March 24, 1961 - New First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy interviewed by Sander Vanocur

Mrs. Kennedy, what changes, if any, have you made in the White House since you moved in? I really haven't made many, Mr. Van Ocker, because one can't. It doesn't belong to anyone but to everyone in this country. Yes, but you live here. You certainly have a part of the White House. Doesn't the First Family have a right to make some changes in the White House? Yes, one can make one's private bedrooms as one wishes. Everything else is under the approval of the Fine Arts Committee, which I think is marvelous. We do gradual things here and there. More to come, but not very much so far. What do you think has to be done to the White House? The thing I care about most is to make it more of a museum with more pieces of beautiful furniture that belong to old presidents. There's very little antique furniture here now. And most of what is dates from 1902. Why isn't there more antique furniture? I would have thought that they'd been collecting this since the beginning of this republic. The thing is, Thomas Jefferson did the most wonderful thing of putting in beautiful furniture. And the sad thing was the War of 1812 when everything was burned. Then they had to start piecemeal since then. And every president who came could sell what he didn't like, what was there. And they used to have auctions in Lafayette Square. And then every president could change the decor if he wanted. Once President Grant had the blue room violet, Chester Arthur had it robin's egg blue. And finally that was all stopped at the time of Theodore Roosevelt, 1902. So now one can't change it anymore. Well, if I may say so without disrespect, every time I've been in the White House, it's always seemed to be a rather cold and austere place. Have you found it so? Well, I remember the first time I came here as a child feeling that. I was 11 years old and my mother brought me here on Easter vacation. And I felt very much what you say. So I do try to make it warmer now when I think of all the school children who come through here. I think there should be flowers when there can be and fires going. And the pictures and to make it look rather like a home and not so frightening. But now the school children who come through the White House, what do you think they take away with them beyond the fact that they can say back home, I was there. Do they know what they've seen? No, and I think they should. The first thing I'd like to do is have a catalog made for the White House with a description and the history and every piece and every room and who gave it so that they can learn history. And to get a catalog, one must get a curator. We're working on that now. And he will be the historian of the White House. No one will give us beautiful pieces of furniture unless they know they're going to be cared for and treated as a museum. Do you have to ask for an appropriation to get a curator? No, we don't. You could probably do better at Congress than your husband. No, the Smithsonian. We're so lucky in Washington to have all these wonderful museums who want to help. All you have to do is ask them and they're going to make one available to us. You've appointed a commission, haven't you, Mrs. Kennedy, to try and find furniture from the White House. Are they doing very much in this direction? Is it an easy task? No, it's very hard and we mustn't make a misstep. We haven't really started yet. We want so much to do it right. I'm so happy that the chairman of my commission is Mr. DuPont. For anyone who's seen Winter Tour will know that we're serious in what we hope to do. We don't really want to restrict it to any special period because this house can't be a rigid museum. It's part of everyone who's or everyone who's lived in it is a part of it. So we just want to get the best things from all those times. What kind of a house is the White House? What period does it fall into? It's really an 18th century house. It was designed in 1792 by James Hoban, who was an Irishman, and he modeled it quite a lot on Leinster House in Dublin. So it is an 18th century house, but it has many things of later periods in it. You mentioned before Theodore Roosevelt bringing an architect. Who was it? Stamford Way. That was really the last first family that had small children of its own in the White House. Do you find the White House is a very good place to raise children? How has your life changed since you've come here? It is rather hard with children. There's so little privacy. I don't mind for myself, but I think it's very hard with them. For instance, I wanted to take my daughter to the circus last week, and I decided I just shouldn't because I would ruin it for her. I worked so hard to make her little ballet school a private thing that we could do together, and there were all the photographers waiting when we got there. So it's a little hard. Well, do you really hope, Mrs. Kennedy, that you can achieve this aim to keep a private life for your children? Is this really possible now that you're in the White House? Well, I hoped it was. You rather discourage me, Mr. Van Ocker, but I hope it is, and I'm going to try very hard to do that because otherwise, how can I bring up normal children if they can't be treated that way? You think that Caroline, for example, who's older than John Jr., has she been changed much by the attention she's gotten? No, because she's still too little. But someday she's going to have to go to school, and if she's in the papers all the time, that will affect her little classmates, and they'll treat her differently. That's what I'm so anxious. We always treat her the same, but it's how other people treat her because they've read about it. Are you going to send her to a school when she reaches kindergarten age? Yes, I will. She must do all the normal things she'd do normally, but I'd rather hold my breath about that day. What do you conceive is your role as the First Lady? And I mean your role, Mrs. Kennedy. Of course, I do have an official role as wife of the President, and I think every First Lady should do something in this position to help the things she cares about. I would hope that when I leave here, I will have done something to help in the... to make... well, in the arts where I... in which I'm so interested, anything to do with children. Do you think that the First Lady, in this instance yourself, can play a role in influencing taste in this country, in the arts, in other fields? I suppose she can. People seem so interested in whatever the First Family likes. That's where I think one can lead. One doesn't know whether one leads in the right direction enough. One hopes one does. Well, can you enjoy these things? I wonder if you enjoyed the ballet when you went to it in New York City recently. Yes, once the lights went down, I enjoyed it enormously. But not before. It was rather exciting. But on this question of the official hostess, a couple of weeks ago, the President entertained an important head of state from Africa, Prime Minister Nkrumah. Did you know before that the President was going to bring him over, or was he, just like many husbands, prone to just drop in and say, I have a guest for tea? Well, he promised me that I could meet him, President Nkrumah. But the day went by and he never seemed to appear. So my daughter and I were on our way to his office when my husband, President Nkrumah, came rushing back to a rather messy room where I'd been unpacking books. Was he expecting tea, a formal? No, he was absolutely charming. He sat down and laughed and talked with us and told us about his own children. I was so glad to see that he was so relaxed, because I was rather embarrassed being surprised like that by my husband. I expected that he would tell me a few minutes before. Now, there's your official role as a hostess at the White House, the role as the First Lady, and things that interest you. If it's not presumptuous, Mrs. Kennedy, what about your role as a mother and a wife? Can one have a role as First Lady? We haven't had a First Lady who's had young children for such a long time. Are you optimistic about fulfilling this role in the same way you did before? Yes, I think it doesn't matter what else you do if you don't do that part well, if you fail your husband and your children. That really is the role which means the most to me, though obviously I have a deep sense of obligation for the others, but that's the one that comes first. Has it been more difficult, though, honestly, to fulfill this role? Since we've been in the White House? Yes, ma'am. No, my husband loves a challenge, and I do too. He's set me a good example. So, let's hope it works out. Thank you very, very much, Mrs. Kennedy. It was most gracious of you to have us here. Thank you, Mr. Van Hooker. I enjoyed it.