“I still chuckle when I recall that even my mother was more involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis than I – although not in a way that Jack especially appreciated. At the height of the standoff, when nuclear warfare remained a live option on both sides, the head of the KGB in Moscow burst through the door of Khrushchev’s office. He carried a letter to the Soviet premier from one Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy of Hyannis Port and Palm Beach. Mrs. Kennedy wanted the premier to autograph some of his books and send them to her. The transatlantic cables hummed with this baffling new development.
When Jack found out about it, he called up our mother and demanded, ‘What in the world are you doing?!’ Rose assumed that Jack new very well what she was doing. Each Christmas, Mother made it a practice to give her children books signed by heads of state. This year, it was Mr. Khrushchev’s turn, and she had methodically forged ahead according to her schedule. ‘The Russians won’t assume this is innocent!’ Jack sputtered. ‘They’ll give it some interpretation! Now I have to get my CIA people speculating on what the interpretation might be! The strengths! The weaknesses! The contingencies!’ The kicker is that, after the threat of World War III had been defused, Khrushchev did send Mother the autographed books.”
