What do you think?
Rate this book
AVEC KENNDY
As press secretary and close friend to John F. Kennedy, from the early days of the Democratic primary through the Presidential years, Pierre Salinger offer an expert and warmly human perspective on the founding and forging of the New Frontier, and the fantastic complexities and pressures that go with being press secretary to the President of the United States. Illustrated.
460 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1967
2 people are currently reading
84 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 8, 2021
John F. Kennedy was the first American President to allow live television broadcasts of his news conferences, and Pierre Salinger, a suave, half-French investigative reporter, managed that new medium and the White House press corps with "wit, enthusiasm and considerable disdain for detail," as The New York Times put it in 1962. With his bushy eyebrows, Cuban cigars and overall Mafia-boss appearance, he was the first presidential press secretary to become a celebrity in his own right.
As a member of the White House staff, he described his job as "a reporter for the rest of the press," operating in a "kind of no man's land" between the president and reporters; Kennedy called him "plucky Pierre." Salinger once conducted a press briefing in a party hat at a seafood restaurant in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Another time he swapped jokes on a visit to Nikita S. Khrushchev's dacha.
That flamboyant facade, however, hid cultured tastes and a lifelong passion for music, art, poetry, wine, women and fine food. Pierre Salinger was a child prodigy who played a grand piano before he learned to read, and he was the one who invited musicians like Pablo Casals and Igor Stravinsky to the White House. He spoke fluent French and became Jacqueline Kennedy's ally in her belief that America was ready for a higher culture.
His almost clown-like amiability intended to generate welcoming respect for the press corps, which conveyed the Kennedy administration's daily efforts to the nation, also concealed his shrewdness and calculation, writes Kennedy and later Johnson speechwriter Richard Goodwin in his memoir Remembering the Sixties.
Wonderfully, even though this memoir's main character was supposed to be President Kennedy, the debonair press secretary never exits the stage. He is always at the very core of the narrative.
After Robert F. Kennedy hired him as an investigator for the Senate rackets committee, Salinger went on to join John F. Kennedy's Senate staff, and the 1960 presidential campaign. "See Pierre," he writes with pride, became a favorite directive in Kennedy headquarters. As White House press secretary, he announced, explained and defended many of Kennedy's most important actions and policies. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, he was the one who covered up the President's sudden return from Chicago to Washington by claiming, on John Kennedy's orders, that President Kennedy had a cold.
As any investigative journalist, though, his instinct was to reveal, not to cover up. After being kept in the dark about the Bay of Pigs invasion, Salinger confronted the President "to say that I couldn't continue as press secretary if I wasn't notified about big events like this." According to his claims, by the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, he knew everything that was happening in the administration, although he could not notify the press.
Avoiding such delicate topics as John Kennedy's affairs – "[the public] should know if a president is corrupt or drunk much of the time, but if a president has a mistress occasionally and it doesn't affect his presidency, I don't see what harm that does" – he builds his narrative around his private observations of and interactions with John F. Kennedy, which he delivers with good-natured, witty humor. His fondness for the President, which bordered on adoration, pervades every page of the memoir.
The reader will learn that throughout his presidency, John F. Kennedy fervently supported the struggle for civil rights, inviting several dozen African leaders to the White House and becoming the first person to ever dance with African American women at an inaugural ball.
John Kennedy was also an avid supporter of the arts, creating the position of Special Consultant on the Arts in 1962 and establishing the General Services Administration Art in Architecture Program to make the approach to architecture in the country more artistic.
He was the last President to wear a top hat on Inauguration Day; despite disliking hats, he chose to observe the tradition. He also began another tradition – having an inaugural poet – by asking Robert Frost to recite “The Gift Outright." Frost had other ideas and wrote an entirely new poem entitled “Dedication" for the occasion. There was just one problem: it was a bright and sunny day, and Frost, who was 87 years old – had trouble reading the copy of the poem he had brought with him, so he ended up reciting “The Gift Outright” from memory.
He could read at the incredible pace of 1,200 words per minute, while an average adult can read about 200-250 words per minute, and was a James Bond fanatic, saying, "I wish I had a James Bond on my staff."
Always brimming with ideas and youthful energy, he once happened on a letter by President Theodore Roosevelt to his Navy Chief in which the Bully Pulpit challenged all Navy sailors to prove their fitness by walking fifty miles. To rotund Pierre Salinger's horror, John Kenney decided to recreate this activity, but with his White House staff personnel, and chose his press secretary, whose only sport activity had been playing golf... sitting in a golf cart, to lead the hike and inspire overweight Americans to exercise. So relentless was the President in the face of Salinger's pleas for mercy that "plucky Pierre" had no other choice but to surrender himself to the press a day before the event was going to take place.
In general, WITH KENNEDY is a heartfelt tribute to President John F. Kennedy, written by a close friend and huge admirer, who glosses over all President John Kennedy's shortcomings. Pierre Salinger tells lesser-known insider facts and stories and makes one laugh frequently with his humorous and often self-mocking descriptions of his interactions with President Kennedy.
As a member of the White House staff, he described his job as "a reporter for the rest of the press," operating in a "kind of no man's land" between the president and reporters; Kennedy called him "plucky Pierre." Salinger once conducted a press briefing in a party hat at a seafood restaurant in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Another time he swapped jokes on a visit to Nikita S. Khrushchev's dacha.
That flamboyant facade, however, hid cultured tastes and a lifelong passion for music, art, poetry, wine, women and fine food. Pierre Salinger was a child prodigy who played a grand piano before he learned to read, and he was the one who invited musicians like Pablo Casals and Igor Stravinsky to the White House. He spoke fluent French and became Jacqueline Kennedy's ally in her belief that America was ready for a higher culture.
His almost clown-like amiability intended to generate welcoming respect for the press corps, which conveyed the Kennedy administration's daily efforts to the nation, also concealed his shrewdness and calculation, writes Kennedy and later Johnson speechwriter Richard Goodwin in his memoir Remembering the Sixties.
Wonderfully, even though this memoir's main character was supposed to be President Kennedy, the debonair press secretary never exits the stage. He is always at the very core of the narrative.
After Robert F. Kennedy hired him as an investigator for the Senate rackets committee, Salinger went on to join John F. Kennedy's Senate staff, and the 1960 presidential campaign. "See Pierre," he writes with pride, became a favorite directive in Kennedy headquarters. As White House press secretary, he announced, explained and defended many of Kennedy's most important actions and policies. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, he was the one who covered up the President's sudden return from Chicago to Washington by claiming, on John Kennedy's orders, that President Kennedy had a cold.
As any investigative journalist, though, his instinct was to reveal, not to cover up. After being kept in the dark about the Bay of Pigs invasion, Salinger confronted the President "to say that I couldn't continue as press secretary if I wasn't notified about big events like this." According to his claims, by the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, he knew everything that was happening in the administration, although he could not notify the press.
Avoiding such delicate topics as John Kennedy's affairs – "[the public] should know if a president is corrupt or drunk much of the time, but if a president has a mistress occasionally and it doesn't affect his presidency, I don't see what harm that does" – he builds his narrative around his private observations of and interactions with John F. Kennedy, which he delivers with good-natured, witty humor. His fondness for the President, which bordered on adoration, pervades every page of the memoir.
The reader will learn that throughout his presidency, John F. Kennedy fervently supported the struggle for civil rights, inviting several dozen African leaders to the White House and becoming the first person to ever dance with African American women at an inaugural ball.
John Kennedy was also an avid supporter of the arts, creating the position of Special Consultant on the Arts in 1962 and establishing the General Services Administration Art in Architecture Program to make the approach to architecture in the country more artistic.
He was the last President to wear a top hat on Inauguration Day; despite disliking hats, he chose to observe the tradition. He also began another tradition – having an inaugural poet – by asking Robert Frost to recite “The Gift Outright." Frost had other ideas and wrote an entirely new poem entitled “Dedication" for the occasion. There was just one problem: it was a bright and sunny day, and Frost, who was 87 years old – had trouble reading the copy of the poem he had brought with him, so he ended up reciting “The Gift Outright” from memory.
He could read at the incredible pace of 1,200 words per minute, while an average adult can read about 200-250 words per minute, and was a James Bond fanatic, saying, "I wish I had a James Bond on my staff."
Always brimming with ideas and youthful energy, he once happened on a letter by President Theodore Roosevelt to his Navy Chief in which the Bully Pulpit challenged all Navy sailors to prove their fitness by walking fifty miles. To rotund Pierre Salinger's horror, John Kenney decided to recreate this activity, but with his White House staff personnel, and chose his press secretary, whose only sport activity had been playing golf... sitting in a golf cart, to lead the hike and inspire overweight Americans to exercise. So relentless was the President in the face of Salinger's pleas for mercy that "plucky Pierre" had no other choice but to surrender himself to the press a day before the event was going to take place.
In general, WITH KENNEDY is a heartfelt tribute to President John F. Kennedy, written by a close friend and huge admirer, who glosses over all President John Kennedy's shortcomings. Pierre Salinger tells lesser-known insider facts and stories and makes one laugh frequently with his humorous and often self-mocking descriptions of his interactions with President Kennedy.
January 28, 2022
Quite informative, bit biased
August 13, 2023
An insightful behind-the-scenes look at the role of a Press Secretary, specifically during the presidency of John F. Kennedy. I found the book in a free library box and was interested in reading more about the Bay of Pigs, Cuban missile crisis, and early years of the Vietnam War. It would have been even better had Salinger paid more than passing mention of the Kennedy administration's response to the Civil Rights Movement.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews