they escaped famine to begin a new life in boston massachusetts. a life of wealth, privilege and power. >> my fellow citizens of the world. >> from irish president tri to american loyalty, these are the kennedys. their relationships with each other have impacted both america and the world. with triumph and glory comes scandal and tragedy. >> something has happened here. >> from one generation to the next, the kennedys are more than

a family. they are the great american dynasty. ♪ america's new ambassador to

britain, faces cameras and cameramans as he departs. >> when president roosevelt sends him across the atlantic to be the ambassador to the united kingdom. he was a star and celebrity. he had run a studio in hollywood and was already a success in business and politics. he was among the top 20 richest men in america. it was big news. >> the rise of joseph kennedy is as remarkable as it is unstoppable. >> joe kennedy came from an irish family and worked their way from the bottom to the top. they were outsiders. >> his grandparents came from the great potato famine.

two generations removed from the posse peasant tri in ireland. >> having an irish catholic in the job was just like the perfect victory and the struggle of my grandfather to feel accepted. >> and as for me, i'm delighted to be here. >> you cannot under estimate joseph's kennedy's ambition in 1938. >> my grandfather had ambitions to be president hself. >> and what do you think he finds in the interest of him. >> what about the family, mr. kennedy. >> joseph and rose kennedy have nine children. from the oldest, joseph junior to the youngest ted. the kennedys aren't just any family, they're a family on a mission. >> kennedys to the left of them,

kennedys to the right of them, so working over time to picture the u.s. ambassador. >> they lined up before the camera. >> joseph junior and -- >> smiled and everybody had something to say. >> this was my first trip to new york and i was so excited. i can't even sleep last night. >> there were quotes in the newspapers. got 11 ambassadors for the price of one. >> so the whole family was accepted with a lot of buzz. >> the kennedys understand before any other american family, the role of glamour and until now, glamour is something that's really the province of hollywood. the kennedys pull it over into the province of politics in the

first time as a modern way and as a result, everybody is in love with this family. >> the kennedy family represented america on the rise. an immigrant country where anybody could get ahead if they were smart enough, ambitious enough. they would look at kennedys and see the american dream. >> as a moment when joe and rose are at windsor castle with the king and queen and says rose, we have come a hell of a long way from east boston. >> growing up in a boston where protestants looked down on them and fighting the prejudices. >> our family were immigrants and my grandmother used to tell stories how she would pass signs

and you should never under estimate the "i'll show you" motive in history. >> it fed his drive and ambition that he was going to prove to people that he was as good as they thought that he wasn't. >> joe was a marvelous. a master businessman, deal maker, stock manipulator. >> my mother on his birthday made a flag of a bear because he was the bear of wall street. he shorted it. he was such a force. >> he's a rogue. he's a little dodgy and a bad boy and terrifically successful. >> joseph kennedy tells his children and rose, i am making all this money so my children don't have to. so my boys and girls can go into

public service. >> thank you very much for asking me. >> rose fitzgerald kennedy is an astute matry ark and equally ambitious for her children. >> had a refined political mind. she came from a political family and her father was the mayor of boston. >> the dinner table was always as much about current events as it was about food. they had to be able to explain what was going on in the world. and they had to be able to do it in an articulate way. >> i kid you not, my grandmother rose would have famous quotations pinned to her sweaters and if the conversation ever lagged she would memorize the quotations. somebody might ask you to give

you a speech and you have to say something appropriate. >> rose kennedy is deeply religious. one of the most prominent catholic families. most of that is coming from rose. >> she trained her children how to be good catholics and trained her sons to be leaders and her daughter to raise lots of catholic children. >> joe kennedy was ambitious to be rich. he achieved that. he has a beautiful family and america's representative to the court of saint james. but he wanted to be president of the united states. >> as war clouds hover, a shod dough is cast over his dreams. >> joseph kennedy ends up on the wrong side of history. in a dramatic way.

so, i told you the same thing i was told "now you find a job, any job, and work hard. "clock in, clock out. do it again and again. "you may not like it, but that's work. that's just how it is." but of course, you didn't listen. you showed me there's another way. and i hope one day, when your own kids ask "what now?", you tell them to do something they're passionate about. i'm proud of you. ♪

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senatzm -- i've been asked by the newspaper man this afternoon about the chances of appeasement. i said i didn't know what they were but certainly worth trying. >> as america's ambassador in london, joseph kennedy is desperate to prevent war.

>> he was concerned if the british went to war, the united states would go to war. he believes that war is ruinness to the country finances. >> the best role is to remain neutral and with the -- he believed that he could make a deal with hitler. and with this he was wrong. >> he never saw the moral challenge that hitler posed. >> i have to tell you know, this country is at war with germany. >> once war broke out, ambassador kennedy wailed, it's the end of everything. the.

>> kennedy is convinced that the hitler war machine is unstoppable. england will simply be devoured. >> almost as soon as britain goes to war, joe decides he is going to send the children home. >> the u.s. line of washington brings home the biggest group of refugees, joseph p. kennedy and children. >> my wife and i have given nine hostages, our children and your children are more important than anything else in the world. >> joseph is called a coward for his decision to send his family home and for his opposition to the war he is branded a nazi sympathizer. >> calling kennedy a fascist. >> once he was in the war, he was too out spoken and called back to washington.

president roosevelt did not want to the apreepease. he wanted to fight. the last thing fdr needed is an appeaser. so he was finished. >> joseph kennedy goes from being a legitimate power broker in the united states and a player in international politics to being a pariah. >> when he crashed and burned as ambassador to great britain. that costs him his job and his notion that he can become president. from the moment that he realized he couldn't do it, he realize his kids can do it. passes it on his children and

called them his goelden trio. >> joe junior's father and mother believed that he would be the one to carry the standard for the family. >> his younger son jack is over shadowed in his father's mind but having a lower expectation gave jack a chance to be himself and give him a kind of freedom to be a kid that would be tougher for joe junior. >> jack and kathleen were the closest. both troublemakers and fun and had each others backs. >> she was popular among boys because she was vivacious and charming and funny and spoke back and had opinions. she did sort of stand out.

>> as america enters the war, joseph seizes an opportunity to restore the kennedy name. >> once the united states was in war, he was smart enough to know there was no stopping him. they were going to go in. that was the patriotic thing to do. and joe kennedy helped them. >> air cadet joseph junior reports for preliminary training. >> he was the oldest son and the most beholden to please dad and he wanted joe junior to be president of the united states. >> a young man who saw -- >> unlike joe, jack was not dutiful. he had a rebellious streak. gala vanting around and chasing girls. and he was sick a lot. >> when jake is two years old,

he contracts scarlet fever and he is basically sick for the rest of his life. bad knees, chronic colds, you name it, he had it. >> jack gets an office job in the navy intelligence service because jack is disabled in any number of ways. it is during that office job that he takes up with a woman. >> she's a danish journalist called inga -- and they have an intense affair and the problem was that the fbi were recording some of these romantic sessions. >> inga was a great beauty but she was allegedly a german spy and that made it awkward. >> jack is in the navy

intelligence and here is nazi intelligence trying to take add advantage. he thought that in his son's best interest, it was important for him to go to a war zone to wind this thing up. >> realizing jack's womanizing can further damage the family's name. joseph intervenes to get him posted to the south pacific. with joe junior training it as a bomber pilot, two of the golden trio are now in the line of fire.

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learning disability at the age of six or seven. >> presented -- and this year that thrill was experienced by rose kennedy, daughter of the american ambassador. >> her mother thought she should have time at home with tutors to teach her how to keep up with other children the way that is modern. >> the standard practice is that she would be sent to an institution. and they were not going to do that. were going to raise her with her other siblings. >> as she hit puberty, rose marie goes to being somebody who was quite uncontrollable, there were sexual urges and she's found with men. she is so vulnerable and easy for men to take advantage of her. >> mr. kennedy was afraid she would get pregnant or a disease

and what were they to do? >> they had tried together to find every conceivable cure for rose mary, none of them worked. >> joe kennedy read about this brand new procedure, only done on people with serious mental conditions, never on somebody like rosemary. >> he was convinced that he would fix things and become a perfect kennedy like the others. >> in the kennedy family, joe made the serious decisions. and rose let him do that. >> and so without consulting rose or rosemary herself, he

decides th decides that this procedure is what is to be done. >> and then cuts into the prefrontal lobe. the surgeon asked the patient to sing and the surgeon continues cutting as long as the patient sings. rosemary is a very dutiful daughter and she sings and she sings and she sings. and when when she stopped singing she has the mental age of a 5-year-old. >> by the end of the procedure, she lost the ability to talk. it is clear this has gone terribly wrong. >> and rosemary is institutionalized from 1941 until she passes. >> i think that experience of

having a sister from suffering intellectual disabilities ended up having a ripple effect and years later my aunt played a critical role in recognizing the rights of people who have intellectual disabilities. >> this is the first tragedy to befall the kennedy family. rose is overwhelmed by what happened to their daughter. but also overwhelmed by the fact that her second son, jack, who was physically very weak enlists in probably the most physically difficult job in the navy.

>> he is in charge of pt-109, a boat in the pacific theater. >> the pt poboat is new to carr tar pea t torpedo to strike the enemy below the belt. >> this is going to exacerbate every problem he has. >> john kennedy's pt boat on patrol on a moonless dark night. >> they don't see this giant japanese ship coming straight at them. it basically slices jfk's boat in half. >> jack is thrown to the bulk

head, injuring his back. two of his crew are gone. and they are surrounded by burning in the water. those back at the base presume the worst. they presume that there are no survivors and hold a religious service and mass for kennedy and his crew. >> joe kennedy gets a telegram that his son is missing. doesn't tell because -- >> joe senior didn't share it with other members. like his wife, the mother of his children. >> and he lives with this private agony wondering if his second son is dead. (vo) what if this didn't

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king was the dream and then he is gone. >> kennedy has been shot.

his boat cut in half by a japanese destroyer in the south pacific. 26 years old kennedy is missing.

>> he said we're going to have to swim, but skipper it is miles to the nearest island. >> one of the men is wounded and jack is skinny little guy tows a man much bigger for miles. they swam for hours. and they found an island. this was japanese occupied territory. >> gnnatives found them and sai we will try to help them. kennedy took a coconut and writes out a message that says 11 alive, need small bought, kennedy. the coconut reaches lines and kennedy and his crew are rescued. >> the point of pt-109.

it was not regarded by kennedy or anyone in the vicinity as a act of heroism. it was a disaster. >> jack should have been court marshaled because he allowed his boat to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. >> joseph kennedy sees the opportunity to turn disaster into true you miumph. >> he was connected and intervened and through a careful managed investigation. he was overseeing it and making sure the story came out right and it came out as jfk saving his crew. >> warner brothers brings to the screen an important adventure. >> it became a book and a movie.

it was a certification of leadership and courage and central to the story of jack kennedy. >> the young man i play is a fellow from boston. the name, lieutenant john f. kennedy. >> he becomes a military selfless man and it is an important part of the narrative being crafted around him. >> joe junior is jealous. his little brother is a hero and joe junior is not. >> it was extremely difficult for joe junior. he's always been the oldest brother, the golden boy. >> there's a banquet for jack in boston and afterwards joe came home and we want and said i'll show them. >> april morning for a final inspection. they trained long and hard for these ships, you're on your way,

joe. this is it. >> joe junior leaves to joins the allies in europe seizing his opportunity to become a kennedy hero. >> whether you were british or american, the ultimate of being the dashing world hero is being a pilot. that's what joe did and took on the scariest of missions flying a liberator bomber going after the greatest threat to the western alliance which was german u-boats. >> kick always joins the war effort volunteering for the american red cross in england. >> kathleen kennedy was a charming girl who wowed the boys and met one of the richest and socially prestigious, the oldest son of the duke -- >> london's most eligible

bachelor and heir to the state and he was a catch. >> lovely, seat of the duke. >> one would think that her daughter risen to these heights and billy was suitable in every way accept for one. he was not roman catholic. >> there's a complex of feelings. joseph kennedy saw hero mans as a sense that the kennedys arrived. however, what is so interesting is that rose didn't share the same sense of success. for her, the romance threatened -- >> the union is not blessed by

her parents. >> her older brother joe was by her side, not anyone else. they were marry in a registry office in what she described as a an affair. >> the kennedy family gathers on the coast of massachusetts and joe junior sends disappointing news. >> his father and mother expected him home any day and in july, they get a strange letter. i'm part of a speci mission. it is not dangerous, see you in september. >> he already flown his 25 missions and volunteers for extra duty. he's going to fly in a bomber stuffed with explosives towards a secret german weapon on the french coast. >> he would set the fuse and

then he would bail out of the plain along with his co pilot over the english channel. the plane would be set on remote and attack super guns that were put in place by hitler on the coast of france. this was the way to be a hero. >> he said, in case i don't come back, tell my father i love him very much. stella artois. voila! pockets. enjoy! why let life....keep you from enjoying life...

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super poligrip. ♪ i'll be seeing you and all the old familiar faces ♪ in august 13th, 1944, the kennedy family is home. ben is on the photograph singing "i'll be seeing you." >> joe junior isn't there. he's volunteered for a secret

mission. >> rose sees two priests drawn up to the family home. they say we're here to speak to mr. kennedy, he is napping, would you like to come in and have tea. they say no, we have bad news about joe. >> they get upstairs and tell joe the terrible news that his beloved son has been killed in action. >> joe has to then come down and tell the rest of the assembled clan that joe is dead. he said, there's no time for crying, we have to get on with the live being. kennedys don't cry and jack said he wouldn't want us sitting here crying over him. we're going to go sailing. and that's what they did. >> in joe kennedy's rage over the death of his son, he blamed

fdr. it shows the depth of main that joe felt. >> after his death, it was jfk who had to step up and there was a moment that his father said, okay, you're next. >> just after joe junior died, jack said to one of his friends, i could feel my father's breath on my neck. >> after the war, joe senior pressures jack to launch his political career. >> jack was not ready for the role he was about to take on. first of all, he was young and second of all, all of the attention at that point has been on grooming joe. >> but the kennedys always find a way to make their dreams come true and for joe kennedy senior,

1946. his dream is to have jack go to congress. the problem there is no seat to run for in boston but there is one by a politician. >> and he buys him off by retiring his debts and makes him go away and running for mayor opening the seat for jack and he finds himself walking the street, kissing babies and learning to be a politician. >> from dawn to dusk kennedy worked. he began the day factories at 6:00 in the morning kept going with meeting after meeting after meeting until late at night when he would collapse into the

bathtub first to ease the pain in his back. >> joe kennedy is smart enough to know that his profile is not good. he was an appeaser and knows he needs to stay in the shadows and the background, but joe has the money so joe provides the funds to make jack's career possibly. >> "readers digest" featurered him as a hero and max you may publicity. 100,000 copies of the article purchased by joe kennedy senior to help campaign. the father later said for the amount of money i paid for that campaign, you could have elected my chauffeur. >> joe kennedy's money helps but

it is pt-109 plus the family's energy and political context that proves to be a winning combination in 1946. >> jack kennedy was elected to the house of representatives. >> but jack's exertions on the campaign trail take a heavy toll. >> he gets sick and doctors determine he has addison's disease leading to a weak immune system making him able to get sicknesses. >> they're developing treatments at this time that can effectively keep jack alive. >> the familien >> the family don't want this to become an open story. so the jfamily goes to the pres

that he's combatting malaria. >> at 30 years old, jack faces his own mortality. >> he was a fatalist. he would talk about death a lot. it doesn't scare him. he had this sense that it was going to happen, probably sooner rather than later. and that certainly helped make him a young man in a hurry. ast new tums chewy bites with gas relief all in one relief of heartburn and gas ♪ ♪ tum tum tum tums new tums chewy bites with gas relief so, you guys h-yesrecently started da-yes... cool. i want to show you guys three chevy suv's. the first one is called the trax, great for when you move in together. -ahhh! and this is the chevy equinox, perfect for when you two have your first kid. give me some time... okay. this is the traverse... for when you have your five kids, two dogs and one cat. whoa! five? uhhh... it's the chevy memorial day sales event!

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. >> just as kennedy has predi predicted, the best and the brightest of his children generation would die in a war. and now this had happened. not only to joe jr., but to kick's beloved husband. >> kick had defied her family to mar the love of her life, billy harkington, only to lose him. the heir to the chatwithestate was killed by a german sniper. >> the timing was brutal as they had only weeks together as a married couple before he left. and to be widowed so young was devastating. >> i think rose kennedy was very sad about that for kathleen. but there had been terrible problems in the family over that marriage because billy

hartington was protestant. and she must have a feeling that kathleen could back to the united states and back into the church with full membership. rose frayprays that this would the saving grace for kathleen. >> but after billy's death, kick decides to stay in england. england is in her blood. kick at this time is seriously considering a career in politics and becoming a member of parliament. she's very politically engaged at this point. and then in just a few years, all of that comes to an end. >> in 1948, kathleen tells her parents that she's fallen in love a second time with a british nobleman, an anglican who is married and has a child. and she tells her parents that as soon as peter peter fitzwill

marriage is final she will r r ry him. >> to be involved with somebody like peter fitzwilliam was the ultimate sin in rose's eyes. >> rose says kick will be marrying a divorced man, which will mean that it's not a valid marriage in the eyes of the catholic church. and so she has to tell her beloved daughter that she must disown her if she goes through with the marriage. >> she really genuinely believed that her daughter's soul would go to hell. >> i think it was clear to kick that there were no chances getting her mother's approval, but she believed there was some margin with her dad. >> her father is coming over to paris on business in 1948 and

she makes an arrangement with him that she and peter fitzwilliam will come meet him and kathleen's hope is that he will then get blessing to the marriage. before, though, they have their meeting, kat leap and peter decide that they will take a mini holiday in the south of france in the rivera. >> fitzwilliam and kick decide to fly down. the weather is terrible. the pilot says we can't go, it's too dangerous, but fitzwilliam is a very reckless man and he insists that they fly. a. >> a terrible thunderstorm strikes and they crash into a mountainside in the valley. the pilot, the co-pilot, kick and her fiancee are all lost. >> joe kennedy never sees his daughter again, except in a casket. jack learns that his beloved

sister kick has died in france. jack kennedy is a man who doesn't cry and rarely shows emotions. but that day, jack kennedy breaks down. >> jack is dpil tated by grief. he's supposed to organize the family to go to the funeral, which is held in england, but he can't do it. >> he got in a car to go to the airport and fly to her funeral and didn't get on the plane. joe was informed and was the only family member to show up at her funeral. rose called kick's death divine retribution. >> my wife and i have given nine hostages.

>> joe kennedy had lost his oldest son joe jr. he lost his older daughter rosemary to a botch eed labotom that ended her life, as far as the family is concerned. and beloved kick was gone, too. >> by the late '40s, only jack remains of the golden trio. >> the torch was passed to him. his parents ambitions were now his ambitions. the burden of taking the dynasty forward was his burden. >> this season on "american dynasties -- the kennedys." >> you're never running against one kennedy. it's a full family apair. >> we could see a different world. >> unafraid, we must labor on.

>> they made a lot more enemies than friends. and some of those enemies are truly dangerous. when your dream is to lead the world, what would it take to put your family in the white house? charisma? vitality? an adoring wife? john f. kennedy seems the perfect candidate, but behind the facade lurk dark secrets. jfk will need everything his family can offer, glamour, money and power to win the presidency of the united states. ♪