Bank mergers: NYT, July 17, 1963. Had not been: WSJ, Oct. 17, Dec. 23, 1963. “A strongly adverse”: Buenger and Pratt, But Also Good Business, p. 201. Justice Dept. opposed”: NYT, WSJ, Oct. 14, 1964; “Conversation between Dick Maguire and the President—Dec. 27 [1963]—Time: Approximately 12:15 P.M. (This call was not recorded.) “Would set a precedent”: “Houston Bank Merger … Reasons against … as dictated by Dick Maguire,” both from “Ex Be 2–4, Nov. 22, 1963—July 8, 1965,” WHCF SF, Box 4. “A very serious”: “From: Walter Jenkins to” Pres US.” High stakes: Fran Dressman, Gus Wortham: Portrait of a Leader, p. 171; NYT, March 20, 1965; Clark, Oltorf interviews.
The President had: Transcript, “1:55 P.M. to Jack Valenti, et al.,” Dec. 25, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, pp. 808–10. Wortham had been; “twisted”: Caro, Means, p. 102. 120,000: NYT, March 20, 1968. “I told Gus”: Transcript, “11:55 A.M. from George Brown,” TPR, Jan. 2, 1964, Vol. III, pp. 69–78. “I have been”: NYT, Sept. 4, 1965. “I was under”: CT, Oct. 29, 1968. The letter: Jones to Johnson, Jan. 3, 1964. Satisfied Johnson: On Jan. 7 he wrote Wortham: “Our friend whom you had visit with me at the ranch sent me a very gracious letter in exactly the fashion that you would have him do it” (Johnson to Wortham, Jan. 7, 1964). Johnson was satisfied perhaps also because of a memorandum he had received from Valenti following a talk Valenti had with the Chronicle’s editor, Bill Steven, which told Johnson that “Steven says he and Jones are excited over the role of the Chronicle as your voice in Texas,” and that “Collier’s job [in Washington] will be … to serve as a vehicle for answering any unfavorable stories that may be printed by other newspapers” (Valenti to Johnson, Dec. 30, 1963). Jones’s letter, Johnson’s letter, and Valenti’s memo are all from “Ex BE 2–4, Nov. 22, 1963—July 8, 1965,” Box 4, WHCF SF, LBJL.
Telephoned Brown and Jones: Transcripts, “11:20 A.M. to George Brown,” “11:04 A.M. to John Jones,” both Jan. 8, 1964, TPR, Vol. III, pp. 280–81, 265. Saxon announced: “Decision of Comptroller of the Currency James J. Saxon on the Application to Consolidate …, —Statement,” Jan. 13, 1964; NYT, WSJ, Jan. 14, 1964. “Is the Chronicle?”: Transcript, 9:05 P.M., Jan. 20, 1964, TPR, Vol. III, p. 678. “A paragraph”: Transcript, “8:45 P.M. to Jack Valenti and Mary Margaret Valenti,” TPR, Vol. IV, p. 394. Bank: The JFKL says that the Saxon Papers cannot be seen by researchers because they have not been processed, and that there are no plans at present to process them. In 1968, Gus Wortham’s American General Co. increased its investment in the bank from 120,000 to 925,000 shares (NYT, March 20, 1968).
“What do we need”: Transcript, “8:45 P.M. to Albert Jackson,” Jan. 4, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, pp. 150–51.
Christmas Day … call: Transcript, “8:39 P.M. to Amon Carter, Jr., President joined by Lady Bird Johnson,” Dec. 25, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, pp 826–32. Close depot: NYT, Dec. 13, 1963. Retiring Timmons: By Jan. 19, 1964, the byline of the Star-Telegram’s new Washington reporter, Robert Hilburn, had begun appearing in the paper. Easley, Mayer, Hollingsworth, Record interviews. “During his”: Timmons OH, LBJL.
“White House business”: McCammon OH. “To see to it”: WSJ, Aug. 11, 1964. “With Moursund”: McCammon OH. “Mr. Johnson”: Fehmer interview. “Linked”: WSJ, Aug. 11, 1964. “The same thing”: McCammon OH. Sometimes: Clark, Shapiro interviews.
“Wasn’t labeled”: Ferguson interview. Other lines: Clark, Deathe interviews. “I want”: Transcript, “Time Unknown, before 12:45 A.M., Office conversation with Walter Jenkins,” Jan.13, 1964, TPR, pp. 491–92.
“Deteriorating”; “The past thirty days”: Johnson, Vantage Point, pp. 62–63. “wishful thinking”: Vantage Point, p. 63. “quite a lecture”: Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 103. “The situation is very”; “a little less”: Gibbons, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War, Part II: 1961–1964, pp. 211–12.
Mansfield’s memo: Gibbons, U.S. Government, pp. 215–216. Johnson’s response: Transcript, “9:55 P.M. to Frank Valeo, Dec. 23, 1963,” TPR, Vol. II, pp. 757–75.
“The stakes”: Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 103. Rusk arrived: Logevall, Choosing War, p. 91. Approving more advisers and a committee: Gibbons, U.S. Government, p. 212.
Krulak committee’s report; “progressively escalating”: Beschloss, Taking Charge, p. 200. “There’s one”: Transcript, “5:45 P.M. to John Knight,” Feb. 3, 1964, TPR, Vol. IV, p. 98. “No President”: Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 101.
“It was clear”; “juggling”: Gibbons, U.S. Government, p. 213. The Pentagon Papers call it “an accounting exercise” (p. 191). “In the last”: Pentagon Papers, pp. 303–06. “We have called back”: Public Papers of the Presidents: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963–1964, p. 211.
Johnson approves Krulak report; no such memorandum: Gibbons, U.S. Government, pp. 213–14. “We’re going to try to launch some counterattacks ourselves.… We’re going to try to touch them up a little bit in the days to come,” Johnson told a friendly newspaper executive on January 31 (Transcript, “1:32 P.M. to Walker Stone,” Jan. 31, 1964, TPR, Vol. III, p. 1044).
“Above all else”: Logevall, Choosing War, p. 108. “What is your own internal thinking?” Transcript, “12:35 P.M. from McGeorge Bundy,” March 2, 1964, TPR, Vol. IV, p. 847.
Whittington incident: E. Ernest Goldstein, “How LBJ Took the Bull by the Horns,” Amherst, Winter 1985; Goldstein OH, LBJL; DT-H, Jan. 5, 1964; Busby, Fehmer interviews.
Had its beginning under Kennedy: Lemann, The Promised Land, pp. 129–45; Goldman, The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, pp. 37–38; Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 656; Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 753; Giglio, The Presidency of John F. Kennedy, pp. 117–18; Harrington, The Other America; Douglas Cater, “The Politics of Poverty,” The Reporter, Feb. 13, 1964; Newfield, Schlesinger, Sorensen, interviews.
Harrington and Macdonald: “It is part of John Kennedy’s legend that The Other America spurred him into action against poverty … but the consensus among Kennedy aides is that he read MacDonald’s review, not the book itself,” Lemann writes (Promised Land, pp. 130–31). “Social Security”: Cater, “Politics of Poverty.” “Future economic growth alone”: Council of Economic Advisers, Economic Report of the President, Together with the Annual Report of the Council of Economic Advisers, Transmitted to the Congress, January 1964, pp. 2, 72. Articles by Bigart stirred Kennedy: Gordon OH IV, LBJL. “In the air”: Goldman, The Tragedy, p. 38
“A quiet investigation”: Gordon OH IV. Kennedy gave him; “to come up”; “Perhaps”: Capron, quoted in Gillette, Launching the War on Poverty, pp. 11, 12. “The agencies weren’t”; “Go back”: Cannon, quoted in Gillette, Launching, p. 13. “Keep at it”: Heller, quoted in Gillette, Launching, p. 14.
Scammon … told: Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 656. “I then heard”; “Come back to me”: Heller OH I, LBJL. “Current”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 305. “I am still very much”: Heller OH I, quoted in Gillette, Launching, p. 14. Lemann (Promised Land, p. 135) writes that “Everyone close to Kennedy agrees that he certainly did not have any kind of major effort in mind.” And he adds (p.141), “In the weeks following the assassination …, John F. Kennedy, as his associates went to work burnishing his reputation, began to become more liberal—in particular, more liberal than Lyndon Johnson. Caution and pragmatism do not make an easy foundation on which to build an argument for historical greatness, and they were not stressed in the memorialization of Kennedy.” One of the early examples of such “memorialization” in regard to a poverty program came very soon after the assassination. Writing in the SEP, Schlesinger stated that “in one of the last talks I had with him, he was musing about the legislative program for next January and said, ‘The time has come to organize a national assault on the causes of poverty, a comprehensive program, across the board’ ” (Schlesinger, “A Eulogy for J.F.K.,” SEP, Dec. 14, 1963).
“Gordon’s schedule”: Capron, quoted in Gillette, Launching the War on Poverty, p. 18. “Public awareness”: Evans and Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 434.
“That’s my kind of program”: Heller OH I, LBJ
L. “So spontaneous”: Heller OH I. “Point blank”: Heller, quoted in Lemann, The Promised Land, p. 141. In his “Notes on Meeting with President Johnson, 7:40 P.M., Saturday, Nov. 23, 1963” (Gardner Ackley Microfilm, Reel 2, LBJL), Heller wrote that he “strongly urged me to move ahead on the poverty theme in the hope that we can make it an important part of the 1964 program.… In answer to a point-blank question, [He] said we should push ahead full-tilt on the project.” Gordon says (OH IV, LBJL), “He [Johnson] immediately seized on the idea as an important one, one that was compatible with and consistent with his own purposes in the presidency, and encouraged us to go on.”
The emphasis; “we started out”; “it was”: Capron, quoted in Gillette, Launching, p. 21. December 20 meeting: Sundquist, quoted in Gillette, Launching, p. 22.
Johnson had reserved: “We are asking for new obligational authority of $500 million,” he told John Kenneth Galbraith on Jan. 29. “We thought that’s as much as we could get by with to start it off” (Gillette, Launching, p. 23). In Johnson’s memoirs he explains that he searched “for ways to reduce spending, mainly in Defense but in other departments as well, so that money could be used to start the poverty programs. A poverty bill that would increase the budget at the outset would have little chance of success” (Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 71). “Gordon and Heller had been thinking”: Johnson, Vantage Point, pp. 73–74.
“How are you going to spend?”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 428. Their account “was a word-for-word account, without quotes, from my memo on the affair,” Heller was to say (Heller OH I, LBJL).
“Extremely”: Heller, quoted in Gillette, Launching the War on Poverty, p. 29. “ ‘Look’ ”: Heller OH I. “He wanted”: Heller OH I. “The challenge”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 74.
“All of us”: NYP, Jan. 5, 1964.
The ranch … was an appropriate setting: For the psychological impact that being on the ranch had on Johnson, see Caro, Master of the Senate, the “Memories” chapter. For a fuller description, see Caro, The Path to Power, the chapters entitled “The Best Man I Ever Knew” and “The Bottom of the Heap.”
“I’ve always been an early riser”: Cormier, LBJ, p. 18. Calling E. Babe: E. Babe Smith interview. “We always get up”: Stehling interview. Writing in her diary about this vacation on the Ranch, and the War on Poverty, Lady Bird Johnson said, “It was the right setting to discuss it. It was on that ranch that he had been born, and there were memories. The day he got back, talking with a friend [Mrs. Johnson does not identify him], he said, ’I waked up at 6:30. All my life I waked … I waked up on a road gang. ’You get up early, don’t you? You had to … You can’t tell me you ever made the big leagues not getting up early. It takes us a little longer [to achieve success] than some other folks.’ ” “We always talked”: Cox interview. “Hated poverty”: Hurst interview; Hurst and Cain, LBJ: To Know Him Better, p. 12. “Rags” incident: Hurst and Cain, LBJ, p. 5.
“Hounded”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 428.
“Just a few feet”; “it struck me”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 73.
Hackett’s committee had been urging: Lemann, Promised Land, pp. 128–33. According to Busby: Busby interview. “I realized”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 75. Also see Matusow, The Unraveling of America, p. 123; Lemann, Promised Land, pp. 143–44. Instead, there were orders: For example, Capron to Heller, Jan. 4, 1964. “Your preliminary”: Gordon and Heller, “Memorandum for Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce …, Jan. 6, 1964,” “Ex We9 Poverty Program, Nov. 22, 1963–Feb. 28, 1964,” Box 25, WHCF, LBJL.
“State of the Union”; secretary was driven up: Sorensen interview; NYT, Jan. 9, 1964. First draft contained: TCS, “1964 State of the Union—First Draft, Desired Length: 2,500 words, length of this draft: 2,783 words, Jan. 1, 1964,” “Jan. 8, 1964, 1964 State of the Union—Folder II,” Box 92, Statements of Lyndon Baines Johnson, LBJL. Those sentences remained unchanged: All the drafts can be found in various folders in Box 92, Statements of Lyndon Baines Johnson, LBJL. Busby, Sorensen, Valenti interviews. “It doesn’t sound”: Sorensen interview. Kennedy had said it: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 1005; Lemann, Promised Land, p. 145.
“The whole idea”: Wickenden interview.
“Under the budget”: “Texts of Johnson’s State of the Union Message and His Earlier Press Briefing,” NYT, Jan. 9, 1964. Johnson had added”: “For the President … 3,007 words,” Box 92, Statements of Lyndon Baines Johnson, LBJL.
“The tumultous [sic]”: Marquis Childs, “Johnson’s Program,” NYP, Jan. 9, 1964. “persistent reports”: NYT, Jan. 9, 1964. “Almost”; “promises”: NYT, Jan. 9, 1964. “Republicans”: WP, Jan. 9, 1964. “remarkable”: Krock column, NYT. “President Johnson’s first”: NYT, Time. “Reinforced”: NYP, Jan. 9, 1964.
“The stunner”: “A Bold Gamble by the President,” Newsweek, Jan. 20, 1964. “a near miraculous”: WP, Jan. 9, 1964.
“No one”: NYT, Jan. 9, 1964. “At least one”: Cater, “Politics of Poverty.” “In launching”: Walter Lippmann, “Today and Tomorrow,” WP, Jan. 9, 1964. “Once before”: “A Bold Gamble by the President,” Newsweek, Jan. 20, 1964. Where, as a small boy: Caro, Path, p. 69.
22. “Old Harry” II
“Searching for Harry Byrd”: Johnson, Lady Bird, A White House Diary, p. 35.
“Locked up”: Transcript, “8:21 P.M. to Kermit Gordon,” Jan. 6, 1964, TPR, Vol. III, pp. 208–09. “I’ve got a surprise”: Heinemann, Harry Byrd of Virginia, p. 400. “I congratulate”: Statesville Record & Landmark, Jan. 9, 1964. “I appreciate”; “that was”: Transcript, “3:25 P.M. to Harry Byrd,” Jan. 8, 1964, TPR, Vol. III, p. 292. “Speed–up”: NYT, Jan. 10, 1964. “High gear”: WP, Jan. 15, 1964. “footrace”: WP, Jan. 17, 1964.
“Harry started”: MacNeil interview.
“Secret ally”: Evans and Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 375. “Stunned”: TPR, Vol. III, p. 728. “In a panicky”: Transcript, “12:34 P.M. from George Smathers,” Jan. 23, 1964, TPR, pp. 737–41. His solution would require; Anderson, Ribicoff, Hartke telephone calls: Transcripts, “1:05 P.M. to Clinton Anderson,” “1:11 P.M. to Vance Hartke,” “1:14 P.M. to Abraham Ribicoff,” all Jan. 23, TPR, Vol. III, pp. 741–47. The call to Anderson lasted 33 seconds, the call to Hartke, one minute and 47 seconds, the call to Ribicoff, three minutes and 31 seconds, a total of five minutes and 51 seconds (Online Finding Aid for Description of Recordings and Transcripts of Johnson Telephone Conversations, http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/dictabelt.hom/dictahist.asp). “I hope”; “Well, I want to tell you”; “That Harry Byrd”; “You make them”: Transcripts, “1:17 P.M. to Harry Byrd,” “Late afternoon from Harry Byrd to White House operator,” “5:40 P.M. to Harry Byrd,” TPR, Vol. III, pp. 748–50, 768–70.
“The clock is ticking”: WP, Jan. 10, 1964. “Startled officials”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 375. “Record time”: WP, Jan. 29, 1964. Passed: NYHT, NYT, WP, Feb. 8, 1964.
The reductions … were a key: This will be analyzed in volume V of this work.
23. In the Books of Law
“The undercurrent”; But Celler: UPI in Redlands (Calif.) Daily Facts. Smith slowing down the hearings; “going over”: NYT, Jan. 23, 1964. “Under the leadership of … Smith … and Colmer the Rules Committee is now cross-examining members of the Judiciary Committee, obviously for the purpose of deciding for itself whether it likes this measure,” the Times had editorialized on Jan. 18th. “after seven days”: NYT, Jan. 23, 1964.
Johnson told; Only 178: Transcript, “11:50 A.M., to Larry O’Brien,” Jan. 18, 1964, TPR, Vol. III, p. 618.
Republican leaders; “reluctant to take it away”: NYT, Jan. 23, 1964. “I said, ‘If I were you, Charlie’ ”: Transcript, “Time Unknown—Office Conversation,” Jan. 25, 1964, TPR, Vol. III, p. 879. “He wants to know”: Transcript, “12:55 P.M. to James Webb,” Jan. 18, 1964, TPR, Vol. III, pp. 622–23. “I showed him”: Transcript, “3:30 P.M. from James Webb,” Jan. 21, 1964, TPR, Vol. III, p. 694.
The following
day; “All during”: NYT, Jan. 23, 24, 1964. “I have been here”: NYT, Jan. 24, 1964. “Very happy”: NYT, Jan. 26, 1964. “Congress … is moving”: Childs, WP, Feb. 10, 1964.
“They can filibuster”: Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 169. McCullough had; “we … not give away”: Katzenbach, Some of It Was Fun, p. 139. One tenet: Katzenbach, Some of It, p. 120. Robert Kennedy had: Katzenbach, Some of It, pp. 121, 122; Katzenbach interview. Dirksen had promised; “he obviously”; “expected President Johnson”: Katzenbach, Some of It, pp. 129, 141, 143; Katzenbach interview. “This bill will”: Katzenbach OH II, JFKL. In an interview, Katzenbach said that in 1964, “I’m sure that Everett Dirksen” agreed to go along with the bill “because he was sure that Johnson was going to give things up [agree to amendments and compromises that would weaken the bill]—after all, he knew what Johnson had done in the past. Well [this time] Johnson wasn’t going to give anything up. And Dirksen got himself committed on that bill before he realized Johnson wasn’t going to give anything up.” And Katzenbach also said, “Dirksen did the job. He had to do it. He had come out so publicly for civil rights. Because he thought Johnson would water it down” (Katzenbach interview). And now “he obviously wanted”: “Civil Rights: Debate in the Senate,” Time, April 10, 1964; “The Congress: A Falling-Off among Friends,” Time, April 17, 1964; “Civil Rights: At Last, a Vote,” Time, May 15, 1964; MacNeil, Dirksen, pp. 233–34; Solberg, Hubert Humphrey: A Biography, pp. 223, 225; MacNeil interview; Katzenbach, Some of It, p. 131. “under [President] Kennedy”: Evans and Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 378. Dirksen was confident; “expected President Johnson”: See Katzenbach interview above.
Compromises had always been a key element: See Caro, Master of the Senate, passim. “We knew”: Talmadge, quoted in Mann, The Walls of Jericho, p. 400; Talmadge, Dent interviews. “I am in favor”: Solberg, Hubert Humphrey, p. 223. “No wheels”: Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 117. “I knew”: Johnson interview with Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 191. “No compromises”: Goodwin, Remembering America, pp. 257–58.
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