January 1, 2013

Pierre Salinger's story

Hello everybody,
You all remember Pierre Salinger, who was the White House Press Secretary to President John F. Kennedy, on top of being a personal friend of his.
Pierre Salinger had a long and colorful career that Wikipedia will tell you about.
When I was a young student beginning to research the Kennedy assassination I was able to contact him. We exchanged letters over a period of a few months. Later I was lucky enough to meet him on three occasions.
At the time (roughly 1991-1997) I was under the influence of David Lifton, whose book and VHS tape I had bought, and with whom I had had a long tape-recorded telephone conversation (in 1990).
I had also met Robert Groden in Dallas and owned his first book. Not having studied the case enough I believed in a conspiracy. Since then, of course, I have applied logic and common sense to the case and realized long ago that there was never any conspiracy and that Lee Oswald was the sole assassin.
Anyway.
Back then I was still a huge Lifton fan and confronting Pierre Salinger was the best thing that could happen to me. He was a very nice man.
Most of all, he was knowledgeable. I wasn't.
He was experienced. I wasn't.
He was mature. I wasn't.
He had been there. I hadn't.
He didn't believe that there had been a conspiracy. And he seemed unimpressed by Lifton's theory.
What he had to say about his experience with John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Jackie Kennedy was very interesting.
Not only did we exchange several letters, but I also had the honor of visiting him for a taped interview in London, in the ABC bureau, where he was the Chief European correspondent. He agreed to invite me to his office, where I stayed for a few hours. We had a memorable conversation. A few years later I again saw him in France, where he was giving a lecture. The following day I again talked to him in a railroad station where he was waiting for his train. Definitely a nice man, on top of being a man I admired, if only for having been a close friend of John Kennedy's.
I am hereby uploading an excerpt of the audio file I created. I have tried to digitize the sound from an old audio cassette.
We can hear Pierre Salinger telling us how he remembered that fateful day.
I find that excerpt very interesting and moving.
I thought I should share it with interested researchers.
I hope you'll enjoy it.


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