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Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-AUG-01
In this interview Heckscher discusses John F. Kennedy [JFK] and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis as an “inspiration to cultural life”; Heckscher’s involvement in government affairs prior to becoming a Special Consultant to the President; the invitation of 168 artists to JFK’s 1961 inauguration and its impact; how Heckscher came to work for the White House; discussing Heckscher’s position with Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.; the reasoning behind the creation of the new position of Special Consultant on the Arts and the favorable public reaction to it; enlarging the definition of “The Arts,” especially regarding architecture; Arthur Goldberg; the establishment of the Freedom Medal; creating the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts through executive order; personal impressions of JFK; setting up Heckscher’s office and staff; how Heckscher was meant to advise JFK and what his position entailed; the Cultural Center [Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts]; conversations with JFK; Mrs. Kennedy’s expansive work for the arts; the arts as part of national policy; working with other White House staff members and other Departments; designing special postage stamps; what the President’s role in the arts should be; and the Fine Arts Commission, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RFK-03
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] discusses the 1962 steel crisis; some major issues and accomplishments of John F. Kennedy’s [JFK] presidency; choosing the U.S. Ambassador to Russia; foreign aid and treaties; the military coup in Peru; the space race during the Kennedy Administration; the 1962 congressional and gubernatorial campaigns; JFK’s dinner for the Nobel Prize winners; the Polaris submarines; problems with the New York Herald Tribune; New York politics; various pieces of federal legislation, 1961–1963; the Dominican Republic; Department of Justice investigations under RFK; the difficulties of being Attorney General; congressional issues in early 1963; the Vietnam War escalation in 1963; American support of the coup in Vietnam; Henry Cabot Lodge as the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam; the prisoners from the Bay of Pigs invasion; American actions in Cuba; unemployment and civil rights; RFK’s meeting with James Baldwin; JFK’s trips to the South and speeches on civil rights; the nuclear test ban treaty; and JFK’s trip to Ireland and Rome, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RFK-01
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] discusses beginning John F. Kennedy's [JFK] presidential Administration with no political obligations; carefully picking Cabinet members, specifically Secretaries of State, Defense, and Treasury; RFK’s decision on what role to play in JFK’s Administration; JFK’s unhappiness with Dean Rusk as Secretary of State; JFK’s advisers and other presidential appointments; Cabinet meetings; Department of Justice organization under RFK; the first 100 days of the Kennedy Administration; the role of the Vice President, according to RFK; JFK’s relationship with Lyndon B. Johnson and why JFK put Johnson on the ticket in 1960; what JFK was most concerned with as President; domestic programs versus foreign affairs in the Kennedy Administration; Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.’s role during JFK’s presidency; the Bay of Pigs, the aftermath, and its effect on JFK; how JFK approached problems as President; dealing with Georgi Bolshakov; negotiating with the Soviet Union in Vienna, over Laos and Cuba, etc.; JFK’s relationship with foreign heads of state; State Department staff and U.S. Ambassadors; the military coup in Vietnam; the Berlin crisis of the summer of 1961 and the Berlin Wall; RFK’s 1961 trip to the Ivory Coast; and Soviet and American nuclear testing, among other issues.
Sound recording
Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. President's Office Files.
JFKPOF-TPH-33-4
Sound recording of two brief telephone exchanges in September 1962. In the first telephone exchange, President John F. Kennedy asks [White House Operator?] to place calls to labor leaders Walter Reuther, George Harrison, and David McDonald.In the second telephone exchange, a man identified as “George” offers congratulations on the appointment of Arthur J. Goldberg, and President Kennedy comments on "losing" Goldberg. The recording of the exchange begins in mid-sentence. Machine noise follows the exchange.
This sound recording was originally recorded on Dictation Belt 33, which contains additional sound recording(s) preceding and following this one. To hear all of the recordings on the Dictation Belt, see Digital Identifier: JFKPOF-TPH-33, Title: Telephone recordings: Dictation Belt 33.
Photograph folder
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-1962-09-25-G
AR27, ST14
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-AR6287-E
Swearing in ceremony for Cabinet members, East Room, White House, Washington, D.C. Chief Justice Earl Warren swears-in President John F. Kennedy's Cabinet members. (L-R) Front row: Secretary of State Dean Rusk; Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon; Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara; Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; Postmaster General J. Edward Day; Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall; First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy; President Kennedy; United States Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai E. Stevenson; Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman; Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren; Secretary of Labor Arthur J. Goldberg; Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Abraham A. Ribicoff. Back row: Military Aide General Chester V. Clifton; Air Force Aide Colonel Godfrey T. McHugh; Naval Aide Commander Tazewell Shepard, Jr.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-AR6287-D
Swearing in ceremony and reception for Cabinet members and their families, East Room, White House, Washington, D.C. President John F. Kennedy speaks during the swearing-in ceremony for his Cabinet. (L-R) Front row: Secretary of State Dean Rusk; Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon; Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara; Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; Postmaster General J. Edward Day; Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall; First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy; President Kennedy; Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman; Secretary of Commerce Luther H. Hodges; Secretary of Labor Arthur J. Goldberg; Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Abraham A. Ribicoff; Chief Justice Earl Warren. Back row: Military Aide General Chester V. Clifton; Air Force Aide Colonel Godfrey T. McHugh; Naval Aide Commander Tazewell Shepard, Jr.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-407-6-62
President John F. Kennedy observes as W. Willard Wirtz (center) is sworn in as Secretary of Labor; Assistant Executive Clerk of the White House, Herbert L. Miller, administers the oath. Standing in back (L-R): Supreme Court Justice and former Secretary of Labor, Arthur Goldberg; President of Building and Construction Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Cornelius J. Haggerty; President of the AFL-CIO, George Meany; Mary Jane Quisenberry Wirtz; William Wilbur Wirtz; Philip Wirtz; Jeann Sohner Wirtz; Kathryn Jeann Wirtz; Gerald T. Conde; Marian Wirtz Conde; Assistant Secretary of Labor for International Affairs, George L. P. Weaver; Assistant Secretary of Labor for Labor Standards, Esther Peterson; Representative Adam Clayton Powell (New York); Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), Walter W. Heller; two unidentified. Cabinet Room, White House, Washington, D.C. [Scratch in lower right portion of image is original to the negative.]
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-407-5-62
President John F. Kennedy observes as W. Willard Wirtz (center) is sworn in as Secretary of Labor; Assistant Executive Clerk of the White House, Herbert L. Miller, administers the oath. Standing in back (L-R): Supreme Court Justice and former Secretary of Labor, Arthur Goldberg; President of Building and Construction Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Cornelius J. Haggerty; President of the AFL-CIO, George Meany; Mary Jane Quisenberry Wirtz; William Wilbur Wirtz; Philip Wirtz; Jeann Sohner Wirtz; Kathryn Jeann Wirtz; Gerald T. Conde; Marian Wirtz Conde; Assistant Secretary of Labor for International Affairs, George L. P. Weaver; Assistant Secretary of Labor for Labor Standards, Esther Peterson; Representative Adam Clayton Powell (New York); Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), Walter W. Heller; two unidentified. Cabinet Room, White House, Washington, D.C.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-AR7491-H
President John F. Kennedy and others observe as W. Willard Wirtz is sworn in as Secretary of Labor; Assistant Executive Clerk of the White House, Herbert L. Miller, administers the oath. Left to right: Dorothy Goldberg; Supreme Court Justice and former Secretary of Labor, Arthur Goldberg; President of Building and Construction Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Cornelius J. Haggerty; President Kennedy; Secretary Wirtz; Mr. Miller; Mary Jane Quisenberry Wirtz; William Wilbur Wirtz (mostly hidden); Jeann Sohner Wirtz; Philip Wirtz (mostly hidden); Richard Wirtz; Kathryn Jeann Wirtz; Gerald T. Conde (mostly in shadow); Marian Wirtz Conde. Cabinet Room, White House, Washington, D.C.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-AR7491-G
President John F. Kennedy (at microphone) delivers remarks during the swearing-in ceremony for Secretary of Labor, W. Willard Wirtz. Looking on (L-R): Dorothy Goldberg; Supreme Court Justice and former Secretary of Labor, Arthur Goldberg; President of Building and Construction Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Cornelius J. Haggerty; President of the AFL-CIO, George Meany (mostly hidden); Secretary Wirtz; Mary Jane Quisenberry Wirtz; William Wilbur Wirtz (mostly hidden); Jeann Sohner Wirtz; Philip Wirtz; Kathryn Jeann Wirtz; Richard Wirtz; Gerald T. Conde (mostly in shadow); Marian Wirtz Conde. Cabinet Room, White House, Washington, D.C.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-AR7491-A
President John F. Kennedy and others observe as W. Willard Wirtz is sworn in as Secretary of Labor; Assistant Executive Clerk of the White House, Herbert L. Miller, administers the oath. Left to right: Dorothy Goldberg; Supreme Court Justice and former Secretary of Labor, Arthur Goldberg; President of Building and Construction Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Cornelius J. Haggerty; President Kennedy; Secretary Wirtz; Mr. Miller; Mary Jane Quisenberry Wirtz; William Wilbur Wirtz (in back, mostly hidden); Jeann Sohner Wirtz. Cabinet Room, White House, Washington, D.C.