Incredible and historically significant ALS signed “Jackie,” one page both sides, 6.25 x 9.25, black-bordered letterhead, no date but circa May 1965. Jackie writes to Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., disputing his conclusions that Adlai Stevenson, the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president in 1952 and 1956, was “Greek” and John F. Kennedy “Roman.” She begs Schlesinger to change his description of JFK and label him “Greek.”
The remarkable, edgy letter reads in full: “You remember in my oral history—I disputed your remark that Adlai was a Greek & JFK a Roman—It was in your book too—but I really couldn’t go into it there—as it is so profound—all the thoughts I have about the Greeks—having gotten to know some of them—writers—in the last few years—the best friend of Katsancakis—etc. Leaving Adlai out of it—he may be Greek too—in the derogatory sense—I do not mean to denigrate him—I realize what he brought to American politics in 1952—but he certainly showed many weaknesses & sad deficiencies at character later—you can make him sound as wonderful as you want—but just don’t say that JFK was Roman. How embarrassing to find what I was dying to tell you in a woman’s magazine surely Melina Mercouri—It almost expresses what I think about being Greek—and JFK was that—He wouldn’t want to be called a Roman—Lyndon is really a Roman—a classic Emperor—Maybe Romney is one too—but read what she says & see if it doesn’t remind you of JFK—Can’t you make him Greek & Adlai Egyptian—or leave Adlai out & just make him Greek.” In fine condition, although completely horizontally torn in half by Kennedy as she sought to dispose of her offhand remarks.
According to Dr. Barbara A. Perry, author of Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier, the Kennedy men-Joe, Jack, and Bobby-had little regard for Adlai Stevenson. The worst sin in their competitive world was to be a loser, and Stevenson had failed to achieve the presidency twice. Moreover, their pragmatic, Irish-Catholic political ethos never meshed with what they considered his effete, WASPy intellectualism. Jackie's negative view of Stevenson may have simply reflected the Kennedy family's rejection of him as an indecisive and ineffectual politician, yet she maintained her own razor-sharp political instincts. As Schlesinger himself once commented about her, “I realized that, underneath a veil of lovely inconsequence, she concealed tremendous awareness, an all-seeing eye and a ruthless judgment.”
Obviously rethinking the tone of the letter, Jackie herself tore it in two (her housekeeper recovered it from the trash), rewriting it in far gentler terms. Clearly, Jackie reconsidered her pointed assessment of Stevenson, diplomatically removing the offending passage in the letter she finally sent to Schlesinger on May 28, 1965. This crucial date, seventeen months after her husband's tragic death, was the eve of what would have been his 48th birthday, and shows a revealing replacement of the previously terse “JFK” with a more loving “Jack.” Included for comparison is a photocopy of the final letter, the original of which is housed in the Kennedy Library. It reads: “You remember in my oral history—I disputed your remark that Adlai was a Greek & JFK a Roman— It was in your book too—& I think I made a vague note of it—but it was too deep for me to go into then— Leaving Adlai out of it—you can make him sound as wonderful as you like—but please don’t say that Jack was not Greek but Roman— I found something—it sounds…that Melina Mercouri says—I almost express what I feel about being Greek—I know a Greek who lived with Katsancakis all the time he was writing the Odyssey—If only you could hear him speak—’the Greeks fought the Gods’—then you would see that Jack was not Roman— See if what she says does not slightly remind you of him—there is a desperate defiance of fate—which Romans never had—Lyndon Johnson is really the Roman, a classic Emperor—McNamara—maybe even George Washington are Roman—but not Jack.”
So why did the former First Lady delete her more derogatory opinions of Stevenson from the second letter? Jackie had certainly developed her own firsthand impressions of him. In fact, she treated him as she did many other important, older men, including Schlesinger, flirting with them as she would lean in close and utter a breathy whisper. She would follow up with clever, bantering notes, written in her distinctive, intimate, telegraphic style. Stevenson, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in her husband's administration, tried to comfort Jackie after JFK's assassination in November 1963. When she moved to New York in order to escape the intrusive memories and gawking tourists in Washington, Stevenson begged her to spend an evening with him. French newspapers photographed the two together, noting Jackie's hand clasping his arm and speculating that they might marry. Stevenson sent the clipping to her, but she returned it to him, “for your scrapbook,” along with a playful note in April 1965, just one month before the letter offered here.
Dr. Perry also observes that Jackie grew increasingly unhinged in the years after JFK’s assassination. She drowned her sorrows in vodka and spent endless hours tearfully reading the Greek poets. She even questioned a Catholic priest about what would happen to her in the afterlife if she committed suicide in an attempt to rejoin her husband. Not surprisingly, she often had second thoughts about what she revealed in unguarded moments and spent her final thirty years trying to preserve a heroic image of JFK. “A desperate defiance of fate” is how she summarizes his life for Arthur Schlesinger in the 1965 letter.
Jackie's observation, in both drafts, that Lyndon Johnson, her husband's successor, exhibited the traits of a classic Roman emperor also reveals her perceptive view of political character. At times aggressive and vulgar, LBJ indeed employed the brutish skills of the more authoritarian leaders of the Roman empire. Yet tape recordings reveal that he and Jackie could bill and coo to each other on the phone when they turned on the charm. They both were masters of such political manipulation.
Ironically, Jackie need not have worried about Adlai Stevenson's feelings. Six weeks after her letter to Schlesinger, Stevenson collapsed on a London sidewalk and suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving history to evaluate him on its terms and Jacqueline Kennedy on hers: a Roman to JFK’s Greek. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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