Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy

3 autograph letters signed (“Jackie”; “J.”), totaling 9 pages (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 194 x 135 mm) on 7 sheets of various personal stationery, [New York], 7 March, 17 March, and 22 November 1967, all to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, first and third letters accompanied by their original autograph envelopes signed (“Mrs. John F. Kennedy”; “Jacqueline Kennedy”), the letters and envelopes docketed in pencil by Robert McNamara with their dates.

These three letters, spanning from spring to autumn of 1967, offer support and sometimes cryptic encouragement to the Secretary of Defense during the period that McNamara was beginning to walk back his support of the escalation of the War in Vietnam. In the earliest, Mrs. Kennedy confides that an article she had recently read about McNamara had brought tears to her eyes. “I was so proud of you—I remembered what Jack said: ‘one man can make a difference’—and I thought ‘when has one man ever made such a difference?’—with all the grinding power of government, of military against you—and just you, trying to hold it all back, trying to stop the nightmare. I wondered how many people in the world would owe their lives, or any peace they might know in their lives or their children’s lives to you—and how many of them would know they did—for they would never learn it from you. … I know how hard it is—I know how much you must give up in the dark—how you must feel torn apart. … Please don’t let them snuff out your light bit by bit for their own misguided ends—giving you a little line—then smothering your flame a little more. … Whichever way it will end—and I know this is more complex than any dark hell that Shakespeare ever looked into—don’t let them do it to you by inches. … I feel so close to you in the times I know must be difficult for you—because in my dark times you were always the one who helped me. I wish I could change the world for you—the only thing I can do is tell you how much you mean to me.”

The final letter of the group touches on similar themes, but in a somewhat lighter tone: “I am thinking so many kind thoughts of you tonight—I saw your picture looking out the window at the Pentagon—at the marchers yesterday—I never saw anything so brave. Is not 3 a magic number? I think that as I play all your records tonight—3 makes me think of The 3^rd Man, which you promised me to see while I was gone. … It is about corruption and hope. I saw it when I was a student in Paris—and it drove me to Vienna in the days when Russian soldiers patrolled their streets with tommy guns—the only time I have ever been scared—because they kept us inside 3 hrs. … This is the same kind of time to live in—as the time of the 3^rd man.” In her conclusion Mrs. Kennedy remarks that she has been listening to the cast recording of Man of La Manchaas she wrote the letter.

The middle letter is very brief note, referring to that “magic number”; it reads simply: “dear dear Bob | 3 | Jackie.”