Grace and Power by Sally Bedell Smith

Author:Sally Bedell Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781588364098
Publisher: Random House Group
Published: 2004-05-03T16:00:00+00:00

Jackie marked her triumphant return from India and Pakistan on Thursday, March 29, by issuing a subdued, almost melancholy statement: “It feels unnatural to me to go on such a long semi-official trip without my husband,” she said. “I have missed my family and have no desire to be a public personality on my own.” Jack entered the cabin of the Caroline so that they could have a private reunion. Waiting on the tarmac to greet Jackie were the ambassadors from India and Pakistan, as well as Ken Galbraith, who received an unexpected kiss that he happily noted was “well-televised and widely reported.”

Galbraith and the Schlesingers joined Jack and Jackie on Sunday at Glen Ora for dinner. It was a relaxed evening as they watched an NBC special on the trip with a running commentary from Jackie and Galbraith. JFK expressed his admiration for Jackie’s “general political grace and style,” Galbraith said. Schlesinger recalled that she offered “acute observations about Nehru.”

Galbraith detected that Jackie seemed “a bit tired” but found her “handsome and compelling without benefit of makeup or hair-doing.” In fact she was exhausted, telling Janet Cooper that she couldn’t face any questions about the White House restoration for at least a week. “I don’t even care if the White House burns down!” she wrote. Jackie assured Cooper that she would see her “when I recover. Think it may be smallpox.”

That Monday, Jackie flew from an airfield in Virginia with Caroline and John for eight days in Palm Beach to recuperate. She had scarcely returned to Washington when she was off once more to Florida with her family for a nine-day Easter holiday at the Paul estate. After her three-week absence from the White House in March, Jackie was away an equal amount of time in April. The President had to serve as solo host at a luncheon for twenty-four in honor of the Duchess of Devonshire, as well as a state visit by the president of Brazil. In his spare time he approved the script and screened rushes of PT 109 starring Cliff Robertson as a young JFK, and he tossed out the first baseball of the season at a new $24 million stadium in Washington, with Dave Powers at his side.

The ambiance of Kennedy’s twice-daily swims with Powers improved considerably that month. Jackie considered the White House swimming pool drab and institutional, so she commissioned French artist Bernard LaMotte to decorate three of its bare walls (the fourth was mirrored) with vistas of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. The murals depicting a cerulean Caribbean harbor bobbing with sailboats were a gift in Joe Kennedy’s name, echoing scenes at his favorite New York restaurant, Le Pavillon. To ensure that moisture wouldn’t peel off the paint, the Ambassador’s funds also paid for a special new exhaust system. JFK watched in fascination as the paintings slowly took form. At one point, LaMotte, working on a special platform, reached too far, lost his balance, and landed in the water.

In April,

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