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Off the Hook. When the locked doors swung open, Attwood was the first to step up to an array of five television cameras and eleven microphones to issue a statement. According to his tight-faced account, Look had hardly given away a thing. The changes, he said, "in no way affected the historical accuracy or completeness of Mr. Manchester's manuscript." Added Attwood unconvincingly: "We are satisfied with the outcome of the discussions."
In his statement, Rifkind made it clear that the Kennedys, too, were satisfied—and with better reason. "Every passage of a personal nature under contention was either deleted by Look or changed to her satisfaction," he said. Therefore Mrs. Kennedy "has withdrawn her suit." Both sides emphasized that the serial could in no way be considered an authorized version. As if that were not enough, the Kennedys rubbed an added pinch of salt into Look's wounds. Possibly to get the family off the hook for what is said to be a highly unflattering portrayal of Lyndon Johnson, Jackie deplored what she described as "historical inaccuracies and unfair references in this book."
Ironic Upshot. Though Jackie's separate suits against Manchester and Harper had not been withdrawn at week's end, the defendants' deadline for filing arguments was delayed until this week to give both sides more time for negotiations. Deletions from the book, which runs to 300,000 words, are likely to be much more extensive.
Ironically, the upshot of the dispute has been to draw attention to the very sections of the book that, in Jackie's view, most threatened her privacy. There was some fear that the deletions might be ignored by publishers outside the U.S. In Hamburg, Editor Henri Nannen of West Germany's sensational weekly Der Stern said that he intended to publish the unexpurgated version of the serialization, for which he paid Look $72,500. "There is nothing in our contract with Look about changes and deletions," he said. Because Look is responsible for the contents of foreign serializations under last week's agreement with Jackie, the magazine plans to fly an agent to Germany to try to "get Nannen to change his mind.
Though a few untidy loose ends remained, the dispute seemed to have run its course. Observers were already wondering whom it helped and whom it hurt. The publishers, for one, seemed unable to resolve the sort of questions of taste and discretion that commonly confront magazines and newspapers when they explore stories in depth. Manchester's material passed through innumerable filters; yet not one of those who read it screened out the passages that ultimately triggered the battle of the book.