Dedication
To my wife
Epigraph
He well knows what snares are spread about his path, from personal animosity . . . and possibly from popular delusion. But he has put to hazard his ease, his security, his interest, his power, even his . . . popularity. . . . He is traduced and abused for his supposed motives. He will remember that obloquy is a necessary ingredient in the composition of all true glory: he will remember . . . that calumny and abuse are essential parts of triumph. . . . He may live long, he may do much. But here is the summit. He never can exceed what he does this day.
—Edmund Burke’s eulogy of Charles James Fox for his attack upon the tyranny of the East India Company—
House of Commons, December 1, 1783
Contents
DEDICATION
EPIGRAPH
INTRODUCTION BY CAROLINE KENNEDY
FOREWORD BY ROBERT F. KENNEDY
PREFACE
I. Courage and Politics
Part One
THE TIME AND THE PLACE
II. John Quincy Adams
“The magistrate is the servant not . . . of the people, but of his God. ”
Part Two
THE TIME AND THE PLACE
III. Daniel Webster
“. . . not as a Massachusetts man . . . but as an American . . . ”
IV. Thomas Hart Benton
“I despise the bubble popularity . . . ”
V. Sam Houston
“. . . I can forget that I am called a traitor. ”
Part Three
THE TIME AND THE PLACE
VI.
Edmund G. Ross
“I . . . looked down into my open grave. ”
VII. Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar
“Today I must be true or false . . . ”
Part Four
THE TIME AND THE PLACE
VIII. George Norris
“I have come home to tell you the truth. ”
IX. Robert A. Taft
“. . . liberty of the individual to think his own thoughts . . . ”
X. Other Men of Political Courage
“. . . consolation . . . for the contempt of mankind. ”
XI. The Meaning of Courage
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BOOKS BY JOHN F. KENNEDY
CREDITS
BACK ADS
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Introduction
My father taught us all that we are never too old or too young for public service. President Kennedy’s inaugural challenge, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” summed up his own life and career, and rings as true today as it did forty years ago. To me, his commanding legacy lives in the thousands of Americans he inspired to get involved in their communities, schools, neighborhoods, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Peace Corps. Our country was transformed by the energy and dedication of a generation. Now it is up to us to redefine that commitment for our own time.
John F. Kennedy began his public service career as a PT-boat commander in the South Pacific in World War II. While on patrol on the night of August 2, 1943, the PT-109 was rammed by a Japanese destroyer, the Amagiri, and exploded into flames, throwing crew members into the burning water. Two were killed and one was burned so badly he couldn’t swim. Clutching a strap of the injured man’s life jacket in his teeth, Lieutenant Kennedy towed the wounded sailor to the nearest island, three miles away. For the next six days, with little food or water, the men hid, fearing they would be captured by the Japanese. Each evening Kennedy swam through the shark-infested waters to other islands seeking help, until he was spotted by two Solomon Islanders, Eroni Kumana and Biuku Gasa. They picked a coconut, onto which Kennedy carved a message, which they took to the hideout of a nearby Australian coast watcher who arranged rescue. In the summer of 2002 a National Geographic Society expedition found that the legend of John F. Kennedy’s courage lives on in the faraway Solomon Islands. Using remote-controlled vehicles with underwater cameras, explorer Robert Ballard and his team discovered the sunken PT-109. Expedition members met Eroni Kumana, the man whose simple canoe saved my father’s life and changed the course of history, and his son, John F. Kennedy Kumana.
