A review by judyward
Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy [With 8 CD's] by

4.0

In January 1964, Jacqueline Kennedy and Robert Kennedy approved an oral history project which would preserve memories of the assassinated President and his administration for the Kennedy Library. As part of that project, Jacqueline Kennedy recorded eight and a half hours of conversations with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. during the first six months of 1964 about her life with John K. Kennedy. Obviously, she was interested in presenting a particular view of John F. Kennedy and their life together and her intention was also that the tapes would not be made public for a hundred years. Caroline Kennedy and her children decided to release the tapes early bcause of their historic significance. While discussing Kennedy's opinions of world leaders, political events, politics, and his family, friends and advisers, these tapes also are an interesting insight into Jacqueline Kennedy herself. I was surprised by how much she seemed to admire Joseph P. Kennedy and how dismissive she was of Rose Kennedy. And her opinions of Charles de Gaulle and the French were interesting since she was so closely identified with French fashion and culture. And, in light of what we now know about John Kennedy's marital infidelities, her dislike of Martin Luther King because of the charges of womanizing are totally understandable. I listened to these tapes and, no doubt, I found them even more interesting because I can clearly remember the Kennedy administration and the horror of those days in November 1963.