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For two who did not read the book—Robert Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson—the political implications were ambiguous. Almost all of the deletions concerned Jackie and her children, not the hostile appraisal of the President. Weeks before Look was to hit the newsstands, months before the book's scheduled April appearance, there are already signs that the shabby treatment of Lyndon Johnson might create a backlash of public sympathy for him. Said Malcolm Kilduff, who was Kennedy's press secretary on the trip to Texas and who came back to Washington on Air Force One after the assassination: "I can't help but feel that Johnson showed the utmost concern for Mrs. Kennedy and the whole Kennedy party that was with us. Once he got off the plane, he continued to show that concern. There was no grossness on his part, as has been implied by others."
As for Jackie Kennedy, having comported herself with regal mien in the days following the assassination, she apparently lost some of her composure during her ten hours of interviews with Manchester. Her usually impeccable taste deserted her, as did the judgment and discretion of her interviewer. At week's end, with a settlement in sight, Jackie prepared to fly with her children to Antigua in the British West Indies. There she planned to rent a cottage at a hotel for eleven days of rest and—she hopes—complete privacy.