There are wildly divergent views of Kennedy family patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy, but few would seriously contend that he didn’t know business. He knew it well, as a family fortune that endures to this day attests. While still alive, Fortune estimated his net worth at somewhere between $200 and $400 million.
On the matter of war, Kennedy was blunt that it’s “bad for business.” In a letter sent to an old Harvard classmate about World War II, Kennedy wrote sadly of seeing young friends of his daughters “going off to war and some of them already killed,” not to mention “businesses shot to pieces.” War in his estimation was to be avoided at all costs. His great wealth had him particularly attuned to how expensive war is, and it should be made clear that the latter compliments his legacy.
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