A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy [Paperback]

Thomas Reeves (Author)

Book Description

Release date: December 10, 1997

No issue is more hotly debated than how, or even if, a politician's private life affects his public competence. In A Question of Character John F. Kennedy's two lives—public and private—are examined to answer this timely question. Respected historian and biographer Thomas C. Reeves reveals discrepancies between JFK's public persona, which has reached mythic proportions, and his scandalous private behavior. Most illuminating is the constant theme or Joe Kennedy's almost total control of JFK's behavior and politics throughout most of his son's career.

"The John Kennedy who emerges from these pages was not a man of good moral character. He was reared not to be good but to win." — Los Angeles Times

Reeves has provided the most truthful and balanced assessment of John F. Kennedy to date. Written more in sorrow than in anger, A Question of Character explores the sensitive and difficult question of how people, and history itself, ought to judge the relationship between personal character and national leadership.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This riveting biography by a University of Wisconsin history professor explores John Kennedy's character, assesses its influence on his presidential decisionmaking and brings into focus the discrepancy between the Camelot image and the man himself. Reeves reveals how indifferent Kennedy was to the moral and legal objections to the Bay of Pigs invasion, the overthrow of the Diem regime in South Vietnam, and plans for the assassination of Fidel Castro. There is a wealth of new material here concerning JFK's often precarious health, his relationship with his wife, his flagrant philandering. Reeves concludes that Kennedy abused his high position for personal self-gratification, that his reckless liaisons with women and mobsters were "irresponsible, dangerous, and demeaning to the office of chief executive." By the author of The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy , this is a solidly researched look at John Kennedy's morals or his lack thereof. History Book Club main selection.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Readers interested in a serious revisionist examination of Kennedy's life and record should look at A Question of Character, . . . a book that, judging by Hersh's 'Chapter Notes,' seems not to have come to his attention. If it had, perhaps we would have been spared The Dark Side of Camelot."
— Jonathan Yardley, in his Washington Post review of Seymour Hersh's The Dark Side of Camelot.
"The John Kennedy who emerges from these pages was not a man of good moral character. He was reared not to be good but to win."
— Los Angeles Times
"It is the Marilyn Monroe chapter that speaks the loudest in this book of the incredible hubris of Jack and Bobby Kennedy. You have to read it to believe it."
— Liz Smith

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (December 10, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076151287X
• ISBN-13: 978-0761512875
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #387,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #95 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( K ) > Kennedy, John F.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 41 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Amount of Detail April 14, 2002

By John G. Hilliard

Format:Paperback

The title of the book says it all, A Question of Character. This is one author's attempt at looking at the political life of President John F. Kennedy's, before and during his time in the White House. It details the differences in what the spin is and the private life that is described as being close to Hugh Hefner's. We also get a very detailed and for me, somewhat troubling, view of the constant controls his father, Joe Kennedy's had of JFK throughout his career. Not that comforting given the somewhat dubious reputation of Joe.

The author came close to a Kitty Kelly sex scandal tell all, but did not completely let himself drop that low. I thought the author was almost sad to be telling me, the reader, some of the less then faltering truths here. Almost if he was a firm believer in Camelot and this book and research pained him. Overall this is a well-written book that has some interesting conclusions. The author could have spent more time on the domestic policies and international issues that faced JFK to make the account better rounded. I do not think it is the one-volume definitive story of JFK, but it is a very good start.

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars No hero worship, but not a chop-job either April 19, 2003

By chefdevergue VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

As he cuts through the myths of Camelot, Thomas Reeves could have been content with dragging the name of JFK through the mud. That certainly would have been easy enough to do; all the affairs, the dubious origin of the family fortune, the murky ties with organized crime...it all has the makings of a wonderful chop-job, a character assassination.

However, Reeves rises above this. He acknowledges that good morals do not necessarily make for a good president, and that an effective president does not always have a scandal-free private life. This book was written before the Clinton presidency, which would have made for an interesting comparison.

Reeves is not content to throw one prurient revelation after another at the reader; that is Kitty Kelly's job. He is interested in good history. How did these moral defects apply to the man's ability to be an effective president, and how did the president's effectiveness have an impact on the course of our nation's history?

Reeves believes that important theme here isn't the questionable behavior in and of itself, but the fact that Kennedy's lack of any real commitment to anything but the acquisition and wielding of power ultimately made him an overall weak president. Despite Democratic control of Congress, Kennedy could get barely 25% of his legislation passed in Congress in 1962-63. Members of Congress had little regard for the man as a leader, and his luke-warm commitment on various issues did little to induce the Congress to act on his legislation. Compare that with LBJ, whose legislative success rate and mastery of Congress between 1963 and 1966 stands in stark contrast.

Reeves does observe that JFK was beginning to grow into the office by the time of his death, but stops short of predicting a glorious Kennedy legacy had the man lived.... It was far from a given that JFK could have won re-election in 1964, and Reeves knows this.

Overall, this is an excellent example of a measured, critical biography that contributes to the scholarly dialogue, rather than simply being a "tell-all" book. Read more ›

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Character Does Count November 10, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

To those who want to get past the hype and drivel, Reeve's well written and researched book makes a convincing case that yes, character does matter. The argument that John Kennedy was a great, but flawed, leader is shown by Reeves to be erroneous. The seeds of the Bay of Pigs disaster was sown in Kennedy's youth. PT-109, interestingly, was the first and only PT boat ever rammed by an enemy destroyer. Not on a foggy night with the men topside, but in clear weather and daylight, with Kennedy and his men below decks sleeping and swapping war stories.

"My story about the collision is getting better all the time," Kennedy told a friend after launching his political career. "Now I've got a Jew and a Nigg-- in the story and with me being a Catholic, that's great."

Kennedy's bringing the U.S. to the brink of war was typical of the disasters he'd made in his personal and military life. The real reason the Soviets put missiles in Cuba was because of U.S. missiles in Turkey. School children are seldom taught that the U.S. had to withdraw its nukes from Turkey in exchange for the Soviets "backing down" in the Western Hemisphere.

From the Kennedys' dealings with the mob to the wiretaps of Martin Luther King, Jr., the fact that Kennedy could not remain faithful in a marital relationship is hardly a dichotomy in leadership.

So yes, Virginia, character does count. Now and in the latter part of the 1990s. Those who say it doesn't are probably also lacking in this area.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Overall, a valuable character study: January 19, 2010

By SusieQ

Format:Paperback

I enjoyed this biography - which is more a character study than a strict biography - for several reasons. Although it is an examination of JFK's entire life, it focuses most intensely on the JFK presidency and the moral choices and decisions made (and not made, and why) during his time in office.

I admire A QUESTION OF CHARACTER because it is NOT a gossipy, lowbrow, poorly researched, just-a-character-annihilation of John F. Kennedy. Rather, the author simply uncovers the inner flaws that were most definitely a part of this individual; how they affected his life and his presidency; who fostered them during JFK's youth (for one, his father, Joe Sr., has much to answer for), and how these flaws (a love of secrecy and intrigue, for two) became "set" and would damage his Presidency.

I didn't get a sense that Reeves despised JFK and was writing this to do a hatchet job on his character. In fact, Reeves's opening chapter admits that he was a part of the younger generation that admired and indeed, practically revered Kennedy and the "New Frontier" and welcomed JFK's youth, vibrancy and seemingly forward-looking politics, and the breath-of-fresh-air persona that JFK had at his inauguration. These emotions didn't just disappear, and JFK's assassination probably reinforced them. It was the steady drumbeat of revelations about JFK's personal AND political life, that came out after 1975, that wore down the author's emotional outlook on JFK and allowed him to undertake the examination of the man, warts and all, that this book discloses.

It is not a perfect book by any means.... There are a few clumsy errors, such as the author being off by one year on the date of Kathleen Kennedy's death, and stating that Ted Kennedy was named for Edward Gallagher when in fact he was named for Joe Sr.'s friend, Edward Moore. Also, I think Reeves made a mistake by investing so much time in his discussion of Marilyn Monroe's connection with JFK/RFK, and in the use of specious sources (Robert Saltzer & Jeanne Carmen? Ugh.) he consulted about Monroe's life and death. Reeves doesn't engage in in-depth discussion of Kennedy's health issues (although he acknowledges the Addison's Disease and JFK's reliance on cortisone), which had significant bearing on his executive abilities. (I believe when the book was originally published, in 1991, not so much was known about Kennedy's well-concealed, fairly poor health.) But when the book reflects on Kennedy family relationships, and discusses JFK's foreign policy decisions and the circumstances surrounding his approval of paramilitary operations in Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, the author is on solid ground.

As Americans, and as readers of history, we would probably not have been so disillusioned by the moral lapses or "revelations" about JFK, such as those discussed by Mr. Reeves, if the Kennedy Family had not so stringently prevented reality from penetrating their fictions for so many years. (The family continues to do so with their strictly regulated release of papers kept at the Kennedy Library.) JFK was brutally, publicly assassinated, but that fact alone should not permit the Kennedy family to prevent the American public from examining his papers and learning everything, good AND bad, that there is to know about his character.

I can only congratulate authors and historians who let daylight in on this political family and others, and who do this in an honest, disciplined, and (generally) well-sourced fashion as Mr. Reeves did. Read more ›