Chapter 2: He’s Younger Than My Own Son

Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev during the critical period leading up to and immediately following Kennedy's 1960 presidential election. Beschloss traces the origins of their personal dynamic through Kennedy's 1959 Senate visit, where Khrushchev famously observed that the young American was younger than his own son, establishing a lens through which the Soviet leader would view Kennedy's inexperience and potential volatility. Kennedy's approach to Soviet affairs was substantially shaped by his family's deep involvement in diplomatic circles, particularly his father's ambassadorship and early exposure to Moscow, which instilled in him both anti-communist convictions and a pragmatic recognition of Soviet power. The chapter analyzes Kennedy's electoral strategy during the 1960 campaign, which strategically leveraged the contested missile gap narrative to position him as a stronger Cold War leader than his rival Richard Nixon, while simultaneously adopting positions on Berlin, Cuba, and other flashpoints that balanced ideological firmness with calculated restraint. Beschloss reveals the previously obscured reality that both campaigns maintained clandestine diplomatic channels with the Soviet government, suggesting that Cold War politics extended beyond public rhetoric into shadowy backchannels. The narrative also captures Khrushchev's own ambivalence toward Kennedy, oscillating between concern about his youthful unpredictability and recognition of his political acumen and charisma. Through careful examination of the U-2 incident, the failed Paris summit, and Khrushchev's theatrical performances at the United Nations, Beschloss demonstrates how misperceptions, strategic posturing, and genuine ideological conflict created a complex foundation for the subsequent Cuban Missile Crisis and other Cold War confrontations that would define Kennedy's presidency.