President Kennedy: Profile of Power [Paperback]

Richard Reeves (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1994

President Kennedy is the compelling, dramatic history of JFK's thousand days in office. It illuminates the presidential center of power by providing an indepth look at the day-by-day decisions and dilemmas of the thirty-fifth president as he faced everything from the threat of nuclear war abroad to racial unrest at home.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to Reeves, Kennedy had little ideology. "And he had less emotion. What he had was attitude . . . ." Based on hundreds of interviews and close study of presidential papers and telephone transcripts, New Yorker writer Reeves ( Reagan Detour ) traces JFK's thoughts and actions through his nearly three years as president. No previous profile has included as many details on how he dealt with the Bay of Pigs, the conflict with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev over Berlin, the Cuban missile crisis, Southeast Asia and other foreign policy issues. On the domestic front, Reeves offers fresh material about JFK's equivocating initial response to the civil rights movement and the bold decision to integrate Southern universities that followed. Nor does Reeves ignore the inner life of the White House, bringing into sharper focus JFK's physical disabilities, the preliminary plans for the 1964 campaign and the role Attorney General Robert Kennedy played as "a sort of surrogate President" at crucial moments. Precise and penetrating in its analysis, Reeves's microscopic examination of Kennedy during his presidency makes for compelling reading right down to such trivialities as his little economies (he was "cheap in the way rich people often are"), and even his throwaway lines as, after seeing one popularity poll, JFK quipped, "Jesus, it's like Ike. The worse you do, the better they like you." Photos. First serial to American Heritage; BOMC and History Book Club alternates; author tour. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Reeves, the veteran journalist who has written books on Presidents Ford and Reagan, here offers an excellent study of Kennedy as crisis manager. He presents Kennedy as neither an amoral playboy nor the ruler of Camelot but a poorly prepared president with mediocre congressional experience. Each chapter presents a different day in the administration--a unique format that effectively reveals how Kennedy responded to simultaneous harrowing issues. The Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crises, Vietnam, and the diplomacy of arms reduction illustrate how Kennedy was constrained by the unshakable Cold War fear of monolithic communism. This approachable investigation of Kennedy's use of power, read in tandem with Nigel Hamilton's JFK: Reckless Youth ( LJ 10/15/92), provides a thorough, even-handed review of the Kennedy years. Highly recommended for most public libraries and all subject collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/93. -- Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, Pa.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (November 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671892894
• ISBN-13: 978-0671892890
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( K ) > Kennedy, John F.

More About the Author

Richard Reeves is the author of presidential bestsellers, including President Nixon and President Kennedy, acclaimed as the best nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine. A syndicated columnist and winner of the American Political Science Association's Carey McWilliams Award, he lives in New York and Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best and most balanced one-volume JFK biography..., August 25, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: President Kennedy: Profile of Power (Paperback)

Along with Herbert Parmet's "Jack: The Struggles of John F. Kennedy", Richard Reeve's "President Kennedy" are the best two books ever written about a legendary (and much-romanticized) American President. Unlike Thomas Reeve's hatchet-job "A Question of Character", which basically could be called a job in "character assassination"; or books such as Arthur Schlesinger's "A Thousand Days", which idolize Kennedy and ignore his flaws and failures as President, Richard Reeve's book maintains an admirably objective and balanced view of our 35th President. Reeve's Kennedy is neither a liberal saint nor a debauched devil, but is instead a complicated and often frustrating man who is woefully unprepared for the Oval Office when he moves in in January 1961, but does possess a great many gifts that save him when he gets into trouble. Reeve's Kennedy makes many mistakes early on in his Administration - the Bay of Pigs, his disastrous summit with the Soviet Union's Nikita Krushchev in Vienna, and his reckless womanizing in private, which as Reeves notes might well have become public knowledge if some enterprising reporter had ever followed JFK's movements very closely. Yet Kennedy does learn from at least some of his mistakes, and his handling of the Berlin Wall Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis was excellent. Whether Kennedy would ever have grown into a great President is a matter of debate among historians, and after reading this book I had my answer - JFK was a good President in many ways, but he probably would never have become a great one, due to his overly cautious nature on civil rights and the other great issues of the sixties. In short, this is a very well-written, impressively researched, and very fair-minded look at one of our most difficult Presidents to study and write about...this should be required reading for anyone who's interested in the 1960's, the Kennedys, or American politics.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The man behind Camelot, November 22, 2003

By 

James Ferguson (Vilnius, Lithuania) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: President Kennedy: Profile of Power (Paperback)

Reeves has quite literally stripped away the varnish that has accumulated over the years on the 1000 Days of Jack Kennedy. He has assembled a journal of sorts, giving the reader a fast-moving account of one of America's most enigmatic presidents. It is an interesting mixture of policy decisions, candid observations and revealing episodes that give one of the most complete pictures of President Kennedy.

The narrative starts a few days before the administration took office with the cabinet decisions that were being made, then guides the reader through the tumultuous inauguration ceremonies both on stage and backstage. Reeves deals with the troubling first 100 days of the administration in a very candid way, showing the indecision of Kennedy when it came to Cuba and Berlin. Kennedy was being pulled in all directions, putting too much faith in the CIA and dismissing the criticisms of his newly assembled cabinet. Eventually, Kennedy found his feet and began to project the confidence that had won him the presidency.

Reeves provides so many telling anecdotes, especially concerning Kennedy's health, which was never very good. This was one of the first books to reveal Kennedy's drug dependency to stave off Addison's disease and his excrutiating back pains. There is also Hugh Sidey's memorable swimming pool interview.

The book feels as though it were written by an aide close to Kennedy during his administration. Reeves has assembled an impressive array of quotes and first person observations into a seamless narrative. He has demystified the myth of Camelot, without diminishing the stature of the man. Reeves evocatively illustrates how Kennedy was able to project power in spite of his numerous handicaps, both physical and political.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reeves neither fawns, nor muckrakes in this balanced account, January 1, 1998

By 

Ray Rubino ([e-mail]) (Amherst, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: President Kennedy: Profile of Power (Paperback)

Richard Reeves' book is a welcome addition to the "Camelot Years" genre. Written from the President's perspective, i.e. "a day in the life" type format, this excellent read neither fawns, nor muckrakes, but rather gives a balanced account of a Presidency that, until this point, has not been examined in an objective light. Reeves' first person perspective shows a president who had more profile than courage. Inspite of his many gifts, JFK was diffident, at best, as President. Reeves book reveals a JFK that was driven, almost maniacally, to get to the White House, but once he got there was pretty much out of his league. The portrait of a neophyte statesman is obvious when Kennedy makes his first trip to Europe, receives a lukewarm reception from DeGaulle, and is taken to the woodshed by Nikita Khrushev who, upon seeing the youthful president exclaimed "he's younger than my own son." Reeves account beautifully illustrates how the rich playboy-president miscalculates Khrushev; one gets the impression that Kennedy felt that his Soviet counterpart could be rolled like a Boston pol. Kennedy came away from his first overseas trip as president much chastened. Richard Reeves' book is excellent; well written, well researched, and balanced. I highly recommend it. (I've read it twice!!)