Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House
In his critically acclaimed biography An Unfinished Life, Robert Dallek revealed John F. Kennedy, the man and the leader, as never before. In Camelot's Court, he takes an insider's look at the brain trust whose contributions to the successes and failures of Kennedy's administration - including the Bay of Pigs, civil rights, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam - were indelible.
Kennedy purposefully put together a dynamic team of advisers noted for their brilliance and acumen, including Attorney General Robert Kennedy, JFK's "adviser-in-chief"; Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara; Secretary of State Dean Rusk; National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy; and trusted aides Ted Sorensen and Arthur Schlesinger. Yet the very traits these men shared also created sharp divisions. Far from unified, JFK's brain trust was an uneasy band of rivals whose personal ambitions and clashing beliefs ignited fiery debates behind closed doors. With skill and balance, Dallek illuminates a president deeply determined to surround himself with the best and the brightest, yet who often found himself disappointed with their recommendations. The result is a striking portrait of a leader whose wise resistance to pressure and adherence to personal principles, particularly in matters of foreign affairs, offers a cautionary tale for our own time.
Meticulously researched and masterfully written, Camelot's Court is an intimate tour of a tumultuous White House and a new portrait of the men whose powerful influence shaped the Kennedy legacy.
Review: I received an Advance Reader Copy from HarperCollins.
Camelot's Court is a detailed, behind the scenes look at Kennedy's time in the White House. It largely details the activity and actions of Kennedy and his close group of advisers during his presidency. The big issues of the day are the main topics of each of the chapters: the Bay of Pigs, the Civil Rights Movement, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War.
Dallek's book is very well written - thorough, detailed, and easy to follow. However, I simply don't have a lot of interest in the subject matter. I don't find day-to-day, behind-closed-doors political bickering intriguing, especially when its covering events that happened decades earlier. I think I would find one of Dallek's other books more appealing, since they deal more with Kennedy as a man, not simply a president.
My favorite chapters were the opening ones, that give a brief background on Kennedy and his family and each of his close advisers. Additionally, I did appreciate the private quotes from Kennedy shared among his cabinet, which reveal his true opinions rather than his public politician face. For example, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy told his mistress "I'd rather my children be red than dead.' He never could have said that publicly; it would have been seen as defeatist, a readiness to surrender to Moscow rather than fight them. But it revealed his conviction that almost anything was better than a nuclear war" (330).
I was surprised that Dallek chose to not cover the Kennedy assassination but instead jumps from Kennedy's final days as president and then skipping to much later and briefly discussing Johnson as president. I would be curious to see the White in transition. However, I did appreciate Dallek's reflection on the unanswered questions left by Kennedy's early death: "Would he have won reelection in 1964? And assuming that he did, would his health have held out a second term? Would his womanizing have caught up with him and jeopardized his presidency? Would he have persuaded Congress to pass his four major legislative initiatives? Would he have reestablished relations with Cuba and found a way out of Vietnam? Would he have moved toward detante with the Soviet Union and possibly China?" (433). Although Kennedy was far from perfect, he remains a man of high reputation among Americans, even fifty years after his death, for the loss of his life in service to his country.
Review: 3
Comments
Post a Comment