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Three days after then-Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for president on January 2, 1960, he invited two Newsweek journalists, bureau chief Ben Bradlee (who would go on to be a legendary editor of the Washington Post) and correspondent James M. Cannon (who would go on to be an aide to Gerald Ford). Lucky for us Cannon brought a tape recorder. A transcript of the session is in the October issue of Smithsonian magazine. Along with the Senator and the two reporters, Jacqueline Kennedy and Bradlee's wife Tony occasionally chime in.

CANNON: Don’t you?



JFK: No, I don’t. I don’t enjoy. I’d rather read a book on a plane than talk to the fellow next to me, and my grandfather wanted to talk to everybody else. I’d rather not go out to dinner.

T. BRADLEE: You look as though you enjoy it. Which helps.

B. BRADLEE: But Jack, that whole projection that comes with modern times.

JFK: I think I just happen to fit now. I mean, I think people don’t like this.

JACQUELINE KENNEDY: I think that’s a nineteenth-century politician, don’t you, like your grandfather, that you people are suspicious of ?

B. BRADLEE: Now the politicians have to be constantly on the air.

JFK: ... I have a particular type of personality which, I don’t look like a politician, and all the rest, which helps me. Everybody isn’t an extrovert in politics. I would say that a lot of the Senate certainly are not extroverts ...

B. BRADLEE: But Jack, I mean, you are! No?

JFK: No, I don’t think I am, actually.

B. BRADLEE: But you like it. And you live on it.

JFK: All these things may be true. Listen, I’m just saying, what I would be doing, you know I don’t go out to dinner.

B. BRADLEE: I know, I’m not trying to provoke you.

JFK: I understand. I’d be delighted if I had Hubert Humphrey’s disposition. He thrives on this. He loves to go out and campaign for five days. It’s a lot of work. I just don’t think you have to have that type of personality to be successful today in politics. I think you have to be able to communicate a sense of conviction and intelligence and rather, some integrity. That’s what you have to be able to do. This hail-fellow is passé in many ways. Those three qualities are really it. Now, I think that some people can do that. I think I do that well. I mean, I’ve been really successful, politically. I think I can do that. But it isn’t anything to do with being able to go out and just love it…

CANNON: Does it ever concern you that you have lost your sense of privacy? You obviously can’t have ... since everybody knows you now.

JFK: That’s the real pleasure about Jamaica in a way. You really can’t go any place par- ticularly now without ... But I don’t mind, I think that’s part of running, so I’m delighted, really. I used to walk down the streets in ’45 and nobody knew me. Now that’s fifteen years of effort has gone into getting known. I mean, it isn’t pleasant for the person, but as an invest- ment of energy it represents some ...

CANNON: What’s your reaction when someone comes up and says, “I saw you on television”?

JFK: They come from Massachusetts? [laughter] It’s all right. I don’t mind. I’m asking their support, so, you know.

CANNON: Do you take any special efforts to maintain a sense of privacy? Do you have a private phone? Unlisted?

JFK: I do. But everybody seems to have it.