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American Morning

JFK Biography

Aired May 13, 2003 - 09:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There's a new biography about John F. Kennedy revealing surprising details about his life and his presidency. It includes the most extensive information yet about his health problems and evidence now of an affair with a young White House intern. The book is called "An Unfinished Life." The author is historian and presidential biographer Robert Dallek, who is our guest here in New York on AMERICAN MORNING.
Great to see you again in person.

Listen, there is a headline today in a New York paper, actually yesterday, said JFK had a Monica, an intern, 19 years old, working in the White House.

Where did you find out about this?

ROBERT DALLEK, PRESIDENTIAL BIOGRAPHER: Well, there was an oral history at the JFK library that was authored by Barbara Gamerikian (ph), who was a member of the White House press office. She was deputy to Pierre Salinger. I went and read that oral history. There were 17 pages that were blanked out, and I asked her, what's in this? Would you open it to me? Well, she said, it's 40 years later, OK, I'll do it. What was in there was this story about JFK having this affair with a 19, 20-year-old intern.

HEMMER: This woman is living in D.C. right now. She's 73 years old, did not give a lot of details beyond this, though, right?

DALLEK: She won't -- I asked her to tell me who the young woman was, and she understandably said, I don't want to embarrass her. I won't give you the name, and I said, fine. I looked in the library to see if I could find out who this intern was, but she was an unpaid employee, so there was no record of her presence.

HEMMER: Extent of employment at the White House, how long she worked? I think you said in the book she traveled in the president?

DALLEK: She traveled in the summers. In the summers of '62 and '63, she went on trips, that is what Barbara told me.

HEMMER: Do you know, did it affect his judgment? Did it affect his presidency? Is there any evidence that would suggest that?

DALLEK: Well, that's a good question. I looked closely at the question of the womanizing. I looked closely at the question of his medical history. Did his medical problems, did the womanizing have an impact on his presidency? My answer is no. Particularly on the medical. During the crises, like the Bay of Pigs, and the Berlin Crisis and Cuban Missile Crisis, I see no evidence that the medical had an impact on him.

HEMMER: You make the point, though, and that's really getting the headline, and that's been the case for the past several days, as do you these high-profile national interviews, you make the point, though, in your book that more importantly than this affair perhaps with this 19, 20-year-old woman, is that you believe that you have concluded that the United States would not have been involved with Vietnam the way it has, 500,000 troops on the ground in 1968, had JFK lived. That's a heck of a claim. How do you make that?

DALLEK: Bill, there are quite a few things that lead me to that conclusion. One is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staffs, Maxwell Taylor, said JFK had a visceral aversion, just reluctance to put ground troops into Vietnam. Kennedy himself spoke about Vietnam and Korea at one point, he said, this is not like Korea, this is not a direct act of aggression, and he worried if we went with a large number troops it would not only cause a stalemate for us there and get us bombed, but we have also some political repercussions.

HEMMER: He was thinking in the early '60s, the word quagmire, is that what you're saying?

DALLEK: He was thinking quagmire. In fact, there's a wonderful letter from him to Robert McNamara, in which he says, Bob, we have to remember -- he's talk about the invasion of Cuba now, invasion of Cuba -- he said, we have remember what happened to the British in the Boar War, the Russians in the Finnish War of 1940, to us in North Korea. He says, we could get bogged done.

HEMMER: Let me put up a quote the use in the book: "The first advice I'm going to give my successor," JFK says, "is to watch the generals and to avoid feeling that their opinions on military matters were worth a damn." What was he saying?

DALLEK: He was very skeptical of the military. When he was in the Navy during World War II, he wrote letters complaining about the Navy chiefs that he dealt with. During the Bay of Pigs, after the Bay of Pigs, he felt he was misled by the CIA and the military, and he didn't trust them. There is a wonderful conversation we have captured on tape in which he says, these fellows in the foreign service, they have no cojones, no cojones. These guys in the military, they have cojones, but they don't have any brains, and he was very skeptical.

HEMMER: Yes, let's talk about the medications. It appears that there is extensive information here, perhaps not as widely known in the past, about how much medication he was using. Was he addicted?

DALLEK: No, he was a man with terrible health problems. And I was the first one to get into these extensive medical records that are held at the JFK Library. Janet Trevelle (ph), one of his White House physicians, she kept these records. What they show is, for example, he was hospitalized nine times between 1955 and 1957 for a variety of problems. He had prostatisis. He had terrible cholesterol problems. He had back problems. He had Addison's Disease, the malfunctioning of his adrenal glands, terrible back problems, and he was on massive amounts of medication.

Now they have something called a MAR, medicine administration record, showing day by day how much medicine he was on. I looked to see if in fact these medications had any impact on his conduct of the office, the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was as lucid, as thoughtful...

HEMMER: What accounts for that then? You're not a doctor, but what accounts for that?

DALLEK: Well, I had a doctor who worked with me, my friend Jeff Kellman (ph). He worked very closely with me. I think if it weren't for the medicines, I don't think he ever could have been president. I don't think he could have functioned as effectively as he did.

HEMMER: Quickly, the book is called "An Unfinished Life." Had he lived, what would he have finished?

DALLEK: Well, if he had lived, he would have won a second term, run against Barry Goldwater, won handily, taken to the Congress huge majorities, as Lyndon Johnson did. He would have passed all his domestic agenda -- civil rights, war on poverty, Medicare, aid to education, Department of Transportation. And I think he would have gotten us out of Vietnam.

HEMMER: It's a talker. People are talking about it today. Robert Dallek.

Great to see you again. We'll talk in the future, I'm certain.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 13, 2003 - 09:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There's a new biography about John F. Kennedy revealing surprising details about his life and his presidency. It includes the most extensive information yet about his health problems and evidence now of an affair with a young White House intern. The book is called "An Unfinished Life." The author is historian and presidential biographer Robert Dallek, who is our guest here in New York on AMERICAN MORNING.
Great to see you again in person.

Listen, there is a headline today in a New York paper, actually yesterday, said JFK had a Monica, an intern, 19 years old, working in the White House.

Where did you find out about this?

ROBERT DALLEK, PRESIDENTIAL BIOGRAPHER: Well, there was an oral history at the JFK library that was authored by Barbara Gamerikian (ph), who was a member of the White House press office. She was deputy to Pierre Salinger. I went and read that oral history. There were 17 pages that were blanked out, and I asked her, what's in this? Would you open it to me? Well, she said, it's 40 years later, OK, I'll do it. What was in there was this story about JFK having this affair with a 19, 20-year-old intern.

HEMMER: This woman is living in D.C. right now. She's 73 years old, did not give a lot of details beyond this, though, right?

DALLEK: She won't -- I asked her to tell me who the young woman was, and she understandably said, I don't want to embarrass her. I won't give you the name, and I said, fine. I looked in the library to see if I could find out who this intern was, but she was an unpaid employee, so there was no record of her presence.

HEMMER: Extent of employment at the White House, how long she worked? I think you said in the book she traveled in the president?

DALLEK: She traveled in the summers. In the summers of '62 and '63, she went on trips, that is what Barbara told me.

HEMMER: Do you know, did it affect his judgment? Did it affect his presidency? Is there any evidence that would suggest that?

DALLEK: Well, that's a good question. I looked closely at the question of the womanizing. I looked closely at the question of his medical history. Did his medical problems, did the womanizing have an impact on his presidency? My answer is no. Particularly on the medical. During the crises, like the Bay of Pigs, and the Berlin Crisis and Cuban Missile Crisis, I see no evidence that the medical had an impact on him.

HEMMER: You make the point, though, and that's really getting the headline, and that's been the case for the past several days, as do you these high-profile national interviews, you make the point, though, in your book that more importantly than this affair perhaps with this 19, 20-year-old woman, is that you believe that you have concluded that the United States would not have been involved with Vietnam the way it has, 500,000 troops on the ground in 1968, had JFK lived. That's a heck of a claim. How do you make that?

DALLEK: Bill, there are quite a few things that lead me to that conclusion. One is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staffs, Maxwell Taylor, said JFK had a visceral aversion, just reluctance to put ground troops into Vietnam. Kennedy himself spoke about Vietnam and Korea at one point, he said, this is not like Korea, this is not a direct act of aggression, and he worried if we went with a large number troops it would not only cause a stalemate for us there and get us bombed, but we have also some political repercussions.

HEMMER: He was thinking in the early '60s, the word quagmire, is that what you're saying?

DALLEK: He was thinking quagmire. In fact, there's a wonderful letter from him to Robert McNamara, in which he says, Bob, we have to remember -- he's talk about the invasion of Cuba now, invasion of Cuba -- he said, we have remember what happened to the British in the Boar War, the Russians in the Finnish War of 1940, to us in North Korea. He says, we could get bogged done.

HEMMER: Let me put up a quote the use in the book: "The first advice I'm going to give my successor," JFK says, "is to watch the generals and to avoid feeling that their opinions on military matters were worth a damn." What was he saying?

DALLEK: He was very skeptical of the military. When he was in the Navy during World War II, he wrote letters complaining about the Navy chiefs that he dealt with. During the Bay of Pigs, after the Bay of Pigs, he felt he was misled by the CIA and the military, and he didn't trust them. There is a wonderful conversation we have captured on tape in which he says, these fellows in the foreign service, they have no cojones, no cojones. These guys in the military, they have cojones, but they don't have any brains, and he was very skeptical.

HEMMER: Yes, let's talk about the medications. It appears that there is extensive information here, perhaps not as widely known in the past, about how much medication he was using. Was he addicted?

DALLEK: No, he was a man with terrible health problems. And I was the first one to get into these extensive medical records that are held at the JFK Library. Janet Trevelle (ph), one of his White House physicians, she kept these records. What they show is, for example, he was hospitalized nine times between 1955 and 1957 for a variety of problems. He had prostatisis. He had terrible cholesterol problems. He had back problems. He had Addison's Disease, the malfunctioning of his adrenal glands, terrible back problems, and he was on massive amounts of medication.

Now they have something called a MAR, medicine administration record, showing day by day how much medicine he was on. I looked to see if in fact these medications had any impact on his conduct of the office, the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was as lucid, as thoughtful...

HEMMER: What accounts for that then? You're not a doctor, but what accounts for that?

DALLEK: Well, I had a doctor who worked with me, my friend Jeff Kellman (ph). He worked very closely with me. I think if it weren't for the medicines, I don't think he ever could have been president. I don't think he could have functioned as effectively as he did.

HEMMER: Quickly, the book is called "An Unfinished Life." Had he lived, what would he have finished?

DALLEK: Well, if he had lived, he would have won a second term, run against Barry Goldwater, won handily, taken to the Congress huge majorities, as Lyndon Johnson did. He would have passed all his domestic agenda -- civil rights, war on poverty, Medicare, aid to education, Department of Transportation. And I think he would have gotten us out of Vietnam.

HEMMER: It's a talker. People are talking about it today. Robert Dallek.

Great to see you again. We'll talk in the future, I'm certain.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com