It's difficult, perhaps, for Americans who were not around in the late 1950s and during the Kennedy presidential administration to understand or to appreciate the impact that Jacqueline Kennedy -- Jackie -- had on American society. She was a different kind of presidential wife -- younger, more cosmopolitan and, yes, more attractive than the first ladies who had preceded her. Her vivaciousness and her willingness to share certain but not all aspects of her role as president's wife set her apart. Her televised tour of the White House, for example, became a topic of national conversation and a cultural touchstone.
There was, as one might suspect, more to Jackie Kennedy than the public portrait that she allowed to evolve. In private, she could be acerbic, opinionated and, by today's standards, somewhat narrow-minded and politically incorrect. That's clearly evident in a series of interviews recorded a few months after her husband's November, 1963, assassination and made public recently in book and CD form.
The interviews are extraordinarily candid. Her comments on Martin Luther King (" ... a phony") and Adlai Stevenson (" ...I always thought women who were scared of sex loved Adlai.) are a case in point. Her comments about the role of women in politics ("we're just not suited to it" and "I get all my opinions from my husband" ) are equally telling in a different way.
The interviews also show that Jackie Kennedy was an effective behind-the-scenes political partner of her husband. The interviews make it clear that he listened to her, that he carefully considered her comments and that he was accustomed to being upstaged by her. One of his most famous quips came during a presidential visit overseas when he told the world that "I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it."
Caroline Kennedy, daughter of Jackie and John, was instrumental in the release of the interviews on the 50th anniversary -- can it be that long ago? -- of Kennedy's presidency. It was a brave thing for her to do. The interviews are not always flattering, but they do provide a fuller portrait of an essentially private woman who played a pivotal role in the political and cultural life of the United States in the mid-20th century.
The book of interviews already resides atop best seller lists, and an ABC-TV special with Caroline Kennedy discussing her mother and the interviews last week drew the network's largest non-sports audience in five years. Clearly, Americans' fascination with Jackie Kennedy and her family continues.