The Kennedys in the World: How Jack, Bobby, and Ted Remade America's Empire

Show Guest: Larry Haas

The Kennedys showed that, in a dangerous world, the US must play a leading role on the international stage to protect its interests, defend its allies and promote freedom and democracy.

Lawrence Haas, author of The Kennedys in the World: How Jack, Bobby, and Ted Remade America's Empire, shares how their example is particularly important now, with Freedom House reporting that freedom – political rights and civil liberties – around the world declined in 2020 for the 15th straight year. China, Russia and other nations are challenging the US and the West by promoting their authoritarian forms of government as better alternatives to the messiness of US-led freedom and democracy.

After Trump’s “America First” isolationism and, before that, President Obama’s reticence to promote freedom and democracy, the United States needs to restore its moral voice. That’s because a freer, more democratic world will be a safer, more prosperous world from which the United States can benefit. The Kennedy brothers understood that, and so should we.

The Kennedys in the World tells a new, rich, fascinating, and consequential story about Jack, Bobby, and Ted Kennedy. From an early age, the brothers developed a deep understanding of the different peoples, cultures, and ideologies around the world; a keen appreciation for the challenges that such differences created for the United States; and a strong desire to reshape America’s response to them.