1. Marvin R. Zahniser, “Rethinking the Significance of Disaster: The United States and the Fall of France,” International History Review 14 (May 1992): 252–76; Olson, Angry Days, 130.

2. Life, June 3, 1940.

3. Herring, From Colony to Superpower, 519–20; Kaiser, No End, 57–58.

4. Ketchum, Borrowed Years, 358.

5. Wheeler-Bennett, Special Relationships, 97; Olson, Angry Days, 128; Time, June 17, 1940.

6. Casey, Cautious Crusade; Doenecke, Storm on the Horizon; Herring, From Colony to Superpower, 520–22. On “America First,” see also Churchwell, Behold, America.

7. Searls, Lost Prince, 172–73; Leamer, Kennedy Men, 152.

8. JPK to JPK Jr., July 23, 1940, box 2, JPKP; JPK Jr. to JPK, May 4, 1940, box 2, JPKP; Swift, Kennedys Amidst the Gathering, 214; Collier and Horowitz, Kennedys, 105.

9. Renehan, Kennedys at War, 158; KLB OH, JFKL.

10. JPK Jr. to JPK, August 23, 1940, box 2, JPKP; Renehan, Kennedys at War, 161.

11. Herzstein, Henry R. Luce, 155.

12. On the expansion in this period of what constituted “national security,” see Andrew Preston, “Monsters Everywhere: A Genealogy of National Security,” Diplomatic History, 38, no. 3 (2014): 477–500.

13. Henry R. Luce, “The American Century,” Life, February 17, 1941. For assessments of the article and the concept, see Bacevich, Short American Century. For a different assessment of the concept, see Zunz, Why the American Century? On the 1940 nomination fight, see Lewis, Improbable Wendell Willkie, chap. 6; and Brinkley, The Publisher, 253–60.

14. Henry Luce OH, JFKL.

15. Henry Luce, foreword to Why England Slept, xix.

16. JFK to Luce, July 9, 1940, box 19, JPKP.

17. “Best Sellers of the Week,” NYT, September 9, 1940; “Reader’s Choice,” WP, September 1, 1940. Until the early 1940s the New York Times bestseller list was a composite of top-selling books in a variety of big cities, Boston being one of them.

18. JFK, Why England Slept, xxiv.

19. FDR to JFK, August 27, 1940, box 74, JFK Pre-Pres; Hamilton, JFK: Reckless Youth, 336–37.

20. Quoted in Freedman, Roosevelt and Frankfurter, 590. Laski’s letter, dated August 21, 1940, is in GB 50 U DLA/21, Papers of Harold Laski (and Frida Laski), Hull University Archives, UK. See also Hamilton, JFK: Reckless Youth, 333.

21. B. H. Liddell Hart to JFK, October 24, 1940, box 73, JFK Pre-Pres.

22. New York Sun, August 2, 1940; New Republic, September 16, 1940.

23. Brogan, Kennedy, 16.

24. Brogan, Kennedy, 19. See also Dallek, Unfinished Life, 65.

25. Schlesinger, foreword to Why England Slept (New York: Ishi Press, 2016), xiv. Schlesinger also writes, “The broad factual recounting of British attitudes in young Kennedy’s book brilliantly captures the passivity of the British state” (xiii). See also Hellman, Kennedy Obsession, 22–27.

26. Bruce Hopper to JFK, September 5, 1940, box 73, JFK Pre-Pres.

27. Charles Spalding OH, JFKL; Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, 98–100. In late December 1940, Jack told his publisher he would not write another book at that time. JFK to Frank Henry, December 28, 1940, box 19, JPKP.

28. Arlene B. Hadley (registrar) to JFK, May 14, 1940, box 20, JPKP.

29. KLB OH, JFKL.

30. Dr. Vernon S. Dick to Dr. William P. Herbst, March 20, 1953, Travell files, JFKL; JFK to London Embassy, telegram, July 10, 1940, box 21, JPKP; Dr. Sara Jordan to JPK, July 12, 1940, box 21, JPKP.

31. JFK to JPK, telegram, July 10, 1940, box 21, JPKP; JFK to dean of admissions, Yale Law School, July 31, 1940, box 20, JPKP.

32. The invoice for the car purchase, totaling $1,329.51, including sales tax, is in box 20, JPKP. Various historical accounts say the car was green in color, but according to the invoice it was black.

33. Quoted in Hamilton, JFK: Reckless Youth, 350.

34. Hamilton, JFK: Reckless Youth, 351.

35. JPK to JFK, November 16, 1943, box 3, JPKP; JFK to JPK, n.d. (March 1940), box 5, JPKP.

36. Stanford Daily, October 30, 1940. As a student, he was entitled to deferment until at least July 1941.

37. Ralph Horton OH, JKFL; Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, 114.

38. Stansky, First Day. The house Kennedy rented is now the home of the Legoland Windsor Resort theme park.

39. Collier and Horowitz, Kennedys, 107.

40. Luce OH, JFKL.

41. In a letter to Jack in early August, he wrote, “The whole crux of the matter is, as I have said to you before, the strength of the German air force….No country today can stand up unless it has air parity with another country, assuming that the other country can get its airplanes in to fight, which of course the Germans can do very easily now because they have practically all the bases up and down the whole west coast of Europe.” JPK to JFK, August 2, 1940, box 2, JPKP.

42. JPK to JFK, September 10, 1940, box 4A, JFKPP.

43. JPK diary, October 19, 1940, box 100, JPKP; Arthur Krock private memo, December 1, 1940, box 1, AKP. On the twists and turns in the presidential election, see Moe, Second Act.

44. On October 16, 1940, Kennedy wrote in his diary, “Unless we handle our affairs with more vision than I think we are going to, we shall be getting ourselves deeper and deeper in the mud.” JPK diary, box 100, JPKP. See also Nasaw, Patriarch, 485–86; and Whalen, Founding Father, 347–48.

45. Whalen, Founding Father, 231–33; Goodwin, Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, 517; Swift, Kennedys Amidst the Gathering, 81.

46. Account of Ambassador’s Trip to U.S. on Clipper, October 1940, box 100, JPKP; Arthur Krock private memo, December 1, 1940, box 1, AKP; Beschloss, Kennedy and Roosevelt, 216–19; Leamer, Kennedy Men, 155; Moe, Second Act, 295–99. When she learned of Kennedy’s plan to endorse FDR, Clare Boothe Luce wrote him, “I want you also to know that I believe with all my heart and soul you will be doing America a terrible disservice. I know too well your private opinions not also to know that half of what you say (if you say it) you really won’t believe in your heart.” Clare Boothe Luce to JPK, October 28, 1940, box 100, JPKP.

47. BG, November 10, 1940.

48. “Apparently, Joe Kennedy is out to do whatever damage he can,” Harold Ickes remarked in his diary. “The president said that, in his opinion, the interview obtained with Kennedy in Boston a couple of weeks ago was authentic, despite its subsequent denial by Kennedy.” Harold Ickes diary, December 1, 1940, HIP, LC.

49. JPK to JFK, telegram, December 5, 1940, box 4A, JFKPP; Nasaw, Patriarch, 506–9; Leamer, Kennedy Men, 160.

50. JFK to JPK, December 6, 1940, box 4A, JFKP. Emphasis in original.

51. JFK to JPK, December 6, 1940, box 4A, JFKP.

52. JFK “supplementary note,” n.d., box 5, JPKP.

53. Harriet Price to JFK, n.d., box 4B, JFKPP; Leamer, Kennedy Men, 162.

54. Even as Kennedy delivered the radio address, senior administration officials, including FDR, were not sure which way he would go. See Harold Ickes diary, January 19, 1941, HIP, LC. On the isolationist opposition in these weeks, much of it funded by Robert McCormick, see Smith, Colonel, 398–409.

55. See Edwards, Edward R. Murrow; and Cloud and Olson, Murrow Boys.

56. Searls, Lost Prince, 173; Collier and Horowitz, Kennedys, 112.

57. JFK passport file, box 6, JFKPP; RK, Times to Remember, 279.

58. Kaiser, No End, 200–204; Reynolds, From Munich, 126–30; Heinrichs, Threshold of War, 90.

59. Kershaw, Hitler: Nemesis, 393; Gorodetsky, Grand Delusion. For a summary of Hitler’s motives in launching the invasion, see Ferguson, War of the World, 426–31.

60. BG, April 30, 1941; Searls, Lost Prince, 172–73.

61. Schoor, Young John Kennedy, 118; Searls, Lost Prince, 174.

62. See Hamilton, JFK: Reckless Youth, 398–41.

63. Collier and Horowitz, Kennedys, 113.