JACQUELINE KENNEDY, HISTORIC CONVERSATIONS, FIFTH CONVERSATION VII
Knoxville, Tennessee (JFK+50) Today JFK+50 continues our report on the fifth conversation from "Jacqueline Kennedy, Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy", published by Hyperion.
The fifth conversation was recorded on March 24, 1964.
Jacqueline Kennedy talks about the relationship between JFK & Prime Minister Harold Macmillan of Great Britain.
She says:
"That was a very rare & touching relationship between (them).
They really loved each other.
(Macmillan) wrote Jack (a letter) by hand the summer after Patrick, when he was just through the Profumo thing.
Jack went out of his way to send him (a) telegram when he resigned.... (about) all he'd done for the West.
He loved Macmillan."
Mrs. Kennedy continues....
"Macmillan had a way of looking like sort of a joke. Just his face had that sort of suppressed mirth & his funny clothes & things, but, oh no, he was a--
Arthur Schlesinger interrupts...
"He was a sharp old customer."
Jacqueline Kennedy agrees.
Schlesinger asks what JFK & the Prime Minister would talk about beside politics.
Mrs. Kennedy responds...
"Well, they would be so irreverent & funny. One thing was...people say the younger generation have lost all hope living with this nuclear something.
Look at them, they're perfectly fine, they're twisting.
They'd amuse each other so. Jack had this high sense of mischief & so did Macmillan, so I've never seen two people enjoy each other so.
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan
www.thecommonwealth.org
Mr. Schlesinger asks about when JFK visited London in 1938-39.
Jacqueline Kennedy says:
"I always thought it was really British history that he patterned himself on more than ours. He really gave himself a classical education through his own reading."
Arthur Schlesinger asks about the time JFK & she met Winston Churchill in Monte Carlo.
Mrs. Kennedy responds:
"It was 1958, I guess. Jack had always wanted to meet Churchill. Well, the poor man was really quite ga-ga then....& he really didn't know which one Jack was.
Then Jack sat down with him & talked. But it was hard going. I don't think he'd met him before. But, of course, you know, he'd read everything he (had written)."
Statue of Sir Winston Churchill
Parliament Square
London
Photo by Ziko (2004)
