Did John Fitzgerald Kennedy have a relationship with a Nazi spy?

In a new book Presidents at War, writer Steven Gilon takes a look at how World War II influenced a generation of presidents – from Eisenhauer and Genn Fitzgerald Kennedy to George Hw Bush.

« The war has set every presidency and shaped the world, » notes the author and academic at the University of Virginia.

Gilon refers to everything that happened in the backstage and away from the lights and brings to light the young Kennedy's love affair, before his presidency, and Inga Arvad, a Danish journalist who was suspected of being a Nazi spy.

Kennedy met the Washington Times Herald columnist in 1941 when he worked at the Naval Information Office. According to Gilon, « his short term in the army was about to end when he fell in love with her. »

« JFK spent much of his free time with her, to the great surprise of the FBI who suspected her of being a German spy because she managed to access Hitler when other Western journalists could not. »

In 1936, Arvad was invited by Hitler to the 1936 summer Olympics.

« Hitler had attended her marriage to her ex -husband, » she writes. « By order of President Roosevelt, the FBI watched its phones, correspondence and had it under constant surveillance. »

In January 1942, the FBI leaked the story of the relationship with the Walter Winchell columnist of New York Daily Mirror.

« Less than 24 hours after the story was published, Kennedy received new orders to take on a office job in Charlestown in South Carolina, » he reveals.

Gilon says the Navy leadership « wanted Kennedy to be fired from the Navy, to disappear » he adds.

But the influence and circle of the Kennedy family prevented the scandal.

In the end, Gilon notes, « there was no proof that Inga was a spy. »

The relationship ended before JFK became the 35th US president. « He tried to rejuvenate the flirtation, » Gilon writes, « but he had moved on. »

The next mistress

Things became even more complicated when JFK got involved with a young East German called Ellen Rometsch.

According to Gillon, in July 1963, the FBI warned John Kennedy's Attorney General and brother of a possible scandal about his brother and rumored relationship with Rometsch, which the FBI also suspected as a spy.

« The press wrote that a spy was related to a strong Kennedy government member, » Gilon writes. « No one suspected that he was with the president himself. Congress has decided to launch an investigation, but the White House forced East German to leave the country before it was called upon to testify. « 

According to Gilon, Rometsch, « he looked a lot like Elizabeth Taylor and was met by close associate of Lindon Johnson, Bobby Baker.

There were rumors that Rometsch often made visits to the White House and participated in pool orgies. Understanding the possible explosive nature of the revelations, RFK arranged its deportation to West Germany. « 

However, according to Gilon, rumors of JFK's relationship with East German did not stop – especially after its deportation.

Journalists continued to reproduce suspicions of her relationship with « several senior executive officials ».

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDHQF1SV168

« RFK contacted FBI director Jay Edgar Hoover and asked him to discourage any Senate investigation into the allegations. Hoover then met with the Senate leaders and assured them that his investigation had not proven that he was a spy or that he had ever visited the White House. « 

However, « the investigations continued and continued when JFK left for Dallas in November 1963 ».

« Today we are obsessed with the privacy of our presidents. But these examples show that even some of our best presidents had moments of personal weakness, « Gilon writes in his book.

« But their scandals have little influenced their effectiveness in office or tarnished their reputation as members of the older generation, » he notes.