14. Kennedy supported the British Prime Minister’s position of appeasement
Whether Roosevelt knew of Kennedy’s attempts to arrange a meeting with Hitler at the time is unknown, but the American Ambassador to Germany, Hugh R. Wilson, was pro-Nazi and made several remarks to the American press praising Hitler. He also claimed Jewish influence in the American press was exaggerating the antisemitic activities of the Nazis, a position with to which Kennedy agreed privately. The Ambassador joined in with a group which called themselves the Cliveden Set, named for the home of Lady Nancy Astor, where they frequently met. Kennedy wrote to Lady Astor of his concern about “Jewish pundits in New York and Los Angeles”.
In May 1938, Kennedy met informally with the German Ambassador to Great Britain, Herbert von Dirksen. The talks were informal in that they had not been approved by the State Department. During the conversation, Kennedy explained that FDR’s position over the Nazis was skewed by Jewish influence, which kept the president misinformed over the true intentions of the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler. Ambassador Dirksen informed Joaquin von Ribbentrop that Kennedy was Germany’s “best friend” in London, who would continue to support appeasement policies as Hitler moved forward to seize the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.