1John F. Kennedy's Affairs
Before and after he became president, Kennedy is said to have had affairs with Marilyn Monroe, Gunilla von Post, Judith Campbell, Mary Pinchot Meyer, Marlene Dietrich, Mimi Alford, and Pamela Turnure, who was his wife's press secretary.
2. John F. Kennedy gave his whole salary to charity while he served in Congress and then as President of the United States.
3. Even though he had no prior legal training, US President John F. Kennedy chose his brother Robert for the position of Attorney General. JFK jokingly remarked, "I can't see why it's improper to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practice law."
4. John F. Kennedy effectively voided Congress's Narcotics Control Act of 1956 by pardoning all first-time offenders when he became president.
5. President John F. Kennedy ordered the Secret Service to prevent First Lady Jackie Kennedy from meeting with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. After Kennedy was killed, she married him.
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6Last Movie JFK Saw
John F. Kennedy, was a big James Bond fan. On November 21, 1963, he saw a preview of "From Russia with Love" in the White House. The next day, he was gunned down in Dallas, making this the final film he ever saw.
7. Joseph Luns, the former Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, told John F. Kennedy, "I fok horses," when Kennedy inquired about his interests. Kennedy was taken aback and said, "Pardon?" The answer from Luns was "Yes, paarden!" Horses are known as paarden in Dutch, and the verb "fokken" means to breed them.
8. Richard Pavlick, a retired postal worker, tried to avoid the Secret Service and made plans to kill President-elect John F. Kennedy in 1960. However, he decided not to go through with the plan because he was worried about Kennedy's family.
9. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev presented John F. Kennedy with a puppy as a gift. The dog's mother was a former Soviet space dog named Strelka. Strelka was one of the dogs that the Soviet Union sent into space.
10. In June of 1961, President John F. Kennedy met with Nikita Khrushchev, the Premier of the Soviet Union, and offered to make the moon landing a cooperative initiative between the two countries. Khrushchev declined. In 1963 (just before his assassination), Kennedy once again advocated a joint mission to the Moon.
11JFK's Spy Novel
John F. Kennedy once penned an espionage book in which Lyndon B. Johnson played a pivotal role in a plot to overthrow his presidency.
12. After John F. Kennedy's promise to end segregation with the stroke of a pen went unfulfilled for two years, African Americans in large numbers brought pens to the White House along with notes that stated, "In case you needed that pen." This prompted JFK to sign an order that prohibited racial discrimination in salaries.
13. Sammy Davis Jr. was denied permission to play at the White House by President John F. Kennedy because he was a black guy who had married a white woman.
14. There is just one photograph of John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe together. Since the Secret Service didn't want any photos taken of the two together to fuel the affair claims, no one was allowed to snap any. The Secret Service grabbed all the photos Cecil Stoughton made of them while the film was still developing. For Jackie Kennedy's sake, he hid it.
15. John F. Kennedy proposed a nuclear economy in 1962, which would have made large-scale desalination facilities economically feasible. Producing potable water from salt water "would really dwarf any previous scientific accomplishments."
16Seattle World Fair
Despite the widespread rumors to the contrary, John F. Kennedy did not miss the 1962 Seattle World's Fair or the unveiling of the Space Needle due of "a bad cold." In reality, he was dealing with the Cuban Missile Crisis.
17. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, John F. Kennedy was unaware that the United States had nuclear weapons in Turkey. During a crisis meeting, he was overheard declaring that deploying them there would be "Goddamned dangerous." Later, he found out that the US had put Jupiter IRBMs there in 1961, which made him very angry.
18. A day before he announced the trade embargo against Cuba, John F. Kennedy placed an order for 1,200 Cuban cigars.
19. In college, President John F. Kennedy was a star tight end for the Harvard Crimson. His coach would later comment that John F. Kennedy was "the most effective pass catcher, but his lack of weight was a hindrance." The spinal injury he sustained during his sophomore year was the beginning of a lifetime of pain for him.
20. John F. Kennedy suffered from persistent back pain throughout his life. He had four surgeries on his back—a discectomy, an instrumentation and fusion, and two smaller procedures—but none of them helped relieve his pain.
21JFK's Rocking Chairs Gifts
After doctors recommended a rocking chair for John F. Kennedy's back problems, the president began giving rocking chairs as presents to colleagues, acquaintances, and even foreign leaders.
22. During his time in office, John F. Kennedy took a lot of medicines that were prescribed by a doctor who was known as "Dr. Feelgood." As a result of White House pressure, he stopped dosing JFK, and the president's performance at critical moments, like the Cuban Missile Crisis, markedly improved.
23. John F. Kennedy was addicted to methamphetamine and had a "psychotic break" in the Carlyle Hotel, where he was staying. The secret service contacted a prominent physician in New York, who confirmed that Kennedy was experiencing "drug-induced mania" after witnessing him "in a manic condition, violently flailing his arms, and racing around without any clothing." The antipsychotic he gave the president helped him go back to normal quickly.
24. John F. Kennedy wasn't particularly healthy, despite his full head of hair and permanent tan. On the contrary, they were side effects of one of the many medications he took, and he was actually always sick. Addison's disease, which he had, was the true cause of his tan.
25. Two months before he was killed in Dallas, John F. Kennedy created a home video in which he portrayed his own demise. He wrote the script and acted in the film as himself.
