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John f. kennedy’s harvard entrance essay resurfaces online 87 years later.

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It’s no “Ask not… ” speech, that’s for sure.

John F. Kennedy’s college admissions letter to Harvard University has resurfaced on social media some 87 years later, and the Twitterati are hardly impressed with the iconic 35th president of the United States.

The note, penned by the young White House hopeful on April 23, 1935, is currently archived at the  John F. Kennedy Presidential Museum and Library in Boston, Massachusetts.

His prompt was simple — “Why do you wish to come to Harvard?” — but his answer was even simpler.

In an indisputably underwhelming statement composed of just five sentences, the 17-year-old Bay State native answered the query that would determine his educational future.

He wrote, “The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university.” 

He continued: “I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a ‘Harvard man’ is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain.”

Kennedy eventually wound up at Harvard and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in government in 1940.

“ ’Harvard is a whole vibe. And I’m tryna catch the wave. Lemme in.’ — JFK,” one reader joked . The reaction garnered more than 59,000 likes on Twitter.

"Harvard is a whole vibe. And I'm tryna catch the wave. Lemme in." – JFK — C.E. Little, Ph.D. (@ItsDrLittle) February 1, 2022

“If you want to see peak white mediocrity, here’s JFK’s Harvard admission essay,” added another.

Even the Velveeta cheese brand chimed in : “LOL OUR PRODUCT DESCRIPTION FROM OUR WEBSITE IS 28 WORDS LONGER THAN JFK’S HARVARD COLLEGE ESSAY!”

The Democrat’s short but influential term as the nation’s youngest elected president began in 1961. JFK was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963 at the age of 46.

But his family’s academic legacy continues until this day . Jack Schlossberg, Kennedy’s grandson via daughter Caroline Kennedy, recently graduated from Harvard Law and Harvard Business School.

Schlossberg, 29, previously attended Yale University and graduated in 2015 with a degree in history with a concentration in Japanese history.

He also appeared at the 2020 Democratic National Convention where he voiced support of now-president Joe Biden and touched upon JFK’s career.

“Times have changed, but the themes of my grandfather’s speech — courage, unity and patriotism — are as important today as they were in 1960,” he said. “Once again, we need a leader who believes America’s best days are yet to come. We need Joe Biden.”

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Why Is JFK's Harvard Admissions Essay Going Viral?

Social media users are discovering President John F. Kennedy's "underwhelming" Harvard application.

In one tweet from February 7, a UCLA PhD student tweeted JFK's Harvard application essay with a simple screenshot and the text "YALL IM CRYING PLEASE LOOK AT THIS!!!" The tweet has nearly 70,000 likes and 8,000 retweets.

Many users point out how underwhelming the essay is, others suggest that the line that got him accepted was the mention of his father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., who graduated from Harvard in 1912.

It reads the essay full:

The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a "Harvard man" is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain.

It's only five sentences long, and as many pointed out on Twitter, it doesn't really say much. Yet, the essay worked—he got in, started in fall of 1936, and graduated cum laude in 1940 with a Bachelor of Arts in government.

Harvard admissions has become extremely competitive in the years since JFK applied; the acceptance rate fell to 3.43 percent in 2021. Yet, according to the Harvard Crimson , "Between 2014 and 2019, the acceptance rate for legacies, 33 percent, dwarfed Harvard’s overall acceptance rate of only 6 percent."

JFK's own children and grandchildren attended Harvard: his daughter, Caroline Kennedy graduated from undergrad in 1980, and granddaughter, Rose Kennedy Schlossberg, graduated in 2010. Jack Kennedy Schlossberg didn't attend for undergrad, opting to go to Yale University instead, but he recently graduated with dual degrees from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School.

It's not just Twitter where JFK's essay is going viral; on TikTok, law student Rashid Eldoma analyzes the essay:

Musician Jordan Kahan, who goes by Boxout, also responded to the essay on the platform joking that it "basically boils down to 'Harvard's pretty cool, also my dad went here, so let me in please."

This isn't the first time the essay has gone viral. It surfaces every few years, in part thanks to the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum's digitized version.

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma , a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram .

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John F. Kennedy’s Harvard entrance essay resurfaces online 87 years later

A 17-year-old John F. Kennedy wrote a five-sentence college admissions essay to Harvard University — and got in, of course!

It’s no “Ask not… ” speech, that’s for sure.

John F. Kennedy’s college admissions letter to Harvard University has resurfaced on social media some 87 years later, and the Twitterati are hardly impressed with the iconic 35th president of the United States.

The note, penned by the young White House hopeful on April 23, 1935, is currently archived at the  John F. Kennedy Presidential Museum and Library  in Boston, Massachusetts.

His prompt was simple — “Why do you wish to come to Harvard?” — but his answer was even simpler.

In an indisputably underwhelming statement composed of just five sentences, the 17-year-old Bay State native answered the query that would determine his educational future.

He wrote, “The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university.”

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JFK's College Essay Was Worse Than Yours

In 1935, according to documents recently released online by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Harvard asked JFK a question all of us who've applied to college should recognize: why did he want to attend Harvard?

This is how Kennedy responded:

The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I felt that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a “Harvard man” is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain.

Kennedy's surprisingly vapid answer has turned many people into amateur admissions officers. How could someone who would later inspire his fellow Americans--albeit with the help of a speechwriter--to "ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country" write something so incredibly uninspiring? And how did Harvard accept him?

JFK was "kind of a dunce," says Eve Binder at IvyGate:

Kennedy's application really skimps on smarmy, sycophantic adjective-dropping, a sure sign that he has no idea what he’s talking about. This shit would never pass muster on the Common App. Not to mention the fact that he sounds more eager to own an embossed Harvard money clip than he does to have a Harvard education--although that's pretty much true for all Harvard students, so pass.

College consultant Barbara Cooper, as quoted by The Huffington Post , says that while Kennedy's legacy status would give him an edge, he would have a hard time getting into Harvard today:

The essay itself, from today's point of view, is missing a true understanding of the unique features of Harvard's offerings. It's not even clear if he visited or attended the information session, which many schools say is essential to indicating that you have an interest.

It's "hard to imagine a more slap-dash effort," claims Ralph Alter at American Thinker:

The lack of seriousness is surprising, considering that ol' bootlegging Daddy Joe was likely to be hovering imperiously in the background. Kennedy's essay sounds more like the response one gets from a beauty pageant contestant than that of a young man serious about his future ... One must remember, however, that the family's hopes were still pinned on Joe Kennedy Jr. who was considered the political standard bearer for the Kennedy progeny.

Today's college applicants can learn from Kennedy, asserts Ryan Brown at Campus Progress:

If JFK is any indication, early academic trajectory isn't always revealing of someone's abilities. Our 35th president finished his four years [of high school] at the Choate School in Wallingford, Conn., with a cumulative average of 68, placing him in the third quarter of his class. But by the time he graduated with honors from Harvard five years later, he'd written an international affairs senior thesis that would go on to become a bestselling book, Why England Slept . By his 30th birthday, he was a U.S. congressman.

Kennedy's application also includes a note from Choate's headmaster, who assures Harvard JFK "can be relied upon to do enough to pass."

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http://www.businessinsider.com/personal-essay-application-jfk-get-into-harvard-2013-11 Thu, 11/21/2013 - 19:00 Business Insider Here's The 5-Sentence Personal Essay That Helped JFK Get Into Harvard

People are dunking on JFK's half-assed Harvard admission essay in the wake of the Supreme Court axing affirmative action

• The Supreme Court ruled to overturn race-based affirmative action on Thursday.
• After the ruling, many focused on John F. Kennedy's underwhelming 1935 Harvard admission essay.
• People painted Kennedy as a classic legacy admission — a system that exists in some form today.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on affirmative action , the essay John F. Kennedy wrote in 1935 emerged online as a topic of discussion — and derision.

The essay, which was first published by The Washington Post in 2013, reappeared on social media on Thursday after the Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action in college admissions was unconstitutional.

Affirmative action — giving additional weight to applicants from disadvantaged demographics — had been upheld for four decades and helped minority groups access elite institutions like Harvard.

When Kennedy applied there, aged 17, the process was nowhere near as rigorous, with an application form just three pages long, per The Post.

Kennedy did not appear to be trying very hard to impress the school, other than name-dropping his rich father.

"The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university," the essay read. 

Related stories

"I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a 'Harvard man' is an enviable distinction and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain," it added. That was it.

—Rebecca Brenner Graham, PhD (@TheOtherRBG) June 29, 2023

The short essay shocked people on social media, who pointed out that the mention of Kennedy's father — a wealthy businessman who graduated from Harvard in 1912 — was most likely what got him into the Ivy League. 

One person jokingly tweeted : "Getting into Harvard: 1) be a person of color in the top 20 of every student in America, with SATs and recommendation from a state senator. 2) have Robert Kennedy be your dad, write something about being a Harvard man on a cocktail napkin, and transcribe it to your application."

Although Kennedy's example was extreme and unlikely to cut muster today, US colleges do explicitly favor applicants whose parents went there, via the legacy system.

Commentators — including President Joe Biden — on Thursday noted that the legacy system remained untouched by the court ruling.

The system, they complained, left colleges unable to shape their decisions on grounds or race, but able to do so based on applicants' parents, who are likely to already be privileged thesmelves, and probably white.

Kennedy started his degree in 1936 and graduated cum laude in 1940 with a Bachelor of Arts in government. He became America's 35th president around 20 years later.

Harvard admissions have become extremely competitive in the years since Kennedy applied.

In 1935, a total of 7,870 students were admitted to Harvard, according to a Harvard Crimson article at the time.

Only 1,984 people were admitted into the class of 2026, making the admission rate just 3%, according to the Ivy League's website. 

The Supreme Court's ruling on Thursday was criticized by many, including Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who argued in a dissenting opinion that it failed to understand the critical role race plays in society.

A group of Harvard University administrators  said in a statement  that the school would "continue to be a vibrant community whose members come from all walks of life, all over the world."

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JFK's Teenage 'Harvard Man' Entrance Essay Goes Viral on Twitter 87 Years Later

The 17-year-old future president wrote in his Harvard entrance essay, "To be a 'Harvard man' is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain"

A 1935 Harvard University entrance essay written by a then 17-year-old John F. Kennedy is again making the rounds online, this time going viral on social media for what critics say is an underwhelming piece of writing considering the teen who wrote it would go on to be president.

The short essay — written on April 23, 1935 and now housed at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Museum and Library — was written in response to the prompt: "Why do you wish to come to Harvard?"

In his five-sentence response, Kennedy extols the benefits of being a "Harvard man" and attending the same college as his father.

"The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several," he wrote. "I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university."

Kennedy continued: "I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a 'Harvard man' is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain."

Social media users recently re-shared the essay (which periodically makes headlines ), with some reinterpreting it for 2022.

" 'Harvard is a whole vibe. And I'm tryna catch the wave. Lemme in.' - JFK," wrote one Twitter user in response to the essay.

Others noted that the entrance essay Kennedy submitted to Princeton — in which he noted the "enviable distinction" of being a "Princeton man" — was strikingly similar .

Others noted that it was a different time — one in which entrance essays weren't as important a part as the overall application — and the teenager who wrote the essay did go on to achieve some notable things: "You understand that this was 85 years ago, and that he did in fact go on to fairly high office and some acclaim, right?"

Kennedy ultimately attended Harvard, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in government in 1940.

He again wrote of what it meant to attend the prestigious university in a 1956 article for the Harvard Alumni Bulletin titled " Why Harvard Men Go Into Politics ."

"But more important than its reputation, Harvard offers the potential politician an atmosphere conducive to the furtherances of such a career," Kennedy — then serving as a Massachusetts senator — wrote. "His interest in national affairs is quickened, and his comprehension of political issues is increased."

He continued elsewhere in the essay: "This gentle though constant pressure has resulted in Harvard men on all levels of community and national affairs contributing immensely to the improvement of our public life. I have no doubt that Harvard men will continue to utilize this splendid background by continuing to enter the political arena in large numbers. Few other professions are so demanding _ but few, I must add, are so satisfying to the heart and soul."

Also that year, Kennedy published his 1956 book Profiles in Courage — co-written by his adviser, Ted Sorensen — for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957.

He would be elected president in 1960 and serve until Nov. 22, 1963, when he was assassinated in Dallas.

Kennedy, then 46, was struck by two bullets while riding through the streets of Dallas in an open-topped motorcade with wife Jacqueline Kennedy by his side.

Related Articles

Analyzing JFK's Successful Harvard Essay

Kate Sliunkova

AdmitYogi, Stanford MBA & MA in Education

The Prompt: Why do you wish to come to Harvard?

JFK's response: The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a "Harvard man" is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain.

Our Thoughts on JFK's Essay

What he accomplishes.

He outlines his desire for a liberal education and identifies Harvard as the school in the best position to provide this service.

He flatters Harvard and separates it by claiming that it's not "just another college".

He expresses his long-held intention to attend Harvard.

He brings up his legacy status.

Where his essay falls short

While the writing is technically solid, this essay lacks a compelling story.

He never specifically identifies Harvard’s unique qualities, nor does he explain why those unique qualities would be a good match for him.

His family ties and desire to attend (which is really the heart of his application essay) are irrelevant; the admissions committee is uninterested in what its applicant wants. It’s far more interested in how an applicant might fit in and what that applicant might offer the college. JFK fails to consider both his fit and his potential contributions to Harvard.

Concluding thoughts

It’s quite clear that applying to college in the 1930s was quite different. JFK’s essay today likely wouldn’t slide at a less-selective state institution – and definitely wouldn’t be accepted at an enviable institution like Harvard.

This isn’t a reflection of JFK’s talents—clearly, he is a deeply intelligent man—but it does show how much applying to college has changed over the past few decades.

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JFK’s Harvard application (with essay) and other school records

The 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy this Friday has prompted an avalanche of coverage about his life and death, including today’s visit to his graveside at Arlington Cemetery by President Obama  and former President Bill Clinton. Here’s a look at something that hasn’t got much attention: his education.

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has digitized a number of records relating to his educational experience, and here are some of those documents, including his Harvard University application — in his own handwriting — as well as his grades from The Choate School and a letter from his father, Joseph Kennedy, to the Harvard admissions dean explaining that JFK was “brilliant” but “careless” and “lacks ambition” for things that didn’t interest him.

JFK went to these schools: Through fourth grade, the Edward Devotion School, Noble and and Greenough Lower School and the Dexter School in Massachusetts; Riverdale Country Day School in New York from fifth through seventh grades;  the Canterbury School in Connecticut for eighth grade; The Choate School in Connecticut for high school. He attended Princeton University for no more than two months in 1935, and later enrolled and graduated from Harvard.

Take a look at his grades and his university application. You may be surprised.

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JFK’s Harvard essay resurfaces, to mockery, after Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action

John F. Kennedy endeavored to be a “Harvard Man,” just like his father.

He wrote as much as a 17-year-old in 1935 in his rather succinct essay to Harvard College, a copy of which resurfaced on social media and quickly became a target of derision after the Supreme Court struck down race-based affirmative action in college admissions on Thursday.

In Kennedy’s response to the essay prompt — fewer than 100 words — some saw hypocrisy in the court’s decision to overrule nearly half a century of legal precedent. While the Supreme Court ruled that race can no longer be a factor in college admissions, many on social media noted that at some elite universities, the children of graduates, known as “legacies,” are given preference in admissions.

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“A casual reminder of JFK’s college essay,” Rebecca Brenner Graham , who teaches history at the Madeira School in Washington, D.C., tweeted after the ruling.

a casual reminder of JFK’s college essay (this is real https://t.co/VmNgvs4V9n ) pic.twitter.com/IStQDQg6QC — Rebecca Brenner Graham, PhD (@TheOtherRBG) June 29, 2023

“The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several,” Kennedy wrote in the essay. “I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer.”

“To be a ‘Harvard man’ is an enviable distinction,” he added.

With the Supreme Court’s ruling, the nation’s most prestigious schools are likely to see a significant decline in the number of Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous students admitted, according to research and analyses presented to the court last year.

The Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has a digitized version of Kennedy’s application materials to Harvard, which includes his transcript from The Choate School — his grades were less than spectacular — along with a letter his father, Joseph Kennedy, wrote to the freshman dean explaining that while his son “has a very brilliant mind for the things in which he is interested,” he is “careless and lacks application in those in which he is not interested.”

While the admissions process was far less rigorous when Kennedy was applying, many online noted the surefire advantage the future president had as the son of a well-known and wealthy businessman who had graduated from Harvard himself.

“He’d still get in today. Because donor and legacy,” one person tweeted .

“No one benefits from affirmative action more than <checks notes> Kennedy Americans,” another wrote. “Nepo babies politics version in Ivy,” a commenter chimed in.

Kennedy graduated from Harvard in 1940 and was elected president in 1960.

The bar for admission to Harvard is now incredibly high — just 3.2 percent of undergraduate applicants were accepted to the class of 2026 — and whether Kennedy would be admitted now, even with his wealthy, privileged background, is debatable.

But many said that it’s historically underrepresented students who will be affected by the court’s ruling, while the legacy system — a century-old practice that overwhelmingly benefits white and wealthy students — will remain intact for now.

In the remarks about the decision Thursday, President Biden said the legacy system expands “privilege instead of opportunity.”

On campus, students at Harvard reacted to the decision with shock and disappointment, calling it a “step in the wrong direction.” In a video that incoming president Claudine Gay posted on Thursday, she acknowledged the school lacks “all of the answers about what’s next,” but would “continue opening doors.”

Shannon Larson can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her @shannonlarson98 .

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Congressman John Fitzgerald Kennedy (circa 1946-47) in his Congressional Office.

Courtesy of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

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New biography aims to chronicle a complex life amid a pivotal time for a nation

One of the revelations about John F. Kennedy in Fredrik Logevall’s new biography, “JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917‒1956,” is that the man was an excellent letter-writer and diarist. The Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School and professor of history makes effective use of the collection at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, part of which has become available only recently.

“He always had a knack for the English language, even if he was an indifferent student in prep school and in his first years at Harvard,” Logevall says. “His teachers, frustrated by his lack of application overall, were always impressed by his way with words. It is an interesting contrast with his older brother, Joe Jr., the family’s supposed golden child, whose writings had a more dutiful, less imaginative quality.”

The first of a two-volume set, “JFK” aims to give the clearest picture yet available of the 35th president set against the historical, political, and cultural context of a pivotal age. The book begins with great-grandfather Patrick Kennedy’s arrival in Boston during the Irish potato famine and runs through Jack’s childhood, studies at Harvard, and military duty, and finally his rise in politics in 1956, when he almost became the Democrats’ vice presidential pick. Logevall spoke with the Gazette recently about the man and the book.

Fredrik Logevall

GAZETTE: There have certainly been many books written about JFK. What were you able to find that hadn’t been found before?

LOGEVALL: You’re quite right. There are a lot of excellent books out there on various aspects of his life and career, and especially the presidency — one thinks, for example, about the many studies of the Cuban missile crisis, Civil Rights, the Bay of Pigs disaster, the marriage with Jackie, and the assassination in Dallas. But we don’t have many true biographies, even one that is a full-scale examination of the entire life and that looks closely at his early life, in particular his teens and 20s, which I believe were key years for him (as they are for most of us). Mine is a “life and times” biography that places Kennedy in his own context, that of a rising American power in world affairs. I guess the conceit of the book is that I can tell two stories together: the story of John F. Kennedy’s rise and the story of America’s rise. I believe we can better understand the first half of the so-called American Century through the lens of Kennedy’s life.

Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (from left), Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., and John F. Kennedy in Southampton, England, July 2, 1938.

Courtesy of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

GAZETTE: What did you find that people have missed about JFK in the past?

LOGEVALL: One thing that people have underplayed is the degree to which he was a serious student of democracy and world affairs at an earlier point than we imagine. We tend to think of him as a callow playboy, not serious about public policy or his career until quite late, until he runs for Congress in 1946, and maybe not even then. But you can look at the papers he wrote as an undergraduate at Harvard, some of which are available, and you can look at his senior thesis which became a best-selling book [“Why England Slept”] and see a young man already thinking deeply and in sustained fashion about important issues. A second finding is that the young Jack Kennedy was in important respects his own master. Though his father was a towering force in his life and those of his eight siblings, Jack proved willing and able, to a degree I did not expect, to chart his own course. The Harvard years are interesting in this regard: In 1939‒40, as World War II began and debate raged in the U.S. about how to respond, Jack showed himself willing in a way his older brother, Joe Jr., never was to separate himself from his father. Long before Pearl Harbor, Jack had become an interventionist while his father adhered throughout to a staunch isolationist position. Later, during his political campaigns, Jack always kept the key decision-making role for himself, notwithstanding the common misconception that his father called the shots. [gz_soundcloud title=”John F. Kennedy recording for public speaking class at Harvard, 1937″ track_id=”321147626″ playlists=”” height=”350″ show_artwork=”false”] [/gz_soundcloud]

GAZETTE:   Another family relationship we learn more about is with his brother Bobby, and how this became increasingly important.

LOGEVALL:  Yes, the age difference between the two brothers was such — 8½ years — that in the early years, when Jack was at prep school and then at Harvard, they weren’t particularly close. But what we see especially in 1951, when they traveled together along with their sister Patricia on an extended tour of the Middle East and Asia, is that they developed a strong bond. Bobby admired his brother to no end, and Jack could now see Bobby’s intelligence and loyalty and good cheer. Then in 1952 Bobby, all of 26 at the time, came aboard to take charge of Jack’s floundering Senate campaign against Henry Cabot Lodge and helped to turn the thing around. Jack could now see just how important Bobby could be to his career, could see the powerful combination of doggedness, shrewdness, and ruthlessness that his brother possessed.

The Kennedy family at Hyannisport, Mass., 1931. Robert (from left), John, Eunice, Jean (on lap of) Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (behind) Patricia, Kathleen, Joseph, Rosemary.

Photo by Richard Sears, courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

GAZETTE: He was quite a complex character. He did have his playboy side, but some of his war actions can be called heroic.

LOGEVALL:  Yeah, I think that is right. There is a seriousness of purpose which you see in his letters home from the South Pacific, and more dramatically in the actions he took to help save his crew after his boat, the PT-109, was rammed by a Japanese destroyer. Was there heroism there? I believe so, even if he deserves no accolades for allowing his boat to be rammed. The efforts he made in the succeeding days to try to save his crew were really quite extraordinary. We might note here as well that he came back from the war, as many of the servicemen did, with a seriousness of purpose evinced to some degree before but deepened as a result of seeing combat. He was convinced that the U.S. would need to play a leading role in world affairs, even as he also had a skepticism about the use of the military’s power that he would carry with him for the rest of his days.

GAZETTE: His coming out against Joseph McCarthy seems to be a bit of a political turning point.

LOGEVALL: Well, he never fully came out in stark opposition, which was a problem. The relationship with McCarthy was complicated, partly because of family ties. He never felt the kind of personal connection to McCarthy that Joe Sr. felt and that Bobby felt. And there were a lot of aspects of McCarthy’s political persona that he found off-putting — the disdain for senatorial good manners, the disregard for facts, for reasoning from evidence. That said, liberals at the time had good reason to be frustrated by JFK’s reluctance to really condemn McCarthy. Even in 1954, when McCarthy’s influence was in decline and the Senate held a censure vote, JFK, recovering in the hospital following a serious surgery, did not instruct his aide Ted Sorensen to register his position on the vote. He could have done so, but he didn’t, and that caused a lot of grief for him with liberals later on. He preferred to sidestep the issue, aware that there were an awful lot of Irish Catholic voters in Massachusetts who still backed McCarthy. He didn’t want to get on their bad side.

A page in Kennedy’s diary from fall 1951. The first part reads: “Oct. 3 — Paris — I talked with General Eisenhower Biddle and MacArthur at SHAEF Headquarters. Eisenhower looking very fit — seemed disturbed at news of last few days.” Lt. Kennedy on board PT 109, July 1943.

Photo by Joel Benjamin (left), courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

GAZETTE: The book deals a lot with the influence of World War II on his character development. Do you think he took a lot from other aspects of American life at the time, including popular culture?

LOGEVALL: To a degree, certainly. When he returned from the war and was figuring out what he wanted to do, he had a fascinating stint as a journalist. He showed good reporting instincts and could have made it a career. In this period he also liked to pal around in Hollywood, where his father had been a movie mogul in the 1920s and still had connections. Jack dated actresses like Gene Tierney and liked to be on the set, liked to go to movies. Popular music I think interested him less, and until Jackie came along he evinced little interest in art. He did like poetry, and he memorized a lot of it starting already in prep school at Choate. But the Hollywood connection is interesting to me, and probably plays some role in his later skill at using images and film to advance his political career. He was among the first politicians to see that images matter, that the right use of film can make a powerful difference. Television was a huge emerging thing as his career builds, and he had that savvy understanding of the medium and how he could use it to his advantage, kind of like FDR used radio so effectively.

GAZETTE: Many of the reviews I’ve read have focused on his womanizing, which we already knew about. Do you think that’s ultimately that important a part of his character?

LOGEVALL:  Yes, the womanizing is an important part of who he is. His father led by example, carrying on with innumerable women in the 1920s and 1930s, and the older kids knew very well what was going on. Joe Sr. made clear he expected his sons to follow his ways. But I can’t have it both ways: If I’m going to argue that JFK was able to resist his father’s pressure and be his own man when it came to politics and career choices, I have to maintain that he could have broken with him on this issue too. Here he was his father’s son, with a tendency to see women as objects to be conquered. But there are paradoxes here, among them the fact that his administration took important progressive steps, establishing, for example, the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, with Eleanor Roosevelt as chair. In 1962, at the urging of the commission, Kennedy ordered federal agencies to cease sex discrimination in hiring.

Sen. John Kennedy and his then-fiancée Jacqueline Bouvier in Hyannis Port, Mass.

Photo courtesy of Harvard Fine Arts Library, Digital Images & Slides Collection

GAZETTE: In the second volume you’ll have to unravel the mystery around the assassination. Do you have a sense of how you will approach that?

LOGEVALL: There is certainly a fascination, and it shows few signs of fading. It is a vexing issue to any biographer of JFK, and it has spawned a whole cottage industry of its own. I haven’t yet written Volume 2 so I haven’t fully decided how I will proceed on this. But certainly I will talk about Lee Harvey Oswald’s background, about what led him to take this action, and will give the reader a full sense of how it all culminated in this terrible moment. And I think I will owe the reader my assessment of what I believe happened. So I will provide it. I don’t think I will get heavily into the deliberations of the Warren Commission or the various conspiracy theories that have sprouted up over the years. That’s another book, not to mention a potential morass.

GAZETTE: What do you think happened?

LOGEVALL: My reading of the evidence we have indicates pretty clearly to me that Oswald was the lone gunman. Claims to the contrary all come up short. Oswald’s associations and meetings in the weeks leading up to the assassination are worthy of investigation, however, and have been examined in recent studies. I will delve into that material and be interested to see what I find.

Interview was lightly edited for clarity and length.

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The Morning

Trump’s nostalgia bump.

Like other former presidents, time has improved Trump’s standing among voters.

By Ian Prasad Philbrick

He is a writer for The Morning.

President Trump left office wildly unpopular. But in the past few years, some voters’ opinions about him have improved. Support for how Trump handled key issues as president — including the economy, and law and order — has risen by about six percentage points since 2020, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll. A plurality of voters, 42 percent, now say the Trump years were “mostly good” for the country . Only a quarter say the same of President Biden’s tenure.

Biden says he finds the nostalgia “ amazing ,” and at a time when Trump is a defendant in four criminal cases, it may seem surprising. But former presidents often enjoy more positive assessments from voters in retrospect. The difference this year is that, for the first time in decades, a former president is running to reclaim his old office.

Today, I’ll explain why voter nostalgia seems to be helping Trump, and how that might change.

A longstanding pattern

Decades ago, the polling firm Gallup started asking Americans what they thought about past presidents. The results revealed a pattern : Almost everyone Gallup asked about, from John F. Kennedy to Trump, enjoyed higher approval ratings after leaving office than he did while holding it, as this chart by my colleague Ashley Wu shows.

Change in approval ratings during and after presidency

Avg. rating

while in office

after presidency

Donald Trump

Barack Obama

George W. Bush

Bill Clinton

George H. W. Bush

Ronald Reagan

Jimmy Carter

Gerald Ford

Richard Nixon

Lyndon B. Johnson

John F. Kennedy

One explanation is political. As presidents leave office, partisan attacks recede. Some presidents, like Jimmy Carter, become well known for philanthropy or other good works. “You kind of move, as an ex-president, from being a political figure to someone who is above the fray,” Jeff Jones, a Gallup senior editor, told me.

Another explanation is historical. As years pass, popular culture and collective memory come to shape Americans’ views of presidents — especially for those too young to remember the actual events. History textbooks, for instance, tend to focus more “on the good things they did than the bad things, the historical contributions that they made as president rather than scandals or poor decisions or poor policies,” Jones said.

There are psychological explanations, too. Human memory is fallible. People often experience their current problems more acutely than they recall their past ones or think better of experiences in retrospect, which psychologists call recency bias. That can lead to a perpetual yearning for the supposed good old days .

A political boon

In Trump’s case, the result seems to be that voters are focused more on the inflation, record border crossings and overseas wars of the Biden years than on the administrative chaos, pandemic and insurrection of the Trump years. Voters “know about what they don’t like about Biden, and they have forgotten what they don’t like about Trump,” Sarah Longwell, a Republican consultant, told The Times .

How respondents’ views of Trump have changed

Approve of his handling

of the economy

Think he left the country

Approve of his handling of

maintaining law & order

of unifying America

the Supreme Court

Think he left the country better off

Approve of his handling of maintaining

law & order

Approve of his handling of unifying America

Approve of his handling of Covid

Those more positive assessments may be one reason Trump has led Biden in most polls this year. In a Times/Siena survey from February, more than twice as many voters said that Trump’s policies had helped them personally as said that Biden’s had.

Trump’s post-presidency bump may also suggest that voters have forgotten, or forgiven, the turmoil of his final weeks in office. Not all of Trump’s predecessors recovered in this way. Richard Nixon’s approval ratings plummeted before he resigned during Watergate, and they never bounced back. But in Gallup’s polling, voters’ assessment of Trump’s presidency has rebounded to where it was in October 2020, before Trump tried to overturn his re-election defeat and before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Will it last?

Approval ratings can change. In particular, they can decline when a campaign begins. Hillary Clinton’s favorability spiked when she was first lady and secretary of state but fell when she ran for president.

To flatten Trump’s nostalgia bump, the Biden campaign plans to run millions of dollars in ads reminding voters what they disliked about Trump’s presidency. One recent spot interspersed video of empty store shelves from 2020 with a clip of Trump wondering if Americans should inject disinfectant to treat Covid. Biden’s approach may already be working; the new Times/Siena poll shows that he has cut Trump’s national lead to just one point.

Democrats have reasons to hope that higher approval ratings alone won’t win Trump a second term, even as Biden’s remain low. In Gallup’s poll, most Americans still disapproved of Trump and how he governed, even in hindsight. And as November nears, voters may focus more on what Trump plans to do if he regains the White House than on what he did last time.

But in an election that’s likely to be very close, even a small afterglow could matter.

More on the poll

Biden has begun to win back some of the Black and Latino voters who supported him in 2020.

Most voters remain pessimistic about the economy. See the full poll results .

How can 1,000 people represent the country’s views? Read about how The Times and Siena College gets an accurate sample .

More on 2024

Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan — about a hush-money payment — goes to trial today .

The Jan. 6 riots are central to Trump’s campaign . He opens his rallies with a recording of defendants singing the national anthem from their jail cells.

THE LATEST NEWS

Middle east.

Israel is considering retaliation for Iran’s missile attack. World leaders are urging restraint .

Benjamin Netanyahu faces a delicate calculation : He could look weak if he doesn’t respond, but he risks a broader war with retaliation.

Iran’s strikes against Israel were a choreographed spectacle intended to cause maximum drama but minimal damage, experts say.

The attack highlights how clashes in the Middle East are getting harder to contain , Alissa Rubin and Vivian Nereim write.

“I’m afraid of war”: In Iran, some fear upheaval . Others have vowed to fight.

More International News

Japan can no longer source the traditional paper it needs to produce its bank notes at home. Nepalese farmers have stepped in .

A war between two military factions in Sudan has brought widespread hunger and driven about 8.6 million people from their homes .

In western Ukraine, some men swim across a dangerous river toward Romania to avoid the draft .

Alarm is rising in Germany about links between a far-right party and Russia .

Business and Economy

Inflation has made some Americans feel economically insecure — even when they’ve gotten big raises .

Many Americans are reluctant to give up the low fixed-rate mortgages they secured during the pandemic, even if they want to move.

Congress is targeting a Chinese company that makes cancer drugs over potential security breaches. The scrutiny has rattled the pharmaceutical industry .

The Biden administration awarded $6 billion to Samsung for domestic semiconductor production.

Other Big Stories

Minneapolis’s top prosecutor promised to overhaul criminal justice. She now faces criticism , including from fellow Democrats.

Bonobos have a peaceful reputation, but a new study found they act aggressively more often than their chimpanzee cousins.

Iran just made a big mistake in its attack. Israel shouldn’t retaliate , Thomas Friedman writes.

Israel has every moral and legal right to retaliate against Iran. But it can get revenge without starting a broader war, Bret Stephens argues.

China wants to negotiate a nuclear treaty with the United States. The Biden administration should take it seriously , W.J. Hennigan writes.

Here is a column by David French on his relationship with masculinity .

MORNING READS

Sumo: At Madison Square Garden , New Yorkers got to watch a sport that’s rarely seen stateside.

Australia: Scientists are trying to save the koala in unusual ways, including with tree-planting drones.

Roses are red, violets are blue: Read why one bouquet costs $72 .

Reverence: Lincoln’s murder is often re-enacted, but not at Ford’s Theater .

Ask Vanessa: “ Should I dress to cover up my scars or show them off?”

Metropolitan Diary: A Greek epic on the Uptown local .

Lives Lived: Don Wright was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist who commented wryly on war and segregation. He died at 90 .

Golf: Scottie Scheffler won the Masters by four strokes , securing his second green jacket in three years.

N.B.A.: The regular season had its final weekend. Here’s what to know about the playoffs.

Live from New York: Caitlin Clark appeared on “Saturday Night Live” where she received a 20-second ovation.

ARTS AND IDEAS

Later this week, the artist Jeffrey Gibson’s paintings and sculptures will fill the American Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. His works will feature geometric patterns and political references to Indigenous struggles and American history.

Gibson — who is Choctaw and Cherokee — is the first Native American artist to exhibit at the pavilion solo. Read more about the exhibition .

More on culture

In “Knife,” Salman Rushdie addresses the 2022 attack that blinded him in one eye. He also details how his wife supported his recovery. “I wanted to write a book which was about both love and hatred — one overcoming the other,” he told The Times .

Hundreds of survivors of the 2017 bombing of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, have taken legal action against Britain’s intelligence services for not doing more to prevent the attack, The Guardian reports.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Roast lemony chicken with potatoes for an easy weeknight dinner.

Stream a science fiction movie .

Advocate for yourself at the dentist .

Read this before filing your tax return .

Download a free video game .

Complete this checklist when adopting a cat.

Take our news quiz .

Here is today’s Spelling Bee . Yesterday’s pangrams were nighttime and theming .

And here are today’s Mini Crossword , Wordle , Sudoku , Connections and Strands .

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — Ian

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox . Reach our team at [email protected] .

Ian Prasad Philbrick is a writer for The Morning newsletter. More about Ian Prasad Philbrick

Profile in Courage Essay Contest

Getting started.

The 2024 Profile in Courage Essay Contest opens for submissions on September 1, 2023. The contest deadline is January 12, 2024.

Contest Topic and Information

The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation invites U.S. high school students to describe and analyze an act of political courage by a U.S. elected official who served during or after 1917, the year John F. Kennedy was born.

Eligibility and Requirements

The contest is open to United States high school students in grades nine through twelve attending public, private, parochial, or home schools; US students under the age of twenty enrolled in a high school correspondence/GED program; and US citizens attending schools overseas.

Recognition and Awards

The first-place winner receives $10,000. Second-place receives $3,000. Five finalists receive $1,000 each. Ten semifinalists receive $100 each. Eight students receive honorable mention.

Past Winning Essays

Read past winning essays to see examples of excellent submissions.

Criteria for Judging

Submissions are evaluated on content (demonstrated understanding of political courage, originality, supporting evidence, source material) and presentation (quality of writing, organization, conventions.) Includes information about disqualifications.

Prepare Your Essay

Resources to help you prepare an excellent essay: Elements of a Strong Essay, Helpful Tips for Writing, Guidelines for Citations and Bibliography, and Criteria for Judging.

Submit Your Essay

The contest opens for submission on September 1st.

Teacher Information and Curriculum Ideas

Frequently asked questions (faq).

Answers to frequently asked questions about the contest topic and requirements, citations and bibliography, the role of the nominating teacher, and more.

Essay Contest Partner: The Boeing Company

The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation gratefully acknowledges Boeing for its generous support of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest.