by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey
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Just one week after the assassination of her husband, Jacqueline Kennedy invited respected political journalist Theodore H. White to conduct a personal interview. During their discussion, she strongly suggested that the article should include a direct comparison of President John F. Kennedy’s short time in office to Camelot, the then-wildly popular Broadway musical about King Arthur. And so, in his essay for Life magazine, White acquiesced—describing the Kennedy administration as “a magic moment in American history, when gallant men danced with beautiful women, when great deeds were done, when artists, writers, and poets met at the White House, and the barbarians behind the walls held back.”
It was all hyperbole, of course, and he knew it.