Kick Kennedy: The Charmed Life and Tragic Death of the Favorite Kennedy Daughter by Barbara Leaming
Authors: Barbara Leaming
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war, and she regarded Joe Kennedy’s opposition to U.S. participation as “scandalous.” Noting humorously that she hoped the American ambassador did not take the opportunity to open her letter to Lothian, she reported on Kennedy’s defeatist attitude and on his view that the continuation of the European war would be disastrous for the financial markets. She made it clear that as a consequence of these and similar attitudes on Kennedy’s part, people in Britain had begun to fear him. It is evident from her letter that in spite of all this, she persisted in her immense personal affection for Joe Kennedy and in her belief that he had otherwise been a splendid ambassador. Nonetheless, she warned Philip Lothian to watch him closely in Washington.
None of what Nancy Astor had to say about Joe Kennedy was unfamiliar to Philip Lothian, who had had previous, decidedly less benign, communications on the matter from officials at the British Foreign Office, where there was the feeling that a complaint about the U.S. ambassador, possibly even a request that he be recalled, might soon need to be made. It had been one thing for Kennedy to speak in such a manner prior to the British declaration of war, but it was quite another for him to persist in doing so now. Lothian, a former German sympathizer who had entirely revised his views on Hitler after the occupation of Prague, had made it his mission to drive home to the Americans that Britain’s survival was crucial to U.S. security. Kennedy, when he conferred with Lothian during his home visit, was careful not to express any of his controversial opinions. Presently, however, Lothian sent word to Lady Astor that Kennedy apparently had shown no such reluctance with various others in Washington. Still, up to that point Kennedy’s remarks, to figures that included President Roosevelt, had been uttered in private.
As Christmas drew near, Ambassador Kennedy, joined by Jack and Joe Junior, visited the East Boston church, Our Lady of the Assumption, where in ancient times old Joe had been an altar boy. On the present occasion, he gave an impromptu speech that, however he may have intended his comments to be construed, amounted to his first public address since the inception of the European war. Openly and unabashedly, Joe Kennedy urged that the U.S. refrain from getting involved. “As you love America,” Kennedy declared, “don’t let anything that comes out of any country in this world make you believe that you can make the situation one whit better by getting into the war. There’s no place in the fight for us. It’s going to be bad enough as it is.” Kennedy, who was usually a good deal more astute about public relations matters, appears to have been oddly oblivious to the prospect that his remarks would be disseminated in the British press. Nor, as he went off to Palm Beach to spend the holiday with Rose and the children, did he yet have any inkling of the calamitous impact that accounts of the speech were already having on his reputation in Britain, where his comments were widely regarded as anti-British.
Joe Kennedy’s home leave extended through late February, during which time he again met with Franklin Roosevelt, conferred with doctors in Boston about the state of his health, recuperated from a serious stomach disorder—and considered Kick’s proposal of a summertime trip to London. There was talk that Jack might accompany his sister abroad, and even that Rose and the rest of the Kennedy children might come over as well.
Meanwhile, the news of Sissie Lloyd Thomas’s February 9, 1940, marriage to David Ormsby-Gore, with Billy Hartington serving as David’s best man, at the Roman Catholic Church of St. James’s, Spanish Place, fueled Kick’s hopes that she and Billy might similarly be able to overcome the religious obstacles. In stark contrast, the love affair of Robert Cecil and Veronica Fraser had finally concluded in great sadness, when Robert’s mother put an
None of what Nancy Astor had to say about Joe Kennedy was unfamiliar to Philip Lothian, who had had previous, decidedly less benign, communications on the matter from officials at the British Foreign Office, where there was the feeling that a complaint about the U.S. ambassador, possibly even a request that he be recalled, might soon need to be made. It had been one thing for Kennedy to speak in such a manner prior to the British declaration of war, but it was quite another for him to persist in doing so now. Lothian, a former German sympathizer who had entirely revised his views on Hitler after the occupation of Prague, had made it his mission to drive home to the Americans that Britain’s survival was crucial to U.S. security. Kennedy, when he conferred with Lothian during his home visit, was careful not to express any of his controversial opinions. Presently, however, Lothian sent word to Lady Astor that Kennedy apparently had shown no such reluctance with various others in Washington. Still, up to that point Kennedy’s remarks, to figures that included President Roosevelt, had been uttered in private.
As Christmas drew near, Ambassador Kennedy, joined by Jack and Joe Junior, visited the East Boston church, Our Lady of the Assumption, where in ancient times old Joe had been an altar boy. On the present occasion, he gave an impromptu speech that, however he may have intended his comments to be construed, amounted to his first public address since the inception of the European war. Openly and unabashedly, Joe Kennedy urged that the U.S. refrain from getting involved. “As you love America,” Kennedy declared, “don’t let anything that comes out of any country in this world make you believe that you can make the situation one whit better by getting into the war. There’s no place in the fight for us. It’s going to be bad enough as it is.” Kennedy, who was usually a good deal more astute about public relations matters, appears to have been oddly oblivious to the prospect that his remarks would be disseminated in the British press. Nor, as he went off to Palm Beach to spend the holiday with Rose and the children, did he yet have any inkling of the calamitous impact that accounts of the speech were already having on his reputation in Britain, where his comments were widely regarded as anti-British.
Joe Kennedy’s home leave extended through late February, during which time he again met with Franklin Roosevelt, conferred with doctors in Boston about the state of his health, recuperated from a serious stomach disorder—and considered Kick’s proposal of a summertime trip to London. There was talk that Jack might accompany his sister abroad, and even that Rose and the rest of the Kennedy children might come over as well.
Meanwhile, the news of Sissie Lloyd Thomas’s February 9, 1940, marriage to David Ormsby-Gore, with Billy Hartington serving as David’s best man, at the Roman Catholic Church of St. James’s, Spanish Place, fueled Kick’s hopes that she and Billy might similarly be able to overcome the religious obstacles. In stark contrast, the love affair of Robert Cecil and Veronica Fraser had finally concluded in great sadness, when Robert’s mother put an
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