Caroline Kennedy Talks Jackie

A quiet rumble began to fill Lisner Auditorium on Monday night as people began to arrive almost an hour in advance to hear the main event, "A Conversation with Caroline Kennedy," presented by the Politics and Prose bookstore in conjunction with GW. Mrs. Kennedy visited GW, her mother's alma mater, to discuss the newly released, nearly eight-and-a-half hour recordings of her mother, Jacqueline Kennedy, and the accompanying book for which she wrote a foreword.

Michael Beschloss, a historian who specializes in presidential history, started the discussion and talked about Jacqueline's uninhibited interview with Arthur Schlesinger and her interest in historic preservation. Schlesinger, a historian and special assistant to President Kennedy, decided after his assassination that it was important to capture history on tape.

Schlesinger began the extensive process of interviewing nearly a thousand people who knew Mr. Kennedy in an attempt to create an oral history of the Kennedy administration. The centerpiece of this project was of course, Jacqueline Kennedy herself. Caroline kept the interviews sealed for decades until she decided they were fit to be released. This year was right time, she decided, as it is the 50th anniversary of her father's inauguration.

Caroline noted that her father's presidency is quickly "becoming a part of history rather than living memory" but that his ideals and words remain "as vital as ever." Returning to her mother, Caroline said that once Jacqueline finished the seven interviews, she "sealed the audio tapes in the Kennedy library and put the transcripts in a safety deposit vault in New York." Apart from Caroline and her brother John, few people knew of the tapes existence.

Caroline said she worried that listening to her mother's interviews would be upsetting. When she did listen to the tapes, she was surprised by "how much they revealed that wasn't on the page." She could tell when her mother was getting tired, annoyed, or when she decided not to talk about something.

In response to some of the criticisms that the tapes drew, Caroline stated that her mother broke the mold by giving such a candid interview. 


Caroline's most difficult decision was whether to edit the interviews. She claimed some issues haven't withstood the test of time, some comments might have been embarrassing to her mother and she would no longer support some of her views. Caroline came to the conclusion that she didn't have the right to alter the historical record.

Caroline stayed afterwards to sign copies of the book, Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy.