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moonbeam wrote:JFK's dad was the US ambassador to Britain. In September 1939 the Athenia was sunk by a U boat and Kenndy's dad came
to Glasgow to the Central Station Hotel to meet the survivors. JFK was at Harvard and accompanied his dad on the trip.
The survivors were put up in the Beresford Hotel. The recent book on the Central Station Hotel refers to this.
So presumably this is what this is about.
Bridie wrote:moonbeam wrote:JFK's dad was the US ambassador to Britain. In September 1939 the Athenia was sunk by a U boat and Kenndy's dad came
to Glasgow to the Central Station Hotel to meet the survivors. JFK was at Harvard and accompanied his dad on the trip.
The survivors were put up in the Beresford Hotel. The recent book on the Central Station Hotel refers to this.
So presumably this is what this is about.
Yes that's what I found,more or less here;
http://programmes.stv.tv/the-hour/holid ... l-station/
"When an American battleship was sunk off the west coast of Ireland, a 17-year-old American officer addressed the surviving crew members within the station. This was US President John F. Kennedy’s first ever public address."
I will try to search for details of Joseph P Kennedy's visit - that might throw up some more info.
When an American battleship was sunk off the west coast of Ireland...
moonbeam wrote:SS Athenia had 300 US citizens on board and was the first ship sunk by a submarine U-30- on 3rd September 1939. It was on the front pages of US papers. Joe Kennedy was against US involvement and had travelled to Glasgow to meet US survivors.
JFK was 17 and at harvard university -he may have been an officer in their ROTC. Presumable JFK addressed some of the survivors as they came in by train from Greenock. Joe was know to be anti-British and was replaced soon afterwards.
SS Athenia was a Glasgow built and operated ship. She set sail on 1st September.
Lucky Poet wrote:Nice one Bridie, and you others of course. What a fascinating photo of yon JFK.
As far as the Joseph Kennedy thing goes, well... That's past politics for you, I suppose. The opposition to what became the prevailing side after such massive turning points in history can come across as (to put it kindly) a bit quaint, in our position of luxurious hindsight.
RDR wrote:Lucky Poet wrote:Nice one Bridie, and you others of course. What a fascinating photo of yon JFK.
As far as the Joseph Kennedy thing goes, well... That's past politics for you, I suppose. The opposition to what became the prevailing side after such massive turning points in history can come across as (to put it kindly) a bit quaint, in our position of luxurious hindsight.
That's an interesting way of suggesting that his position looks worse due to hindsight?
Joe Kennedy was well aware of what was going on in Germany before the war.
Lucky Poet wrote:RDR & Josef: Well, I think his position does look worse in hindsight.
I'm certainly not saying his position was good to begin with, seeing as he is a fairly well-documented swine (so to speak), but I think it's a mistake to mix him up with the USA's isolationism at that time, and the anti-Jewish sentiment that only fully became verboten after what we all know happened. I guess my point is I'm scared that we might think ourselves more virtuous for being born in a different era from all that.
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