I had no idea that there were tapes of Kennedy discussing Vietnam.

[Haggis 4 Breakfast]

7. Flak would be a kind way of putting the responses I've received.

"But he was so charming, so charismatic !" Both overrated. "He had such vigor and vitality." Also false, as he was getting injections several times a day to fight his Addison's debilitation, as well as other medications. The American people had a right to know he was suffering from an incurable disease. The medications alone could have (and probably did) affect his thinking.

He was brash, emotionally-immature (Bill Clinton was no match for Kennedy in the extra-marital infidelity arena.), and not nearly as "brilliant" as people were led to believe. He was, as my father said, "thinly read." He knew book titles and had read synopses of major works, but when quizzed in depth about such tomes, he fell far short of actually comprehending the depth of complex policy issues.

I have been called unspeakable (and unprintable) things for my opinion, but like you, I hold firm about the facts of this man. Had he lived, I shudder to think how much deeper this country would have been sucked into the vortex of war and death in pointless and unwinnable conflicts.