How did President Kennedy get away with having so many affairs?

Because #MeToo—the movement that outs the bad sexual behavior of powerful men—did not yet exist.

John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America (1961–1963), leader of a nation whose motto runs, “In God We Trust”,
a dashing embodiment of the squeaky clean values of Nation-Church-Family,
was too powerful, too progressive,
too much needed by the Democratic Party,
for anyone to say anything… no matter how hypocritical the situation was.

In 1958, while running for re-election to the Senate, Kennedy (aged 41) gave a speech in a Boston ballroom. Amongst the auditors was Diana de Vegh (20), from one of the city’s best families.[1]

You may recall that Kennedy was already married: to picture-perfect Jacqueline Bouvier. They had a 1-year-old daughter, Caroline. Here is their Christmas card for that year:[2]

He does look tired and worried, does he not?

Not tired or worried enough to pass up the charms of a girl student from Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Suddenly he was at her table, telling the young man who had come as her date, “Give me your seat, so a tired old man can sit next to a pretty girl.”
Ah, power…

Diana lived off-campus, so it was easy for a driver to pick her up and take her to wherever Kennedy happened to be campaigning. His staff called her “sweetheart”, brought her coffee, and made sure she stayed inconspicuous. Kennedy would join her in the car for the ride home.
Eventually, she lost her virginity to him at his Boston apartment (which is where the top photo was taken[3]).
Because what he was feeling—doing to—she was love, wasn’t it?

In 1960, Diana moved to Washington DC to be near him as he ran for the presidency:
“It will be better there”, he said.
By now she was starting to feel used.

Once he was President, though, in 1961, things did not become “better”.
They became worse, for she kept hearing about all his other conquests. But she did get a fancy job as a National Security Council staff member, in the Executive Office Building of the White House.[4]

And then, one day, the President learned that his young lover’s father was Imre de Vegh, a Hungarian economist who had been advising him on policy![5] Ouch.
That was the end.
Kennedy ghosted her until she got the message and went to Paris.
She was still there when he was assassinated in 1963.

So, how did John F. Kennedy—adulterer, seducer, political glamour-boy—get away with so many affairs?
Everyone—wife, family, staff, colleagues—covered for him.

It is that simple. And that disgusting.

Footnotes

[1] JFK’s student mistress reveals affair after decades of silence 

[2] JFK AS SENATOR 1958 CHRISTMAS CARD.

[3] https://trendswide.com/jfks-secret-mistress-breaks-her-silence-after-more-than-60-years-2/

[4] JFK’s secret mistress breaks her silence after more than 60 years

[5] JFK’s alleged student lover Diana de Vegh shares her story – News Logics