The Passage of Power

by Robert A. Caro

  Bobby then said; “Roughly, 3:00”; No call came; “was considerably”: Graham Memo, p. 11. “Johnson hasn’t heard”: Rowe OH II. Jack said: Graham Memo, p. 11. “Stop vacillating”: Graham in his Memo (p. 11) says that he told Kennedy that “It was too late to be mind-changing” and “that he should remember ‘You ain’t no Adlai.’ ” “Agreed about”: Graham Memo, p. 11. “Just don’t go”: Rowe OH II. “Johnson took the call”; “Do you really want me?” Rowe, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 261; Rowe OH II; Rowe interview.

  “Everybody”: Rowe, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 261. “Whom I had never”; “Graham, my God”: Rowe OH II. Graham Memo, p. 13 says, “Bill Moyers rushed into our room to say Lyndon wanted me at once. ‘I’ll be along in just a minute.’ ‘That won’t do,’ Moyers yelled, and grabbing my arm dragged me down the hall through a solid jam of press people and into the entrance hall of the suite with Rowe and Connally close behind.”

  “There were just the two of us”: Robert Kennedy interview with Arthur Schlesinger, quoted in Guthman and Shulman, eds, In His Own Words, pp. 21, 22.

  Hawaiian delegates; “LBJ seemed about”: Graham Memo, p. 13. He told them: Rowe interview. Graham says, “he shouted at me that Bobby Kennedy had just come in and told Rayburn and him that there was much opposition and that Lyndon should withdraw for the sake of the party.”

  “What am I going to do?”; “I’d never seen him”: Rowe interview. “Phil, call Jack”; “ ‘Oh, … that’s all right’ ”; “You’d better speak to Bobby”; “Well, it’s too late now”: Graham Memo, pp. 13, 14. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 56. “Had just survived”: Graham Memo, p. 15.

  “Jim, don’t you think?” Rowe OH II. “My God”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 210; Schlesinger, “Author’s View—He Grabbed,” Life.

  “As though”: WP, July 15, 1960.

  “I urged”; “ ‘Bobby’s been’ ”; “I later learned”: Graham Memo, pp. 3, 14, 16. “Did Jack offer”: Graham Memo, p. 16.

  “The only people”: Robert Kennedy interviews with John Bartlow Martin, in Guthman and Shulman, eds., In His Own Words, pp. 304, 22. “I went”; “flabbergasted”; “Obviously,” etc.: Guthman and Shulman, eds., In His Own Words, p. 22.

  Scene in suite: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 194; O’Donnell OH; Miller, Lyndon, pp. 258–59. “Violently”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 19. “Joe Rauh, who”: Woodcock, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p.258. “This is the worst double cross”: WES, July 16, 1960. “Double-cross”; “sellout”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 194. “Savagely”: O’Donnell OH. Rose shouted; Conway: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 194. “I don’t think”; “Bobby was shaken”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 194.

  “Do you want me”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” pp. 194–95. Jack’s determination … appears never to have wavered; Soapy-Governors confrontation; “sitting in an armchair”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 195. “Not to my recollection”: O’Brien OH I. Lawrence’s speechwriters were drafting: Governor Lawrence, quoted in Donaghy, Keystone Democrat, p. 143. Donaghy interview with Gerald Lawrence, Part I, July 16, 1973, p. 3, Michael P. Weber Papers, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh Library System. “The President wanted”: Guthman and Shulman, eds., In His Own Words, p. 22. “As the years”: O’Brien OH I. “That was”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 98. Shesol’s conclusion on the same point: “Bobby argued that when he had left the Kennedy suite to meet with Johnson, the two brothers had been in agreement: if Johnson seemed amenable, Bobby should ease him off the ticket. But once plunged into the labyrinth of crowded hallways and snarled communications, Bobby did indeed fall ‘out of touch’ and was betrayed, however unintentionally, by his own brother. This was, perhaps, too painful to admit, but the alternative was unthinkable” (Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 56). “I always”: Dutton, quoted in Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 98.

  “That opened to Johnson”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 282.

  “Bobby was against”: Johnson, “Reminiscences.” “ ‘that little shitass’ ”: Baker, Wheeling, p. 130. “I’m not going to”: Connally interview. Slitting gesture: Among those who saw it: Herring, Oltorf. Johnson would still be using that gesture in 1968, Evan Thomas relates. In a meeting on April 2 of that year with Eugene McCarthy, shortly after Kennedy had announced his presidential candidacy, “the conversation was ‘almost pro forma and casual’ … until Robert Kennedy’s name came up. Johnson said nothing, but drew the side of his hand across his throat.” Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 366. “I’ll cut”: Clark interview.

  5. The “LBJ Special”

  “Everything’s all right now, George”: Reedy OH XVI. It was the “first time I ever saw a benevolent smile on Bobby’s face,” Reedy says.

  “Settled”: White, The Making of the President, 1960, pp. 251, 259.

  Gallup Poll: NYT, WP, Oct. 5, 12, 1960. So far behind: NYT, Sept. 7, 1960. “This boy”; “after that”: Drew Pearson, WP, Nov. 5, 1960.

  Descriptions of whistle-stop tour: E. Ernest Goldstein, “How LBJ Took the Bull by the Horns,” Amherst, Winter 1985, pp. 79–8l. Reedy, LBJ, pp. 129–31; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 540–43. Danville Bee, Oct. 9, 1960; Richmond TimesDispatch, Oct. 9, 1960; Spartanburg Journal, Oct. 10, 1960; WES, Oct. 10–14, 1960; Anderson Independent, Oct. 11, 12, 1960; Atlanta Journal, Oct. 11–14, 1960; Charlotte Observer, Oct. 11–19, 1960; Houston Chronicle, Oct. 11, 1960; Jacksonville Journal, Oct. 11, 1960; Birmingham News, Oct. 12, 1960; Greensboro Daily News, Oct. 12, 1960; NYT, Oct. 12, 1960; Florida Times-Union, Oct. 13, 1960; Houston Press, Oct. 13, 1960; Jacksonville Journal, Oct. 13, 1960; Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 13, 1960; CSM, Oct. 14, 1960; Meriden Star, Oct. 14, 1960; New Orleans States-Item, Oct. 14, 1960; Pensacola News, Oct. 14, 1960; Tallahassee Democrat, Oct. 14, 1960; AA-S, Oct. 15, 1960; New Orleans Times-Picayune, Oct. 15, 1960; WP, Nov. 6, 1960; NYT, Nov. 6, 1960. “Potent”: Reedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 130.

  “The volume would be turned up”: Reedy, LBJ, p.130. “The main thing”; “Are we going to sit idly by”: WES, Oct. 11, 1960. “Why, oh why”; “This high-talking, high-spending”; “We just decided”: NYHT, Oct. 13, 1960. Talking about his daddy: Anderson Independent, Oct. 12, 1960; Corsicana Sun, DT-H, Oct.12, 1960.

  “Nobody asked him”: WES, Oct. 11, 1960; Houston Press, Oct. 13, 1960; NYHT, Oct. 13, 1960. A deep hush; description of him talking about Joe, Jr.: Florida Times-Union, NYHT, Oct. 13, 1960.

  “Goodbye, Culpepper”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 130; Reedy OH XVII; McPherson, A Political Education, p. 181. “Goodbye, Greer”: Atlanta Journal and Constitution, NYHT, Oct. 13, 1960. “What he was doing”: Eugene Patterson, “Johnson Is the Caboose Man,” Atlanta Constitution, Oct. 13, 1960.

  “The Senator was doing his best work”: McGrory, WES, Oct. 11; Goldsmith, Colleagues: Richard Russell and His Apprentice Lyndon B. Johnson., pp. 79–80. “A portable smoke-filled room”: Birmingham News, Oct. 12, 1960. 1,247: WES, Oct. 19, 1960.

  “Being religioned”: Harlow OH, quoted in Dallek, Lone Star, p. 586; Harlow interview. “Two weeks earlier”; “has justified”: McGrory, Atlanta Constitution, Oct. 14, 1960. “Master”: Chicago Daily News, Oct. 16, 1960.

  “Judas”: Richmond TimesDispatch, Oct. 9, 1960. Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 13, 1960; Rowe interview. “Deeply disturbed”: Johnson to Connally, Oct. 18, 1960, JSP, quoted in Dallek, Lone Star, p. 586. “The ever haunting”: Rowe to Humphrey, Nov. 22, 1960, Rowe Papers. Private polls were showing: Busby, Rowe interviews; Dallek, Lone Star, p. 584; FW S-T, Nov. 7, 1960; Busby interview.

  Alger was raising: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 543; WES, Nov. 11, 1960. Spitting at Lady Bird: Abilene Reporter-News, Nov. 6, 1960, WP, Nov. 5, 1960. Frightened expression: WES, Nov. 5, 1960; Moyers, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 271. “I want you”: Phinney, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 271. Thirty minutes: NYT, WP, Nov. 5, 1960. “LBJ and Lady Bird”: Hardemann, quoted in Miller, Lyndon,
p. 271. “He knew”: Moyers, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 271. “I wanted to find out”: WES, Nov. 5, 1960.

  Turned the tide in Texas: Harlow, Rowe, Sidey, Sorensen interviews; Evans and Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson, pp. 302–4; Miller, Lyndon, pp. 271, 272; Goldsmith, Colleagues, p. 81. “A mob in Dallas”: Abilene Reporter-News, Nov. 6, 1960. “We had been told”: Gonella interview, OH.

  Vote figures: Unless otherwise indicated, all figures in this chapter are from the Texas Almanac, 1961–1962, pp. 460–62.

  Making a mockery: For a description of this procedure, see Caro, The Path to Power, pp. 721–22. Texas Republicans charged; new law: DMN, Nov. 10, 1960. Texas Republicans were eventually to say that “at least” 100,000 ballots were illegally disqualified. NY, HT, Dec. 4, 5, 1960; WP, Dec. 11, 1960; “How to Steal an Election,” Look, Feb. 14, 1961. “Thousands of Texas voters had their ballots invalidated for failing to mark out minor parties, reports from several cities showed” (Texas Observer, Nov. 18, 1960). Also see Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 545.

  94 precincts, 59,000 invalidated: SAE, Nov. 12, 1960; “How to Steal an Election,” Look, Feb. 14, 1961. The Texas Observer noted: Nov. 11, 1960. The factor considered decisive: Clark, Connally, Jones, Kilgore, Rowe interviews.

  12,000, 19,000; “This is a reversal”: Paul Kilday to Johnson, Dec. 2, 1960, “1960 Congressional File—K,” Box 372, JSP.

  Kilday’s brother running the West Side: Johnson’s long experience with vote-buying on the West Side is in Caro, Path, pp 277, 718–23, 736–37; Means of Ascent, p 181. West Side votes; 17,017 to 2,982; SAE, Nov. 10, 1960, and SAE, Nov. 7, 1956. 1,324 to 125: Box 25. In 1956, it voted for Eisenhower, 851 to 523. Other West Side Boxes: The figures cited are for Boxes 15 and 17. In Box 12, traditionally a key precinct in the Mexican-American area, the vote was for Kennedy, 523 to 61 (SAE, Nov. 10, 1960). John Connally was to say of the West Side, “They [low-income Mexican-Americans] went [to the polls] because the Sheriff told them to go. ‘Sheriff Kilday wants you to vote for …’ ” Connally was talking at the time about the 1948 election, but then said the same situation had existed in the 1956 election, and in 1960 (Connally interview).

  “Had little to do”: Caro, Master of the Senate, pp. 745–46. See also Caro, Path, pp. 720–23, 732–33; Means, pp. 182–83, 189–91, 321. The sources for this description of historic voting patterns in the Valley are given in Path, p. 83, and Means, pp.458–61. “You get down”: Clark interview.

  Between 1948 and 1960: Clark, Connally interviews, as well as interviews with Luther E. Jones, a onetime Johnson aide who had been, for eight years, Parr’s most trusted attorney, and was, in 1960, still close to Parr. In fact, he was one of the attorneys representing him in the early stages of his 1959 court fight; with James. M. Rowe, who covered politics in the valley for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times and other newspapers for more than twenty years, and with Joe M. Kilgore, the congressman for the Texas congressional district that adjoined Duval County and included most of the other counties in Parr’s sphere of influence. After the 1961 election, the Chicago Tribune reported that “the election procedures [in Starr County] are much the same as in George Parr’s ‘Duchy of Duval.’ ”

  “Slow-motion count”: CCC, Nov. 9, 1960.

  “Pistols were carried”: Texas Observer, Dec. 2, 1960; NYHT, Dec.4, 1960; CT, Dec. 12, 1960.

  “One charge”; kept a list: Earl Mazo, “Texas Vote ‘Irregularities’ Listed,” NYHT, Dec. 4, 1960.

  “Strictly L.B.J. Country”: Carillo, quoted in Pycior, LBJ and Mexican Americans, p. 118. “The basic core”: Connally, quoted in Pycior, LBJ and Mexican Americans, p. 118; Connally interview. “Our old friends”: Clark interview.

  Chancery hearings cut short: Caro, Means, pp. 380–84. “I think Lyndon”: Master in Chancery William Robert Smith, quoted in Caro, Means, p. 397.

  “Numerous and widespread”: WP, Dec. 11, 1960.

  Three of Johnson’s: As Earl Mazo put it, “Texas Republicans … have no representation anywhere in the Texas election machinery” (NYHT, Dec. 5, 1960). Steakley said: SAE, Nov. 26, 1960. Hearings were simply: DMN, SAE, Nov. 12–Dec. 19, 1960; Texas Observer, Dec. 2, 1960; CT, Dec. 8, 1960; Kansas City Times, Dec. 8, 1960. “Time has been a major headache to the Republicans because the Electoral College convenes to vote on Dec. 19—and the Texas results must be overturned before then if it is to affect the outcome.”

  “Republicans were stunned”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 302. Republican strategists: Harlow interview. Clinton Anderson was to say: Miller, Lyndon, p. 273. “Is given much”: “It Was a Johnson Victory, Too,” USN&WR, Nov. 21, 1960. Sorensen, Kennedy, pp. 187–88. “Could not have been”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 302. “The key”: USN&WR, Nov. 21, 1960.

  “The maltreatment”: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 215. “Gambled”: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 222. “You’ve got to admit”: O’Donnell, quoted in Philip Potter, “How LBJ Got the Nomination,” The Reporter, June 18, 1964.

  Election night call: Sorensen interview. In his Kennedy (p. 211) he says that after Kennedy spoke to Johnson, he joked that “Lyndon says I hear you’re losing Ohio but we’re doing fine in Pennsylvania.” There are several other similar versions of Kennedy’s remark. See White, Making 1960, p. 23; Dallek, Lone Star, p. 589; Rowe to Humphrey, Nov 22, 1960, Box 32, LBJL. O’Donnell says that “Kennedy hung up the telephone and told us with a smile, “I see we won in Pennsylvania, but what happened to you in Ohio?’ ” (O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,” p. 223).

  6. “Power Is Where Power Goes”

  “I do understand”: Johnson, quoted in McPherson, A Political Education, p. 450.

  “Mix too much”: Williams, The Rise of the Vice Presidency, p. 19. “In particular”; “any formal”: Katzenbach, “Memorandum for the Vice President,” March 9, 1961, pp. 10, 11, “Vice Presidency—Office Of,” LBJL. “The only”: Schlesinger, “The Future of the Vice Presidency,” The Cycles of American History, p. 348. Roosevelt removed: Williams, Rise of the Vice Presidency, pp. 185–98. Nothing: Katzenbach, “Memorandum,” p. 11. When Johnson: Reedy OH. “The nature”: Katzenbach, “Memorandum,” p. 10.

  Now Johnson asked: In his biography, Senator Mansfield, Don Oberdorfer cites a telephone call Johnson made to Mansfield when Mansfield, despite Johnson’s request, was still leaning against taking the job. In that conversation, Johnson assures Mansfield that he would “do anything for you at any time … and I will be there every week and I will do everything you want me to do.” Oberdorfer cites this as evidence that Johnson “made it plain that he intended to continue to mastermind Senate activity” (“Re: Conversation between Senator Johnson from Austin, Texas and Senator Mansfield in Washington, D.C.,” Nov. 11, 1960, Series 22, Box 103, Folder 1, MSS 065, Mike Mansfield Collection, University of Montana Library, cited in Oberdorfer, pp. 154, 155). But in Mansfield’s interview with Oberdorfer, quoted in Oberdorfer, Senator Mansfield, p. 157, Mansfield said that Johnson “had come to me … and asked if I would propose that he be permitted to attend future caucuses … and also to preside. In my view this would only constitute an honorary position, and I had no objection.” And Mansfield’s statement in the caucus that “the proposal was in no way intended to suggest that he was sharing either the responsibility or the authority under the proposal but rather recognition” makes it plain that the November 11th call is no more than Johnson’s habitual way of saying whatever he thought would persuade someone to do what he wanted (United States Senate, Minutes of the U.S. Senate Democratic Conference 1903–1964, p. 578).

  “Owed his prominence”: Evans and Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 306. “No work to do”: Oberdorfer interview with Mansfield, Oct. 8, 1998, Box 2, Folder 3, Oberdorfer Collection, MSS 590, University of Montana Library. “In my view”: Oberdorfer, Senator Mansfield, p. 157; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 547.

  “What no other Senate”; he also persuaded: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 306. Keeping “Taj Mahal”: Humphrey, The Education of a Public Man, p. 243; Evans and Novak
, LBJ, p. 306. Bobby Baker would: “Re: Conversation between Bobby Baker in Miami, Fla. and Senator Mansfield, Wash. D.C.,” Nov. 14, 1960, Series 22, Box 103, Folder 1, MSS 065, Mike Mansfield Collection, University of Montana Library. “I think that”: O’Brien OH. In fact, when Baker broached the subject of resigning, Mansfield replies, “I like things the way they are” (“Re: Conversation between Bobby Baker in Miami, Fla. and Senator Mansfield, Washington, D.C., Nov. 14, 1960,” Mansfield Collection).

  “Probably hoping”; “He had often”; “had the illusion:” Humphrey, Education, p. 243; Humphrey OH. “Johnson was not”: Humphrey OH I. “A buoyancy”: Baker, Wheeling, p. 133. Planned to “sit in”: “Conversation between Johnson and Mansfield, Nov. 11, 1960.” “He was going to be”: O’Donnell OH I. O’Brien says (OH VI), “He felt that he would maintain basically the same leadership position with the Senate that he had had as Majority Leader.” Humphrey says (OH I) that Johnson “had the illusions that he could be, in a sense, as Vice President, the Majority Leader, and that he could at least be head of the caucus.” “I was both”; “I saw a disaster”: Baker, Wheeling, p. 134.

  “Like a father”: Steele to Williamson, Nov. 12, 1958, SP. “He thought he was”: MacNeil interview.

  “He didn’t rant and rave”: Smathers, quoted in Caro, Master of the Senate, p. 562. And see pp. 562–72. “During his early”: Reedy, The U.S. Senate, p. 178. “Brooding”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 306.

  January 3 caucus: Minutes of the U.S. Senate Democratic Conference, 1903–1964, pp. 577–81. The careful words of the Minutes state only “that the suggestion raised questions as to the principle of separation of powers” (p. 578). Baker, Wheeling, pp. 135–36; Evans and Novak, LBJ, pp. 306–8; Valeo, Mike Mansfield, pp. 11–15. “Can you imagine”: Byrd, The Senate, 1789–1989, Vol. I, p. 624. “Despite”: Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 63. “I don’t know”: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 547. Ashen: Baker, Wheeling, p. 135. “There was”: Baker, Wheeling, p. 135. Mansfield insisted: Oberdorfer, Senator Mansfield, p. 157; Drew Pearson, “The Washington Merry-Go-Round,” WP, Jan. 18, 1961. “With each repetition”: Valeo, Mike Mansfield, p. 13. Pearson says that Mansfield “assured the meeting that Johnson had not been consulted on the proposition beforehand. This evoked only skeptical Senate laughter” (Pearson, WP, Jan. 18, 1961). “But … everyone”: Baker, Wheeling, p. 135. Hardly: NYT, March 19, 1961. “It was too much”: Humphrey OH I. After Russell spoke: Humphrey, Education, p. 243. “It was a shock and great disappointment that he could not be Vice President and de facto Majority Leader,” Humphrey wrote. The next day’s: Minutes of the U.S. Senate Democratic Conference, 1903–1964, pp. 581–83; Pearson, WP, Jan. 18, 1961. “I now know”: Miller, Lyndon, p. 276. “Those bastards”: Baker, Wheeling, p. 135.