by Nancy Gibbs
“We just cannot now dishonor our word”: “The Press Conference,” Nation, Time, August 6, 1965.
He had never made a unilateral military commitment: Max Frankel, “Eisenhower Denies Pledge to Saigon,” New York Times, August 18, 1965.
He had refused to provide fighter planes: “Dwight David Eisenhower: A Leader in War and Peace,” New York Times, March 29, 1969.
“Military Pledge to Saigon Is Denied by Eisenhower”: New York Times, August 18, 1965.
“Indeed the whole effort”: “The Eisenhower Demurrer,” New York Times, August 19, 1965.
“They want to get us in a fight”: Transcript of telephone conversation between Lyndon B. Johnson and Dwight D. Eisenhower, August 18, 1965, 6:15 P.M., Citation #8555, Recordings and Transcripts of Conversations and Meetings, LBJ Library.
“Next to the operations in Vietnam”: McGeorge Bundy to Andrew J. Goodpaster, August 19, 1965, Presidential Papers: National Security File, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
The Churchill letter asserted: Eisenhower to Churchill, April 4, 1954, copy included in Bundy memo to Goodpaster, August 19, 1965, LBJ Library.
“Patriot, soldier, President”: Johnson to Eisenhower, August 19, 1965, Presidential Papers: National Security File, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
Eisenhower assured Goodpaster: Goodpaster memo for the record, August 20, 1965, Presidential Papers: National Security File (Country File: Vietnam), Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
And at a time of crisis: David S. Broder, “Eisenhower Backs Stand on Vietnam,” New York Times, August 20, 1965.
He promised that the Republicans: John W. Finney, “Johnson Asks ‘Unified Support’ in Meeting at State Department,” New York Times, August 20, 1965.
Ike declined to endorse the Republican: “The One-Two Punch,” Foreign Relations, Time, September 3, 1965.
Johnson called him: “Greyer, Graver—and Growing,” The Presidency, Time, September 3, 1965.
The talks with Johnson would be very warm: Eisenhower, Going Home to Glory, 166.
And he tore up the pages: William Bragg Ewald, Eisenhower the President: Crucial Days, 1951–1960 (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1981), 28.
But when the year came to an end: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 340.
The chairman of the Federal Reserve: Perlstein, Nixonland, 181.
“I frankly am lukewarm”: Ibid., 205.
Johnson wasn’t just looking: David Eisenhower, Going Home to Glory, 204.
“And he said it was like drinking”: Jack Valenti, interview by author, June 16, 2005.
“God had set out to torture him”: Goodwin, interview by author, September 26, 2006; Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, 342.
“He had no hobbies or interests outside of politics”: David Eisenhower, Going Home to Glory, 304.
“I wish I had some of that quality”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, 349.
“I don’t believe it’s possible”: “The War Pinch,” Time, January 14, 1966.
Johnson’s popularity sank: “No Cure in Consensus,” The Presidency, Time, June 10, 1966.
“Lee Harvey Oswald”: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 452.
Half the country didn’t know: Ibid., 462.
And then there was the March: Ibid., 487.
The White House watched in growing frustration: Max Frankel, “Six Different Views on How to End the War in Vietnam,” New York Times, October 29, 1967.
Advisor James Rowe warned: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 468.
The task of taking on the protesters: Joseph G. Morgan, The Vietnam Lobby: The American Friends of Vietnam, 1955–1975 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 132.
Roche was a classic Cold War liberal: Wolfgang Saxon, “John P. Roche, 70, Scholar and Counselor to Presidents,” New York Times, May 7, 1994.
“I will argue to my dying day”: John P. Roche, “Ten Years After Vietnam,” National Review 37 (May 31, 1985), quoted in William F. Buckley, Happy Days Were Here Again: Reflections of a Libertarian Journalist (New York: Basic Books, 2008), 194.
When Johnson was desperate for allies: Morgan, The Vietnam Lobby.
He even promised squads: Perlstein, Nixonland, 207.
“the majority voice of America is heard”: “Voice from the Silent Center,” Time, November 3, 1967.
“Despite your implication”: Peter Grose, “Public Figures Warn on Impatience in Peace Talks,” New York Times, May 24, 1968.
“‘Why, I’d just go ahead and smack them’”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, 349.
“That’s one of the few things”: Tom Wicker, “In the Nation: Eisenhower Rides Again,” New York Times, December 28, 1967.
Peace candidate Eugene McCarthy: Perlstein, Nixonland, 232.
Chapter 10: “You’ll Have My Promise—I’ll Speak No Evil”
“‘Just sit tight in the buggy’”: Richard M. Nixon to Ronald Reagan, June 9, 1966, Reagan Personal Collection, Ronald Reagan Library.
“Reagan would make a particularly good witness”: Richard M. Nixon to Herman L. Perry, June 17, 1947, Herman L. & Hubert C. Perry Collection, Richard M. Nixon Library.
And so the Nixon-Reagan partnership: transcript of Committee On Un-American Activities hearing, October 20–30, 1947, National Archives.
In a brief postscript: Richard M. Nixon to Ronald Reagan, June 18, 1959, National Archives Pacific Region, Laguna Niguel.
“As a matter of fact”: Ronald Reagan to Richard M. Nixon, June 27, 1959, National Archives Pacific Region, Laguna Niguel.
“Those of us who have spent”: Richard M. Nixon to Ronald Reagan, July 6, 1959, National Archives Pacific Region, Laguna Niguel.
Nixon was helping to launch: Hedda Hopper, “Peter Palmer Seen on ‘Li’l Abner’ Set,” Los Angeles Times, July 8, 1959.
Nixon replied overnight: Ronald Reagan to Richard M. Nixon, September 7, 1959, National Archives Pacific Region, Laguna Niguel.
But Nixon begged off: Ronald Reagan to Richard M. Nixon, December 11, 1959, National Archives Pacific Region, Laguna Niguel.
Nixon sent Reagan: Ronald Reagan to Richard M. Nixon, July 15, 1960, Richard Nixon Pre-Presidential Materials, Richard M. Nixon Library.
A second scribbled note: Ronald Reagan to Richard M. Nixon, July 23, 1960, National Archives Pacific Region, Laguna Niguel.
“This is no longer the Democratic Party”: “40 Section Chairmen for Nixon Drive Named,” The Watchman, Los Angeles Times, October 2, 1960.
“He tried to persuade me”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 135.
“I signed it and became a Republican”: Ibid., 132.
“He was only 49”: “California: Career’s End,” Nation, Time, November 16, 1962.
“CBS canceled the show”: Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power (New York: Public Affairs, 2003), 113.
“I am sure that no one can beat Brown”: Richard M. Nixon to Ronald Reagan, November 28, 1966, Richard Nixon Pre-Presidential Materials, Richard M. Nixon Library.
“I’ll speak no evil”: Ronald Reagan to Richard M. Nixon, May 7, 1965, Richard Nixon Pre-Presidential Materials, Richard M. Nixon Library.
Reagan made sure of that: Daryl E. Lembke, “Reagan May Shun Nixon, Goldwater,” Los Angeles Times, January 26, 1966.
“He said a lot of things that Barry said”: Stuart Spencer, interview by Paul B. Freedman, Stephen F. Knott, Russell L. Riley, and James Sterling Young, November 15–16, 2001, transcript, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia.
Elite opinion makers on the East Coast: Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (New York: Scribner, 2008), 92.
“The only thing I know about his politics”: Dwight D. Eisenhower to Jim Murphy, September 8, 1965, Eisenhower Post-Presidential Papers, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library.
“Our party deserves to have a voice”: Robert J. Donovan, “Eisenhower Endorses Reagan, Talks o
f Candidate’s Future,” Los Angeles Times, June 16, 1966.
George Murphy (also a former actor), to coach Reagan: Perlstein, Nixonland, 93.
“That’s as far as my dreams go”: Ibid.
“Any member of the society”: Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan, 153.
“You might have some thoughts on this”: Freeman Gosden to Dwight D. Eisenhower, July 7, 1966, Eisenhower Post-Presidential Papers, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library.
“‘There are not minority groups’”: Dwight D. Eisenhower to Freeman Gosden, July 11, 1966, Eisenhower Post-Presidential Papers, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library.
“He is a decent American”: Dwight D. Eisenhower to Mrs. Edwin C. Hilson, Office of President Reagan, Ronald Reagan Library.
It’s no secret I deplore racism”: Richard Bergholz, “Cranston Confronts Reagan at Airport on Birch Society Issue,” Los Angeles Times, August 2, 1966.
“The old man told me to do it”: Pat Buchanan, interview by author, January 14, 2011.
Then the whole Nixon party: William Safire, Before the Fall: An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975), 941.
Dick: Richard M. Nixon to Ronald Reagan, November 28, 1966, Reagan Personal collection, Richard M. Nixon Library.
According to Lou Cannon’s definitive account: Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan, 258.
Reed personally briefed Reagan: Robert Novak, The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington (New York: Crown Forum, 2007), 166.
“Reagan was not a candidate”: Ibid.
Stuart Spencer recalled: Spencer, interview.
“Equally dangerous would be a serious intraparty split”: Richard M. Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1978), 304.
But Reagan was enough of a concern: Safire, Before the Fall, 43–44.
Dick: Richard M. Nixon to Ronald Reagan, February 24, 1967, Richard Nixon Pre-Presidential Materials, Richard M. Nixon Library.
“That was part of his idea”: John Sears, interview by author, October 22, 2010.
In late April 1967: “Sam Pan,” Nation, Time, May 5, 1967.
“Who the fuck got me into this”: Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan, 260.
It was a boffo performance: “Welcome to the Fraternity,” Nation, Time, May 19, 1967.
Dick: Richard M. Nixon to Ronald Reagan, May 31, 1967, Richard Nixon Pre-Presidential Materials, Richard M. Nixon Library.
“We want Reagan”: “Omaha Handshake,” Republicans, Time, June 30, 1967.
“But that isn’t going to happen”: “Waiting Game,” Republicans, Time, July 7, 1967.
“Any guy who can lose to Pat Brown”: Ibid.
“I am sorry that at a time”: “Polls & Portents,” Political Notes, Time, July 21, 1967.
Ron: Ronald Reagan to Richard M. Nixon, July 12, 1967, Richard Nixon Pre-Presidential Materials, Richard M. Nixon Library.
Dick: Richard M. Nixon to Ronald Reagan, July 18, 1967, Richard Nixon Pre-Presidential Materials, Richard M. Nixon Library.
It was something of a clubhouse: Stephen E. Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier and President (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 248.
Echoing many of their previous conversations: Nixon, RN, 286.
Reagan also told Nixon: Ibid.
Reagan historian James Mann: James Mann, The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War (New York: Viking, 2009), 10.
“Let Ronnie have the kooks”: Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, “Nixon’s New Strategy Is: ‘Let Ronnie Have Kooks,’” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 25, 1967.
Dick: Richard M. Nixon to Ronald Reagan, August 4, 1967, Richard Nixon Pre-Presidential Materials, Richard M. Nixon Library.
Ron: Ronald Reagan to Richard M. Nixon, August 16, 1967, Richard Nixon Pre-Presidential Materials, Richard M. Nixon Library.
“For those of you who don’t know”: “Reagan’s Road Show,” Republicans, Time, October 13, 1967.
Reagan campaigned in Oregon: “Chubbmanship,” Nation, Time, December 15, 1967.
“It can’t be his first World Series”: “Anchors Aweigh,” Republicans, Time, October 20, 1967.
“The only one who can stop us”: Safire, Before the Fall, 47.
Dick: Richard M. Nixon to Ronald Reagan, April 4, 1968, Richard Nixon Pre-Presidential Materials, Richard M. Nixon Library.
Ron: Ronald Reagan to Richard M. Nixon, April 10, 1968, Richard Nixon Pre-Presidential Materials, Richard M. Nixon Library.
(CBS declined): “Nixon’s Steppingstones, Reagan’s TV Show,” Republicans, Time, May 24, 1968.
He recalled later that Reagan flew Southern delegates: Nixon, RN, 309.
“I am a candidate”: Novak, The Prince of Darkness, 167.
This was a strange last-minute maneuver: Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan, 163–64.
“Rockefeller worked on the northern”: Nixon, RN, 309.
And when he finally got the floor: Ibid., 311.
“Establishment forbids a Nixon presidency”: Richard Whalen, Catch a Falling Flag: A Republican’s Challenge to His Party (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972), 178.
“He didn’t want to go through that”: Author interview with John Sears, October 22, 2010.
Years later, Nixon pointedly recalled: Nixon, RN, 311.
“I knew I wasn’t ready to be president”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life, 178.
“Anyway, we’ll work our heads off”: Ronald Reagan to Mr. and Mrs. Elwood Wagner, September 3, 1968, Lorraine Wagner Letter Collection at the Reagan Ranch, Young America’s Foundation.
Johnson and Nixon: Two Scorpions in a Bottle
At issue was the Vietnam War: David S. Broder, “A Risky New American Sport: ‘The Breaking of the President,’” Washington Post, October 7, 1969.
Chapter 11: “This Is Treason”
“I never shared the intense dislike”: Lyndon B. Johnson, The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963–1969 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), 547.
“Nothing will happen”: William Safire, Before the Fall: An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975), 84.
He may have spent the years: Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (New York: Scribner, 2008), 65.
Bookies put the odds: Ibid., 17.
Then he got up: Bob Greene, Fraternity: A Journey in Search of Five Presidents (New York: Crown Publishers, 2004), 66; and Richard M. Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1978), 272–73.
“It took someone with the eye of a hawk”: Perlstein, Nixonland, 138.
“Is this a quest for peace”: Nixon, RN, 273.
Nixon gigged Johnson: Perlstein, Nixonland, 528.
Ike urged him: Dwight D. Eisenhower to Richard M. Nixon, October 21, 1966, Post-Presidential Papers: Special Names Series, Dwight D. Eisenhower Papers, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library.
He managed to persuade the New York Times: Safire, Before the Fall, 37–38.
“You remember what President Eisenhower said”: “Operation Withdrawal,” The Campaign, Time, November 11, 1966.
“Nixon had gotten his goat”: Safire, Before the Fall, 46.
“Jesus, did he hit us”: Ibid., 39.
“In the space of a single autumn day”: Perlstein, Nixonland, 163.
“I suddenly found myself”: Nixon, RN, 276.
“my respect has not changed”: Ibid.
“Lyndon Johnson knows who won”: Richard H. Amberg, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 3–4, 1966, quoted in Andrew L. Johns, “A Voice from the Wilderness: Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War, 1964–1966,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 29, no. 2 (June 1999).
“Nixon was the most vulnerable”: Safire, Before the Fall, 47.
General Creighton Abrams: “Assessing the Bombing,” World, Time, September 13, 1968.
Clifford traveled to Saigon: Clark Clifford, Counsel to the President: A Memoir (New York: Random House, 1991), 551.
“Th
e enemy will wait for the next man”: Jules Witcover, The Resurrection of Richard Nixon (New York: Putnam, 1970), 293.
To have any chance of winning: Perlstein, Nixonland, 267.
He called Humphrey “weak”: Robert Dallek, Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 576.
“L.B.J. seems at the moment”: “What Should Humphrey Do?” Nation, Time, September 27, 1968.
“His anger at Humphrey”: Clifford, Counsel to the President, 563.
“When he gets the nomination”: Ibid.
“I was as appalled as the President”: Ibid.
“I just plain don’t know”: Robert “KC” Johnson, “Did Nixon Commit Treason in 1968? What the New LBJ Tapes Reveal,” History News Network, January 26, 2009, http://hnn.us/articles/60446.html.
“If there’s peace”: Safire, Before the Fall, 58.
The Chinese-born widow: Bui Diem with David Chanoff, In the Jaws of History (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987), 236–37.
On July 12: Robert Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 75.
He promised to make Vietnam: Nguyen Tien Hung and Jerrold L. Schecter, The Palace File (New York: Harper & Row, 1986), 23.
He had laid the groundwork: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 575.
“He always does”: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 351.
Protesters held an “un-birthday party”: James Reston Jr., The Lone Star: The Life of John Connally (New York: Harper & Row, 1989), 366.
By the night of Humphrey’s nomination: “Dementia in the Second City,” Nation, Time, September 6, 1968.
“Not for a bunch of goddamn draft dodgers”: Johnson, “Did Nixon Commit Treason in 1968?”
This was not like an FDR coalition: Safire, Before the Fall, 62.
“It was one of the few times”: Bob Faiss, memo to James R. Jones, September 10, 1968, Presidential Papers: Special Files: White House Famous Names: Billy Graham, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
He even took the paper from Graham: Billy Graham, notes of meeting with Lyndon B. Johnson concerning Nixon’s secret overture to Johnson, Special Name File: Billy Graham, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.