PT 109: An American Epic of War, Survival, and the Destiny of John F. Kennedy

by William Doyle

Shortly after John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963, journalist I. F. Stone wrote, “He died in time to be remembered as he would like to be remembered, as ever young, still victorious, stuck down undefeated, with almost all the potentates and rulers of mankind, friend and foe, come to mourn at the bier. For somehow one has the feeling that in the tangled dramaturgy of events, this sudden assassination was the only way out. The Kennedy administration was approaching an impasse, certainly at home, quite possibly abroad, from which there appeared to be no escape.” The following year, the New York Times’ James Reston mused, “He always seemed to be striding through doors into the center of some startling triumph or disaster. He never reached his meridian: we saw him only as a rising sun.”