Proving Himself

In his book, Patterson claims that President Kennedy, “exhibited an intense desire to demonstrate his manhood.” If this is true, I wonder how many of the foreign policy decisions were fueled by Kennedy’s supposed need to prove himself. For example, after JFK’s failure at the Bay of Pigs, according to Patterson, he said, “Thank God the Bay of Pigs happened when it did. Otherwise we’d be in Laos right now…” Despite Kennedy’s supposed relief, Kennedy still orchestrated a covert mission by the CIA to invade Laos, which cost 25-20 million dollars a year. Although this operation was unknown to the public, it seems to me like it could have been fueled by his need to prove himself. If this was a successful mission, I imagine that he would release a statement, saying something along the lines of, “I know I messed up the Bay of Pigs, but I just did something bigger, I helped over throw a communist regime in Laos.” I don’t think I have enough information to fully make the claim that JFK attacked Laos due to his own insecurities, but I think it would be interesting to look at how Kennedy’s “desire to express his manhood” impacted his presidency.