Jaqueline Kennedy’s secret audio tapes come public

A series of former secret audio tapes recorded by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. during interviews with Jaqueline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy’s wife, show a side of history that was not known before. The interviews were organized about four months after J.F.K. was murdered and now the material is being published as a book, ‘Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy’, and will be partly aired during ABC’s morning news show.

Confidential Material

The reason why the tapes only came public now is because the material had been secretly kept at the Kennedy family’s Library. Now, the presidential couple’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, decided to come forward and will also be interviewed by Diane Sawyer during the ABC program in which the audio taped will be shown. Caroline has already explained that the interviews were recorded at a difficult time and that is one of the reasons why they have never been available before.

Information about the tapes proves that J.F.K. was worried about the possibility of former vice-president, Lyndon B. Johnson, actually becoming president if anything came to happen. According to one of the transcription, Jaqueline remembered that “Bobby told me this later and I know Jack said it to me sometimes. He said, ‘Oh, God, can you ever imagine what would happen to the country if Lyndon was president?’ He didn’t like that idea that Lyndon would go on and be president because he was worried for the country.”

Remembering Kennedy

The ABC schedule which will have the special program about J.F.K. is set to be aired this Tuesday, 09/13, as a two-hour-long show. The book launching is scheduled for the Wednesday after that, and the date was chosen to be part of the celebration over Keneddy’s first year in office 50th anniversary. The book release is part of a series of honors planned to remember Kennedy’s initial government.

Even though Jaqueline was not ready to turn her thoughts public while she was still alive, the First Lady had decided to register her part in history once she arranged to meet with the White House family friend, historian Schlesinger Jr., responsible for the interviews. However, Jaqueline passed away in 1994 and Schlesinger Jr. in 2007. Nevertheless, now the world has an opportunity to understand a little bit more about what went on inside the White House during J.F.K.’s presidency.