Monday, February 13, 2012

Once Upon a Secret

 

New book out by a woman who was a nineteen-year-old intern at the White House when Jack Kennedy was the Prez, says they had an affair. Lasted for eighteen months, even once she went back to college. Last time she saw him was a couple of weeks before he was assassinated.


Once Upon a Secret, by Mimi Alford.


Do I believe her? Oh, yes. Jack was ever the horn dog, and from the passages quoted, it sounds like he didn't lose any time. She was a pretty girl, to look at her picture from 1961:



Still is a good-looking woman today at nearly seventy, (below):


Back then, he took her into Jackie's bedroom four days after she arrived and worked his charm upon her virginal body, Hey, hey, baby, welcome to D.C.!


Long been known that power is a major aphrodisiac. 


Why'd she wait almost fifty years to write the book? She says she planned to keep it a secret, told only close family and a couple of friends, but a few years back, she was outed by somebody poking around. She woke up one morning and there was her story in the New York Daily News, and oh, shit!


I won't buy the book. I don't need confirmation that Kennedy was a pussy hound–there is ample evidence of that already made public; plus it sounds as if it's a sad story–she was young, bowled over by the most powerful man on the planet, and while she went along willingly, even down a couple of roads that must have seemed very risque at the time, it messed her up. 


She says it drove her divorce, put her into therapy, and resulted in long-running guilt, and the tone of the excerpts show that. 


Of course, she was only one of a fairly long list of Jack's partners, several of whom were also White House staffers. I wonder if that mitigates it–or makes it worse?


No wonder the man had a bad back. The Tiger Woods of Presidents. Makes you wonder if the guy on the grassy knoll might have been a jealous husband ...


Some tawdry stuff–Hey, my friend Dave (Powers) here is tense, can you, uh, take care of him? and Mimi nodded, and gave the guy a blowjob while Jack watched, right there in the White House swimming pool.


Wonder if the Secret Service got pictures? And where they might be?


Liked Amyl Nitrate poppers, Jack apparently did, though Mimi didn't care for the experience.


Always called him "Mr. President," she said. Never "John" or "Jack."


Um. For those folks who thought Camelot was shining and bright, the revelations after Kennedy's death must have been disheartening. Sad when your golden idols turn out to have feet of clay. 

3 comments:

Shady_Grady said...

I wasn't around in those days so it is fascinating to hear about the different mores. Would it really have been a great shock if any of this had come out then? I mean would folks have been outraged?

Steve Perry said...

Oh, yeah, it would have been a great scandal. This was pre-hippie time, coming out of the Eisenhower years, and we were way more sexist, racist, and Victorian in our attitudes. People were amazed that Kennedy won because he was, after all, a Catholic! (albeit not a practicing one of any note.)

The press knew about Jack's womanizing generally, and they let it lie. Folks thought Jack and Jackie were the perfect couple, they had the cute kids hiding under the Oval Office desk, there was a sense that it was Camelot.

Entitled White Guys ran the country, and they figured getting laid was just one of the perks. Have a glass of scotch, slip into some sweet young thing's embrace, all boys-will-be-boys, and hypocritical out the wazoo. I suspect that if any of the Kennedy men had found out their wives were having affairs, they would have blown major arteries in rage. But on them, it looked different ...

Ed said...

"jealous husband" or angry dad.