1937 – His Father Is Appointed Ambassador To The United Kingdom
After enrolling in Harvard in 1936 to attain his Bachelor of Arts in government, concentrating on international affairs, almost a year later, his father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., would be appointed by President Roosevelt as the United States ambassador to the Court of St. James’s (Great Britain). This gave the then 20 year old Kennedy the chance to tour Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, and most importantly, the Soviet Union extensively.
Although this trip was undertaken in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis, it would give him valuable experience in international politics. On the final leg of his tour, he visited Berlin, where a U.S. diplomatic representative would give him a secret message for his father, informing him that war was on the horizon.
Kennedy would first go on to Czechoslovakia before returning to London on September 1, 1939. The day that Germany invaded Poland. Two days later, along with the rest of his family, he was in attendance at the House of Commons to witness the United Kingdom’s declaration of war on Germany.
