The Political Future of John F. Kennedy, Jr.: An Unmet “Calling”?

We recently experienced a contentious and controversial U.S. election in which Donald J. Trump upset the favorite, Hillary Clinton, to win the Electoral College vote and therefore become the country’s 45^th President. As the U.S. and the world process the election results and attempt to come to terms with a new political reality, this article steps back for a brief moment in time to reflect on a potential 21^st century political force whose life and political future were tragically cut short. This brief psychobiographical sketch of J.F.K., Jr. draws primarily on first-person (J.F.K., Jr.’s letters and taped interviews) and second-person sources (memoirs and reflections of those who knew him intimately), as well as drawing occasionally on more distanced third person sources (e.g., general biographies, documentary film, journalistic reports, and FBI files). The author explores whether J.F.K., Jr. was destined to continue the Kennedy legacy of a life in politics and if he could have succeeded in the political arena. For a more comprehensive lifespan psychobiography of J.F.K., Jr., the reader is referred to the Winter 2017 issue of The Journal of Psychohistory (Joseph G. Ponterotto, “John F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Torn Self: A Psychological Portrait,” 2017, Vol. 44 [3], 221-241).

Early Protective Life of John F. Kennedy, Jr.: Seeds of Adventurism

J.F.K., Jr. was born on November 25^th, 1960, the month his father was elected the 35^th President of the United States. John had

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an older sister by two years, Caroline Kennedy, and a younger brother, Patrick, who was born 5½ weeks prematurely on August 7, 1963, and died two days later of Hyaline membrane disease (now known as respiratory distress syndrome). As John approached his third birthday in November of 1963, his father was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Soon thereafter, Jackie and family settled in New York City, where she was committed to ensuring that her children would lead as normal a life as possible. However, this sense of “normality” would be hard to achieve. As children of a President, John and Caroline had secret service protection until the age of 16. Wherever they went—school, the park, out with friends—there was a secret service detail close by (C. Jill and L. McCubbin, Mrs. Kennedy and Me, 2012). This period was also the beginning of the era of the paparazzi, and Jackie and her children were prime targets for enterprising photographers.

On June 5, 1968, roughly four years after settling in New York City, John’s uncle, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Los Angeles, California. Since the assassination of President Kennedy, Uncle Robert had become a father figure to John and Caroline and his death was a deep loss for the children and their mother (M. Shaw, White House Nannie: My Years with Caroline and John Kennedy, Jr., 1966). For Jackie, the murder of her brother-in-law heightened her concerns for the safety and well being of John and Caroline. At the ages of seven and ten respectively, John and Caroline could discern the fears of their mother regarding safety and the need for protection.

In some ways, John may have felt as if he were living in a cocoon, trapped in a web of security. Throughout his life, John was exposed to threats of serious harm, including death threats while at Brown University (C. Haag, Come to the Edge: A Love Story, 2012) and a kidnap threat in adulthood that led to an FBI investigation and a 180-page file (available through the Freedom of Information Act, FBI File No. 7-HQ-19719). Rather than being inhibited from embracing life as a result of his protection, John reacted in an opposite way throughout his development. He fully engaged life through adventures, travel, and thrill-seeking and embodied a sense of fearlessness and risk taking (W.S. Noonan, “Forever Young: My Friendship with John F. Kennedy, Jr.,” 2006).

Early in life, John’s interaction with the physical environment and diverse cultures was fostered by his mother. From early

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 childhood, John was gregarious, rambunctious, and distractible (Shaw, 1966), and Jackie promoted summer adventure activities as a way of helping John learn to focus and also as a reprieve from the scrutinizing public eye of New York City. She also instilled in her children the value of hard work and sacrifice, and the importance of community service and social justice. Among the adventures that Jackie encouraged and facilitated for John were a summer Outward Bound program at Hurricane Island off the coast of Maine designed to inspire self-esteem, self-reliance, concern for others, and care for the environment. Another summer John volunteered with close cousin Timothy Shriver to assist a small village in earthquake-ravaged Guatemala; and in yet another summer “vacation” he worked as a ranch hand on the Wyoming cattle ranch of Mrs. Onassis’ acquaintance, John Perry Barlow. After college, John helped salvage the pirate ship Whydah off the shoals of Wellfleet, Massachusetts. He also traveled to India to absorb the culture and complete some studies in rural economic development at the University of New Delhi.

Nature, travel, and adventure became a safe place for John. A place where he could be free, away from the microscope of constant media attention. John’s oldest and closest friend, William Noonan, recalled that: “John took road trips; he traveled everywhere. It was his MO. He told me many times, ‘If I stop to think about it all, I would just sit down and fall apart!’ He meant, of course, what his family had endured” (Noonan, 72). Noonan continued:

For John what began as pure adventure and escape – hiking, biking, skiing, kayaking, jumping out of airplanes, being out there and doing it – shifted to traveling to exotic places. Exotic places – especially Africa – were an escape for him …. He found direction in nature. He found healing in nature. Hiking in the woods, sleeping under the stars, started as a lark and turned into something else: reaching out to reach in, to who he was (80-81).

As an adult, John was heavily involved in philanthropic and service activities, which included the Robin Hood Foundation, serving the poor with food and after school programs; founding Reach Up, an organization supporting employees who serve the mentally disabled; supporting cousin Timothy Shriver in Special Olympics events; and with his sister Caroline, running the Profiles

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in Courage award organized by the J.F.K. Presidential Library in Boston. These activities honored his mother’s (and family’s) vision for his path and brought John wide visibility and respect among broad segments of the U.S. population.

Forging His Unique Professional and Personal Identity

While always very active in school, training, or social/community service, John was also in search of his own unique identity outside the tight-knit Kennedy family legacy. After all, his father and uncle Robert were idolized in death, and his uncle Ted Kennedy was also a renowned senator. The achievement levels and power of the Kennedy men was a hard act to follow. In high school and college, John did broach a unique vocational path relative to the Kennedy traditions—acting. From high school until after college, John acted in various theatre productions and thrived on the stage (Haag, 2012). Acting was exciting, liberating, and challenging; on the stage, John could wear his actor’s “mask” and be freed from the pressure of playing himself under the constant media scrutiny that characterized his real life.

Mrs. Onassis admired John’s passion and interest in acting; she was initially supportive of his efforts in this regard, and attended many of his productions (R. Littell, The Men We Became: My Friendship with John F. Kennedy, Jr., 2004). However, she did not feel acting was the proper career pursuit for her son, and discouraged her son from pursuing acting on a full-time basis. Jackie did not believe acting was a career befitting John and his legacy as a Kennedy committed to public service and social justice. In time, John left the stage and entered law school at New York University, after getting rejected by Harvard Law School and others (Littell, 2004). John received his law degree in 1989 and went to work for the New York District Attorney’s Office. As much of the Western World is well aware, John struggled in passing the New York State Bar exam, failing twice before hiring a tutor, and arranging a special testing session where he could take the test alone and with a more generous time allotment; he passed in 1990 (Littell, 2004). John’s close friends noted that John did not particularly love the day-to-day life of an attorney, and though he was fairly good at his work, winning all six cases he tried, being a full-time attorney was clearly not his path. John never talked with great interest or passion about the work of an attorney and he longed for work that was more entrepreneurial, more adventurous (R. Blow, American Son: A Portrait of John F. Kennedy, Jr., 2002; Littell, 2004).

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As John entered his mid-30s, he knew it was time to focus on a career pursuit and establish himself as a mature, responsible, autonomous man with vocational direction. His mother’s death in 1994 further liberated him in terms of following his own interests. In 1995 he formed a holding company with friend Michael Berman called Random Ventures. The company soon partnered with the French magazine magnate Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc. to launch a new political and popular culture magazine titled simply George, after the first U.S. President. John thought politics was fascinating, psychological, and interesting, and that the magazine could bridge the political world with the general masses. In starting George, John was striking out on his own, independent of his mother’s or the Kennedy family’s influence. He was asserting his autonomy and self-identity.

The first issue of George released in September 1995 flew off the shelves, and the editors were hopeful regarding the magazine’s future. However, over the ensuing years George struggled financially as advertising dollars dried up. At the time of John’s death in July of 1999, Hachette Filipacchi had decided to terminate publication of the magazine within a year or so. At this point, John set about searching for a new financial partner for the magazine. The particular significance of George to the current vocational profile of J.F.K., Jr., is that John believed he needed to successfully establish and head the magazine to enhance his status and reputation as a successful businessperson outside the Kennedy family influence and connections. A successful George could serve as an effective launching pad for John’s next career move; a move many believe was a run for New York State political office. John’s close friend, Robbie Littell, reflected that “George was an opportunity for John to build a platform from which he might possibly move into political life” (2004, 172). RoseMarie Terenzio, recalled John sharing with her that “This magazine has to be a success; otherwise I can’t move on to the next venture, whatever that may be” (Fairy Tale Interrupted: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Loss, 2012, 195).

Was J.F.K., Jr. “Called” to a Life in Politics?

A “calling” can be defined as pursuing “a career that is integral to an individual’s life meaning, is prosocial in nature, and can arise from either an internal or external summons” (Richard Douglass, Ryan D. Duffy, and Kelsey L. Autin, “Living a Calling, Nationality, and Life Satisfaction: A Moderated, Multiple Mediator Model,” Journal of Career Assessment, 2016, Vol. 24 [2], 253-

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269). Did J.F.K., Jr. feel a “calling” to follow in the path of his father, President John F. Kennedy, and his two uncles, Robert F. and Ted Kennedy, and plan to pursue political office? Close friends of John’s all report that he often hinted that someday he would enter politics: it was his destiny. “Gotta go home someday, right?” he expressed to good friend Robbie Littell one day when they were discussing an eventual run for President (Littell, 2004, 25). John’s former college housemate, fellow actor, and long-term girlfriend, Christina Haag, reflected on John’s call to service:

But when I look back now, I think of the black-and-white photographs of his father and his uncle Bobby, shirtsleeves rolled up, receiving hands reaching to them from the crowds, the faces weeping, smiling, believing. I think of the weight of those images and imagine that the call of service might have been there for him – was always there for him… (Haag, 2012, 89).

Accumulated evidence from multiple sources leads this author to conclude that J.F.K., Jr. was very likely on the verge of running for political office in New York State. As he worked to keep the struggling George magazine afloat, cognitively he was shifting directions, accepting that maybe it was time to move on to his “calling”: political life. Billy Noonan remembered that he “had been making vague references on the phone about shutting things down and starting things up” (Noonan, 2006, 213). The implication was John’s readiness to now begin his political career. Robbie Littell recalled John telling him in the spring of 1999, that he “might have to wind it up by the end of the year,” as he was becoming resigned that George would not succeed, and that besides, magazine publishing was not John’s life dream (2004, 175).

In the mid-1990s, John had toyed with the idea of running for the U.S. Senate seat that was to be vacated by Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 2001, but knew he was not ready at that time, and that Hillary Clinton would likely take the seat. Now, at 38 years of age, John had established his unique personal and professional identity outside the Kennedy family influence. He was no longer just the kind, tenderhearted, handsome, playful, and adventurous son of Jackie Kennedy Onassis; he was now a successful businessperson who had demonstrated resilience, strength, and leadership in the publishing world, and who was settled and married to Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. In an interview with television host Tim Russert,

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upon being asked about entering the political arena, John responded: “A public career is a lot to bite off and you better be ready for it, and you better have your life set up for it, and you better be prepared to do it for the long haul” (from the documentary film, I am JFK Jr., Spike TV, August 1, 2016).

I believe John was ready to enter the political arena, but he may not have been sure his wife Carolyn was ready. Carolyn had trouble adjusting to the constant media intrusion into her life since her marriage. John was accustomed to fame; Carolyn was not. More than being a “great” man, John wanted to be a “good” man, and that started at home, with his family. John confided to longtime close friend John Perry Barlow, “Everybody expects me to be a great man, but plenty of great men were not particularly great at home. Even my father was no model. I think it would be a more interesting challenge to be a good man” (J. Barlow quoted by McNeil, in “JFK Jr.: The John We Loved,” People Magazine, on August 1, 2016, 48). John needed to be sure Carolyn was ready and that they were on the same page before launching his political career.

John’s closest friends and confidants, Billy Noonan and Robbie Littell, were both convinced John was soon about to enter New York State politics. His former Brown University classmate and good friend, Gary Ginsberg, believed John was strongly considering a run for Governor of New York State in 2003 (Littell, 2004). Ultimately, John’s goal was to be President of the United States, and Littell noted in his memoir that “if he had lived I’m sure John would have become President of the U.S.” (25). Recently, People Magazine (August 1, 2016, 44-48) commemorated the 17^th anniversary of John’s death with reflections from some of his closest friends. In that issue, RoseMarie Terenzio, who worked closely with John from 1995 until the day of his death as his executive assistant at George, recalled the following incident:

Once we were in a meeting with Sen. Al D’Amato, who said John should run for mayor of New York City. After we left, I asked him, “Would you ever run for mayor?” and he said no. I asked him why, and he said, “Well, Rosie, how many mayors do you know that become President?” (People Magazine, August 1, 2016, 47-48).

Psychodynamically speaking, John had always been in

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search of his father en route to knowing himself. As a high school student at Phillip’s Andover Academy, John was launching his own investigation into the killer(s) of his father (see Meg Azzoni, John F. Kennedy, Jr. to Meg Azzoni: 11 letters. Memories of Kennedy’s and reflections on his quest [2^nd ed.]). Billy Noonan (2006) recalls him working diligently to understand his father. John studied his father’s speeches, read books about him, and generally studied all aspects of his father’s life. Perhaps being president of the U.S., like his father, could bring him, emotionally, one step closer to “touching” the man he could not even remember ever hugging. Noonan put it this way: “He was intensely close to his mother, sister, and a few cousins. Yet he struggled with what it meant to be his father’s son; it was a relationship he never developed and hardly remembered” (2006, 3).

Would J. F. K., Jr., Have Succeeded in Political Life?

Throughout his adolescence and young adulthood, John had been often portrayed in the media as a kind, fun-loving, risk-taking adventurer who was not very academically focused. John did have trouble in school at times, but by his second year at Brown University, John became very studious and did quite well (Littell, 2004). He obviously was admitted to and graduated from a prestigious law school, did eventually pass his bar exam, and was a successful New York City Assistant District Attorney (D.A.) under Robert Morgenthau. More characteristic of John was his determination, perseverance, and work ethic. His staff at George magazine deeply admired and respected John because of his commitment to the venture, his loyalty and honesty, and the fact that no one on staff worked harder than he did (see M. Berman, JFK Jr., George, & Me: A Memoir, 2014; Blow, 2002; Terenzio, 2012). He was an inspiring leader who earned the loyalty and respect of those who worked with and for him. He was often successful at bringing together people with different interests and ideologies to work on a common goal. This leadership, authenticity, and magnetism could have transcended his political life and he might indeed have succeeded at some point in his run for major political office, first in New York State, and then nationally.

Naturally, there would be challenges for John in political life, and we are left with a number of unanswered questions. John may have been concerned about the interpersonal costs of a life in politics. How would Carolyn cope with a life in politics? On a professional level, could John develop the skill set necessary to suc-

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ceed in the competitive political arena? Though he grew to be a fairly good student, actor, and attorney, and had initially succeeded with George in its first few of years of operation, John had not comprehensively mastered a career proficiency. Could he maintain his interests long enough while receiving the proper mentoring and guidance needed to succeed as a senator or governor of New York? John had confided to friend and business partner Michael Berman that “he had a short attention span, that he often thought of his future in five-year chunks” (Blow, 2002, 26), and that after the Assistant D.A. job it was time for something new. Could John commit to a long-term political career? Could John and Carolyn sustain a long-term marital commitment given the stress of their lives?

After weighing the available evidence and considering the opinions of those who knew him best, my answer to these questions is affirmative. After following through to see if he could save George magazine, John would have eventually entered the New York State political arena. With his broad network, his engaging personality, and his depth and breadth of life experience, he would have risen to the occasion and succeeded in his run for major political offices. In time, Carolyn may have adapted to their life as a famous couple (see particularly, Littell, 2004). It is not far-fetched to speculate that given some of the controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential candidacy, it could have been Donald J. Trump versus John F. Kennedy, Jr., in the election of 2016.

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