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| FATHER & SON |
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he beginning sixties
were to JFK’s, the ever- elected young US president the ill-rated ones. In
his private life as well in his public’s.
Everything begun apparently long
time before November 1963, when her beautiful wife, Jacky lost her stillborn
baby, named Patrick Bouvier Kennedy. The presidential couple mourned in
silence this loss, but Jacky was deeply wounded for other reasons, maybe
the absence of her husband by the time of the tragedy. Some clouds for
long had been hovering over this relationship, which contributed to
irritate a lot the first lady.
She decided to take on
vacation in Greece, nodding to the invitation of an already
wealthy mogul of Mediterranean, Aristotle Onassis.
Not
only had Onassis fallen in love with the sea- he was born, so to speak, within
the waves-but also he was a king of open seas. Jacky Kennedy believed that
traveling would have eased her mourning. She went away almost against the
advice of her husband. From the beginning, Greece had remained a
little bit Homeric. The first lady expected that the Greek myths would have
played for her the same way they did to the Mediterranean half gods.
Onassis
was delighted at welcoming his famous guest. Together they cruised off the
Bosporus, sailed on the same streams of Ulysses, offered libations to the sea
and its goddess, tasted millennia foods and took a quick
look at the fragility of human history. Jacky probably felt
relieved.
One
day, as Icarus landing somewhere in its mythic islands, a helicopter lowered
until landing a few meters from Jacky relaxing in the warm sand. Onassis jumped
off, walked with the assurance of the wealthy and handed an expansive diamond
to her guest. Jacky smiled her sunny smile. Onassis didn’t overstay. He boarded
as quickly as before his helicopter which very soon was the size of a fly in
the still sunny fall. Jacky would have never forgotten his coming. Comfort as
usual comes from out of the blue.
But,
what would be unforgettable remains one night under the starry sky, on the
bridge of the Christina, the yacht named after Onassis’s daughter. Onassis, the
lord of the sea, and Jacky were alone. They were chatting, as if time would
have never ended. On the day after, everybody noticed a change among the host
and her guest. That was enough to untie the tongues. Even the White House
echoed the first lady perilous escape on a land where legends and truth used to
die hard. JFK, the American president, became mad at so much recklessness.
Nevertheless,
turning back to their recent past, the presidential couple traveled mid
–November to Paris where the incumbent General de Gaulle welcome them
with pump and honor. Paris people cheered when JFK and his wife waved
them from the Elysee. Wearing mitt along a beautiful suit, Jacky was so
irresistible with her glamorous smile that the crowd kept calling for
Jacky! Jacky !. It was exciting. The Parisian magic seemed to have worked its
way.
Onassis’
specter shadow maybe had faded away now. But, it was not reassuring
enough because the Caribbean shadows and their rising left were still
worrisome. The Cuban disaster of the Bay of Pigs was still an
American concern and many
in Washington considered this adventure of April 1961 a
thorn in the ribs. Even the Dominican Republic rid of its long time
“Caudillo audillo” Rafael Leonida’s Trujillo by May 1960 could not calm down
the hawks to which this Cuban move mattered most.
Furthermore, in Haiti, Papa Doc seemed
to have defied the armada-like fleet sent off to scare the strong Black
president. A few miles off the American coasts, a turbulent Caribbean
sea was almost a threat.
Fall
1963, Francois Duvalier started brushing his hands after the Amphibian Atlantic
Fleet moved away and his inconsistent neighbor Juan Bosh overthrown. Still
angry against his American equivalent John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Papa Doc
whispered to his praetorian guard that the JFK days were counted. But, as
November neared to end, the presidential couple aimed to become over the years
the so-called American legend, left Paris and its feasts for Dallas, Texas.
This would have been their last trip together.
Kennedy,
Onassis, Duvalier have had too few reasons to like each other.
We’re
said very soon that the voodoo gods and the Greek ones plotted together to give
an eerie hue to the JFK’s saga.
Part
history, part mystery.
