An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963 (122 page)

p. 78: “Took a peak”: JFK to Billings, Jan. 27, 1936, NHP.

p. 78: Letters to Billings: Jan. 1936, LBP; Jan. 18, Jan. 27, and Feb. 13, 1936, NHP.

p. 79: Enjoyed improved health: See JPK to Dean Delmar Leighton, Aug. 28, 1936, Box 2, PP.

p. 79: “Plunked myself down”: JFK to Billings, May 15, 1936, NHP.

p. 79: “Jack broke out”: Quoted in Hamilton, 196. See JFK Diary, Aug. 28, 29, 1937, Box 1, PP.

p. 80: The Mayo treatment: See “Chronic Ulcerative Colitis with Marked Deficiency State,”
Proceedings of the Mayo Clinic,
vol. 14 (Oct. 25, 1939), 687. Also see JFK to Billings, Jan. 21, Feb. 14, Mar. 15, June 1, June 15, Oct. 1938, Feb. 5, 1939, NHP. JFK to Mother, n.d. (but probably Feb. 1938), Box 4B, PP.

p. 80: “take my first liver injection”: JFK to Dad & Mother, Nov. 1939, Box 4B, PP. Hamilton, 395.

p. 80: “For a man”: JPK to JFK, Sept. 10, 1940, Box 4A, PP.

p. 81: “an occasional pain”: JFK, Medical Record, Dec. 15, 1944, Box 11A, PP. Also see X rays for Nov. 8, 1944, in Dr. Janet Travell medical records, JFKL. Dr. Jeffrey Kelman suggested the possible connection between the adrenal extracts and JFK’s back problem. David Schurman, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Stanford University, confirmed Kelman’s analysis. The widely used text
The Principles of Internal Medicine,
edited by T. R. Harrison, relying on a 1943 article on “Ulcerative Colitis,” in
Gastroenterology,
edited by H. L. Bockus (Philadelphia, 1943), p. 549, discussed the effects of “cortisone and ACTH on the course of the disease,” saying things were “still in the experimental stages.” In the late thirties the adrenal drug of choice was desoxycorticosterone acetate, known as DOCA. The 1939 and 1940 editions of the
Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus
list numerous articles about the uses of DOCA.

p. 81: On Jack’s draft status, see unidentified newspaper clipping with an AP photo of JFK, n.d., Box 4A, PP.

p. 81: “The only humorous thing”: Torbert Macdonald to JFK, n.d., Box 4B, PP.

p. 81: “This draft”: JFK to Billings, Nov. 14, 1940, NHP. Hamilton, 360-62.

p. 82: “I am having Jack”: Quoted in Blair, 111-13. Also see Hamilton, 405-6.

p. 82: “usual childhood diseases”: Report of Physical Exam, Aug. 5, 1941, Box 11A, PP.

p. 82: “exceptionally brilliant”: Investigation Report, USNIS, Sept. 10, 1941, Box 11A, PP.

p. 83: “writing, condensing”: Quoted in Hamilton, 424-25.

p. 83: “Isn’t this a dull”: JFK to Billings, Dec. 12, 1941, NHP.

p. 83: On JFK in Washington and Inga, see Doris Goodwin, 630; Hamilton, 420-23, 431.

p. 84: “He had the charm”: Quoted in Hamilton, 422.

p. 84: The affair: Doris Goodwin, 627-35; Hamilton, 426-39. The FBI files on Inga are in the J. Edgar Hoover Official and Confidential File, Microfilm, JFKL.

p. 84: JFK’s transfer: Chief of the Bureau of Navigation to JFK, Jan. 14, 1942, Box 11A, PP.

p. 84: “They shagged”: Robert J. Donovan OH.

p. 84: “Jack finds”: Rose Kennedy to Children, Feb. 16, 1942, Box 4A, PP.

p. 84: “just seemed”: Billings quoted in Hamilton, 450. See Inga Arvad to JFK, Jan. 19, 20, 26, 27, 1942, Box 4A, PP.

p. 85: FBI wiretaps: D. M. Ladd to J. Edgar Hoover, Feb. 6, 1942; and J. R. Ruggles to Hoover, Feb. 23, 1942, O&C File, FBI Microfilm.

p. 85: “We are so well matched”: Inga Arvad to JFK, Jan. 26, 1942, Box 4A, PP.

p. 85: On Joe’s role in breakup, also see Doris Goodwin, 634-35.

p. 85: “There is one thing”: Mar. 11, 1942; also KK to JFK, Mar., n.d., 1942, all in Box 4A, PP.

pp. 85-86: Back problems: See JFK to Billings, Mar. 11, April 9, 1942, NHP; Rose Kennedy to Children, Mar. 27, 1942, Box 4A, PP; typed medical history and record, beginning April 13, 1942; and handwritten clinical record, May 21 to June 10, 1942; Chief of Bureau of Navigation to JFK, May 8, 1942, Box 11A, PP.

p. 86: “I have a feeling”: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 635; she also cites evidence of JFK’s thoughts of renouncing Catholicism.

p. 87: “This goddamn place”: JFK to Billings, Summer 1942, NHP.

p. 87: On the PTs, see Hamilton, 497-503.

p. 88: On Jack’s entrance into the PT service and his medical concerns, including JPK’s letter to Joe Jr., see Admiral John Harllee OH and Hamilton, 507.

p. 88: “He was in pain”: Quoted in Hamilton, 517-18.

p. 88: “This job”: JFK to Billings, Jan. 30, 1943, NHP.

p. 88: “his whole attitude”: Rose Kennedy to Children, Oct. 9, 1942, Box 4A, PP; Doris Goodwin, 646-47.

p. 88: “causing his mother”: Quoted in Goodwin, 647.

p. 89: “conscientious”: JFK, Report on Fitness, Feb. 11, 1943, Box 11, PP.

p. 89: “Kennedy was extremely”: Harllee OH.

p. 89: Meeting with Walsh and reassignment: Sen. David Walsh to John F. Fitzgerald, Dec. 21, 1942, Box 585, PPP. Harllee, in his OH, says he saw Walsh’s letter to the Navy Dept. Commander, MTB Squadron Four, to JFK, Jan. 8, 1943, Box 11, PP.

p. 89: “way to war”: Quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
51.

p. 89: “gastro-enteritis”: JFK Navy Medical Record, Dec. 15, 1944, entries for Jan. 12-13, 1943, Box 11A, PP.

pp. 89-90: “Re my gut” and “be stuck in Panama”: JFK to Billings, May 6, 1943, NHP.

p. 90: On JFK’s transfers, see Orders for Feb. 11, 19, 20, Box 11, PP. Also, Hamilton, 521-22.

p. 90: “Your friend Jock”: JFK to Billings, Jan. 30, 1943, NHP.

p. 90: “I’m extremely glad”: Quoted in Hamilton, 537-38.

p. 91: “That slowed me”: JFK to Billings, May 6, 1943, NHP.

p. 91: “to watch out”: Macdonald quoted in Meyers, 38.

p. 91: “among the gloomier”: Quoted in Hamilton, 535.

p. 91: “all the nuns”: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 651.

p. 91: “picture that I had”: Quoted in ibid., 533; JFK to Dad & Mother, May 14, 1943, Box 5, PP; JFK to Billings, May 6, 1943, NHP.

p. 92: “It’s not bad”: JFK to Billings, May 6, 1943, NHP.

p. 92: “It’s one of the”: Quoted in Hamilton, 533.

p. 92: “I always like”: JFK to Mother & Dad, Sept. 12, 1943, Box 5, PP.

p. 92: “He never said”: Ibid.

p. 92: “If they do that”: JFK to Dad & Mother, May 14, 1943, Box 5, PP.

p. 93: “Have been ferrying” and “Just had an inspection”: Quoted in Hamilton, 539-41.

p. 93: “A great hold-up”: JFK to Dad & Mother, May 14, 1943, Box 5, PP.

pp. 93-94: “that many Annapolis”: Harllee OH.

p. 94: “this heaving puffing”: Quoted in Sorensen, 19.

p. 94: On the PTs and “Let me be honest”: Blair, 174, 156. JFK to KK, June 3, 1943: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 650. Bulkley,
At Close Quarters,
with an Introduction by JFK.

p. 94: “When the showdown comes”: JFK to Dad & Mother, May 14, 1943, Box 5, PP.

p. 94: “had become somewhat cynical”: JFK to Mother & Dad, Sept. 12, 1943, Box 5, PP.

pp. 94-95: For the Guadalcanal, New Georgia, and Solomon Islands campaign in general, see Dear and Foot, 511-15, 791-96, 855-63, 918.

p. 95: On the failure of the PTs, see Blair, chap. 17, and 215-16 and 229 for the quotes.

p. 95: “least effective action”: Cooper, 151.

pp. 95-96: Questions were raised: Hamilton, 554-72; the quotes are on 567-69. A controversy also erupted between the captain of the Japanese destroyer and his commanding officer, who was using the destroyer as a flagship, as to whether the collision with JFK’s boat was accidental or on purpose. See Katsumori Yamashiro, the commander of the Japanese flotilla of August 1-2, 1943, to JFK, Nov. 15, 1958, Sept. 9, 1960, Jan. 20, 1961, Aug. 1, 1962, and the translated article by Kohei Hanami, the destroyer’s captain, “The Man I Might Have Killed Was Kennedy,” Nov. 2, 1960, all in Box 132, POF.

p. 96: “terrible thing”: JFK to Mother & Dad, Sept. 12, 1943, Box 5, PP.

pp. 96-97: For the sinking and rescue, see Memorandum to Commander MTB Flotilla One: Sinking of PT 109 and Subsequent Rescue, Aug. 22, 1943, Box 6, PP; History of PT 109, n.d., Box 132, POF; Robert King Interview: The PT-109 Crew Rescue: The Scouts’ Stories, MS 84-57, JFKL;
New York Times,
Aug. 20, 1943, June 4, 1961; Doris Goodwin, 654-57; and Hamilton, 577-602.

p. 97: “In human affairs”: Dallek,
Franklin D. Roosevelt,
378.

p. 98: JFK as hero: Hamilton, 598, 602, 605;
New York Times,
Aug. 20, 1943;
Boston Globe,
Aug. 19, 1943.

p. 98: “It certainly should occur”: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 658-59.

p. 98: “None of that hero”: Quoted in Blair, 310-11.

p. 98: “It was easy”: Quoted in Sorensen, 18.

p. 98: “Lieb, if I get”: Quoted in Hamilton, 598-99. John Hersey, “Survival,”
The New Yorker,
June 17, 1944.

p. 99: “God save this country”: Sorensen, 19.

p. 99: “I’d like you to meet”: Quoted in Hamilton, 592.

p. 99: “report to sick bay”: Quoted in Blair, 179-81.

p. 99: “exactly what the Dr.”: JFK to Dad and Mother, Aug. 10, 1943, JPK Papers, JFKL.

p. 99: “I imagine he’s”: Quoted in Doris Goodwin, 659.

p. 99: “It was a question”: Quoted in Blair, 310.

p. 99: “he wanted to”: Quoted in Hamilton, 608.

pp. 99-100: “symptoms of fatigue”: JFK, Medical History, Aug. 9, 16, 1943, Box 11A, PP.

p. 100: For the gunboat combat, see JFK to Billings, Sept. 15, 1943, NHP; JFK to Dad, Oct. 30, 1943, and JFK to Family, Nov. 1, 1943, Box 5, PP; and Hamilton, 606-27.

p. 100: “just God damned”: Quoted in Hamilton, 616-17.

p. 100: Health problems: See Report of Physical Exam, Oct. 20, 1943, Box 11A, PP.

p. 100: “I just took the physical”: Quoted in Blair, 301.

p. 100: “I looked as bad”: Quoted in Hamilton, 626.

pp. 100-101: His stomach pain: see [Medical] Report:-Kennedy, J. F., 11-23-43, G.I.; JFK Medical History, U.S. Naval Hospital, Chelsea, Mass., Nov. 25, 1944, Box 11A, PP; Commander A. P. Cluster to JFK, Dec. 21, 1943, and Chief of Naval Personnel to JFK, Jan. 7, 1944, Box 11, PP.

p. 101: “definitely not in good shape”: Ron McCoy, Inga’s son, to author, Dec. 10, 2002.

p. 101: “in reasonably good shape”: Quoted in Blair, 315.

p. 101: “He is just the same”: Rose Kennedy to Children, Jan. 31, 1944, JPK Papers.

p. 101: On his need for an operation, see JFK to Paul “Red” Fay, Feb. 21, 1944, quoted in Fay.

p. 101: “Once you get your feet”: JFK to “Johnny” [Hersey], n.d., NHP.

p. 101: On his fevers and complexion, see Joseph Timilty interview with Nigel Hamilton, NHP.

p. 101: “with nothing more”: JFK to Billings, May 3, 1944, NHP.

p. 102: For the Lahey surgeon’s report, see Dr. James Poppen to Capt. Frederick Conklin, Aug. 1, 1944, Box 11A, PP.

p. 102: “an interesting complication”: U.S. Naval Hospital, Neuro-Surgery, Dr. Heintzelman, Aug. 4, 1944, Box 11A, PP.

p. 102: Several medical problems: Dr. Sara Jordan to Captain Conklin, July 14, Aug. 1, 1944, Box 11A, PP. See Clinical Record, JFK, entries from Aug. 5 to Nov. 16, 1944, and Medical History, JFK, entries Aug. 4-Nov. 25, 1944, Box 11A, PP.

p. 103: “In regard to”: Quoted in Sorensen, 44.

p. 103: “Am still in”: JFK to Billings, Nov. 1944, NHP.

p. 103: “clearly indicate”: Dr. B. H. Adams to MO in C, Nav. Hosp, Chelsea, Mass., Dec. 1, 1945, and to the Surgeon General, Dec. 1, 1944, Box 11A, PP.

p. 103: “present abdominal symptoms”: Medical Record, JFK, Dec. 15, 1944, entry for Dec. 6, 1944, Box 11A, PP.

p. 103: Incapacity for naval service: R. T. McIntire, Chief of Bureau, to BUPers., Jan. 18, 1945, and Sec. of Navy James Forrestal to JFK, Mar. 16, 1945, Box 11, PP.

p. 104: “unstable back”: Quoted in Interview with Dr. Elmer C. Bartels, n.d., NHP.

p. 104: The expert on steroids is Dr. Eugene Strauss, who described the problem with dosages in the early use of steroids to Dr. Jeffrey Kelman. Conversation with Dr. Kelman. Also see Jonathan D. Adachi and Alexandra Papaioannou, “Corticosteroid-Induced Osteoporosis: Detection and Management,”
Drug Safety,
vol. 24, no. 8 (2001), 607-24, which demonstrates that osteoporosis can begin within three months after taking steroids.

p. 104: On the development and availability of DOCA by 1937, see Medvei, 476-78.

p. 104: “getting along well”: JPK to Paul Fay, Mar. 26, 1945, Paul B. Fay Papers, JFKL.

p. 104: “he looked jaundiced”: Quoted in Hamilton, 680.

p. 104: “so bad”: JFK to Billings, Feb. 20, 1945, NHP.

pp. 104-5: On his health from May 1945 to November 1946, see Hamilton, 687, 703, 712, 721-22, 768-69, 793-94.

p. 105: “gastro-enteritis”: Navy Medical History, JFK, entries for Aug. 3, 4, 5, 1945, Box 11A, PP.

p. 105: For the June 1946 medical crisis, see Blair, 560-62.

p. 105: On JFK’s negligence about his medication, see Dr. Elmer C. Bartels Interview, n.d., NHP.