Photo family Kennedy: Saga of a dynasty between glory, tragedies and curses still disturbing America

The Kennedy family has dominated the American public life for decades, becoming as well known for the bright political career as well as for the personal sufferings that have marked it.

Exactly 26 years ago, John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn and her sister, Lauren, disappeared into the Atlantic waters, adding another tragic chapter in the troubled story of the most popular family in the US political history.

The death of John Jr. was even more painful as he wore a cruel irony: the boy who excited the whole America, silently greeting his father’s coffin as he was only three years old, found his ending in the dark of the waters near Martha’s Vineyard. He was heading for a wedding-a holiday that suddenly turned into a view.

In less than a century, the Kennedy family was hit by an amazing number of public tragedies, scandals and unexpected dead, more than possible for a single family. Airplane collapses, assassinations, overdoses, suicides – the life of this family was a combination of promise and suffering, a story that, despite the passage of time, continues to fascinate America (See photo).

In 1969, Senator Ted Kennedy – who had already lost four brothers – wondered in front of the nation if “Not a terrible curse presses on all Kennedy”. Five decades later, the question is still floating in the air.

Destiny’s burden: How did John F. Kennedy get to take the family’s reins instead

Saga Kennedy begins with Joseph Kennedy Sr., an influential businessman, who has always dreamed of political glory for his children. The greatest of them, Joseph Kennedy Jr., was considered “The golden child” of the family – prepared, step by step, to become the first Catholic president of America.

A graduate of Harvard and pilot in the American navy, Joe Jr. was volunteered for an extremely risky mission during World War II. In 1944, while the France was occupied by the Nazis, the aircraft was loaded with an explosive collapsed. He was only 29 years old.

“Now the burden falls on me”would have told John F. Kennedy to a friend, when all the political hopes of the family suddenly moved to the shoulders of the younger son-fragile, sick, often targeted in the hospital.

John had not been destined to lead America. He had suffered the whole life of chronic affections, had received the last communion several times in childhood and adolescence, and his entire youth was a struggle for survival. But it was also terribly resistant.

Historian Robert Dallek described Kennedy’s decision to hide his health to the public right “The silent stoicism of a man who endures a deep suffering, but fulfills, without deviating, the presidential and pre -aging duties”.

John has arrived at the White House as the youngest president in the history of the United States. A little over a thousand days later, he also became the youngest American president who died in the exercise.

Double assassinated that has changed America

On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy crossed the streets of Dallas, Texas, in a convertible limousine, along with his wife, Jacqueline, Texan governor John Connal and his wife, Nellie. He was deadly shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former American marine kid.

The images of that moment remained deeply imprinted in the collective memory of America: Jackie’s pink costume stained with blood, desperate chase to Parkland Hospital, the absolute peace in which an entire country looked, in amazement, the sober announcement of journalist Walter Cronkite: “The president died.”

Cinic and precise, destiny would hit five years later. In 1968, Robert F. Kennedy – the third son of the family and a promising candidate for the presidency – was shot in the kitchen of the Los Angeles hotel, shortly after winning the primary elections in California. His wife, Ethel, pregnant with the eleventh child, witnessed his collapse. Robert died the next day.

A few months ago, the Trump administration has decreteled tens of thousands of pages related to both the assassination of former president John F. Kennedy and Robert’s assassination, following a decision to make public documents. However, the declassification has raised more questions than answers regarding the circumstances of the senator’s death and the true culprits, even if in this case there is a person sentenced to life imprisonment.

Joe, John and Robert are perhaps the most famous members of the Kennedy family who ended prematurely and violently, but are not the only ones.

Painful losses and stories that define a legend

The Kennedy family, Joseph Sr. and Rose, had nine children: five boys and four girls. In addition to the three famous brothers – Joe, John and Robert – one of the girls, Kathleen Kennedy, died. During World War II, Kathleen lost not only her brother, Joe, but also her husband, and four years later she was dying in a plane accident.

John and Jackie Kennedy suffered the tragedy of losing two children in the first months of life.

Robert’s son, David, died of an overdose in 1984, and another son, Michael, died in a ski accident in 1997. In contrast, another son bearing his name, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is the current secretary for health and human services in the Trump administration and is extremely controversial. Has attracted criticisms for decisions such as exposing its grandchildren to a contaminated river, its controversial statements regarding the measles vaccine – a disease considered eradicated, but which ravages in the US – or theories on “Autism epidemic”. He also fired a group of experts in vaccines and promotes a food campaign with ultra -vicious products, arousing numerous controversies.

However, returning to the tragedies that hit the Kennedy family they continued in recent years: Kara Kennedy died from a heart attack, Mary Kennedy committed suicide, and Saoirse Kennedy Hill has lost a struggle with an overdose. Maeve Kennedy McKean and her only eight-year-old son drowned on a canoe trip.

Each of these losses has a special story, but together they built the myth Kennedy – a family that offered America hope, but paid for it an almost superhuman price.

Curse Kennedy: possible origins and consequences. Between punishment and choice

For some, the so-called Kennedy curse has a clear starting point. In 1941, Rosemary, the daughter of Joseph Kennedy Sr., was subjected to a lobotomy – at the insistence of his father. The young woman, known for the sudden changes of disposition and the alleged scandals, had become a risk to the impeccable image that the family cultivated.

Surgery was a devastating failure: Rosemary remained with cognitive capabilities similar to a two -year -old child, unable to speak or walk. For decades were hidden in private institutions, isolated from the eyes of the world and their own family.

For those who believe in curses, this gesture-of a father who reduced his daughter to silence to protect his inheritance-is considered the original sin of the Kennedy clan. Others indicate the controversial business of Joe Sr., or his sympathy for fascist regimes in the war years.

There are also voices that see in the unlimited ambition of the family, in the uninterrupted pursuit of power – regardless of costs -, the true source of the tragedies that followed.

Myths, lifestyle and hidden truths in the Kennedy family

But, it may not be a curse.

“Each family has their own silent tragedies. The numerous families, inevitably, have more such losses. And the famous families have tragedies … as publicized”wrote Theodore C. Soressen in the New York Times, shortly after the death of John Jr.

With the nine children of Joe Sr. who, in turn, had 29 children (Robert Kennedy having only 11), it is not surprising that family losses are, from a statistical point of view, more numerous.

Some talk about a trend to risk – a lifestyle assumed and reckless. “They fly alone with single engine planes, although they would allow full crews. The most difficult slopes in Aspen descends, at the end of the last day of December. They are struggling to be sent to conflict areas. This was, and remains Kennedy,” note journalist Brian McGory in the Boston Globe, in 1999.

There is another theory, less discussed even within the family. In the volume Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyedjournalist Maureen Callahan claims that “Curse” It is not only a myth or fatality, but a systemic form of misogyny. Throughout the generations, Kennedy women-and those who entered the family-were marked by trauma, premature death, silence and psychological suffering. “No matter how serious the man Kennedy was wrong about them ”wrote Callahan, “The message transmitted remains the same: she was to blame. She caused everything.”

Political dynasties and the tragic destiny of families families

Looking more wide, the Kennedy family is not a unique case. In India, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty was shaken by three assassinations. In Pakistan, both Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter, Benazir, found their end violently. And in Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed with almost all his family members. The world political history abounds in dynasties ending in the blood.

Finally, the Kennedy family lived both joys and crushing losses. They knew the light of the spotlight, but also the deepest shadows of destiny.

And, as Sorensen wrote, “They were endowed with good genes, brilliant minds, beauty, health, luck-and, most importantly, with the instinct and the opportunity to serve their country and to help them the least lucky.”.