Kennedy's 'Monica'?

While it's an open secret that John F. Kennedy had extra-marital affairs while in office, a new biography indicates the 35th U.S. president might have had a sexual relationship with a college-aged intern.

Historian Robert Dallek sifted through pages of newly released documents and found out about the affair, among other things, which he divulges in "An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963."

The author visited The Early Show Wednesday to discuss his findings.

Dallek says a change in modern coverage by the media of the political culture may be a reason that a possible inappropriate relationship between Kennedy and an intern was not reported in the 1960s.

"When Kennedy had all these affairs, these trysts, the press didn't pay attention, or they knew about it, but they didn't report on it," says Dallek. "As Kennedy himself once said, 'It's not news until it appears on the front page of the New York Times.' And it wasn't going to get there."

Dallek reports the recollections of Barbara Gamarekian, a former White House aide, about the president's affair with a college student who worked in the press office for two summers despite a lack of clerical skills. She says the beautiful unpaid employee of the White House was only used for Kennedy's sexual gratification.

Dallek says he tried to locate the intern, but he was unsuccessful.

Only a small part of "An Unfinished Life" is actually devoted to the affair between the intern, only known as Mimi, and Kennedy.

The book also describes Kennedy's chronic pain and the number of prescriptions he took to battle it. Dallek had unprecedented access to Kennedy's medical records and he says he was amazed what he discovered.

"I was the first biographer to get into them. I think, 40 years later, they're more relaxed about it," says Dallek. "But there were no preconditions on my use of that material. And so when I looked and began looking at this material, my first reaction was, wow."

Dallek says he believes Kennedy could not have served as president without the medication.

"I could not fathom how someone could get through the day with the kind of difficulty and pain that this man lived with," he explains.

In the biography, Dallek writes that Kennedy was wearing a back brace the day he was assassinated, and it may have contributed to his death.

"The first bullet that found its mark passed through his neck and it would have toppled him over … it would have knocked him over if it weren't for the back brace," Dallek explains. "But it held him upright. And so the second bullet that found the back of his head killed him. So it's ironic that the brace, which was there to help his back, contributed to his death."

But Kennedy was close to death many times before his assassination. Dallek says JFK was given last rites three times before he was 40 years old.

Dallek also says Kennedy wasn't qualified medically to serve in World War II, but he used his father's connections in order to fight in the war.

"They thought he was going to go into the office of naval intelligence, which he did at first, and sit in Washington and do intelligence work," Dallek says. "But he was determined to get into combat. It was part of the culture at the time, patriotism. But he was heroic in doing that."