Dearest Jackie

History is going to start looking at the Nixons in a different light. They were not the elitists we made them out to be. Dick's bigotry was not the ramblings of aristocracy, but rather the ramblings of a man who knew his family was not from old money. Vassar girl Jacky Kennedy elucidates the rest of us on the perception war they faced.

(Spectator.org)(VINTAGE JOAN KENNEDY and PAT NIXON ORIGINAL PHOTO / eBay)

And then there is poor Pat Nixon. "I used to see her at bandage rolling,” Mrs. Kennedy recalls. "You know, the Senate wives have to go roll bandages every Tuesday and the vice president's wife is always the chairman of it.” To which Schlesinger snidely interjects, "I think she'd be perfect at bandage--bandage rolling.” The other references to Mrs. Nixon are too painful to cite; they all emphasize her deplorable dress sense and hair style. Poor thing--her mother died young and she had to go to work almost immediately; she didn't get to go to a finishing school in Paris and become elegant like Jacqueline Bouvier. (MORE PAIN)