JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President
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“I’m afraid that they feel”: Fay, p. 165.
The Irish ambassador . . . Thomas Kiernan: Kiernan, JFKLOH.
“Do you know it is impossible”: Fay, p. 124.
He told the columnist Betty Beale: Beale, p. 67.
“the world should be made”: Talbot, JFKLOH.
“It won’t go over with the WASPs”: Bradlee (Conversations), p. 68.
“nursed an Irish distaste”: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 16.
“That’s the last Nixon will see”: Ibid.
“I think a fair regard”: Guthman and Shulman, p. 401.
“a most loyal and devoted friend”: Lodge, p. 22.
“the only man I have ever met”: Ibid., p. 21.
“I never want to see”: Hilty, p. 30; Maier, p. 137.
“He is a total politician”: Halberstam (Quagmire), p. 154.
“In becoming a Republican”: “Modernize the GOP,” Atlantic Monthly, March 1950.
He had introduced a bill: Lodge, pp. 68–69.
“rich man’s club”: “Modernize the GOP,” Atlantic Monthly, March 1950.
“loft a pass, swap a joke”: NYT, November 22, 1988.
“That in twenty years”: Reeves, p. 254.
Topping told him: Topping, pp. 151–57.
Bobby wrote in his diary: RFK Pre-administration Personal Folders, Box 24, JFKL. Bobby also described the trip in his oral history for the JFK Library (Guthman and Shulman, pp. 436–39).
“the desperate attempt”: Meet the Press, December 2, 1951.
“a white man’s war”: Martin (Hero), p. 438.
“If we permit Laos to fall”: McNamara memorandum, JFKPOF, Box 29a, JFKL.
“There he sat, telling me”: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 244.
The chiefs warned that if the Chinese: Hilsman, p. 147.
“Since he couldn’t think”: Schlesinger (Kennedy), p. 338.
“Do you understand?”: Porter, p. 146.
“his knowledge of the French problem”: Taylor, JFKLOH.
“When I sat there and looked”: Fay, JFKLOH.
“God, I hope you’ve been enjoying”: Ibid.
Kennedy told John Kenneth Galbraith: Galbraith (A Life), p. 383.
He told Rusk: Rusk, pp. 240–41.
“Dave, how would you like this to be said”: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 14.
MacArthur told him: JFKPOF, Box 30, JFKL; Guthman and Shulman, p. 354.
“a hell of an impression”: Martin (Seeds), p. 444.
“Well, now, you gentlemen”: Schlesinger (Robert Kennedy), p. 704; Taylor, RFK Oral History Collection, JFKL.
After returning from a fact-finding mission: FRUS, 1961–1963, Volume I, Vietnam, 1961, Document 228.
“instinctively against the introduction”: Blight, Lang, and Welch, p. 56.
“when and if the U.S. military recommend it”: FRUS, 1961–1963, Volume I, Vietnam, 1961, Document 253.
“I don’t recall anyone who was strongly”: Schlesinger (Robert Kennedy), p. 704; Taylor, RFK Oral History Collection, JFKL.
“I want you to hear this”: Fay, JFKLOH; Paul Fay Forum, June 15, 2003, JFKL.
“We can see the light”: Oberdorfer, p. 190.
“with a feeling of depression”: Ibid., p. 192.
“Seven years and billions”: FRUS, 1961–1963, Volume II, Vietnam, 1962, Document 330.
“This is not what my advisors”: Oberdorfer, p. 194.
“I got angry at Mike”: Ibid.
In a special “eyes only” annex: Hilsman, pp. 465–66.
an assessment from Edmund Gullion: Hilsman, JFKLOH.
“Keep it down”: Ibid.
“We don’t have a prayer”: Thompson (Kennedy), p. 16.
“to seize upon any favorable”: Report of a memorandum written by McGeorge Bundy’s aide Michael Forrestal, NYT, December 5, 1998.
“sucked into Vietnam little by little”: Brandon (Anatomy), p. 30.
In the spring of 1963, he told Mansfield: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 16.
“In 1965, I’ll become”: Ibid.
Mansfield confirmed O’Donnell’s: Blight, Lang, and Welch, p. 136.
Kennedy could point to the Pentagon’s optimistic reports: Porter, p. 166. Porter makes a convincing case that Kennedy seized upon the overly optimistic reports from the Pentagon to justify reducing the U.S. commitment to South Vietnam.
“Barring greatly increased resupply”: Rust, pp. 90–91.
Kennedy activated the hidden Oval Office microphone: Recording of Kennedy-Lodge conversation, Tape 104/A40, JFKL.
“when he was bored”: Dickerson, p. 63.
he filled a page with doodles: JFKPP, Box 43, JFKL.
“I suppose these are the worst press relations”: Lodge, JFKLOH.
“Are you getting any lately?”: Dickerson, p. 67.
“How’s your romance going?”: Bergquist Papers, Box 20, Boston University Library.
“Who does he sleep with?”: Ibid.
“cool, brainy, blunt”: Ibid.
“a very swinging sexual animal”: Ibid.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16–SUNDAY, AUGUST 18
“It’s my daddy’s turn!”: Meyers, p. 207. This account was given to Meyers by Kennedy’s military aide Major General Chester V. Clifton. Clifton does not date the story of Caroline and JFK at the candy store, but given its placement in the book, it happened during the summer of 1963, after Patrick’s death, most likely when JFK arrived on Friday, August 16.
“What You Don’t Know About Kennedy”: Fletcher Knebel, “What You Don’t Know About Kennedy,” Look, January 17, 1961.
“I would describe Jack as rather like me”: Fletcher Knebel Papers, Boston University Library, also cited in Sally Bedell Smith, pp. 7–8.
“I’d say Jack didn’t want to reveal”: Rose Kennedy Papers, Box 82, JFKL.
“strangely remote”: Gallagher, p. 159,
“something quite remote”: Mailer, p. 44.
“the subtle smile”: Newsweek, January 27, 1961.
“a smile that had nothing public”: Reporter, February 16, 1961.
“have a hard time getting to the bottom”: Bergquist and Tretick, p. 179.
“A penny for your thoughts”: Martin (Seeds), p. 72.
“a bright young woman”: Anthony (As We Remember), p. 60.
praised her “brilliant imagination”: Ibid., p. 49.
an iron will: West, p. 195.
“Look, Frank. Just smile”: Taraborelli, pp. 25–26.
“tremendous awareness”: Anthony (As We Remember), p. 110.
“The trouble with you, Jack”: Adler (The Eloquent), pp. 37–38.
“Where is this great Irish wit”: Martin (Seeds), p. 322.
“Jackie is superb in her personal life”: Ridder, author interview.
“Don’t ask Jack mean questions”: Dickerson, p. 65.
“never allowing intimacies”: Clifford, p. 304.
“You have to believe that he loves”: Ridder, author interview.
“Fitzgerald breasts”: Bradlee (Conversations), p. 29.
During a campaign trip to Oregon: Lubin, pp. 78–79. Lubin pointed out the similarities between the Hopper painting and the Lowe photograph, placing them side by side in his book.
“the two most isolated”: Andersen, p. 1.
“See that smile on her face?”: Martin (Hero), p. 472.
“Maybe now I’m getting through to him”: Leaming, p. 303.
he read at meals, in the bathtub: Jacqueline Kennedy, p. 41.
When he returned that weekend, she reciprocated: NYT, August 17, 1963.
MONDAY, AUGUST 19–TUESDAY, AUGUST 20
Senator Mansfield handed him a three-page memorandum: JFKPOF, digital locator 060-008, JFKL Web site; Mansfield Papers, ser
ies XXII, Box 103, Folder 14, Mansfield Papers, University of Montana.
August 20 press conference: NYT, August 21, 1963; JFKL Web site.
“tragic mistake”: Boston Globe, August 21, 1963.
“There’s no doubt that any man”: Presidential Recordings, transcript of dictabelt 25B.5, 26C.1, August 23, 1963, JFKL.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21–FRIDAY, AUGUST 23
he received an early morning call: Transcript in Ball Personal Papers, Box 9, JFKL.
“eager young ladies”: Baker, p. 47.
Her FBI file described her: Rometsch FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) FBI file, available online and at the FBI.
“illicit relations with highly”: Ibid.
According to Evans’s memorandum: Ibid.
“You’ve got to be careful”: Evan Thomas, p. 255.
“high-level sex contacts”: Rometsch FOIA-FBI file.
“Of course, no mention will be made”: Ibid.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall: Koehler, pp. 250–51.
“It is hard to overstate”: Leaming, p. 268.
While editing a draft: Katie Louchheim Papers, Box 78, LOC.
If someone disparaged Profumo: Spalding, JFKLOH.
“He thought this was not at all the way”: Berlin, JFKLOH.
Bobby decided it was too dangerous: Beschloss (Crisis), p. 616.
one of the most egregious instances of a womanizing: The most perceptive and succinct analysis of JFK’s womanizing can be found in Mark J. White’s essay “Behind Closed Doors: The Private Life of a Public Man,” pp. 256–76 in Mark J. White’s Kennedy: The New Frontier Revisited. Another excellent summary can be found in Hagood’s Presidential Sex.
his need for a secret life: Sally Bedell Smith, p. 153.
“You’ve got to live every day”: Smathers, JFKLOH.
“I’ve got this slow-motion cancer”: Martin (Hero), p. 49.
He confided in Clare Boothe Luce: Beale, p. 76.
he suffered punishing headaches: Strober and Strober, p. 78.
being circumcised at the age of twenty-one: Hamilton, p. 219.
finding his father in flagrante: Madsen, pp. 240–41.
The fact that Kennedy’s sexuality remained so unchanged: Mark J.White, p. 259. White has a particularly insightful discussion of Kennedy’s sexuality.
“an adolescent in terms”: Strober and Strober, p. 56.
“an immature relationship with girls”: Billings, JFKLOH.
“seemed to relish sharing the details”: Baker, p. 78.
“part of him still seemed to be”: Alford, p. 65.
“a little boy who wouldn’t”: Storm, p. 158.
“a real compulsion”: Leaming, p. 60.
Charlie Bartlett, who had introduced: Pitts, p. 143.
“because I was thirty-seven years old”: McMillan, author interview.
“absolutely no guilty conscience”: Beaton, p. 301.
“to keep the White House white”: Sally Bedell Smith, p. 156.
showing a keen interest in polygamy: Cassini, p. 324.
letters, diary, and testimony of Margaret Coit: Coit Papers, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Coit, JFKLOH.
On August 21, he was still shifting gears: JFKPP, Box 12, JFKL.
“Personal Conduct in High Office”: ES, August 21, 1963.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 24–SUNDAY, AUGUST 25
Jackie loved their rented house . . . rooms measured: Gallagher, p. 292.
The White House press office: NYT, August 25, 1963.
“having had the foresight”: ES, August 25, 1963.
spoke of the house being “full of sadness”: Martin (Hero), p. 467.
“Look at what the Pope said”: Ibid.
“I wish you would tell him”: Schlesinger (Journals), p. 201.
“I know there is much joy”: JFKPP, Box 43, JFKL.
“She hung on to him and he held her”: Sally Bedell Smith, p. 396.
“Maybe he thought you were a waiter”: Douglas Home, JFKLOH.
“Does the ambitious Greek tycoon”: Evans, p. 194.
“Whatever you do in Greece”: Hill, p. 250.
Michael Forrestal called to ask Kennedy: Rust, pp. 114–15.
Cable 243: FRUS, 1961–1963, Volume III, Vietnam, January–August 1963, Document 281.
Kennedy asked if he could delay making a decision: Rust, p. 114.
Hilsman and Harriman found Undersecretary Ball . . . on a golf course: Ball, LBJLOH.
Ball called Kennedy: Ball, pp. 371–72.
“ran counter to the grain of American principles”: Ibid., p. 371.
Kennedy asked the White House photographer: Van Buren, p. 74.
he received Lodge’s response: FRUS, 1961–1963, Volume III, Vietnam, January–August 1963, Document 285.
MONDAY, AUGUST 26–TUESDAY, AUGUST 27
“I think we should give priority”: Manchester (Remembering), p. 204.
“It is important that he be corrected”: Cousins, pp. 24–25.
“a lonesome figure”: Ibid., p. 110.
“In closing, I want again to send my warm personal wishes”: FRUS, 1961–1963, Volume VI, Kennedy-Khrushchev Exchanges, Document 95.
“One of the ironic things”: Cousins, pp. 113–14.
“The President is in a grave situation”: Nikita Khrushchev, pp. 497–98.
“Obviously, this is Khrushchev’s own version”: Ibid., p. 498.
Dobrynin’s account in his memoirs: Dobrynin, p. 90.
Knebel got the idea: NYT, February 28, 1993.
Knebel also found inspiration: Reston, pp. 208–9.
a top-secret memorandum proposing Operation Northwoods: George Washington University, National Security Archive.
After receiving a summary: FRUS, 1961–1963, Volume X, Cuba 1962–1963, Document 314.
After finishing the book: Bergquist and Tretick, p. 15.
During a discussion: Fay, pp. 189–90.
“I just don’t see”: Zelikow and May, pp. 113–17.
“Can you imagine LeMay saying”: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 318.
“the President is not sure that”: Nikita Khrushchev, pp. 497–98.
“the greatest defeat in our history”: Cowley, p. 259.
“The military are mad”: Schlesinger, unpublished diary, NYPL.
“The first advice I’m going to give”: Bradlee (Conversations), p. 122.
A year later McNamara informed: Presidential Recordings, Tape 118/A57, JFKL.
“Do you intend to make a movie”: Douglas, p. 349.
“as a warning to the Republic”: Schlesinger (Robert Kennedy), p. 450.
“as a warning to the generals”: Talbot, p. 148.
“if there were a third Bay of Pigs”: Fay, p. 190.
ran a full-page advertisement: ES, August 20, 1963.
“Rebellion in the Air Force?”: The New Republic, Raymond Sentier, September 28, 1963.
“damned everywhere as a Communist appeaser”: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 16.
“The time has come when he who is successful”: Sergei Khrushchev, p. 674.
“some absolutely unusual things”: Ibid.
“You plan hundreds of targets”: Ibid., p. 675.
Khrushchev also recommended scaling back the conventional army: Ibid.
“Availing myself of the return”: FRUS, 1961–1963, Volume VI, Kennedy-Khrushchev Exchanges, Document 115.
Thompson’s official memorandum: FRUS, 1961–1963, Volume V, Soviet Union, Document 350.
omits some of Kennedy’s playful banter: Dobrynin, pp. 105–6; Presidential Recordings, Tape 107/A43, JFKL.
“certain aspects of the exploration of space”: Interview with Senator John Kennedy, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, November 1960.
Kennedy had promised Americans a “New Frontier”: JFK acceptance speech to the 1960 Democratic National Convention, delivered at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on July 15, 1960.
“I believe that this nation should commit itself”: JFK speech to joint session of Congress, full text on JFKL Web site.
“We set sail on this new sea”: Rice University speech, full text on JFKL Web site.
“All right—why not?”: Sorensen (Kennedy), p. 544.
“a very heavy burden”: JFK press conferences, JFKL Web site.
During a November 1962: Presidential Recordings, Tape 60, November 16, 1962, JFKL.
July 20, 1963, press conference: Transcripts of JFK press conferences on JFKL Web site.
“appeared to be looking for an agreement”: FRUS, 1961–1963, Volume V, Soviet Union, Document 351.
“Soviet propaganda has shown unusual restraint”: NYT, August 28, 1963.
The meeting was among the most contentious: Presidential Recordings, Tape 107/A42, Tape 108/A43, JFKL.
“an egregious ‘end run’”: Taylor, p. 292.
“we began to lose”: Forrestal, LBJLOH.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28
“massive, militant, and monumental sit-in demonstration”: NYT, June 12, 1963.
“We want success in Congress”: Wilkins, p. 291.
“They’re going to come down here”: Raywid, JFKLOH.
“They [the marchers] are going to express”: July 17, 1963, press conference, JFKL Web site.
“Oh, Bruce, I wish I were out there”: Bruce, p. 97.
a natural “instinct” for the medium: Hersh, p. 224.
“We wouldn’t have had a prayer”: Salinger, p. 54.
Kennedy had ordered: Traphes Bryant, pp. 17, 43.
“Jesus Christ, that’s a terrific speech”: Lee White, author interview.
“I have a dream”: Ibid.; NYT, August 29, 2963.
“relief written all over his face”: Wilkins, p. 293.
“a superb job of making your case”: Ibid.
“the education of JFK on the race question”: Roy Wilkins, JFKLOH.
King had a similar take on his evolution: King, JFKLOH.
the “joys and hardships” of being black: Roy Wilkins, JFKLOH.
His black valet George Taylor protested: Taylor, JFKLOH.