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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Jackie Kennedy was a complete snob about the Irish and others

Posted on Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 08:16 AM

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New book highlights her disdain for those less exalted

What comes across in the new book about Jackie Onassis and her conversations with historian Arthur Schlesinger is how much of a snob she was.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, she was after all a child born into privilege, Yale-educated father and a wealthy Irish American mother.

Art history, poetry, French history and literature were her preferred pursuits we read and you might also add, contempt for those lesser classes who failed to see the importance of such aesthetic pursuits.

Consistently, throughout the book that snobbishness comes through.

She dislikes her mother-in-law Rose Kennedy because she is too Catholic and has a persecution complex.

She dislikes the Irish mafia around Kennedy because she thinks they are very bitter people.

Why she even complains about Irish stew being made in the White House kitchen and she wants to replace it with proper French cuisine.

She dislikes Lyndon Johnson because he’s a Texas rube who should not be trusted with anything.

She dislikes Martin Luther King because he had affairs.

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She fails to see the complete person in all her comments, merely taking the superficial as the reality.

Johnson and King together dragged civil rights into the 20th century.

They have no equal in history.

The Irish mafia that she complained about propelled Kennedy to the presidency and played key roles in creating the ‘Camelot’ mystique right after he was killed.

On the other hand every obscure French or foreign intellectual, painter, artiste is treated as the greatest genius on earth. Most are now utterly forgotten

Perhaps she was a woman of her times, afraid to go beneath the manners and the social niceties that dominated a wife’s role back in the early 1960s.

Typical of the period her husband could do not wrong, Jack Kennedy comes across as an almost saintly presence, ironic when we know now he was all too human when it came to human failings.

She knew of course, but choose to bury it in the fashion of the times but canonizing her husband makes her book far less authentic.

Jackie Kennedy proved herself before and after leaving the White House, becoming a woman of the world.

She raised two great kids, given the incredible pressure she was under.

She also saved so many historic buildings in Washington from developers not to mention landmarks such as Grand Central Station in New York that her legacy as a great First Lady is secure.

But there is no doubt also a French-influenced disdain for the unwashed who failed to see the greatness in idle intellectual pursuit and vanity.

Perhaps we should never be surprised that our heroes are mere mortals after all.

In her own voice in this new book, Jackie makes all that abundantly clear.

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AngelPrecious | Sep 14, 2011, 02:10 PM EDT

I just watched the special on Jackie Kennedy last night on TV. Niall seems to have picked out the very worst statements and put them together into something rather different than portrayed on the tapes. Jackie also giggled a bit when she made some of those comments. Actually after reading a bit about her in the past few days on this rag, I was prepared to dismiss her. However, Jackie came across as a good First Lady. Skipping the last half of the program was a mistake, nicgearailt!!! THAT was the best part!

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pttibgf | Sep 14, 2011, 01:38 PM EDT

Jackie's mom was Janet Auchincloss...I'm sure she was worried Jackie might become an alcoholic considering that her father was one. What that meant in the 40s & 50s cannot be expressed...it had to be experienced. She was a product of her upbringing & the times & was a great success @ achieving who she was raised to become. RIP Jackie...we loved trying to be a tenth as wonderful.

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maryemoore | Sep 14, 2011, 01:14 PM EDT

What I want to know is why Caroline Kennedy felt compelled to release these tapes? They certainly do not show her mother in a good light. So much of the content on the tapes is cringe-worthy. Jackie comes across as a snobby Stepford wife.

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nicgearailt | Sep 14, 2011, 12:43 PM EDT

I guess it was honest...she knew that it would not be published while she was alive,so she would not have to answer any questions...I am not surprised..I am sure we all have opinions that we would never express outside family.There was a lot that was good about her...she made sure President Kennedy had a funeral like no one else..added all the little touches that were significant and memorable.Her husband was very likable She was a pretty smart mother and that is her legacy. I have high regard for Caroline.Bad things happened to John when his mother was not around.I found the tv program tedious...I skipped the last half I also believe that Maria Shriver will one day write of her family's feelings about Jackie O!!She should!!

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hyattsville | Sep 14, 2011, 12:36 PM EDT

Well it was 1964, and she was only 34 and just widowed, cut her some slack. We’ve all made cringe-worthy diary entries at certain periods of our lives. And yes I’m sure that even you Niall have said and written certain things that you wish you could take back! It was brave of Caroline Kennedy to release the tapes knowing, I’m sure, that they would elicit much criticism and hysteria. IC is overly fixated on this reveal by the way. Surely there are other newsworthy items to report on!

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Suivness10 | Sep 14, 2011, 12:18 PM EDT

Is anybody surprised?

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adrienrain | Sep 14, 2011, 12:16 PM EDT

I agree with the judgment that she was human! We've got to stop thinking that some flawed human will lead us into the light and do it ourselves. But who could object to cooking Irish stew? After all, all you have to do is open a can of Dinty Moore's!

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adrienrain | Sep 14, 2011, 12:13 PM EDT

Rose Kennedy was a very devout Catholic and would never have gotten a divorce no matter what. Adultery? That was not Joseph's biggest fault. He had Rosemary lobotomized and wouldn't let Rose see her. She also did not believe in birth control. When they decided not to have more children, they stopped sleeping together. They are the kind of people who might say, 'the law is hard, but it is the law.' They followed their beliefs quite rigidly - in his case, his will seems to have been his law, and in hers, it was her faith. But the children knew about their father's affairs and accepted that as normal. Marlene Dietrich told of being invited to the WH and being propositioned by Jack. She refused and left, but before she got away, he asked her if the reason she refused was because maybe she had slept with his dad............

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trgngsteroflove | Sep 14, 2011, 12:10 PM EDT

First, you might try a little proofreading. Example:"She knew of course, but choose to bury it..." There seems to be a bit of confusion about the "Irish mafia." The Boston Irish mafia is a metaphor for a criminal organization. It is not the same as the political operatives that surrounded JFK. As for the book, it is likely that JKO (This may be the first use of initials as a contraction of her name) was just venting. She certainly wasn't a snob in public. She also developed a great friendship with Lyndon Johnson after her husband was assassinated. It is understandable that she would have some resentments of the Kennedys. They haven't exactly been the pinnacle of decency or fidelity. This is likely a book that will go nowehre. Who cares?

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Deidra47 | Sep 14, 2011, 12:02 PM EDT

She was always a "snob". And for her to talk about the "affairs" King had when her own husband would "bed" any female that walked buy....that's rich, folks.

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erieshark | Sep 14, 2011, 11:36 AM EDT

I have read endless articles and books on the Kennedy family and none of this comes as a surprise. Jackie tried to keep her children away from Ethel's unruly Irish brood. She and Rose did not have a warm relationship but she did have one with Joseph Kennedy who kept her in designer clothes. She has a mixed legacy - she is the widow of a slain President, she lost a baby, her two children were a credit to her mothering skills, but she went on to marry Aristotle Onassis in the grand tradition of women marrying for wealth. She did bring a cultural awareness to the White House (think of those dreadful Johnsons & Nixons), and was a preservationist. What she has to say is absoutely not surprising one bit.

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Porickseantuny | Sep 14, 2011, 11:35 AM EDT

Reverend King said you should be judged by the content of your character. That's what Jackie did in his regard, but not Jack's. Could it be her hidden racism?

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MaryTheresa | Sep 14, 2011, 10:47 AM EDT

Defending the Irish Mafia of Boston is lousy jounalism. My Uncle, a first generation Irish American Boston Police Detective, made sure they did not get near his two attractive sisters, and warned them to not go to their private parties. Jackie had every reason to dislike them. They were thugs plain and simple, and their disrespect for women was huge. You should be ashamed of yourself for defending them. And as for Rose. Yes she was a good woman, but just last week my 93 year old Boston Irish mother, said "how could she have remained married to Joe, as he flaunted his Hollywood Mistress to the world, as Rose went to church here in Boston. Jackie could not have been that much of a snob to have raised Caroline and John, 2 very caring and socially concerned individuals. YOU need a Reality check.

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edmundburke | Sep 14, 2011, 10:47 AM EDT

Niall's article and these comments go quite a bit overboard on the notion that Jackie, as a "trophy wife" was "a woman of her times". Nonsense. The media has been too effective in selling the hogwash line that the "Feminist Movement" of the late 60's changed everything for women. The evolution of the culture as to the role of women had been changing dramatically since the early 20th century, and by Jackie's "Mad Men" era, there were plenty of women proclaiming independent thinking, building careers, and hardly conforming to the "little woman" model Jackie seemed to think was de rigueur (to use her preferred language) for married women. Indeed, she was well aware of liberated women of her time, like Clare Booth Luce (heaven forfend, a Republican!), whose departure from Jackie's even then antiquated notion of womanhood moved her to disparagingly suggest that they were simply lesbians. For all her sophistication, Jackie's insecurity in contrast to the confidence and independence of women like Luce, Rand, Helen Gurley Brown, de Beauvoir, and countless others prompted her to resort to the mentality of a street corner low life and dismiss them as homosexuals! Some class.

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cillowen | Sep 14, 2011, 10:42 AM EDT

the mousy marlyn monroe voice speaks to the whore she was.

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