Kick Kennedy: The Charmed Life and Tragic Death of the Favorite Kennedy Daughter by Barbara Leaming Page B
Authors: Barbara Leaming
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continued, were eager to win this war on their own—“without America taking credit for it.” Joe Kennedy offered Jakie Astor’s comments as a specimen of the anti-American sentiment that he feared would upset his daughter.
Kick, for her part, saw nothing very disturbing or daunting in any of it. She was confident that her British friends knew that she did not share her father’s views on the war. When over time she kept on pressing to be allowed to come over, the old man responded with a new argument. He pointed out that these days there was really nothing for young people in London to do “but spend practically every night in a night club.” That particular prospect, it need hardly be said, did not seem so objectionable to Kick.
Her father, however, remained adamant. He refused to be influenced even by a message from Jack in which the second son shrewdly appealed to old Joe’s self-interest. Knowing how dependent on public perception his father was, Jack maintained that Kick’s London vacation would benefit the Kennedy family overall by showing that they had not merely left Britain because things had become unpleasant there. Kick, though she refused to abandon hope, finally wrote to let Billy know that she probably would not be able to come over after all. When she sent off that message, she had no idea that by the time it reached him he would be far from Britain.
On April 9, 1940, what Churchill characterized as the trance in which the British and the French had been agonizingly suspended for eight months was abruptly broken when Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway. A week later, Joe Kennedy offered a new rationale for why Kick could not possibly return to London anytime soon. All the young fellows, he grimly reported, were being “shuttled off to war.”
So, at least for now, events in Europe seemed to have derailed Kick’s campaign to be reunited with Billy. The next letter she had from him confirmed the futility of her hopes of seeing him again anytime soon. Billy wrote from the Maginot Line in France, where he was with the British Expeditionary Force, waiting along with the rest of humankind to see what Hitler’s next move would be.
In the early hours of May 10, 1940, German forces, moving by land and air, overran Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg. Belgium, abandoning its long-insisted-upon neutrality, removed border barriers so as to permit the entry of the British Expeditionary Force. Among the hundreds of thousands of advancing soldiers, Billy and his Coldstream Guards regiment were soon passing into Belgium, to the joyous greetings of a slew of girls, who rushed up to garland the troops and their rifles with lilacs.
Press coverage in the U.S. initially emphasized the clockwork efficiency of the British onslaught, confirming a sense that prevailed among not a few Americans at the time that Britain and France together would handily manage to turn back the Germans without the U.S. needing to get involved. Adding to the tone of optimism were the newspaper descriptions of perfect spring weather and nearly cloudless blue skies, and of joyously singing, newly energized British troops to whom the summons to action had proven, in the phrase of The New York Times ’s correspondent, “a psychological tonic” after the long months of waiting and training since war had been declared.
Meanwhile, that same day in London, Neville Chamberlain was left with little choice but to tender his resignation as a consequence of wide dismay with his administration’s botched efforts to rescue Norway. He handed over to Winston Churchill, who soon faced a devastating series of setbacks. German tanks broke through the supposedly impregnable Maginot Line. The Battle of Flanders took a disastrous turn for the British, who began to retreat into France. Overall, the Allies were stunned by the ferocity and unstoppability of the Nazi war machine. Official opinion in London held that it was only a matter of time before Hitler struck
Kick, for her part, saw nothing very disturbing or daunting in any of it. She was confident that her British friends knew that she did not share her father’s views on the war. When over time she kept on pressing to be allowed to come over, the old man responded with a new argument. He pointed out that these days there was really nothing for young people in London to do “but spend practically every night in a night club.” That particular prospect, it need hardly be said, did not seem so objectionable to Kick.
Her father, however, remained adamant. He refused to be influenced even by a message from Jack in which the second son shrewdly appealed to old Joe’s self-interest. Knowing how dependent on public perception his father was, Jack maintained that Kick’s London vacation would benefit the Kennedy family overall by showing that they had not merely left Britain because things had become unpleasant there. Kick, though she refused to abandon hope, finally wrote to let Billy know that she probably would not be able to come over after all. When she sent off that message, she had no idea that by the time it reached him he would be far from Britain.
On April 9, 1940, what Churchill characterized as the trance in which the British and the French had been agonizingly suspended for eight months was abruptly broken when Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway. A week later, Joe Kennedy offered a new rationale for why Kick could not possibly return to London anytime soon. All the young fellows, he grimly reported, were being “shuttled off to war.”
So, at least for now, events in Europe seemed to have derailed Kick’s campaign to be reunited with Billy. The next letter she had from him confirmed the futility of her hopes of seeing him again anytime soon. Billy wrote from the Maginot Line in France, where he was with the British Expeditionary Force, waiting along with the rest of humankind to see what Hitler’s next move would be.
In the early hours of May 10, 1940, German forces, moving by land and air, overran Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg. Belgium, abandoning its long-insisted-upon neutrality, removed border barriers so as to permit the entry of the British Expeditionary Force. Among the hundreds of thousands of advancing soldiers, Billy and his Coldstream Guards regiment were soon passing into Belgium, to the joyous greetings of a slew of girls, who rushed up to garland the troops and their rifles with lilacs.
Press coverage in the U.S. initially emphasized the clockwork efficiency of the British onslaught, confirming a sense that prevailed among not a few Americans at the time that Britain and France together would handily manage to turn back the Germans without the U.S. needing to get involved. Adding to the tone of optimism were the newspaper descriptions of perfect spring weather and nearly cloudless blue skies, and of joyously singing, newly energized British troops to whom the summons to action had proven, in the phrase of The New York Times ’s correspondent, “a psychological tonic” after the long months of waiting and training since war had been declared.
Meanwhile, that same day in London, Neville Chamberlain was left with little choice but to tender his resignation as a consequence of wide dismay with his administration’s botched efforts to rescue Norway. He handed over to Winston Churchill, who soon faced a devastating series of setbacks. German tanks broke through the supposedly impregnable Maginot Line. The Battle of Flanders took a disastrous turn for the British, who began to retreat into France. Overall, the Allies were stunned by the ferocity and unstoppability of the Nazi war machine. Official opinion in London held that it was only a matter of time before Hitler struck
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