From the London Times comes an article on The drug abuse of John F. Kennedy.
Basically a review of a new book "In Sickness and in Power: Illnesses in Heads of Government during the Last 100 Years" (David Owen), former Foreign Secretary and medic David Owen reviews the health and medication of world leaders in the past century.
The chapter on Kennedy is jaw-dropping.
Owen starts by convincingly asserting that Kennedy was much sicker than is commonly appreciated and certainly much sicker than was appreciated at the time. His Addison's disease was very debilitating and needed constant attention.
And there were other health troubles. During the Bay of Pigs fiasco Owen writes that Kennedy had:
Constant and acute diarrhoea and a recurrence of his urinary tract infection.
Central to Owen's account is the idea that the administration of drugs to Kennedy for these various ailments was out of control.
In particular, without the knowledge of his other doctors and at the same time as they were giving him other drugs, he was being tended to by Max Jacobson, a doctor known as "Dr Feelgood" because of his reputation as a provider of amphetamines and pep pills. In time Jacobson's drug treatment became almost a recreational drug for Kennedy.
Dr. Hans Kaus took control of Kennedy's medication and ended his drug abuse later that year .
He demanded total control and began using massage rather than injections to treat the President. He also got rid of Jacobson, telling Kennedy:
If I ever heard he took another shot, I'd make sure it was known. No President with his finger on the red button has any business taking stuff like that.
By the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy was back on an even keel.