The Passage of Power

by Robert A. Caro

  “Black and white hats”: Thimmesch and Johnson, Robert Kennedy, p. 22. Giancana exchange: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 83. Glimco exchange: Thimmesch and Johnson, Robert Kennedy, p. 71. “Full of shit”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 83. Gallo exchange: Thimmesch and Johnson, Robert Kennedy, p. 24.

  “I wanted”: Haddad interview. “A little keyed up”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 83. “Bobby hates like me”: “What Makes Bobby Run,” Time, March 18, 1963. Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 69. As Thomas notes, he later denied having made the remark. Yet others recall remarks by him in which the wording is similar. Former House Speaker Tip O’Neill writes that Joe Kennedy once told him, “Bobby’s my boy. When Bobby hates you, you stay hated” (O’Neill and Novak, Man of the House, p. 83). Thimmesch and Johnson quote Joe Kennedy as saying of Bobby, “He’s a great kid, he hates the same way I do.” (They add “later Joseph Kennedy told a reporter that ’All I ever meant to convey is that he has the capacity to be emotionally involved, to feel things deeply, as compared with Jack and that amazing detachment of his.” That is not exactly a denial of the remark. Thimmesch and Johnson, Robert Kennedy, pp. 24, 25. And the first full-scale biography of Joseph Kennedy gives the quote almost exactly: “He’s a great kid. He hates the same way I do” (Whalen, The Founding Father, p. 457). So do early magazine articles about Bobby: for example, Newsweek, March 18, 1963. And three journalists who spent time with Kennedy and his staffers—Peter Maas, Jack Newfield, who wrote a book, Robert Kennedy: A Memoir; and Robert F. Greene, an investigative reporter who in 1957 was an investigator with Robert Kennedy’s Senate Rackets Committee—say that in conversation Robert Kennedy aides and Jack Kennedy aides who had been with the Kennedys a long time repeated the exact remark, “He hates like me” (Greene, Maas, Newfield interviews). Schlesinger writes, “His father was supposed to have said in later years that Robert was more like him than any of the other children because ‘he hates like me.’ In 1960 he denied to John Seigenthaler that he had ever said this. But … to another reporter he said proudly, ‘Bobby’s as hard as nails’ ” (Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 97). “Bobby is just as tough as a bootheel,” Joseph Kennedy said on another occasion (Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 107).

  “Absolute evilness”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 81. Trying to trap Hoffa; would jump; “Frustrated”: Thimmesch and Johnson, Robert Kennedy, pp. 73–75. Use of friendly reporters: Greene, Maas interviews. “The full arsenal”: Thimmesch and Johnson, Robert Kennedy, p. 76. “When Bobby hates you”: O’Neill and Novak, Man of the House, p. 83.

  “This was the Leader”: Barr interview. “Sonny Boy”: Goldsmith interview. “A snot-nose”: Baker, Wheeling, p. 138. “If it had someone”: Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 8.

  “Just get one thing”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 132. “Bobby and I”: O’Donnell, quoted in Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 26. “It really”: Thimmesch and Johnson, Robert Kennedy, p. 115.

  “Making notes”; “we fell”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, pp. 133–34.

  “Holds his head”: Eugene Patterson, Atlanta Constitution, Sept. 10, 1960, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 218. DiSalle: “Di Salle had no alternative,” Rep. Wayne Hays reported. “He knew that if he did not come out for Kennedy that Kennedy would come into his state and probably beat him. Kennedy was holding a gun to his head” (“Telephone Conversation between Congressman Hays and Walter Jenkins,” Jan. 18, 1960,” OFWJ). “Does not shock”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 151. “Stormy”; “fierce; “real rough”: Lasky, The Myth, p.127.

  “To get”: Mooney, LBJ, p. 124. “Extremely effective”: Reedy OH II. “We’ve had”: Rayburn, quoted in Baker, Wheeling, p. 119.

  Mateos celebration: Time, April 25, 1960; AA-S, DMN, Oct. 19, 1959. Six journalists: WES, WP, Jan. 14, 1960.

  “Just kidding”: “Telephone Call from President Eisenhower to Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, August 4, 1959,” “1959,” “Notes and Transcripts of Pre-Presidential Conversations of Lyndon B. Johnson,” LBJL.

  “As usual”: NYT, Nov. 26, 1959. “I didn’t think of him”: NYT, Dec. 15, 1959.

  Brown meeting; “downright angry”: “Telephone Conversation between Walter Jenkins and Leonard Marks,” Feb. 1, 1960, “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—Feb. 1960,” Box 1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL. “Senator Johnson did”; “electable”: Dutton. Responded on national television: NYT, Jan. 24, 1960; Nov. 1, Nov. 26, 1959. Following the telecast, according to Ed Weisl, Johnson’s ally Richard Berlin of Hearst newspapers “had a long talk with Governor Brown in California, and Brown said he was ashamed of himself about what he had said about Lyndon.… However, the Governor did not come out and say he would support Lyndon” (“Ed Weisl—,” “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—December 1959,” Dec. 1959, OFWJ, LBJL. Also see “Resume of Telephone Conversation with Dick Berlin,” Dec. 10, 1959.

  “Son”: Dallek, Lone Star, p. 559; Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 10; Bullion, In the Boat with LBJ, p. 111. A. W. Moursund, Johnson’s business partner and frequent hunting companion, related the story. Busby, Oltorf, Stehling interviews. Robert Kennedy said only that on the hunting trip, “Johnson took him to an elevated concrete structure from which they awaited in comfort the appearance of deer to be shot.… Kennedy was disgusted. ‘This isn’t hunting. It’s slaughter’ ” (vanden Heuvel and Gwirtzman, On His Own, p. 246). Assuring Bobby: Evans and Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 246.

  “I hear”: CSM, Nov. 14, 1959. “I am not”: “Statements of Lyndon Johnson,” Jan. 6, 1960, SLBJ, LBJL. “Spent”: Leslie Carpenter OH.

  “The only man”: Busby interview. Jenkins was organizing: Transcripts of Telephone Calls, January 1960 through April 1960 folders, Box 1, Series 2, Box 1, OFWJ, LBJL. White said: Reedy, “Memoranda and Drafts, May 13, 1960, Box 267, Papers of George Reedy, SPF, LBJL. “What it would take”: Edwards OH. “I have some”: Jan. 5, 1960, Jenkins’s Resume of Telephone Conversations: George Brown—“I have some money that I want to know what to do with. I was wondering if it should be sent to Jake Jacobson or just who should be getting it and I will be collecting more from time to time” (“Transcripts of Telephone Conversations—January 1960,” Box 1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL). Envelopes: Clark, Connally, Wild interviews. And, for example, Gene Chambers: “I gave John some you know what to bring along when he meets Lyndon.… It is sizable” (Jan. 20, 1960, “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—January 1960,” Box 1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL), and “Ed Clark called saying Mr. Hill talked to the Senator and he told him he wanted him to raise some cash.… Somebody mentioned it to H. E. Butt and has already sent Clark $1,000. Mr. Butt said this was just a starter” (“Resume of Telephone Conversations—Ed Clark,” Jan. 7, 1960, “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—January 1960,” Box 1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL). Clark said he did not recall this specific contribution, but that most of Butt’s contributions were in cash. And see Caro, Master, pp. 676, 406–9. “Twice I personally”: Mooney, LBJ, p. 127. He adds that Hunt “said substantial contributions were also being sent to Washington by other oil men and business people in Dallas and Houston.”

  Convened: “Resume of Telephone Conversations on December 16—Bobby Baker,” Dec. 14, 16, 1959, “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—December 1959,” Box 1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL.

  “Wherever”: Hoff interview. “We have no organization”: Jones to Hoff, May 19, 1960. “Many people do not know”; “Many people”: “Telephone conversation between Irv Hoff and Bobby Baker,” Feb. 25, 1960, “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—February 1960,” Box 1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL.

  Wyoming awakening: Reedy OH II.

  “They’re a”: Hoff interview.

  “The problem was”: Baker, Wheeling, p. 44. “ ‘We’ve got to know’ ”: Hoff interview.

  “If I could”: Jan. 25, 1960, “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—February 1960,” Box 1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL. Although “Johnson hadn’t”: Hoff, “California Situation—as it looked between March 28 and April 5,” April 6, 1960; “Johnson for President File, 1959–1960,” “Jo
hnson for President—Hoff—California,” Box 93, SPF, LBJL. “The California delegation”: “Irv Hoff from Sacramento,” March 30, 1960,” “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—March 30, 1960,” Box 1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL.

  “Jesus”: Chandler, The Natural Superiority of Southern Politicians, p. 265. “However much”: Caro, Master, p. 194. “Mongrelization”: Caro, Master, p. 194. “Yes, I understand”: Johnson, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 226. The first rupture: Mann, The Walls of Jericho, p. 246. “A lynching”: Russell, quoted in Mann, Walls, p. 249. “This was the only kind of lynching”: Note on back of Diary page, Feb. 21, 1960, LBJL. A show: Fite, Richard B. Russell, p. 374. “A cozy”; “bonhomie”: Rovere, “Letter from Washington,” New Yorker, March 17, 1960. Working with Rogers: Brownell, Rogers interviews. “A victory”: Javits, quoted in WP, April 9, 1960. “only a pale”: Clark, quoted in NYT, WP, April 9, 1960. “The roles”: WP, April 9, 1960. “Dick, here is”: Clark, quoted in WP, April 9, 1960.

  Johnson got: WP, April 19, 1960. Gallup Poll: WP, March 16, 1960. “Lost support”: NYT, Jan. 12, 1959. “Hated”: Rauh OH I. Douglas went: Watson, Lion in the Lobby, p. 425. JOHNSON REJECTED: NYDN, March 11, 1960. “All the”: Wilkins, quoted in WP, May 30, 1960.

  Asked Hobart Taylor: Detroit Sunday Times, March 27, 1960. “I talked”: Edwards OH. Detroit discussion: David S. Broder, “Johnson Lacks Link with Michigan Party,” WES, March 28, 1960.

  Busch telephoned Fleishman: Fleishman, “Gussie and Lyndon Johnson,” St. Louis Business Journal, Aug. 26–Sept. 1, 1961. Woods on Convair: Howard B. Woods, “One Man’s Journal” and “Lyndon Talks,” The St. Louis Argus, April 29, 1960.

  “Horace”: Busby interview.

  Ambassador Hotel fiasco: “Leonard Marks,” May 17, 1960, “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—May 1960,” Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL. San Antonio Light, May 19, 1960; WP, AA-S, El Paso Times, May 20, 1960; Gonella interview; WP, May 26, 1960; Denton Record-Chronicle, DT-H, May 27, 1960.

  “Why didn’t he?”: “Telephone Conversation—E. Janeway Called Walter Jenkins from New York,” March 17, 1960, 1:30 P.M. “We DO”: “Telephone Conversation between Charlie Herring and W. Jenkins,” March 23, 1960. Both from Box 1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL.

  “It was”: Clark interview. “He was always”; “What convinces”; “would quickly”; “had a fantastic”: All from Caro, Master, p. 886.

  “I was one”: Wright interview.

  “Just pooh-poohed”: Dick Berlin reporting on conversation, March 10, 1960, “Transcripts of Telephone Calls—March 1960,” Box 1, Series 2, OFWJ, LBJL. “Next!”: Baker, Wheeling, p.121.

  “After some”: O’Neill with Novak, pp. 181–82.

  “As a”; “would convince”: White, Making 1960, pp. 94–102. “Open up”: In their book Lyndon B. Johnson, Evans and Novak wrote that “It would create a wide-open convention at LA that just might wind up nominating LJ” (p. 256).

  Johnson began helping Humphrey: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 259.

  Kennedy paid a call: “Notes of Conversation, May 3, 1960,” p. 3, Notebook 3, Box 1, Krock Papers, “Vice Presidency, 1960, Decision to Run for Vice President,” Reference File, LBJL. HP, May 8, 1960.

  “How the hell” Rowe interview.

  A last-minute: White, Making 1960, pp. 110–12. “TV is no medium for a poor man,” White concluded.

  The ambassador; “did not confine”: Kearns, The Fitzgeralds, p. 799. The Kennedys had: Although Schlesinger (Robert Kennedy, p. 201) says that after an anonymous Minnesotan sent the material to Lawrence O’Brien, and O’Brien says FDR Jr. brought it up on his own, Schlesinger also quotes FDR Jr. as “blaming its use on Robert Kennedy’s determination to win at any cost.” He also says that “Roosevelt’s memory is that … he was under insistent pressure, especially from Robert Kennedy, to bring up Humphrey’s war record.” He quotes FDR Jr. as saying, “I don’t think that Jack really had anything to do with deciding whether to insist on my going ahead.…” He also quotes FDR Jr. as calling this “the biggest political mistake” of his career. FDR Jr.’s quotations are from a “recorded interview by Jean Stein, Dec. 9, 1969, pp. 6–8.” The Stein interviews have not been opened by the JFKL. Although, in fact: Solberg, Hubert Humphrey, pp. 97, 99; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 201; Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 95. “Repeated contacts”: Humphrey, The Education of a Public Man, p. 475. “Any discussion”; “As Kennedy”: Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 799. “Did not challenge”: Dallek, Unfinished, p. 257. “The biggest”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 201.

  The tide; Kennedy’s telecast; “With a rush”: White, Making 1960, pp. 107–8. “I think”: White, Making 1960, p. 114.

  “Washington heard”: NYT, May 12, 1960. “The road”: NYT, May 15, 1960.

  Johnson press conference: NYT, WP, AA-S, May 12, 1960. Reedy’s statement”; “slumped further”: AA-S, May 12, 1960. Cloakroom scene: AA-S, May 12, 1960.

  “If you want”: Rowe OH II.

  “See those houses”; Indianapolis press conferences: Amarillo Daily News, May 29, 1960. As the plane “thundered”: Abilene Reporter-News, May 26, 1960.

  Five-day tour: WS, May 27, 1960; DT-H, May 30, 1960; Waco News-Tribune, June 1, 1960.

  “Biggest day”: Idaho Falls Post-Register, May 26, 1960. Drevlov scene: FWS-T, May 1960. Pierre scene; “a day that”: DT-H, HP, May 30, 1960. “Hadn’t slept”: Waco News-Tribune, June 1, 1960.

  Kennedy said that he would have: Kennedy had responded to a question as to whether he would “apologize” to the Soviet Union for the U-2 mission by saying, “I certainly would express regret at the timing and give assurances that it would not happen again. I would express regret that the flight did take place.” BS, May 18, 1960. “I want”; “It was Mr. Khrushchev”: NYT, DMN, DT-H, May 28, 1960. “At every stop”: WES, May 29, 1960. “I am not prepared”: NYT, May 31, 1960. “Lyndon Johnson alone”: Caro, The Path to Power, p. 416.

  Swooped across Texas: See “The Flying Windmill” chapter in Caro, Means. Over Hells Canyon itself: See the “Hells Canyon” chapter in Caro, Master. Strange lines: BS, May 31, 1960. He told ranchers: WES, May 30, 1960. “Needs a champion”: BS, May 31, 1960.

  Theodore White linked: White, Making 1960, p. 134.

  “He has”: WES, May 30, 1960. When reporter William H. Blair of the NYT asked a person in the audience, Would you vote for a Southerner, he replied, “I didn’t think of him that way when he was speaking.” NYT, Dec. 15, 1959. Lieutenant governor: In fact, Drevlov endorsed him. DT-H, May 29, 1960. “There’s no”: DT-H, May 30, 1960. “A lion”: Fleeson, BG, June 2, 1960.

  “And Symington next”: “Telephone Conversation between Jim Rowe and Walter Jenkins,” June 23, 1960,“Transcripts of Telephone Calls—June 1960, OFWJ, Series 2, Box 1. Mansfield finally: Rowe interview. “Don’t come”: Rowe OH II, p. 15; Rowe interview.

  A favorite: For Johnson’s championing of Church in the Senate, see Caro, Master, pp. 859–61, 905–7, 970–75, 988–89. “To help me”: Caro, Master, p. 989. Kennedy offer: Ashby and Gramer, Fighting the Odds, pp. 124–26. Kennedy’s Idaho contact, Robert Wallace, had passed the word to Kennedy that Church “is running for keynoter.” “The little sonofabitch”: Busby OH, JFKL; Busby interview. Church did indeed deliver the keynote address at the Convention.

  “Simply couldn’t”: HP, May 29, 1960.

  “You and I”: “Private Memo,” May 26, 1960, Notebook 3, Box 1, Krock Papers, Mudd Library, Princeton University.

  31,250: NYT, July 3, 1960. “Successful”: NYT, WP, June 5, 1960. Arizona and Colorado: NYT, June 19, 26, 1960. So completely did Kennedy’s forces in Colorado control that state’s declaration that Former Senator Ed Johnson was not even allowed to be a member of it.

  “Kennedy has got”: Rowe OH II. “Now listen, Adlai”: Morgan interview. “And how!”: “Private Memo,” May 26, 1960, Notebook 3, Box 1, Krock Papers, LBJL, Princeton University.

  Some … had been promised: WSJ, July 1, 1960; Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 263.

  “Too raw”; “Sam was
just”: Bolling interview; Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 265. Without warning; longtime: NYT, WP, BS, June 30, 1960. Rayburn’s “word”; “The theory”: NYT, June 30, 1960. “Audacious,” “blatant”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 264.

  Had indeed been speculation; “engineered”: NYT, July 1, 1960. “The bandwagon”: El Paso Times, May 20, 1960.

  He had: Hoff interview.

  “The boy”: “During the entire conversation” in which Johnson tried to persuade Tip O’Neill to support his candidacy, “he never once mentioned Jack Kennedy by name. It was always ‘the boy’ ” (O’Neill with Novak, Man of the House, p. 181). In other conversations, it was “Young Jack.” Steele to Johnson, July 8, 1960, SP. “Toward Kennedy he is contemptuous,” Steele reported. “Sonny Boy”, “Johnny”: Time, April 25, 1960; Steinberg, Sam Rayburn, p. 522; Dallek, Lone Star, p. 569. “He’s a nice”: DT-H, May 31, 1960. Or “a fine, attractive young man,” as in WP, May, 30, 1960. “Young Jack”: Time, July 18, 1960. “Jack was out”: Time, July 18, 1960. Steele to Harry Johnston, July 8, 1960, SP, quoted in Dallek, Lone Star, p. 572. “I cannot be absent when public business is at stake. Those who have engaged in active campaigning since January have missed hundreds of votes. This I could not do.… Someone has to tend the store” (Time, July 18, 1960). “Likes to”: WES, May 27, 1960. “Have you heard?”: Judd OH, HSTL. The remark “shocked me,” Judd says. “It was one of the most insulting remarks I ever heard. But that was Lyndon’s gutsy way. He thought he was going to mow Kennedy down.” “Small cracks”: Sidey, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 241. “All of the enmity”: Lisagor OH, JFKL, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 241. In his OH, Lisagor added, “There were a lot of things he said about Kennedy which revealed some basic feelings.… I told Bobby all these things. I don’t think I left out a single word, four-letter or otherwise, whereupon Bobby simply turned to the window … and said, ‘I knew he hated Jack, but I didn’t know how much.’ ” “A ‘little scrawny’ ”: Lisagor OH. And see Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 205, and Reston Jr., The Lone Star: The Life of John Connally, p. 189. “It is amazing”: Robert G. Spivack, “Watch on the Potomac,” Chicago Daily Defender, June 27, 1960.