Jackie Kennedy post-assassination interviews released

In the interviews with a White House historian, she says civil rights leader Martin Luther King is "a terrible man".

Jackie Kennedy, who died in 1994, is scathing about JFK's vice-president Lyndon Johnson and world leaders.

In the eight hours of tapes, she recalls, too, how her husband joked about the threat of assassination.

Jackie Kennedy opened her heart to White House aide Arthur Schlesinger at her Washington home, four months after JFK was killed in Dallas, Texas, in 1963.

'That spiteful man'

She agreed to the interviews on condition that they would not be released until long after her death.

The recordings are the subject of a book - Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life With John F Kennedy - published on Wednesday.

She recalls her husband's scathing words about his Texan Vice-President, Lyndon Johnson, whom he reluctantly made his number two because of the need for a Southerner to balance the ticket.

"Jack said it to me sometimes. He said, 'Oh, God, can you ever imagine what would happen to the country if Lyndon were president?"' she said.

She also strongly criticised Dr King, recalling how her brother-in-law, US Attorney General Robert Kennedy, told her the civil rights leader had been intoxicated at JFK's funeral and mocked Cardinal Richard Cushing's Mass; Kazinform cites BBC.

To learn more go to www.bbc.co.uk