An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963
by Robert Dallek
Publisher: Little, Brown, 2003

Reviewed by: Kevin Quinn

In "An Unfinished Life," Robert Dallek gives a strong and balanced assessment of the life and times of JFK. An appropriate title, coined by Dallek's wife, provides some notable differences from the hundreds of other biographies and evaluations. The generational timeliness and Dallek's analysis of new medical material provide insights not covered in previous works.

Dallek invented an unusual method to put JFK's life in perspective. He asked his two children and a son in law to provide a generational perspective to the nation's 35th president with the goal of providing an "understand[ing] [of] what young people born in the years after 1963 need to learn about JFK if his life and times are to have special meaning to them."

Not surprisingly, the younger generation wonders what JFK was like, why he was so popular and what he actually accomplished. With insights from his son, daughter and son-in-law, Dallek provides an updated generational perspective on JFK's leadership.

Further contributing to the value of Dallek's study was his access to medical records not released until 2002. These provide extraordinary information on just how ill JFK was both before he became president and after.

Unbeknownst to the general public at the time, JFK suffered from Addison's disease, colitis, severe back pain and prostatitis. One of the factors often cited as contributing to JFK's victory over Richard Nixon in 1960 was his youthful, athletic appearance, which contrasted to Nixon's brooding pallor. If the public had known about Kennedy's serious medical conditions, that advantage might have been lost.

One could also speculate that had the twenty-fifth amendment been adopted 10 years earlier JFK might have been ruled "unfit" for office. Absent evidence that his illnesses prevented Kennedy from carrying out his duties, this position is not likely to find popular support.

Another way to look at JFK's medical situation is that by enduring daily pain without public complaint shows a strength of character and commitment to the office.

Previous volumes on Kennedy have focused on several themes - his womanizing and the debate over how much he actually accomplished in office being two. What may be striking - especially to today's generation - are the similarities between the W. Bush and Kennedy administrations. Dallek does not highlight those similarities, but the current events reader will not have trouble discovering them.

On domestic policy, for instance, Bush talks of an "ownership" society, is a proponent of tax cuts and has experienced large budget deficits, despite pushing for increased funding for space exploration. And, certainly pronounced in the Bush philosophy, is a strong faith, a significant issue that broke ground in 1960 when the first Catholic was elected President.

JFK, who, famously coined the phrase "ask not what your county can do for you, but what you can do for your county," was a believer in individual responsibility. Dallek also points out that JFK was a proponent of tax cuts, though it was Lyndon Johnson who ultimately achieved Congressional passage of a tax cut.

JKF once said "the lesson of the last decade is that budget deficits are not caused by wild-eyed spenders but by slow economic growth and periodic recessions....In short, it is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut tax rates now."

Despite budget deficits, JFK pushed forward with what was at the time an expensive and ambitious space program designed to land a man on the moon before the Soviet Union. "No one can tell me," JFK said, "that the United States cannot afford to do what the Soviet Union has done so successfully with a national income of less than half of ours." Bush today is promoting a far-reaching space program - a manned mission to Mars.

On foreign policy, while their approaches are different, the goals of the Bush administration and the Kennedy administration appear very similar - characterized by Dallek as "man's eternal desire to be free and independent."

Kennedy fought communism wherever he found it while Bush is fighting, albeit more amorphous, world terrorism. JFK took the initiative against communism in Cuba and Vietnam while Bush has aggressively attacked terrorism in the Middle East.

JFK's challenge in dealing with Nikita Khrushchev seems amazingly complex and large when compared to Bush's problems with Russian President Putin over the implementation of a new democracy. But both were willing to confront while many urged caution.

Robert Dallek's An Unfinished Life is a timely updated work on an interesting political period in American history. His insight that the contemporary political divide often looks very different when viewed by a new generation is one today's observers might take to heart.

Kevin Quinn is a partner with the law firm of Hinman Straub, focusing his practice on education law and government relations. He is the co-chair of the Firm's education law practice.

05/16/2005