de memoire

Paris: Editions Donoel, 1995. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. Trade paperback. Very good. 442, [6] pages. In French. Inscribed on title page by author. Cover has slight wear and soiling. Pierre Emil George Salinger (June 14, 1925 - October 16, 2004) was an American politician, author and journalist. He served as the White House Press Secretary to U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Salinger served as a United States Senator in 1964 and was campaign manager for the 1968 Robert F. Kennedy presidential campaign. He later became known for his work as an ABC News correspondent, particularly for his coverage of the Iran Hostage Crisis; the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland; and his claims of a missile being the cause of the explosion of TWA flight 800. Salinger worked on Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1960, and became one of the leading figures in the campaign. He was at times described as being part of Kennedy's Kitchen Cabinet of unofficial advisers. In 1961, after JFK became President, he hired Salinger as his press secretary. When Kennedy became the first president to allow live television broadcasts of his news conferences, Salinger was said to have managed the press corps with "wit, enthusiasm and considerable disdain for detail,"[3] which made him a "celebrity in his own right." He accompanied Kennedy to conferences with other world leaders, including the 1961 meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna. When an aid to Khrushchev invited Salinger to Moscow, the president assented to his going. Kennedy, however, had to explain to the press corps why he was sending a young and inexperienced Salinger to the Soviet Union. Pierre Salinger was only 35 when he became Pres. John F. Kennedy s press secretary. During those amazing years, he found himself at the center of many world events. After leaving the White House in 1964 Salinger was, briefly, a senator from California &, even more briefly, a movie & TV actor. Following the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, which he witnessed, Salinger retired from politics & moved to his mother s native France. In 1978 he went to work for ABC television, soon becoming their Paris bureau chief, & over the ensuing decades, he covered every major story. Derived from a Kirkus review: The autobiography of a newsman and presidential press secretary; Salinger's memoirs include several confessions of monumental ego. Salinger usually plays the hero. The memoir is filled with real-life stories about historic events of the past half-century. Salinger was really there. He joined Robert Kennedy's team investigating the Teamsters in the 1950s, served as presidential press secretary to John F. Kennedy and, briefly, Lyndon Johnson, and was among the close friends who convinced Robert Kennedy to run for president in 1968. Shattered by RFK's assassination, Salinger fled the US for France, where the onetime journalist eventually became Paris bureau chief for ABC news. He claims coups in investigating such stories as the hostage crisis in Iran, the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, and the Persian Gulf War, before finally coming back to the States in 1993. The most fascinating stories come from Salinger's days working on the Kennedy campaigns and in the Kennedy White House. Especially riveting are accounts of private conversations with Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev and of his participation in back-channel contacts between Russia and the US. A fascinating insider's view of historic events of the past 50 years, especially those involving John and Robert Kennedy.