As it turns out, that was just the beginning. In his massive new biography, “An Unfinished Life,” historian Robert Dallek reveals that JFK endured daily agony from a debilitating combination of illnesses: as president, he often needed a variety of narcotics just to get through the day. For the first time, Dallek was granted access to Kennedy’s medical records, long locked away by the family. They tell the story of a lifetime of treatments that may have exacerbated, or even caused, his condition. When he was young, doctors treated his colitis with corticosteroids, unaware that over time they could lead to osteoporosis and ulcers, and ultimately cause his adrenal glands to shut down. His condition also made him vulnerable to frequent infections.
JFK rightly feared he would never be elected president if the public knew the truth. As a senator, he was secretly hospitalized nine separate times. Once he was in the White House, Dallek writes, “stomach/colon and prostate problems, high fevers, occasional dehydration, abscesses, sleeplessness, and high cholesterol accompanied Kennedy’s back and adrenal ailments.” Medical records show that in August 1961 his drug regimen included codeine sulfate and Procaine injections for pain, cortisone for his Addison’s, penicillin for a urinary-tract infection, testosterone to keep his weight up, Lomotil for acute diarrhea and sedatives at night. Little wonder he complained of feeling “groggy.” During the stress of the Cuban missile crisis, doctors gave him a two-day mood-boosting round of Stelazine, an anti-anxiety medication. Yet Dallek concludes that the drugs did not seem to impair Kennedy’s judgment: on the contrary, he might not have been able to function without them.
Dallek caused a stir with many of these revelations last year in a long Atlantic Monthly article. At more than 800 pages, the book doesn’t offer a lot beyond that. There are doses of new material from the vast Kennedy archives, and further details about JFK’s legendary womanizing–including an affair with a beautiful 19-year-old intern. The rest of the volume amounts to a sturdy but staid retelling of the much-told Kennedy tale. Still, 40 years later, it’s a story that has yet to lose its fascination.
