In 1940, the future president John F. Kennedy published a book which investigates the question of why England was unprepared for war with Germany in 1939.  In this day and age it is hard to imagine a leader of the United States thinking deeply on much of anything other than their own personal image.  The future president clearly thought deeply about the great questions of the time.  In the days before the United States entered the war, Kennedy attempted to learn from the mistakes of Great Britain.  He wisely thought that the United States would gain from hindsight and would better position itself for the future conflict by examining what went wrong leading up to the ill-fated Munich conference.

The book discusses the sentiments of the English public and politicians who understandably were opposed to rearmament after the Great War.  The public genuinely believed that increasing armament would lead to another war; as it was commonly believed to be one of the causes of the first World War.  The seriousness and pursuit of wisdom is clear in the reading.  

Kennedy is truly magnanimous and thoughtful in his critique of both the British populace and its leaders.  He discusses the pros and cons of both totalitarianism and democracy and advocates for the superiority of democratic principles.  One passage sums up both his careful consideration and prudence when considering democracy and its flaws: 

“I believe it is one of democracy’s failings that it seeks to make scapegoats for its own weaknesses.  A nation takes a long time to change its mind; but, although the change may be gradual, one slight shock may make it change with lightning speed from one position to another.  It then frequently forgets the reasons for its previous point of view; it cannot understand how it could have believed as it formerly did.  Seeking to explain this it places the blame on the men who were then in office”

It is hard not to think of the what ifs, what would have happened had he not been taken from our nation prematurely.  Would we be better off today or worse?  Although President Kennedy was certainly a flawed man as all leaders are, it is hard to believe that the United States would be worse off with a leader who truly sought wisdom and to learn from the lessons of history.