Welcome to cspans first ladies, influence and image. Tonight we tell you the story of Jacqueline Kennedy. We have two guests at the next table at the table to tell you more. A president ial historian and author of many books on the presidency, with a special focus on the cold war era and Kennedy Administration. Is a uva political scientist and as part of the modern first ladies serious she has written a Jacqueline Kennedy biography. I want to start, before we get into details on the white house years, with the assassination and the imagery of the assassination. Anyone who was alive at that time has those images in their mind. Subsequently, because of the power of the internet, we were talking before about the collective consciousness. People have experienced this since it happened. She was just 34 years old. Just 34 years old. From the moment at dallas, we know so much about the story. You forget he was shot into her arms. For five minutes they were there and she felt that they left the hospital to go back to washington, but they had to do something to make sure that he had the historical reputation. That he deserved but would not be there to fight for. What sense would a 34year old woman half of that experience . What did she draw from . This funeral with so many Iconic Images together in such a short time. She said when she was young woman, my ambition in life is to be the art director of the 20th century. Oddly enough, she almost turned out to be that, at least for the Kennedy Administration. And she felt one thing that would be important for his legacy, as horrible as dallas was, to wipe out the view of that and restore the american peoples dignity by having three or four days of ceremony she helped they would render rather than the tawdryness of what happened. This is not the first president ial assassination and president ial widow. But it is the first one in the television age. As a political scientist you talk about the power of television, how did this work in this case . For the funeral, she know she wanted to go back to the rites for abraham lincoln, our first assassinated president. She asked her brotherinlaw and the president s various friends and aides to find books on the link funeral, and they did. All of this played out on television. I would like to point out that when eisenhower was elected in 19 1952, 20 of american households had television sets. I 196390 to 95 had televisions. Sitting in our Family Living room on that night of november 22, 1963 and saying mrs. Kennedy walk out of air force one, behind her husbands casket. I remember my parents and older brother gasping at seeing her. We now know that what she was saying to people, Lady Bird Johnson says, let me get someone to help you change your clothes. People tono, i want see what they have done to john. Understanding the power of the imagery. We have two hours for your questions and comments and video clips and audio clips. The story of Jacqueline Kennedy. What has made the series is so interesting is the questions you ask. We would like to encourage you to take part again tonight. Tweet us,eak us you can postdate comment on our facebook page, and you can also call us. Our numbers are mountan pacific we will get to your calls in just a bit. I would like to start with a phone conversation with president johnson. I will ask you to explain about the phone conversation and why we have them before we listen. What did he do in the white house . Telephoned his conversations. With johnson, 650 hours over five years. Casesed people in most without their knowledge, including Jacqueline Kennedy. At that point she had a very Good Relationship with lbj. But she would not have been too happy to know he was having this call taped. This is the phone conversation was just 10 days after the death of her husband. This is a phone conversation with Lyndon Johnson. The first thing you got to learn, you got some things to learn. I wasnt going to send you in. Putou just come over and your arm around me, thats all you do. We havent got anything else to do, lets take a walk. Walk around the backyard. Let me tell you how much you mean to all of us, and how we can carry on. You know what i want to say about that letter . I know how rare a letter risen the president s handwriting. You know i have more of your handwriting than i do objects of jacks now, and for you to send me that thing today, the announcement and everything i want you to know i told my mother a long time ago, when everybody else gave up about my election in 1948, my mother and you havend my sisters, a lot of courage we men dont have. We have to rely and depend on you. You got something to do. You have the president relying on you, and this is not the first time. Many women running around you have the biggest job of your life. Ran around with two president s. That is what they will say with about me. Ok, anytime. Thank you for calling, mr. President. Goodbye. Do come by. I will. Relationship between lbj and president kennedy was not always the easiest relationship. But after his assassination, how did he treat the departing first family and Jackie Kennedy . Very well and mrs. Kennedy talked about how grateful she was for president johnson. Though it sometimes caught in her throat to have to say president johnson. Unlike the president s mother, who when she was called a couple hours after the assassination by air force one slipped into calling him is to president. He is very grateful to both mrs. Johnson she was very grateful to mrs. Johnson and president johnson that they were so gracious to her and let her stay in the white house until december 6. She was able to stay there with her children until she got the sense of where she was going to go. She had no home to go to. In the carnage in dallas, she lost her husband, her home and her job. She literally had no place to go until the home was opened to her in georgetown. Caroline was going to Nursery School and kindergarten. She was very grateful to the president for that. You have listened to a lot of Jacqueline Kennedy indicates project. Control ofso in herself, 10 days after the assassination and going to the funeral, help us understand her and her psyche. Often,would find that is someone who was lost a spouse or someone very close to them, during the days of the funeral and the ceremony, she said, just keep on moving right now, we can all collapse later. There were a net decisions she had to make where to live, about the president ial library, trying to make sure her children were in as normal of an environment as possible. You cannot think of anything more abnormal than, the children lost their father this way. And once she got to georgetown she did almost collapse. This was late december and the beginning of spring. She went through a terrible depression. Quite understandably. Before then, you couldnt ask for more than she did in terms of keeping the situation forever together. In the days before the trip to dallas, what was the popularity of the Kennedy Administration and mrs. Kennedy . The president had suffered because of civil rights. By 20 points. He had fallen in the southern states, so he was concerned. He was going to texas to try to connect cements the party there and raise money for the 1964 campaign. This was really the kickoff for the 1964 president ial reelection campaign. Gallup does not take regular polls about the first lady at the time. But early on, 1961, she was polling at about 59 . In2, gallup did take 1940 they started the most admired woman paul poll. She finally supplanted eleanor roosevelt, who had been number one for 12 years. Mrs. Kennedy was for five or six more years after that. She was riding high. Remember, they lost their baby patrick in august of 1963, so people felt particularly kindly toward her. There is also an irony. When john kennedy was planning his campaign in 1960, he once made an offhand remark, we will have to run jackie through subliminally. He meant that jackie had been but shen an elite way, might not be too politically helpful. And there was no one who was more astounded and delighted that she had turned out this into this vast political asset. When jfk was planning the trip to texas, john conley and the others in texas said, you have to bring mrs. Kennedy. She is so popular and you will have much bigger crowds. As indeed he did. John kennedy was much more wealthy than she. So why would the public not react to his wealth in the way he was concerned with her . He felt there are many as Many Political leaders that come from affluence to, he gave the impression that he was a guy from the navy. In 1957 she bought him a jag wire as a birthday gift. He had it returned and traded it in for review at a buick. He felt she was not someone who had much political experience. She talked in the oral history about how she felt she was a drag on him in the early days. She said, im sorry im such a drag for you. Before we get into more detail on the 1960 campaign, i would like to understand the creation of the imagery of camelot. How did that come about . Jackie kennedy asked teddy friend, writing for life magazine, to come to hyannisport and interview her. Pressers were held for this. She said, late at night, before were in the white house, we used to play the record of camelot in the player. Needless to say, the editors and life thought, this would be the big theme. They urged him to make camelot the major theme. What came out, the kennedy presidency, camelot made its debut. In the end, she may not have been doing, it may not have been something that helped. Years were all knights and great noble deeds was almost setting him up for the revisionist history in the 1970s that did happen. She must have known these would come along and she could get out in front of them with this wonderful, signing moment. One brief, shining moment. There was a dark side of camelot, but it certainly was brief. All you have to do is look at the imagery to see they were a shining couple with two beguiling, shining children. We will spend some time on the campaign that brought the kennedys to the white house. We will be visiting the jfk library. We will do that throughout our program tonight. Theearn more role on role of helping out her husband during the campaign. Mrs. Kennedy spoke in rate length about president kennedy and his love of reading, his belief in the power of words. That is something that is a believe they both shared. What i like about this story here, it shows an example of the great belief in the power of words. A great example of collaboration between husband and wife. This is early in the president ial campaign and in the early days, mrs. Kennedy did travel with him as much as possible, and this is a reading copy of the speech he presented in Washington State in june of 1959. Mrs. Kennedy was with him at that dinner, president kennedy had speechwriters and he would often rewrite his speeches up until the moment he was about to deliver it, and at this dinner, he wanted to close the speech ulysses. He asked, give me the last lines from ulysses. Following in mrs. Kennedys hand is the rest of the column, which she knew from memory and gave to him so he could close his speech with those words. A facebook viewer who writes, in clips from the 1960 campaign you rarely see mrs. Kennedy. Present at the Democratic National convention in los angeles. Because of the difficulties ween her 1956 presidency pregnancy, did mrs. Kennedy feel she could not bear losing another baby . She had a terrible record in her pregnancy. She had lost a baby to miscarriage in 1965, then as this person points out, she lost a stillborn little girl in 1956, right after that very hot, not airconditioned so she was really just afraid to go. I think what this person is referring to is from april onward in 1960 she did tend to stay at home, though she did go with the future president , president of be, to a parade in october 1960 through manhattan, the canyons of manhattan. She was definitely with child. The child would be john junior. A sense ofys had humor. Bradley also has have a wife was with child. Right after the election was one in hyannisport, he said to the two women, you can take the pillows out, we have one. Won. What role did she play . We talked about at what point did john kennedy realized he had a political asset . Paris inhey went to the spring of 1961 and a lot of people turned out both to see john kennedy, and also jackie, who had been a student in paris, was known to be a french ancestry, spoke french and knew french art and history. That was when she first began to get enormous crowns. I know we will talk about this later on, the program in february 1962, the tour of the white house she worked so hard to restore. This was after he was in, she began to realize she could help with sustaining popularity. We will take a few calls. Ida in west palm beach, you are on the air. Thank you, i am enjoying this series very much. I was only five years old when the president was assassinated, so i dont really remember it, but i have read so many books about the president and mrs. Kennedy, im great admirer of hers. One of the biggest images was her pink stained suit, and after she removed it she did not want to remove it before they returned to washington, as she said, she wanted the world to see what had happened to him. What did become of that suit . Was it destroyed or has it been preserved somewhere . And if so, where . And will it ever be shown to the public . I thank you again very much. As i understand, once she removed it, it was stored, i believe in her mothers attic. In georgetown. If people are familiar with the work by william manchester, they will see the last paragraph of that book talks about when he saw, after some years went by, the packaged dress, he could see the stains. If one didnt know the story of the pink suit, one would think that the person who wore it had met a terrible end. Book, last line of the they might even wonder who had been to blame. As we understand, with the it is with the archives, and caroline has made sure it will not appear to the 2103. Before the year i dont think any of us will see it. Unless there are changes in medical science. Mary, from utah, you are on. This has been amazing and wonderful, one of the best things on television. Thank you for that. My question is, Jacqueline Kennedy, such a great style icon and known for that, her privates maryr private secretary, gallagher, this was an issue with the president , the cost of her wardrobe. Nothing was spared on her clothing. Was she known as a frugal individual otherwise . Thank you so much. Not by her husband, if we he were to say. But she spent an awful lot on clothing, and by the best information we have, this was actually joseph kennedy, who said, dress as you need to and send me the bills. He felt as a something that is very important about the presidency. In those days it turned out to be a great asset. It did become a bit of an issue in the 1960 campaign. They were big statements in the press that she mustve spent 30,000 a year on her wardrobe. She put out a statement not spend 30,000 pat nixon the contrast was strong. It was a close election. Then she wore a cloth coat to the inauguration instead of a fur. Then, a project you know very well. I will show you the book that came out of this. Historic conversations on the life of john f. Kennedy which you annotated in introduced, and work with Caroline Kennedy on. What is this project . When Jackie Kennedy, right in the wake of the assassination, she was reading all sorts of stories about her husband would not amount to much because it was only two years and 10 months. She was so determined to try to she him win the reputation thought he deserved, one of the things that was urged on her by the white house aide and historian was to record all the history. Which they spoke on briefly at the university of virginia. When there are historical events that may not be recorded in letters, we go and interview a great figure in history and somehow try to fill in the gaps. She interviewed her at her house ,n georgetown about eight times only a few months after the assassination, when her memories were fresh. The idea would be that she would speak freely, as it the historian of the 20th century. These were closed until 2011 when caroline felt they should be published. Has any other first lady done a similar oral history . She was certainly the lady first. Bird johnson. There is a wonderful book. By Oxford University press. Obtained all her oral history interviews as well. Critique, her view of Lyndon Johnson and the role he played as Vice President. Jack had to do it as his running mate. He was a man with this enormous ego, raised, mocking jack in every way. Jack would say, you can never get an opinion out of him. He asked to go to luxembourg. For a president who is dying to give you a lot to do. Take a trip to luxembourg. Lyndon as Vice President , he could just do anything. I want to read something from barbaras but before i get to barbaras book before we get to michael. You said underneath a veil of consequence, she tremendous concealed tremendous awareness. Jackie had a very shrewd view of people, who the real people were and who the phonies were, and between people who are bright and those who are stupid. The papers were filled with her assessments of people. Did john f. Kennedy use this to his advantage as a Political Partnership . I think so. I think that was her political contribution in addition to what we said about the imagery and mastery of television and that sort of thing. We will talk about the fact that she did not have a major impact on policy nor did she want one. He didnt talk to her about it very much. He might on occasion mentioned something, but he did not seek her out for device. Advice. I think this is the case that if he was going to have any connection with her, at all, in terms of politics it would be when they went off on these trips or when they were coming back from political trips. She did go to 46 of the then48 states with him in 1959 and 1960 when they were out with the rank and file. She was on the plane with him coming back saying, that person is a phony, that one is real, that one is smart, make sure you keep up with that one. You hea