I didn't see Meredith Viera's entire interview with Mimi Alford, the former White House intern who wrote a memoir about her affair with President John F. Kennedy. I saw Viera interviewed about the story and I saw Alford appear on the Today Show the day after the piece aired on NBC's new newsmagazine show, Rock Center with Brian Williams.
But the more I learn about this story, the more I want to get the book.
Alford was 19 when she interned at the White House, a sweet young, naive virgin. According to her, four days into her internship she began an 18-month affair with the President of the United States.
In today's Washington Post, it was revealed that President Kennedy had asked her to give his brother, Ted, a lil somethin' somethin'.
According to the Post article, they were in a Boston hotel in 1963 when Kennedy said: “Mimi, why don’t you take care of my baby brother. He could stand a little relaxation.”
Earlier in their "relationship," the Post piece notes, JFK had "urged her to perform a sex act on one of his top aides." And she did - while he watched. But this time, she refused the President's request to give his brother "a little relaxation."
The Post story, which you can read in its entirety here, reveals that after Alford returned to college, the president would fly her back to D.C., and that they continued to see each other even after she got engaged - but not sexually. She writes in her book that that's proof that she "wasn’t just a plaything to him, that he enjoyed my company . . . as a friend."
The New York Times really took Alford to task in its review of the book. Check out the review here.
But the book is titled, Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath and I think I may pick it up this weekend. I wonder if Barnes and Nobles has any Groupon or LivingSocial vouchers.
Anyway, what do you think of this story?
Does this revelation change your mind about President Kennedy?
Does this story surprise you?
Do you think Ms. Alford was just a naive teenager who was taken advantage of by an older man with power (the President of the United States)?
Do you think she should have come forth after nearly 50 years?
Let me know your thoughts.
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2 comments:
I still don't understand why she's coming out with this now. Her explanation just doesn't do it for me. She's talking about something that happened 40 or 50 years ago...come on now. As for JFK, my image of him was tarnished by the story. To be a womanizer is one thing (I could get pass that), but to pimp out a young 19/20 year old girl to your boys??!!!??! Disgusting! I can't understand her saying that he cared about her after that. NO ONE who cared anything about me would ask me to do something like that. Horrible!
She said the story was unearthed by someone else and she wanted to get her side of it out before the court of public opinion judged her. I can dig that.
Based on what I read, the whole thing is disgusting, but not surprising. You've got to have some big ballz to be president of these united states of America. And he was already a known womanizer.
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