This single volume biography of John F. Kennedy is an ambitious project trying to cover as many aspects of his life as possible, reasonably giving more coverage of his presidency compared to his life before being elected. To someone who wants to learn about the President, this book is a very useful read. The coverage is rather complete, and the tone unbiased. While giving to attention to much of the President's vision and efforts in realising them, the author has also not left out the human failings frequently associated with the President, namely his womanising. Beyond this, the author has given a great amount of details on the medical and physical conditions of John F. Kennedy, helping us to understand a lot more of what he had to endure physically while going through the grueling demands of a presidency.It is obvious that the author did a great amount of research. Unfortunately, I found the writing in this book rather patchy. There were too many parts in the book where he almost quoted conversations after conversations in his attempt to relate the story. I found this sloppy. Although he was able to string enough quotes from different people to tell the story, I felt it lacking in effort. This was especially the case when relating the Cuban Missile Crisis. The author did not attempt to give his own voice, preferring to quote conversations wholesale, perhaps hoping that this would present the raw data to the readers.
Fortunately this was not always the case and there were in other chapters in the book when he did show his commendable ability to write. On page 605, I found his transition about the "trouble" very smooth and well-executed. Another example was when he included his thesis (at least this was the first time I heard it put this way) was when he was describing JFK's dilemma about Vietnam and Diem, bringing into consideration the US' decision to continue supporting Chiang Kai-Shek in China years earlier when he they knew he was corrupt and was not the one to win the war, and in Korea when US' intervention saved Seoul.
In the epilogue, the author went into an interesting speculation about the 'what-ifs', a 'must-do' for JFK biographers. This is an exercise that is fraught with danger because there is just no way anybody can know for sure. However, the author's attempt was a logical, reasonable and sound, making an extrapolation based on JFK's known positions about various issues, moderated by factors such as no longer having to worry about another election and possible developments in world events. Again, there is just no way to tell and so there always remain the possibility of one making an overly optimistic prediction based on our own over-estimation of the President.
As this book made clear, scholars who took a scientific approach to evaluating the achievements of JFK were normally underwhelmed. Perhaps one of the reasons people continue to think much of him is the belief that the world would indeed be a better had he lived. But perhaps it was because he died young, like Ayrton Senna who would always be the greatest F1 driver in many people's eyes. Yet if there was one thing that we ought to give JFK credit for, we should all remember that despite the tremendous pressure he faced during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he played a significant role in not letting it happen.
Briefings of McNamara tended to be sessions where people tried to fool him, and he tried to convince them they cannot.(Find this book at Goodreads)
