In 1947, an American congressman suddenly collapsed while traveling in Europe. He was taken to a doctor, who concluded that the 30-year-old man was in such terrible shape that he’d be dead within a year. After returning to the U.S., the congressman publicly explained away his health scare as nothing more than a transitory flare-up of malaria that he’d first contracted in the south Pacific while serving in the Navy during World War II.
That congressman was John F. Kennedy, and he managed not only to outlive that doctor’s dire assessment but also to cover it up. What’s more, the cover-up was so successful that the only thing that the American public knew about Kennedy’s extensive health problems during his ascent to the presidency was that he had occasional backaches. But even that bit of knowledge only hinted at the truth.
In fact, JFK was severely crippled by excruciating back pain, abdominal pain, a life-threatening autoimmune disease, hypothyroidism, and other significant ailments throughout his life. In the mid-1950s while serving in the U.S. Senate, for example, he was hospitalized nine times for back pain, abdominal distress, prostatitis, and other problems. In that same period, he was even given last rites when a high-risk surgical procedure on his back nearly killed him.
After becoming president, he continued to be wracked by pain. During his first year in office, he had to rely on a cherry picker to hoist him into Air Force One because he was too hobbled by back pain to climb the stairs. As his brother Robert Kennedy once said about him, posthumously, “At least one half of the days that he spent on this earth were days of intense physical pain.”
Today, on this 100th anniversary of JFK’s birth, Painopolis delves into his battle with chronic pain. Joining us is Rose McDermott, a professor of international relations at Brown University, whose fascinating book, Presidential Leadership, Illness and Decision Making, explores the impact that pain and illness have had on leaders such as Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Nixon, and of course, Kennedy. As part of her exhaustive research into JFK’s health history, she—together with a physician—painstakingly studied JFK’s medical records stored at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Item by item, McDermott analyzed and deciphered those records to reveal the hidden story of a man struggling with debilitating pain while simultaneously shouldering the world’s most powerful job.
It’s a story that includes:
• An alarming assortment of medications that JFK took to control his pain and also to boost his mood
• The role played by a shady character dubbed “Dr. Feelgood,” who routinely injected JFK with a controversial concoction laced with amphetamines
• How JFK kept both the cause and severity of his pain secret from the American public
• How his chronic pain may have shaped the style and substance of his leadership in ways that the American people were never aware of.
Interviewee:
Rose McDermott, Ph.D., is the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor of International Relations at Brown University and a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She’s also a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Her research encompasses a wide range of topics across many disciplines, including the effects of illness on political leaders. Her books include Presidential Leadership, Illness and Decision Making and also Risk-Taking in International Politics.
Go to this episode’s show notes at painopolis.com/jfk-a-profile-in-pain/ for more information on JFK’s health history and medical treatments, along with a timeline showing the major personal, political, and medical milestones in Kennedy’s life.
