Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story (46 page)

“Do you want…”: Jacqueline Kennedy, Warren Commission testimony.

the efforts of Vietnam veterans: See Judith Herman,
Trauma and Recovery
(New York: Basic Books, 1997); and Wilbur J. Scott,
Vietnam Veterans Since the War: The Politics of PTSD, Agent Orange, and the National Memorial
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004).

Symptoms of PTSD include: National Center for PTSD, United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

People who have witnessed: See Hoge,
Once a Warrior
.

the acknowledgement of humankind’s existential vulnerability: See van der Kolk, McFarlane, and van der Hart, “General Approach to Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder” in Van der Kolk, McFarlane, and Weisaeth, eds.,
Traumatic Stress
.

174

“I think we gotta…”: Michael R. Beschloss, ed.,
Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963–1964
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997).

“the Bobby problem”: Jeff Shesol,
Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade
(New York: Norton, 1997).

“I don’t want…”: Kenneth P. O’Donnell and David F. Powers,
Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye: Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy
(New York: Little, Brown, 1970).

“I’m so scared…”: Lyndon Johnson conversation with Jacqueline Kennedy, January 9, 1964, Miller Center, University of Virginia.

“a little better”: Jacqueline Kennedy to Harold Macmillan, June 1, 1964, Bodleian Library, Oxford University.

“I was trying…”: Jacqueline Kennedy, Warren Commission testimony.

to attempt to start a new life: Jacqueline Kennedy to Margaret McNamara, July 21, 1964, Sotheby’s.

a recluse: Ibid.

pitched her unsuccessfully: Stanley Tretick to Jacqueline Kennedy, May 21, 1964, Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University.

“My feeling…”: Stanley Tretick to Jacqueline Kennedy, July 12, 1964, Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University.

“When did he…”: Jean Kennedy Smith quoted in Robert Caro,
The Passage of Power
(New York: Knopf, 2012).

“getting Bobby over the hump”: Ethel Kennedy to Marie Harriman, August 1964, Library of Congress.

“It seemed to me…”: Charles Spalding, interview, John F. Kennedy Library.

“I am a living…”:
Look
magazine, November 17, 1964.

“He’s got the…”: Beschloss,
Taking Charge.

“There have been…”: Ibid.

“a turning point”: Ethel Kennedy to Marie Harriman, August 1964, Library of Congress.

“I just want…”: Beschloss,
Taking Charge
.

“Mr. President…”: Johnson conversation with Edward Kennedy, August 13, 1964, Miller Center, University of Virginia.

“I want to…”: Ibid.

ought never to have: Jacqueline Kennedy to Joseph Alsop, August 31, 1964, Library of Congress.

“opened the floodgates”: Ibid.

seemed only to proliferate: on the proliferation of traumatic triggers see Babette Rothschild,
The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment
(New York: Norton, 2000).

“just the reverse”: Jacqueline Kennedy to Joseph Alsop, August 31, 1964, Library of Congress.

“miserable self”: Ibid.

“You have never…”: Joseph Alsop to Jacqueline Kennedy, September 9, 1964, Library of Congress.

“to walk around the city…”: Jacqueline Kennedy to C. Douglas Dillon, September 11, 1964, John F. Kennedy Library.

read nothing: Jacqueline Kennedy to Joseph Alsop, November 24, 1964, Library of Congress.

“The idea of it…”: Jacqueline Kennedy to Jim Bishop, September 17, 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson Library.

“This whole year…”: Ibid.

“would be just…”: Ibid.

“This morning…”: Jim Bishop to Jacqueline Kennedy, September 28, 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson Library.

“I picked them up…”: Dorothy Schiff’s notes quoted in Jeffrey Potter,
Men, Money & Magic: The Story of Dorothy Schiff
(New York: Coward, McCann, 1976).

“It was terrible…”: Ibid.

“They’re for him…”: Evan Thomas,
Robert Kennedy: His Life
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000).

“People tell me…”: Dorothy Schiff’s notes quoted in Potter,
Men, Money & Magic
.

“when you get…”: Alexander Stockton, author interview.

“circle of people…”: McGeorge Bundy, interview, John F. Kennedy Library.

“to put…”: Jacqueline Kennedy to Harold Macmillan, May 17, 1965, Bodleian Library, Oxford University.

went to bed with him: Edward Klein,
Just Jackie
(New York: Ballantine, 1998).

feared they were overly emotional: Jacqueline Kennedy to Joseph Alsop: November 30, 1964, Library of Congress.

Ten

“I just heard…”: Lyndon Johnson conversation with Jacqueline Kennedy, March 25, 1965, Miller Center, University of Virginia.

whom Alsop had recently: Joseph Alsop to Jacqueline Kennedy, February 26, 1965, Library of Congress.

“I did not know…”: Jacqueline Kennedy to Lyndon Johnson, March 28, 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson Library.

“snow in May”:
Daily Telegraph
(London), May 15, 1965.

biased vision: on the PTSD sufferer’s biased perception, see Bessel A. van der Kolk and Alexander C. McFarlane, “The Black Hole of Trauma” in Bessel A. van der Kolk, Alexander C. McFarlane, and Lars Weisaeth, eds.,
Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society
(New York: Guilford Press, 1996).

“a very low mood:” Stanley Tretick quoted in Kitty Kelley,
Capturing Camelot: Stanley Tretick’s Iconic Images of the Kennedys
(New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2012).

“a proper talk”: Harold Macmillan to Jacqueline Kennedy, June 6, 1965, Bodleian Library, Oxford University.

a new long letter: Jacqueline Kennedy to Harold Macmillan, May 17, 1965, Bodleian Library, Oxford University.

“Have you ever…”: Michael Beschloss, ed.,
Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson’s Secret White House Tapes, 1964–1965
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001).

“gave the most…”: Jacqueline Kennedy to Margaret McNamara, December 11, 1963, Sotheby’s.

She regarded him: Jacqueline Kennedy to Joseph Alsop, September 8, 1968, Library of Congress.

shining knight: Jacqueline Kennedy to Robert McNamara, February 24, 1993, Sotheby’s.

in her dark times: Jacqueline Kennedy to Robert McNamara, March 7, 1967, Sotheby’s.

read to Jackie Henrik Ibsen’s
The Master Builder
: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to Robert McNamara, March 6, 1969, Sotheby’s.

“I’m planning…”: Beschloss,
Reaching for Glory
.

watercolor: Jacqueline Kennedy to Robert McNamara, Summer 1965, Sotheby’s.

“I reacted…”: Robert S. McNamara,
In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam
(New York: Times Books, 1995).

well-founded objection: Jacqueline Kennedy, “Comments (to Arthur Schlesinger),” n.d., John F. Kennedy Library.

substitute: Theodore Sorensen,
Kennedy
(New York, Harper & Row, 1965).

“point after point”:
Look
magazine, April 4, 1967.

softened:
New York Times
, October 5, 1965.

Schlesinger maintained: Arthur Schlesinger to Jacqueline Kennedy, August 10, 1965, John F. Kennedy Library.

practically to cut: Arthur Schlesinger to Robert Kennedy, September 4, 1965, John F. Kennedy Library.

“mindless existence”: Jacqueline Kennedy to Harold Macmillan, September 14, 1965, Bodleian Library, Oxford University.

“When winter starts…”: Ibid.

Eleven

“fully emerged from…”: William Manchester,
Controversy
(Little, Brown, 1976).

“It’s really mostly…”: Frank Mankiewicz, interview, John F. Kennedy Library.

There had been every reason: Edwin Guthman, author interview.

“both possible and…”: Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,
Journals, 1952–2000
(New York: Penguin, 2007).

“I would appreciate it…”: John Corry,
The Manchester Affair
(New York: Putnam, 1967).

“flickers”: William Manchester,
Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War
(New York: Dell, 1982).

“When I awoke…”: Corry,
Manchester Affair
.

“Do you think…”: Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,
Robert Kennedy and His Times
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978).

“He sort of…”: Corry,
Manchester Affair
.

“a little boy who…”: Ibid.

“disaster”: Jacqueline Kennedy to Robert McNamara, September 14, 1966, Sotheby’s.

“peaceful and optimistic”: Ibid.

“more complex than…”: Jacqueline Kennedy to Robert McNamara, March 7, 1967, Sotheby’s.

RFK and Schlesinger found it puzzling: Schlesinger,
Journals
.

“television’s war”: Michael J. Arlen,
Living-Room War
(New York: Viking, 1969).

“so overwhelmed…”: Robert McNamara,
In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam
.

“do something to…” Ibid.

“Whether her emotions…”: Ibid.

echoes the powerlessness: See Alexander C. McFarlane, “Resilience, Vulnerability, and the Course of Posttraumatic Reactions” in Bessel A. van der Kolk, Alexander McFarlane, and Lars Weisaeth, eds.,
Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society
(New York: Guilford Press, 1996); and Babette Rothschild,
Trauma Essentials
(New York: Norton, 2011).

hit her across the face:
Beaton in the Sixties: More Unexpurgated Diaries
(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003).

“The only thing…”: Manchester,
Controversy
.

“Yes, it is a terrible…”: Frank Mankiewicz, interview, John F. Kennedy Library.

“my crazy sister-in-law”: Evan Thomas,
Robert Kennedy: His Life
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000).

“Lady Bird and I…”: Lyndon Johnson to Jacqueline Kennedy, December 16, 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson Library.

advised against it: Lyndon Johnson conversation with Abe Fortas, December 1966, Miller Center, University of Virginia.

objected to all that remained: Jacqueline Kennedy to Lyndon Johnson, December 21, 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson Library.

“I am sick at…”: Ibid.

“I am so dazed…”: Ibid.

Twelve

“This may be…”: North American Newspaper Alliance press release, “Playing Queen Too Long?,” Lyndon B. Johnson Library.

“to prolong the nation’s trauma”: Vera Glaser, “Uneasy Rests the Crown of JFK’s Jackie,”
The Cincinnati Enquirer
, December 22, 1966.

“a girl who…”: Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,
Robert Kennedy and His Times
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978).

9/11 New York City firefighters: on the heroizing and subsequent stigmatizing of the firefighters, see Elizabeth Goren, “Society’s Use of the Hero Following a National Trauma” in
The American Journal of Psychoanalysis
67 (2007).

rejection of the sufferer: See Judith Herman,
Trauma and Recovery
(New York: Basic Books, 1997); and Alexander C. McFarlane and Bessel A. van der Kolk, “Trauma and Its Challenge to Society” in Bessel A. van der Kolk, Alexander C. McFarlane, and Lars Weisaeth, eds., in
Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society
(New York: Guilford Press, 1996).

“Mrs. Kennedy ‘Irked,’”
New York Times
, December 29, 1966.

“tasteless, undignified…” Liz Smith, “Jackie Comes off Her Pedestal,”
World Journal Tribune
, January 8, 1967.

“nothing in her new life…”:
Look
magazine, April 4, 1967.

“She must be seen…”:
New York Times
, January 23, 1967.

“held us all together…”:
Look
magazine, April 4, 1967.

“redemption”: Ibid.

“So far as…”: Ibid.

“catharsis”: Ibid.

“ghastly futility”: Ibid.

“God, it just murders…”: Jeff Shesol,
Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade
(New York: Norton, 1997).

“for their own misguided…”: Jacqueline Kennedy to Robert McNamara, March 7, 1967, Sotheby’s.

brought Jackie to tears: Ibid.

“When has one man ever made…”: Ibid.

“With all the grinding…”: Ibid.

“I know how much…”: Ibid.

“I feel so close…”: Ibid.

“You are the Master Builder”: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to Robert McNamara, March 6, 1969, Sotheby’s.

a frenzy of anticipation: Jacqueline Kennedy to Margaret McNamara, June 1, 1967, Sotheby’s.

“a kind of trance”: Ibid.

became all the more intense: Ibid.

held her breath: Ibid.

“I have reached…”: Rita Dallas,
The Kennedy Case
(New York: Putnam, 1973).

“They were like…”: Jane Ormsby-Gore, author interview.

absence of feelings: On the phenomenon of numbing, see Bessel A. van der Kolk and Alexander C. McFarlane, “The Black Hole of Trauma” in van der Kolk, McFarlane, and Weisaeth, eds.,
Traumatic Stress;
and Herman,
Trauma and Recovery
.

“interested in things…”: Jacqueline Kennedy to Harold Macmillan, January 19, 1968, Bodleian Library, Oxford University.

liken him to Harry Lime: Jacqueline Kennedy to Robert McNamara, October 22, 1967, Sotheby’s.

flirtatiously lamenting: Jacqueline Kennedy to Robert McNamara, October 27, 1967, Sotheby’s.

She told McNamara: Ibid.

“He’s a fine man…”: Deborah Shapley,
Promise and Power: The Life and Times of Robert McNamara
(New York: Little, Brown, 1993).

“hanging on by…”: Ibid.

Man of La Mancha:
Jacqueline Kennedy to Robert McNamara, October 22, 1967, Sotheby’s.

“anything so brave”: Ibid.

“with a hell of a blast…”: Shapely,
Promise and Power
.