1403326
Robert F. Kennedy
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From the Estate of Llewellyn E. Thompson,
United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union
“We are always grateful for your interest in the John F. Kennedy Center."
Robert Francis Kennedy, 1925-1968. Attorney General of the United States; United States Senator from New York. Typed Letter Signed, Bob, one page, with integral leaf attached, 7" x 9", on stationery of the United States Senate, Washington, D.C., June 27, 1966.
Senator Kennedy thanks Jane Thompson, the wife of Ambassador Llewellyn E. Thompson, for an editorial relating to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He writes, in full: “I just wanted you to know how much I appreciated your sending me the editorial on Winston-Salem in the journal sentinel. We are always grateful for your interest in the John F. Kennedy Center. / Again, my thanks to you. My best to Lewellyn."
President Lyndon B. Johnson broke ground for the Kennedy Center, which today is the nation's busiest performing arts center, on December 2, 1964. Its Foggy Bottom location stirred some controversy, however, and excavation did not begin until more than a year later. The Center hosted its first performance, a presentation of Leonard Bernsteinʼs Mass, commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy, before a crowd of 2,200 on September 5, 1971.
Lewellyn Thompson, who had served as the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union under both President Kennedy and his predecessor, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, was a key advisor to Kennedy and a member of his inner circle with respect to Soviet affairs. He was a career diplomat who served in the same position under President Johnson. He joined the Foreign Service in 1928, and during his long and distinguished career he served as the United States Ambassador to Austria from 1955 to 1957 and Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1957 to 1962 and again from 1967 to 1969. He also held the post of Career Ambassador and Ambassador At Large. In addition to advising Kennedy as part of the ExComm during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, he was present at Johnson's summit with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin at Glassboro, New Jersey, in June 1967. He later came out of retirement to advise President Richard Nixon on the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) negotiations with the Soviet Union and to serve as a member of the United States delegation to the SALT talks from 1969 until his death in 1972.
This letter is in very fine condition, and only the single mailing fold, which does not touch either the signature or text, keeps it from being extra fine. Kennedy has signed with a black felt-tipped pen. The accompanying envelope had been opened carefully, without tearing the flap. Some of the original glue appears on the underneath side of the flap. There is a small stain on the back. Overall the envelope, which bears Kennedyʼs typed name in the return address, is in fine to very fine condition.
Provenance: This letter comes directly from the Thompson estate. It has never been offered on the autograph market before.
Unframed.
This letter has been sold.
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