Caroline Kennedy on JFK's secret recordings

50 years ago, President Kennedy asked the CIA to install

secret

recording devices in the Oval Office. Many of his conversations with Cabinet members and heads of state appear for the first time in a new book called Listening to John F. Kennedy's Secret White House Tapes. The president's daughter, Caroline, wrote the foreword to the book, and we recently talked about the tapes and listened to some of them, including a letter Kennedy dictated to his wife about his daughter. There's Jackie. She divided the letter into two parts, one typed and the other. Another handwritten and typed part to give you the news of my visit to Newport.

I went there last Friday afternoon and Caroline looked beautiful, she was a big hit on the beach and it seems like she loves the water. What goes through your mind knowing that it's a father talking about his love for his daughter oh well that's great, the scene he's describing is very familiar so it's very nice to be able to place both of us in that scene. What did you learn about your father listening? Well, I think I understood. First of all, I appreciate it much more at work. I think children in obstetrics, no child knows what their parents do all day, so for me this was really incredibly moving and I mean, I feel very lucky that there are so many.

recordings

of him and um and all that stuff that gives me a way to learn about him or connect with him you said something interesting it's true no child really knows what their parents do so here you are at the moment of their death five and six what?

Did you think I knew? When did you know he was President of the United States? Or did you ever know? Don't know. I guess he became President when I was three years old. I did it and I remember he was dancing, he was clapping and my brother and I were dancing and I remember you know it was a great pleasure to go and be able to see him in his office. Very serious things happened in the Oval Office, of course, one of them was a Cuban Cris missile. It is very possible that the Russians will shoot them when they board and we would have to respond and have a big carnage.

I think we would want two or three things first. We would like to have some control over the cameras on board these ships so that there are not too many people taking too many photographs, which in the press could be, yes, control all the photographs taken on the ships, yes, they all rotate. camera secondly I don't know enough about the ships but where are they to shoot and if they order three or four steps like asking them to stop they keep asking them to get their crew closer so they can't get you damage so we have made this calculation.

Were you surprised by how detailed it was? I think that really came through in a lot of these conversations, his attention to detail and that was something I had always heard about from my mother, but I mean, he was really paying attention to every detail of a lot of things, What did your mom tell you about her attention to detail? Well, he just had, you know, an incredible memory, an incredible curiosity, you know, he really always wanted to know everything about what was going on. You know, one thing that really stood out to me was his involvement in civil rights.

I look at the country today, there are so many people who don't know the history and have no idea about the history of civil rights and here is your father talking very passionately about a young black student who had been admitted to the University of Mississippi, they were protesting that they didn't want James Meredith there and your father was talking to the governor about how we had to put order there and that's what we thought. We are going to have a president, please don't tell me, you give an order to remove him, how can I remove him?

Governor when there is a disturbance in the street and he may come out of that building and something happened to him. I can't move them. In those conditions, let's put order up there, then we can do something to surround it with a lot of fire, well, we have to get someone there now to put order and stop the shooting and shooting, then you and I will talk on the phone about Meridith first we have to sort out he's very angry and I and I know that tone of voice from my aunts and uncles and um I think you know civil rights really went from being an important but not a heated issue from the beginning.

From his presidency to the main internal crisis of the 20th century and the moral question of our time, what do you think he would have thought of Barack Obama? Well, I think one of the things that I think they both shared was just bringing in a whole new generation to the Democratic process and I think that's really a significant achievement and legacy and we don't even know what all the people that Barack inspired are going to bring to the table. Obama, but do you ever feel overwhelmed by your legacy because I know that when people think of Kennedy, they think of Camelot, they think of your mom, they think of your dad, they think of your brother and now you know, of course we have you, Do you ever feel overwhelmed?

Of course we have you, well we know. What I mean, Caroline, we got you. I know that sometimes you feel overwhelmed by the legacy of that or go through something that you know is not fair. I am very proud of my family and my parents. I can't imagine having better parents and a more wonderful brother, so I feel very lucky that that's my family and, you know, I wish they were here, but my own family, my kids, my husband, they're really my real family. , that's why I don't I really don't think about you, I don't really think about the lenses, right, no, it's just us, right, it's just us, reason, 50 years later, the Kennedy family is still very much in the news.

Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad and I wonder. What's your first reaction when you get a call saying another Kennedy story is coming? What is your first reaction? Let me see if I can guess who it is. The first reaction is let me see if I can guess who it is. to say um, I know you're a member of team Maria. I'm Arnold, I just did an interview with 60 Minutes where he talks about his life and the end of his marriage. What do you think about him talking? um, well, no No, I don't have any ideas to share about it, you know what she said, she said.

Actually I have many ideas. I'm just not going to share them with CVS this morning, which I totally understand, you know, to anyone who's a member. from Team Maria just wishes Arnold would stop talking, it's the feeling I get that she is still incredibly private and poised, yes, yes, and what a treasure that she got the tapes and shared them with us, very kind.