Why was it called the Kennedy curse?

Simply put. Highly public and visible family with historically infamous tragedies known by much of the developed world.

The curse is just a mere metaphor. An aggrandizement if you will in order to build up an artificial American mythology. To give the still relatively young country that is the United States a heftier history then its young age will allow.

Thank you Stephan.

Someone once told me, you sow so shall you reap. This family sure has had their share of scandals and tragedies.

Why is this any part of a curse? People die--and die when they are still relatively young--every day. The only distinguishing factor i see here is that those others were not once married to a Kennedy.

Agreed, looking back at my own family tree we had similar tragidities and it wasn't a curse.

i prefer Patterson's Curse

We call that Salvation Jane in my state. We are so dry here that other people's curses are our salvation....or that of our sheep when drought stricken.

Maybe the Kennedys just found salvation more quickly than others?

But, to be serious for a moment, in Jack Kennedy's generation you could almost have justified talk of a curse.

Joe Jr killed in the war in a plane crash, Kathleen killed in a plane crash, Rosemary born with a disability and lobotomized into idiocy, Jack and Bobby assassinated.

http://able2know.org/topic/74029-1