The Passage of Power

by Robert A. Caro

  “The end of the service”: Manchester, Death of a President, p. 603. Telephoning O’Brien: Transcript, “4:04 P.M. to Larry O’Brien,” Nov. 25, TPR, Vol. I, p. 158; Busby interview. O’Brien went to work: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 39.

  “Abrupt, urgent”: White, Making 1964, p. 48. “President Johnson”: NYT, WP, Nov. 26. “Hoping”: Box 1, Diary Backup.

  “Electricity”; “Unprecedented”: WES, Nov. 26. “Take the measure”: Duke, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 334. “Had never worked out”: Read interview. “The President had had”: Read, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 334. Prince Kantol: “Meeting with Prince Kantol, Prime Minister of Cambodia,” Box 1, President’s Appointment File [Diary Backup], Nov. 26. “Grasping the essence”: Read, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 334. “The average dignitary”: Nov. 26. “Understood”: Duke, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 334. “The shrewdest man”: White, Making 1964, p. 45. “Without smiles”: NYT, Nov. 26.

  And then came: “Memorandum for the President, Subject: Revised Recommended Schedule for Your Meetings with Visiting Chiefs of State …,” Nov. 25, Box 1, President’s Appointment File [Diary Backup], Nov. 25. De Gaulle had lectured: Frankel reported in the NYT (Nov. 26) that at their previous meeting, “de Gaulle showed scant deference to the then Vice President. ‘What have you come to learn?’ he asked Mr. Johnson coldly that day.” Unpleasantness had been rekindled: Johnson, Vantage Point, p.23. “Does that”: Transcript, “4:00 P.M. from McGeorge Bundy,” Nov. 25, TPR, Vol. I, p. 157. When de Gaulle now asserted: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 23. With “the real”: Read interview; Read, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 334.

  As he had been walking: White, Making 1964, p. 45. He had realized: Reedy interview. Scranton was waiting: White, Making 1964, p. 45. Talking points: “For the President: Agenda for the Meeting with the Governors,” Nov. 25, “Agenda for the Governors’ Meeting,” Box 1, President’s Appointment File [Diary Backup], Nov. 25. Johnson’s talk to the Governors: “(NOT TO BE RELEASED)—OFF THE RECORD REMARKS OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON TO A GROUP OF GOVERNORS OF THE UNITED STATES PRESENT IN WASHINGTON TO ATTEND THE FUNERAL OF JOHN F. KENNEDY, HELD IN THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE BUILDING, 8:30 pm., Monday, Nov. 25, 1963,” Box 1, President’s Appointment File [Diary Backup], Nov. 25. “He just”; Reedy was: Valenti, Reedy interviews. They … applauded: McGeorge Bundy was to say later that evening that “I heard their outburst, and I thought that was very touching—and good.” Transcript, “9:29 P.M. from McGeorge Bundy,” Nov. 25, TPR, Vol. I, p. 164. “Astounded”: NYT, Nov. 26; Reedy interview. Evans and Novak, who spoke to some of the Governors after Johnson’s talk, were to write that “The Governors … were strangely comforted.… There was an atmosphere of confidence, a presidential atmosphere of latent power and decision” (italics in original) (Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 348).

  “The President showed”; “The most impressive”; “What about your tax bill?”: “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL—–Troika Meeting with President Johnson, Monday, Nov. 25, 1963. Notes by Gardner Ackley, Box 1, Appointment File [Diary Backup]; Heller OH II. “Tell them to lay off”: Heller OH II. “I can defend”; “you won’t pee”: Heller OH II.

  Dillon and others had believed: Dillon to Johnson, Nov. 25, p. 3, “Ex FI 11–4, Nov. 22, 1963—Jan. 22, 1965, Box 59, WHCF SF, LBJL. That attitude is shown when Moyers, in a conversation with Sorensen, says that the President feels that if he can get the budget down in the one hundred billion dollar range, “then he’ll … talk to [Byrd]. Sorensen replies, “I think you can get the tax bill—I know you can get the tax bill without doing that … I think that a budget of 101.5 [billion] dollars can be described in such a way—and accurately so—that it’s very clear that it’s an economy-type budget.” A lower figure is not necessary, he says. “The tax bill has the majority of votes on the Finance Committee and has a majority of votes on the Senate floor.” Shortly thereafter, Johnson comes on the phone and tries to explain, saying, “They’re not going to give [us] the tax bill unless we get our budget down to 100 billion [dollars],” and therefore “it’s a question of” either cutting the budget to Byrd’s figure, or losing the tax bill. To which Sorensen replies, “I don’t think that really is the choice.” The president again tries to explain: “Byrd’s just not going to … report any bill, unless somebody gives him assurance it’s not going to be over 100 billion.… I don’t think that 100 billion with the tax bill is as bad as 102 billion without one.” “I’m not sure that is the choice, yet,” Sorensen replies. (Transcript, “10:10 P.M. to Ted Sorensen; preceded by Bill Moyers and Sorensen,” Nov. 25, TPR, Vol. I, pp. 154–71. “The President indicating”; “We won’t have the votes”; “It was as simple”: Ackley notes.

  To get the budget down: Ackley notes, pp. 2, 3. Dillon, Heller agreed: Ackley notes, p. 3. They had felt: Gordon OH. “Even now”: Sidey, A Very Personal Presidency, pp. 40–41.

  Telephoning not only: Evans and Novak, NYP, Dec. 4. “All of us”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 39. “Murdered”: Transcript, “10:10 P.M. to Ted Sorensen, preceded by Bill Moyers and Sorensen,” TPR, Vol. I, p. 168.

  “Charming”: Newsweek, Dec. 2. The NYHT commented (Nov. 28) that in the past “he has mumbled or sped through his speeches.” “Overshadowing”; “He knew”: Miller, Loye to Parker, “PREX WEEK—–11 (NATION),” Time files, in White Papers, Box 321, “LBJL of 22.” “If it failed”: Miller, Lyndon, p. 337.

  Kilgore telephoned: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 419; Kilgore interview. Telling Busby: Busby interview; Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 349. On a notepad: His full scribble on this point was: “Yesterday product of hate—get rid of object—desire—Hate—International—Justice—Poverty Equality.” Box 1, President’s Appointment’s File [Diary Backup], Nov. 23.

  “Commit LBJ”: Sorensen, Counselor, p. 381. Short shrift except for Busby: Sorensen says (Counselor, p. 381) that after he had “reviewed all these drafts,” he “decided to start fresh.” And Hubert Humphrey tries to take credit (Miller, Lyndon, p. 338) for the crucial line, but in fact the three-paragraph segment is on page 3 of Busby’s draft (“DRAFT: MESSAGE, JOINT SESSION,” p. 3) attached to “The speech as drafted is 1900 words,” “Busby to Johnson, Nov. 26,” Box 89, folders 1 and 2, “Nov. 27, 1963, Remarks of the President before a Joint Session of Congress, House Chamber—Capitol,” Statements File. “I who cannot”: “TCS—Nov. 26, 1963, Mr. Speaker …,” Box 89, folder 1, “Nov. 27, 1963, Remarks of the President before a Joint Session of Congress,” Statements File, LBJL. “At the time I resented the deletion, but now acknowledge that this and other changes were wise,” Sorensen says (Counselor, p. 382).

  “A little corning up”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 348, has “I corned it up a little,” and Murphy that he “added some corn pone” (Fortas, p. 119). “Well, what the hell’s the presidency for?”: Fortas, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 337. “Never”: To: Parker, From: Miller, “PREX WEEK—11 (NATION),” Nov. 29, White Papers. His edits: On “Mr. Speaker …” Also on “TCS—Nov. 26, 1963,” Box 89, Folder 1, Statements File, LBJL. The text: “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—–OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY … (AS ACTUALLY DELIVERED), Nov. 27, 1963.

  Later he would explain; “I never thought”: Goodwin, Remembering America, p. 335.

  “He’d be with them forever”; “he was with us”; “master and slave”: Caro, Master, p. 866. “Not then, no”: Talmadge interview. Had asked Russell: Margaret Shannon, Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Nov. 24, 1963; Gilbert C. Fite, Richard B. Russell, Jr.: Senator from Georgia, p. 404. Something that had to do: Caro, Master, “We of the South” chapter. “Everywhere you looked”: Sidey interview.

  “In the most important”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 349. “It was”; “his only”; “Most striking”: NYT, WP, Nov. 28. “Grandeur”: Amrine, Awesome, p. 182. Johnson emerges: NYT, Nov. 28. “It would have been”: James Reston, “The Office and the Man,” NYT, Nov. 28. “Hardly believe”: Kilgore interview.

  “No one doubted”: Mary McGrory, “Johnson’s Path”; Doris Fleeson, “LBJ and Congress,” NYP, N
ov. 29.

  “It was like”: Caro, Master, p. 583. “Across”: Newsweek, Dec. 9. “Something different”: Reston, “Office and the Man.” Johnson’s speech: David Lawrence, NYHT, Nov. 28. “Established himself”: WP, Nov. 28. “For the tradition”: Time, Dec. 6. “Not a fluke of history”: NYHT, Nov. 28.

  17. The Warren Commission

  All dates 1963 unless otherwise noted.

  “The atmosphere”; “Russia was not”: Johnson, The Vantage Point, p. 26. Very dangerous”: Transcript, Nov. 29, “To Mike Mansfield; President Johnson joined by Dean Rusk,” The Presidential Recordings, Vol. I, pp. 241–42. “With that single”: Johnson, Vantage Point, pp. 25–26.

  Congress was circling: BS, Nov. 26, 27; WP, Nov. 26. Eastland would say: Caro, Master, p. 867.

  His first suggestion: Holland, The Kennedy Assassination Tapes, pp. 90, 91; Max Holland, “The Key to the Warren Report,” American Heritage, Nov. 1995; WP, Nov. 26; Murphy, Fortas, p. 116. Fortas was later: Jenkins to Johnson, Nov. 25, p. 2, “Ex FG 1—Nov. 23, 1963–Jan. 10, 1964,” Ex FG 1, LBJL; Murphy, Fortas, p. 117. A “ghastly”: Murphy, Fortas, p. 116. “Texas justice”: TPR, Vol. I, p. 148.

  He quietly gave: Carr, in announcing there would be a state Court of Inquiry, said “he had not discussed” the Court with the President, and technically that may have been accurate. But he had discussed it with Cliff Carter, who, after conferring with Johnson, told him, “Good idea, but purely a state matter. Can’t say president asked for it” (Carter to Johnson, Nov. 24, 1963, Special File, Assassination, LBJL).

  Learning that: Murphy, Fortas, p. 117. He himself made: Transcripts, “10:40 A.M., to Joseph Alsop,” pp. 149–56; “10:30 A.M., to J. Edgar Hoover,” pp. 145–47; both Nov. 25, TPR, Vol. I. As Holland points out in TPR (Vol. I, p. 148), “there is no record of a phone call from Johnson to Graham,” but McCone, after talking to Johnson on November 26th, wrote that “The President personally intervened, but failed with Mr. Al Friendly and finally ‘killed’ the editorial with Mrs. Graham” (John McCone, “Memorandum for the Record,” Nov. 26, 1963, “Meetings with the President—23 Nov 1963–23 Dec 1963,” Box 1, John McCone Memoranda, LBJL. Post editorial: Nov. 26.

  Executive Order: “EXECUTIVE ORDER No. 11130—“Appointing a Commission to Report upon the Assassination of John F. Kennedy,” Nov. 30, 1963,” Public Papers of the Presidents: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963–64 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1965), 1:14.

  “Men … known to be”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 26. Robert Kennedy suggested: Johnson, “Reminiscences of Lyndon B. Johnson,” Aug. 19, 1969, p. 17.

  “Whose judicial ability”; “We had never”; “to me”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 26. Richard Russell personified: Caro, Master, “A Russell of the Russells of Georgia,” pp. 164–202. “As close to”; “that did not prevent them”; “firmness”; “things were more complicated”; “a demonstration”: Caro, Master, pp. 372–81. “Oh, I would too:” Transcript, “1:15 P.M. to Abe Fortas,” Nov. 29, TPR, Vol. I, p. 261. Nor were these: Reedy interview.

  “Extrajudicial bodies”; “The service of five justices”: Warren, The Memoirs of Earl Warren, pp. 356–57. Tarnished the Court’s: Evans and Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 337. “I was sure”; “Would have been chaos”; “told them”; “I considered”: Warren, Memoirs, pp. 355–56.

  Russell’s reasons: Fite, Richard B. Russell, Jr., pp. 405–6; Goldsmith, Colleagues, p. 101; William Jordan, Reedy interviews. “Oh, no, no”: Transcript, “4:05 P.M. to Richard Russell,” Nov. 29, Vol. I, pp. 291–300.

  “Only the two of us”: Warren, Memoirs, p. 357. “And you’d go fight”: Transcripts, “8:30 P.M. to Thomas Kuchel,” Nov. 29, TPR, Vol. I, pp. 354–55; “8:55 P.M. to Richard Russell; President Johnson joined by Albert Moursund,” Nov. 29, TPR, p. 367. In his “Reminiscences,” Johnson has a slightly different version (p. 16): “I said, ‘I know what you’re going to tell me, but there is one thing no one else has said to you. In World War I, when your country was threatened—not as much as now—you put that rifle butt on your shoulder. I don’t care who sends me a message. When this country is threatened with division, and the President of the United States says you are the only man who can save it, you won’t say no, will you?’ He said, ‘No, Sir.’ ” Tears came: Transcript, “8:30 P.M. to Thomas Kuchel,” Nov. 29, TPR, Vol. I, p. 355. “Mr. President”: Warren, Memoirs, p. 358.

  “He didn’t want”: Transcript, “5:10 P.M. to Everett Dirksen,” TPR, Vol. I, p 313. The 1952 breakfast: Caro, Master, pp. 475–76.

  warren heads: NYHT, Nov. 30.

  The country felt: Max Holland, “The Key”; Holland, Kennedy Assassination Tapes, pp. xvii–xxi; Bugliosi, Reclaiming History. By 1983; 2003 poll: Gallup News Service, “Americans: Kennedy Assassination a Conspiracy,” Nov. 21, 2003.

  “Brought us through”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 27. Johnson said in his “Reminiscences” (p. 17), “I shudder to think what churches I would have burned and what little babies I would have eaten if I hadn’t appointed the Warren Commission.”

  18. The Southern Strategy

  The stalemate: Caro, Master of the Senate, pp. 63 ff. “In a way”: Byrd, The Senate 1789–1989, Vol. I: Addresses on the History of the United States Senate, p. 477. “As when”: Douglas, quoted in Byrd, The Senate, p. 597.

  Did not carry over: See notes for Chapter 12, “Taking Charge.” Also Giglio, The Presidency of John F. Kennedy, pp. 286–87.

  Never, however, had so many: “Dates Appropriations Bills Have Been Cleared for the President, 1951–1963,” Congressional Quarterly, Dec. 6, 1963, p. 2135. Four had: “Committee and Floor Action on Appropriations, 1961–63,” Congressional Quarterly, Dec. 6, 1963, p. 2134; Cong. Record, p. 22620. “More than ever before, the appropriations process in 1963 was characterized by delay,” the Congressional Quarterly Almanac said (p. 132). “The longer these bills”: Cannon, Congressional Quarterly, Dec. 6, 1963, p. 2133. The showdown in the appropriations process was called “unprecedented” by the Congressional Quarterly Weekly, Dec. 6, 1963, p. 2131. “This Congress has gone further”: Lippmann, quoted in Johnson, The Vantage Point, p. 34. “A scandal”: Life, Dec. 13, 1963. “Least productive”: Shannon, NYP, Dec. 1963. “Logjam”: Then Majority Leader Scott Lucas and Russell both use that term in 1949 in referring to it. Caro, Master, pp. 216–17.

  “Archaic”: Kuchel in NYP, Jan. 8, 1964. 1949 civil rights fight: Caro, Master, pp. 215–18. Johnson had been one: Master, pp. 218–22.

  His battlefield: The southern strategy was explained to the author by, among others, Senator Talmadge, Thurmond’s aide Harry Dent, and Richard Russell aides William H. Darden, Gwen and William H. Jordan and Powell Moore, and journalists Neil MacNeil and John Goldsmith. And it was explained in detail by Senator Joseph S. Clark of Pennsylvania in a speech to the Senate on Nov. 21 (Cong. Record, pp. 22618–22). It also becomes quite clear during the conversations Johnson had with senators, as when, on November 30, George Smathers says that the southerners were hiding “behind the tax bill—and hiding behind a lot of other bills, just on the pretense of being against them when the real fact is they’re against the civil rights bill” (TPR, Vol. I, p. 386). “No one had had to”: Dent interview. Filibuster and time limit: Caro, Master, p. 216.

  Even while; One of the eight: Cong. Record Nov. 21 1963, pp. 22621–22. Congressional Quarterly Weekly, p. 2132; Kenneth Crawford, “What’s Wrong Here?” Newsweek, Dec. 23. 1963. “Unzip”: Califano, The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, p. 126. “Everybody”: Crawford, “What’s Wrong.” Clark introduced: S. RES. 227, Nov. 21, 1963. “Unprecedented”: Congressional Quarterly, Dec. 6, 1963, p. 2131. “Already too much money”: Congressional Quarterly, Dec. 6, p. 2133. Russell’s own: Congressional Quarterly, p. 2133.

  “Assembled”: Caro, Master, p. 845. “Mongrel race”: Caro, Master, p. 194. “Massive resistance”: Caro, Master, p. 845. “The new civil rights legislation”: Richmond TimesDispatch, June 11, 1963.

  McCormack and Smith; “He won’t give you a hearing”: Transc
ript, “4:17 P.M. to A. Philip Randolph”; Transcript, “12:04 P.M. to John McCormack and Leslie Arends,” both Nov. 29, 1963, TPR, Vol. I, pp. 252–53, 300. Trying to bargain: NYT, Dec. 5. “No plans”: WP, Nov. 1963. “He [Smith] won’t do one”: Transcript, “1:30 P.M. to Robert Anderson,” Nov. 30, TPR, Vol. I, p. 381. “We’re going to have to”: Transcript, “11:10 A.M. to Katharine Graham,” Dec. 2, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, p. 46. “If we don’t”; “a miracle”: Transcript, “2:05 P.M. to George Smathers,” Nov. 30, 1963, TPR, Vol. I, p. 386. “I couldn’t move”: Transcript, “Telephone Interview with Senator Russell Long, Aug. 23, 1989,” 14726, Room 109, shelf 1–5a, Heinemann Papers, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library. “It was stalled”: Gordon OH. “Two Virginians”: Richard Rovere, “Letter from Washington,” The New Yorker, Feb. 15, 1964.

  “He’ll pass them”: Goldsmith, Colleagues: Richard Russell and His Apprentice Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 103. “He said that”: Orville Freeman, “A Cabinet Perspective,” in The Johnson Presidency, ed., Kenneth W. Thompson, p. 143.

  19. “Old Harry”

  “Almost archaically elaborate”: Forrest Davis, “The Fourth Term’s Hair Shirt,” SEP, April 8, 1944. “Apple-cheeked apple-grower”: William S. White, “Meet the Honorable Harry (The Rare) Byrd,” Reader’s Digest, April, 1963; see also Benjamin Muse, “The Durability of Harry Flood Byrd,” The Reporter, Oct. 3, 1957; and Wilkinson, Harry Byrd, p. 307. He is “the apple-cheeked archconservative” in Mooney, LBJ, p. 49.

  “There they are”: Caro, Master of the Senate, pp. 939–40. “His extreme obsessive hatred”: Gunther, Inside U.S.A., p. 707. “The name Byrd”: White, “Meet the Honorable.”

  “The Byrd machine is genteel”: Muse, “The Durability.” “Virginia breeds”; “runs the commonwealth”: Gunther, U.S.A., pp. 705, 708. Only 17 percent: “The Squire of Rosemont,” Time, Oct. 28, 1966. “Surmounts”: White, “Meet the Honorable.” “The apparent invincibility”: Muse, “The Durability.”