Letters reveal public distaste for booze in JFK White House

File photo by Steve Klamkin WPRO News

BOSTON (AP) — Researchers at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston have discovered a cache of letters objecting to JFK’s embrace of cocktails at the White House.

Archivists say the letters shed new light on an era when sensibilities around drinking were starkly different than they are today.

They say Americans began writing to JFK shortly after he took over in January 1961 from President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and served liquor at his first public reception.

Some expressed grave concern that the Kennedy administration wouldn’t be able to properly run the country.

Others scolded the nation’s 35th president for a practice they considered undignified.

 

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