A new book on Joseph P. Kennedy, patriarch of the Kennedy family, reveals that he had New York Times columnist Arthur Krock, who was on his payroll, secretly approach President Roosevelt in December 1940 with a plan to send Kennedy to Ireland to secretly negotiate with Irish leader Eamon De Valera for the use of Irish military bases and ports.
The British government immediately intervened and stated that “For your own information we regard Mr. Kennedy as a highly unsuitable emissary though we appreciate that we must not antagonize him or such Irish American opinion as is under his influence.”
The material is in the new Kennedy biography ‘The Patriarch’ by David Nasaw.
Krock made the overture shortly after Kennedy had returned from his role as Ambassador to London where his pro-appeasement leaning had frustrated Roosevelt.
However, Roosevelt was reluctant to fire him because his sway with Irish Americans was considerable and he had lost two key Irish Americans.
“With James Farrely (Postmaster General) having abandoned the administration and Al Smith campaigning for (Wendell) Wilkie the president needed a high profile Irish American to come to his defence,” Nasaw writes.
Roosevelt actually offered Kennedy the Dublin Ambassador’s post after he was first elected, but Kennedy turned it down.
The book also clears up the incorrect stories about Joe Kennedy being a bootlegger. It was actually a person with the same name, resident in Vancouver, Canada, David Joseph Kennedy who was running hooch during prohibition.
The book also includes a letter to Jack Kennedy from his father urging him to marry an Irish Catholic girl because of the religious make-up of Massachusetts.
“Politics is a great game! You better be sure to marry yourself a nice Irish Catholic girl ...“I am thoroughly convinced that an Irish Catholic with a name like yours ... married to an Irish Catholic girl would be a pushover in this state for a political office.”
Kennedy made the remarks after the Democratic candidate for senate in 1942, Irish Catholic Joseph Casey got in trouble, especially with women, on the grounds he married a Protestant and had a baby five months after marriage.
Kennedy also arranged for 13 West Point students found cheating in their exams to take their degrees at Notre Dame which he paid for as he felt they had been shafted. The book reveals his close links with Notre Dame presidents Father Ted Hesburgh and Father James Cavanaugh.
It also deals with his intense irritation that senior Catholic figures such as Cardinal Spellman in New York did not support his son’s race for the White House despite the fact that he was the first Catholic to run.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.darragh S | Jan 02, 2013, 12:19 AM EST
'Google whats a little debt between friends' click on the BBC, read. now ask yourself what difference would it of made bar the Deal the Americans gave the British versus the Deal the Germans gave the Irish more recently. Mute point then, Fanta anyone?
darragh S | Jan 02, 2013, 12:12 AM EST
Such a shame the Irish lost out on the opportunity to get all the great stuff the UK got for free from the US just for a few bases. If you google 'whats a little debt between friends' you read the BBC link. The Irish government of the must of been hoping in secret that Nazi Germany would win. See how hope and dreams can interfere with good reasoning. There are exceptions to the Rule though in General its hard to get away with plundering yet so many make the same mistake. Its no big deal, many Limey's have a secret hope that China will crush the US don't they? Go on admit it, your still in hope of back taxes since 1775 regardless of the deal the US gave you in World War 2. Anyway back to my book writing duties 'the Girl who lived in the cuckoo clock with the fairy tattoo part 5 and a half'.
johnshiel | Jan 01, 2013, 01:05 PM EST
joe kennedy NOT a bootlegger??? say it ain't SO! Re Kennedy and ND, I never heard of any of that clan attending there... good enough to use for politics but not for education? too concerned with ethical formation?
edmundburke | Dec 31, 2012, 01:56 PM EST
Joe Kennedy the first to break the "glass ceiling" for the Irish Catholics in America? Hogwash. Many Irish Catholics in America had reached the pinnacle of American politics before the mid-1930s. Al Smith, as mentioned, ran for Prez in '28 and had served as Governor of NY. Irish Americans served as key Senators and Congressmen since the 1890s. Ed Dunne was Mayor of Chicago and Governor of Illinois by the time he lobbied Wilson for Irish independence in 1919. Jim Farley was in FDR's cabinet, a higher rank, before Joe Kennedy was named ambassador. Also, Irish Catholic Wild Bill Donovan was the Deputy Attorney General of the US in 1926 and was later picked by FDR to create and head up the OSS, the forerunner to the CIA. Joe Kennedy was one of many.
McNamara31 | Dec 31, 2012, 11:21 AM EST
Say what you want however....Joe Kennedy "broke through" a glass ceiling against all things Irish, and should be given credit for it.
Joe Kelsall | Dec 31, 2012, 09:29 AM EST
The Americans rewriting history? Joe Kennedy was a bootlegger; the priest told me!
aloistmartin | Dec 30, 2012, 09:13 PM EST
A Omen to Gerry Adams ! Don`t let Sinn Fein become another Cuba or Kennedy Family !
IrelandNorth | Dec 30, 2012, 02:31 PM EST
Let us not forget Sir Winston Lord Churchill's offer to hand back the 6 north eastern Irish counties to Dev in his pithy wartime telegram: "Now is the time - Now or never - A nation once again!" in exchange for Ireland's input to war on the British and/or Irish Isles' mainland.
bob mcbride | Dec 30, 2012, 11:15 AM EST
Gobshite! He was close and friendly with every irish gangster when he was trading stocks before 1929.
puffin | Dec 30, 2012, 07:43 AM EST
Jack from whom would these submarines be hiding,
puffin | Dec 29, 2012, 10:57 PM EST
What's in a name? Everything. Krock should get a non de plume. His tome sounds like it's a crock. Suddenly, Krock has found that the Sr. Kennedy was not a bootlegger/gangster. What a Krock/crock.
pilib04 | Dec 29, 2012, 05:32 PM EST
Of course JimCallahan is correct. Kennedy was the second Catholic to receive the nomination of a major political party for President. I believe, John Kerry was the third Catholic to receive a major party nomination. JFK was also the ONLY Catholic ever elected President of the United States. He was assassinated after 1000 days in office. Always though Joe Kennedy Sr. was an interesting Irish American.
padraiginrua | Dec 29, 2012, 05:10 PM EST
Postmaster was Farley.
jackinnj | Dec 29, 2012, 02:18 PM EST
U.S. Navy used the steep fjord like gorges on the West Atlantic Coast of Ireland to hide submarines.
Stiofain | Dec 29, 2012, 01:26 PM EST
Secert?!I thought this was common knowledge!
handsome68 | Dec 29, 2012, 11:23 AM EST
Kennedy Senior was seriously flawed and on the wrong side of history. He didn't want the US to enter WWII, for one example. Understandable on one level, but -- need I go on? His womanizing sent a message to his sons that it was OK to do that, 24/7. Mariln Monroe was just one later collateral damage casualty.
Rebelforce | Dec 29, 2012, 10:20 AM EST
Despite being mercilessly demonized by those who hate him because he was opposed to the United States getting involved in Europe's disastrous 1939 war (for that he's been smeared as "pro-Nazi" "anti-semitic" "a coward" and an "appeaser") and also because he was far too good as an Irish-Catholic at making lots and lots of money, there is no question that Joseph Patrick Kennedy, the Patriarch of "America's family" has been the most successful American of Irish ancestry to date. The fact that the Irish-American community has failed to celebrate his remarkable life and accomplishments says more about them than it does about him.
Jim Callahan | Dec 29, 2012, 10:16 AM EST
JFK was not the first Catholic to run for president. Al Smith was Irish and Catholic and ran for president in 1928.