“We have known so much & shared & lost so much together — Even if it isn’t the
way you wish now — I hope that bond of love and pain will never be cut.”
Writing from Mr. Onassis’ yacht in Greece, on stationery with the ship’s crest, a clear if cold message, Mrs. Kennedy told Mr. Ormsby Gore: “You are like my beloved beloved brother —
and mentor — and the only original spirit I know — as you were to Jack.”
Mr. Ormsby Gore had expressed incredulity at her choice of Mr. Onassis, and she tried to respond.
Robert Kennedy said that Mr. Ormsby Gore was “almost a part of the government,” adding
that the president “would rather have his judgment than that of anybody else.”
Among the letters is one in which President Kennedy praised the ambassador: “I appreciate as you know,
in all these critical matters your judgment — which I have found to be uniformly good and true.”
Mr. Ormsby Gore inherited the noble title, Lord Harlech, when his father died in 1964.
Barbara Leaming, who has written biographies of President and Mrs. Kennedy, said
that Mr. Ormsby Gore was “the pivotal relationship Jack had in the presidency,” a man he trusted almost as much as Robert Kennedy.
“You want to patch the wounds & match the loose pairs — but you can’t because your life won’t turn out that way.”
One of the most moving documents is a draft letter Mr. Ormsby Gore wrote to Mrs. Kennedy after she turned down his proposal.
