Jackie Kennedy’s interviews to be released on September 13.
Jacqueline Kennedy’s interviews. About Martin Luther King, Charles de Gaulle, Indira Ghandi and more.
“Jacqueline Kennedy: In Her Own Words” on ABC News tonight.
JFK assassination: mystery unveiled? Jackie Kennedy Onassis secret recordings released this fall.
The former First Lady, Jackie Kennedy talked about her disgust towards Martin Luther King after claimed he tried to arrange a sex party while in Washington for a march.
In the interviews that will be released in series starting with September 13, Jackie Kennedy also talks about how she could barely look at images of the iconic leader after he apparently also made derogatory remarks at JFK’s funeral.
Jacqueline Kennedy’s relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King became strained as a result of wire taps arranged by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
Those taps allegedly caught Dr. King Jr. trying to arrange a sex party in Washington, although this has been dismissed by some material concocted by Hoover to damage Martin Luther King.
Nonetheless, Jackie Kennedy branded Martin Luther King “tricky” and a “phoney” after hearing of the FBI recordings.
In the first interview that interviews to be broadcast on September 13, the former First Lady said:
“I just can’t see a picture of Martin Luther King without thinking, you know, that man’s terrible.”
Jackie Kennedy branded Luther King "tricky" and a "phoney" after hearing of the FBI recordings
Jackie Kennedy said Martin Luther King had mocked her husband’s funeral and Cardinal Richard Cushing, who celebrated Mass at the funeral.
“He made fun of Cardinal Cushing and said that he was drunk at it,” Mrs. Kennedy said.
“And things about they almost dropped the coffin.”
The Jackie Kennedy secret interviews also reveal that JFK saw U.S. participation in Vietnam as “hopeless” and scorned the idea of Lyndon Johnson succeeding him in office.
In the explosive memoirs from the secret tapes, Jackie Kennedy reveals that JFK was highly skeptical about victory in Vietnam.
The secret recordings will be revealed this month on the 50th anniversary of JFK’s first year in office, also describe how former President Kennedy feared what would happen if rival Lyndon Johnson took office.
Jackie Kennedy secret recordings will be revealed this month on the 50th anniversary of JFK's first year in office
JFK chose Lyndon Johnson, a Texas senator and former political rival, as his running mate in 1960 but later fretted about a LBJ (Lyndon Baines Johnson) presidency.
Jackie Kennedy’ secret tapes were recorded starting few months after JFk’s assassination in November 1963 by historian and former JFK aide Arthur Schlesinger.
In another interview of Jackie Kennedy with Arthur Schlesinger, she said:
“Jack said it to me sometimes. He said, <<Oh, God, can you ever imagine what would happen to the country if Lyndon were president?>>”
Jacqueline Kennedy also told how JFK and his brother, then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy even discussed ways to prevent Johnson from winning the Democratic nomination in a future contest.
“He didn’t like that idea that Lyndon would go on and be president because he was worried for the country,” she said.
“Bobby told me that he’d had some discussions with him.
“I forget exactly how they were planning or who they had in mind. It wasn’t Bobby, but somebody. Do something to name someone else in ’68.”
Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the 36th U.S. president on Air Force One just two hours after JFK’s assassination.
LBJ was re-elected in his own right in 1964, but declined to run for presidency in 1968.
Jackie Kennedy also told how JFK and his brother, Robert F. Kennedy even discussed ways to prevent Johnson from winning the Democratic nomination in a future contest
The “Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy,” book includes a series of revealing interviews with the former first lady.
Jackie Kennedy said JFK was highly about victory in Vietnam, a central battleground of the Cold War and the conflict that brought down Johnson’s presidency.
She also said that President Kennedy, a Democrat, had named Henry Cabot Lodge, a Republican he had defeated for a Massachusetts Senate seat in 1952, as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam because JFK was so doubtful of military success there.
“I think he probably did it… rather thinking it might be such a brilliant thing to do because Vietnam was rather hopeless anyway, and put a Republican there,” Jackie Kennedy said.
Kennedy increased the U.S. presence in Vietnam throughout his brief administration, adding military advisers to help train the South Vietnamese military.
Lyndon Johnson, while was president, escalated the war in Vietnam by later committing ground troops to the conflict despite initial promises not to. Historians still debate whether Kennedy would have done the same.
The interviews where the former first lady speaks candidly about life in the White House have been sealed in a safe until this year.
Over seven sessions with Schlesinger thought to have been recorded just months after Kennedy’s death, she recalled conversations on topics ranging from her husband’s reading habits to the botched Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba.
According to previous reports, the tapes would contain explosive content and include details of JFK’s affair with a White House intern and even theories that LBJ and a cabal of Texas tycoons were involved in JFK’s assassination.
Originally planned for one hour, the interviews will be aired during a two-hour ABC special on September 13, before being released in book form, “Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy” on September 14.
After Jackie Kennedy did the interviews, she steadfastly refused to publicly discuss any details with anyone else about that time in her life.
Jackie Kennedy had ordered that the tapes should not be released until 50 years after her death, with some reports suggesting she feared that her revelations might make her family targets for revenge.
An ABC source said last month that the tapes also revealed that she too had affairs – one with Hollywood star William Holden and another with Fiat founder Gianni Agnelli – as a result of the president’s indiscretions.
Jackie Kennedy died in 1994 from cancer aged 64 and now her daughter, Caroline Kennedy, has agreed to release the recordings early.