John Joseph Cantwell (December 1, 1874 – October 30, 1947) was the first archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Archbishop Cantwell was born in Limerick, Ireland. He was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of San Francisco on June 18, 1899 and was initially assigned as curate of Berkeley's St. Joseph The Worker parish. Father Cantwell established the Newman Club at the University of California, Berkeley, served as first chaplain. In 1906, San Francisco Archbishop Patrick W. Riordan appointed Cantwell his secretary, and he moved from Berkeley to the Archbishop Residence at 1000 Fulton Street. In August 1908 Riordan sent Cantwell (by now his Archdiocesan Vicar General) to Rome, to inquire of Pope Pius X as to Riordan's successor. In 1912, Fathers Cantwell and Michael D. Connolly accompanied Bishop Edward J. Hanna from Rochester, New York to San Francisco. After Riordan's death in 1914, Vicar General Cantwell served San Francisco Archbishop Hanna (1915–1917).

Pope Benedict XV appointed John J. Cantwell Bishop of Monterey-Los Angeles in September 1917, two years after the death of Bishop Thomas Conaty, and Cantwell was formally ordained that December.

Two divisions of the Monterey-Los Angeles diocese occurred during Archbishop Cantwell's 30 year term. In June 1922 it was split to become the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno and the Diocese of Los Angeles-San Diego. The latter diocese was split again in July 1936 to create the Diocese of San Diego and the present-day Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Archbishop Cantwell was noted for being particularly sensitive to the needs of non-English speaking Catholics in the archdiocese, and he created 50 Hispanic parishes and missions.

External links

Bishop Cantwell biography on the Archdiocese of LA website

Bishop Cantwell at Catholic-Hierarchy.org

Category:1874 births Category:1947 deaths Category:Irish immigrants to the United States (before 1923) Category:American Roman Catholic archbishops Category:Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles

Name	Olympia Snowe
Jr/sr	Senior Senator
State	Maine
Party	Republican
Alongside	Susan Collins
Term start	January 3, 1995
Preceded	George J. Mitchell
Order2	First Lady of Maine
Term start2	February 24, 1989
Term end2	January 9, 1995
Preceded2	Constance Brennan
Succeeded2	Mary King
State3	Maine
District3	2nd
Term start3	January 3, 1979
Term end3	January 3, 1995
Preceded3	William Cohen
Succeeded3	John Baldacci
Order4	Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Term start4	January 3, 2003
Term end4	January 3, 2007
Preceded4	John Kerry
Succeeded4	John Kerry
Date of birth	February 21, 1947
Place of birth	Augusta, Maine
Dead	alive
Residence	Falmouth, Maine
Occupation	Senator
Spouse	(1) Peter Snowe (deceased)(2) John R. McKernan, Jr.
Alma mater	University of Maine (B.A.)
Religion	Orthodox Christian
Signature	Olympia Snowe Signature.svg

Olympia Jean Snowe (born February 21, 1947), née Bouchles, is the senior United States Senator from Maine and a member of the Republican Party. Snowe has become widely known for her ability to influence the outcome of close votes, including whether to end filibusters. She and her fellow Senator from Maine, Susan Collins, are regarded as moderates within their party. In 2006, she was named one of America's Top Ten Senators by Time Magazine.

Early life

Snowe was born Olympia Jean Bouchles in Augusta, Maine, the daughter of Georgia Goranites and George John Bouchles. Her father immigrated to the United States from Sparta in Greece. She is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Snowe's early life had its share of tragedies; her mother died of breast cancer when she was nine, and her father died of heart disease barely a year later. Orphaned, she was moved to Auburn, Maine, to be raised by her aunt and uncle, a textile mill worker and a barber, respectively, along with their five other children. Her brother John was raised separately, by other family members. Within a few years, disease would also claim her uncle's life.

Following her mother's death, Snowe was sent to St. Basil's Academy in Garrison, New York, where she remained from the third grade to the ninth, and she was taught by Athena Hatziemmanuel. Returning to Auburn, she attended Edward Little High School, before entering the University of Maine in Orono, Maine in 1969, where she earned a degree in political science. Shortly after graduation, Bouchles married her fiancé, Republican state legislator Peter Snowe. She received an honorary degree from Bates College in 1998, and another from the University of Delaware in 2008.

Early political career

Snowe entered politics and rose quickly, winning a seat on the Board of Voter Registration and working for Congressman (later U.S. Senator and U.S. Secretary of Defense) William Cohen. Tragedy struck Snowe again in 1973, when her husband was killed in an automobile accident. At the urging of family, friends, neighbors and local leaders, Snowe ran for her husband's Auburn-based seat in the Maine House of Representatives at the age of 26 and won. She was re-elected to the House in 1974, and, in 1976, won election to the Maine Senate, representing Androscoggin County. That same year, she was a delegate to both the state and national Republican conventions.

Snowe was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978, and represented Maine's 2nd Congressional District from 1979 to 1995. The district takes in most of the northern two-thirds of the state, including Bangor and her hometown of Auburn. She served as a member of the Budget and International Relations Committees.

Snowe married John "Jock" McKernan, then-Governor of Maine, in February 1989. Tragedy struck Snowe yet again in 1991 when her step-son Peter McKernan died from a heart ailment at the age of 20. Snowe and McKernan had served together in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 1986, when McKernan represented the 1st District. While Snowe was First Lady of Maine from 1989 to 1995, she served as a U.S. Representative and was elected and sworn in as a United States Senator.

U.S. Senate career

Elections

In 1994, when Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell declined to run for re-election, Snowe immediately declared her candidacy for the seat. The Democratic nominee was her House colleague, 1st District Congressman Tom Andrews. Snowe defeated Andrews 60–36%, carrying every county in the state. Snowe was part of the Republican sweeping elections of 1994, where the Republican party would capture the House and Senate for the first time since 1954. Snowe was easily reelected in 2000 over State Senate President Mark Lawrence, increasing her winning margin to 69%-31%.

Tenure

Snowe was an important voice during the Senate's 1999 impeachment trial of then-President Bill Clinton. She and fellow Maine Senator Susan Collins sponsored a motion that would have allowed the Senate to vote separately on the charges and the remedy — a "finding of fact" resolution. When the motion failed, Snowe and Collins voted to acquit, arguing that Clinton's perjury did not warrant his removal from office.

Her occasional breaks with the Bush administration drew attacks from conservative Republicans; the Club for Growth and Concerned Women for America label her a "Republican In Name Only" (RINO). In February 2006, TheWhiteHouseProject.org named Olympia Snowe one of its "8 in '08", a group of eight female politicians who could possibly run and/or be elected president in 2008.

In April 2006, Snowe was selected by Time as one of "America's 10 Best Senators." She was the only woman so recognized. Time praised Snowe for her sensitivity to her constituents, also noting that: "Because of her centrist views and eagerness to get beyond partisan point scoring, Maine Republican Olympia Snowe is in the center of every policy debate in Washington."

Snowe did not miss any of the 657 votes on the Senate floor during the 110th Congress from 2007 to 2009. She was one of eight senators to not miss any votes.

Gang of 14

.]] On May 23, 2005, Snowe was one of fourteen senators dubbed the Gang of 14, who defused a confrontation between Senate Democrats (who were filibustering several judicial nominees) and the Senate Republican leadership (who wanted to use the nominations as a flashpoint to eliminate filibusters on nominees through the so-called nuclear option). The Gang-brokered compromise precluded further filibusters and the implementation of the nuclear option for the remainder of the 109th Congress; under its terms, the Democrats retained the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee in an "extraordinary circumstance," and nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) received a simple majority vote by the full Senate.

The Gang later played an important role in the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, as they asserted that neither met the "extraordinary circumstances" provision outlined in their agreement. Snowe ultimately voted for both Roberts and Alito.

Committees

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

*Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security

*Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet

*Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance

*Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard (Ranking Member)

*Subcommittee on Science and Space

*Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security

Committee on Finance

*Subcommittee on Health Care

*Subcommittee on Taxation, IRS Oversight, and Long-term Growth

*Subcommittee on International Trade and Global Competitiveness

Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship (Ranking Member)

'''Select Committee on Intelligence

Political views

, at Maine's Naval Air Station Brunswick.]] Snowe supports legalized abortion and some gay rights, and though she previously voted to block the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, she was one of eight Republican senators to vote for the repeal on December 18th, 2010. She also supports the death penalty and strongly supports the war on drugs and the United States embargo against Cuba.

Snowe supported both President Clinton's involvement in Kosovo and President George W. Bush's invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq. On fiscal issues, she has voiced support for cutting taxes as economic stimulus, although she joined fellow Republican senators Lincoln Chafee and John McCain in voting against the Bush tax cuts in 2003. She opposes most free trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). She was the only Republican to vote for the Tax Fairness and Economic Growth Act of 1992. She is a strong supporter of environmental protections. Both Snowe and fellow Maine Senator Susan Collins have embraced strong gun control measures following the Columbine High School shooting in 1999.

In the 110th Congress, Snowe worked to ensure passage of a genetic non-discrimination act, which she had previously worked to pass for nearly eight years; opposed cutting loans through the Small Business Administration; offered legislation aimed at reducing the price of prescription drugs and insurance costs for small businesses; and became a leading voice among Congressional Republicans expressing concerns over President Bush's plans for the privatization of Social Security.

Snowe is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership and supports stem cell research. She is also a member of Republicans for Environmental Protection, the Republican Majority for Choice, Republicans for Choice and The Wish List (Women In the Senate and House), a group of pro-choice Republican women.

In 2008, Snowe endorsed Republican candidate John McCain for President of the United States.

In the 111th Congress, Snowe backed the release of additional Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. While she opposed President Obama's budget resolution, she pledged to work in a bipartisan manner on the issues of health care reform and energy.

On October 13, 2009, Snowe voted for the Finance Committee's health care reform bill. However, she stated that she may not support the final bill because of reservations. In December of 2009, Snowe voted against cloture for two procedural motions and ultimately against the Senate Health Care Reform Bill.

Electoral history

See also

Women in the United States Senate

Rockefeller Republican

References

Further reading

Nine & Counting: The Women of the Senate, Boxer, Collins, Snowe et al., ISBN 0-06-095706-9.

External links

U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe official U.S. Senate site

Olympia Snowe for Congress official campaign site

Profile at SourceWatch

U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe video clips from the Senate Republican Conference.

U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe audio clips from the Senate Republican Conference

The Washington Post, July 15, 2007">"The Anguished Moderate," The Washington Post, July 15, 2007.

Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:Spouses of members of the United States House of Representatives Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from the United States Category:Greek Orthodox Christians Category:American politicians of Greek descent Category:Maine State Senators Category:Members of the Maine House of Representatives Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Maine Category:People from Augusta, Maine Category:People from Falmouth, Maine Category:First Ladies and Gentlemen of Maine Category:United States Senators from Maine Category:Female United States Senators Category:University of Maine alumni Category:Bates College alumni Category:Female members of the United States House of Representatives Category:Maine Republicans Category:Women state legislators in Maine Category:Republican Party United States Senators

Name	Joseph P. Kennedy
Order	44th
Ambassador from	United States
Country	the United Kingdom
Term start	1938
Term end	1940
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Predecessor	Robert Worth Bingham
Successor	John Gilbert Winant
Order2	1st Chairman of the Maritime Commission
Term start2	1936
Term end2	1938
President2	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Predecessor2	Office created
Successor2	Emory S. Land
Order3	1st Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
Term start3	1934
Term end3	1935
President3	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Predecessor3	Office created
Successor3	James M. Landis
Birth date	September 06, 1888
Birth place	Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Birth name	Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr.
Death date	November 18, 1969
Death place	Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, United States
Blank1	Cause of death
Spouse	Rose Fitzgerald
Children	Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.Jul 25, 1915 – Aug 12, 1944John F. KennedyMay 29, 1917 – Nov 22, 1963Rosemary KennedySep 13, 1918 – Jan 7, 2005Kathleen Kennedy CavendishFeb 20, 1920 – May 13, 1948Eunice Kennedy ShriverJul 10, 1921 – Aug 11, 2009Patricia Kennedy LawfordMay 6, 1924 – Sep 17, 2006Robert F. KennedyNov 20, 1925 – Jun 6, 1968Jean Kennedy Smithborn Feb 20, 1928Edward M. KennedyFeb 22, 1932 - Aug 25, 2009
Party	Democratic
Profession	Businessman, Politician
Religion	Roman Catholic
Data1	Complications from a stroke
Signature	Joseph P Kennedy Signature.svg
Alma mater	Harvard College

Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr. (September 6, 1888 – November 18, 1969) was a prominent American businessman and political figure; the father of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, United States Senator and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy, naval officer Joseph P. Kennedy Jr, Special Olympics co-founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith; and the grandfather of U.S. Representatives Joseph P. Kennedy II & Patrick J. Kennedy. He was a leading member of the Democratic Party and of the Irish Catholic community. He was the inaugural Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and later directed the Maritime Commission. Kennedy served as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1938 until late 1940, including the early part of World War II.

Born to a political family in Boston, Massachusetts, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. was educated at Boston Latin School and Harvard University, and embarked on a career in finance, making a large fortune as a stock market and commodity investor and by investing in real estate and a wide range of industries. At the end of Prohibition, Kennedy and James Roosevelt traveled to Scotland to buy distribution rights for Scotch whisky. In addition, Kennedy had purchased spirits-importation rights from Schenley, a firm in Canada.

During World War I, he was an assistant general-manager of Bethlehem Steel and developed a friendship with Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Kennedy made huge profits from reorganizing and refinancing several Hollywood studios, ultimately merging several acquisitions into Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) studios. After Prohibition ended in 1933, Kennedy consolidated an even larger fortune when his company, Somerset Importers, became the exclusive American agent for Gordon's Gin and Dewar's Scotch. He owned the largest office building in the country, Chicago's Merchandise Mart, giving his family an important base in that city and an alliance with the Irish-American political leadership there.

His term as Ambassador and his political ambitions ended abruptly during the Battle of Britain in November 1940, with the publishing of his controversial remarks suggesting that "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here, [in the US]." In later years, Kennedy worked behind the scenes to continue building the financial and political fortunes of the Kennedy family. After a disabling stroke on December 19, 1961, at the age of 73, Kennedy lost all power of speech, but remained mentally intact. He used a wheelchair after the stroke.

Kennedy was one of three fathers (the other two being Dr. George Tryon Harding, Sr. and George H. W. Bush) to live through the entire presidency of a son. He died on November 18, 1969, two months after his eighty-first birthday.

Background, education, and family

Joseph Patrick Kennedy was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the elder son of Mary Augusta Hickey Kennedy and P.J. Kennedy, a successful businessman, ward boss and Irish American community leader. All of Kennedy's grandparents emigrated to Massachusetts in the 1840s to escape the Irish famine. Kennedy was born into a highly sectarian society, where Irish Catholics felt themselves excluded by upper-class Boston Brahmins. Boston Irish became thus active in the Democratic Party, including P.J. and numerous relatives.

P.J. Kennedy's home was comfortable, thanks to his successful saloon business, investments, and an influential role in local politics. His mother encouraged Joseph to attend the Boston Latin School, where Joe was a below average scholar but was popular among his classmates, winning election as class president and playing on the school baseball team.

Kennedy followed in the footsteps of older cousins by attending Harvard College. He focused on becoming a social leader, working energetically to gain admittance to the prestigious Hasty Pudding Club. While at Harvard he joined the Delta Upsilon International fraternity and played on the baseball team, but was blackballed from the Porcellian Club.

Marriage and family

On October 7, 1914, Kennedy married Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald, the eldest daughter of John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, a Democratic mayor of Boston and probably the most recognized politician in the city. They had nine children.

Business career

Kennedy made a large fortune as a stock market and commodity investor and by investing in real estate and a wide range of industries. He never built a significant business from scratch, but his timing as both buyer and seller was usually excellent. Sometimes he made use of inside information in ways which would later be made illegal, but regulations were lighter in his era. He later became the first chairman of the SEC. After his death various mobsters including Frank Costello claimed to have associated with Kennedy. According to some accounts, Kennedy was associated in the "Bear Raid" that precipitated the 1929 stock crash, as well as much of the bootlegging activity that was current at the time. When Fortune magazine published its first list of the richest people in the United States in 1957 it placed him in the $200–400 million band ($}}-}} today), meaning that it estimated him to be between the ninth and sixteenth richest person in the United States at that time. The Americans with equivalent ranks in 2010 had net worths between $13-20 Billion in 2010.

Early ventures

After graduating from Harvard in 1912, he took his first job as a state-employed bank examiner. This allowed him to learn a great deal about the banking industry. In 1913, the Columbia Trust Bank, in which his father held a significant share, was under threat of takeover. Kennedy, borrowing $45,000 ($}} today) from family and friends, bought back control and at age 25 was rewarded by being elected the bank's president, "the youngest in America."

Kennedy emerged as a highly successful entrepreneur with an eye for value. For example he turned a handsome profit from ownership of Old Colony Realty Associates, Inc., which bought distressed real estate.

Although skeptical of American involvement in World War I, he sought to participate in war-time production as an assistant general-manager of a major Bethlehem Steel shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. There he oversaw the production of transports and warships critical to the war. This job brought him into contact with the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Wall Street

In 1919, he joined the prominent stock brokerage firm of Hayden, Stone & Co. where he became an expert in dealing in the unregulated stock market of the day, engaging in tactics that would later be labeled insider trading and market manipulation. (He happened to be on the corner of Wall and Broad Streets at the moment of the Wall Street bombing on September 16, 1920, and was thrown to the ground by the force of the blast.) In 1923, he left, and set up his own investment company, becoming a multi-millionaire during the bull market of the 1920s and even more wealthy as a result of taking "short" positions in 1929.

David Kennedy, author of Freedom From Fear, describes the Wall Street of the Kennedy era:

The Crash

Kennedy formed alliances with several other Irish-Catholic investors, including Charles E. Mitchell, Michael J. Meehan and Bernard Smith. He helped establish the Libby-Owens-Ford stock pool, an arrangement in which Kennedy and colleagues created a scarcity of Libby-Owens-Ford stock to drive up the value of their own holdings in the stock, using inside information and the public's lack of knowledge. Pool operators would bribe journalists to present information in the most advantageous manner. Attempts to corner stocks were made that would cause the price to go up, and bear raids could cause the price to collapse downward. Kennedy got into a bidding war seeking control of founder John Hertz's company Yellow Cab.

Kennedy later claimed he knew the rampant stock speculation of the late 1920s would lead to a crash. It is said that he knew it was time to get out of the market when he received stock tips from a shoe-shine boy. Kennedy survived the crash "because he possessed a passion for facts, a complete lack of sentiment and a marvelous sense of timing." During the Depression Kennedy vastly increased his financial fortune by investing most of it in real estate. In 1929, Kennedy's fortune was estimated to be $4 million (equivalent to $}} today). By 1935, his wealth had increased to $180 million (equivalent to $}} today).

Investments in movie production, liquor importing, real estate

Kennedy made huge profits from reorganizing and refinancing several Hollywood studios. Film production in the US was much more decentralized than it is today, with many different movie studios producing film product. One small studio was FBO, Film Booking Offices of America, which specialized in Westerns produced cheaply. Its owner was in financial trouble and asked Kennedy to help find a new owner. Kennedy formed his own group of investors and bought it for $1.5 million ($}} today).

Kennedy moved to Hollywood in March 1926 to focus on running the studio. Movie studios were then permitted to own exhibition companies which were necessary to get their films on local screens. With that in mind, in a hostile buyout, he acquired the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Theaters Corporation (KAO) which had more than 700 vaudeville movie theaters across the United States. He later purchased another production studio called Pathe Exchange.

In October 1928, he formally merged his film companies FBO and KAO to form Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) and made a large amount of money in the process. Then, keen to buy the Pantages Theatre chain, which had 63 profitable theaters, Kennedy made an offer of $8 million ($}} today). It was declined. He then stopped distributing his movies to Pantages. Still, Alexander Pantages declined to sell. However, when Pantages was later charged and tried for rape, his reputation took a battering and he accepted Kennedy's revised offer of $3.5 million ($}} today). Pantages himself claimed that Kennedy had "set him up", an allegation substantiated by his later vindication at a second trial.

It is estimated that Kennedy made over $5 million ($}} today) from his investments in Hollywood. During his affair with film star Gloria Swanson, he arranged the financing for her films The Love of Sunya (1927) and the ill-fated Queen Kelly (1928). The duo also used Hollywood's famous 'body sculptor', masseuse Sylvia of Hollywood. At the start of the Franklin Roosevelt administration, Kennedy and James Roosevelt founded Somerset Importers, an entity that acted as the exclusive American agent for Gordon's Dry Gin and Dewar's Scotch. They assembled a large inventory of stock, which they allegedly sold for a profit of millions of dollars when Prohibition was repealed. Kennedy invested this money in residential and commercial real estate in New York, Le Pavillon restaurant, and Hialeah Race Track in Hialeah, Florida. His most important purchase was the largest office building in the country, Chicago's Merchandise Mart, which gave his family an important base in that city and an alliance with the Irish-American political leadership there.

New Dealer

Kennedy's first major involvement in a national political campaign was his support in 1932 for Franklin D. Roosevelt's bid for the Presidency. He donated, loaned, and raised a substantial amount of money for the campaign. Roosevelt rewarded him with an appointment as the inaugural Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Kennedy had hoped for a Cabinet post, such as Treasury. After Franklin Roosevelt called Joe to Washington to clean up the securities industry, somebody asked FDR why he had tapped such a crook. "Takes one to catch one," replied Roosevelt.

Kennedy's reforming work as SEC Chairman was widely praised on all sides, as investors realized the SEC was protecting their interests. His knowledge of the financial markets equipped him to identify areas requiring the attention of regulators. One of the crucial reforms was the requirement for companies to regularly file financial statements with the SEC, which broke what some saw as an information monopoly maintained by the Morgan banking family. He left the SEC in 1935 to take over the Maritime Commission, which built on his wartime experience in running a major shipyard.

Disputes with Father Charles Coughlin

Father Charles Coughlin was an Irish-Canadian priest in Detroit, who became perhaps the most prominent Roman Catholic spokesman on political and financial issues in the 1930s, with a radio audience that reached millions every week. A strong supporter of Roosevelt in 1932, Coughlin broke with the president in 1934 and became a bitter opponent in his weekly, anti-communist, anti-Semitic, anti-Federal Reserve and isolationist radio talks. Roosevelt sent Kennedy and other prominent Irish Catholics to try to tone down Coughlin. Coughlin swung his support to Huey Long in 1935 and then to William Lemke's Union Party in 1936. Kennedy strongly supported the New Deal and believed as early as 1933 that Coughlin was "becoming a very dangerous proposition" as an opponent of Roosevelt and "an out and out demagogue." In 1936, Kennedy worked with Roosevelt, Bishop Francis Spellman and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) to shut Coughlin down. When Coughlin returned to the air in 1940, Kennedy continued to battle against his influence among Irish Americans.

Ambassador to Britain

In 1938, Roosevelt appointed Kennedy as the United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James's (the United Kingdom) in London. Kennedy hugely enjoyed his leadership position in London high society, which stood in stark contrast to his relative outsider status in Boston. His daughter Kathleen married the heir to the Duke of Devonshire, the head of one of England's grandest aristocratic families. Kennedy rejected the warnings of the Member of Parliament Winston Churchill that any compromise with Nazi Germany was impossible. Instead, Kennedy supported Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's apparent policy of appeasement in order to stave off a second World War that would be a more horrible "armageddon" than the first. Throughout 1938, while the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Germany and Austria intensified, Kennedy attempted to arrange a meeting with Adolf Hitler. Shortly before the Nazi aerial bombing of British cities began in September 1940, Kennedy once again sought a personal meeting with Hitler, again without the approval of the Department of State, "to bring about a better understanding between the United States and Germany." Kennedy also had personal reasons for wanting to avoid war: "He feared for the lives of his three eldest sons, Joe, Jack and Bobby, all of whom were or soon would be eligible to serve."

Kennedy also argued strongly against giving military and economic aid to the United Kingdom.

"Democracy is finished in England. It may be here," stated Ambassador Kennedy in the Boston Sunday Globe of November 10, 1940. While bombs fell daily on Great Britain, Nazi German troops overran Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France, Ambassador Kennedy unambiguously and repeatedly stated his belief that this War was not about saving democracy from National Socialism (Nazism) or from Fascism. In the now-notorious, long, rambling interview with two newspaper journalists, Louis M. Lyons, of the Boston Globe, and Ralph Coghlan, of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kennedy opined:

"It's all a question of what we do with the next six months. The whole reason for aiding England is to give us time." ... "As long as she is in there, we have time to prepare. It isn't that [Britain is] fighting for democracy. That's the bunk. She's fighting for self-preservation, just as we will if it comes to us... I know more about the European situation than anybody else, and it's up to me to see that the country gets it,"

In British government circles during the Blitz, Ambassador Kennedy was widely disparaged as a defeatist. He fled to the countryside during the bombings of London by German aircraft.

When the American public and Roosevelt Administration officials read his quotes on democracy being "finished", and his belief that the Battle of Britain wasn't about "fighting for democracy," all of it being just "bunk", they realized that Ambassador Kennedy could not be trusted to represent the United States. In the face of national public outcry, and pressure from the Roosevelt Department of State, which no longer wanted him, Kennedy submitted his resignation later on in November 1940.

Throughout the rest of the war, relations between Kennedy and the Roosevelt Administration remained tense (especially when Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., vocally opposed President Roosevelt's nomination for a third term, which began in 1941). Having effectively removed himself from the national stage, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., sat out World War II on the sidelines. Kennedy did however stay active in the smaller venues of rallying Irish-American and Roman Catholic Democrats to vote for Roosevelt's re-election for a fourth term in 1944. Former Ambassador Kennedy claimed to be eager to help the war effort, but as a result of his previous gaffes, he was neither trusted nor invited to do so.

Due to his philanthropy and a close friendship with Francis Spellman, Archbishop of New York (later Cardinal), during this time, Joseph Kennedy was invested as a knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, an honor which at that time he shared with just a few dozen Americans.

With his own ambitions to achieve the White House in self-inflicted destruction, Joseph Kennedy held out great hope for his eldest son, Joseph Kennedy, Jr., to seek the Presidency. However, Joseph Kennedy, Jr., who had become a U.S. Navy bomber pilot, was killed over the English Channel while undertaking Operation Aphrodite, a high-risk, new way to use heavy bombers to strike German missile sites in France, in 1944. His bomber accidentally detonated early, before Kennedy could bail out. After grieving over his dead son, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., then turned his attention to grooming his second son, John F. Kennedy, for a run for the Presidency. After serving as a member of the House of Representatives, and then a U.S. Senator, the younger Kennedy entered the Presidential election in 1960, and won it.

Anti-Semitism

Joseph P. Kennedy was (for a while) a close friend with the leading Jewish lawyer, Felix Frankfurter, who became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in January 1939 and remained in this position until 1962. Frankfurter helped Kennedy get his sons admitted into the London School of Economics, where they studied under Harold Laski, a leading Jewish intellectual and a prominent socialist. While holding positive attitudes towards individual Jews, Kennedy's views of the Jews as a people were, by his own admission, overwhelmingly negative.

According to Harvey Klemmer, who served as one of Kennedy's embassy aides, Kennedy habitually referred to Jews as "kikes or sheenies." Kennedy allegedly told Klemmer that "[some] individual Jews are all right, Harvey, but as a race they stink. They spoil everything they touch."

On June 13, 1938, Kennedy met with Herbert von Dirksen, the German ambassador to the United Kingdom, in London, who claimed upon his return to Berlin that Kennedy had told him that "it was not so much the fact that we want to get rid of the Jews that was so harmful to us, but rather the loud clamor with which we accompanied this purpose. [Kennedy] himself fully understood our Jewish policy." Kennedy's main concern with such violent acts against German Jews as Kristallnacht was that they generated bad publicity in the West for the Nazi regime, a concern that he communicated in a letter to Charles Lindbergh.

Kennedy had a close friendship with Nancy Astor. The correspondence between them is reportedly replete with anti-Semitic statements. As Edward Renehan notes: :As fiercely anti-Communist as they were anti-Semitic, Kennedy and Astor looked upon Adolf Hitler as a welcome solution to both of these "world problems" (Nancy's phrase).... Kennedy replied that he expected the "Jew media" in the United States to become a problem, that "Jewish pundits in New York and Los Angeles" were already making noises contrived to "set a match to the fuse of the world."

By August 1940, Kennedy worried that a third term as the President for Roosevelt would mean war. As Leamer reports, "Joe believed that Roosevelt, Churchill, the Jews, and their allies would manipulate America into approaching Armageddon." Nevertheless, Kennedy supported Roosevelt's third term in return for Roosevelt's support of Joseph Kennedy, Jr., in the run for the Governor of Massachusetts in 1942. However, even during the darkest months of World War II, Kennedy remained "more wary of" prominent American Jews, such as Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter, than he was of Hitler.

Kennedy told the reporter Joe Dinneen: :It is true that I have a low opinion of some Jews in public office and in private life. That does not mean that I... believe they should be wiped off the face of the Earth... Jews who take an unfair advantage of the fact that theirs is a persecuted race do not help much... Publicizing unjust attacks upon the Jews may help to cure the injustice, but continually publicizing the whole problem only serves to keep it alive in the public mind.

Political alliances

Kennedy used his wealth and connections to build a national network of supporters that became the base for his sons' political careers. He especially concentrated on the Irish American community in large cities, particularly Boston, New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh and several New Jersey cities.

Alliance with Senator McCarthy

Kennedy's close ties with Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy strengthened his family's position among Irish Catholics, but weakened it among liberals who strongly opposed McCarthy. Even before McCarthy became famous in 1950, Kennedy had forged close ties with the Republican Senator from Wisconsin. Kennedy often brought him to Hyannis Port as a weekend house guest in the late 1940s. McCarthy at one point dated Patricia Kennedy. When McCarthy became a dominant voice of anti-Communism starting in 1950, Kennedy contributed thousands of dollars to McCarthy, and became one of his major supporters. In the Senate race of 1952, Joseph apparently worked a deal so that McCarthy, a Republican, would not make campaign speeches for the GOP ticket in Massachusetts. In return, Congressman John F. Kennedy, running for the Senate seat, would not give any anti-McCarthy speeches that his liberal supporters wanted to hear. In 1953 at Kennedy's urging McCarthy hired Robert Kennedy (age 27) as a senior staff member of the Senate's investigations subcommittee, which McCarthy chaired. In 1954, when the Senate was threatening to condemn McCarthy, Senator John Kennedy faced a dilemma. "How could I demand that Joe McCarthy be censured for things he did when my own brother was on his staff?" asked JFK. By 1954, however, Robert Kennedy and McCarthy's chief aide, Roy Cohn, had had a falling out and Robert no longer worked for McCarthy. John Kennedy had a speech drafted calling for the censure of McCarthy but he never delivered it. When the Senate voted to censure McCarthy on December 2, 1954, Senator Kennedy was in the hospital and never indicated then or later how he would vote. Joe strongly supported McCarthy to the end.

Presidential ambitions for family

Joe Kennedy was a fiercely ambitious individual who thrived off competition and winning. And, in his eyes, the ultimate prize was being president of the United States. Joe Kennedy wanted his first son, Joseph Kennedy Jr. to become president, but after his death in WWII, he became determined to make his eldest surviving son, John F. Kennedy, president.

Joe Kennedy was consigned to the political shadows after his remarks during WWII that "Democracy is finished...", and he remained an intensely controversial figure among U.S. citizens because of his suspect business credentials, his Roman Catholicism, his opposition to Roosevelt's foreign policy, and his support for Joseph McCarthy. As a result, his presence in John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign had to be downplayed. Having him in the spotlight would hurt John, making it look as if it were his father who was running for president.

However, Joe Kennedy still drove the campaign behind the scenes. He played a central role in planning strategy, fundraising, and building coalitions and alliances. Joe supervised the spending and to some degree the overall campaign strategy, helped select advertising agencies, and was endlessly on the phone with local and state party leaders, newsmen, and business leaders. He had met thousands of powerful people in his career, and often called in his chips to help his sons.

His father's connections and influence were turned directly into political capital for the senatorial and presidential campaigns of John, Robert and Ted. Historian Richard J. Whalen describes Joe's influence on John Kennedy's policy decisions in his biography of Joseph Kennedy. Joe was influential in creating the Kennedy Cabinet (Robert Kennedy as Attorney General for example). However, in 1961, Joe Kennedy suffered from a stroke that placed even more limitations on his influence in his sons' political careers. Joseph Kennedy expanded the Kennedy Compound, which continues as a major center of family get-togethers.

When John F. Kennedy was asked about the level of involvement and influence that his father had held in his razor-thin presidential victory, JFK would joke that on the eve before the election, his father had asked him the exact number of votes he would need to win - there was no way he was paying "for a landslide." John's presidency was a victory for Joe. He saw it as a step forward not just for his son but for the entire Kennedy family. Joe was a family man and strategically constructed his family's image towards the public. He once said,"Image is reality", and the presidency framed the Kennedy family picture.

Stroke and death

On December 19, 1961, at the age of 73, Kennedy suffered a major stroke. He survived, but lost all power of speech, and was left paralyzed on his right side. Kennedy did regain certain functions with the help of therapies. Most notably, he went to The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential in 1964, a Philadelphia center that teaches therapies for people with brain injuries. Kennedy made gains with therapy, and began walking with the help of a cane. His speech also showed some improvement. However, being 75 years old and greatly weakened, Kennedy was soon confined to a wheelchair. Despite being severely disabled from the stroke, Kennedy remained aware of the tragedies that befell his family until his own death, on November 18, 1969, two months after his eighty-first birthday .

His final public appearance was with Rose and Sen. Edward Kennedy in a videotaped message to the country a few weeks after the death of Robert Kennedy, which showed his extremely frail physical condition.

His widow Rose outlived him by 25 years, dying in January 1995 at the age of 104.

In fiction

In the alternate history novel Fatherland by Robert Harris, set in 1964, Joseph P. Kennedy—not his son John F. Kennedy—is president of the United States and about to arrive in Berlin to conclude a treaty with Adolf Hitler. Joseph Kennedy also plays a significant role as a character in Michael Dobbs's fictionalized account of the rise of Winston Churchill, Winston's War. Kennedy was portrayed by Irish actor Dan O'Herlihy in the 1998 movie The Rat Pack.

Ancestry

See also

Kennedy family

List of descendants of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

Kennedy Curse

List of well-known U.S. presidential relatives

References

Bibliography

Brinkley, Alvin. Voices of Protest. Vintage, 1983.

Goodwin, Doris K., The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga (1987)

Hersh, Seymour. The Dark Side of Camelot. Back Bay Books, 1998.

Leamer, Laurence. The Kennedy Men: . Harper, 2002.

Thomas Maier, The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings (2003)

Kessler, Ronald, The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded, Warner , 1996, ISBN

O'Brien, Michael. John F. Kennedy: A Biography (2005)

Renehan, Edward. The Kennedys at War, . Doubleday, 2002.

Renehan, Edward. "Joseph Kennedy and the Jews". History News Network. George Mason University, April 29, 2002.

Schwarz, Ted, "Joseph P. Kennedy" 2003, ISBN

Smith, Amanda, ed. Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of Joseph P. Kennedy (2002), the major collection of letters to and from Kennedy

Whalen, Richard J., "The Founding Father: The Story of Joseph P. Kennedy". The New American Library of World Literature, Inc., 1964.

External links

Joe Kennedy's Political Influence

The Kennedys - PBS Special

Kennedy's Legacy at the SEC

Biography of Joseph P. Kennedy and his early life and education

Affair with Marlene Dietrich

Correspondence with the Secretary of State at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library

Category:1888 births Category:1969 deaths Category:American businesspeople Category:American diplomats Category:American film producers Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American Roman Catholic politicians Category:Boston Latin School alumni Category:Deaths from stroke Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Irish American history Category:American politicians of Irish descent Category:John F. Kennedy Category:Kennedy family Category:Knights of Malta Category:Massachusetts Democrats Category:Members of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission Category:Parents of Presidents of the United States Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:Robert F. Kennedy Category:United States ambassadors to the United Kingdom Category:Harvard University alumni