TIME THE WEEKLY NEWSMAGAZINE

Dec. 23, 1966 Vol. 88, No. 26

THE NATION

THE PRESIDENCY scenes for months as rumors buzzed in tion. In his original version, at least, Washington and New York about the Battle of the Book Manchester told how the Kennedy con- book's incendiary contents, and about tingent arrived at Dallas' Love Field "I have to try, We might lose this, the problems between the Kennedys with the President's body and was "dis- but I have to try. I can't lose all that and the author and publisher. But the mayed" to find that Johnson's party had I've tried to protect for these years. FE4 book has done far more than merely moved in to Air Force One. Johnson have to do what is necessary. We have upset the Kennedys. It has set many himself was already ensconced in the to sue." New Frontiersmen against one another, President's quarters. Moreover, the ac- With those anguished words to close caused the author to become ill and count portrayed L.B.J.'s aides as shocked friends last week, Jacqueline Kennedy brought turmoil to the publishing world, and saddened but scarcely able to dis- set in motion the biggest brouhaha over guise their satisfaction at finally tak- a book that the nation has ever known. ing command. The book was no ordinary one: it was So great was the tension aboard the William Manchester's The Death of a plane during the flight back to Washing- President, which has been awaited as ton, according to Manchester, that after the authoritative account of the assas- Air Force One landed at the capital, sination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas. Kenny O'Donnell, one of the late Presi- The late President's family carefully dent's oldest friends, literally blocked hand-picked both the author and the the exit when Lyndon Johnson tried to publisher—neither of whom had sought leave with Jacqueline. A fork lift was the assignment—and offered them ex- rolled up to the plane to remove Ken- clusive access to information and key nedy's casket, and Jackie stepped aboard figures, hoping thereby to avoid "distor- with other members of the late Presi- tion and sensationalism" and produce a dent's party. O'Donnell prevented John- sober, low-key retelling of the events of son from riding down with the group. Nov. 22, 1963. The book was to be a What angered O'Donnell and other rara avis: a history that would be inde- members of the Kennedy group, ac- pendent but would still carry the author- cording to Manchester's account, were a ization of the Kennedys and require number of incidents aboard the plane. their approval before publication. One portrays L.B.J. as maneuvering to Exhaustive Detail. Long the subject make sure that Jackie Kennedy was in of speculation across the U.S., the photographs of his swearing in. Another 1,200-page manuscript of the book has describes how the Kennedy people dis- proved to be something of a shock to associated themselves from Johnson's just about everyone. Re-creating the party, which was in the forward part of events on and after the day of the assas- the plane. A high Kennedy aide remarked sination in exhaustive detail and in to a newsman: "Make sure you report sometimes mawkish language, it de- that we rode in the back with our Presi- scribes Jackie Kennedy's every thought dent and not up front with him"— and emotion after her husband's death meaning Johnson. with such fidelity that the Kennedys- Multiplying the Impact. The Ken- who have not read it but are familiar nedys were upset by the anti-Johnson with its contents—feel that it contains JACKIE KENNEDY & RICHARD GOODWIN bias of the book, but what really moved things far too personal to print. "That's Carborundum beneath the camellias. them to try to block its publication and all she has left—her personal life," says serialization is the almost embarrassing- a member of the family. "She wants to leaving half a dozen publishers in Eu- ly personal material on Jackie's reaction protect that." rope and the U.S. holding a manuscript to the assassination. In talking to Man- To protect it, Jackie Kennedy's at- that they are not sure they will be able chester, Jackie was totally unguarded; torneys requested and received a "show- to print. Its influence has also reached she expected him to use his own judg- cause" order from the New York State into the White House, where its preju- ment in sorting out what material should Supreme Court requiring Manchester, diced and one-dimensional treatment of and should not be used. According to Harper & Row, which was to publish Lyndon Johnson has created apprehen- the Kennedys, his judgment was bad. the book April 7, and Look magazine, sion and resentment. Some of the anecdotes that he in- which was to begin serializing it Jan. 10, Already Ensconced. The book cluded have appeared before, but Man- to explain in a hearing next week why —orig- inally titled Death of Lancer in refer- chester tells them through Jackie's eyes, they should not be barred from bring- ence to Jack Kennedy's Secret Service thus multiplying the impact. One scene ing out the book. The charge: Man- code name—paints, in fact, an almost that agitated the Kennedys was his de- chester and his publishers had violated a unrelieved portrait of Johnson as an scription of Jackie's horror-stricken re- "Memorandum of Understanding" and unfeeling and boorish man. Manchester's action as she saw gone ahead with the book without an her husband's skull hostility to Johnson comes across with shattered by Assassin Lee Harvey Os- O.K. from the Kennedy family. particular force in his description of the The dispute has simmered behind the wald's last—and fatal—shot. Numbed hours immediately after the assassina- and bewildered, she cradled her hus- spoken favorably of Manchester, whose family) and four indifferently received band's head in her lap, sought to cover novels—none of which came close to his gaping wound with her hand—as if 1962 Portrait of a President was a glowing—one reviewer called it "ador- bestsellerdom—he halted work on a by that act she could heal him. book about Germany's vast Krupp in- At Parkland Hospital, she tried to en- ing"—tribute to J.F.K. Manchester, ter her husband's room, but was blocked 44, an ex-Marine, agreed to the condi- dustrial empire, set up shop in a cubicle by a nurse until a doctor appeared and tions laid down by the Kennedys. in Washington's National Archives told the nurse to let her in. Through the On March 26, 1964, he and Bobby building. Next door was Evelyn Lincoln, day, Jackie refused to change from her Kennedy signed the eleven-point "Mem- J.F.K.'s White House secretary. blood-spattered clothes so that, as Man- orandum of Understanding." The key For as many as 15 hours a day for chester quotes her, "they can see what paragraph said that "the completed the next 21 months, Manchester gath- they've done." Another section that manuscript shall be reviewed by Mrs. ered material, accumulating 45 volumes disturbed Jackie was Manchester's ac- John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kenne- of tapes, notes and documents. From count of her feeling of emptiness and dy, and the text shall not be published Cape Cod to Dallas, he conducted despair when she went to bed at the unless and until approved by them." 1,000 interviews with 500 people. He White House on the night of the as- Another said that "the book may not spent a day in Gettysburg with Dwight sassination. In helpless, futile anguish, be published before Nov. 22, 1968," Eisenhower, 3f hours over lunch with she tore at the pillow that night. unless the family agreed. A third ruled Chief Justice Earl Warren. In Dallas, Jackie wanted at least three other that "no motion picture or TV adapta- he retraced on foot the route of Ken- things deleted from the manuscript. One tion shall ever be made based on the nedy's motorcade. A meticulous report- is an emotionally charged account of book," and gave the Kennedys the right er, be scoured hungrily for the small de- AP tails that help illuminate the larger ones: how a flock of pigeons took wing from the roof of the Texas School Book Depository when Lee Harvey Os- wald fired his first shot; how an un- dertaker, before driving Kennedy's body to Love Field, asked a reporter whom he should ask about payment. Man- chester saw the film of the actual as- sassination no fewer than 75 times. The pivotal interview was the one with Mrs. Kennedy. For more than ten hours during two days in April 1964, Manchester taped her recol- lections at her Georgetown home in Washington. In his foreword he wrote: "Mrs. Kennedy asked but one question before our first taping session. 'Are you just going to put down all the facts, who ate what for breakfast and all that, or are you going to put yourself in the book, too?' I replied that I didn't see how I could very well keep myself out of it. 'Good,' she said emphatical- ly." As a friend of Jackie's told Chi- cago Daily Newsman Peter Lisagor, she thereupon "poured out her soul to Manchester as if he were a psychia- THE SWEARING IN ON MR FORCE ONE trist." Jackie, who was then thoroughly Fact was the issue in some passages, taste was the issue in others. obsessed with the assassination, spared no details. bow the children, Caroline, then 5, and of approval over sale of other rights— Though Lyndon Johnson had an ink- John, 2, learned of their father's death. including magazine serialization. ling that Manchester was no friend Another was a letter that she had placed Harper & Row, something of a Ken- and refused to see him, most of the in her dead husband's casket before it nedy "house," was chosen to be the pub- principals spoke at length with the au- was sealed. A third was a series of let- lisher. Harper Executive Vice President thor—and with nobody else. When ters she had written, often in conjunc- Evan W. Thomas II, son of quadrennial Jackie learned that Jim Bishop (The tion with her daughter Caroline, to Jack; Socialist Presidential Candidate Norman Day Lincoln Was Shot) was working she was particularly upset at the inclu- Thomas, had edited Jack Kennedy's on a book, she sent him a handwritten sion of a letter that she had sent him Profiles in Courage, Bobby's The En- letter begging him "to please not go from Greece the month before his death. emy Within, ex-Presidential Speech- ahead with your intended book, The Adoring Tribute. The roots of the writer Theodore Sorensen's Kennedy. Day Kennedy Was Shot." Wrote Jack- current controversy were put down in Thomas foresaw trouble, at first de- ie: "I hired William Manchester to pro- the weeks just after Nov. 22, 1963. clined the offer to edit and publish tect President Kennedy and the truth. Besieged by requests for interviews, the the book. But Bobby finally persuaded If I decide the book should never be Kennedys decided that, as a close friend him. All profits after the first printing published, then Mr. Manchester will be says, "we had to choose a writer who were to go to the John F. Kennedy reimbursed for his time. Or if I decide would be given exclusivity—then Mrs. Library at Harvard. Manchester got an it should be known, I will then decide Kennedy would have to go through advance of less than $50,000 for ex- when it should be published." Said the painful process only once." penses from Harper, and there was a Bishop angrily: "She's trying to copy- The family approached two authors vague understanding that he might right the assassination." —Theodore H. White (The Making of make $150,000 from the book. Pure Agony. Manchester noted that a President) and Walter Lord (Day of Pivotal Interview. Manchester im- at least half of the people he interviewed Infamy). Both declined, mostly be- mediately went to work, focusing on "experienced moments of emotional dif- cause the Kennedys were asking for the period of Nov. 20-25, 1963. The ficulty" when asked to relive the assas- final-review rights of the book. Some- author of two well-received biographies sination. Nor was he exempt. Months one recalled that Jack Kennedy had (of H. L. Mencken and the Rockefeller after Kennedy's funeral, Manchester re- 16 TIME, DECEMBER 23, 1966 called how "1 still wake up at night and 000; Look got it for $665,000, and the autumn, Kennedy advisers met fre- hear the stutter of the drums on Penn- gave Manchester considerable control. quently, zeroing in finally on two major sylvania Avenue." An intense, emotional LIFE offered him only what it has given objections: the book was still too anti- man, he became so immersed in his sub- to authors from Winston Churchill to Johnson, and much of the material from ject that he began referring to his wife Arthur Schlesinger Jr.: the right to rec- Manchester's interview with Jackie was Julia as "Jacqueline." As a result of the ommend changes and approve the final mawkishly handled. Copies of the Look pressure, he became ill earlier this year, excerpts. As for the money, Manchester galleys were sent to the White House, required hospitalization and received received $365,000 from Look in Au- where Bill Moyers read them but of- treatment from the same psychiatrist gust, was to be paid the rest in five in- fered no suggestions. who tended Novelist F. Scott Fitzger- stallments ending in 1971. After Thanksgiving, semifinal page ald's wife Zelda. Ear-Searing Lecture. Just after the proofs of the book were sent to the "It's been pure agony," said Man- Look deal was closed, Jackie Kennedy Kennedys by Harper. The Kennedys chester at one point, and the agony did returned from a Hawaii vacation. "She now claim that changes that they had not end when he turned his manuscript reacted strenuously to the magazine recommended had not been made, and —pruned from 1,400 to 1,200 pages— idea," said Evan Thomas. "The pro- that portions deleted from one section over to Harper's Thomas at the turn of motion, the fireworks—it was bothering had been slipped into another. A full the year. Neither Bobby nor Jackie her emotionally." She was even more 15 pages of Jackie's personal reactions wanted to read it because, as a friend deeply disturbed after former Kenne- remained in the proofs. "I read them said, it would be "far too painful." But dy Speechwriter Richard Goodwin, a with horror," said one family friend.

they farmed out copies to five close FRED WARD friends, most notably John Seigenthaler, an ex-Justice Department aide who is now editor of the Nashville Tennessean, and Edwin Guthman, a former aide of Bobby's who is now national news edi- tor of the Los Angeles Times. The two read the book mostly for factual accuracy. Among other things, they failed to grasp the full implications of its portrayal of Johnson—possibly because neither is a full-fledged L.B.J. fan. When they met with Editor Thomas in Washington in May, all three agreed that "Manchester had used bad judg- ment, even bad taste in places." They suggested a number of changes to the author—but not enough to balance the book's bias. For once, the Kennedys' early-warning system had failed. Ancillary Deals. At this point, Man- chester began to worry when—or whether—the book would be published. "I was told by Harper's representative," said Bobby, "that Manchester was be- coming ill from an obsession with the thought that the book might never be published." Consequently, Bobby sent him a telegram in July saying that "members of the Kennedy family will THE ARRIVAL AT ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE place no obstacle in the way of pub- Not much left except her personal life. lication." The Kennedys insist that the telegram "contained neither a waiver of neighbor of Manchester's near the Wes- Goodwin called on Manchester, told any of the approval rights" nor an ap- leyan University campus in Middletown, him of all the objections that remained. proval of the timing of publication. Conn., saw the author's agreement with "I'll go think about them—and talk But Manchester construed it as such, Look. Goodwin, realizing that Man- with my lawyer," said Manchester. He and went ahead with some ancillary chester had assured the magazine of no seemed in no mood to yield. A monthly deals. A copy of the text went to United interference from the Kennedys, took Manhattan tabloid, Books, quoted him' Artists—despite the ban on movie sales. alarm. He and Manchester flew up to as taking, around that time, the posi- Without the Kennedys' O.K., rights for Hyannis Port with Look's publisher, tion: "Let's get out the book as I wrote British publication were sold to London Gardner Cowles, and there Jackie gave it—and to hell with the Kennedys." Publisher Michael Joseph for an unspeci- them an ear-searing lecture. Mail Now. In a final effort to reach fied sum and to the Book-of-the-Month At that point began what a member agreement, Goodwin sent Look and Club in the U.S. Manchester's agent, of the Kennedy family describes as "a Harper a memorandum indicating ten Donald Congdon, sent 25 copies of the long era of negotiations." Through its personal passages about Jackie that the manuscript to six magazines—LIFE, agents, the family took a closer look at Kennedys were anxious to delete; at Look, The Saturday Evening Post, La- Manchester's first manuscript and real- that point, they were not even attempt- dies' Home Journal, McCall's and Good ized that much more was wrong than ing to change the book's tone toward Housekeeping—for bids. a few factual errors. Pamela Turnure Johnson, despite their alarm at it. Two When the bids were opened July 29, Timmins, Jackie's secretary, drafted a Harper executives flew to London, all but LIFE and Look were quickly three-page memo detailing passages that where Manchester was working on his eliminated. Congdon admitted that at Jackie found objectionable. Bobby met interrupted Krupp book, to discuss the one point "LIFE did offer the most with Manchester at his Senate office in changes. Later they said that some dough," but LIFE was unwilling to meet Washington and at his Virginia home changes had been made, but refused to Congdon's insistence that Manchester the following month to discuss changes. show the galleys to the Kennedys. Look should have complete control over the Kennedy agents told Look that they had also refused to show them its galleys. serialization—down to headlines and to approve the articles, but Look re- Jackie finally decided to sue. Bobby captions. LIFE ultimately went to $600,- jected the suggested changes. Through would have preferred avoiding a court

TIME, DECEMBER 23, 1966 17 case, but once Jackie made up her mind, courts to enforce my rights and post- publication date or that "I have broken be went along with her. pone publication until the minimum faith with Mrs. Kennedy." Though he Her first step was to notify Look and limits of my family's privacy can be said that he had made substantial chang- Harper—which had never expected her protected." es at the request of the Kennedys, he to go to such lengths—that she intended Some 45 hours after issuing her state- insisted that "in the last analysis, this is to take court action to stop publication. ment, Jackie lowered the boom. She my book. Neither Mrs. Kennedy nor That threw both companies into tur- asked New York State's Supreme Court any member of the Kennedy family nor moil—not to mention the London Sun- to prevent Manchester, Look and Har- anyone else is in any way responsible day Times, Paris Match, West Ger- per from publishing the book on the for my research or the content of my many's Der Stern and Italy's Epoca, ground of breach of contract. "I have work. It is my responsibility." which had paid Look nearly $300,000 never seen Manchester's manuscript," Whether the court upholds or rejects for European rights and had launched she said. "I have not approved it, nor Jacqueline Kennedy's complaint, Look promotion campaigns. Look similarly have I authorized anyone else to ap- is in a bind. Its Jan. 24 issue was on the was flooding the mail with warnings prove it for me." Publication at this presses at R. R. Donnelley's Chicago that "the only way you can be certain time, she said, would not only be "a vio- plant last week, but the editors were of reading every installment is to mail lation of my rights, but will cause me not saying how many copies had been your introductory Look subscription great and irreparable injury. It will re- run off or if they could change the con- now." Moreover, eight pages of the first sult in precisely the sensationalism and tents. The Harper book also faces an installment were already being run off in commercialism which we—Robert F. uncertain fate. To some observers, it Chicago for Look's Ian. 24 issue, due Kennedy and I—sought so strenuously would seem that enough Kennedy rep- on newsstands Jan. 10. "It would cost to avoid. The threatened publication is resentatives had pondered and pored a lot of money to stop it now," groaned in total disregard of my rights and, if it over the manuscript to constitute a UPI committee of approval, and that the Kennedys had adequate opportunity to make all the changes they wanted. But the changes failed to satisfy the Ken- nedy most intimately involved—Jacque- line—and she is a woman who has at her disposal a huge reservoir of public sympathy and admiration. Moreover, Jackie is so obviously and sincerely agi- tated over the whole affair that, after a meeting with attorneys at week's end during which parts of the book were read, she emerged, with Dick Good- win, on the verge of tears. Binding Obligation. It was, every- thing considered, a most unseemly spat. Neither side had expected it to go so far, but it finally got out of hand. Why the Kennedys had waited so long to make their personal objections felt has not been explained; they obviously made a mistake in expecting to exert EDITOR THOMAS so much control at so late a date. Nonetheless, the author who agreed to their conditions was bound by them. AUTHOR MANCHESTER Freedom of the press—or precise his- Still hearing the stutter of those drums. torical objectivity—was not really at Cowles Editor in Chief William Att- goes forward, will utterly destroy them." issue, since Manchester willingly limit- wood, who had been Jack Kennedy's She requested five remedies: 1) that ed that freedom by taking on contrac- ambassador to Guinea and Kenya. "I Manchester, Look and Harper be barred tual obligations with the Kennedys. don't see any way it can be stopped." from publishing the manuscript until From all the evidence, Manchester Five Remedies. Jackie did. The wom- she okayed the text and publication has compiled an invaluable source book an who had enchanted Manchester with date; 2) that they be permanently en- —one of those rare books that not only her "camellia beauty," as he once de- joined from using any of the letters report history but make it. Even so, it scribed it, now showed a broad vein of from herself and Caroline that might be is not the book that the Kennedys Carborundum beneath it. Calling news- in Manchester's possession; 3) that they thought they were getting. To be sure, men to her Park Avenue office, she did be prohibited from using material from Jacqueline and Robert Kennedy pro- not show up herself, but sent over a Manchester's taped interview with her vided Manchester with the raw mate- statement composed by Ted Sorensen, and return all the tapes; 4) that Look rials that he later used in a way that who wrote her husband's most mem- be prevented from using her name in displeased them. What nobody seemed orable speeches. The book, it said, "is advertisements, as it has been doing; to take into account is that the assas- in part both tasteless and distorted." It and 5) that she be granted punitive and sination is still so fresh in people's was replete with "inaccurate and unfair compensatory damages and court costs. memories and has left so many exposed references to other individuals"—obvi- No Joy. At first silent, Manchester nerve ends that any painstakingly de- ously, Johnson—"in contrast with its finally spoke up after Jackie filed her tailed, step-by-step retelling is prema- generous references to all members of suit. In recent months, he had been ture at this point. The book in no way the Kennedy family." Most important, to "hiding—a sort of recluse," according contradicts the findings of the Warren expose "all the private grief, personal to an acquaintance in Middletown. Just Commission. But it is seriously flawed thoughts and painful reactions which before leaving for England last month, by the fact that its partisan portrayal my children and I endured in those ter- he told a WCBS-TV interviewer that "all of Lyndon Johnson is so hostile that it rible days does not seem to me to be sorts of things have happened to the almost demeans the office itself. Man- essential to any current historical rec- book. I certainly cannot feel any sense chester's Death of a President—if it ord." Jackie's statement concluded: "As of joy or even of genuine achievement." ever reaches print—will surely be rated horrible as a trial will be, it now seems Now confronted with a lawsuit, he de- as a compelling narrative, but hardly clear that my only redress is to ask the nied that he had jumped the gun on the as impartial history. 18 TIME, DECEMBER 23, 1966