Daffodils, Joseph Kennedy and Americans Behaving Badly!

Daffodils in London (Photo: James Hooper)

Now in Mid-March, the Daffodils are in glorious bloom again in London and all over England.  They look spectacular and remind me of a saying attributed to  member of the British Foreign Office about Joseph Kennedy, who was the American ambassador to the court of St. James from 1938 to 1940.  The remark was,

"I always thought my daffodils were yellow until I met Joe Kennedy."

Why would he say such a thing about the father of JFK and RFK, two lions of the Democratic party?

Joseph Kennedy's ambassadorial appointment was described by Conrad Black in his FDR biography as "ultimately widely reckoned to be one of the worst diplomatic appointments in the history of the United States."  He was a fervent supporter of Chamberlain and his policy of appeasement.  He had secret meetings with German government officials during World War II -- without informing his boss FDR.  He was, in King George V's words' "a Stinker".

In a November 1940 interview, while bombs were falling on London, Ambassador Kennedy, said, "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here [in the US]."  FDR fired him as Ambassador for that remark.

To read more, you may enjoy these...

http://www.awesomestories.com/assets/joseph-p-kennedy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kennedy

http://redroom.com/member/steven-robert-travers/blog/joe-kennedy-worst-person-in-us-history

This one is a bit kinder...

http://hnn.us/articles/49178.html

Commander Kelly wishes everyone a belated St Patrick's Day!

For Robert E. Kelly

1929 to 2008