Friday, March 6, 1942
March 6, 1942
JFK, who the week before had flown to Washington, D.C. to end his romance with Inga Arvad, called her. The phone call was recorded and is summarized by one biographer as follows:
“Surprised to hear from me?” Kennedy asked.
“A little maybe.” Arvad responded.
“It’s about time.” said Jack.
“Kathleen says every day that you will call me.”
After Arvad tells JFK about her apartment being burglarized that week Kennedy goes on,
“Why didn’t you come?”
“What a question. Don’t you remember that we talked it over on Sunday?” Arvad responded
“I know it.”
“Oh, you don’t think it is going to stay?”
“Life’s too short.”
“Oh, Kennedy!”
Jack continued to plead for Arvad to visit, but she ultimately refused. The conversation then continued on with Jack asking her if she was planning on going ahead with her divorce. Inga mentioned the ugly rumors circulating around her and accuses his father of being the source of some of them. Jack acknowledged that he had spoken with his father on Feburary 22 and that Joe, Sr. had received the FBI report suggesting that Arvad might be a foreign agent of some sort.
Arvad and Kennedy then discussed the FBI recording their conversation and Inga’s somewhat fantastic plan of stopping the bugging by making an appointment with J. Edgar Hoover and demanding it.
The conversation ended with the following exchange when it was clear that Arvad was going on with her life without Kennedy in it,
“I just wanted to be sure that this is what you want to do. From what you said, I didn’t have anything to do with you getting the divorce.”
Arvad responded,
“You pushed the last stone under my foot, but that doesn’t hold you responsible for anything. Meeting you two and a half months ago was the chief thing that made up my mind. As far as I am concerned, you don’t exist any more. That’s how I felt and hour ago. I still love you as much as always and always will. But you don’t figure in my plans whatsoever.
[3,475-7]