“Yet, despite his weakened condition, something is different about him.”

During World War II, near the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, Lieutenant John F. Kennedy commanded a patrol torpedo boat, PT-109. After his boat collided with a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy guided his men to safety by swimming three miles to a small nearby island. O’Reilly and Dugard depict the PT-109 incident as the moment at which Kennedy, a young playboy hitherto best known for having a possible Nazi spy as a mistress, emerged as a genuine leader.

“The fact is that Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy never fully reveals herself to anyone—not even to her husband, the president.”

O’Reilly and Dugard describe Jackie Kennedy as guarded. While the first lady does not manipulate or deceive, she does maintain a careful public image and keeps many things private, including her pack-a-day smoking habit. For a woman who does not trust easily, this is less a matter of public relations than of self-preservation. In the book, Jackie is the driving force behind the “Camelot” narrative of the Kennedy White House, which, in light of the president’s numerous extramarital affairs, might reflect Jackie’s wishes as much as her reality.

“By the time the Bay of Pigs is over he will count among these enemies not only Castro but also one of the highest-ranking officials of the US government: the wily CIA chief, Allen Dulles.”

Less than three months into his presidency, Kennedy authorized a CIA-backed invasion of Fidel Castro’s Cuba. The plan, inherited from the previous administration, called for CIA-trained Cuban exiles to land on the island and overthrow Castro.