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58 KENNEDY, John F. The David Powers collection of John F. Kennedy’s speeches and manuscripts. c.1945–63 the most significant kennedy archive in private hands The David Powers collection of John F. Kennedy’s speeches and manuscripts constitutes the largest cache of original JFK documents remaining in private hands, mostly unpublished, spanning the statesman’s political career up to the presidency. Powers was one of Kennedy’s closest friends, among his most important political operatives in his rise to the presidency, and his special assistant as president. David Francis Powers (1912–1998) grew up in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of Irish immigrants. In 1946 Powers joined Kennedy’s campaign as Democratic candidate for the Massachusetts Eleventh Congressional District. Powers later
expressed his concern that “here’s a millionaire’s son from Harvard trying to come into an area that is longshoremen, waitresses, truck drivers and so forth” (Dallek, p. 127). Powers helped Kennedy to appeal to and connect with the Bostonian working class voters, especially Irish and Italian groups. Kennedy’s successful cultivation of these voters, influenced by Powers’s advice, was crucial in his ascent to the White House. Powers continued to serve in every one of Kennedy’s political campaigns from 1946 to 1960, as a key political operative and adviser. His collection of documents – chiefly draft speeches, many with manuscript corrections by Kennedy, several of which are the only known surviving examples – thus illustrates and encompasses three Congressional campaigns, two runs for the Senate, and a bid for the Vice Presidency. In the White House, Kennedy appointed Powers his Special Assistant, where his duties included preparing briefings and ushering distinguished guests into the Oval Office. He was Kennedy’s intimate
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