The Post Page #14

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flight out tomorrow--

probably first class.

No sh*t, you have them.

Well, you just get your

ass back here, and uh...

Come straight to the house.

Forget Chal and Meg

and the others,

I don't want the whole newsroom

knowing about this yet.

I gotta go.

Didn't you just invite

a bunch of people over?

Yeah.

Yeah, they'll uh,

they'll show up

sometime tomorrow.

When, sometime tomorrow?

Is this a breakfast thing?

-or a lunch thing?

-Don't know. Don't know.

Do you need me to get things?

Yeah, we'll figure it all out.

Okay, well, where are you going?

Out.

-You going to the newsroom?

-No. Love you, bear.

I got a cake, I hope it's okay?

Oh, sure, as long as

nobody counts the candles.

I'm sorry to barge in again.

Maybe I should give you a key.

Uh, I'm not here to

crash your party.

What's up?

Well, I could use a minute.

So, can I ask you a

hypothetical question?

Oh, dear, I don't like

hypothetical questions.

Well, I don't think you're gonna

like the real one, either.

Do you have the papers?

Not yet.

Oh, gosh, oh, gosh,

because you know the-the uh

position that would put me in.

You know, we have language

in the prospectus...

Yeah, I know, I know

-that the bankers can change

-Which, which

their mind, it's-and I know

what is at stake.

You know,

the only couple I knew that

both Kennedy and LBJ

wanted to socialize with

was you and your husband.

And you own the damn paper.

It's just the way things worked.

Politicians and the press,

they trusted each other

so they could go to the same

dinner party and drink cocktails

and tell jokes

while there was a war

-raging in Vietnam.

-Ben, I don't know what

what we're talking about.

I'm not protecting Lyndon.

No, you got his former

Secretary of Defense

Robert McNamara,

the man who commissioned

-this study--he's one of about

-I'm not protecting him.

-a dozen party guests

-I'm not protecting

-out on your patio.

-any of them. I'm

protecting the paper.

Yeah, well, I wasn't a

stooge for Jack Kennedy.

The night he was assassinated,

Tony and I were down

at the Naval Hospital

so we would be there,

meet Jackie when she landed.

She was bringing Jack's body

back on the plane from Dallas

and she walked into the room.

She was still wearing

that pink suit

with Jack's blood all over.

She fell into Tony's arms

and they held each other for

quite a long time and...

And then Jackie looked at me

and said, "None of this--

"none of what you see,

none of what I say

"is ever going to be

in your newspaper, Ben."

And that just about broke

my heart, I, uh...

I never...

I never thought of

Jack as a source.

I thought of him as a friend. And--

And that was my mistake.

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