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- Verified Buyer
I was in the sixth grade when John F. Kennedy entered the White House. As public figures, he and Jackie loomed large for me at an impressionable age. Furthermore, I was surrounded by the mystique of "Camelot". As I aged, from time to time I wondered what the "real" story of the Kennedy White House was. A half century later, I read Sally Bedell Smith's GRACE AND POWER and I suspect she comes very close to that real story.Smith did a lot of legwork in researching and writing the book, which was published in 2004. She interviewed 142 people who were participants and observers during the Kennedy administration and read over 100 books. The book proceeds in chronological fashion, beginning with Election Night in November 1960 and ending with the funeral services for Kennedy in November 1963. Relevant historical background is smoothly interwoven into the account. While the book covers the major political episodes of Kennedy's presidency -- for example, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy in Berlin, and the gradual ramping up of American involvement in Vietnam -- it is not a close examination of politics and policies. Instead, it is rather detailed account of, as the subtitle puts it, "the private world of the Kennedy White House."Most of all, it provides very good portraits of JFK and Jackie. I can't say that my assessment of either one of them has changed much, for better or worse, but I now have a much deeper -- and, I think, clearer -- understanding of them.JFK certainly had charisma. He was very smart and quick, with a barbed wit. He was cunning and manipulative -- like any successful politician, and more so than most. He certainly matured over the three years of his presidency. The things in the book that most stand out about him are his health and physical problems (for which an extraordinary cocktail of drugs and pills were administered to him) and his constant philandering. GRACE AND POWER discusses his sexual relationships with at least eight women, including a nineteen-year-old intern. One of his more frequent paramours told Smith, "It was a compulsion, a quirk in his personality. He was out of control." Jackie knew about it and accepted it; the press (or at least some of the press) knew about it and ignored it.JFK did not particularly care for Adlai Stevenson, the éminence grise of the Democratic Party. He also was mystified by the appeal that Stevenson had for women, including Jackie. He once cornered a newsman who worked for Stevenson at the United Nations and inquired: "Look, I may not be the best-looking guy out there, but for God's sake, Adlai's half bald, he's got a paunch, he wears his clothes in a dumpy kind of way. What's he got that I haven't got?" The newsman replied honestly and incisively: "While you both love women, Adlai also likes them, and women know the difference."Jackie receives equal attention from Smith. She too is very smart. She is tough and resilient, yet vulnerable and insecure. She is very much the groomed daughter of privilege and high society. And she often is somewhat of a petulant prima donna.GRACE AND POWER contains countless interesting anecdotes and tidbits. For people of a certain age, it is a treasure trove of cocktail party palaver. Ultimately, however, it is too gossipy for me. I was especially wearied by the descriptions of Jackie's attire at just about every public appearance she made. That the White House Kennedys took so many vacations and indulged in so much partying and socialization was enlightening, but that too became tiring . . . and boring. The book contains three inserts of black-and-white photographs. In addition, there are 100 pages of source notes and a decent index.
