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President Kennedy's Diary to Be Sold at Auction

Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty

From Town & Country

At the end of World War II, John F. Kennedy's father arranged for his son to work as a journalist overseas covering post-war Europe. The young naval veteran, who had done a tour of duty in the Pacific and received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism in combat, spent 1945 reporting on Winston Churchill's reelection campaign in England, and attended the Potsdam Conference in Germany and traveled to Ireland. And he kept a diary of the whole thing.

That diary, which some historians believe to be the only personal journal that Kennedy ever kept, just sold for $718,000, substantially more than Boston-based RR Auction's initial estimate, to private collector Joseph Alsop.

Deirdre Henderson, who put the book up for auction in honor of the 100th anniversary of the former president's birth this coming May was Kennedy's research assistant when he was in the U.S. Senate.

According to People, Henderson said JFK gave her the book "to inform her about his views on national security and foreign policy issues."

Nowhere in this diary is there any indication of sympathy for Nazi crimes or cause.

"I didn’t want to part with it but now I think it needs a home somewhere that it will be better known to historians and to everyone. It’s part of his legacy," she told the publication.

Indeed, the manuscript offers insight into the future president's perspectives on defense and foreign policy and includes reflections on the Kennedy's experience during the war, the creation of the United Nations, his idol Winston Churchill, and the beginnings of his first congressional campaign.

Press around the sale has almost exclusively focused on a particular passage in which Kennedy discusses Hitler's legacy. In it, he writes, "You can easily understand how that within a few years Hitler will emerge from the hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most significant figures who ever lived."

The text alone (especially when coupled with the knowledge that Kennedy's father supported Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement toward Hitler's Germany) could suggest the soon-to-be politician had an admiration for Hitler, but Henderson unequivocally denies that is what he meant here.

“When JFK said that Hitler ‘had in him the stuff of which legends are made,’ he was speaking to the mystery surrounding him, not the evil he demonstrated to the world,” she told People. “Nowhere in this diary, or in any of his writings, is there any indication of sympathy for Nazi crimes or cause.”

“Hitler was driven by ambition and he was a very dangerous person,” Henderson continues. “And these young men had fought him in the war - well, JFK was [serving in the U.S. Navy] in the South Pacific - but he understood Hitler. And it’s the mystery surrounding Hitler - why did he do what he did? I don’t think anyone will ever know. But JFK was analyzing it and saying Hitler was a legend - and Hitler is a legend. But he’s not a good legend. You can’t translate that as meaning he had admiration for him.”

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From Town & Country

At the end of World War II, John F. Kennedy's father arranged for his son to work as a journalist overseas covering post-war Europe. The young naval veteran, who had done a tour of duty in the Pacific and received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism in combat, spent 1945 reporting on Winston Churchill's reelection campaign in England, and attended the Potsdam Conference in Germany and traveled to Ireland. And he kept a diary of the whole thing.

That diary, which some historians believe to be the only personal journal that Kennedy ever kept, just sold for $718,000, substantially more than Boston-based RR Auction's initial estimate, to private collector Joseph Alsop.

Deirdre Henderson, who put the book up for auction in honor of the 100th anniversary of the former president's birth this coming May was Kennedy's research assistant when he was in the U.S. Senate.

According to People, Henderson said JFK gave her the book "to inform her about his views on national security and foreign policy issues."

Nowhere in this diary is there any indication of sympathy for Nazi crimes or cause.

"I didn’t want to part with it but now I think it needs a home somewhere that it will be better known to historians and to everyone. It’s part of his legacy," she told the publication.

Indeed, the manuscript offers insight into the future president's perspectives on defense and foreign policy and includes reflections on the Kennedy's experience during the war, the creation of the United Nations, his idol Winston Churchill, and the beginnings of his first congressional campaign.

Press around the sale has almost exclusively focused on a particular passage in which Kennedy discusses Hitler's legacy. In it, he writes, "You can easily understand how that within a few years Hitler will emerge from the hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most significant figures who ever lived."

The text alone (especially when coupled with the knowledge that Kennedy's father supported Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement toward Hitler's Germany) could suggest the soon-to-be politician had an admiration for Hitler, but Henderson unequivocally denies that is what he meant here.

“When JFK said that Hitler ‘had in him the stuff of which legends are made,’ he was speaking to the mystery surrounding him, not the evil he demonstrated to the world,” she told People. “Nowhere in this diary, or in any of his writings, is there any indication of sympathy for Nazi crimes or cause.”

“Hitler was driven by ambition and he was a very dangerous person,” Henderson continues. “And these young men had fought him in the war - well, JFK was [serving in the U.S. Navy] in the South Pacific - but he understood Hitler. And it’s the mystery surrounding Hitler - why did he do what he did? I don’t think anyone will ever know. But JFK was analyzing it and saying Hitler was a legend - and Hitler is a legend. But he’s not a good legend. You can’t translate that as meaning he had admiration for him.”

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