Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., historian, Kennedy insider, dies at 89

Washington D.C, US - 5 November 1998 1. Wide of Bill Clinton, former US President speaking at podium 2. Arthur Schlesinger, Pulitzer prize winning historian walking towards the Clintons 3. Schlesinger and with Bill and wife Hillary Clinton Havana, Cuba - 10 October 2002 4. Plane arriving at Havana's International Airport 5. Cuban welcoming party on runway 6. Zoom into Robert McNamara, former US Secretary of Defence descending stairs from plane 7. Various of Schlesinger (in light suit jacket and bow tie) greeting welcoming party Los Palacios, Cuba - 13 October 2002 8. US delegation during field trip to Los Palacios 9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Arthur Schlesinger, former Kennedy aide: "Bill Atwood was scheduled to come to Cuba in December 1963 to talk to Castro about the terms of possible normalisation and re-establishment of relations but of course that mission was aborted on November 22, 1963." Havana, Cuba - October 1962 10. Guns pointing towards sky on seafront of Havana 11. Various of Fidel Castro, Cuban President address nation STORYLINE: Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Kennedy insider who helped define mainstream liberalism during the Cold War and remained an eminent public thinker into the 21st century, has died, his son said. He was 89. Schlesinger suffered a heart attack while dining out with family members Wednesday night in Manhattan, Stephen Schlesinger said. He was taken to New York Downtown Hospital, where he died. He received a National Book Award for "Robert Kennedy and His Times" and both a National Book Award and a Pulitzer for "A Thousand Days," his memoir/chronicle of President John F. Kennedy's administration. He also won a Pulitzer, in 1946, for "The Age of Jackson," his landmark chronicle of Andrew Jackson's administration. Jackson served as president from 1829 to 1837. He was a longtime confidant of the Kennedys, a fellow Harvard man who served in President Kennedy's administration and was often criticised for idealising the family, especially for not mentioning the president's extramarital affairs. Liberalism declined in his lifetime to the point where politicians feared using the word, but Schlesinger's opinions remained liberal, and influential, whether old ones on the "imperial presidency," or newer ones on the Iraq war. A native of Columbus, Ohio, and the son of a prominent historian, he was born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger, Jr., but later gave himself his father's middle name, Meier. During World War II, Schlesinger drafted some statements for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and served as an intelligence analyst for the Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner to the CIA. Schlesinger emerged as a historian with "The Age of Jackson." Published in 1945, when he was just 27, the book offered a new, class-based interpretation of President Andrew Jackson's administration, destroying the old myth that the country was once an egalitarian paradise. In 1960, the historian backed Kennedy, who after elected appointed Schlesinger as a special assistant, an unofficial "court philosopher" of symbolic, if not practical power. The high-minded historian was soon trapped in the tangle of superpower politics: the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, the disastrous attempt to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Schlesinger was opposed to the plan, he later wrote, but acknowledged helping the administration suppress a pre-invasion story by The New Republic that correctly reported the U.S. was training Cuban mercenaries. Had the press not cooperated, it might "have spared the country a disaster," a regretful Schlesinger recalled. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/2f117c786dc27f98ea08f8e6de11d884 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork