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ALS as first lady, signed “Jackie,” one page, 6.25 x 9.25, [February 15, 1962]. Handwritten letter to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, in full: “If Senator Thurmond ever asks for these pictures do you think Executive Privilege should be invoked? Until the PT-109 sails again.” In very fine condition.
This letter was sold at Heritage Auctions in 2023 and was accompanied by its original White House transmittal envelope, which was hand-addressed by Jacqueline Kennedy to ‘The honorable Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense, By Hand.’ While this allows us to safely confirm the recipient's identity as McNamara, unfortunately, the envelope no longer accompanies the letter.
At the time this letter was penned, a Senate subcommittee was investigating whether military leaders had been curbed in their efforts to speak out against Communist imperialism. At its January 31, 1962 meeting, South Caroline Senator Strom Thurmond asked Willis D. Lawrence, assistant director for policy and procedure in the Defense Department, for the name of the person responsible for revising a statement prepared by Lieutenant General Arthur G. Trudeau for a House committee, deleting descriptions of a Communist threat. Lawrence replied, ‘I must respectfully decline to answer the question.’ Thurmond protested. Lawrence said he was carrying out the instructions of Defense Secretary McNamara not to ‘answer any question that associated any particular reviewer with any particular speech or article.’
On February 9, 1962, the committee recalled Lawrence. McNamara, seated next to him, began to speak. Thurmond objected. McNamara read a letter from President Kennedy invoking the doctrine of Executive Privilege, his right to withhold information, to prevent the identification of the Pentagon censor. In this offered letter, Mrs. Kennedy makes light of the conflict, suggesting that her photos were just as sensitive as the identity of the Pentagon employee.
Of further interest is Kennedy’s valediction, a rare reference to the PT-109, the torpedo boat manned by President John F. Kennedy during World War II. In August 1943, a Japanese destroyer rammed and sunk the ship. Kennedy's efforts to save his crew made him a decorated war hero and inspired a 1963 film by the same name.
From the Estate of Robert S. McNamara.
Provenance: Heritage Auctions, November 2023.
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