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OneLegUpAlex Reflects on the Life of JFK With Kennedy Scholar Scott Badler Powered By Podmatch 11-22-25 · OneLegUpAlex Media

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's sixty two years since President JFK was assassinated.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: And for this reminder, every November twenty second, I want
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: to take you back to an audio cut I had
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: heard from JFK at an event in nineteen sixty. This
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: is not Ai, This is not AI. But listen to
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: what he said about the press and members of an administration
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: not covering up and telling the truth.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: And no official of my administration, whether his rank is
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: here to night as an excuse to sense of the news,
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: to stifle dessent, to cover up our mistakes, or to
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: withhold from the press, from the public the facts they
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: deserve to know.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: And how about that?
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: You go, and then you watched the documentary featuring the
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Parkland doctors, and my goodness, my goodness, looks like there
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: was a lot of covering up. There was a lot
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: of this information by our own government surrounding the Kennedy assassination.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: So not only did they dishonor President Kennedy, but they
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: dishonored his wishes. And someone who is a Kennedy scholar
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: and has really written about the younger JFK.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: If I'm not mistaken. It's Scott Bler.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Scott, thanks so much for joining my podcast to commemorate
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: and remember this anniversary this year.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you for inviting me, Alex.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: So we connected through pod match, which I'm very appreciative
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: as well. So tell us what your intrigue is with
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the younger JFK and we'll lead into what happened sixty
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: two years ago.
• 1:51
  Speaker 5: Okay, Yeah, it is a kind of a sad day,
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: but in a way, I think my book can make
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: people a little bit a little more positive about President Kennedy,
• 2:00
  Speaker 5: about his younger life. You know, I just decided that
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: it would be There's you know, thousands of books on
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: President Kennedy and his presidency when he was a senator,
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: hundreds of more books on the whole Kennedy family, but
• 2:14
  Speaker 5: you know, they focus on you know, his presidency. You
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: know a lot of them, of course, focused on the assassination.
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: I just thought it would be interesting to really focus
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: on his young wife. So my book goes from age
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: eighteen to twenty nine, and those are really the kind
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: of the formative experiences he goes through that really transform
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: him and turns him into the legendary and iconic JFK.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: We all know.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: And so in those years, obviously he has his brothers
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: and by the way, RFK Senior celebrate one hundred years
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: ago was born. Whi's probably crazy thing about that too,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: But how did his siblings shape him and his and
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: of course his dad.
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: Yeah, well certainly there was the sibling rivalry with his
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: brother Joe, Joe Junior, who was a couple of years older.
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: And you know, the father had always groomed Joe to
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: be you know, president of the United States and Jack
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: was the second son. And you know, they went to
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: the same high school, Choke Prep, in Connecticut, and it
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: was a tough time for Jack because Joe was sort
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: of the start of the school. He won the Harvard
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: Award as the combining the best athlete and the best student,
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: and Jack felt like he could never keep up with
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: his older brother. So, feeling he couldn't keep up with
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: his older brother, he decided to just lays around. So
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: he just you know, did mischief and didn't work hard,
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: got lousy grades, feeling like he couldn't compete with his brother.
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: But that changed later on. You know, he actually went
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: to some therapy and realized, you know, opting out of
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: any competition with his brother wasn't getting him anywhere. And
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: I think from the age of sort of eighteen on
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: he became his own man, charged his own course. So
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: the real evolution taking place there. And regarding the father,
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: the father was someone who, you know, put a lot
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: of pressure on his sons to win at all costs,
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: well not the win it all costs, but always win.
• 4:16
  Speaker 6: So if they came back from a raised sailboall race
• 4:19
  Speaker 6: or something I finish second or third, he would really
• 4:22
  Speaker 6: you know, rail him out because in his view, second
• 4:26
  Speaker 6: place was for losers.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: And you said, you picked this time frame, but in
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: this timeframe specifically, could you tell you know, it is
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: a political family, there's no doubt about it. Could you
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: tell he had that hunger for politics at that early age.
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: You know, he mentions it in a few sides, you know,
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: he's eighteen or nineteen, but I don't think there was
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: you know, at that age eighteen nineteen it was sort
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: of in the back of his mind, and you know,
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: he was the second son, so it was like, let
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: Joe do what he wants to do first.
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: But later on, you know, I could say, certainly when
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: he's writing his thesis, for Harvard that turned into a book.
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: He's certainly thinking about, you know, a diplomatic career, a
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: political career. So by the age of certainly, like twenty
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: twenty one, twenty two, he's certainly thinking about political career.
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: I mean, that's one reason he joined the Navy. At
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: that point it was important. He realized to you know,
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: be in the armed forces. It wouldn't look good if
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: he kind of avoided going in the navy, so he
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: he took special measures. They first they declined to put
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: him in the navy because of his you know, bad health,
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: bad back, but he got used his connections to get
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: in the navy.
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: So at that point, you know, he was thinking.
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: About a political career in his early twenties.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: And you say he's rebellious, I mean, we all kind
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: of knew as an adult he was rebellious as well.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: So did he Were there any patterns he carried from
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: that era you're covering in your book into the White
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: House if you will, hmm.
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: You know, he did certain things that were a little rebellious,
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: like for example, he was a p T boat skipper,
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: as you probably know, and in order to you know.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: After a patrol was done for the for the night.
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: He would.
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: In order to he would he would raise his boat
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: as fast as he could pass the other p T
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: boats to get back to the dock so they could
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: refuel first. And you know, he wanted to give his
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: men more rests, so there was a you know, he
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: had something good in mind for his men.
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: But the problem was.
• 6:38
  Speaker 5: That you know, you're going full speed and then you
• 6:41
  Speaker 5: know you put in reverse, bad things can happen. So
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: he he ran into a dock there, the fuel shed,
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: and that was kind of a problem. So he had
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: the name Crashed Kennedy after that. So that short is
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: a certain kind of rebellious side to him.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: You know, I did not know this, but looking at
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: your rundown, I.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Always thought JFK's back pain happened later on, But you're
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: saying this was early on that he had dealt with
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: the chronic illnesses.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Is what you're writing here.
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah, they go, it goes all the way back, you
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: could even say, back to a certain way. Age three,
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: he had scarlet fever and they actually thought he was
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: gonna die. But boy, you know, investigating this, I couldn't
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: believe how illness was just something that was you know,
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: happened throughout his you know, entire life, you know, and
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: when he was at Choked Preparatory School, you know, he
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: broke the record for the most days spent in the infirmary.
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: You know, he had this autoimmune disease, and you know,
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: he'd lose weight, he'd get hives, get fatigued. You know,
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: he had terrible stomach aches. He had celiac disease, so
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: he was in and out of the Mayo clinic, and
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: you know, the back problems were exacerbated after he took
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: I think he took a stick heid in nineteen thirty seven,
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: which had a good effect in terms of giving him
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: energy so it could go on this trip to Europe
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: and also serve in the navy. But there's some evidence
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: that shows that also can lead to destroying the cartilage
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: in his back. So a very sad, you know, effect
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: of the steroid at that point, you know, not.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: Yet too biblical, but we talk about the lost years
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: of Christ. I almost feel like you're covering the last
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: years here of JFK. Do you feel like you're doing
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: that and providing that service of filling in the gaps
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: if you will, I think so, you.
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: Know, you know, I want people to know about his
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: young life, which to me is fascinating. You know, there's
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: so much happened there that, you know, the pt one
• 8:43
  Speaker 5: or nine instance, the first, first and only sort of
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: love of his life, his travels through Europe on the
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: eve of World War Two, going through Germany and Russia,
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: and you know, advising his father to change.
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: His stance on.
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: Being an isolation, you know, and finally running for Congress
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: and that was a very difficult campaign, but you know
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: he survived that and won. So really a lot happened
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: that he wrote a book, Why England Slept, So a
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: lot happened in these these eleven years that I think
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: a lot of people don't know about. People know, he
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: wrote Profiles and Courage, but he also wrote you know,
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: Why England Slapt, which turned out to be a best seller.
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: I have a little caveat to that that was the best seller.
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: His father helped that along by buying a couple thousand
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: copies himself.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Oh wow, Well, you know, I also know his father
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: was very you know, he pushed him into politics, and
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Joe Kennedy was that shadow over him. Did you find
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: the younger JFK wanting to break out of a shadow
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: and just being his own I know you mentioned he
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: was forging his own path, but it seemed like it
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: was almost impossible with the dad liked that.
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: I think he certainly did. I mean, take a look
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: at age. You know, he's twenty two and and he's
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: actually in California. He's auditing classes at Stanford, and his
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: father comes to visit and tells him he's going to
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: resign as ambassador to England and that he wants JFK
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: to write his uh, write some memos, write some stories
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: in the press that would help to rehabilitate his reputation
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: because JFK was not an isolationist, he was not an
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: a piezer like his father was. And I think JFK
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: breaks out of his you know, just trying to please
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: his father by giving his father very good and sound advice,
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: telling him he should no longer be in a peaser.
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: And you know, a few weeks after he told his
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: father that, his.
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: Father changed his mind and bat the Lenley's program that
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: provided you know, supplies military supplies and food supplies.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: To the Allies.
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: So I think by that time he had pretty much
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: you know, broken out of being in his father's mold.
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: And doing what his father wanted to do versus his father,
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: you know, you know, held the key strings to his
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: political campaign. So there's there's given take there. You know,
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: he holds the money. You have to kind of listen
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: to that and be aware that his father has the
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: money behind the campaign.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm thinking of a movie my dad actually
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: took me to, which was JFK Years of Lightning, a
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: nineteen sixty five film based on all of the footage
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: with him and his brother in the Oval office of
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: RFK was turning.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: John.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't if you got a chance to
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: watch that movie JFK Years of Lightning.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Dave Drums.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: It was just such an inside look at the Kennedy
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: family in the White House. It was fascinating stuff actually
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: by Gregory Peck.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so definitely worth watching.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: And I feel like you're you're sort of highlighting all
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: of the before that. But but if you're interested that,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: that's what I want to point you to. You know,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: I noticed that you took this on because you also
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: lived in Boston, and I have to ask you then,
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: did you ever pass the compound or obviously being in Boston,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: they are they are the family up there. They're the
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: Kennedy up there, right, So I'm sure that led to
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: the intrigue year.
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: Well I've passed by the compound and I've you know,
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: been in Cape Cod, been in Hyennas. You know, I'm
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: not trying to name drop or anything. I've ever seen JFK.
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: Junior and Martha's Vineyard. You know, I would go to
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: Harvard just for you know, I was interested in all
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: the public events they had there, and they had a
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: number involving the Kennedys, so you know, Senator Ted Kennedy
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: would be involved in some discussions there, some events, and
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: then also i'd go to the Kennedy Library also they
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: had some public programs and you know you'd run into
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: you know, Robert Kennedy's children or you know, I said
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: hello to Ethel Kennedy. So you know, not that I
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: was friends with any of them, but you know, I
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: you know, chatted, you know, briefly with a few of them.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: I met Patrick Kennedy to the one that lost his leg,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: that Kennedy, and then Eunice Kennedy Trivers. So I've been
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: I've been a couple of them as well. They're quite
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: the family.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Scott I have to say that this is so fascinating,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: but it also shows how American prior in America, if
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: you will, he had by by serving, right, So he
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: loved this country from the very beginning.
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: It seems like, yeah, I think that's true. And you know,
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: he wanted to serve.
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: You know, he was also kind of looking out for
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: his political future, but he certainly, you know, wanted to
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: serve his country. And he felt if you know, he
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: didn't serve in a military way, he wouldn't be serving
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: his country. And then you know, he you know, his
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: father taught him early on that you know, you don't
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: need money, so make some sort of contribution to the country.
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: So I think political service was something that was instilled
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: in them from the very beginning. And you know, politics
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: was the way that he went, and his brothers went
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: and his you know, sisters did other things too.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Being that this is the anniversary coming up this weekend,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: did research into the assassinations.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: So lead you to the younger years?
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: No, so this was totally separate, right, So you just
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: wanted to sort of, as I said, filled the gaps
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: from earlier, right, And the other thing about JFK that
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: I was going to say, was he, Uh, well, I
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: don't know all about him.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: That's why I have you on.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: So what else did you write about that maybe our
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: audience may not know about JFK in the younger years.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think.
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: You know, it's often said that JFK wouldn't have been
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: president if it wasn't for PT. One oh nine and
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: p T one o nine. For your listeners who perhaps
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: don't know, was a situation during World War Two where
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: you know, JFK was the skipper of that boat. These
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: are these fast patrol pots.
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: They had.
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: You know, missiles on them, torpedoes, and so JFK had
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: this is he was never in a battle before previous
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: to this particular battle. You know, he'd come back after
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: patrol and these Japanese airplanes floatplanes would see his boat
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: and they try and drop bombs at them.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: Well, he had and the problem.
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: Was he had all three engines going, so there was
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: this sort of phosphorescence that was indicating where the boat was.
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: So you know, jfkme in a calculation that it would
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: be better to if he wasn't going somewhere he was
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: just idling to just keep one engine going.
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: So it was something that came.
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: Up when this one battle of his career, the Battle
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: of Blackets Straight, and they went out to see if
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: they could intercept a Japanese convoy. And at one point
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: he receives a radio communication that says there are Japanese
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: ships in the area, Japanese destroyers, but he doesn't put
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: all three engines on, so.
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: It only has one engine in gear. The other two
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: are idling.
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: And when the Japanese destroyer came at two thirty two,
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: he tried to you know, throttle up and get out
• 16:14
  Speaker 5: of the way, but with only one engine.
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: It wasn't possible.
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: So I think that's something some new information that recently
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: came out. You know, also that he you know, his
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: men weren't kind of alert. So he was a hero
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: before the crash, I mean a hero. He was, you know,
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: not a good skipper before the crash, and a hero afterwards.
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: When he came back after his men were saved, he
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: notably said, they're either going to court martial me or
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: give me a medal, And as you know, they gave
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: him a medal because he was incredibly heroic in save
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: helping to save his men. I think I think actually
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: guilt played a certain part in that you know, two
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: of his crew men were killed when the destroyer slammed
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: into the PT one O nine, and you know, perhaps
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: he thought he'd done a better job beforehand. This might
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: not have happened, I don't know. But after the crash,
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: and you know, they gave him another boat, but this
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: was a this was a torpedo boat. They took off
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: all the all the torpedoes and they just put all
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: these big guns on there.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: And you know, I think JFK was still.
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: Trying to avenge his his crewmate's death, and he fought
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: up some sort of crazy plans to to you know,
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: go in and fight the Japanese. Unfortunately, his second in
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: command said, you know, those aren't such good ideas. They
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: end up, you know, kind of telling his men to
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: just train their guns on a couple of empty Japanese barges.
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: So I think he always felt kind of guilty about that.
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: And he never considered himself a war hero. And even
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: during the campaign of nineteen forty six, you know, his
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: father impressed upon, you know, the point that you've really
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: got to, you know, force home this point that you
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: know you're a war hero.
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: And JF. Caterbert felt he was a war hero.
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: But he finally decided to give in, and his father
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: printed something like ten thousand reprints of a story that
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: was in The New Yorker about his you know, heroic
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: aspects of the PTA one or nine episode.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: And obviously that was a in a sense of venging
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: a tragedy in his you know, military life. Anything in
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: the personal life that maybe we didn't catch on to
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: that happened.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: In his life between eighteen twenty nine that really shaped
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: him as well.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Any tragedy because obviously the Kennedy family has not it's
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: been there's been tragedy after tragedy. Anything happened during his
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: younger years as well that shaped him.
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: Let's see, see, other than the illness, you know, he
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: had a certain amount of you know, you know it's interesting,
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: you know you look at his flaws as well as
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: you know, his his positive qualities. You know, he was
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: this charismatic person. You know, where do you get charisma?
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: I don't know, maybe just you know, you either have.
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: It or your don't. But you had some flaws.
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: Also, it's interesting to read about that he was actually
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: you know, very cheap. You would think that about Kennedy
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: or they had all this money, but it was something
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: that he got from his father, and you know, he
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: was you know, he'd go out with friends, he wouldn't
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: have a you know, any money with him. They'd have
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: to loan him money, and he wasn't that good at
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: paying it back, you know, like his father.
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: It wasn't the best quality. But he was certainly a womanizer.
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: And like his father, who loved the you know, Hollywood celebrities, actresses,
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: he went through them, went after them, you know, as
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: soon as he was you know, twenty years old. And
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: you know that continued when he was in the White House.
• 19:55
  Speaker 5: So those are a couple of.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Time me if any patterns like that happened when he
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: was a kid and he sort of took him into
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: the White House. So I'm glad you elaborated on that because,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: you know, good looking dude. I'm sure he had a
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: lot of girls tracing after him too, back.
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: In the day.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: So the underdog.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Mentality, you know, it's interesting because I remember, you know,
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: you watch his rise in politics and it felt like.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: There was an underdog, underdog tone to it.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Maybe that's what Americans clung to for him when he
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: was running, right, there was sort of that mentality all
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: the way through.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: You know, I was, you know, not around at that
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: time in a certain way.
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: So whether he was the underdog, you know, he you know,
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: I guess you would say he was the number two son.
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: So it was the underdog until he sort of surpassed
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: his brother. And I think that's one of the myths
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: of the that his brother was groomed to be going
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: to be groom to be president. But actually, by the
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: time Joe Junior had died in a plane crash in
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: nineteen forty five, act had passed him by in so
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: many ways. And you know, he'd written a book, you know,
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: he had advised his father, and he was a war hero.
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: So and actually symbolically he had surpassed his brother in
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: terms of rank. He was a lieutenant. His older brother
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: was a lieutenant junior grade. So you know, those are
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: some things that come to mind.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Let's see what else, Well, let me let me ask
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: you this, he said, of course, And now I know
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: why he said what he said about.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Ask not what you can do, what the country knew
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: for you, what you knew for your country. Look what
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: he did. He did a lot for his country, even
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: before the office. And maybe people don't recognize that as
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: much Scott.
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: Well before he became president.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: This backstory may give a lot of insight into who
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: he was as a president, is what I'm thinking here.
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah, well, you know I've gone over certain things. You
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: know that he you know, wrote a book that I
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: think prepared Americans that they would have to get into
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: the war, and so I think that was a contribution.
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: Certainly made a contribution during the war.
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: You know, he was a war correspondent, or not a
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: war correspondent, but he went to the United Nations and
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: he reported on you know, the the opening of the
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: United Nations in San Francisco, So it was kind of
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: sort of everywhere you know, he served. He was writing
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: his thesis for his Harvard thesis that turned into the book.
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: He was also serving as.
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: The eyes of his father, who was the ambassador to England,
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: so he was kind of doing a double task there.
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: And you know, I think those those travels through Europe
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: on the evil World War two really informed him and
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: to certain decisions you know, he made during during his presidency.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: You mentioned that this isn't just an academic historical background.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: This is personal for you, and I want to doub
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: into the personal.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Fascination. As you write for JFK, Where did that begin?
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: It starts pretty early at this point. You know, my
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: first memory of Kennedy has to do with Ashley Nixon.
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: It's kind of a strange thing to say about an
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: election day nineteen sixty. I can remember being on the
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: playground in Los Angeles, California, and I can remember shouting Nixon, Nixon,
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: Nixon Nixon, which is a strange word for a second
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: grader to use, but I guess we must have heard
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: some adults use it. And so that's my first memory
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: that I can recall. There had to be something else
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: involved in the Kennedy is with my parents or whatever,
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: But you know, that's what I remember now. And you know,
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: I don't remember anything between the election and his assassination.
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: I can't say I actually remember. I was still pretty
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: young that they of pigs or you know, the Cuban business,
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: or you know, the space program or civil rights, and
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: then you know, of course the assassination happened, and you know,
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: it was one of those things that was the It
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: was pretty young, the first time I realized bad things
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: happened in this world, and you know, the whole world
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: stopped and you know, whenever you want. You know, the
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: TV was on, and you know that had quite an
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: effect on me at some point. And you know, I
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: noticed in the background seeing his brother, Bobby, and I
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: think seeing his brother kind of taken charge and you know,
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: become the key, the key person in the family and
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: just sort of the seed and seeing the sadness in
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: Bobby Kennedy's eyes really affected me. So you know, he
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: became my hero. And you know, until he died, and
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: you know, followed his in a career, in his personal campaign,
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: so you know, it sort of continued on from there.
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: I'm not as obsessed as I once was, but I
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: still always look on see what's happening with the Kennedy's.
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: I don't know if you notice that h JFK.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: His grandson is now about is running is it going
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: to run for Congress?
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: And right right.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: What I was going to ask you about that, what's
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: it mean to have the Kennedy's still involved? I mean,
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: for all his faults, I think anybody whos agree about
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: RFK Junior being around still feels like.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: The Kennedy's are around. Now you got the grandson.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Isn't it important to have the Kennedy name still involved
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: in politics, is what I'm trying to say.
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: You know, I supported it kind of depends on who
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: it is, you know, I mean RFK Jr. I don't
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: think that's so important to have around. But and this
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: his grandson seems like.
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: He's only a nutty. He's a little nutty.
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: So you know, you know, I mean, there's all these
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: people in the Kennedy family, and we put them all
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: in this category of being you know, shining examples of
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: what a politician should be or you know, it's not
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: going to happen. And so we'll see about this this
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: new group. There'll be good ones among them as well
• 26:15
  Speaker 5: as bad. But you know, I still have came out
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: there as you you know, makes you think about JFK.
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: And I think that can only be positive.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: You mentioned your parents, and I feel like the Kennedy
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: era was just an example of how shining almost the
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: fifties into.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: The sixties were until sixty two. Did you feel like JFK.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Embodied a certain kind of America that we need to
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: get back to today.
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think there was more.
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: It wasn't well, there's never been like a situation we
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: have now in this country. Where everybody's at everybody's at
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: their throats. You know, the parties aren't really working together
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: at all. We had this authoritarian, you know president, so
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: you know, I think he embodied most of all kind
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: of this this positism, positivism. You know, I think Reagan
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: had that too, but you know JFK did it first,
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: and you know, we really.
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: It's great for the morale of the country.
• 27:19
  Speaker 5: I mean, you still have to have some substance, which
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: g AFK certainly did, but just this positivity and this charisma,
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: you know, this young family. You know something we all
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: you know, you sort of never get tired of seeing
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: I never get tired of seeing, you know, new pictures
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: of JFK. It seems like I look on the internet
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: and there's some pictures of JFK as a young man
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: or whatever I've I've never seen before. And you know,
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: there's a book. It says something that there's a book
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: coming out. God about every couple of months. I mean,
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: you mentioned the Bobby Kennedy one, that that's a new one.
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: So it seems like every there was one in JFK JR.
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: A couple of months ago. So every couple of months
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: there's a new book on Kennedy's I guess we still
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: have that thirst for Camelot, if you will.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: So I have the term one leg up. I do
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: feel like you have one leg up on the era
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: that we don't know about so much. So and congratulations
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: on that.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: And I often ask people who write these biographies what
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: research you went into this? So what kind of research
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: go into the JFK bio that you had written about him?
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah? Well I did a lot of traveling, you know.
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: I went to his.
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: Prep school out there, Choked Prep in Connecticut, So wanted
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: around there, talk with looked in the archives there, talk
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: with the arcos there, you know, went into the church
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: there where he where he went to services. You can't
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: actually get into his room anymore. But then I was
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: around Cape cod and hyenas, looking in the different you know,
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: areas that he was involved with there, you know.
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: Going by the compound.
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: Of course, I spent a lot of time at the
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: Kennedy Library, which is, you know, in a certain way
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: I won't say makes it easy, but there has to
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: be more written about the Kennedys than you know, any
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: other family. So there's a treasure trove of documents. And
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: they were also that day letter writer. So JFK wrote
• 29:11
  Speaker 5: a lot of letters, his father wrote a lot of letters,
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: and it's kind of great to look at those letters
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: and clean out some interesting information, some interesting quotes, you know,
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: and certainly.
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: You know there's all these books.
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: So I have kind of my own library of Kennedy books,
• 29:27
  Speaker 5: and you know a lot of it has been made digital.
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: So through all those resources gave me all the resources
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: I need.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: Well, Scott, I I so appreciate the time that you
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: had given on this and to show a different side
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: as we are set to honor and remember sixty two
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: years later.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: So thank you Scott for your time. Where can we
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: get buy the book?
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Scott Badler dot net. It's also that's my website.
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: It's also available on Amazon and also had a lot
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: of bookstores. There was a big story and People magazine
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: a couple of weeks ago. So we're just starting to
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: spread with people like you interested in the book. I
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: think it'll continue to find a lot of readers.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: And one last thing, if you were to advise today's
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: party that seems to be shifting ever so left, how
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: do you bring it back to that? JFK. Mittle like
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: I know he seemed to be a centrist at heart.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: How do we get back there, not only as a country,
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: but for the Democratic Party because a lot of people
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: do call themselves JFK Democrats because everything's so different.
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's difficult when you have someone on the on
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: the far right, but I'm hopefully just the you know,
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: the you know that people kind of settle down and
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: start to listen to each other a little more. I
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: think it takes, you know, just listening to the other
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: side and compromising and remember, you know, we're all in
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: this country together. We want what's best for the country.
• 30:53
  Speaker 5: And you know, I think this is just a period
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: that's gonna you know, wind down and we'll get back
• 31:00
  Speaker 5: to more of a situation where that you know, different
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: parties are working with each other.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: I will say here here to that. And on that note, Scott, uh,
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: congrats on the book launch. Let us know how things
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: go and if there's any updates you'd like to share
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: with us along the way, You're always welcome back to.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: The One Network.
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: Okay, thanks a lot, Ales.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: And this interview is power powered by pod Match, thanks
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: to them for Cannam. It was Scott Badler. Thanks again, Scott,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: thank you Alex