The Kennedy presidency has been wrapped in a mythology of youth, glamour, and unfulfilled promise for over six decades. But behind the Camelot image lay a far more complicated reality — a president managing secret health crises, Cold War nuclear brinkmanship, and a private life that would have destroyed his political career if exposed.

This episode separates the Kennedy myth from the Kennedy record, examining the Cuban Missile Crisis, the early stages of Vietnam, the cautious approach to civil rights, and the personal contradictions of a president whose legend was shaped more by his death than by his thousand days in office.

• Kennedy's hidden health problems and the medications that shaped his presidency
• The Cuban Missile Crisis and how close the world came to nuclear war
• JFK's complicated record on civil rights an ...