Jackie Kennedy’s thoughts revealed in previously unreleased interviews
Confidences of JFK’s wife were made public Tuesday.
The iconic first lady had given many hours of interviews to a historian, a year after the assassination of her husband in 1963.
Less than four months after the death of her husband John F. Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, had agreed to a sit-down with historian and former White House aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr. as part of an project dedicated to the life of the U.S. President assassinated in Dallas.
As Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy-era administration, her family has decided to release the interviews, which are titled Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy.
In the interviews, the former first lady reveals that she pleaded with her husband not to send her to safety during the Cuban Missile Crisis that began in 1962.
She said she told him: “If anything happens, we’re all going to stay right here with you. I just want to be with you, and I want to die with you, and the children do, too – than live without you.”
The interviews show Jackie criticizing her sister-in-law Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
“Eunice was pestering Jack to death to make Sargent head of HEW because she wanted to be a cabinet wife. You know, it shows you some people are ambitious for themselves and Bobby wasn’t.”
Mrs Kennedy also discussed French president Charles de Gaulle, calling him “egomaniac” and a “spiteful man”.
As for Indira Gandhi, the future prime minister of India , Jackie found her “prune – bitter, kind of pushy, horrible woman.”
In addition, the former first lady reveals to Schlesinger that her husband felt his legacy would be secured if he was assassinated after his Cuban missile crisis success of 1962.
“If anyone’s going to kill me, it should happen now,” Jackie quoted him as saying.
