As Camelot Began, November 2007

The Private Princess, September 1999

More …

When plans for an official presidential trip to Paris in 1961 were under way, Jackie expressed her hope to meet the flamboyant writer and social critic, who was now France’s minister of culture. Jackie confided her interest to Nicole Alphand, wife of the French ambassador to the United States and a member of Jackie’s inner circle. “Her dearest wish was to hear her favorite author comment on the master art works she already knew,” Nicole remembered. She communicated Jackie’s interest in an introduction, and Malraux “immediately gave his accord.” Arrangements were finalized for a meeting in Paris during the much-anticipated springtime visit.

Alas, the careful planning was nearly undone by an overwhelming tragedy that threw plans for the meeting into doubt. On May 23, Malraux’s two sons, Pierre-Gauthier, 21, and Vincent, 18, were killed in an automobile accident. Upon learning of the death of Malraux’s sons, Jackie immediately contacted Nicole and Hervé Alphand at their home in Paris. “Monsieur Malraux must not feel obligated to keep his promise,” she told them.

On May 31, 1961, the Kennedys arrived in the French capital to find cheerful mobs of well-wishers. The alluring couple enchanted throngs of Parisians—the crowd was estimated at half a million—who chanted “Vive Zhack-ee” and “Kenne-dee” along the flag-draped city streets. President Kennedy, who spoke mediocre French, reveled in the attention. Jackie’s star power proved irresistible. Beautifully regal, she impressed onlookers by answering questions from reporters in superb French. White House press secretary Pierre Salinger had arranged an interview with French national television before the visit. Jackie conversed in fluent French for 15 minutes, discussing her interest in the arts and her love of Paris. The interview was broadcast the night before the Kennedys’ arrival and, according to Salinger, was a factor in the tremendous reception they received.

Progress on the diplomatic front, however, was harder to come by. President Charles de Gaulle, unpersuaded by Kennedy’s promise that the United States would defend Western Europe, refused to back off from plans to develop nuclear weapons. According to Kennedy aide Theodore Sorensen, de Gaulle was “irritating, intransigent, insufferably vain, inconsistent and impossible to please.” Yet de Gaulle found himself taken with Jackie, who chatted with him in her “low, slow French” during lunch in the Élysée Palace. Jackie, de Gaulle told her husband, “knew more French history than most Frenchwomen.”

The following day, Malraux was Jackie’s guide for a tour of Paris’s cultural highlights. As camera bulbs flashed, the minister escorted her through the Musée du Jeu de Paume so that his guest could see the Impressionist masterpieces painted by her favorite artists. Malraux was smitten with his celebrated guest, and in photographs in the Parisian press he appears beguiled by the American First Lady. The feeling was apparently mutual. “Jackie bewitches, simpers, and bubbles with sophisticated banter” alongside her French escort, noted one writer. In addition to sharing literary and cultural interests, they also shared a quick sense of humor. “What did you do before you married Jack Kennedy?” Malraux asked her. “J’ai été pucelle” (I was a little virgin), she answered.

It was no secret that Jackie was captivated by him. Her social secretary, Letitia Baldrige, observed that Mrs. Kennedy held Malraux in such esteem that she developed a palpable “intellectual crush” on the charming French minister. Baldrige acknowledged their intellectual synergy, saying that Malraux in many respects became Jackie’s most important cultural mentor: “She listened to him and wrote to him. Malraux was her prize.”

Upon the Kennedys’ return to the U.S., various official invitations were extended to Malraux to visit Washington. Despite well-choreographed overtures, Malraux declined several invitations. It was only after Jackie expressed her personal interest that the minister acquiesced and agreed to visit Washington, in May 1962. Once the dates for the visit had been formalized, Jackie scrambled to action. It was a tall order to entertain properly the visiting dignitary, who put so much stress on the quality of cultural attributes, and the First Lady spent five weeks meticulously preparing for the minister’s arrival. “She was a completely disciplined creature,” Baldrige recalled. The formal state dinner in honor of Malraux would be fresh and imaginative and executed with high style.