Customer Reviews

J.F.K. The Man & The Myth

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Lasky's book was a best-seller, at least by his standards. But he quickly pulled this book out of print in honor of JFK's sudden death in Dallas. Three years later, he was prompted by some friends to reprint it and added a bitter conclusion to all of the Kennedy years.
As hard-hitting as this book is, he is rather gentlemanly about it and leaves most of the criticisms on the practical and intellectual level. In fact the one he really berates in this book is Arthur Schlesinger in some very funny asides. Back to the point, Lasky ultimately concludes that JFK was an indecisive and feckless President who meant well but didn't do well. And, in spite of what others might say about him, he never amounted to much; only becoming a hero because of his death.
Lasky was the last of an old breed. He simply reports to you what JFK really said and did and leaves out his opinion until the end, in a brutal summation. Factual, but witty and lively, the book is a quick and damning summation that brushes away entirely the Kennedy myth and portrays all of the players, JFK, RFK, and Joseph P. Kennedy in realistic lights.
He could have gone much harsher with the book but he didn't, in fact, it was his other books RFK, The Man and the Myth, and It Didn't Start with Watergate, that reveal more brutal information on his tumultuous tenure in office.

Makes me hate JFK all over again every time!