July 19, 1999
Web posted at: 10:24 p.m. EDT (0224 GMT)

In this story: The little boy saluting Jackie gets the credit 'He could have been president' RELATED STORIES, SITES

(CNN) -- John F. Kennedy Jr. was born into public life, and despite the best efforts of his mother, the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, he was constantly written about.

"Every moment of his life was exceedingly well chronicled," says Harrison Rainie, author of "Growing Up Kennedy."

Rainie said Kennedy didn't seem to mind the attention.

"If someone had a camera with them they would try to take a picture of him and try and sell it to someone, yet he was very at ease with that; he didn't seem to mind it terribly much."

The little boy saluting

Presidential historian Michael Beschloss said the one photograph of JFK Jr. that captured the hearts of many Americans is the photo of the 3-year-old saluting his fallen father.

"To people who remember JFK's assassination, JFK Jr. will probably always be that boy saluting his father's coffin," Beschloss said.

But Beschloss said media exposure made the adult John F. Kennedy Jr. familiar to younger Americans as well.

"To kids of the 90's -- they probably remember him more of something of a tabloid celebrity," Beschloss said. "So the result is you've got two generations thinking a lot about him, but probably for very different reasons.

"Given the experiences he had, for him to reach adulthood and be pretty well adjusted and be thought of almost universally as a pretty nice and graceful guy, that is not a bad accomplishment," Beschloss said.

Jackie gets the credit

"I think a lot of that was due to the fact that (she) raised him to be self-assured and independent and also to have a good and very sophisticated sense of the world," Raine said.

Despite the fact that the Kennedys are powerful, famous and rich, Rainie thinks part of the public's outpouring of support is because the Kennedys have suffered so many losses.

"I think one of the reasons Americans are so much in mourning today is that this family has taken so many blows," Rainie said.

Wendy Leigh, author of "Prince Charming: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story," believes the plane crash is a tremendous American tragedy.

"It means, really, the same thing for Americans (that) the death of Princess Diana meant for English people," Leigh said.

Kennedy's plane crash led some to speculate that he took a fateful risk by taking his wife Caroline Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette up in a small plane on a hazy night. Kennedy had a pilot's license, but was not trained to use instruments to fly in low visibility.

Leigh said she did not think of Kennedy as a daredevil, but acknowledged he took part in some high-risk sports.

"But really no more than any other young man who has money and the toys that money brings," Leigh said.

'He could have been president'

"He was very full of integrity," she said. "He did a great deal of public service and he was a wonderful human being."

Michael Beschloss speculated that the younger Kennedy could have followed have his father into politics.

"...He might well have gone into politics," Beschloss said. "He felt he had the luxury of time."

And Leigh said there was no doubt Kennedy would have been a successful politician.

"He would have been elected president of America tomorrow because the American people revered him -- not just his name, not just his legacy, but John the man himself."