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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth
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To: Orcastraiter who wrote (90191)3/16/2007 1:31:45 PM
From: longnshort  Read Replies (1) of 173976
 
As ambassador, Joe Kennedy was reviled in England for his defeatism and regarded as a coward when, during Luftwaffe bombings in 1940, he left London to spend his nights at a country estate. While ambassador he engaged in profiteering; commandeering valued transatlantic cargo space for the continued importation of British Scotch and gin to his importing company. He was anti-Semitic and willingly ignorant of European history. He sought, without State Department approval, a personal meeting with Hitler with the intent of keeping the U.S. out of the war. Over the objection of the State Department and FDR, he met with a high-level Nazi official seeking to reach an agreement to pay the Nazis up to $1 billion for peace. Ambassador Kennedy once briefed a group of American journalists about a plot of dissident German generals to overthrow Hitler; even giving them the names of the dissidents jeopardizing their plotting and lives. He may have feared Communism more than Nazism.

Joe Kennedy used his contacts in the press to position himself for a presidential nomination in 1940. FDR isolated him from the American public by keeping him in London. Unfortunately for FDR, Kennedy had access to secret FDR-Churchill communications including those indicating FDR's willingness to assist England in war against Hitler. This was powerful blackmail material against FDR as the American people wanted to remain out of the war. When Kennedy returned to the U.S. in October 1940, 10 days before the presidential election, he was expected to endorse Republican Wilkie. After a private dinner with FDR, Kennedy agreed to endorse FDR in a radio speech. It is not known why but it was probably because both men had the goods on the other (FDR having access to Kennedy's tax returns and IRS problems and, through his friend J. Edgar Hoover, FBI information on Kennedy). Kennedy's speech included the lie that no secret commitments had been made and that FDR was not trying to involve the country in war.

Three days after FDR won re-election, Kennedy self-destructed. He claimed Hitler had won the war and that democracy was finished in England and perhaps in the U.S.. His public support collapsed and his dreams of high public office ended.
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