All language subtitles for Kennedy.2023.S01E01.720p.WEB.h264-EDITH[eztv.re]

- He'll lead us
to a fruitful America.

From the state
of Massachusetts,

John F. Kennedy!

- John F. Kennedy lived a life

that would help define
an entire generation.

- Together,
we shall save our planet,

or together,
we shall perish in its flames.

- What was it about that guy?

- Looks, style, empathy.

- He was incredibly charming.

- Intellectual
and progressive.

- He was the future.
He was next.

[soaring orchestral music]

- President for just
over 1,000 days,

Kennedy navigated events
and crises

that changed the world.

- Kennedy is feeling
the pressure

from
the Civil Rights activists.

- This was a country
on nuclear war footing.

♪ ♪

- This could be
the last mistake

that anybody makes politically.

♪ ♪

- He changed us in the process
of his own growth.

- We choose to go to the moon
in this decade

and do the other things,
not because they are easy

but because they are hard.

- 60 years after
his assassination,

we are still fascinated
by the triumphs

and flaws of
the youngest president

ever elected.

- I ask you to join us
in all the tomorrows

yet to come,
in building America,

moving America,
picking this country

of ours up
and sending it into the '60s.

♪ ♪

[birds chirping]

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- The story begins
on a quiet spring afternoon

in May 1917
in the Boston suburb

of Brookline, Massachusetts.

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
gave birth to a baby boy

in the master bedroom of
the modest Kennedy household.

The future president,
John Fitzgerald Kennedy,

known by his friends
and family as Jack,

was born on May 29th
around 3:00 p.m.

♪ ♪

The world in 1917
was shifting.

That year,
America entered

the Great War,
which had begun in 1914.

The Silent Sentinels protested
in favor of women's suffrage

in front of the White House.

The average annual
household income was $800,

and the cost of a movie ticket
was just seven cents.

With hundreds of thousands
of miles of railroad tracks,

America, also the world's
largest producer

of coal and iron,
was at the center

of a new industrial age.

- Kennedy is born
into this time

when the United States
is rising as a world power.

- Delivered by
the family doctor,

Jack was proclaimed
healthy and handsome.

Young Jack's life was happy
and carefree

until he contracted
scarlet fever at age two.

In a world
without antibiotics,

his prognosis was dim.

Jack was sent
to the Boston City Hospital,

where his condition
was so poor

that he received last rites.

- The last rites are not
administered trivially.

That's a mark of a very, very
serious near-death experience.

- In an unexpected turn,
his health stabilized

and he was released.

This was an early sign
of Jack's lifelong

chronic health struggles.

♪ ♪

Jack's mother, Rose,

was effectively
a single parent.

Though she tolerated
her husband Joe's affairs

with other women,

his numerous
business ventures,

including banking,
ship manufacturing

during the First World War,

and stock brokering,

added to
his frequent absences.

- He was, by this time,

well on his way to becoming

an important businessman,
and it hadn't been easy.

From the very beginning,
Joe and Rose

reached an agreement that Rose
was gonna raise the kids

when they were little.

As the boys got bigger,
Joe would step in.

But Joe Kennedy
wasn't around much,

with one exception.

Jack developed scarlet fever
at the age of two,

and before work
and after work,

Joe goes to the hospital.

He sits at the bedside.

He watches over his son.

He confers with the doctors
and the nurses.

He becomes
the one and only parent.

Jack Kennedy
doesn't see his mother

at a critical moment
in his upbringing

for months and months.

♪ ♪

- When he was around,
Joe showered attention,

especially on the boys.

Rose was cold, self-absorbed.

There was something
particular about the coldness

from Rose that you can't.
really explain away.

- Rose, like Joe,
often went away

for large stretches of time
when the children were young.

A young Jack
was said to have remarked,

"Gee, you're a great mother
to go away and leave

your children all alone."

He told a friend
while he was an adult,

"My mother never hugged me,
never, never."

♪ ♪

- Instead of pitying himself,
he found something else

to occupy his mind.

♪ ♪

From Sinbad the Sailor
to Peter Pan,

Jack was enthralled
by reading.

His literary interests
did not lay solely

in swashbuckling adventure.

He devoured
weighty historical tomes

like "Lays of Ancient Rome,"
a popular collection of poems

written in the 1840s,

and "The Pilgrim's Progress,"

a work of theological fiction
by John Bunyan.

- There was something
special about Jack.

He taught himself.

[upbeat jazz music]

♪ ♪

- When Jack was 10,
his father relocated

the family to New York.

A formidable
business opportunist

and an investor
in the stock market,

Joe Sr. had grown his wealth
by applying his skills

to various business ventures,
including the film industry.

- He was spending most
of his time now in New York.

He was a film producer.

He was a film executive.

And the business side
of the movie business

was in New York.

The Bronxville house,

where Jack
really grows up, is--

you know,
it was a mansion

with a huge lawn,
big driveway,

lots of land
for the kids to play.

- The family began spending
their summer

and early autumn months
at the beachside village

of Hyannis Port,
part of the Cape Cod area

in Massachusetts.

After renting
a summer residence

at 50 Marchant Avenue
for several years,

Joe Sr. purchased the home.

- The family spends
more time together

in Hyannis Port
than anywhere else.

What binds them together
is not their home

in Bronxville
but Hyannis Port.

- Jack was surrounded
by eight siblings--

Joe Jr., Rosemary,

Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia,

Robert, Jean, and Ted.

Though they were raised
in considerable wealth,

Joe and Rose
taught their children

about the value of money,
the importance

of a strong work ethic,
and the need to stay informed

about world affairs,

which often led to
heated political discussions

at the dinner table.

- Joe and Rose
led conversations

about current events
and global events

for all nine of the siblings
over dinner.

And Joe
was like a quiz master.

[soft dramatic music]

The parents
seeded the children,

particularly the boys,
with this sense

of history, current events,
global events.

And from that, the boys

did pursue it on their own.

- Jack lived his early life
in the shadow

of his older brother, Joe Jr.,

who was the promising
Kennedy child,

being primed
for a political future.

Joe Jr. was successful
in school,

but Jack's grades
were comparatively poor.

- Jack was a smart aleck
as a kid.

He had friends.

Every smart aleck,
every jokester has friends.

But he didn't try hard
the way Joe did.

Joe was the model kid.

Joe Kennedy put his faith
in the future

of the Kennedy dynasty,
in his oldest son, Joe Jr.

- Joe Sr.
seriously believed

he would become the first
Irish Catholic president

of the United States.

Jack was an afterthought.

♪ ♪

- Coming up on future episodes
of "Kennedy"...

- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
is a unique character

in U.S. and world history.

- He had risked his life.

He'd climb one rung
of the ladder,

and then he'd start looking
to the next one.

But he would have given up
all of his political success

to be pain-free.

- There was a chance
that he would die.

Was he going to pity himself,

or was he going
to overcome it?

♪ ♪

- And we stand today

on the edge of a new frontier.

- When he walked
into the Oval Office,

he had a lot to learn.

- You have Kennedy
trying to manage the Cold War,

but also adhere
to the real dilemma

that African Americans
are facing.

- He guided
the country through

the most dangerous period
of its existence.

- The idea we could get into
a nuclear war was very real.

That's where Kennedy
is the leader.

- And so,
my fellow Americans,

ask not what your country
can do for you,

ask what you can do
for your country.

♪ ♪

[soft dramatic music]

- Jack's playful personality
and rebellious energy

was at odds
with his solemn

and polished older brother,
Joe Jr.,

molded by Joe Sr.
in his own image.

Though Jack looked up
to his older brother,

the two were competitive,
engaging in heated fights

on the living room floor.

- Jack adored
his older brother,

Joe, followed him around.

The two of them played together
all the time,

though Joe was a bully.

Jack brought a lot of

the physical abuse on himself.

He couldn't stop teasing.

He started fights that he knew
he was gonna lose.

- Underweight and frail,
Jack was almost always pinned

and defeated
in these brotherly brawls,

but he always got back up
and tried again.

In one of these
competitive episodes,

Joe Jr. suggested that he
and Jack race their bicycles

around Brookline.

The frenzied race
landed Jack in the hospital

with 28 stitches.

[acoustic music]

- John Kennedy
becomes a teenager,

more or less, at the onset

of the Great
Depression in the early 1930s.

It was just
an unimaginable calamity.

That kind of suffering
and trial by unemployment

didn't touch
the Kennedy family at all.

- They were
completely shielded

from the Great Depression.

They knew
that it was happening.

But maybe
Joe Kennedy's real genius

was exposing
his sons to the world

so that they would understand
that the world was larger

than the closeted life
they all lived.

♪ ♪

- In September 1930,
Jack began

his eighth-grade year
at the Canterbury School

in New Milford, Connecticut.

Jack loved sports, playing
both baseball and football

in spite of
his abnormally low weight

and constant health issues.

Jack often wrote
to his parents

about everyday life at school,

including the difficulty
of his studies,

his frustration
with the school's

strict religious practices,
and the freezing weather.

[soft dramatic music]

In April 1931,

when he was
almost 14 years old,

Jack suffered
abdominal pains

that resulted
in an appendectomy--

the first of many surgeries
in his life.

♪ ♪

After this operation,
he withdrew from Canterbury

and returned home
to Hyannis Port.

♪ ♪

Having had
the summer to recover,

Jack transferred
to the Choate School

in September 1931,
a private boarding school

in Wallingford, Connecticut.

Joe Jr. was already
a student there

and showed Jack the ropes.

♪ ♪

- Its hallmark,
from George St. John,

the headmaster,
was to make sure that every boy

got attention

and got the kind of education
that he needed.

As a new third-former,
as they were known,

the ninth-graders,
he was nervous.

Fortunately, he did have
an older brother

to sort of steer him
and give him the ropes.

But he was pretty much
on his own,

but I think that was part of
the family tradition, too--

to make your own way.

Put into a dormitory--
so that's your first network.

Then, you're in classes--
that's another network.

Sports--
that's another network.

You sort of find
your way with the activities

that you're involved in.

♪ ♪

- Jack did well in classes
he enjoyed,

like math and politics,

but performed poorly
in subjects

that didn't interest him,
such as Latin.

Where he truly excelled
was American history,

a subject
he found fascinating.

- Kennedy loved history.

He knew it very well,

and I think it gave him

this grasp of how things work.

♪ ♪

His knowledge of history
informed him

that being a great orator
was important.

How does power work?

How, historically,
have our alliances worked?

♪ ♪

- Despite his untroubled,
relaxed persona,

Jack's sharp intelligence
was noted

by those around him,

including
the Choate headmaster

George St. John.

- I think he saw great promise
in John Kennedy

but was a little frustrated
by his occasional

nonconformist activity.

That just angered him

because he saw
such great promise in him.

He knew he was a smart boy,

and he just wanted
something better out of him.

♪ ♪

- While at Choate,
Jack met someone

who would become
his lifelong friend,

a classmate
named Lem Billings.

- One of Jack Kennedy's
greatest talents

was making friends
and keeping them--

lifelong friends.

Lem Billings was one.

- They were both working
on the school yearbook.

That's, in fact, how they met.

But sometimes they disagreed
with each other.

Sometimes they would fight
against each other,

but there's also a lot
of affection as well.

Early on,
JFK is somewhat mystified

by Lem's lack of interest
in girls,

which, even then,
as a young teenager,

JFK was very active
and interested in.

♪ ♪

- While Jack excelled socially
at Choate,

there was another part of him
most did not see.

- You see all these contrasts.

So what does he present as?

Handsome, born to
an extremely wealthy family,

rich playboy.
But what do we really know?

What we really know
is a lot of pain.

- One thing after another
that sent him to the infirmary

or even more specialty care,
when they couldn't

figure out
what was really going on.

- He's having fatigue,
these diffuse aches and pains.

He developed colitis,
so he could not gain weight.

♪ ♪

- In February 1934,
Jack's health

deteriorated rapidly.

He was sent
to Rochester, Minnesota

for medical tests
at the Mayo Clinic.

Joe Sr. came
to visit his ailing son.

Rose didn't visit once.

♪ ♪

He was at death's door.

[soft dramatic music]

In early 1934,
undergoing medical tests

at the Mayo Clinic,
16-year-old Jack

was plagued by constant pain,

surrounded by strangers,
and dealing with

one medical mystery
after another.

To pass the time,
he wrote rambling letters

full of jokes,
often sexual in nature.

In letters written
to Lem Billings

during his time
at the hospital,

Jack's buoyant personality
showed no signs of waning.

- He's making jokes,
and they're jokes

about his imminent death,

and he's saying, "Yeah,
they were here today.

"I looked at the chart
when they left the room,

and I think they're
measuring me from my coffin."

Looking at some of the numbers
for his blood levels

and saying, "Yeah, you know,
if I get any lower, I'm out."

Kind of making light
of the whole thing.

That was, I think, invaluable
to what he became,

which was someone
who understood pain.

- It was just one
of those things

where he had a choice to make.

Was he going to pity himself,
or was he going to

deal with this and overcome it?

- People who experience

that kind of pain
and sickness,

they understand life is pain,

you know?

There's joy, too, but there's
also just a lot of pain.

His humor was one way
of dealing with it.

- After months in and out
of different hospitals,

Jack was finally stable enough
to return home

in the summer of 1934
with orders

from his doctors
to follow a strict diet

and reduce stress.

- Lem was so concerned
about him

and helped take care of him
when he was ill.

- Jack and Lem
were especially tight-knit,

following each other around
at Choate and beyond.

So close, in fact,
the teens decided

to lose their virginity
at the same Harlem brothel.

- They went to prostitutes,

although it's not clear
that Lem actually

ever did anything
with a prostitute.

Nobody really knows.

After a while, of course,
JFK being as smart as he was,

he realized
that Lem didn't really have

any interest in women.

He had an interest in Jack.

- Lem felt
more than friendship

for his companion.

A Choate tradition
was to use toilet paper

for notes,
because they could easily

be flushed and destroyed.

- Boys who wanted to engage
in sexual behavior

would hint as such
on toilet paper.

- Lem sent
such a note to Jack,

expressing his affection
for the charismatic young man.

Jack politely rebuffed
Lem's romantic overture,

but they would remain friends
and confidants

for the rest of Jack's life.

He had no interest in publicly
exposing Lem's sexuality,

something that would
subject his friend

to ridicule and harassment.

His relationship with Lem
was a testament

to Jack's character
in a time

when homosexuality
was far from accepted

in everyday society.

- Jack took great risks
in keeping this friendship

with Lem Billings, which
shows the sense of loyalty

that he had.

♪ ♪

- After being called
"troublemaking muckers"

by Choate headmaster
George St. John,

Jack, Lem,
and two other friends

established
the Choate Muckers Club.

Together, they began sneaking
into town for milkshakes,

going to dances,
and arranging pranks

around campus.

- Then they came up with
this wild and crazy idea

that they were gonna disrupt
a major dance--

it's called Festivities--

by depositing a load of manure

at the entrance to the dance.

You can imagine
the boys up in their rooms,

just hooting and hollering
about this thing.

Wouldn't it be
a great thing to do?

They never did it.
They never did it.

But it was fun to think about.

It was a testimony, again,
to Jack's ability

to make friends, even if
in that particular case,

it was because of involvement
in potential hijinks.

♪ ♪

- At last, his time
at Choate came to an end.

Jack was now 18
and filled

with a new sense
of independence.

- I think he was
certainly ready to leave,

once graduation came around.

♪ ♪

- Jack found his second home
on the water

when back in Hyannis Port
during 1935 and '36.

Sailing from Edgartown
to Martha's Vineyard,

even winning the 1936
Atlantic Coast Championship,

his love of the ocean
was a Kennedy hallmark.

- I think you can't understand
the Kennedys

without understanding
Hyannis Port.

It's this big,
old, rambling house.

There's nine children
spilling out of the rooms.

They're all sailing.

They're all in competition
with each other.

There's a tennis court.

If they're not playing tennis,

they're playing
touch football.

If they're not doing that,

they've got
a pickup baseball game going.

And they never lacked
for companionship,

because they had each other.

They're each other's
best friends.

- Kennedy felt
at one with the sea.

He was able
to get clearer mind--

they call it "blue mind"--

where everything
comes clear to you

when you're in
a maritime environment.

And that's why so often,
he would be at Cape Cod

when he would make
his big decisions in his life.

♪ ♪

- In the decades to come,
the family compound

would serve as a source
of stability and calm

in Jack's ever-changing world.

♪ ♪

[soft piano music]

♪ ♪

- The principal
of the Choate school

wrote to the Harvard deans--

I assume,
the admissions office--

and says,
"Jack has rather superior

"mental ability
without the deep interest

"in his studies
or the mature viewpoint

"that demands of him
his best effort all the time.

"He can be relied upon
to do enough to pass.

"We have been and are working
our hardest to develop

"Jack's own self-interest.

"Great enough in social life,
to the point

"that will assure him
a record in college

"more worthy
of his natural gifts

of intelligence,
likableness, and popularity."

[soft acoustic music]

- Jack entered Harvard
in fall of 1936.

- It is said that his grades
weren't very good

when he was a student
at Harvard.

- At Harvard
in his first year,

he's interested in one thing--

conquering as many women
as he can.

And he's pretty good at it.

[jazz music]

- Though the 19-year-old Jack

lost the election
for freshman class president,

he was active socially.

He took on
the task of organizing

the freshman smoker,
a large party

held at the end of the year.

Jack supplied
first-rate tobacco

and arranged for appearances
by two jazz orchestras,

dance groups,
and baseball stars.

The party impressed
his fellow students.

Jack Kennedy
had captured their attention.

[soft dramatic music]

- He would just grab
the coolest person there

and kind of go off
in the corner

and have
a private conversation.

I mean, he was not--
he was not an extrovert.

He was really
very much of an introvert.

He did not draw energy
from big groups of people.

He much preferred
smaller conversations.

You know, had lots of friends.

He had various
circles of friends.

- It was fun.
It was light.

I think of him
as a character of literature

like Long John Silver,

like incredibly charming
but dangerous.

You know?
Like irresistible.

- It's a combination
of looks, style,

eloquence, empathy.

- I think the only word
you can use is,

Kennedy had charisma.
It was natural.

And he would come into a room

and he was the center
of attention.

- He probably elicited
more humor

with fewer words than anyone.

It was a very acerbic,
deadpan,

sarcastic sense of humor,

great sense of timing.

- By all accounts,
being around Kennedy

was incandescent.

It was, as Winston Churchill
said of Franklin Roosevelt,

like opening
a bottle of champagne.

- "He looked like
he could be blown over

with a good breath," said
Jack's new football coach.

Tall and lanky,
the 20-year-old Jack

didn't look
much like an athlete,

but he tried his best
to stay active in athletics

like football and swimming.

His first two years at Harvard
were lackluster academically,

largely due to his interest
in athletics and girls.

However, Jack began
to take his education

more seriously
in his junior year,

even making the dean's list.

- While successful people
mature at different rates,

he had to find his place.

Here, he's got
this older brother, Joe Jr.,

who is considered
the shining star

of the family, and Jack
has trouble dealing with that.

And it's not until later,

when he's in
his advanced years

at Harvard,
that he gets quite serious.

♪ ♪

- On December 9, 1937,

"The New York Times"
broke the news.

Jack's father, Joe Kennedy,
later nicknamed "Jolly Joe"

by the press,
would be the new United States

ambassador to Great Britain.

- Just arrived in England
after a very pleasant trip

from the United States.

I'm looking forward,
with great anticipation,

taking up my duties here.

♪ ♪

- The Great Depression
is a terrible calamity

for millions upon millions
of Americans.

When Franklin Roosevelt
took the oath of office

in March of 1933,
we estimate that there were

13 million people unemployed.

That was about 25%
of the entire workforce

of the United States.

- Joe was worried.

He was a conservative,
but he understood

that Hoover
did not have a clue

as to how to end
the depression

and save capitalism
and American democracy.

And Joe Kennedy understands

earlier than most

that the Depression
is the greatest threat

to American capitalism
that this nation

has ever seen.

So he, very early,
went and he joined

the Roosevelt bandwagon.

Kennedy really enters politics
for the first time.

- Joe had been a
very enthusiastic

and a very important supporter
of FDR,

particularly
around election time,

1932, 1936, and 1940.

And Joe Kennedy
was a very important Catholic

at a time
when the Catholic vote,

as it remains today,
was very important,

and he would not just
contribute money,

but he would entice
other important people

like William Randolph Hearst
as well as Catholics

around the country
to support FDR.

So he thought
that FDR owed him.

♪ ♪

- Finally,
Roosevelt gets in touch

with Kennedy,
and he offers him the position.

- Joe Kennedy's new role
in the public sphere

would push
the entire Kennedy family

into the center
of world politics.

[soft dramatic music]

- By early 1938, Joe Kennedy
was the new United States

ambassador to Great Britain.

- That would have been
the most important

and most prestigious
ambassadorship

that would have been offered,

and Franklin Roosevelt
gave it to Joe Kennedy.

- You're kind of excited.

- Roosevelt sends Kennedy
to England

as a statement
as much as anything else.

It's a statement to the English

that I'm gonna send you
an Irish Catholic.

He also tells Kennedy,
"Look, I need eyes

"and ears over there.

"Europe is falling apart,
and I can't trust anybody.

"I need someone over there
to tell me,

are the British
gonna be able to fight?

"Are the British gonna be able

to stand up
against the Nazis?"

- Kennedy, from the beginning,
doesn't simply report

on what's going on in Europe.

Kennedy is determined
that he knows better

than Roosevelt
and everybody else.

- The American people
do not have to go to war.

They will not go to war

if they will
to stay out of war.

- He opposed U.S. involvement
in the war.

He was actually a person
who might be classified

today as an appeaser.

He didn't want
to go to war with Germany.

He thought the U.S. would lose

and that it would be
a grave error

for the country
to get involved

in that kind of conflict.

- Hitler!
Sieg heil! Sieg heil!

[crowd shouting]

[ominous music]

- He comes to the conclusion
that the English

are too foppish, too weak,

they have no backbone,

that Hitler and the Germans

are gonna run right over him.

- If I am called an appeaser
because I oppose

the entrance of this country
into the present war,

I cheerfully plead guilty,

and so must every one of you
who want to keep America

out of this war.

- Roosevelt enlists Kennedy

not simply as an ambassador

but as a troubleshooter,

an eyewitness
who's gonna report back

what's going on.

Ambassadors don't
run foreign policy.

Ambassadors are stick figures,
really.

- The problems between FDR
and Joe

really lie with Joe,

because once he
became ambassador,

he forgot about what
that position was really like.

That role
is to translate

the president's view
to the British leaders

and the British people.

And what Joe wanted to do
was relay his own thoughts,

and his thoughts
did not match FDR's thoughts.

So FDR grew to distrust him
and opened up

a separate private channel
with Churchill.

Joe resented it,
and the relationship

tumbled from there.

♪ ♪

- In 1939, with his father
now living and working

in London as ambassador
to Great Britain,

Jack decided
to travel overseas.

He set off on a seven-month
tour of Europe,

the Middle East,
and the Soviet Union,

meeting with leaders,
diplomats,

and everyday people
to gather information

about the growing threat
of war.

Jack's journey began in London

where he took tea
with Princess Elizabeth.

Then he was off
to Eastern Europe,

stopping in Warsaw, Poland.

As he traveled,
he often corresponded

with Lem Billings
and reported his observations

back to his father.

- Bye, Rosie.
- Bye, Jack.

- So long, Jack!

- I--see, that's enough.

- On another leg of the trip,
Jack was joined

by his Harvard roommate,
Torby Macdonald.

They crossed into
Nazi Germany and were heckled

by local stormtroopers
who believed

they were disrespecting
the statue of a Nazi hero.

Days later,
traveling at high speeds

near Paris,
en route to see his father,

Jack lost control
of his vehicle,

flipping it.

In his true
lighthearted fashion,

Jack laughed off
his near-death experience.

While upside-down in the car,

he is said to have quipped
to Torby,

"Well, pal,
we didn't make it, did we?"

- [speaking German]

- On August 19,
Jack arrived

in the German capital
of Berlin.

At that moment,
Hitler's troops

were preparing
to attack Poland,

making their way
to the border.

Less than two weeks later,
Hitler's forces invaded.

The Second World War
had begun.

- Jack understood that if you
want to understand the world,

you need to go see the world,

and he was very eager
to see the world.

♪ ♪

- In fact, when Britain
declared war on Germany

on September 3, 1939,

two days after the Nazis
invaded Poland,

JFK was in
the House of Commons

in the visitor's gallery.

He saw Chamberlain
make the announcement

that World War II had started.

- This morning,
the British ambassador

in Berlin handed
the German government

a final note,
stating that unless we heard

from them by 11:00
that they were prepared

at once to withdraw
their troops from Poland,

a state of war
would exist between us.

I have to tell you now
that no such undertaking

has been received,
and that consequently,

this country
is at war with Germany.

♪ ♪

- During his time visiting
the House of Commons,

Jack was deeply inspired
by Winston Churchill

and was awestruck listening
to his first wartime speech

rallying the free world
to stand up

to the oncoming battle
against Hitler.

After listening
to Churchill's remarks,

Jack was motivated
to do his part as well.

Upon the outbreak of the war,

German U-boats
began sinking ships.

The first ship lost was
the Scottish passenger liner,

SS "Athenia."

Joe Sr. sent his son to meet

with and assist
hundreds of American survivors

hospitalized in Glasgow.

During this trip,
Jack spoke publicly,

reassuring those affected
that they would be

safely transported
back to the U.S.

He was also tasked
with gathering

firsthand information
about the attack.

Finally, safe passage home
was secured

for the American survivors.

Jack's work was done.

After seven months in Europe,

Jack Kennedy
was now 22 years old.

He had seen Nazi Germany
up close,

listened to his political hero
Winston Churchill

speak in the House of Commons,

shared tea
with the future Queen

of the United Kingdom,
crashed his car in France,

and helped fellow Americans

in the wake
of a wartime attack.

- He was exposed
from a very early age

to a really incredible array
of international experiences,

quite untypical
for people in his generation

in this country.

- Jack had experienced
firsthand

what it meant to be involved

in high-level political,
cultural,

and military situations
and began to break away

from his father's
stifling political beliefs.

His whirlwind tour of Europe

laid the foundations
of a new worldview

that would evolve
for years to come.

- I think it was just
the self-confidence

that Jack got
from traveling abroad,

from being on his own,
from being encouraged

through all
of those early meals

led by Joe and Rose
to think for himself,

that he eventually
did think for himself,

and from his travels,
came to different conclusions

than Joe came to,
that America needed to play

a prominent role
on the world stage

if freedom were to prevail.

♪ ♪

Using his experiences
in Europe as a guide,

Jack began work on his thesis,
just meeting his deadline.

He examined why England
was so unprepared

for World War II,
and titled his final project,

"Appeasement at Munich."

Jack later expanded
his thesis into a book,

called "Why England Slept,"

an ode
to Winston Churchill's book,

"While England Slept."

"Why England Slept"
quickly sold 80,000 copies,

bringing in some $40,000
in revenue.

He donated
his British earnings

to the English city
of Plymouth,

which had recently been bombed

by Hitler's
powerful air force.

With his American earnings,
he bought a new convertible.

In June 1940,
Jack graduated from Harvard.

It was the end of
an important chapter

in his life
and the beginning

of a new
equally important chapter.

♪ ♪

Next on "Kennedy"...

- 16 months
after Pearl Harbor,

the United States was locked
in a fierce Naval campaign

against Japanese forces.

- Jack was a man who wanted
to be at the center of action.

- Kennedy takes command
of "PT-109".

This is a very dangerous place
to be.

These are
Japanese-held waters.

The Japanese destroyer--

- She is speeding
directly towards "PT-109."

♪ ♪