JFK had an intern, too

New York Daily News ^ | 5/12/03 | JAMES GORDON MEEK in Washington and DAVE GOLDINER in New York

[kattracks]

Word that President John F. Kennedy was involved with a teenage intern adds to his reputation as a skirt chaser. Kennedy also has been linked with ...

mob moll Judith Exner ...

Mary Pinchot Meyer ...

and Marilyn Monroe, among others.

President John F. Kennedy carried on an affair with a teenage White House intern and had sex with her on official trips and possibly in the White House, a noted historian said yesterday.

More than three decades before Bill and Monica, JFK squired the attractive 19-year-old, who had only the barest of qualifications for an office job, said Robert Dallek, author of "An Unfinished Life," a new biography of Kennedy.

"She had no skills. She could answer the phone," Dallek told "Dateline NBC." "Apparently, her only skill was to provide sexual release for JFK on those trips and maybe in the White House."

Dallek called the illicit affair one of a long string of "peccadilloes" by the dashing young President — but the only known sexual link to a young intern. "There were lots of women," Dallek told the Daily News. "The real question is: Did it distract him from his job as President? I think it really didn't."

Ironically, the handsome Kennedy was Bill Clinton's boyhood hero. Clinton proudly treasured a video clip of him as a teenager shaking hands with Kennedy during a visit to the White House just four months before JFK was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963.

Revealed by aide

JFK's intern fling was disclosed by one of his White House aides, Barbara Gamarekian, in an oral history that was recently unsealed after gathering dust for years.

Gamarekian told The News she remembers only the woman's first name — and refused to reveal it. Dallek said he does not know the name.

"It amazes me there continues to be such fascination with all things Kennedy," said Gamarekian, now 77 and battling ovarian cancer.

Camelot insiders have said Kennedy's affairs were an open secret in the White House but roused little debate in an era when a President's private life was considered sacrosanct.

Whenever Jacqueline Kennedy was out of town, the chief executive juggled a virtual harem of attractive girlfriends, including mob moll Judith Exner, who claimed she got an abortion arranged by Mafia boss Sam Giancana after JFK made her pregnant, and Mary Pinchot Meyer, who was mysteriously killed months after Kennedy was shot.

There were even whispers of a fling with Marilyn Monroe and insatiable romps with a pair of presidential aides known only as "Fiddle" and "Faddle."

Gamarekian initially asked that the 17 pages in her oral history dealing with the intern be kept secret for a decade, but she later asked the Kennedy Library in Boston, where her account is archived, to keep it sealed.

Dallek persuaded her to reveal the information when he came across the blacked-out pages while doing research for his book, which goes on sale tomorrow

One former reporter still vividly recalls a teenage White House staffer thought to be involved with Kennedy.

The newsman described her as "a colt, young and very trim," with remarkably limited clerical skills.

On a presidential trip, the young woman was spotted with a security escort taking a hotel freight elevator up to the presidential suite, the reporter said. "I don't have anything but the vaguest idea of what went on up there," said the former newsman, who asked not to be identified. "She could have been up there shining his shoes."

The Kennedy Library now will make public the entire transcript, including the racy, 17-page gap.

"We strongly believe in access for one, access for all," said Deborah Leff, the library's director.

Lewinsky mum

The most famous White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, would not bite when asked through a representative about the intern escapade that predated her by four decades.

"What comment could she possibly have?" spokeswoman Barbara Hutson said of Lewinsky, who now is host of a reality dating TV show on Fox. "She didn't see it, so she doesn't know. Basically, because she doesn't watch television."

Along with the intern affair, Dallek's new book includes startling revelations about JFK's health, which the author says was dramatically worse than the public ever knew.

Kennedy — who suffered from chronic back problems and Addison's disease, a rare endocrine disorder — was given last rites three times before he turned 40.

Dallek, who has written respected biographies of Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, said Kennedy was desperate to cover up his painful health woes — along with the extensive medicine he regularly took.

"I think it would have stopped him from being elected," Dallek said.

With Jose Martinez

Originally published on May 12, 2003

[jackbill]

I had understood Kennedy's speech of "Ask not..." was plagiarized as well. It wasn't?

Reports from years ago indicated that that part of the speech was the motto of his prep school, Choate, as in "Ask not what Choate can do for you. Ask what you can do for Choate."

I've seen no confirmation and I doubt that Choate would admit it.

[jackbill]

JFK's intern fling was disclosed by one of his White House aides, Barbara Gamarekian, in an oral history that was recently unsealed after gathering dust for years.

Margaret Carlson, on C-SPAN this morning seemed surprised that the story didn't also mention that Ms. Gamarekian was a long time reporter for the New York Times.

[Fred Mertz]

"She could have been up there shining his shoes."

Or polishing his knob.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Personally, I could care less what liberals think and the connections they might make with comparing Clinton to JFK; I would expect them to think along the lines of "JFK was good, so if they attack Clinton he must be good, too". Let them add to their shame. It won't make me shy away. Maybe I am misunderstanding you. My point is to bring up the fact these men are corrupt and should not, IMO, be running the Country without repentance.

[Richard Kimball]

The only difference here is that no one has suggested, ever, that JFK was trailer trash, in appearance as well as in deed

I don't see that much difference. You do it on a yacht, or in the back of an El Camino with astroturf. Also, as to the affairs not distracting Kennedy, of course they didn't. The drugs did, though. Hmmmm, another way the two Presidents were comparable. Isn't it amazing?

[Lee'sGhost]

"Maybe a few people will think about it and reconsider how best to defend the nation against the CURRENT danger we face."

Or, maybe even get them to consider national defense for the FIRST time.

[bmwcyle]

[ASA Vet]

That book blem my mind

I hate it when my mind gets "blem"ed. ;-)

[Miss Marple]

Given the internet and the rise of talk radio and Fox, there is far less danger from someone like Kennedy than there was 45 years ago. I understand your concern, which is why I make every effort to knock down puff pieces on the Clintons or any of the democrat candidates.

But to many people in this country (and not just liberals, but the great center who isn't ideologically driven) JFK is an historic figure and a hero. There is no getting around it; that is a fact.

Attacks on historical ikons (no matter how undeserved their reputation) are doomed.

Point out the failings of the current crop of democrats all you wish. Continue to track what Bill Clinton is up to. But if the Right should be drawn into a controversy over the reputation of JFK, it will only harm us, and will not advance our efforts one bit. We will be portrayed as vindictive loonies, which although may not bother you personally, will make it darn difficult to win elections.

[shhrubbery!]

"Ironically, the handsome Kennedy was Bill Clinton's boyhood hero."

Somebody please explain to me the "irony" here.

You're right, it isn't ironic.

From dictionary.com:

Usage Note: The words ironic, irony, and ironically are sometimes used of events and circumstances that might better be described as simply “coincidental...”

It's ironic that some who are paid wordsmiths don't understand the meaning of 'ironic.'

[RooRoobird14]

I read the biography "A Question of Character" by Thomas C. Reeves, a professor/historian who totally bought into the Camelot crap and wanted to debunk the negative rumors about his hero, JFK.

Reeve's research for the book took him to a place totally opposite of his original premise: He concluded that JFK was a person of bad character, and his bad character DID affect his his ability to do his job as President.

The SinkEmporer-worshipping LA Times said this about "A Question of Character":

"No issue is more hotly debated than how, or even if, a politician's private life affects his public competence. In "A Question of Character" John F. Kennedy's two lives—public and private—are examined to answer this timely question. Respected historian and biographer Thomas C. Reeves reveals discrepancies between JFK's public persona, which has reached mythic proportions, and his scandalous private behavior......."

"The John Kennedy who emerges from these pages was not a man of good moral character. He was reared not to be good but to win.......Written more in sorrow than in anger, "A Question of Character" explores the sensitive and difficult question of how people, and history itself, ought to judge the relationship between personal character and national leadership."

JFK was a womanizing PIG who demeaned, molested, and exploited almost every woman he came into contact with (similar to his heir apparent, Bill Clinton)

Here it is 40+ years later, and even now new information on JFK's loathsome behavior is still coming out--information previously covered up by Ben Bradlee, Helen Thomas, and other media elite scum.

[Tallguy]

Ah, I see the Clinton machine is gearing up with their "everybody does it" line. Isn't it interesting that this is coming out now, and appearing in the New York Daily News?

You put your finger on it! This isn't news in the sense that JFK's daliances were widely rumored to the point were they have become accepted as fact. This is just one more drop in the bucket. So you have to ask, who does this story help? The Cinton's, of course.

[krunkygirl]

you got me laughing!

[Savage Beast]

Kennedy also had a sense of responsibility and duty.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

What do you expect from a man you goes to Berlin and proclaims that he's a jelly doughnut?

Actually, it's very well known that Kennedy would need a little 'strange' at least once a day.

[T'wit]

Pity about that scowly photo of Judy Exner. She was a knockout and evidently charming too; at least I gather she was very well liked in Kennedy circles.

Better photo: Judy Exner

[Agamemnon]

Why the need zero-sum on discussions/comparisons between Clinton and Kennedy vs Hillary and WWII fascists? All are fair play and open for comment in this forum. Your worrying about farmers and elderly "black" women in WVA is misplaced. They are the past. GWB and what we are laying groundwork for now is the future.

I was helping my son this past weekend with an essay about the Peace of Westphalia (1648) and the the creation of the modern "state." We compared the Reformation vs. the humanistic roots of the "Enlightenment," the American Revolution vs the French (the root of Soviet Communism BTW), gov't "of the People" vs "Statism," Republican conservatism vs Democratic socialism, and a parable of Christ's: the one about the wheat and the tares.

Both systems have their respective roots, and history will all become clear at "harvest" time. US vs USSR supremacy is a race that the US has won and continues to win. Still Kennedy, and stewardship under his Democratic socialists almost lost it for the free world in 1962.

US vs Islamoterrorism in this age this time, where the enemy hit his target on 9/11, was the result of Clinton's stewardship inhereted by Bush who must now pick up the pieces. That said, after this war with Iraq, begun, prosecuted, and won under complete Republican control of the US gov't machinery, in 2003 the US sits astride the world in a way that the Soviets could have only dreamed of.

Why this history lesson? Compare the Bush family vs the Kennedy family in historical US politics; the political aspirations of Prescott Bush vs those of Joe Kennedy. The son, GHWB - the real war hero/pilot vs JFK's PT-109 folly that gave him war-"hero" status. Nixon lost to Kennedy through vote fraud, as did GHWB I suspect, yet GWB won inspite of vote fraud. GWB will destroy the Demo-vote fraud machine by 2004, just watch.

So politically, whose family is in the ascendancy? Is it Bush, or is it Kennedy? Come back to the parable of the wheat and the tares. Harvest time is coming, and the wheat is budding, while the tares seem to be choking themselves off: the tares being the Kennedy-rooted Clintonoids, the wheat being the Mayflower rooted Bush family and it's continued prosperity in leadership and in character from which the whole of America benefits.

Appreciating the roots and similarities of Clinton to Kennedy must be done, as the associations made by the farmer and the elderly black lady of Clinton to Kennedy will only serve to drag down the "legacies" of both -- particularly where the contrast is Bush. Kennedy and Clinton are merely examples of history repeating itself. Their legacies will join the ash heap of history long after their Demo-sycophants are exposed for what they were/are, even as the French, Soviets, and Saddam-ites live up to theirs.

GWB has struck a beast at the root in Iraq which stretches back to a dysfunctional relationship with the Arab and Persian states with the West beginning with post-WWII creation of Israel and West's oil dependency on the Saudi's. Cutting this swath between Saudi's and Iran plants a major American presense on the doorsteps of both of them and Syria too. Iran's mullahs will fall. Carter's "hostage" folly will be healed. Afghanitan 1979 -- Carter's other foreign policy fiasco and the USSR's "Vietnam" is being rectified at this writing. The Saudi "family" will decline in the face of a freed Iraq (as will Syria too). The siphon of oil dollars-for-terror will be squelched by GWB.

Ronald Reagan cleaned up FDR's folly, as the USSR slunk into oblivion. GWB may also be on the verge of finishing off Truman's folly in North Korea. GWB with the help of GHWB may even be able to heal the biggest Truman folly (probably not militarilly but tecnologically): China. Time will tell.

Which brings us back to Kennedy and his illegitimate "child"-Clinton. Castro -- of Kennedy's Bay of Pigs fiasco -- will fall with a push from GWB, and heal the foreign policy debacle that almost got us all killed in 1962, when freedom finally comes to that island nation.

The wheat and the tares. One ignores history at their peril, and with righteousness in ascendancy, be happy that a double weighted "legacy" can be flushed into oblivion, and soon turned away with distain as it will continue to be with so many other historical "nettles."

[jd777]

A lot of people forget JFK praised McCarthy. In public. His brother served faithfully on McCarthy's committee. Bobby made Joe the godfather of his child. JFK called Joe a "fine american". He told people that "Joe might be on to something."

When's the last time you heard George H.W. Bush or Henry Kissinger praise McCarthy? That's right, never. Because it never happened.

[Salvation]

Typical dimocrat.

[Aquinasfan]

It most CERTAINLY did distract him!!! What a CROCK!! JFK was a male whore...just like his admirer Bill Clinton.

Thanks for saving me some typing time.