Transcripts For CSPAN3 Remembering President Kennedy 2016041

CSPAN3 Remembering President Kennedy April 10, 2016

A milestone by meeting at the historic Decatur House in washington, d c, to recount their white house experiences. Bys program was hosted bottoms, and International Auction trust. It is about one hour. This is an event that has been birthed from a number of sources. It really all started for us with the collection you see against the back wall, the care and archive, which is one of documents and ephemera related to history. The collector who put it together with focused on finding documents and printed matter that bring you as close as you can to the contemporary events described and i encourage you all to have a look at these incredible documents spanning the papal from ambassador from the congo in 1608 who died two days after arriving in rome to the first printing of the u. S. Constitution and so forth. It is an opportunity to get close through history through interaction with documents and i think what is exciting about this evening is we not only have documentation but we have living witnesses to history as well to deepen our understanding of these events. From the archive, we decided to expand the event from the exhibition following my introduction to a woman who i met on the antiques roadshow and was a member of the Kennedy Administration. She was on her way here this evening and was instrumental in organizing this event by introducing me to jean, nancy and the other panelists am but unfortunately got stuck in denver in the snowstorm and was unable to join us. Part of her collection is on display in the corner which she has gentleness for generously ,ent to us to display and serendipitously, by chance, i came back to washington and happened to meet mary gallagher, who contacted me and we will hear more about her story in a minute, but she had an incredible collection she has shared with me and has been kind enough to share some of her treasures as well. That, i meto preston bruce. His father was the second longestserving member of the white house staff in the 20th century. He was the chief norman from the eisenhower to the ford administration. He has also generously offered to bring some of his collection to show here. Have a look at the collections and learn about their stories apart from the presentation. Kathy who has worked in the white house and his friends with all of these individuals here. We had a wonderful luncheon here to meet everybody and share some of the stories of their days in the Kennedy Administration and we thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to partner with this exhibition by sharing some of their recollections. Were iners of the panel the Kennedy Administration in one way or another and i have asked my great friend, eric motley, and a manuscript man like myself who understands the value of documents at eyewitness history to moderate the panel. I will pass along to you and i look forward to hearing your comments and discussions. [applause] know, i just so you was not in the Kennedy Administration. He got his bruce doctorate degree and i think remarkable. E his father was in the white house from eisenhower until ford and theres a wonderful anecdote that perhaps we will get later where eisenhower intervened and helped him realize his aspirations. President having a head team to recruit you, dr. Bruce. Very happy to have you. [applause] great process of the landmark biography on kennedy called kennedy, he made these comments, which i think are quite fitting to start with. Cannot single out any one day as the time when i began to understand john kennedy as a human being. Gradually, i discovered the come the complexity of this mans taste and meaner, while genius and genuine, and the set of as well as disarming. I also learned that this cool, analytical mind was stimulated by a warm and compassionate heart. The more one new john kennedy, the more one liked him. Those of us who came to know him well, though we rarely heard him discuss his personal feelings, came to know the strength and warmth of this dedicated man and his logic as he himself said about robert frost, his sense of the human tragedy fortified him against selfdeception and easy consolation. This evening, we are extremely fortunate to be with six exceptional ladies and men. Six individuals whose lives intersected with president kennedy and mrs. Kennedy, who were in the Kennedy Administration, who have unbelievable stories. Just two weeks ago, we had lunch together and i assure you this is a most entertaining group. We would have stories all night, but we only have one hour. I hope in our fellowship afterwards, we might be able to continue some of these stories and conversations about when they all worked in the Kennedy Administration. I would like to share two observations. One was there was a brightness on the face of these individuals. A pure gaiety, excitement and recollection of those wonderful years. The second observation i made is everyone spoke his concern and care about the individual, stepping outside his senate office, talking to his secretary and making the assumption or claim that they knew everything, absolutely everything. All the sudden, they started to realize maybe we do know everything. They did know everything. A sense of incursion in their own growth and he tracked them and kept in touch with their kids and the dog stayed at some of the homes of these individuals. This is how we are going to proceed. I will ask each of you one or two questions and then i would like to go back to the panel and ask you a question. Is there one memory or recollection you have from those years you will forever hold onto . Then we will open the floor to q a. Sound like a good plan . Senator, our soldiers home and was, senator Harris Wofford jfks special assistant for civil rights and helped to found the peace corps. He later served in the United States senate and as a University President at bryn mawr. Tell us how instrumental you were in introducing Martin Luther king to jfk. Martin luther king was skeptical about kennedy. Been impressed with nixon when they met in africa, so it was not an easy thing for kennedy to win him over. The moment i realized the gift kennedy had that he enjoyed displaying and that counted a lot with his smile and Martin Luther king liked his smile. Et me tell you one reason why the question on the First Television debate was what do you think of the questionable language president truman used about his adversary . The smile was beginning but cantsaying if mr. Truman control his language, im not going to try. Answeringn started and a long pious answer about his heart was broken he went on and on about how the mothers of america are in terror because of this terrible language and throughout this whole spiel from nixon, they kept showing kennedy with a careful smile and i thought afterwards as well as on the spot that he lost by 120,000 votes. Moment was worth a hundred thousand votes. I have two or three other moments i think you might smile if you gave you get back to me, i will give you my revolutionary position here it is not the tangible artifacts we can see and touch, but something as in tangible as a real and good smile. You were with president kennedy at the founding of the peace corps. Can you tell us how that was inspired . Late at theas very university of michigan where hes going to spend the night after a Television Debate with nexen stop it was approaching 2 a. M. And they got there with no plan for a talk and he looked at the 10,000 people who are estimated, mostly students and faculty and he winged it. He had strong feelings coming back from Southeast Asia about how american diplomacy needed to be very different and started giving a sense of it and i asked several questions such as would you be willing to give 3, 4, 5 years of your life serving in ghana . He asked for five of those questions and got a big roar each time, but there was no press and he went to bed and the students went to work and the only thing that Sargent Shriver who built the peace corps for kennedy and others helping him new came from one of our civil rights agents in michigan and called to say her daughter had heard kennedy and they are all excited and formed a committee and they are taking a stroll around and had almost 1000 ifdents saying we will go you give us a way and they called me because they wanted to find a way to get their scroll to the candidate. Fredwas a quick taunt to sutton, whoever arranged it said it was when this phone call came midwestwere touring the , when it came, kennedy said this idea is catching hold. Lets make a major proposal of it and he did. In san francisco. That was the beginning of the peace corps. Of most smile i remember kennedy in the peace corps is as i was leaving the white house to go to the peace corps representative in africa directing a program, he had sworn in on the white house lawn 600 peace corps volunteers in the first wave going to africa or anywhere else. Back, having given very appropriate remarks, he looked at me with his smile and doubts aboutd his the peace corps often and on but thats another story. Thinking ofnger things that were dubious for him. He was thinking of what in two years they had done and here was thiser group and he said will be really serious when it is 100,000 peace corps volunteers a year. That would mean a million in a decade with firsthand experience in asia thenfrica in asia and said , we will have a constituency for a good foreign policy. That came with a big smile. Thank you for the role you played. [applause] lewis at my left. I have to let you know that right before we actually met at lunch, one of your colleagues said that is jean lewis. Shes 97 years old and drives a convertible. Then i later discovered we have something in common. We are both from alabama. She came to the senate in 1950 1958 in sorens old office and work for larry obrien who went to the emc. The dnc. He was also associated with the watergate reagans. You worked in that office for a long time and all the interesting people would come and go. Descriptionysical of what the office was like and what you experienced on a daytoday basis. In 1958, ieported had already heard about what a glamorous person senator kennedy was. I was really looking forward to getting into the office, looking around and being part of this operation. Colleagues, the girls would look like models. I expected a very glamorous setting. Surprise, here was this office with about seven desks lined up into rows. My desk was at the back of the Office Facing the wall. My colleagues were nicelooking women, but they were not model types. The office was a mess. It was piled high with books and , i foundd later on onion skin copies of profiles in courage all stacked up on a chair. Getof the things i did was the files off the chair. We had many visitors. Many of them were nuns that would come in. We had a stream of visitors all the time. Would be Vice President nixon whose office was across the hall. One day someone came in very charming and shook our hands will stop when he left, i said he was that. It was hubert humphrey. We never knew who is going to come in one day or the next. Sorensons office, this was a time when kennedy was running for reelection in massachusetts. Lotas out of the office a and ted sorensen was with him. I decided it was good to have the to have to clean up tents office. Overdue and i gathered them up and sent them back to the library of congress in the first thing he did was to er them all back and stop order them all back. Did you have any interaction with senator kennedy at the time when you are working with obrien . Obrien came on the scene later. Massachusettsn when i worked for ted sorensen. He was writing speeches and i was typing speeches. From allwas coming in over the country as well as massachusetts, so my job was to answer all the mail from side massachusetts and you can imagine there was a tremendous quantity of mail. I would see kennedy from time to time and my desk was about 10 feet from his office door. Lotas out of town quite a that all. Thank you so much. [applause] you make alabama proud. , you have theher microphone with you. Mrs. Gallagher was the chief personal secretary to Jackie Kennedy. We have some wonderful stories we will share. For senatorwork kennedy when he was in congress, correct . Ready for was first the Senate Election in massachusetts as a congressman. Tell us how you came into the life of mrs. Kennedy and took on that role. Its a wonderful story because it engaged me to be able to remain in the service of the then senator kennedy when i was forced to leave after three and a half years into the tenure with him in the senate because i had a child due to be born and if i stayed another day longer in the senate , my associates would be having a nervous fit. About two weeks before the birth of my first son, the senator stop my my desk and asked how i was feeling. I was sitting at the typewriter instead i feel just great. He said then you will be around a while longer. If you consider two weeks and my longer two weeks a while longer. He said you felt fine. I said first things first. Fourthere, my son was born days after that an hes standing in the back of the room. There he is in the back of the room. That was 60 years ago. And there is risk. Now we know how old you are. Than a year and nine days later, son number two, gregory. I left the senate office, only because of the fact i was forced into it and had the great pleasure of having this new , ison in a happy life that i had that urge to serve the senator and they would call me at home every day. He kept asking if mary was able to come back to work. Long story short, three months later, when they knew i could not do full time in the senate, i had a call from the senators motherinlaw, mrs. Kennedys mother who called and said jack suggested she call me and she was calling because she needed a secretary to go to her estate and wanted to know if i had the time. I said if i could get a chris, ir to sit with would be happy to. After i did three or four months with her, mrs. Kennedy called from georgetown and said i understand you are going todays week. Will you alternate the other two days and come to georgetown . Suddenly, even though i couldnt work fulltime in the senate any part timewas on a basis with mother and daughter. For the years of 57, 58, 59 atil 1960, now it became matter of having to be with mrs. Kennedy in georgetown, all day, every day, 24 7. I just thought i would be so happy when this year is over because after that, i had every intention of resuming my domestic life motherhood, caring for my husband and all of that. Palm beach florida on a trip with jackie before the inauguration. Three days before we were ready to leave is when they wanted to send out the announcement of this secretaries mrs. Kennedy was taking to the white house. Prior to that, i heard nothing about being asked to go to the white house. Firm belief that when this year is over, i will go back and look. In press secretary, i was palm beach at the time and he came from one of the president s bedroom to mrs. Kennedy and she was dictating to me at the typewriter. He said the president wants a press release to go out and she sat up and he said i know you have your social secretary and then, he said im sitting there, how about mary . Without even asking me, she walks over and said yes, mary has to come to the white house. I looked overed, and said are you to buy any chance discussing this mary . [laughter] she came over and said yes, you must. I said this is the first im hearing about it, i dont think i can do it. I tried for the next 20 minutes to convince her it would not work because it would not be a parttime job. Supposedly, i started with her parttime and i was hoping that this isnt the end, having done this campaign and i fulfilled my obligation. Need you again. We wont be working every day. Haveim away, you can those days off and go back to parttime like georgetown. Understandlet her that it would be more like to secretaries fulltime. Eric said we only have an hour here. I have one more question for you. Can i give you one more question . [laughter] i have already talked about five minutes. I tried to the ground work there so you can understand it was 12 years later that i was seated i was leaving the service of jacqueline kennedy. Cards, i wrotemy a book in 1969. Youeverything i can tell this evening and enjoy talking to you about it, pick up a copy of my life with jacqueline jacquelineap kennedy. [laughter] [applause] parttimeas nothing about your commitment to mrs. Kennedy. But she relies on you so much, all the way to the end and im hesitant to ask you this its a rich part of this narrative of your life. You were with her that day in dallas. Could you give us a bit about what that was like . I will try to be as brief as i can because thats one memory that when it comes back always brings chills to my arms and shoulders and all over. But i remember it like yesterday. It was 53 years ago could it really be that much . It is. Where i think i can only talk about how difficult it was to have an right there, but im glad i was because for mrs. Kennedys sake, i could embrace her when we got into the plane and we were ready to leave. Butnt go into the details it was one of the saddest experiences i have ever been through. When i look back on it now and try to recall it, it is almost too much to do. Im almost speechless. Where do we go from here . It is difficult. [applause] say i go into detail in the book. The memory that comes back to my bus andbeing on the vip the president s car and motorcade, seeing this policeman climbing the grassy knoll with his run drawn and that is when i knew something serious happened and i said to the president s secretary, something awful, terrible has happened. Look at the policeman climbing the grassy knoll. We went to the luncheon that was scheduled and it was just utter chaos with everyone screaming about the president being shot. From there, i talk about going to Parkland Hospital and the next few hours, however long it took to go back to washington. It is a very sad note and i would rather think about the happy times when his kennedy visited our house. Mrs. Kennedy and the children visited the day before she left for her big trip to india because she needed a day to get away and caroline wanted to visit tom kitten. This was part of the relationship i had that i enjoyed. It was like family. After we soon got into the white house, mrs. Kennedy asked if i would have tom kitten board at board at the house. I was not aware of

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