The library of President John F. Kennedy is releasing the final 45 hours of his privately recorded meetings and phone calls, which will provide a window into the final months of his life, ABC News is reporting. The tapes include discussions of Soviet relations, the race to space and the conflict in Vietnam. Plans for the 1964 Democratic Convention and Kennedy’s re-election strategy are also included on the tapes.
The tapes, which are being released on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, are the last of more than 260 hours of recordings of meetings and conversations the president privately had. Kennedy kept the recordings a secret from even his top aides. Maura Porter, the Kennedy library archivist, said the president was possibly saving the tapes for a memoir, or because he was upset the military gave a different overview of a discussion they had about the Bay of Pigs invasion.
The public was first made aware of Kennedy’s tapes during the Watergate hearings, Porter said. The JFK Library officials were able to go through all of the recordings by 1993, with the help of government agencies over matters of national security issues. The agencies informed the library officials which tapes they could release to the public.
Porter added that the JFK Library has released about 40 recordings. Officials excised approximately five to 10 minutes of the last group, due family discussions. Approximately 30 more minutes were omitted, due to nation security concerns.
Written by: Karen Benardello
