 by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. In 1962 every suburban girl's dream, bedroom-eyed Brian Hyland, released the ultimate bubblegum song, "Sealed with a Kiss." Just listening to it made your blood sugar soar. It was that sweet. See for yourself. Go to any search engine and hear it all over again... "Though we've got to say good-bye/ For the summer/ Darling, I promise you this/ I'll send you all my love/ Everyday in a letter/ Sealed with a kiss."/ Yes, millions of tongue-tied adolescents mined this wistful song for the words they needed and couldn't come up with on their own: "I'll see you in the sunlight/ I'll hear your voice everywhere/ I'll run to tenderly hold you/ But, darlin', you won't be there./" It was all so cute... but not for everybody. Some of those sealing their letters with a kiss were unfaithful... some deceptive and manipulative... some had absolutely no intention of doing what they pledged... and some, dying young, couldn't fulfill their vows... leaving instead a lifetime of bitter sweet memories, a compound of anger, regret, unendurable pain, sorrow, and always love, love that grew with time and never diminished. Such a one was Ethel Skakel Kennedy, the woman loved by Robert Francis Kennedy, the man she idolized. June 5, 1968, the day Senator Kennedy was assassinated changed everything except one thing: his letters were sealed with a kiss and no one, absolutely no one but the widow Kennedy herself would be allowed to access them, no matter their importance or sensitivity, touch them, read them, study them, understand them, and put them in their proper context. And so the matter has rested from that day until this, with growing exasperation and anger on both sides. The facts. In 1968, an even-then controversial agreement was reached between the Kennedy family, lead by Ethel Kennedy, and the National Archives. The Kennedys were given expansive control of the RFK papers which include dozens of Pentagon, State Department, and CIA documents; in addition there are at least 62 boxes of files covering the three years he spent as his brother's attorney general. Historians have reason to believe these papers include crucial, perhaps embarrassing details about the Cold War, Cuban missile crisis, and Vietnam. But no one knows precisely what these archives contain because Ethel Kennedy long ago determined that the archives and whatever was in them were sealed with a kiss... inaccessible to anyone. And that included Professor Arthur Schlesinger long-time Kennedy associate, JFK presidential assistant, and one of America's most distinguished historians. He asked for access while working on his magisterial biography of Robert Kennedy (published 1978)... but Mrs. Ethel refused, to his consternation and inconvenience. If he, with a lifetime of devotion to the Kennedys was left standing in the cold, who then would be good enough, safe enough to enter? Who indeed! Thus this incongruous situation emerged. Mrs. Kennedy was the only person who could get access... but because she did not have the necessary top-level clearance even she could not read the most sensitive documents. Thus, boxes of import, featuring reams of federally owned papers, boxes of the highest importance to specialists, simply sat in the vault accessed by no one, read by no one, thereby creating huge gaps of immense significance in the historic record. This is the situation today... where entirely reputable professionals are blocked because of Kennedy behavior which is selfish, ludicrous, peevish, illegal and patently unacceptable, for all that it's SWAK. Battle lines. So, on the other side are numerous government archivists and historians adamant that the Kennedy family should never have been granted control over official documents, retaining control only over materials patently personal, such as correspondence with Jacqueline Kennedy and Frank Sinatra. These people insist that the papers be opened to reputable personnel with the necessary clearances and the professional ability to determine that each document be properly marked and sorted... and that this long wrongly deferred task be done NOW. On the other side are Ethel Kennedy and other members of the Kennedy family including her son, lawyer Maxwell Kennedy, who communicates his mother's adamant wishes. Her position is as it has always been "Katy, bar the door." This is an old Scottish story that goes like this: Catherine Douglas, more royalist than the king, goes to the defence of her liege lord King James I of Scotland. On the lamb from his enemies, he has found momentary refuge in the Dominican chapter house in Perth, 20 February 1437. There Katy Douglas, as she was called, tried heroically to save her sovereign by barring the door with her naked arm. It was the ultimate gift... ... and it failed, her arm being mangled in the process, the King murdered. Thus she came down in history as Catherine Barlass, valiant but futile. Mrs. Kennedy needs to read this story and draw the long overdue conclusion. Her love while understandable is now an impediment, an obstacle making a resolution impossible. Thus, it is time for a fresh approach to the problem. The Options. There are, it seems to me, the following options: 1) The government could send Mrs. Kennedy a legal letter demanding she turn over the papers by a reasonable date. This would force her to hire reputable agents to sort the papers in her possession, then showing the federal authorities she was in compliance. Such a course, while legal, might be impolitic for all and would certainly raise the hackles of all. Not recommended. 2) The government could wait for Mrs. Kennedy's demise. Born April 11, 1928, this inevitable event would enable her heirs to make a deal with the government, a deal which would give Mrs. Kennedy's estate maximum deductions and minimum taxes. It is ignoble but would be relatively easy to effect, not least because any representative of the Kennedy family, like son Maxwell, would not have the halo effect of his mother. 3) The final option is for Mrs. Kennedy to open constructive conversations leading to a solution at once generous and politic, a solution enabling her to keep what is rightfully hers and to open it or not as she desires, while giving unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. This should be her choice for it is the most statesmanlike. Brian Hyland has the solution: "Let us make a pledge/To meet in September/ And seal it with a kiss." It's the right thing to do and long overdue. |
