ON A LOVELY OCTOBER EVENING IN

196i President Kennedy and William

Manchester sat in the Oval Room of

the White House, talking for three and

a half hours. At first the discussion

was detached; Mr. Manchester was

writing his Portrait of a President. But

soon they were conversing as two men

do who have lived many of the same

years in the same places. Both were

natives of Massachusetts. As a World

War II Marine on Guadalcanal, Man-

chester had been separated by only a

narrow strait from Kennedy s PT-lo9

base on Tulagi. They had both been

awarded Purple Hearts before leaving

ihe Pacific. Now thex were fathers of

daughters the same age, had traveled

in the same foreign countries, and

shared a deep interest in American

history.