“A splendid”: Sidey, A Very Personal Presidency, p. 45.
His assistants would hear: This account of Johnson’s indecisiveness in his office is from interviews with Busby, Gonella, Jenkins and Reedy, and from Baker, Wheeling. Among the seventeen: Steele to Williamson, March 4, 1958, SP. He told Reedy: Reedy OH, Reedy interview. $10,000 diversion: Evans and Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 244. “Had decided”: Sidey interview. “This is my home”: Corcoran interview.
“He didn’t do anything”; “I finally said”: Rowe OH II. “I think”: Rowe to Johnson, Jan. 17, 1959, Box 32, LBJA SN. The letter refers to “our long phone conversation of last Tuesday night.” “Jim betrayed me”: Corcoran, Rowe interviews.
2. The Rich Man’s Son
“Frail, hollow-looking”: Van Zandt interview. “Laddie”: Burns, John Kennedy, pp. 71–72. Dressed like one: Burns, John Kennedy, p. 71; Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, p. 158; Damore, The Cape Cod Years of John F. Kennedy; Paul F. Healy, “The Senate’s Gay Young Bachelor, “SEP, June 13, 1953. Parmet, The Struggles of John F. Kennedy, pp. 149–50. “Very much”; “a skinny kid”: Davis, quoted in Blair and Blair, The Search for JFK, pp. 511–12; Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, p. 158. “Oh, Grace”: Grace Burke, quoted in Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, p. 549. Lyndon Johnson himself: Caro, Means of Ascent, pp. 46–53. Everyone on Capitol Hill: Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, p. 157; Parmet, Struggles. “A Hollywood hotel”: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 150. Told Tierney: Tierney with Herskowitz, Self-Portrait, pp. 147, 153, quoted in Parmet, Struggles, p. 131. In magazines: For example, Healy, “Gay Young.” “Well, I guess”: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 136.
“He had few”: Burns, John Kennedy, p. 98. “About his only”: O’Brien, John F. Kennedy, p. 26. “He told me”: Smathers, quoted in Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, p. 524. “He never seemed to”: Douglas, quoted in Parmet, Struggles, p. 167. “A good boy”: Hardeman and Bacon, Rayburn: A Biography, p. 434. “Large and fabulous”; “every woman”: Healy, “Gay Young.” “In all, a total of 60,000 women decided they could not afford to pass up an opportunity to meet the wife of the former Ambassador to the Court of St. James [sic], her three lovely daughters and her unmarried son” (Healy, “Gay Young”). “Could live”: Whalen, “Evening the Score,” quoted in Dallek, Unfinished, p. 171. “No town”: Powers, quoted in Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, p. 755. “Boyish”: Ralph M. Blagden, “Cabot Lodge’s Toughest Fight,” The Reporter, Sept. 1952. “Jack was being”: Healy, “Gay Young.”
“Stand back”: Healy, “Gay Young.”
St. Lawrence proposal: Sorensen, Kennedy, pp. 58–59.; O’Brien, pp. 272–75. “Malaria”: Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, p. 167. His back, requesting a suite; obtained permission: Parmet, The Struggles, p. 308.
Broke into tears; “looking tanned”; “37th year”; “inspiring”: Parmet, Struggles, pp. 309–15. “Young Jack”: NYHT, May 25, 1955, quoted in Parmet, Struggles, p. 316. “Applauded”: Parmet, Struggles, p. 287.
“ ‘Old pal’ ”; “very sharp pain”: Smathers OH.
Effective star turn: O’ Brien, Kennedy, p. 481; Rubin, Forty Ways to Look at JFK, p. 8. “To want to be”: Caro, Master of the Senate, pp. 564–64. “In the terms”: Sorensen interview.
“Telling me”; “I kept picturing”: Johnson, quoted in Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 790. But the real: Corcoran, Reedy, Rowe interviews.
“For the first time”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 554. NYT: Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 790. “even Democrats”: Douglass, JFK and the Unspeakable, p. 8. Africa subcommittee: Marcy OH. Met at least once: Senate Historian Donald Ritchie, in Holt OH. “Not in the top”: Smathers OH.
“He’s smart enough”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 45. “Pathetic”: Johnson, “Reminiscences of Lyndon B. Johnson,” Aug. 19, 1969, transcript of tape recording, p. 9, LBJL. “A young whippersnapper”: Johnson, from a conversation with Goodwin, quoted in The Fitzgeralds, p. 780. “weak and pallid”: Johnson, from a conversation with Goodwin, quoted in Lyndon Johnson, p. 201.
Jack Kennedy’s illnesses, back condition, and overall physical condition are dealt with in many biographies, including Dallek, An Unfinished Life, Hamilton, JFK: Reckless Youth and Reeves, President Kennedy. The discussion of his medical problems in this book is based also on the author’s discussions with Dr. Janet G. Travell, who treated the author’s own back problems (and to whom his first book, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, is dedicated). “Pretty tired”: Hamilton, Reckless, p. 87. “We are still”: Dallek, Unfinished, p. 35. Leukemia; prayers were said: Hamilton, Reckless, p. 104. “The Goddamnest”: Hamilton, Reckless, p. 110. “Shit!!”: Dallek, Unfinished, p. 74. “They were unable”: Hamilton, Reckless, p. 113. “7,000”: Hamilton, Reckless, p. 219. “Jack’s sense”: Hamilton, Reckless, p. 104. “I’ve never”: Chafe, Private Lives/Public Consequences, p. 103. “Jack Kennedy all during his life”: Billings, quoted in Hamilton, Reckless, p. 196.
Tried to enlist; fixed examination: Gilbert, The Mortal Presidency, p. 146; Hamilton, Reckless, pp. 405–9; Dallek, Unfinished, pp. 81–83.
“Bucking bronchos”: Frank Henry, “Bucking Bronchos of the Sea,” Science Digest (condensed from the Baltimore Sunday Sun, April 23, 1944). “Was in pain”: Iles, quoted in Hamilton, Reckless, pp. 517–18. “Jack came home”: quoted in Hamilton, Reckless, p. 507.
“The most confused”: Dallek, Unfinished, p. 95. PT-109 episode: This account is based on John Hersey, “A Reporter at Large—Survival,” The New Yorker, June 17, 1944, and on Donovan, PT-109: John F. Kennedy in World War II.
“He wanted to”: Cluster, quoted in Hamilton, Reckless, p. 610. “ ‘What are you’ ”: Maguire, quoted in Hamilton, Reckless, p. 610. “What impressed”: Rhoads, quoted in Hamilton, Reckless, p. 610.
Sinking three barges: Hamilton, pp. 621–24. “A definite”: Dallek, Unfinished, pp. 100–102. Obviously: Parmet, Struggles, p. 116.
“Joe used to”: Joseph Kennedy, Sr., quoted in Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 699. “A temperament”: Joseph Kennedy, Sr., quoted in Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 705. “He looked”: Lannan, quoted in Hamilton, Reckless, p. 680. “Ill, sad and lonely”: Ernest W. Rose, Sr., quoted in Travell, Office Hours, p. 411. “Very thin”; “My father”: Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 705. “I’m just”: Dallek, Unfinished, p. 123. “We played”: Blair and Blair, The Search for JFK, p. 191. “He made us”: Dallek, Unfinished, p. 113.
“He was very retiring”: Kelly, quoted in Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, p. 448. “He was not the ordinary”: Dalton, quoted in Parmet, Struggles, p. 150. “Hard”: Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 646.
Trolley car scene: Parmet, Struggles, p. 154. 5,000 to 1: Joseph Kennedy, quoted in Hamilton, Reckless, p. 757.
“The collar”: Damore, Cape Cod, p. 87. “Both mediocre”: Parmet, Struggles, p. 149. Eunice mouthed: Dallek, Unfinished, p. 124. “A quick”: Damore, Cape Cod, p. 87. Neville incidents: O’Donnell, Powers, and McCarthy, “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,” p. 69. Gold Star Mothers speech: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,” p. 54; Powers, quoted in Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, pp. 711–12.
A long day: For example, Dallek, Unfinished, p. 123. “At his best”: Burns, John Kennedy, p. 67. “It was tough”: Patsy, quoted in Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, pp. 439–40. “In agony”: Patsy, quoted in Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, p. 440. “Off we’d go”: Kelley, quoted in Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, p. 438. “I knew”: Broderick, quoted in Parmet, Struggles, p. 154. “I feel great”: Broderick, quoted in Parmet, Struggles, p. 154. “I’d say”: Sutton, quoted in Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, p. 441. Bunker Hill Day collapse: Lee, quoted in Hamilton, Reckless, pp. 768, 769. See also Parmet, Struggles, p. 161.
“That young”: Parmet, Struggles, p. 191. “Touch and go”: Waldrop, quoted in Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, p. 565. Every three months: Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 43. “A whole new”: Billings, quoted in Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 74
5.
“Jack was aiming”: Garside, Camelot at Dawn, p. 6. His father’s money: Someone “could live the rest of [their] lives on [his] billboard budget alone,” one observer said. “Cabot was simply overwhelmed by money” (Dallek, Unfinished, p. 171). $500,000 loan: For example, Parmet, Struggles, p. 242. “You know, we had to buy that fucking paper,” Joe was to say once (Dallek, Unfinished, p. 172). “But … then”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 79.
“Just made up”: Bell, quoted in Parmet, Struggles, p. 271. “Keep”: Brooklyn Eagle, April 26, 1954.
“He could”: Billings, quoted in Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 774. “Even getting”: Bartels, quoted in Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, p. 566. “A 47-year-old”: Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 774. “He told his father”; “inconceivable”: Rose Kennedy, quoted in Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 774. “Thirty–seven”: Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 775. “He told me”: Krock, quoted in Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, p. 571.
Back wouldn’t heal; the two operations: Travell interview. “And the doctors”: Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 776. “It was a terrible time,” Billings was to recall. “He was bitter and low. We came close to losing him. I don’t mean losing his life. I mean losing him as a person” (quoted in Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 776). “Tanned and fit”: NYHT, May 24, 1955. “Aside from”: Boston Post, May 24, 1955.
“It must have”; first visit to Travell; Travell treatment: Travell interview; Travell, Office Hours, pp. 5–7. “Jack had”: Billings, quoted in Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 776. “Higher office”: Garside, Anne, Camelot at Dawn, p. 6. “I’m against vice”: Alsop with Platt, “I’ve Seen the Best of It,” p. 406. Map: Whalen, The Founding Father, pp. 446–47. “Wide incision”; “Maybe Jack;” Travell, Office Hours, p. 320. “Scarcely”: Travell, Office Hours, p. 322. Travell’s Palm Beach visit: Travell interview, Travell, Office Hours, pp. 305–13.
Johnson’s first campaign: Caro, The Path to Power, pp. 389–436. “A candidate by El Greco”: Caro, Path, p. 434. Johnson’s collapse: Caro, Path, p. 435.
Johnson’s illness during 1948 campaign: Caro, Means, pp. 194–208. “Agonizing”; “unbearable”: Caro, Means, p. 195. “How in the world”: Dr. William Morgan, quoted in Caro, Means, p. 196.
“Learn on the run”: Mayer et al., The Making of the Presidential Candidates, p. 232; Sorensen interview. “The Senate”; “No matter”: Time, Dec. 2, 1957. One reason that: Burns, John Kennedy, p. 189; Parmet, Struggles, pp. 380, 381. In 1957, in fact, Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor party had canceled Kennedy’s invitation to be the speaker at its Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner after he had voted “wrong” on the farm bill (Cabell Philips, “How to Be a Presidential Candidate,” NYT Sunday Magazine, July 13, 1958). And, Time said, “Kennedy’s major 1960 problem: he is still in the Senate, and he must vote on highly controversial issues. In his votes last summer on the [1957] civil rights bill, Kennedy managed to please hardly anyone.” “Pieces of power”: White, Making 1960; Rowe interview. “Johnson thinks”: Sorensen interview.
“Just … jumped at you”: Schary, quoted in Parmet, Struggles, p. 367. “Came before”: NYT, Aug. 14, 1956. “And then”: Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 784. “The dramatic”: Burns, John Kennedy, p. 190. “Jim, do you know?”: Rowe interview. “The most telegenic”: BG, July 22, 1956, quoted in Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 780. As long as he wore: Travell, Office Hours, p. 320; Travell interview.
“One thing”: Davis, quoted in Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, p. 512. “I have never”: Smathers OH. Magazines: Laura Bergquist, “Rise of the Brothers Kennedy,” Look, Aug. 6, 1957. “The flowering”: Harold H. Martin, “The Amazing Kennedys,” SEP, Sept. 7, 1957. Cover stories: Time, Dec. 2, 1957, “The Man Out Front.” Phillips, “How to Be”; “Young Man with Tough Questions,” Life, July 1, 1957; “The Amazing Kennedys,” SEP, Sept. 7, 1957. Time, McCall’s, Redbook; “This man”: William V. Shannon, NYP, Nov. 11, 1957.
“His Senate”: Dallek, Unfinished, p. 226. “Seldom”: Childs, May 15, 1957, quoted in Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 792.
Applauding at Alsop’s: Alsop, with Platt, I’ve Seen, p. 406. Reversing against Kefauver: Parmet, Struggles, p. 439.
“Enormously successful”: Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 794. “If the convention”: Sorensen, quoted in Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 25. “By general agreement”; “Jack Kennedy could”: Time, Nov. 24, 1958.
3. Forging Chains
“I still think”: Rowe to Johnson, January 17, 1959, Box 32, LBJA SN.
Texas law: CSM, May 25, 1960; HP, July 13, 1960; FWS-T, July 15, 1960; AA-S, July 27, 1960; DMN, Nov. 9, 1960. Phone calls to Clark: Clark interview.
Parr had done so in 1948: Caro, Means of Ascent, pp. 308–17. Same ink in the same handwriting: Caro, Means, pp. 324, 328. Johnson had assisted: Means, pp. 186, 191.
Needed a lawyer: Clark, Jones interviews. Another incentive: Thomas, quoted in Murphy, Fortas, p. 105. “In return”: Murphy, Fortas, p. 105. Murphy bases this on his interview with Donald. Fortas agreed: “In the Supreme Court of the United States,” October Term, 1959, No. 391, “George B. Parr, D. C. Chapa, et al. v. United States of America Respondent, Petition for a Writ of Certiorari.… Abe Fortas, Paul A. Porter, Charles A. Reich … Attorneys for the Petitioners.” “Had not asked”: When, in March 1960, Parr’s petition for bankruptcy was settled, and, Fortas reported to Johnson, he (Parr) “got about a million out of his bankruptcy proceeding,” Fortas told Jenkins, “in view of that I think I will render him a bill for this case and the prior one also. I had not asked for any money, but in view of the recent developments, I think I will …” (“Telephone Conversation between Abe Fortas and Walter Jenkins,” March 24, 1960, Box 1, Special File Pertaining to Abe Fortas and Homer Thornberry, LBJL). He told Johnson in an earlier letter that he had offered to take the case “without reference to fee,” but that Parr’s lawyer at the time had declined to have him participate in the case (Fortas to Johnson, April 10, 1959, Box 1, Special File). “The best break”: “Resume of Telephone Calls on December 7,” “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—Dec. 1959,” Box 1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL. “We got him off”: Reich, quoted in Kalman, Abe Fortas, p. 159. “Burn your memo up”: Johnson to Jenkins, undated, but attached to “Resume of Telephone Calls—December 7,” “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—Dec. 1959,” Box 1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL. Monitored: Murphy, Fortas, p. 105; Fortas to Johnson, Dec. 8, 1959. For examples of the reports on the case’s progress that Fortas and Porter delivered to Jenkins over the telephone, “Highlights of Conversations on December 4—Paul Porter,” “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—Dec. 1959,” Box 1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL. “Telephone Conversation between Abe Fortas and Walter Jenkins, Dec. 14, 1959. “He was”: Clark interview.
“It’s the politician’s task”: Johnson interview with Doris Goodwin, quoted in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 141.
“Democratic Victory Dinner”: Steele to Williamson, May 7, 1959, SP. “You felt”: Steele interview. “I don’t want”: “Conversation with Eddie Higgins, Assistant to Sen. Green (Senator Johnson), Nov. 18, 1959, “Administration, [Administrative], Memoranda, Jenkins, Walter, 1 of 2,” Box 633, JSP. Although he had: Jenkins, McPherson, Reedy interviews, OHs. “Torn”—“tortured, almost”: Rowe interview. George Reedy also uses the word “torn” to describe Johnson during this period: “I believe he was a man badly torn …” (Reedy OH II). A photographer for Time magazine got a glimpse of this when he asked him to pose at the gate to his ranch. “Well, all right, but you better take a good one—one I can use in 1960,” Johnson said. Reminded by Time’s reporter John Steele that, as Steele put it, he “had often said that at the end of the present term he wants nothing but retirement, he replied, ‘Well, it’s nice to know you can run if you want to run’ ” (Steele to Williamson, Nov. 13, 1958, SP).
Western strategy: Hoff interview. Hells Canyon Dam: Caro, Master of the Senate, chapter 38: “Hells Canyon.” “Very sympathetic”: Edward M. Kennedy interview. “Very fast”: Rowe i
nterview.
“Bobby, you’ve never”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 43. “His attitude was”; Jenkins handing out: Baker, Wheeling, p. 43. Johnson had told him; “I want to ask”: “Transcripts of Telephone Conversations—January 1960,” OFWJ, Series 2, Box 1; Dallek, Lone Star Rising, p. 564.
First encounter: Busby, Reedy interviews. Roosevelt tricking Joe Kennedy; “Oh, boy”: Sidey, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, pp. 77–78. “For decades”: Hugh Sidey, “The Presidency: When Ike Wore His Brown Suit,” Time, Aug. 20, 1979. “Bobby’s a tough one”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, p. 97. “Did you ever see”: Reedy interview; Reedy, quoted in Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, p. 534. “Forget Bobby”; “runt”; “no ambition”; “he was willing”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, pp. 30, 45, 53, 55. “He was not only smaller and slower than his brothers, he looked afraid,” Thomas writes. “He lacked the jaunty, glowing air of a young Kennedy” (p. 31).
“I wish, Dad”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 53. “Didn’t have”: Lasky, J.F.K.: The Man and the Myth, p. 63. “For Christ’s sake”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 51. Breaking his leg: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 51; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 67. “Furious”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 51. Hitting Magnuson; O’Donnell apologizing: Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, p. 179. “I didn’t”: Lewis, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 66. “Would have killed him”; “he became”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, pp. 55–56. “Liked to bite”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 55. Fierce Dobermans; “terrible time”: Spalding OH, JFKL. “Ready to punch”: Page, quoted in Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 55. Sailing incident: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 56.
He did; “I felt”: Thimmesch and Johnson, Robert Kennedy at Forty, p. 56. “At the time”: Maas, quoted in Stein and Plimpton, American Journey, p. 50. After a pause, he said, “I was wrong.” When he resigned: Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 18; Thimmesch and Johnson, Robert Kennedy at Forty, pp. 57–58. Walking out on Murrow: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 67.
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