Brass Bracelets:  President Kennedy, the CIA, and Vietnam’s Montagnards

John F. Kennedy’s interest in adventure and history developed long before he began to read Churchill’s books as a teenager.  The catalyst that created his curiosity was a series of books his mother despised and whose impact on Kennedy is misunderstood by historians and reporters who never read beyond the titles of this particular series.  She wrote:

“When he was little his greatest favorite was a book called Billy Whiskers, the fictional adventures of a billy goat, of all things.  It seemed to me very, very poorly illustrated, with pictures in brash flamboyant colors.  I wouldn’t have allowed it in the house except that my mother had given it to him.  Jack adored it.”[1]

Kennedy’s mother had judged the book by its cover.  “Billy Whiskers” was an account of recent world history related through the travels of a goat and his animal companions.  Rose Kennedy mentions the book in her memoir because it mentioned “Sandwich Islands” and that her son asked her where these islands were located, by then known as the Hawaiian Islands.  For example, Billy Whiskers, the billy goat, provided an account of a voyage that may have had a lingering impact on its youthful reader:

“The only thing that varied the monotony of the long trip to Japan was the short stop at the Sandwich Islands, where Billy and Stubby were taken ashore for a run by the cook and his assistant, who were both Japanese and were returning home to fight for their country against Russia ….  One dark night as the steamer was ploughing the waters and they were laying in a little sheltered nook on deck, they heard the captain say to the mate:

“We are getting near Port Arthur now and it is going to be mighty ticklish sailing in these waters, with the two armies. Russians and the Japanese, banging away at each other from their battleships and the waters under us filled with hidden mines and torpedo boats.  I tell you, I don’t like those submarine things floating around.  Who knows but one might get loose, float off and perhaps blow up the wrong boat.” 

“And that is just what did happen, for while the captain was talking, a terrific explosion was heard, louder than one hundred cannons going off at once, and for a second, the heavens were lit up in a weird light in which were seen huge pieces of debris flying in the air like the eruption from a volcano, while in the same second, they began falling with a sissing sound into the waters beneath, and all that was left of the Russian battleship was a few splinters of wood and the mangled bodies of her officers and men floating on top of the water.”[2]

Young Jack Kennedy learned far more than just the identity of the Sandwich Islands by reading Billy Whiskers.  As an adult, it was unlikely he was reviewing in his mind novels he read as a child, but these early stories he “adored” gained his full attention through the amplification of childhood emotions that helped shape an early understanding of the world.  The simple goat construct in the novels set him on the path to the understanding narratives of other cultures, their history – especially during times of conflict – and the cultural identity of people he had never knew before.  In the paragraph quoted above from Billy Whiskers, young Jack Kennedy learned Japanese people could be kind like everyone else and were also patriotic when it came to defending their own country against attackers.  In addition, he also enjoyed other Billy Whisker’s stories filled with travel, adventure, and conflict.  In another of the series, Billy Whiskers was returning to the United States from Europe at the end of World War I and this story was probably the catalyst that led him to read Churchill’s The World Crisis at an early age.  Young Kennedy frequently read stories of “past courage” in which perilous situations forced average people into courageous action.  His books and stories revealed the concept of heroes and villains, good and evil, often along with love and betrayal as he read about people developing sufficient courage to attempt to do something they had never dared to do before.  Kennedy explained the continuing impact of his reading in his second best-selling book, Profiles in Courage:

“Politics merely furnishes one arena which imposes special tests of courage…. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient - they can teach, they can offer hope, they provide inspiration.”[3]  

Billy Whiskers also mentioned the existence of “torpedo boats” in the Russo-Japanese War.  This account probably had some impact on Kennedy’s future decision to volunteer for PT Boat duty while attending the Midshipman’s School at Northwestern University when Medal of Honor recipient, Lieutenant Commander John Bulkeley, arrived to recruit.

[1] Kennedy, Rose, Times to Remember, Doubleday, 1974, pg. 111.

[2] Montgomery, Francis Trego, Billy Whiskers, Jr., https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66006.

[3] Kennedy, Profiles in Courage