Kennedy, his wife did not vibe well with Nehru, Indira: book

Washington, Sep 15 (PTI) A new book has shown that late
American President John F Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline did
not vibe well with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter
Indira Gandhi during their meetings.
When Nehru visited the US in November 1961, the then
American President Kennedy called it as "the worst
head-of-State visit" and considered the former Prime
Minister's last days as "the town preacher being caught in the
whorehouse".
Kennedy also did not like Nehru's company while the First
Lady Jackie Kennedy hated his daughter and future Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi, calling her as real prune.
However, the first couple loved reading cables from the
then US Ambassador to India, John Kenneth Galbriath, as they
were all piece of great literature.
"It's like the town preacher being caught in the
whorehouse," John F Kennedy is quoted as saying about Nehru in
his last days in power.
These nuggets of information about the views the first
couple had about the two top Indian leaders is part of the
the book, 'Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life
with John F Kennedy'.
On day one, the book, which is basically the seven-part
interview of Jackie Kennedy conducted in early 1964, was a
number one bestseller on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles.
Referring to the 1961 US visit of Nehru, the book says
that it was decided that the men would have their lunch in the
dining room while Jackie would have the little ladies lunch in
the living room along with Indira Gandhi, who was accompanying
her father.
"Well, of course, she hated that. She liked to be in with
the men. And she is a real prune—bitter, kind of pushy,
horrible woman. You know, I just don't like her a bit. It
always looks like she's been sucking a lemon," Jackie said
according to the transcripts of the interview in the book.
"He (President Kennedy) used to say about Nehru
sometimes, 'Isn't it sad? This man did so much for
independence and everything, but he stayed around too long and
now it's all going, bit by bit, and he's botching up things.
"'And, you know, Nehru's image really did change a lot in
his last years because Nehru got to be awfully sanctimonious—I
mean, the difference between Hungary and Goa and all of
that'," she said.
"What was the thing Jack had about that? A very good
expression. Something about, 'It's like the town preacher
being caught in the whorehouse'.
"You asked me about him and Nehru the other day—he had
that sort of feeling about him," Jackie said.
Jackie said her husband had a most unsatisfactory time
with Nehru when he'd been a Congressman in India.
"He said they'd warned him, 'Whenever Nehru gets bored
with you, he taps his fingertips together and looks up at the
ceiling'.
"And Jack said he'd been there about ten minutes when
Nehru started to look up at the ceiling," she said.
Giving a detailed account of the State Visit, Jackie
Kennedy said they had a drink before lunch and Nehru never
said one word.
Jackie Kennedy said John F Kennedy was disappointed by
the Nehru's trip.
"I think the meetings got absolutely nowhere and there
was an awful lot of tapping the fingers and looking up at the
ceiling," she said.
"Mrs Gandhi, his daughter," she said is "one of those
women who when marriage and love and all those things don't
turn out right, it’s as if something—It all goes back inside
you and the poison works inside like an ulcer, so she's a
truly bitter woman. And she's the kind of woman who's always
hated Jack. You can name so many violently liberal women in
politics who were always suspicious of Jack."