Dr. Travell later stated for the record that John Kennedy did indeed suffer from Addison’s disease. Asked in 1966 whether it would be fair to say “for a secret historical record” that Kennedy had had Addison’s disease, Travell responded:
"The term Addison’s disease has been extended at the present time to include all degrees of adrenal insufficiency and all causes of adrenal insufficiency. So that I would say yes to your question. At the present time, the broader meaning of this diagnosis would now cover his condition, although even 15 years ago it would not have."
As early as 1953, however, a physician associated with the Lahey Clinic had indicated that Kennedy had been suffering from and treated for Addison’s disease since the late 1940s. While that physician pointed out that Kennedy had been a patient of the Lahey Clinic since 1936 and had had “quite a variety of conditions,” he described his Addison’s disease as the most serious of Kennedy’s many ailments. Apparently, Travell did not speak for all of Kennedy’s doctors.
Kennedy insisted to aides that he did not have Addison’s disease, and he went so far as to tell one of them in 1959 that “no one who has the real Addison’s disease should run for the Presidency, but I do not have it.” When, around the same time, Dr. Travell tried to discuss his Addison’s disease with him, Kennedy retorted, “But I don’t have it, Doctor.” Travell explained to him, without evident success, that he didn’t have classic Addison’s disease, but that “doctors disagree maybe because they aren’t talking about the same thing.” In 1960, when one of his aides expressed unhappiness over the selection of Lyndon Johnson as his vice-presidential running mate, Kennedy replied, “Get one thing clear…I’m 43 years old, and I’m the healthiest candidate for President in the country, and I’m not going to die in office.”
There is no evidence that John Kennedy’s physical ailments had any negative impact on his conduct of the presidency. Indeed, Dr. George Burkley [head of the military medical unit at the White House] emphatically stated that “his back pain affected his normal conduction of the office of President in no way. He tended his office and went back and forth occasionally – at one point he was on crutches – but that did not deter him from his full duty as President.”
Burkley also asserted that adrenal insufficiency “was never a problem with the President when under my care.” Dr. Janet Travell agreed with this assessment, saying, “We had much smoother control of the problem of adrenal insufficiency while he was in the White House when he was in one place and not travelling around.” She added, “I thought…that his health would be more than adequate for him to carry the duties and responsibilities of the presidency, and indeed it was.” In the 34 months of his tenure, Kennedy missed only one day of work because of illness.
Indeed, rather than adversely affecting him politically, Kennedy’s physical ailments vitally contributed to the development of his character and to the formation of his political personality. Even more significant perhaps, John F. Kennedy’s ailment may have led to his meteoric political career – so far as his drive toward the glory of the presidency was an attempt, however subconscious, to prove his worth and demonstrate his strength by rising above all others.
Robert E. Gilbert is professor of political science at Northeastern University. This article is excerpted from his book The Mortal Presidency: Illness and Anguish in the White House. Copyright 1992 by Basic Books. Published by arrangement with Basic Books, a division of Harper Collins Publishers, Inc.