Sullivan: How sick was JFK?

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Monday, November 18, 2002 HOW SICK WAS JFK? I can see why Bill Safire is a little pissed. There’s no question now that president John F. Kennedy was an extremely sick man when he was president. The sheer mood swings that are inevitably accompanied by massive amphetamine addiction, testosterone injections, sleeping pills, and any number of other painkillers would render most of us difficult to live with (I have my moments on HIV medication), let alone give someone the steady judgment required for being president of the United States. I guess we won’t know for a while just how incapacitated President Kennedy was. Much of the telling archive material is still protected by a phalanx of Kennedy stalwarts who make the Vatican and the old Soviet Politburo look forthcoming. But it matters. The full extent of Kennedy’s physical impairment and the deception, lies and diversions it required are surely an important part of the historical record. I just don’t buy the idea that this level of medication had no effect on the government of the country. It must have. The question now for historians is: how much? And what difference did it specifically make?

-- Anonymous, November 18, 2002

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