Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed

The sustained bombing campaign known as “the Blitz” was carried out by Nazi Germany against London and other British cities during World War II, from 1940 to 1941. At the time, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., the patriarch of the Kennedy family, was serving as the US ambassador to the United Kingdom, and the family resided in London, where they witnessed the devastation firsthand. This period influenced the Kennedy family’s worldview and shaped Joseph’s controversial stance on US intervention in the war, which later affected his political reputation.

The peninsula known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on the eastern seaboard, is famously associated with the Kennedy family, which owns a family compound in Hyannis Port, where they have gathered for decades. This coastal retreat became a significant part of the Kennedys’ public image, symbolizing both their close-knit family dynamic and their New England roots. Cape Cod has served as a setting for numerous iconic photos, events, and family traditions, reinforcing its place in Kennedy lore and US cultural history.

The term “Irish Catholic” in relation to the Kennedy family refers to their heritage as descendants of Irish immigrants who settled in the US and maintained a strong Catholic faith, which heavily influenced their cultural and political identity.