be the source of his misogyny because his mother let him down. She wasnt around for much of his childhood, his father wasnt either but the mother was expected to be in the father was not. Joe kennedy comes across, made me feel like a lane father. He was constantly the ranging activities and every day schedules, we will play football in the afternoon and discuss Current Events at dinner and reading at night and for a man of that generation in credibly involved in many childrens lives and devoted to them. That seems to me to be the core relationship for jack kennedy growing up. It is an extraordinary aspect of joe kennedy seniors persona and theres an interesting example of this. Joe kennedy in 193435, is heading the sec in washington, heading up an important new Government Entity and yet he pens the long handwritten letters to jack who is in his last year at prep school, long letters handwritten to joe junior who is at harvard. The younger children, strikes me that this is a guy who somehow managing important Government Policies nevertheless instructing his children, trying to mold his children, particularly quite clear about them. What everyone might say, joe kennedy, the business man, diplomat, disaster is turn as ambassador to britain, this devotion to his kids is something. I will also think, deserves more credit for jacks upbringing within given, he gets his historical sensibility more from her or his father. Is International Sensibility comes from her, she is emotionally withdrawn, and at canterbury, the first prep school, he comes once to canterbury, takes extended vacations including to europe. That is hard for him. What you expect from a woman whose husband is flagrantly cheating on her throughout her marriage and humiliating her by bringing mistresses home for dinner and of course, the alternative is fighting all the time, those are not alternative she wants for herself and her family. I think i suggest in the book they have the kind of arrangement that he will be more discreet in his affairs than he was early on and she will look the other way and that is what happens. He has a notorious affair with lori swanson in hollywood and on some level comes to realize this but you are so right. When you think about what she has to indoor indoor and when you think about his objectifying women, seeing them as women as objects to be conquered, it is a hard environment for her. Where did jacks ambition come from. One thing your book makes very clear is it wasnt simply handed to him like instructions on how to be a man by his father. In a way that isnt extremely attractive, hes not seen like a pampered, spoiled son of privilege, who went his fathers way because that was the path of least resistance. In other words he is not donald trump junior. He fights for his own path, even when never causing too much trouble. He never openly is defiant and rebellious in a way that deeply hurt his father but he nonetheless manages against a great deal of magnetism coming from his overbearing father. How will that create a political ambition in jack . I have thought a lot about that in going through the materials that are so rich, archival materials and other kinds of evidence, the library is magnificent, they cant reveal everything. And to particular girlfriend he was close to. They dont want to pursue a political career. Its those things at least in part that if they bring in this series auto due to have early on. As a status that when joe, jr. Is killed over england or over the channel suddenly its up to jack to carry on his fathers dreams. Jack was headed that way already. I think he was. And wouldve been joe, jr. Would not have had what jack brought to that career, which is incredible intelligence and broad learning but also that quality of being his own man which is essential when youre in the oval office and your generals are all telling you you need to start world war iii with the soviet union. Over cuba in 62. I went to volume two. I think its right and i do think joe, jr. I was the golden child and who brought a lot to the table. He was straight from central casting entrance of being incredibly handsome, healthy as an ox, extremely ambitious. Im not going to suggest, i dont say in the book that even if joe, jr. Survives, comes back from the war, that we would seem the same kind of trajectory from his younger brother. What he had his own reasons for running and as you suggest he had a better claim, he already authored a book which was a lightly revised version of his senior thesis. That really rubbed joe, jr. The wrong way because he was used to being primus inter pares in the family and he already had these attributes before joe juniors tragic death. Hes making his own decisions. Even in terms of which office to seek in 1946. Its not his fathers decision to seek a house secret that is ultimately jfks honor. Tell us how his mind as a practitioner of statecraft, as someone who about and eventually practices Foreign Policy, developed in the crucial years from the late 30s to the early cold war when he first ran for office. How did he become the jack kennedy we now know as president . Those are the key years. Tell us what happened and how they affected him. Bring in his father because thats a crucial parting of the ways. This is such a fun part of the whole writing experience for me, and my wife will tell you that i would talk about again with the materials in the library and elsewhere show about precisely this period. I think what happens is he gets to harvard. He begins in 1936. Hes had effectively a kind of gap year, so use your older than most of his classmates in the class of 1940. Student body is pretty heavily isolationist