John F. Kennedy is basically a ghost story we’ve all agreed to keep telling. We see the tan, the smile, and that shock of hair and think: "There’s a guy who had it all." But honestly, the "Camelot" vibe was a massive PR job. Underneath the tailored suits was a man who was literally falling apart.
He’s the most photographed president, yet we barely knew him.
Most random facts about John F. Kennedy focus on the same three things: the assassination, the moon, and Marilyn Monroe. Boring. If you really look at the records—the secret medical files, the naval disasters, the weird personal quirks—you find a much weirder, more desperate, and frankly more impressive human being.
The Myth of the Healthy Hero
You’ve seen the footage of him playing touch football on the lawn at Hyannis Port. He looks like the picture of health, right? Total lie. JFK was probably the sickest man to ever occupy the Oval Office.
He didn't just have a "bad back."
His health was a disaster zone. Since he was a toddler, Kennedy was fighting off one thing after another. Scarlet fever nearly killed him at age two. By his thirties, he was diagnosed with Addison’s disease, a rare and then-deadly condition where your adrenal glands just quit on you. To stay alive, he had to take a cocktail of steroids that caused his face to swell—that famous "youthful" puffiness was actually a side effect of his meds.
He was given his last rites. Not once. Not twice. Three times before he even became president.
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- 1947: He got so sick on a ship coming back from England that a priest was called.
- 1951: A massive fever in Asia nearly took him out.
- 1954: He slipped into a coma after back surgery.
The guy was basically a walking miracle of modern (at the time) pharmacology. He used to travel with a suitcase full of "pills, potions, and poultices," according to his aides. Because of his back, one of his legs was actually shorter than the other, so he wore corrective shoes. He couldn't even put on his own socks or tie his shoes most mornings. Think about that next time you see him looking cool on a yacht.
That Pulitzer Prize had a Ghostwriter
Everyone knows JFK won a Pulitzer for Profiles in Courage. It’s his most famous intellectual achievement. Except, he didn't exactly write it.
He was bedridden in 1954 after a brutal spinal surgery. He had plenty of time, sure. But the heavy lifting—the research, the drafting, the actual prose—was largely the work of his brilliant speechwriter, Ted Sorensen. For years, the Kennedy family fought anyone who suggested Jack wasn't the sole author. His dad, Joe Kennedy, even threatened to sue ABC for mentioning the ghostwriting rumors.
Sorensen finally admitted his role decades later in his autobiography. He didn't take all the credit, but he made it clear he "drew the first draft of most chapters."
The 1,200 Cigars and the Cuban Embargo
This is one of those random facts about John F. Kennedy that sounds like a movie script. In 1962, Kennedy was about to sign the executive order for the Cuban Trade Embargo. This would make it illegal to import anything from Cuba, including his favorite H. Upmann Petit Upmann cigars.
He didn't just sign it and move on.
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He called his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, into the Oval Office. He told Salinger he needed "some cigars."
"How many, Mr. President?"
"About a thousand."
Salinger spent the night scouring shops in Washington. He showed up the next morning with 1,200 cigars. Kennedy took them, shoved them in his desk, and then pulled out the paper and signed the embargo into law. Cold.
PT-109 Was a Total Disaster
The story of PT-109 is usually told as a tale of heroism. And it was—Kennedy saved his crew. But we often skip the part where the boat got hit because they were basically asleep at the wheel.
It was a pitch-black night in the Solomon Islands. No moon. No stars. PT-109 was idling on one engine to keep the noise down. Out of nowhere, a massive Japanese destroyer, the Amagiri, loomed out of the dark and sliced the little wooden boat right in half.
Kennedy didn't give up. He swam for miles, towing a badly burned crewmate by a life jacket strap clamped in his teeth. He eventually carved a message into a coconut shell: "NAURO ISL... COMMANDER... NATIVE KNOWS POSIT... HE CAN PILOT... 11 ALIVE... NEED SMALL BOAT... KENNEDY."
He gave that coconut to two local islanders, Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana. They got it to the Americans. That coconut sat on his desk in the Oval Office for years as a paperweight.
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The Weird Money Thing
JFK was rich. Like, "never-had-to-check-his-bank-account" rich. His father was a titan of Wall Street and Hollywood. When Jack became president, he was easily the wealthiest man to ever hold the job (until much later).
He donated his entire $100,000 presidential salary to charity.
He did the same thing with his salary when he was in Congress. He just didn't need the cash. He was so used to having family accounts handle everything that he famously never carried money. His friends and Secret Service agents usually had to pick up the tab for his coffee or sandwiches because he literally forgot that people had to pay for things with physical paper.
Why JFK Still Matters (Beyond the Trivia)
Understanding these random facts about John F. Kennedy helps strip away the gloss. He wasn't a perfect prince; he was a guy in constant pain who had to fake health to win an election. He was a politician who knew how to use ghostwriters and secret taping systems to craft a legacy.
He lived every day like it was his last because, given his medical history, it very well could have been.
Next Steps for History Buffs
If you want to see the "real" JFK, don't just read the history books. Look at the primary sources. You can actually listen to his secret White House tapes online at the JFK Library website. They are fascinating—you can hear the tension in his voice during the Cuban Missile Crisis and realize just how close we came to the end. Also, if you’re ever in Boston, the JFK Library is worth the trip just to see the original PT-109 coconut. It’s smaller than you’d think.