DKosty123
This portrait of JFK through his younger days and up to the Cuban Missle Crisis is a very thorough portrait. This episode reveals the struggles of JFK's youth with Addison's Disease. While his opposition did get speculate he suffered from it in the 1960 Primaries and election, JFK's physicians released a cleverly worded statement saying that he did not have Addison's disease caused by tuberculosis, and the matter was dropped. This helped him be elected in 1960.This show accurately points out that the disease had been with JFK since his childhood. JFK was portrayed as healthy and vibrant. In reality, he suffered various problems controlled by a daily regimen of steroids and other drugs. Addison's disease is characterized by the withering of the adrenal glands, which produce adrenaline and other hormones.The treatment of Addison's with steroids in his youth is what destroyed his back and created his permanent spine problem. Hollywood in PT 109 created a legend that the Japanese ship collision had caused the back problem. This documentary tells the reality, and this is but one of the excellent points this brings out.The portrait brings out a lot of the struggles JFK faced with his father and the family as he grew up battling the disease. It points out the unique seat JFK had watching his father trying to keep the US isolated from the war. It does a great job illustrating the inspiration for JFK's novel - "While England Slept". The novel details what he witnessed in the Neville Chamberlain appeasement of Hitler, and how his own father contributed to the danger Hitler became. The miracle here is how a sickly JFK managed to get into the Navy after being classified 4F due to his health. The guts and the glory of JFK were all carefully illustrated in this part and how the youngest candidate ever managed to maneuver his Democratic Party into the nomination, and charm the country into electing him. While it illustrates how family helped and harmed him during his rise to the Presidency, it stays out of the really private affairs of JFK's life, and the embarrassments of his family. JFK's road was not easy, and here is presented the grit and determination JFK used to become US President.This is a fine portrait and very well done, a rare perspective to a very complex man coping with a very complex family, and Democratic Party which he convinced to back him to win national office. His standing up to the Russians in the crisis is here, but this shows how much of a fighter JFK truly was.
