Thornberry argued for Washington, Thomas and Brooks for Dallas: Brooks interview, OH I; Manchester, Death of a President, p. 269. “Suppose”: Youngblood, Twenty Years, p. 125. “I took the oath”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 170. “Very much in command”; “I agree”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 267.
He wanted privacy: Fehmer OH, interview; Youngblood, Twenty Years, p. 123. When Johnson, during his retirement, was giving direction to the ghostwriters of his memoir, he told them: “I was in the President’s bedroom. Hell, I was President.… I don’t see any difference in the bedroom and the sitting room. He wasn’t going to sleep in the bed and I was trying to talk to [Robert] Kennedy and take pills and locate the Judge and do all these things I had to do.… I don’t think I would be apologetic about it” (Johnson, “Reminiscences of Lyndon B. Johnson,” August 19, 1969, transcript of tape recording, pp. 4, 5, OH Collection, LBJL).
“For millions”: Johnson interview with Doris Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 170; “Statement of President Lyndon B. Johnson,” July 10, 1964, Vol. V, p. 563, Hearings (hereafter referred to as “Johnson Statement”).
Hickory Hill scene: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, pp. 607–8; Manchester, Death of a President, pp. 256–59; Morgenthau interview. Johnson-Bobby calls: Youngblood to Chief, p. 6; “Youngblood Testimony,” p. 154. Fehmer, Katzenbach interviews.
“I wanted to say something”: “Johnson Statement,” p. 563. See also Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 13. “In spite of his shock and sorrow”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 13. Johnson said Bobby was “very businesslike, although I guess he must have been suffering more than almost anyone except Mrs. Kennedy” (Johnson, recorded interview by Walter Cronkite, CBS News Special, May 6, 1970, quoted in Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 115).
Kennedy’s accounts; “a lot of people”: O’Donnell, Powers, and McCarthy, “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,” pp. 35–36. “Do you have any objection”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 269. “I was too surprised”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 37. “I was sort of taken aback”: Quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 609. “They want”; “No, not necessary”; “anyone who can”: Katzenbach, Some of It Was Fun, p. 130. “Absolutely stunned”; “He could have”; “he may have wanted”; “Calling Bobby”: Katzenbach interview. “Frankly appalled”: Katzenbach, Some of It, p. 131.
“The facts are unclear”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 271. Johnson was to say: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 13. “They’re going”: Katzenbach interview.
“Bobby started it”: Fehmer OH. “I was”: Fehmer interview.
“As much as”: Holland, Kennedy Assassination Tapes, p. 24. “Get Sarah Hughes”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 272. “I was all right”: Fehmer interview. “Some of us did feel”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 37.
Hammering began: Fehmer OH II. “Reclining”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 310. “In an effort”: Fehmer OH II. “Something that left me stunned”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 34. “She was entering”: Fehmer OH II.
“It was a very, very hard thing to do”: Mrs. Johnson’s Diary, Box 1, “November 22,” pp. 6, 7; Holland, Kennedy Assassination Tapes, p. 23. “Well”: Manchester, Death of a President, pp. 316, 317. “She understood”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 322.
“It was suffocating”; “kept looking out”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” pp. 34, 36. McHugh, Kilduff episode: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 34. Manchester makes this a vivid episode, but as Roberts writes, “There is a paucity of evidence that this conflict of plans generated the blazing controversy that Manchester later perceived” (Roberts, The Truth about the Assassination, p. 108). “In a highly desperate”: “Testimony of Kenneth P. O’Donnell,” Hearings, Vol. VII, p. 454; Roberts, The Truth, p. 108.
“The huge figure”: Jack Valenti, WP, Nov. 22, 1993. “Even in”: Valenti OH II. “In a strange way”: Valenti, A Very Human President, p. 45. “You see”: Busby interview.
“When I walked in”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 13. “We are ready”: Transcript, “Tape recording between Lyndon B. Johnson, Jack Valenti, and Bob Hardesty,” March 8, 1969, p. 2, OH Collection, LBJL. “Put the pool”: “Liz Carpenter Recollections,” p. 19, Box 4, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL. “I want you on my staff”: Valenti, WP, Nov. 22, 1993. “We can’t leave here”; “You must remember Sarah Hughes”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 35. “I could not imagine”; “Bobby gave me”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 35.
“Almost whispering”: Charles Roberts, “Pool Report—Dallas to Washington,” Nov. 22, 1963, p. 1, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL. “Johnson was adamant”: O’Brien OH VI. “Thank God”; “standing tall”; “taking command”; “as many”: Stoughton interview. Witnesses whose presence: “Liz Carpenter Recollections,” p. 20.
“In itself”: Youngblood, Twenty Years, p. 129. “Shoulder to shoulder”: “Testimony of Lawrence O’Brien,” Hearings, Vol. VII, p. 470. “We can talk”: O’Brien OH VI. “Noncommittal”: O’Donnell OH.
Reporters’ wild ride: Sid Davis OH; Roberts, The Truth, p. 109. “They don’t know”: Davis OH. “We’ve got the press here”: Charles Roberts OH.
“Now we’re going to have”: Charles Roberts OH.
“In they came”; “Johnson particularly”: Judge Sarah Hughes, as told to Michael Drury, “The Woman Who Swore in President Johnson Recalls What Happened Aboard Air Force One, 2:38 p.m., Dallas, Nov. 22, 1963,” Box 2, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL. He made sure: Stoughton interview.
“Mrs. Kennedy wanted”: Hughes to Drury. “Do you want?”: Davis OH I. Stoughton describes Johnson as “upset that Jackie wasn’t” making her appearance “faster than she was” (Stoughton interview). “She said”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 36. “Your mind”: “Liz Carpenter’s Recollections,” pp. 23, 18. “Had not known this man”: Sid Davis OH. “Big. Big”: Stoughton interview.
“Now”: Charles Roberts OH, p. 17. “Johnson particularly”; “Mrs. Kennedy wanted”: Sarah Hughes, as told to Drury.
“Something larger”: Valenti interview. “I think I ought”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 36. “A hush”: Charles Roberts OH. “Cast down”: Sarah Hughes, as told to Drury. “Absolutely steady”: Valenti, This Time, This Place, p. 28.
“Now let’s get airborne”: Charles Roberts, “Pool Report”; Sid Davis, “My Brush with History,” American Heritage, Nov.–Dec. 2003; Charles Roberts OH.
13. Aboard Air Force One
“Legitimated”: Neustadt, Presidential Power, p. 237. “Illustrate how”: Verba, “The Kennedy Assassination and the Nature of Political Commitment,” in Greenberg and Parker, eds., The Kennedy Assassination and the American Public, p. 351. “Only two uniforms”: Truman, Memoirs by Harry S. Truman: Years of Decisions, p. 7.
“Violence was missing”: Schramm, “Communication in Crisis,” from Greenberg and Parker, eds., The Kennedy Assassination, p. 3. Oswald arrested; “He also is being questioned”; “a definite”: ABC News, Newseum, President Kennedy Has Been Shot, pp. 127, 129.
The first detailed study: Sheatsley and Feldman, “A National Survey on Public Relations and Behavior,” in Greenberg and Parker, eds., The Kennedy Assassination, pp. 149–77. The study was carried out by a division of the National Opinion Research Center, and hereafter it will be identified as “NORC Study.” Four out of five: SRS-350 Codebook: Kennedy Assassination Study, November, 1963, p. 6, NORC Library, University of Chicago.
“Like a shock wave”: “The Day Kennedy Died,” Newsweek, Dec. 2, 1963. 92 percent: Sheatsley and Feldman, “A National Survey,” p. 152. A Gallup poll in Greece, reported on Dec. 15, found that “just 24 hours after the assassination, 99 per cent of Athenians were found to be aware of the tragic occurrence” (Sheatsley and Feldman, “A National Survey, p. 153). 166 million; 31.6: A. C. Nielsen Co, “TV Responses to the D
eath of the President,” quoted in Schramm, “Communication in Crisis,” p. 14. “Probably without parallel”: Greenberg and Parker, eds., The Kennedy Assassination, p. 153. “The first loss”: Schramm, “Communication in Crisis,” p. 3. “For all practical”: Schramm, “Communication in Crisis,” p. 4. Only 88 percent: Sheatsley and Feldman, “A National Survey,” p. 159. “When President Franklin”: NYT, Nov. 24, 1963. NORC survey timetable: Sheatsley and Feldman, “A National Survey,” p. 151–51.
“Terrible responsibility: Jonathan Schell, “The Time of Illusion: VI—Credibility,” The New Yorker, July 7, 1965, quoted in Neustadt, Presidential Power, pp. 230–31. “Lyndon Johnson’s ascent”: Graff, ed., The Presidents: A Reference History, p. 595.
“Some”: Evans and Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 338. “We came”: Manatos OH, LBJL.
“I always felt sorry”: Moyers, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 336. On another occasion, Johnson said, “I came into office by assassination—knowing that I was living under that burden” (Johnson, “Reminiscences of Lyndon B. Johnson,” August 19, 1969, transcript of tape recording, OH Collection, LBJL, p. 26). “A Texas murder”: Manchester, The Death of a President, p. 228.
“I wish our leader”: “The Senate: A Crisis in Leadership,” Newsweek, Nov. 18, 1963. And now the other bills were being held up: As the Kennedy administration may have been starting to realize. Speaking to Wilbur Mills of Arkansas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, about why the tax-cut bill wasn’t making more progress through Mills’s committee, Kennedy asked him what would induce a committee member from the South who might otherwise favor the bill to oppose it? Mills replied that opponents would “get him”—get his vote to oppose the tax bill—by saying that in return they would oppose release of the civil rights bill from the House Rules Committee. “Let’s take a fellow … who was prone to vote for the tax bill.… How would they get him?” Kennedy asked Mills. “I mean, what, would be the offer on civil rights that would get him?”
“Block it in the Rules Committee,” Mills replies (Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 623).
In his last press conference before his assassination, Kennedy was asked, why, in addition to the tax-cut bill and the civil rights bill, the foreign aid bill had suffered its “worst attack … since its inception,” and “several appropriation bills are still hung up in Congress for the first time in history this late. What’s happened on Capitol Hill?”
“Well, they’re all interrelated,” Kennedy replied. “I think there is some delay because of civil rights—that’s had an effect upon the passage of appropriation bills. There isn’t any question.” WP, Nov. 15.
The legislative situation at the time of Kennedy’s assassination is summarized in Giglio, The Presidency of John F. Kennedy, p. 286; Dallek, An Unfinished Life, pp. 707–8. Tom Wicker, at the time of the assassination the White House correspondent for The New York Times and later head of its Washington Bureau, was to write that “while it will never be known to a certainty whether the Kennedy tax and civil rights bills … have been approved in Congress had Kennedy not been murdered … these bills were widely believed to be bogged down and stalled on the day of his death.… In the time allotted him, Kennedy never was able to lead Congress effectively” (Wicker, JFK and LBJ, p. 147).
“The first priority”: NYHT, NYT, WP, Jan. 26, 1963. The pace of the hearings: The Kennedy Administration had been pressing for a vote in the Finance Committee to speed up the pace of the hearings, a vote to, in effect, repudiate Byrd’s tactics. The vote was held on November 15th. Exactly two members of the 17-member committee voted for it. There were twelve votes against it, and three members weren’t present (Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 658).
In an issue that hit the newsstands the week he died, Newsweek said “his legislative program was bogged down in the least productive Congress in memory” (Newsweek, Nov. 25, 1963).
“We are at the critical stage”: Burns, The Deadlock of Democracy, p. 2. The last section of his book is titled “Leadership: The Art of the Impossible?” “This Congress has gone further”: Lippmann, quoted in Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 34. “Sat longer”: “The Lethargic 88th vs. L.B.J.,” Life, Dec. 13, 1963. “It has seemed impossible”: Childs. “there was no assurance”; Kennedy’s final press conference: WP, Nov. 15, 1963. “Is, here and now”: Evans and Novak, NYHT, Nov. 24, 1963. “A man who wore”: “Lyndon Johnson: His Life, His Family, His Ways,” NYP, Nov. 27–Dec. 2, 1963. “trying”: Rauh interview. “Mr. Johnson needs”: LAT, Nov. 24, 1963. “As the first southerner”: Shannon, NYP.
“The eleven weeks”: Neustadt, Presidential Power, p. 240. “If I am elected”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 121. “Faced the unprecedented”: Neustadt, Presidential Power, p. 258.
During the very next week: Cameron to Bermingham, “Johnson-Economy (Advisory-Biz),” Nov. 25, 1963, White Papers, Box 322, JFKL.
Even Truman’s: Neustadt, Presidential Power, p. 258.
“Illegitimate”; “the bigots and the dividers”: Johnson interview with Goodwin, quoted in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 170. “I simply”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, pp. 174, 175. “And one”: Sidey, A Very Personal Presidency, p. 86. “I’m not sure”: Sidey interview; Sidey, Very Personal Presidency, p. 86. “He felt”: Jenkins OH, Nov. 12, 1980. “A lot”: Goldman, The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, p. 24. Busby found himself: Busby OH VII, pp. 25–26. And the key word: Busby interview. Among the “things he envied”: Jones interview. “Our pool”: Lady Bird’s Diary, Box 1, Saturday, Dec. 21, 1963. “Immobilized,” “paralyzed”: For example, “I would think, what if I had a stroke like my Grandma did, and she couldn’t even move her hands.… That was constant, with me all the time.… I always had horrible memories of my grandmother in a wheelchair all my childhood” (Johnson, “Reminiscences,” pp. 24, 25).
“Everything”: Johnson interview with Goodwin, quoted in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 172. “I was”: Johnson, The Vantage Point, p. 12. “I knew I could not allow: Johnson, Vantage Point, pp. 12, 18, 21.
“Almost vertical”: “I’m assuming he did that because he may have been afraid there could have been somebody on the ground who would try to shoot at it,” Davis says (Newseum, President Kennedy Has Been Shot, p. 121). At every Air Force base: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 352. “Who knew”: Wicker, JFK and LBJ, p. 162. Border: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 353.
In Los Angeles: Newsweek, Dec. 2, 1963. In New York: NYT, Nov. 23, 1963. First bulletins: Newseum, President Kennedy Has Been Shot, p. 33. “The last thunderbolt”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 362.
1:36; “Mr. Johnson”: NYT, Nov. 23, 1936. This time is also a matter of dispute, with various accounts putting the time of Kilduff’s announcement between 1:33 and 1:37. “Vice President Johnson”; “We began”: Newseum, President Kennedy Has Been Shot, p. 87. “There has been”; “we have learned”: “JOHN F. KENNEDY: ASSASSINATION 1 #2 (RADIO) (Nov. 22, 1963). “It appeared”; “We now”: Ibid, # 1. Two heads: Greenberg and Parker, eds, The Kennedy Assassination, p. 11; Manchester, Death of a President, pp. 352, 353. “People”: Wicker, JFK and LBJ, p. 159. “It could”: Chicago Tribune, Nov. 22, 1963. “The German alert”: Manchester, Death of a President, pp. 352, 353.
“Like going back”; “sobbing”; “his eyes were brimming”: Charles Roberts OH I.
“That long, long”; “my first”; “You make”; “No”; “He’s my”: Manchester, Death of a President, pp. 347–350. They decided to drink: Talking to the ghostwriters of his autobiography during his retirement, Johnson said, “I wouldn’t want to say this in the book, but I thought they were just wineheads. They were just drinkers, just one drink after another coming to them trying to drown out their sorrow and we weren’t drinking of course.…” (Transcript, “Tape Recording between Lyndon B. Johnson, Jack Valenti and Bob Hardesty,” March 8, 1969, pp. 7, 8, OH Collection, LBJL).
Pulled a pad: “Aboard Air Force One,” “Diary Backup,” Box 4, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL. “Duplex, Duplex”: Transc
ript, “3:13–3:24 P.M., CST, Andrews AFB, AF-1 (Chester Clifton), and the White House (Jerry Behn),” pp. 42–45, The Presidential Recordings of Lyndon B. Johnson, Vol. I. “I needed”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 177. “Noncommittal”; “Bill, I don’t”: O’Donnell OH. Cabinet meeting postponed: Transcript, “3:13–3:24 P.M. CST, AF-1 (Malcolm Kilduff, Chester Clifton), Andrews AFB, and the White House (McGeorge Bundy), TPR, Vol. I, pp. 56–58.
“None of us”: O’Brien OH, LBJL. Van Buren quote: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, p. 609.
“It’s the Kremlin”: Charles W. Bailey, “Memorandum to the President,” undated, Box 4, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL.
Orders began: Transcript, “3:13–3:24 P.M., CST, Andrews AFB, AF-1 (Chester Clifton), and the White House (Jerry Behn),” The Presidential Recordings, Vol. I, pp. 43, 44. “Winner, Winner”: Transcript, “3:13–3:24 P.M., CST, Andrews AFB, AF-1 (Malcolm Kilduff) and the White House (Andrew Hatcher),” Vol. I, p. 54. “According to plan”: Valenti, This Time, This Place, p. 29. “I want his friends”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 386. “I want my staff”: “Liz Carpenter’s Recollections of President Kennedy’s Assassination,” p. 24, Box 4, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL.
“I want you”: Valenti, This Time, p. 28.
Drafting, improving the: “Nov. 22, 1963—Remarks of President upon Arrival at Andrews Air Force Base,” Box 89, Statements of Lyndon Baines Johnson; Fehmer interview; “Tape Recording between Lyndon B. Johnson, Jack Valenti, and Bob Hardesty,” p. 4. Valenti, This Time, p. 29; A Very Human President, pp. 50, 51.
“Tell the Vice President”: Transcript, “3:13–3:24 P.M., AF-1 (Malcolm Kilduff, Chester Clifton), Andrews AFB, and the White House (McGeorge Bundy), TPR, Vol. I, p. 60. Youngblood was sent: Transcript, “3:13–3:24 P.M. CST, The White House (Jerry Behn) and AF-1 (Rufus Youngblood),” TPR, Vol. I, pp. 51, 52. “Shaky”: Bird, The Color of Truth, p. 266. Putting his hand over the phone: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 371. To Rose Kennedy: Transcript, “3:15 P.M. CST, “AF-1 (President Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson, and … the White House, and Rose Kennedy,” TPR, Vol. I, pp. 63–65.
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