Guns or Butter

by Bernstein, Irving;

  2. Bradley S. Greenberg and Edwin B. Parker, eds., The Kennedy Assassination and the American Public (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1965), 14, 137, 152–59, 219, 235–36; Carpenter tape recording, 23, Jenkins to Johnson, Nov. 24, 29, 1963, Assassination of John F. Kennedy File, Katzenbach to Moyers, Nov. 25,1963, Moyers Papers, Hatfield to Carpenter, n.d., Appointment file, James H. Rowe, Oral History Interview, 11–29, Joseph L. Rauh, Jr., Oral History Interview, 1–31, 11–23, III-l, 2, all Johnson Library; Johnson, Vantage Point, 19–21, 29–30, 31–32, 40–41; Kearns, Johnson, 170–71, 177–78; Califano, Johnson, 13–14; Public Papers, Johnson, 1963–1964, I: 8–10, 12–13, 35, 218–19; Lawrence F. O’Brien, No Final Victories (Garden City: Doubleday, 1974), 165; Earl Warren, The Memoirs of Earl Warren (Garden City: Doubleday, 1977), 355–59, 358 n.; Bernard Schwartz, Super Chief (New York: New York Univ. Press, 1983), 495–96: Amrine, Awesome Challenge, 58–60; George Reedy, Lyndon B. Johnson: A Memoir (New York: Andrews and McMeel, 1982), 153; Gallup Poll, III: 1853, 1857. Walter Heller met with the new President on Saturday evening, November 23. Johnson was anxious about the drop in the stock market on Friday afternoon, about 5 percent. He asked whether he should do something about it. Heller recommended that he remain silent because “no one really knows how to understand the market or influence it.” According to Heller, the President said that “the important thing was to create a general sense of confidence and assurance. … He felt that would do more for the stock market than anything else, and I agreed.” They were right. Heller, Oral History Interview, II-13–14, Johnson Library.

  Chapter 2. The Tax Cut

  1. For the legislative progress of the tax bill under Kennedy, see Bernstein, Promises Kept, 157–59. C. Douglas Dillon, Oral History Interview, 9–11, 13, Kermit Gordon, Oral History Interview, II-6–8, 22–26, III-3, Walter Heller, Oral History Interview, 1–22, 11–16, Gardner Ackley, Oral History Interview, 1–6, Charles L. Schultze, Oral History Interview, 1–28; Barr to Desautels, Legislation Report, Nov. 26, 1963, Confidential File, all Johnson Library. Schultze’s comment about how hard it was to spend $100 billion in fiscal 1965 was certainly correct. The actual figure in the administrative budget was $96.5 billion, $1.1 billion under Kennedy’s 1964 figure. This, as Schultze also pointed out, was because defense expenditures declined $4 billion between 1964 and 1965. Economic Report of the President, 1966, 276.

  2. Heller, Chronology of Events on Board the Aircraft Carrying the Cabinet Group to Japan on Nov. 22, the Day of President Kennedy’s Death, Nov. 23, 1963, Heller, Notes on Meeting with President Johnson, 7:40 p.m., Nov. 23, 1963, Heller Papers, Kennedy Library; Heller, Oral History Interview, 1–12–17, II–21–22; Heller to Johnson, Summary Review of the Economic Situation and Pending Issues, Nov. 23, attached to the Administrative History of the Council of Economic Advisers, Notes by Gardner Ackley, Troika Meeting with President Johnson, Monday, Nov. 25, Appointment File, Heller to Johnson, Case for a $101–102 billion Budget, Nov. 25, 1963, GEN-CEA File, all Johnson Library; Gordon, Oral History Interview, III-2–3, 5–7, 12; Public Papers, Johnson, 1963–1964, I: 10, 15, 16, 36, 44, 66–67, 84, 86, 90, 113, 177; Johnson, Vantage Point, 37; Statement by Senator Harry F. Byrd, Dec. 5, 1963, Byrd Papers, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville. Dirksen, according to Dillon, took the position that “under no circumstances will the Republicans agree to the Committee’s reporting out a bill until they have had a look at the overall budget figures.” Johnson had agreed to show him the galley proofs of the budget on either the evening of January 14 or early on the morning of the 15th. Dillon to Johnson, Jan. 21, 1963 [misdated, probably early in January], The Tax Bill, Legislation File, Johnson Library.

  3. Barr to Desautels, Nov. 26, Confidential File, Notes on the First Congressional Leadership Breakfast Held by the President on Dec. 3, 1963, Appointment File, O’Brien to Johnson, Jan. 6, 1964, Reports on Legislation, Barr to Manatos, Dec. 17, 1963, Confidential File, Troika Meeting with President Johnson, Monday, Nov. 25, 1963, Appointment File, Barr to Desautels, Jan. 13, Manatos Papers, W. J. Hopkins Memo, Feb. 26, 1964, Legislation File, all Johnson Library; Public Papers, Johnson, 1963–1964, 1: 9, 21, 37, 69, 115, 158–60, 178–81, 311–14; Revenue Act of 1964, Sen. Rep. No. 830, 88th Cong., 2d sess., Rep. of the Committee on Finance (Jan. 28, 1964); CQ Almanac, 1964, 518–40; Dillon, Oral History Interview, 8–13, and Heller, Oral History Interview, 11–24–25, both Johnson Library.

  4. The revenue provisions of the Revenue Act of 1964 are available in the summary section of the already cited Senate Finance Committee’s Rep. No. 830. Heller, Oral History Interview, I–18, II–23–25; Heller to Wirtz, March 21, 1964, Records of Secretary of Labor Wirtz, National Archives. Most of the statistics are from the appendices of the Economic Report of the President of the late sixties. The profit figures are at p. 3 of the 1966 Report. CEA discussion of the need to raise the rate of GNP growth to keep pace with new entrants into the labor force is at p. 40. Walter W. Heller, New Dimensions of Political Economy (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1966), 72–73; Arthur M. Okun, “Measuring the Impact of the 1964 Tax Reduction,” in Joseph A. Pechman, ed., Economics for Policymaking, Selected Essays of Arthur M. Okun (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1983), 405–23.

  Chapter 3. The Civil Rights Act of 1964

  1. For the background of the civil rights bill under Kennedy, see Bernstein, Promises Kept, 102–13; Gallup Poll, III: 1827, 1829, 1837–38, 1863.

  2. Johnson, Vantage Point, 38, 39, 158; George Reedy, Oral History Interview, III-8, XVI-32; Roy Wilkins, Oral History Interview, 23; Hubert H. Humphrey, Oral History Interview, 111–13; Paul H. Douglas, Oral History Interview, 6–7; O’Brien to Johnson, Jan. 6, 1964, Assassination of John F. Kennedy file, all Johnson Library; Public Papers, Johnson, 1963–64, I: 9; Bruce J. Dierenfield, Keeper of the Rules: Congressman Howard W. Smith of Virginia (Charlottesville: Univ. Press of Virginia, 1987), the Albert quote is from the foreword, the Republican crack about arson p. 158. The struggle over the Rules Committee is chronicled in Neil MacNeil, Forge of Democracy: The House of Representatives (New York: David McKay, 1963), ch. 15, James A. Robinson, The House Rules Committee (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963), 71–80; William R. MacKaye, A New Coalition Takes Control: The House Rules Committee Fight of 1961 (Eagleton Institute, No. 29, 1963). Charles and Barbara Whalen, The Longest Debate (New York: New American Library, 1985), ch. 3.

  3. The texts of H.R. 7152, the congressional reports, and the debates in both houses have been gathered conveniently in U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Legislative History of Titles VII and XI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, hereafter cited as Legislative History. A play-by-play account of the bill’s progress is in Whalen, Longest Debate. I have relied heavily on both. From the Whalen the Arends quote is at p. 109, Celler and McCulloch statements at pp. 105–7, Smith quote at p. 111. O’Brien to Johnson, Jan. 21, 1964, Civil Rights Act, Legislation File, Johnson Library. For general works on the sex amendment to Title VII, see Cynthia Harrison, On Account of Sex (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1988), 176–82; Hugh Davis Graham, The Civil Rights Era (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1990), 136–39; and Patricia G. Zelman, Women, Work, and National Policy, The Kennedy-Johnson Years (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1980), ch. 4. Legislative History, 2155–76, 3213–28; Emily George, Martha W. Griffiths (New York: Lanham, 1982), 149–50; Donald Allen Robinson, “Two Movements in Pursuit of Equal Employment Opportunity,” Signs (Spring 1979): 415; Whalen, Longest Debate, 117; Zelman, Women, Work, and National Policy, 62.

  4. Whalen, Longest Debate, 130, 137, 157–88; Nicholas Katzenbach, Oral History Interview, 8, 20, 21, Johnson Library. For the sketch of Mike Mansfield see Current Biography, 1952, 400–02, 1978, 281–85; Harry McPherson, A Political Education (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972), 44–45, 182–85; Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Oral History Interview, X/X-16, Johnson Library. Mansfield’s appeal to Republicans never ended. Many years later Ronald Reagan, of all people, named him ambassador to Japan. For Hubert Humphrey, see
Albert Eisele, Almost to the Presidency (Blue Earth, Minn.: Piper, 1972), chs. 1, 4; Whalen, Longest Debate, 138; McPherson, Political Education, 37–39; Hubert H. Humphery, Oral History Interview, HI-9–10, Johnson Library. On the Humphrey quote about kissing Dirksen’s backside, see Carl Solberg, Hubert Humphrey: A Biography (New York: Norton, 1984), 224.

  5. For the sketch of Richard Russell, see McPherson, Political Education, 54–56; Johnson, Diary, 42; Reedy, Oral History Interview, V-l, and Douglas, Oral History Interview, 5, both Johnson Library. Burke Marshall, Oral History Interview, 8, 27, Katzenbach, Oral History Interview, 8, 20–21, 168, Emanuel Celler, Oral History Interview, 9, O’Brien to Johnson, June 18, 1964, EX LE File, all Johnson Library. Edwin O. Guthman and Jeffrey Shulman, Robert Kennedy in His Own Words (New York: Bantam, 1988), 211–12; Whalen, Longest Debate, 130.

  6. This section depends heavily upon Whalen, Longest Debate, chs. 5–7, quotes at 144–45, 156, 176–77, 194, 203. Graham, Civil Rights Era, 144, 149–50. For the sketch of Dirksen, see Neil MacNeil, Dirksen: Portrait of a Public Man (New York: World, 1970), 6–8, 216, 219–23; Reedy, Oral History Interview, 10, Johnson Library; Whalen, Longest Debate, 153; Humphrey, Oral History Interview, III-8. A rumor floated in 1964 that those two notorious wheeler-dealers, Johnson and Dirksen, had made a secret “payoff” in which the President took a nuclear accelerator away from Wisconsin and awarded it to Illinois in return for the delivery of the Republican votes to close debate on H.R. 7152. There is plausibility to this theory. That is, Johnson eliminated the funding for the Wisconsin accelerator from the 1965 budget in December 1963; a 200-bev. machine was later built in Weston, Illinois, 25 miles from the Argonne National Laboratory; and most of the Republican senators voted for cloture. Dirksen did write a letter to Johnson on December 31, 1963, asking for the Argonne transfer. Donald F. Hornig, the President’s new science adviser, answered on January 29, 1964, advising Dirksen that no decision had yet been made. Hornig to Dirksen, Jan. 29, 1964, WHCF, Dirksen file, Johnson Library. But senators are expected to support their constituents. Mike Manatos, who covered the Senate for the White House, was asked if there had been a payoff. “I happen to know,” he replied, “that that wasn’t the case in this issue.” Mike Manatos, Oral History Interview, 20, Johnson Library. In fact, this accelerator location dispute was part of the prolonged conflict over federal support for “Big Science” in which Dirksen played no role. The battle over the Wisconsin accelerator, which had nothing to do with the Civil Rights Act, is traced authoritatively in Daniel S. Greenberg, The Politics of Pure Science (New York: New American Library, 1967), chs. 10, 11. The Humphrey statement on quotas is in Congressional Record, March 30, 1964, p. 6549; the Margaret Chase Smith quote is from Robinson, “Two Movements,” Signs (Spring 1979): 148; Udall to Johnson, May 7, Manatos to O’Brien, May 6, 1964, Legislative Background, Civil Rights Act, 1964 File, U.S. Information Agency to Johnson, Foreign Reaction to Senate Passage of the Civil Rights Bill, June 29, 1964, EX LE file, Katzenbach, Oral History Interview, 20, all Johnson Library. The Whalens, p. 188, discuss the origins of the Victor Hugo “quote.” While one hesitates to quibble with Everett Dirksen in his shining hour, Hugo did not keep a diary. At other times Dirksen said Disraeli was the author of the famous line. The quote, in fact, is from Hugo’s Histoire d’un crime. Legislative History, 3003–8, 3017–21, 3129–63; for a discussion of the Motorola case, see Herbert Hill, “The Equal Employment Opportunity Acts of 1964 and 1972,” Industrial Relations Law Journal (Spring 1977): 12–16; Congressional Record, June 10, 1964, pp. 14318–19.

  7. O’Brien to Johnson, June 18, July 2, White to Files, Meeting with Negro Leadership following Signing Ceremony, July 6, 1964, all EX LE file, Johnson Library; Public Papers, Johnson, 1964, 842–44; Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (New York: Bantam, 1968), 35–37, 229–30; Anthony Lewis and the New York Times, Portrait of a Decade (New York: Random House, 1964), 257–61; David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross (New York: Morrow, 1986), 338–39.

  Chapter 4. The War on Poverty

  1. Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism, vol. II:The Wheels of Commerce (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), 506–12; Gertrude Himmelfarb, The Idea of Poverty: England in the Early Industrial Age (New York: Vantage, 1985), 307–9, 312, 387–92, 406, 453, 529–31, chs. 12, 14, 19; Lloyd George is quoted by Robert). Lampman, Ends and Means of Reducing Income Poverty (Chicago: Markham, 1971), 7; T. L. Lloyd, Empire to Welfare State, English History, 1906–1976 (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1979), chs. 1, 2.

  2. Jacob A. Riis, How the Other Half Lives (New York: Scribner, 1890). For the literature and art of the Great Depression, see Irving Bernstein, A Caring Society (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985), ch. 7. Dorothy Campbell Tompkins, Poverty in the United States During the Sixties, a Bibliography (Berkeley: Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, 1970). For the black migration to the North after 1940 in general, see Bernstein, Promises Kept, 17–20; for the Mississippi Delta to Chicago migration, see Nicholas Lemann, The Promised Land (New York: Knopf, 1991).

  3. John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1958), 251, ch. 23; Robert A. Lampman, The Low Income Population and Economic Growth, Joint Economic Committee, Study Paper No. 12, 86th Cong., 1st sess. (1959); Conference on Economic Progress, Poverty and Deprivation in the U.S. (Washington: 1962); Lemann, Promised Land, 118—29; Richard A. Cloward and Lloyd E. Ohlin, Delinquency and Opportunity (Glencoe: Free Press, 1960), 211; Oscar Lewis, The Children of Sanchez (New York: Random House, 1961), xii, xxiv, xxv-xxvii; Harry M. Caudill, Night Comes to the Cumberlands (Boston: Little, Brown, 1962); Michael Harrington, The Other America (New York: Macmillan, 1962), 2, 3, 6, 17, 167, 174; Dwight MacDonald’s New Yorker article is reprinted in J. K. Haddon, L. H. Masotti, and J. C. Larson, eds., Metropolis in Crisis (Itasca: Peacock, 1967), 267.

  4. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965), 1009–11; Heller to Kennedy, Progress and Poverty, May 1, 1963, Administrative History of the Council of Economic Advisers, Johnson Library; Economic Report of the President, 1964, ch. 2, quotes at 57, 59, 77.

  5. William Capron and William Cannon gave accounts of their roles in shaping the poverty program in the Federal Government and Urban Poverty, II: 138–58, 169–81, Kennedy Library; Heller to Secy, of Agriculture et al., Nov. 5, 1963, Administrative History of Council, Johnson Library; John F. Bibby and Roger H. Davidson, On Capitol Hill (2d ed., Hinsdale: Dryden, 1972), 229–30; Heller, Chronology of Events on Board the Aircraft Carrying the Cabinet Group to Japan on Nov. 22, the Day of President Kennedy’s Death, Nov. 23, 1963; Notes on Meeting with President Johnson, 7:40 p.m., Nov. 23, 1963, Heller Papers, Kennedy Library; Johnson, Vantage Point, 69–75; Hackett to Heller, 1964 Legislative Programs for Wider Participation in Prosperity, Nov. 6, 1963, in The Federal Government and Urban Poverty, vol. I, Kennedy Library; James L. Sundquist, Politics and Policy (Washington: Brookings, 1968), 137—42, including a summary of the Marris strategies; Charles L. Schultze, Oral History Interview, 11–61, Kermit Gordon, Oral History Interview, IV-2–3, 6–9, James L. Sundquist, Oral History Interview, 1–23–24, Theodore M. Hesburgh, Oral History Interview, 9, all Johnson Library; Public Papers, Johnson, 1963–64, I: 113–14, 184.

  6. Sargent Shriver, Oral History Interview, 1–1–7, 23–28, 33, 34, 46–48, 70, 71, 85, 87,11–51, IV-45–46, Adam Yarmolinsky, Oral History Interview, 1–13, 17–19, III–16, 40, 42–43, Sundquist, Oral History Interview, 1–36, 49–50, Schultze Oral History Interview, 11–61—62. Administrative History of the Office of Economic Opportunity during the Administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, 28, 30, Hopkins to Moyers, May 6, 1964, Legislative Background of Economic Opportunity Act File, all Johnson Library. Shriver did not want to be called “czar.” He insisted that he was only a “sergeant” and “Look what happened to the czars!” Adam Yarmolinsky, “The Beginnings of OEO,” in James L. Sundquist, ed., On Fighting Poverty (New York: Basic, 1969), 34–37, 4
5, 48–49; Public Papers, Johnson, 1963–64, I: 376; Yarmolinsky quotes in The Federal Government and Urban Poverty, I: 255, III: 248, 327. Shriver thought that the task force was driven out of the Court of Claims Building by blasting across Pennsylvania Avenue for a new underground headquarters for the President in case of an atomic war. “It made me laugh that in the process of doing that they were blowing down the war against poverty headquarters.” Shriver, Oral History Interview, 1–79, Johnson Library.

  7. The President’s poverty message, written by Yarmolinsky, and the bill sent up on March 16, 1964, are in Poverty, H.R. Doc. No. 243, 88th Cong., 2d sess.; Christopher Weeks, Job Corps (Boston: Little, Brown, 1967), 17–27, 35–36, 76–102. The Wirtz data on youth unemployment are in Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, Hearings Before the Committee on Education and Labor, H.R., 88th Cong., 2d sess. (1964), pt. 1, p. 185; Shriver, Oral History Interview, 1–8–10 38, II-2–3, III-2, IV-45–46, Yarmolinsky, Oral History Interview, 1–16,11–20–21, III-17, Sundquist, Oral History Interview, 1–28—29, Schlei, Oral History Interview, 1–29, all Johnson Library; A. H. Raskin, “Generalissimo of the War on Poverty,” New York Times Magazine, Nov. 22, 1964, p. 90.

  8. Richard H. Rovere, Oral History Interview, 1–10–11, Lampman to Heller, June 10, 1963, which Heller sent to both Kennedy and Johnson, in Administrative History of Council, both Johnson Library; Elinor Graham, “Poverty and the Legislative Process,” in Ben B. Seligman, Poverty as a Public Issue (New York: Free Press, 1965), Reston quote at 254, 255–56, 270, n. 7; The Federal Government and Urban Poverty, 162, 287, 291, Kennedy Library; CQ Almanac, 1964, 208–28, 646–47; Shriver to Johnson, July 16, 1964, Manatos Papers, Johnson Library; Economic Opportunity Act, House Hearings, pt. 1, pp. 6, 7, 64–65, 108, 109, 114–15, 146, 184, 185, 309, 314, 631–36, pt. 3, p. 1343; Shriver, Oral History Interview, II-85–92, Yarmolinsky, Oral History Interview, 1–15–19, 11–10, Schlei, Oral History Interview, 1–37, all Johnson Library; Raskin, “Generalissimo,” 88, 91; Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, H.R. No. 1458, 88th Cong., 2d sess. (June 3, 1964), 11; Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, Hearings Before Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, 88th Cong., 2d sess. (1964); Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, S. Rep. No. 1218, 88th Cong., 2d sess. (July 21, 1964); Cong. Record, July 22, p. 16659, July 23, pp. 16718–27, Aug. 7, 1964, pp. 18574, 18582. For Pitt’s role in racial integration of the armed forces, see his memoranda on the National Guard and off-base equal opportunity of Dec. 30, 1963, and May 27, 1964, to Lee C. White, White Papers, Johnson Library; O’Brien to Johnson, July 31, 1964, For the President, n.d., EX LE file, Johnson Library; Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power (New York: New American Library, 1966), 432–33; Public Papers, Johnson, 1963–64, II: 941. According to Schlei, Yarmolinsky took “a terrific kick in the face” and was “crushed and really let down and puzzled.” Schlei, Oral History Interview, 1–37. While Yarmolinsky, of course, left the poverty program, he remained in the Johnson administration for two years. He was active in the Johnson presidential campaign in 1964, was sent by McNamara to the Dominican Republic in 1965, and then spent a year working with John McNaughton, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, where he became very unhappy about the Vietnam War. In the fall of 1966 he joined the faculty of the Harvard Law School. Yarmolinsky, Oral History Interview, 1–22–31. Harry McPherson probably understood the President as well as anyone could. McPherson said, “He doesn’t believe that the end justifies any means; he believes it justifies quite a few means. But he has a curious degree of reserve and feelings of delicacy about some means.” Harry McPherson, Oral History Interview, 1–16, Johnson Library. On August 7, 1964, the end was to avoid any threat, no matter how remote, to his victory in the election of which the poverty program was an essential part. The means was to remove Yarmolinsky even if it involved “a terrific kick in the face.” In delivering that kick, Johnson was restrained by neither reserve nor delicacy.