The Passage of Power

by Robert A. Caro

  “Masterful”: Roberts OH. “As calm”: Thornberry OH I. “Let’s get”: Fehmer OH II. Until he was stopped: Valenti, Very Human President, p. 55.

  Bobby had walked; “There’s so much”; Ethel handing him glasses: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 609. “He had the most wonderful”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 277.

  Arriving at Andrews: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 277; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 610; Manchester, Death of a President, p. 387. Ran up the stairs: Nancy Dickerson, quoted in Newseum, President Kennedy Has Been Shot, p. 142; Manchester, Death of a President, p. 387. “Where’s Jackie?”: Carpenter, “Recollections,” p. 24; Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 277. Pushed his way; “didn’t look”: Carpenter, “Recollections,” p. 24; Valenti, This Time, p. 29; Valenti, Very Human President, p. 55. Valenti felt: Valenti, WP, Nov. 22, 1993. “Everyone”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 386. “Trapped”: Valenti, Very Human President, p. 56; This Time, p. 29. “Hi, Jackie”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 387.

  “A fallen chieftain”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 389. “Yearned for a cry”: Theodore White, quoted in Manchester, Death of a President, p. 388.

  “He [Johnson] said: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 387. Couldn’t recall it; “I would not have felt”; “I just observed”: CBS News Special—“LBJ: ‘Tragedy and Transition,’ ” May 2, 1970. “A deliberate snub”: Bishop, The Day Kennedy Was Shot, p. 406.

  “The scene”: Mary McGrory, “The Return,” NYP, Nov. 24, 1963.

  “He was very reassuring”; “Because of the noise”: Robert Asman, Harry Reasoner, quoted in Newseum, President Kennedy Has Been Shot, p. 145. He assigned: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 402. “Get in the second”: Valenti, Very Human President, p. 3. “Any important matters”; Kennedy did something”: “File: Transition / State,” Box 167, White Papers, JFKL; Manchester, Death of a President, p. 402.

  “No other words”: Bird, Color of Truth, p. 266. “Surprisingly stable”; moving: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 402. “Like an invisible”: Amrine, This Awesome Challenge, p. 10.

  “Stay with Lady Bird”; “It’s a terrible thing”; “Don’t think”: Carpenter, “Recollections,” p. 26. “Don’t you want to go in?”: Moyers, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 323.

  Scene in office: Fehmer, Jenkins, Reedy interviews; Nelson, Juanita Roberts OHs. “He had to”: Nelson OH. “Reassuring pat”; “Walter, let’s have Marie”: Roberts OH III. “Nothing worked”: Nelson OH. Fehmer went home: Fehmer interview, OH. “I didn’t know him”: Roberts OH III. “Much chaos”: Fehmer interview. “Total command”: Nelson OH. “Almost a different person”: Fehmer interview. “No lost motion”; Bundy: Roberts OH III. “I have needed you”: Transcript, Telephone call, “7:10 P.M. EST, To Dwight D. Eisenhower,” TPR, Vol. I, pp. 78–79. Hoover call: Reedy interview. Herbert Hoover call: From notes taken by Johnson staff, pp. 79, 80. J. Edgar Hoover call: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 405. Maguire call: Transcript, “9:10 P.M. EST, To Richard Maguire, TPR, pp. 84, 85. Goldberg call: Transcript, “9:06 PM, EST, To Arthur Goldberg and Dorothy Goldberg. All from TPR, Vol. I.

  “Especially Sorensen”: Moyers, cited in Sorensen, Counselor, p. 364. “White-faced”: McGrory, NYP, Nov. 24, 1963. “Kindly, strongly”: Sorensen, Counselor, p. 364. No transcript of this call exists. Congressional leaders: White to Parker, Nov. 22, 1963, “Johnson Cover II and Narrative—Nation, Time files, White Papers; Reedy.” “That perhaps”: Sidey, Very Personal Presidency, pp. 41, 42.

  Letters to John and Caroline: “Kennedy, Mrs. John F. 1963,” Box 7, WHFN. “He would never”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 406. “I’m going”: Busby interview.

  “Drive home”: Valenti, A Very Human President, p. 6. Surprisingly small: Sidey, Steele interviews.

  Scene at house: Busby, Hurst, Valenti interviews. “The aura”: Busby, The Thirtyfirst of March, pp. 151–2. “Hello, Mr. Sam”: Peggy Starke to Busby, undated, “This is rough and without continuity as I transcribed it as you told it” (in author’s possession). In his book, Busby says (p. 152) that he said, “How I wish you were here.” Travell had called: Travell, Office Hours, p. 429. Hurst was waiting: Hurst and Cain, LBJ: To Know Him Better, p. 7. “More controlled”: Busby, Thirtyfirst of March, p. 152. “Composure”: Busby interview. “I guess”; “I don’t”: Busby, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 324. “That’s the last”: Valenti interview. “I want you”; “Take care”: Busby, Thirtyfirst of March, p. 153. “Almost to”; “You know”: Busby interview.

  “I want to think out”: Valenti interview. “A sounding board”: Carter OH; Jack Valenti, “Achilles in the White House: A Discussion with Harry McPherson and Jack Valenti,” Wilson Quarterly, Spring 2000.

  Johnson talking: Valenti interview; Carter OH; Valenti OH II. Valenti, “Achilles in the White House”; Valenti interview. “We sat”; “Everything”: Carter OH. “By God”: Valenti interview. “That whole night”: Moyers, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 325. “Do you realize”: Valenti interview. “He told Moyers”: Carter OH.

  Until three: “President’s Diary–Nov. 22, 1963,” Box 2, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL. “Well, good night”: Valenti interview. When he went to his bedroom, Moyers says, “I looked down and could see shadowy figures moving through the grounds. The Secret Service had on a heavy guard.”

  14. Three Encounters

  “As it did”; “Her face”: Goodwin, Remembering America, pp. 228, 230. A decision: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, p. 610; Manchester, The Death of a President, pp. 435, 442–43. “For a moment”: Schlesinger, Journals, pp. 204, 205. “Close it”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 443. “Why, God?”: Spaulding in recorded interview, Jan. 22, 1970, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 611.

  Bundy had told Johnson Friday evening: Stegall to Johnson, 8:05 a.m., Nov. 23, “Manchester File,” Box 1, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL. Johnson didn’t get: unaddressed, unsigned, yellow notepaper. “Mac comes in early Sat. & saw Bobby & Mrs. Lincoln said he hoped they didn’t (have to) move quickly—But [evidently Bundy] failed to tell & Pres. went into little office.… Finally an amicable basic agreement that office would be occupied after funeral—“Current,” Box 4, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL. “I have an appointment”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 453. Manchester quotes Secret Service Agent John J. O’Leary, who Manchester says was standing by Evelyn’s desk, as saying that there was “anxiety on his [Johnson’s] part to get in. In his book Lyndon, Merle Miller says (p. 601) that Moyers was present at this encounter, and that Moyers “said that Lyndon was not at all rude, but on the contrary, told Mrs. Lincoln when he saw her packing up things, ‘You don’t have to do that—you just take your time.’ ” Miller also says that “in Robert Kennedy and His Times, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., mentions no such encounter.” But in fact Schlesinger does indeed mention it, on page 627, in an account that is fundamentally the same as Manchester’s, and that Schlesinger says is based not only on an interview Kennedy gave to Manchester, but on an account Lincoln gave to him, Schlesinger, as recorded in his journals on March 25, 1964. Lincoln gave a similar account to me in my interview with her in 1993. And in a recorded interview with John Bartlow Martin, Robert Kennedy says, “He came to the White House on Saturday and started moving all my brother’s things out Saturday morning at nine o’clock. I went over and asked him to wait, at least until Sunday or Monday” (Guthman and Shulman, eds., Robert Kennedy: In His Own Words, p. 406). Johnson did, in fact, have an appointment scheduled for 9:30, with Dean Rusk (“The President’s Appointments, Sat., Nov. 23, Box 1, Diary Backup, LBJL). The author couldn’t reconcile Moyers’s statement with those of Lincoln and Robert Kennedy, because of Moyers’s refusal to be interviewed. “A mix-up”: Bundy, quoted by Kennedy, in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 627.

  “Ran so”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 626. “During”: Johnson interview by William J. Jordan, Aug. 12, 1969, OH Collection, LBJL.

  “Very short”: Bundy to Johnson,
Nov. 23, Special Files. “No pictures”: Bundy, Nov. 23, “[President Johnson’s Statements and Schedule, Nov. ’63–Jan. ’64],” Box 3, Special Files. Assassination, LBJL. “I was upset”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 627. “Bobby was late”: Bundy, quoted in Manchester, Death of a President, p. 476. “Quite clear”: Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 120. “Awful”; “We won’t”: Freeman Diary, quoted in Manchester, Death of a President, p. 477. “There was real”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 478. “Kennedy expressed”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 627.

  “I’ll make it”: Transcript, “3:54 P.M. to John McCormack,” TPR, Vol. I, pp. 115–16. “The Kennedy aura”: Transcript, “2:10 P.M. to George Smathers, TPR, p. 109. “Might be resented”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 478. “I didn’t like that”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, pp. 627–28; Manchester, Death of a President, p. 480. “It will”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 480.

  15. The Drums

  “Block by block”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 537. “All you”; “the drums”: Major General Philip Wehle Clifton, quoted in Manchester, Death of a President, p. 538. “A sea of faces”: Lady Bird Johnson, A White House Diary, pp. 8, 9.

  “Can I have” Manchester, Death of a President, p. 541. “There was”: UPI and American Heritage, Four Days, p. 84. If Jackie: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 540. “Her behavior”: Lady Bird Johnson, A White House Diary, pp. 8, 10. “You just kiss”; Joint Chiefs: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 542.

  “The juxtaposition”; “A new dimension”: NYT, Nov. 24. “Marked … the first time”: NYT, Nov. 25, 1963. “Clustered”: Heren, No Hail, No Farewell, pp.4, 9.

  “The mighty”: WP, Nov. 24, 1963. “A strange counterpoint”: Johnson, The Vantage Point, p. 33.

  “The drama”: Sidey, A Very Personal Presidency, p. 43.

  “I would to God”: Russell, Lady Bird, p. 231. Surprisingly small: McNeil, Sidey, Steele interviews.

  16. EOB 274

  All dates 1963 unless otherwise noted.

  The atmosphere in 274 comes from interviews with Fehmer, Jenkins, Reedy, Sidey, Steele; from oral histories by Carter, Fehmer, Juanita Roberts, Nelson; from the memos sent back to Time magazine in New York by Washington bureau chief John L. Steele and correspondents Lansing Lamont and Loye Miller.

  Some of the items: All from “November 23, 1963, “Diary Backup,” Box 1. “It was … almost”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 201. “With which”: John McCone, “Memorandum for the Record,” Nov. 25, 1963, “Meetings with the President—23 Nov. 1963–27 Dec. 1963,” Box 1, John McCone Memoranda, LBJL.

  “There will be”: Transcript, “5:52 P.M. to McGeorge Bundy,” Nov. 23, TPR, Vol. I, p. 123.

  Had turned to Smathers before: Caro, Master of the Senate, pp. 658, 855. He telephoned him: Transcript, “2:10 P.M. to George Smathers,” Nov. 23, TPR, Vol. I, pp. 107–12.

  “We stand”: Gordon to Johnson, Nov. 23, 1963, “FI 4 Budget—Appropriations Nov. 22, 1963–Jan. 31, 1964,” Box 21, WHCF—FI (Gen). “I told him”; “Now I want to say”: Walter Heller, “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL–“Notes on Meeting with President Johnson, 7:40 P.M., Saturday, Nov. 23, 1963,” Papers of Gardner Ackley, microfilm Reel #2, LBJL. Anderson told him: Transcript, “1:55 P.M. to Robert Anderson and Ollie Mae Anderson,” Nov. 23, TPR, Vol. I, pp. 102–4. Udall, Wirtz and Freeman had urged: For example, “Secretary Freeman called and said as follows …,” “Jenkins to Johnson, Nov. 23,” November 23, “Diary Backup,” Box 1.

  “Indefensible”: Evans and Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson, pp. 365–66; WP, Nov. 16, 21, 23, 6. “Just the moment”: Reedy interview. “They’ve got the bit”: Reedy interview. “We could not afford”: Johnson, The Vantage Point, p. 39. The two leaders: Humphrey, The Education of a Public Man, p. 264; Amrine, This Awesome Challenge, pp. 54, 55. “They don’t know”: McPherson interview. “They told me”: Transcript, “3:30 P.M. from John McCormack and Hale Boggs,” TPR, Nov. 26, Vol. I, p. 182. Humphrey himself recounts that Johnson asked him, “How many votes do you have?,” and he replied, “I’m not sure.” Johnson, Humphrey says, said, “That’s the trouble with that place up there. You fellows don’t count votes” (Humphrey, Education, p. 264). When Johnson tried to reach O’Brien: Reedy interview.

  “Grief and disbelief; “the details”: Sorensen, Counselor, pp. 367, 380–81; Sorensen interview.

  “Gov. [George] Romney”: All from “Diary Backup—November 23, 1963,” Box 1, Diary Backup. “Harry Provence”: Jenkins to Johnson, Nov. 23, “Diary Backup—November 23, 1963,” Box 1, Diary Backup. McCone closed: Steele interview. “The President”: Jenkins to Johnson, Nov. 23. “You’re wonderful”: Transcript, “1:44 P.M., from Ralph Yarborough,” Nov. 23, TPR, Vol. I, p. 101. “One call after”: Reedy interview. “Apparently”: Reedy to Johnson, Nov. 23. All from “Diary Backup—November 23,” Box 1, Diary Backup.

  “The President and Mrs. Johnson”: “Draft—Program at Rotunda, Attachment # 1, November 24, 1963,” Box 1, Diary Backup. An usher: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 518.

  “I think we ought”: “7:01 P.M. to J. William Fulbright,” Dec. 2, TPR, Vol. II, p. 80. “Talked little”: Valenti, A Very Human President, p. 152. Lodge, who: Gibbons, U.S. Government and the Vietnam War, pp. 203, 209. McCone said: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 43. “Net result”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 44. It was decided: Gibbons, U.S. Government, pp. 209–11; Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 45. The preliminary plan, NSAM 273, would be approved by Johnson on Nov. 26. “Only South Vietnam”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 22.

  “It was so”: Logevall, Choosing War, p. 108. “Firm”: Wicker, JFK and LBJ, p. 205. “We had spent”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 44. “The main objective”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 44; Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 99. “I am not going”; “I don’t think”: Wicker, JFK and LBJ, p. 205; Wicker interview. Wicker says Moyers told him after the meeting that Johnson had said this.

  On Oct. 2, McNamara and Taylor: NYT, WP, Oct. 3. “We need a way”: Dallek, Unfinished, p. 680. Salinger announcement; “their judgment”: Dallek, Unfinished, p. 680. “Reaffirmed”: NYT, Nov 25. “White House sources said”: WP, Nov. 25. NSAM 273: Gibbons, U.S. Government, pp. 209–10.

  “Days filled”; “Sometimes he”: Juanita Roberts OH. “A changed man”: Fehmer interview. “I’ve never”: Moyers, quoted in Miller to Parker, Nov. 28, p. 5, Time files, Box 321, “LBJL of 22,” White Papers, JFKL. “Direct”: Steele to Parker, “Johnson Cover & Kennedy Narrative XVII,” Nov. 23, White Papers. “There were”: Sidey interview. “Seems to be”: Miller to Parker, Nov. 23, “Johnson Cover—VIII—Nation,” Time files. “He was thinking”: Busby interview.

  “I knew”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 29.

  “George”: Transcript, “10:17 A.M. to George Meany,” Nov. 23, TPR, Vol. I, pp. 93–94.

  Telephoned each of them: Transcripts, “4:20 P.M. to Walter Reuther,” Nov. 23, TPR, Vol. I, p. 120; “4:15 P.M. to Dave McDonald; President Johnson joined by Arthur Goldberg,” Nov. 23, TPR, Vol. I, pp. 116–19.” “Liked”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 181. “Should be told”: Reedy to Johnson, “Diary Backup—November 23, 1963,” Box 1, Diary Backup, Nov. 23.

  “It’s just”: Transcript, “9:20 P.M. to Martin Luther King, Jr.,” TPR, Vol. I, pp. 161–62. “Sort of”: “5:55 P.M. to Whitney Young” and “6:23 P.M. from Whitney Young,” TPR, Vol. I, pp. 137–42.

  Albert, Weisl, Kappel, Bundy, Brown, Reynolds and Rolvaag transcripts: TPR, Vol. I, pp. 94–95, 101–2, 97–100, 95–99, 121–23,132–34,157–58.

  Johnson woke: Salinger, With Kennedy, p. 331. In this book, he says simply, “I told him I would stay,” but Shannon, his friend, wrote on the day of President Kennedy’s funeral that Salinger told him he would resign the next day. Shannon, NYP, Nov. 25.

  Schlesinger’s lunch: Heren, No Hail, No Farewell, p. 16; Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 143.

  “Almost all”: Goldman, The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, p. 17. “I keep supposing”: Schlesinger, Journals, p. 206. “We came”: Wal
ton interview.

  “I’d like”: Sorensen, Counselor, p. 368. “George, I wish”: Reedy OH III. “Johnson really”: Dungan OH, LBJL.

  Comparing notes: Wechsler column, NYP, Dec. 4. Johnson reminded him: Galbraith, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 337; Sorensen interview. See also Schlesinger, Journals, p. 206: “A telephone call from Ken reported that he had seen Johnson, and that Johnson had asked him to work with Sorensen on the message. Ken seemed in high spirits.… He is a realist.” “I just want”: Schlesinger, Journals, p. 209. With Stevenson; “I know, and you know”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 342; Schlesinger, Journals, p. 211. “Don’t expect me”: Nicholas Lemann, “The Unfinished War,” The Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1988. Also see Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 340. “I’m afraid to”: Sorensen, Counselor, p. 382. “He did not have”: Walter Heller, “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL—Notes on Meeting with President Johnson, 7:40 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 23, 1963,” Papers of Gardner Ackley, microfilm Reel #2, LBJL. “I don’t know”: Dungan OH. “Please stay”: White, The Making of the President, 1964, pp. 44, 45. “In these”; “Never once”; “restraint”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 175. “In [these] first”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, pp. 339–40.

  Bundy entered: McPherson, A Political Education, p. 216. “Magnificent”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 340.

  “Associates”: NYP, Nov. 25. “With swollen”: Heren, No Hail, p. 17. “Talk the same”: Schlesinger, Journals, p. 211. “If you act”: Schlesinger, Journals, p. 209.

  “To me”; “I know”; “I want you”: Sorensen, Counselor, pp. 378–80.

  “By remaining”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 19. “Intensity”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 339.