Guns or Butter

by Bernstein, Irving;

  8. CQ Almanac, 1967, 1042–50; Public Papers, Johnson, 1967, II: 995–98; Califano to Johnson, Nov. 7, 1967, Gaither to Califano, Jan. 3, 1968, Report of the Task Force on Financing Public Broadcasting, n.d., Gaither Papers, Cater to Johnson, Feb. 16, Zwick to Johnson, March 5, 1968, Legislative Background Public Broadcasting File, all Johnson Library; Bruce McKay, “Financing: Problem or Symptom?,” in Douglass Cater and M. J. Nyhan, eds., The Future of Public Broadcasting (New York: Praeger, 1976), 148; John Macy’s book, To Irrigate a Wasteland, is a chamber of financial horrors; Marilyn Lashley, Public Television (New York: Greenwood, 1992), 78; Pepper in Formation of Public Broadcasting Service traces the negotiations leading to the creation of PBS.

  9. Administrative History of the National Endowment for the Arts, Supp. to the History, 6, Johnson Library.

  Chapter 18. Model Cities

  1. Robert C. Wood, Oral History Interview, 1–11, quotes at 5–6, 8, 11; Report of the Task Force on Metropolitan and Urban Problems, Nov. 30, 1964, quotes at i, 1, 2, 39, Legislative Background Model Cities File, both Johnson Library; Public Papers, Johnson, 1965, 1: 231–40.

  2. Reuther to Johnson, May 13, Haar to Goodwin, June 9, Califano to Johnson, Oct. 9, 13, Meeting of Oct. 15, McPherson to Johnson, Dec. 9, Gordon to Task Force, Dec. 20, 1965, all Legislative Background Model Cities File, Johnson Library; the ordeal of the Weaver appointment as secretary of HUD, convoluted, cruel, and funny, is told by Califano, Johnson, 125–30. Wood, Oral History Interview, 3, 18–23, Kermit Gordon, Oral History Interview, IV-13, both Johnson Library; the 1965 task force report is appendix 2 in Charles M. Haar, Between the Idea and the Reality (Boston: Little, Brown, 1975), quote at 58; Bernard J. Frieden and Marshall Kaplan, The Politics of Neglect (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1975), 36–48; Edward C. Banfield, “Making a New Federal Program: Model Cities, 1964–1968,” in Allan P. Sindler, ed., Policy and Politics in America (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), 135–36. Senator Ribicoff, who had plenty of street smarts, was able to attend only the last task force meeting. But he was interviewed by staff member Chester Rapkin. Among Ribicoff’s suggestions: “The program could not succeed unless it involved City Hall, labor, civil rights, employment and the poor. He said if we don’t have City Hall we don’t have housing, schools and the police, and without these three essential elements success would be severely curtailed. He also feels that the building trades council should be involved directly through the training of people who would initially work on the projects and later be trained to become construction workers. He felt strongly that the poor should be involved even if it costs more and urged that work relief be substituted for subventions wherever possible. He asked us to look into Defense Department contracts with industry which pay for 90 days of training and suggested that we might employ a similar device for slum people. He was concerned about air pollution which he felt was easier to handle than water problems which are essentially state or multi-state oriented. He also proposed that a greater utilization of private funds and capital, particularly from insurance companies and banks, be encouraged by guarantees. I was delighted to see that he felt very strongly about beauty in the cities and urged that whatever reconstruction take place respect a variety of architectural styles and, in fact, the demonstrations themselves could involve architects from all over the world. This was important not only for new construction but also to preserve the traditions of America. … “ Rapkin to Wood, Nov. 24, 1965, Legislative Background Model Cities File, Johnson Library.

  3. Haar, Idea and Reality, ch. 3; Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Oral History Interview, 36—37, Weaver to Califano, May 24, Wilson to Johnson, May 30, Califano to Johnson, June 6, Spector to Wilson, Sept. 12, 1966, Legislative Background Model Cities File, Weaver to Califano, Aug. 9, 1966, Manatos Papers, all Johnson Library; Califano, Johnson, 133, 135; Fulbright’s speech is in the Cong. Record, Aug. 19, 1966; CQ Almanac, 1966, 210–30.

  4. Haar, Idea and Reality, quote at 143; Administrative History of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, vol. I, pt. 1, ch. 5; Brief Summary, Comprehensive City Demonstration Programs, Oct. 20, 1966, Legislative Background Model Cities File, Califano to Johnson, July 7, 10, 1967, March 4, 1968, Model Cities Applications, Aug. 16, 1968, Ximinez to Watson, Aug. 17, 1967, Janis to Califano, Sept. 16, 1968, all Califano Papers, Model Cities Program, Farr to Califano, Oct. 7, 1968, Wirtz to Califano, Oct. 7, 1968, Task Force Subject File, all Johnson Library; Frieden and Kaplan, Politics of Neglect, 73–87, app. A.

  5. Johnson, Vantage Point, 330; Banfield, “Making a New Federal Program,” 155; Rufus P. Browning, Dale Rogers Marshall, and David H. Tabb, Protest Is Not Enough (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1984), 208–14.

  Chapter 19. The Collapse of the Johnson Presidency

  1. John W. Gardner, II-7–18, Lawrence F. O’Brien, XXI-48, both Oral History Interviews, Johnson Library; Johnson, Diary, 620–24; Nancy Zaroulis and Gerald Sullivan, Who Spoke Up? (Garden City: Doubleday, 1984), 149–50; Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978), 825; Clifford, Counsel, 465–67; Lloyd M. Bucher, My Story (Garden City: Doubleday, 1970); Trevor Armbrister, A Matter of Accountability (New York: Coward-McCann, 1970), v, 395.

  2. Two useful general works on Tet are Don Oberdorfer, Tet! (Garden City: Doubleday, 1971), on the war in Vietnam, and Herbert Y. Schandler, The Unmaking of a President (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1977), on the impact of Tet on Washington, quotes at ix, U.S. Military Academy textbook at 75, Cronkite at 197; Bundy quote in Tom Wells, The War Within (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1994), 242. See also Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History (New York: Penguin, 1991), 536–42, 541, 552–55; Ronald H. Spector, After Tet (New York: Free Press, 1993), 117—34; Kearns, Johnson, 336—37; Califano, Johnson, 262–64; Deborah Shapley, Promise and Power (Boston: Little, Brown, 1993), 443–44, 448–52, 476, 485. For the first three months of 1968 in Washington the decisive work is Clifford, Counsel, chs. 27, 28. Also: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, Rowe quote at 866; Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, The Wise Men (New York: Simon &: Schuster, 1986), 681–95, 699.

  3. O’Brien, XXI-15–16, 19, 21, 25–26, 32–34, 51–54, 55, 57, John P. Roche, 1–60, both Oral History Interviews, O’Brien to Johnson, Mar. 27, 1968, Confidential File, all Johnson Library; Lewis Chester, Godfrey Hodgson, and Bruce Page, An American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968 (New York: Viking, 1969), Act 3, ch. 1; William H. Chafe, Never Stop Running (New York: Basic, 1993), 104–8, ch. 4; Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1968 (New York: Atheneum, 1969), ch. 3, quote at 120; Eugene J. McCarthy, The Year of the People (Garden City: Doubleday, 1969), 77, ch. 6; Califano, Johnson, quote at 266.

  4. Johnson, Vantage Point, ch. 18; Clifford, Counsel, 524–26; Johnson, Diary, 633–47; Califano, Johnson, 266–69; Isaacson and Thomas, Wise Men, 695; White, Making of President, 1968, 114, 123; Kearns, Johnson, 7, 8, 32, 270–73, 312–17, 342. On March 12, 1968, Bill Moyers told Schlesinger that Johnson was sealed off from reality, that all criticism was written off as personal or political hostility. Moyers used the word “paranoid.” Because of his personal debt to Johnson, Moyers said he had taken a long time to reach this conclusion. He thought that “four more years of Johnson would be ruinous for the country.” Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 848. The Johnson-Mansfield conversation on March 27 is in Schandler, Unmaking a President, 271–72. The March 31, 1968, speech is in Public Papers, Johnson, 1968, I: 469–76.

  5. Spector, After Tet., xvi-ii, 24–25.

  6. The study of the King assassination is Gerold Frank, An American Death (Garden City: Doubleday, 1972), quotes at 14, 289, 382. See also David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross (New York: Morrow, 1986), ch. 11, and Stephen B. Gates, Let the Trumpet Sound (New York: Norton, 1982), pt. 10. Califano, Johnson, ch. 17, quote at 280; Yeagley to Attorney General, April 9, 1968, Report of the Chicago Riot Study Committee, Aug. 1, 1968, for police and military riot preparations, see S.L. to Attorney General with attachment on Los Angeles plan, New York
Times, March 2, 1968, all Clark Papers, Johnson Library; the Dohrn incident is from Todd Gitlin, The Sixties (New York: Bantam, 1987), 306. Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Oral History Interview, LXII-9–14, Johnson Library. CQ Almanac, 1968, 152–69, quote at 166; Hugh Davis Graham, The Civil Rights Era (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1990), 270–73; Elizabeth D. Huttman, ed., Urban Housing: Segregation of Minorities in Western Europe and the United States (Durham: Duke Univ. Press, 1991), chs. 14, 19; W. Dennis Keating, The Suburban Racial Dilemma (Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 1944), chs. 12, 13; Robert W. Lake, The New Suburbanites (New Brunswick: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1981), ch. 10.

  7. Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, chs. 37–40, Jacqueline Kennedy quote at 857, RFK on Oswald at 877, Gary quote at 900; Jules Witcover, 85 Days: The Last Campaign of Robert Kennedy (New York: Putnam, 1969); White, Making of President, 1968, ch. 6; Jack Newfield, Robert Kennedy: A Memoir (New York: Dutton, 1969); David Halberstam, The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy (New York: Random House, 1968); Chester et al., American Melodrama, Acts 4, 7.

  8. Robert Blair Kaiser, “RFK Must Die!”: A History of the Robert Kennedy Assassination and Its Aftermath (New York: Dutton, 1970). The appendices are particularly interesting—the victims, the trajectories of the eight bullets, Sirhan’s notebooks, and Senator Edward Kennedy’s plea for mercy.

  9. Stephen E. Ambrose, Nixon (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), II: quote at 133, Nixon watching RFK announce at 145; Jules W. Witcover, The Resurrection of Richard Nixon (New York: Putnam, 1970), 14–22; David S. Broder, “Election of 1960,” in A. M. Schlesinger, Jr., F. L. Israel, and W. P. Hansen, eds., History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–1968 (New York: Chelsea, 1985), IX: 3706; Chester et al., American Melodrama, Acts 5, 7, 9, Graves quote at 265, on Wallace at 294; White, Making of the President, 1968, 149.

  10. Albert Eisele, Almost to the Presidency (Blue Earth: Piper, 1972), chs. 16–18, quotes at 322, 328, 336, 337, 364, 365; O’Brien, Oral History Interview, XXIII-35–38, 40, 44, 50, 56, 66, XXIV-5, 12, 15, 19–23, 51, 52, Johnson Library; Public Papers, Johnson, 1968–69, 896, 903; Johnson, Vantage Point, 510; the definitive study of the Chicago convention riot is Daniel Walker, Rights in Conflict, Convention Week in Chicago, August 25–29, 1968 (New York: Dutton, 1968), quotes at 163, 255; Broder, “Election of 1968,” 3705, 3737, 3739; Chester et al., American Melodrama, 585; George W. Ball, The Past Has Another Pattern (New York: Norton, 1982), 446, 447; Humphrey’s Salt Lake City speech is in Schlesinger et al., eds., Presidential Elections, IX: 3857–64; Clifford, Counsel, 563, 572, 581, 583; Ambrose, Nixon, II: 207, 215; James H. Rowe, Jr., Oral History Interview, IV-20-21, Johnson Library; William L. Bundy letter to New York Times, June 13, 1991; Carl Solberg, Hubert Humphrey (New York: Norton, 1984), ch. 33, quote at 402; William Safire, Before the Fall (Garden City: Doubleday, 1975), 88; Witcover, Resurrection, 444.

  Chapter 20. Guns or Butter

  1. Donald Kagan, Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Greek Democracy (London: Seeker & Warburg, 1990), quotes at 2, 243. In this splendid book Professor Kagan draws many comparisons between Pericles and prominent twentieth-century European and American political leaders. Oddly, Lyndon Johnson is not among them.

  2. William Safire, Safire’s New Political Dictionary (New York: Random House, 1993), 308–9; Richard Goodwin, Remembering America (Boston: Little, Brown, 1988), 417–18; Stephen Skowronek, The Politics Presidents Make (Cambridge: Belknap, 1993); Lawrence F. O’Brien and Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Final Report to President Lyndon B. Johnson on the 89th Congress, Oct. 24, 1966, Califano Papers, McPherson to Johnson, Nov. 2, 1965, McPherson Papers, Johnson to Mansfield, Oct. 22, 1965, Wilson Papers, all Johnson Library; CQ Almanac, 1964–1968, the section in each volume on the Johnson boxscore is the source for the quotes; the Cohen yardstick is in Bernstein, Promises Kept, 292–93; Johnson, Vantage Point, 324; Kearns, Johnson, 249; Califano, Johnson, 180.

  3. Harry G. Summers, Jr., On Strategy (Novato: Presidio, 1982), 1; Thomas C. Thayer, War Without Fronts (Boulder: Westview, 1985), 103–13, 257; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History (New York: Penguin, 1991), 11; Neil Sheehan, Two Cities: Hanoi and Saigon (London: Jonathan Cape, 1992) 35, 59. No one knows the number of Vietnamese casualties. In 1989, when Sheehan was in Hanoi, he was told that 3 million, North and South, combatants and civilians, were thought to have perished. Hundreds of thousands were missing. There, evidently, was no estimate of those maimed. Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam (New York: Atheneum, 1994), quote at 78—79; Robert Warren Stevens, Vain Hopes, Grim Realities (New York: New Viewpoints, 1976), especially ch. 14; Stockdale quote, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 17, 1994; Robert Jay Lifton, Home from the War (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973), 449–50; for Johnson’s pre-1965 statements on Vietnam, see Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Bitter Heritage (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966), 9, 21, 28—29, 50; Pentagon Papers, Gravel Edition, III: 702–3; for a comprehensive review of the impact of the war on Americans both at home and in Vietnam, see Myra McPherson, Long Time Passing (Garden City: Doubleday, 1984); David Wise, The Politics of Lying (New York: Random House, 1973), 22–23, 48, 342. Galbraith to Califano, Dec. 16, 1966, Legislative Background Tax Increase File, Johnson Library. Horace Busby was one of several presidential aides who urged Johnson to explain the war to the American people. In a memorandum on July 21, 1965, as the build-up was getting under way, he pointed out that the reporting of the bombings was all “stark, jarring.” The important question was not what the U.S. was doing but “why it is being done.” He recommended showing the American people that it was in their “self-interest” to take over South Vietnam. Busby thought the U.S. needed a spokesman like Churchill or Roosevelt. Busby to Johnson, July 21, 1965, Vietnam Reference File, Johnson Library.

  4. George Reedy, Lyndon B. Johnson: A Memoir (New York: Andrews and McMeel, 1982), x, xiii, 37, 53, 58, 77, 99, 142, 159; Charles Mohr Memorandum, May 5, 1965, Arthur Krock Papers, Princeton University; on Johnson’s depression, Robert A. Caro, The Path to Glory (New York: Random House, 1981), 136, 147, 172, 196–97, 228; womanizing quote from Robert Dallek, Lone Star Rising (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1991), 189, and Reedy to author, June 9, 1994; Goodwin, Remembering America, ch. 21, quote at 393; Kearns, Johnson, ch. 11; Lee C. White, Oral History Interview, 1–5, Douglas Cater, Oral History Interview, 28; Harry McPherson, Oral History Interview, III-l, 3, 30–31, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Oral History Interview, 1–37, 11–16, IV-46, XXI-14, LVII-15, all Johnson Library; Jack Valenti, A Very Human President (New York: Norton, 1975), 97, 251–52n. A brief comment about the word hubris, which is used several times in this chapter: It is Greek in origin; is extremely old, having been used 31 times by Homer; is sometimes spelled hybris; and was an important concept in ancient Greek politics and literature. Here it receives the meaning that prevails currently in Britain and the U.S.—arrogance combined with contempt for an adversary, leading to the defeat of the one who is excessively arrogant. The Greeks often linked it to the gods, who were insulted by hubris and destroyed the arrogant person or state. They used the word several ways and the core meaning is somewhat different from current usage: an assault on the honor of another, causing shame, anger, and revenge. See. N. R. E. Fisher, Hybris: A Study in the Values of Honour and Shame in Ancient Greece (Warminster, Eng.: Aris & Phillips, 1992).

  Index

  Abel, I. W., 360–61, 509

  Abell, Bess, 381

  Abernathy, Ralph, 216, 217, 226, 228

  Abram, Morris, 197

  Abrams, Creighton, 518;

  and Watts Riot, 385–86

  Acheson, Dean: support for disengagement in Vietnam, 480, 481;

  “Wise Men” meetings, 424–25

  Ackley, Gardner, 29, 30, 31, 172, 360;

  on construction wages, 368;

  on economic expansion, 368;

  effects of war on economy, 359;

  on effluent fees, 288;

  on falling stock market, 365;

  on high-risk loan practices, 366;

  on Joh
nson’s fight for tax-cut bill, 36;

  on Johnson’s metals performance, 363;

  lack of knowledge of war costs, 363;

  and minimum wage increase, 428, 430;

  opposition to increased interest rates, 364;

  and price stability commission, 366–67;

  and surtax bill, 365, 366–67, 371, 372;

  Task Force on the Quality of the Environment, 294

  Adams, Ansel, 273

  Adams, Eddie, 475

  Adams, James R., 414

  Adams, John, 3

  Addonizio, Hugh, 464

  Adler, Renata, 234

  AFL-CIO: support for Javits bill, 162;

  support for Medicare, 163, 182;

  support for repeal of Section 14b of

  Taft-Hartley, 309, 310;

  support for Social Security Amendments, 432

  African Americans: family, 390;

  migration from rural South, 84, 85;

  militancy, 379;

  response to MLK assassination, 496–97;

  in urban ghettos, 85–86

  African Episcopal Church (Selma, Ala.), 218

  Agee, James: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, 84, 90

  Agnew, Spiro, 508

  Aiken, George, 239;

  concern about Vietnam War, 380;

  opposition to bombing of North Vietnam, 408–9

  Air pollution: coal and fuel oil, 292;

  exhaust emissions from diesel-powered vehicles, 291–92;

  exhaust emissions from gasoline-powered vehicles, 291;

  increasing public concern for, 294;

  in Los Angeles basin, 288—89;

  solid waste, 292;

  in U. S., 290

  Air Quality Act of 1967: conference report, 297;

  in House, 297;

  in Senate, 296–97;

  signing, 298

  Albert, Carl, 173, 200, 208, 375;

  and amendments to Fair Labor Standards Act, 429;

  on home rule for D.C., 314;