Fiddle & Faddle

The interview took place on March 16, 1965.

Fiddle=Priscilla Wear
Faddle=Halle Sanchia "Jill" Cowan/Cowen

Selected quotes. "---" indicates what follows was part of a separate section of the interview.

ON JACKIE
Wear: He was terribly sensitive about the criticism Mrs Kennedy received after her tour of the White House. Terribly, terribly. He was terribly upset about that because she tried so hard, and he thought that she'd done such a good job. He thought the criticism - I think it was David Wise of the Herald Tribune - he gave her was very unfair.

ON PRIDE IN THE WHITE HOUSE
Cowan: The President was so so fond of the White House. I mean all the refurnishings. Any time he had, he'd have people shown around, or show them around himself.

ON LBJ
Cowan: I think they [LBJ and JFK] were quite competitive [with each other].
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Wear: I don't think he was terribly favorably impressed with the Vice President as a result of the Cuban [missile] crisis. I think he felt the Vice President's judgment was terribly weak during that time.
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Wear: He never said any derogatory remarks about the Vice President at all. He always felt that the Vice President had definitely helped him during the campaign and helped him to win. He never really said any derogatory remarks. I don't think he really felt he was doing that much for him in his role as Vice President. He always tried to keep him busy, tried to send him out on trips, and give him something to do. He often said what a horrible job it would be to be Vice President, and I think he realized that Johnson felt that way about it and tried to keep him as busy and give him as much to do as he could.

ON THE BAY OF PIGS
Wear: Yes. I remember how everything was so terribly hectic; there was really a sense that the people didn't know what was going on and that the President didn't have command of the situation, which was a complete contrast to the second crisis in Cuba when you could have great confidence that the President did know what was going on and had complete control of the whole situation, had everything under his fingers. But during the Bay of Pigs there was just a sense of chaos. After it was over, the President was terribly upset, terribly depressed - I think it was the time he was most depressed - at the failure. He just didn't know what to think because, I think, he didn't really feel it was completely his fault, but he couldn't blame anybody but himself. He felt so terrible that people had been killed and the refugees and the prisoners.

Cowan: Also it was his responsibility. I mean, it really drove home the point that he was the one.

Wear: It was the first time anything that's bad had happened; everything else before had gone perfectly smoothly. And this was his first crisis.

Cowan: And that it was his decision really. I mean, the country was really in his hands.

Wear: I think it shaped everyone up a bit because it made them realize that they had to get organized, and it wasn't easy. I think it really made them all...

Interviewer: Did he feel that anyone had let him down, that he had relied on the wrong people?

Wear: I remember him mentioning the military, the Chiefs of Staff, and how he said it was very difficult to make any good judgment or decisions when you were getting wrong information from the Chiefs of Staff and the military.

Cowan: That was one of the big things I think he was always butting against, especially in the beginning, because, I think, people like LeMay and a lot of those people were so kind of pro-action all the time that you had to sort of doubly weigh their opinions.

ON WOMEN WORKING IN WASHINGTON
Wear: Well, I remember him saying once that he thought it was too bad that his sisters had been around such fantastic people all their lives - energetic and such high profile people. He felt it very hard for them. He said it was all right for the boys in the family to have been influenced by all these people, but he thought it was very difficult for girls to be around high powered people all the time because they'd never be satisfied. He was all for everybody working in Washington who were around all this glamour and high power to get away because he felt that you wouldn't be satisfied with a normal life if you...

Cowan: He particularly... I mean, when he was working, he worked terribly hard, and then when he was relaxed, he really relaxed. He felt women should be in some ways, that way, too.

JFK ON HAPPINESS AND FRIENDSHIP:
Wear: ...He gave, once, his definition of happiness which, he said, was the old Greek philosophy "full use of all your powers along the lines of excellence." I think this really was his definition; he always tried to live up to it. In everything he did, there was always that 5% of extra effort.

Interviewer: That made the difference.

Wear: Made the difference. Everything down to personal friendships... always made a terrific effort. .. another thing, he was always aware of the necessity of friends - and really good loyal friends. He said you could go through anything in life if you had your friends and your family behind you, and he'd do anything for his friends and his family. They gave security and support which you needed to get through life and do something with your life.

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Jill and Priscilla were obviously very bright girls and not the bimbos they have been made out to be.

If either was having an affair with Kennedy, this interview shows them to be cold, calculating sociopaths. I do not believe for a millisecond, that they were.

I am disgusted that the charge is repeated over and over that "Fiddle and Faddle" were their White House code names. Jill made it clear in a separate interview that Priscilla already had the nickname "Fiddle" when she started work on the Kennedy campaign. Jill was later dubbed "Faddle" because of the close friendship that developed between them.

The above quotes as they relate to the Mimi Alford allegations, I will endeavor to spell out.

Did JFK take Mimi on a tour of the White House? It seems that was possible since apparently he was quite proud of the improvements Jackie had made and was in the habit of showing people around if time permitted. There was nothing unusual in it, and the allegation that in the case of Mimi, it ended up as a sex romp in Jackie's bed is just that - an (unproven) allegation.

Did he take these young women on official trips? Apparently he sometimes did because he believed that they had to have the same chance to work hard and relax afterwards as men. That of course, could be read a number of ways - but I see no reason for either Jill or Priscilla to bring this out if it occurred to them that it might be used to fuel speculation.

The fact that Dallek deliberately wrote up gossip about Mimi as fact, and others since, have misrepresented the nicknames of Jill and Priscilla as Secret Service code names for Kennedy sex kittens, are but two examples of just how willing people are to presume the worst and then twist innocent facts, half-truths and plain old innuendo to underpin the presumption.

It is a travesty of history, and how and why it is written.

Should any actual evidence emerge that JFK had sex romps with either of these women, or indeed, with Mimi -- I would be very surprised. But I would also be ready to accept that reality.

The reality right now is just example after example of tabloid journalism and modern day investigative reporting -- that is, no investigating whatsoever.

The full interview with Jill and Priscilla can be read here:

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKOH-JCPW-01.aspx

I received this anonymous message and am replying to it here as I do not have personal correspondence with anyone whose name I do not know.

It's absurd for you to think the biggest, serial, mass fornicator and sdulturer in the history of the white house - who is nailing anything that moves- would somehow make an exception with fiddle adn faddle and not nail them. OF COURSE JFK WAS ANILING THEM!! AND NOW - IT'S COME OUT ABOUT MIMI TOO!! Wake up and smell the coffee - you are only deluding yourself. YOu must be Chris Mathews!!! You are ignoring the elephant in the room.

"Mass fornicator"? LOL

There are only two pertinent facts. You apparently refuse to look at, or consider either.

1. From a purely medical point of view, someone with Addison's Disease would be physically incapable of being a "mass fornicator". You don't have to take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.

2. There is no evidence for any of the alleged affairs. Gossip and innuendo is not evidence, even when written up as fact by "credible" historians.

To remind you of what I said in the original post:

Should any actual evidence emerge that JFK had sex romps with either of these women, or indeed, with Mimi -- I would be very surprised. But I would also be ready to accept that reality.

The reality right now is just example after example of tabloid journalism and modern day investigative reporting -- that is, no investigating whatsoever.