JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President

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JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President Page 46

by Thurston Clarke


  “many President Kennedys”: Taylor, JFKLOH.

  “If they think they’re going to get me”: Fay, JFKLOH.

  He told his best friend: Billings, JFKLOH.

  “Why would anyone write a book”: Abel, JFKLOH.

  “an extremely hesitant person”: NYT, October 31, 1993.

  “no enemies to the right”: Kraft, p. 6.

  “he finally realized that the decision”: Martin (Hero), p. 446.

  “You mean there might be radioactive”: Ibid., p. 443.

  commencement address at American University: JFKL Web site.

  “one of the greatest state papers”: Sorensen (Kennedy), p. 733.

  Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev praised it: Manchester (Remembering), p. 206

  “strongest civil rights speech made by any president”: Farmer, JFKLOH.

  June 11, 1963, civil rights speech: JFKL Web site.

  “Can you believe that white man”: Sorensen (Counselor), p. 282.

  “eloquent, passionate”: King, JFKLOH.

  “sailed with the wind”: John F. Kennedy (Profiles), p. 19. Sorensen made substantial contributions to the book. Kennedy was most involved in writing the introductory and concluding chapters, and this sentence, with its nautical reference, sounds more like him than like Sorensen.

  After the test ban treaty was initialed: Sorensen (Kennedy), p. 745.

  After a Gallup poll reported: Sorensen (Counselor), p. 284.

  “Great historical events”: Ibid.; NYT, November 22, 1988.

  “There comes a time”: Hodges, JFKLOH.

  “I may lose the next election”: Taylor Branch, p. 839.

  “a new spirit of hopefulness”: Cousins, p. 9.

  “Nothing is more powerful than an individual”: Norman Cousins, “The Improbable Triumvirate,” Saturday Review, October 30, 1970.

  “Kennedy could bring bravery”: Burns, p. 281.

  Frost had presented him with a signed: Parini, p. 415; Clarke, p. 215 (afterword in revised edition, 2011).

  “Be more Irish than Harvard”: Clarke, p. 215 (afterword in revised edition, 2011).

  1961 speech at University of Washington: JFKL Web site.

  During the Cuban missile crisis: Ibid.

  He sat silently during the flight: Tuckerman and Turnure, JFKLOH.

  Another passenger remembered: Ibid.

  “I’m never there when she needs me”: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 233.

  While he was cruising: Martin (Hero), p. 106.

  “You’d better haul”: Ibid.

  But when she gave birth to Caroline: Doris Kearns Goodwin, p. 793.

  He boasted of her being: Billings, JFKLOH.

  Before flying to Otis: Martin (Hero), pp. 464–65.

  Hospital personnel described him: Newsweek, August 19, 1963; Boston Globe, August 8, 1963.

  He pulled aside: Portland Press Herald (Maine), November 21, 2003.

  “Nothing must happen to Patrick”: Auchincloss, JFKLOH.

  A jubilant crowd: Boston Globe, August 8, 1963.

  Before returning to Children’s Hospital: Sorensen (Kennedy), p. 367.

  She was so encouraged: Gallagher, p. 288.

  “This is the kind of thing”: Auchincloss, JFKLOH.

  Her mother believed: Ibid.

  Upon returning to the Ritz: Lincoln (My Twelve), p. 295.

  After a full minute of silence he wrote: Boston Traveler, August 13, 1963.

  Weeks later, an accountant: Lincoln (My Twelve), p. 295.

  His father attended Mass: Doris Kearns Goodwin, p. 312.

  While serving in the Pacific: Story related by Kathleen McCarthy, a great-niece of Joe and Rose Kennedy, to the St. Petersburg Times, November 11, 1999.

  While staying with Paul Fay: Joan (Fay) Bernstein, author interview.

  While rushing to grab a quick lunch: Baldrige (Hollensteiner), JFKLOH.

  He studied photographs: Tuckerman, JFKLOH.

  One brutally cold: Halle, JFKLOH.

  “deeply concerned with other people’s feelings”: George W. Ball, “Kennedy Up Close,” New York Review of Books, February 3, 1994.

  David Ormsby-Gore, who made his acquaintance: Lord Harlech (Ormsby-Gore), JFKLOH.

  These attributes had helped him win: Halle, JFKLOH.

  “someone who understands what courage is”: Wofford, p. 31.

  Sorensen described Kennedy: Sorensen (Counselor), p. 109.

  A friend who knew the truth: Martin (Seeds), p 321.

  Powers lay down: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 376.

  Neither could recall him ever retiring: Billings, JFKLOH.

  He never raised the subject with Sorensen: Sorensen (Counselor), p. 164.

  “I’d better keep my nose clean”: Cassini, p. 323.

  During his first congressional campaign: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 70; Dalton, JFKLOH.

  He was sensitive about being the first Catholic: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 405.

  While recuperating in Palm Beach: JFKPP, Box 40, JFKL.

  A tense 1961 summit: Lincoln (My Twelve), pp. 229–30.

  That fall, after the Berlin crisis: Sidey, p. 214.

  He saw a severely burned: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 377.

  “He put up quite a fight”: Ibid.

  he ducked into a boiler room: Salinger (With Kennedy), p. 101.

  After returning to his room: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 377.

  His eyes were red: Boston Record-American, August 10, 1963; Boston Globe, August 9, 1963 (evening edition).

  As he described Patrick’s death: Anthony (Kennedy White House), p. 234.

  Lincoln called Patrick’s death: Lincoln (My Twelve), p. 296.

  Sorensen thought: Sorensen (Kennedy), p. 367.

  Jackie said, “He felt the loss”: Bergquist and Tretick, p. 120.

  “There’ll be no crying in this house”: Edward Kennedy, p. 41.

  Ormsby-Gore detected: Ormsby-Gore (Lord Harlech), JFKLOH.

  In Pilgrim’s Way: Sorensen (Kennedy), p. 14.

  His first words to the crew: Hamilton, p. 599.

  But the bravado ended: Ibid., p. 606.

  While delivering a Veterans Day address: McNeely, JFKLOH.

  At a Memorial Day event: JFKPP, Box 40, JFKL.

  Moments after his inauguration: Jacqueline Kennedy, p. 153.

  After John’s birth Ireland’s ambassador: Kiernan, JFKLOH.

  During the Cuban missile crisis: Pitts, p. 236.

  after the Bay of Pigs: Jacqueline Kennedy, p. 185.

  He cried again while discussing the Bay of Pigs: Leaming (Mrs. Kennedy), pp. 94, 96; Anthony (As We Remember), p. 179.

  Kennedy asked Judge Francis Morrissey: Morrissey, JFKLOH.

  Kennedy wept throughout: Cushing, JFKLOH.

  “Come on, dear Jack”: Ibid.

  As Cushing spoke at the grave: Manchester (Death), p. 8.; Look, November 19, 1964.

  Seeing him bent over the grave: Manchester (Death), p. 37.

  Back at Otis, he wept: Jacqueline Kennedy, pp. 185–86; Leaming (Mrs. Kennedy), p. 299; Anthony (Kennedy White House), p. 234; Manchester (Death), p. 8.

  His reference to “the work we have to do”: Auchincloss, JFKLOH.

  MONDAY, AUGUST 12

  harebrained and ultimately unsuccessful: Edward Kennedy (True Compass), p. 86.

  The White House announced that the president was missing: NYT, August 13, 1963.

  “shadowboxing in a match”: Collier and Horowitz, p. 146.

  The headmaster of Choate: Parmet (Jack), p. 136.

  “an oasis of stability”: Edward Kennedy (True Compass), p. 63.

  “Good morning, Mr. President”: Speech by Edward Kennedy to Democratic National Convention, August 15, 2000.

&nbs
p; so they could play flashlight tag: Edward Kennedy (True Compass), p. 34.

  Cousins provided a list: Cousins, pp. 128–36.

  Notes he scribbled on the way to Otis and in the Ritz: JFKPP, Box 12, JFKL.

  he telephoned Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield: JFK telephone call to Mansfield on August 12: Presidential Recordings, transcript of dictabelt 25B.2, August 12, 1963, JFKL.

  Meeting with Dirksen in 1961: Baker, p. 98.

  Rusk concerned that his office was bugged: Schoenbaum, p. 280.

  “You bugging, Hoover?”: Bishop (Confession), p. 383.

  JFK ordered microphones installed: Bouck, JFKLOH.

  “I don’t want to hear your bad words”: NYT, December 26, 1994.

  Secret Service agents swept through the Oval Office: Bishop (A Day), pp. 5–6.

  JFK took King into the Rose Garden: Branch, p. 837.

  King concluded that JFK was worried about surveillance in the White House: Schlesinger (Robert Kennedy), p. 258. After his meeting with the President, King, referring to the fact that he and JFK had held their discussion outside, told his aide Andrew Young, “The President is afraid of Hoover himself. . . . I guess Hoover must be buggin’ him too.”

  “I would like for you to surrender”: Baker, pp. 97–99.

  Conversation between JFK and RFK: Ibid.

  Dirksen wrote Eisenhower a carefully worded letter: Beschloss (Crisis), p. 635.

  “Forgive your enemies”: Adler and Folsom, p. 194.

  “a very real, a very earthy”: Knebel, JFKLOH.

  “Kennedy doesn’t pay”: McCarthy, p. 123.

  he slighted his own family: Ibid., p. 124.

  He had resisted his father’s demand: Clifford, pp. 336–39.

  “a positive force for public good”: Edward Kennedy (Words Jack Loved), JFKL.

  “He may be a fine politician”: Ridder, author interview.

  “nothing more than a bright ribbon”: NYT, January 18, 1962.

  Dirksen had issued a statement: Neil MacNeil, p. 219.

  Eisenhower had also been critical: Time, August 9, 1963.

  Kennedy remained pessimistic: Cousins, pp. 128–29.

  “militant activated atheism”: Hulsey, p. 178.

  “His nose counts”: WP, October 13, 1963.

  Kennedy replied, “Maybe not”: Baker, p. 98.

  July 25 telephone call between JFK and Katzenbach: Presidential Telephone Records, 23D.5, July 25, 1963, JFKL.

  he finally filled in his blank checks: Baker, pp. 98–99.

  “emotionally more wrapped up”: Bohlen, JFKLOH.

  Seaborg believed treaty was “like a religion”: Strober and Strober, p. 260.

  On July 31, he had told Seaborg: Presidential Recordings, tape 103/A39, JFKL.

  His decision proved: Adler and Folsom, p. 57.

  “Ike said I had coin in his bank”: and subsequent conversation: Baker, pp. 98–99.

  about the “tactics” of the IRS: Beschloss (Crisis), p. 636.

  he called an attractive Hungarian émigrée: Sally Bedell Smith, p. 380, pp. 395–96.

  Mimi Beardsley watched him reading condolence letters, one after another: Alford, p. 120.

  She believed, she wrote later: Ibid., p. 125.

  TUESDAY, AUGUST 13

  On Tuesday morning Kennedy complained: JFKPP, box 48 (medical files), JFKL.

  “We should stress the fact”: Ibid.

  he was “suffering terribly”: Hamilton, pp. 110–11.

  a dietary regimen: JFKPP, Box 58 ( medical files), JFKL.

  loved fish chowder: Gallagher, p. 40.

  “with gallantry and with no perceptible loss”: Michael O’Brien, p. 764.

  “a word of self-pity”: NYT, November 17, 2002.

  “In retrospect, it is amazing”: Sorensen (Counselor), p. 106.

  “There is always inequity”: JFK press conference #28, March 21, 1962, JFKL Web site.

  His physicians, however, knew a man: “The Medical Ordeals of JFK,” Robert Dallek, The Atlantic, December 1962; “The Medical Afflictions of President John F. Kennedy,” White House Studies, volume 6, number 4, 2006.

  He swallowed a pharmacopoeia of capsules: JFKPP, Box 47 (medical files), JFKL.

  “It’s best if you don’t”: Travell, p. 312.

  During a taped January 5, 1960, interview: Transcript of January 5, 1960, discussion among Bradlee, Cannon, and Kennedy, JFKL.

  It called his health “excellent”: JFKPP, Box 58 (medical files), JFKL.

  first postelection press conference: NYT, November 11, 1960.

  A month after Cohen and Travell: NYT, May 3, 1973.

  His search for a quick fix: Ibid., December 4, 1972.

  “You cannot be permitted to receive therapy”: JFKPP, Box 58 (medical), JFKL.

  “a potential threat to your well-being”: Leamer, p. 545.

  Cohen unburdened himself: JFKPP, Box 58 (medical), JFKL.

  Kraus’s pioneering studies: Schwartz, pp. 121–24.

  Burkley and Cohen threatened to go to the president: Burkley, JFKLOH; Schwartz, p. 176.

  When Kraus examined Kennedy: Schwartz, p. 178.

  “You will be a cripple soon”: Ibid., pp. 177–79.

  Kraus flew to Washington: JFKPP, Box 47 (medical), JFKL; Kraus Papers, Box 1, JFKL.

  “a definite increase of strength”: Kraus Papers, Box 1, JFKL.

  “in a not too distant future”: Ibid.

  “a very long step”: JFKPP, Box 47 (medical), JFKL.

  Kennedy asked Ken O’Donnell to fire Travell: JFKPP, Box 58 (medical), JFKL.

  “I hate to use the word blackmail”: Ibid.

  Kennedy’s back improved: Schwartz, pp. 192–93.

  “I wish I could have known you”: Anthony (Kennedy White House), p. 253.

  James Joyce had taught Kraus English: Schwartz, p. 7.

  “I know, Doctor, you’ve come a long way”: Ibid., p. 187.

  Kraus returned to his office: Ibid., p. 188.

  Kraus considered Kennedy cured: Ibid., p. 197.

  “I wish I had more good times”: Jacqueline Kennedy, p. 21.

  WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14

  When Kennedy arrived: Hennessey-Donovan, JFKLOH.

  Hennessey was a cheerful: Ibid.; Edward Kennedy (True Compass), p. 45; Hennessey-Donovan, “Bringing Up the Kennedys,” Good Housekeeping, August 1961.

  he was paying her tuition: Ibid.; Hennessey-Donovan, JFKLOH.

  “There are ninety-six thousand”: Hennessey-Donovan, JFKLOH.

  Jackie presented the hospital staff: Boston Globe, August 15, 1963.

  “You’ve been so wonderful to me”: Pottker, p. 194.

  The improvements had been as modest: Travel, JFKLOH.

  he read about the renovations in the Washington Post: WP, July 25, 1963.

  He telephoned: Presidential Recordings, “Furniture at Otis Air Force Base,” cassette G, July 25, 1963, JFKL.

  he called: Ibid.

  “To think that big blockhead”: Fay, JFKLOH.

  “the nice people of Boston”: Pottker, p. 138.

  “Money is never to be squandered”: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, p. 118.

  He did not give his children bicycles: Edward Kennedy (True Compass), p. 70; I have also relied on Beran’s discussion of Joe Kennedy’s determination to emulate the old-money values of the Boston Brahmins.

  “It’s all right to struggle”: Ibid., p. 94.

  the duke “does have great integrity”: John F. Kennedy (Prelude), p. 14.

  His legal residence in Boston: Morrissey, JFKLOH; Lincoln (My Twelve), p. 75.

  offering fashion tips to friends: Fay, p. 48, 177.

  “I hope to make this house”: Halle, JFKLOH.

  “You’ve got great taste”: Ibi
d.

  He later gave his friend Joe Alsop: Joseph Alsop, JFKLOH.

  He bought monogrammed handkerchiefs: Fay, JFKLOH.

  “like a rich man’s plane”: Bergquist and Tretick p. 123; Tretick, JFKLOH.

  “Are you out of your mind?”: Fay, JFKLOH; Fay, pp. 246–47.

  In the Navy, he had preferred: Renehan, p. 243.

  “receptive to everybody”: Hamilton, pp. 512–13; Renehan, p. 231.

  “He is a terribly cold man”: Schlesinger (Thousand), p. 18.

  “and then getting into his government limousine”: Fay, JFKLOH.

  “Of course, they’d be so great”: Jacqueline Kennedy, p. 66.

  U. E. Baughman, who headed the Secret Service: Baughman, p. 256.

  Deirdre Henderson, who served: Henderson, author interview.

  “I was taken into the kitchen”: John F. Kennedy, “A Dictated Letter (Circa 1959) to Jacqueline Kennedy on Weekend in Rhode Island,” audio-visual collection, JFKL.

  “These are the kind of people”: Manchester (Remembering), p. 18.

  “a plain, inexpensive casket”: Lawrence O’Brien, p. 161.

  “Kiss her again”: Laura Bergquist Papers, Box 20, Boston University Library.

  “like a couple of kids”: Boston Globe, August 15, 1963.

  An old friend who saw the resulting photograph: Leaming, p. 301; photograph of them holding hands, WP, August 15, 1963, and NYT, August 15, 1963.

  “a small gesture”: Hill, p. 248.

  “extremely close and affectionate”: Anthony (As We), p. 193.

  THURSDAY, AUGUST 15

  Eisenhower began honoring: NYT, August 16, 1963.

  he had sent Senator Fulbright: Hulsey, p. 179.

  Lodge told Clifton: Lodge, JFKLOH.

  he received a condescending letter: William J. Miller, p. 336.

  “American security must always be considered”: Ibid., p. 337.

  Bobby warned him that in about six months: Guthman and Shulman, p. 301.

  Sorensen . . . joked that he hoped he was being sent to North Vietnam: Sorensen (Counselor), p. 357; Sorensen, JFKLOH.

  “instinct for magnanimity”: Schlesinger (Thousand Days), p. 989.

  “involving a leading Republican”: Ibid.

  “The idea of getting Lodge mixed up”: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 16.

  It had started when Lodge’s grandfather: Doris Kearns Goodwin, pp. 100–103.

  “I didn’t want them to go through”: McCarthy, p. 22.

 

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