The Kennedys: An enduring saga

Last night and for three more nights this week, the History Channel will broadcast The Kennedys, a riveting miniseries on the lives of the leading players of the iconic family  President John F. Kennedy (Greg Kinnear), his wife Jacqueline (Katie Holmes), the patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy (Tom Wilkinson) and Robert F. Kennedy (Barry Pepper).

Pepper, of Saving Private Ryan fame, won an Oscar at the recent Emmy Awards as Best Actor for a Miniseries for his sensitive portrayal of RFK, the ever-supportive son and brother.

The Kennedys was not shown on the History Channel in the US because the family objected to its sensitive contents, an executive of History Channel told me during the premiere of the first part of the miniseries at the Power Plant Mall. So in a sense, this is the first showing by History of the miniseries, and its premiere in Asia as well.

The Kennedys’ airing in Asia comes virtually at the same time that another Kennedy, 51-year-old Kara Kennedy, eldest child of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, passed away. Ted Kennedy died at age 77 from a brain tumor, an accomplished legislator who enjoyed the gift of years withheld from his brother Joe Jr., JFK and RFK.

And now his daughter dies after a workout in a gym, about nine years after she discovered she had lung cancer and just over two years after eulogizing her beloved father. She had been declared cancer-free a couple of years ago, so her death surprised many, including her own mother Joan. She is the first of her generation to die of natural causes because her cousins John Jr. and Michael died from accidents and another cousin David from a suspected drug overdose.

Indeed, the triumphs and tragedies that swirl around The Kennedys like mountain mist continue to linger, fascinating us, intriguing us, binding us to their unraveling. We are glued, otherwise no one would bankroll such a production as The Kennedys. This family was probably the template of the clans that were the pivot of such unforgettable miniseries as Captains and the Kings, Rich Man Poor Man, Dynasty, Falcon Crest and Dallas.

It’s been 50 years since JFK’s inauguration, and at the moment, there isn’t a single Kennedy holding high office (well, Maria Kennedy Shriver was once married to former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger). But we remain fascinated with the Kennedys because their lives seemed to be the stuff of fiction rather than fact, with almost unbelievable twists and turns that make us wonder if perhaps the gods had scripted the Kennedys’ lives to keep us mortals entertained, and to prove that ultimately, the unseen hand of destiny makes for the best screenplay of them all.

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Just last week, on the eve of the Asian premiere of The Kennedys, Caroline Kennedy decided to release the tapes, totaling eight hours, of the interviews her late mother gave to historian Arthur Schlesinger in 1964, four months after John F. Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas.

John F. Kennedy with wife Jackie. Photo by ABBIE ROWE

I have read several biographies of this famous yet mysterious woman, but none was based on interviews she gave to the writer. All sources cited in these bios were either friends or acquaintances who were not authorized to speak on her behalf.

And now, you hear her voice, breathless, whispery, husky, telling her own story. Suddenly, it’s like the icing on the cake drips over all sides  you have more than enough.

I heard snippets of the tapes in a special aired on ABC News and hosted by Diane Sawyer, who said the tapes made one feel like you “were sitting on the couch” with Jackie as she looked back at her life with JFK at one of the most historic periods of modern times. You hear ice cubes clinking, and someone striking a match. You hear children, and at one point, Schlesinger asks John Jr., then three, what happened to his father.

“He has gone to heaven,” the boy says. Schlesinger asks if he remembers his dad, and he says yes. But when pressed, “What do you remember about him,” John exclaims, “I don’t remember anything!”

The tapes, which was the result of seven interview sessions with Schlesinger, were locked in a vault at the JFK Library in Boston. A time capsule of sorts. Jackie’s instructions were to make them public only 50 years after her death, which would be in 2044. Schlesinger himself passed away in 2007. The generation who knew her, and of her, would have been gone by 2044. Perhaps, that is the reason Caroline decided to share the tapes with the public now, the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy presidency, to share a part of her mother in her own words. Not through anyone else’s. A book on these tapes, perhaps the most sought-after tapes since Watergate, has also been published (and thus I can’t wait for my brother-in-law Ping Sotto to arrive from the US with my fresh-off-the press copy).

According to wire reports, the tapes “show both the tenderness of the most iconic of US first ladies  and her acid side.” She has some irreverent comments about President Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King and Indira Gandhi.

“In more than eight hours of interviews, Jackie’s love for her husband shines through and despite candid comments on many topics she never mentions his serial infidelities  an aspect of the Kennedy White House that the media also deliberately ignored,” says the Agence France Presse.

There is a part that seems almost straight out of Jerry Maguire. During the tense Cuban missile crisis, which historians say was the closest the world ever got to a nuclear war with Russian missiles aimed at the US, Jackie was summoned to the White House by JFK from their weekend home. He probably wanted to apprise her of the situation  and say goodbye before he sent her and their children away to a bomb shelter somewhere.

“Please don’t send me anywhere. If anything happens, we’re all going to stay right here with you,” she recalls telling JFK. She retells those moments in a voice laden with love and devotion for her husband, whom she obviously adored despite everything.

She said she never left the White House and told JFK that even if there wasn’t enough room in the bomb shelter there, she and the children would stay by his side.

“Please, then I just want to be on the lawn when it happens  you know  but I just want to be with you, and I want to die with you, and the children do, too  than live without you,” she remembers telling her husband.

Now isn’t that just the stuff of telenovelas? Long after the Kennedys are gone, their lives will endure.

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