AMERICAN HISTORY

Kerry Uses JFK Cane for Support in Asia

Third time he’s used it.

Secretary of State John Kerry, who is nursing a broken leg, is relying on a silver-tipped cane that once belonged to former President John F. Kennedy. Kerry arrived Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he attended the Southeast Asian regional security forum and urged China to end land reclamation in the South China Sea and to work on peaceful resolutions in territorial disputes. Kerry noted his famed cane at the start of a meeting, explaining that Joseph B. Kennedy first used it while serving as an ambassador to the U.K. during World War II. His son John F. Kennedy later used it after sustaining back injuries in the war, and seven months after the president’s assassination in 1963, his brother Sen. Ted Kennedy relied on it after suffering a broken back in a plane crash. Kerry has used the cane twice before, adding, “Three times is lucky, right?”