by Nancy Gibbs
Johnson, Graham said: Billy Graham, handwritten notes and an undated typewritten account, Special Name File: Billy Graham, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
“If so, any disclosures”: Charles D. Roche, memo to Lyndon B. Johnson, September 28, 1968, Presidential Papers: White House Famous Names File: Richard M. Nixon, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
“You know that Nixon is following”: Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger, 67.
“If the Government of North Vietnam”: R.W. Apple Jr., “Humphrey Vows Halt in Bombing if Hanoi Reacts,” New York Times, October 1, 1968.
The actual proposal: Clifford, Counsel to the President, 572.
“I think I’ve done it carefully here”: Perlstein, Nixonland, 345.
“I think that my position has to be”: Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Jim Jones, Walt Rostow, WH6809-04-13432-13433 (phone call), September 30, 1968, transcript and MP3 and FLAC audio, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://whitehousetapes.net/transcript/johnson/wh6809-04-13432-13433.
Liberal House Democrats: “Some Forward Motion for H.H.H.,” Nation, Time, October 11, 1968.
“‘You tell the President’”: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 580.
Soviet embassy officials in Paris: Clifford, Counsel to the President, 575.
“They just seem to have disappeared”: “Watching for the Peace Signals,” Nation, Time, October 25, 1968.
“I thought this a statesman’s view”: Ellsworth Bunker, report on meeting with Nguyen Van Thieu, November 10, 1968, Presidential Papers: National Security File, 1963–1969: Files of Walt W. Rostow, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
Humphrey, who was still in the doghouse: “Watching for the Peace Signals,” Time.
They agreed to tell reporters: Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Hubert H. Humphrey, George Wallace, WH6810-04-13547-13548 (phone call), October 16, 1968, transcript and MP3 and FLAC audio, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://whitehousetapes.net/transcript/johnson/wh6810-04-13547-13548.
“LBJ can be just as vindictive”: Safire, Before the Fall, 84.
It was vital that they know: Bryce Harlow, interview by Michael L. Gillette, May 6, 1979, transcript, Oral History Collection, LBJ Library.
Never mind: Anthony Summers, The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon (New York: Viking, 2000), 313.
He contacted Nixon aide Richard Allen: Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 130.
“It is not stretching the truth”: Ibid., 131.
Harlow, who had “a double agent”: Harlow, interview.
“White Housers still think”: Nixon, RN, 326.
“It’s just a question of timing”: Harlow, interview.
“Don’t talk in your office”: Summers, The Arrogance of Power, 300.
A warning came into the Johnson White House: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 584.
Eugene McCarthy finally came out: “Down to the Wire,” Nation, Time, November 8, 1968.
“Fewer men are fully clued into”: “Keeping the Secret,” Nation, Time, November 8, 1968.
When the White House got a crucial message: Clifford, Counsel to the President, 579; “Johnson’s Gamble for Peace” Time, November 8, 1968
“salvage the candidacy of Mr. Humphrey”: Statement from Richard M. Nixon, October 25, 1968, Presidential Papers: White House Famous Name File: Nixon, Richard, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
Rusk put it at nine and one: Tom Johnson, “Notes on President’s Meeting with Group of Foreign Policy Advisors,” October 27, 1968, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, vol. VII, Vietnam, September 1968–January 1969, ed. Kent Sieg, http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d129.
Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin: Walt W. Rostow, “Information Memorandum from the President’s Special Assistant (Rostow) to President Johnson,” October 28, 1968, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, vol. VII, Vietnam, September 1968–January 1969, ed. Kent Sieg, http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d138.
“A burnt child dreads fire”: Tom Johnson, “Notes of the President’s Meeting,” October 28, 1968, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, vol. VII, Vietnam, September 1968–January 1969, ed. Kent Sieg, http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d139.
“In his heart of hearts”: Clifford, Counsel to the President, 580.
General Abrams boarded a C-141 Starlifter: “A Halting Step Toward Peace,” World, Time, November 15, 1968.
“Yes, sir”: Tom Johnson, “Notes of the President’s Meeting,” October 29, 1968, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, vol. VII, Vietnam, September 1968–January 1969, ed. Kent Sieg, http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d140.
“Abrams has carried the ball”: Clifford, Counsel to the President, 586.
It’s “tough to be a candidate”: Johnson, “Notes of the President’s Meeting,” October 29, 1968.
“Where will Nixon be”: Robert Dallek, “Three New Revelations about LBJ,” Atlantic Monthly, April 1998.
“Thieu referred many times”: Central Intelligence Agency, “President Thieu’s Views Regarding the Issues Involved in Agreeing to a Bombing Halt,” memo to Walt W. Rostow and Dean Rusk, October 26, 1968, Presidential Papers: Reference File: South Vietnam and U.S. Policies, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
Nixon, in other words: Eugene V. Rostow, memo regarding Anna Chennault to Walt W. Rostow, October 29, 1968, Presidential Papers: Reference File: South Vietnam and U.S. Policies, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library. The South Vietnam and U.S. Policies file is sometimes referred to as the “X- File”; it contains a set of photocopied documents concerning Anna Chennault’s involvement in the October 1968 bombing halt. These documents were retained by Walt Rostow in a special file at President Johnson’s request because of their sensitivity. Most, but not all, have been declassified.
Johnson had ordered the FBI: Walt W. Rostow, “Memorandum for the Record,” May 14, 1973, Presidential Papers: Reference File: South Vietnam and U.S. Policies, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library; and Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger, 75. FBI officials would later deny they actually bugged Agnew’s plane.
If Saigon held out: National Security Agency, “Delays Improve South Vietnam’s Position,” cable to White House, October 28, 1968, Presidential Papers: Reference File: South Vietnam and U.S. Policies, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
“Follow her wherever”: Cartha D. “Deke” DeLoach, Hoover’s FBI: The Inside Story by Hoover’s Trusted Lieutenant (Washington, DC: Regnery, 1997), 397.
get a better deal out of Nixon: “Delays Improve South Vietnam’s Position,” October 28, 1968, memo from the Director of the National Security Agency to the White House, Reference File: South Vietnam and U.S. Policies, LBJ Library.
“Can you imagine what people would say”: Johnson, “Notes of the President’s Meeting,” October 29, 1968.
“They [Nixon’s allies] made Bui Diem think”: Clifford, Counsel to the President, 589.
“If they get out in their present form”: Walt W. Rostow, “Information Memorandum from the President’s Special Assistant (Rostow) to President Johnson,” October 29, 1968, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, vol. VII, Vietnam, September 1968–January 1969, ed. Kent Sieg, http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d145#fn1.
And Bunker was told to make it clear: Clifford, Counsel to the President, 590.
“We’ll back you up”: Transcript of telephone conversation between Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert H. Humphrey, Richard M. Nixon, and George Wallace, October 31, 1968, 6:05 P.M., Citation #13618, Recordings and Transcripts of Conversations and Meetings, LBJ Library.
Allen told Sy Hersh: Seymour M. Hersh, The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House (New York: Summit Books, 1983), 20.
“What we now expect”: “Johnson’s G
amble for Peace,” The Bombing Halt, Time, November 8, 1968.
He picked up: Summers, The Arrogance of Power, 301.
“Thieu has told me over and over again”: Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger, 74.
THE PEOPLE ARE UNITED: “A Halting Step Toward Peace.”
“‘He said please tell your boss’”: Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Message from Anna Chennault to Bui Diem,” November 2, 1968, Presidential Papers: Reference File: South Vietnam and U.S. Policies, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
“Thieu is convinced”: Ellsworth Bunker, cable to White House, November 2, 1968. Presidential Papers: National Security File, 1963–1969: Files of Walt W. Rostow, Country File: Vietnam, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
They had obtained the evidence: Clifford, Counsel to the President, 583.
“The moment we cross over that divide”: Robert T. Garrett, “LBJ Library Releases Last Set of Secret Recordings,” Dallas Morning News, December 5, 2008.
“And it’s a damn bad mistake”: Telephone conversation between Lyndon B. Johnson and Everett Dirksen, November 2, 1968, quoted in Johnson, “Did Nixon Commit Treason in 1968?”
“He says that Lyndon is simply enraged”: Harlow, interview.
“I’ll pass this word back to him”: Transcript of telephone conversation between Lyndon B. Johnson and George Smathers, November 3, 1968, 1:25 P.M., Citation #13709, Recordings and Transcripts of Conversations and Meetings, LBJ Library.
“It was partly in sheer relief”: “The Woman who Scared Nixon,” Sunday Times, March 2, 1969.
“The pattern of tapping”: Safire, Before the Fall, 90.
“It was all very, very confidential”: Summers, The Arrogance of Power, 299.
“It sure beats losing”: Safire, Before the Fall, 107.
Experiment over: “An Interregnum without Rancor,” Nation, Time, November 22, 1968.
“I will warn you now”: Nixon, RN, 357.
Chapter 12: “I Want to Go; God Take Me”
“You know Lady Bird and I”: Lyndon B. Johnson, telegram to Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 30, 1968, Presidential Papers: Special File: White House Famous Names (Folder “Eisenhower, Dwight D., 1968”), Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
It was “a pageant”: David Eisenhower, Going Home to Glory: A Memoir of Life with Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961–1969 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 250.
Established in 1946: Michael E. Ruane, “A Hospital’s Storied Halls,” Washington Post, January 15, 2006.
“I might even ask you to move over”: Lyndon B. Johnson to Dwight D. Eisenhower, June 27, 1968, Presidential Papers: Special File: White House Famous Names (Folder “Eisenhower, Dwight D., 1968”), Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
“Johnson seemed drawn to the man”: David Eisenhower, Going Home to Glory, 252.
Indeed, at the start of 1968: “People,” Time, January 19, 1968.
Walter Reed got offers from people: David Eisenhower, Going Home to Glory, 260.
“‘I want my child to have a normal life’”: Judith Martin, “Julie and David,” Washington Post, December 22, 1968.
“Who needs that kind of life?”: Interview with Luci Johnson, September 12, 2006.
“The girls paid”: David Eisenhower, Going Home to Glory, 210.
He and Mamie had set aside money: Ibid., 213.
By Thanksgiving in 1967: “Eisenhower’s Grandson to Wed a Nixon Daughter,” New York Times, December 1, 1967.
“The idea would have seemed too stagy”: “Love Ticket: David and Julie,” Nation, Time, September 27, 1968.
“In the realm of national politics”: R.W. Apple Jr., “Julie Nixon and David Eisenhower Pick Date and Place: Sunday, Dec. 22, Here,” New York Times, November 24, 1968.
The kids had given one another: Summers, The Arrogance of Power, 326.
Julie and her older sister, Tricia: “Bring the Girls,” Nation, Time, June 7, 1968.
David was actually a more loyal Nixon partisan: “People,” Time, July 5, 1968.
“His very presence”: “Love Ticket: David and Julie.”
As the December wedding approached: Charlotte Curtis, “Just What Julie Nixon Needs—Scouring Pads and a Cookbook,” New York Times, November 27, 1968.
Charles De Gaulle sent a Sèvres tea service: Martin, “Julie and David.”
But she wanted something more private: William E. Farrell, “750 Wait to Glimpse Wedding Party,” New York Times, December 23, 1968.
“It can be as much”: “Of Nixon Daughter,” Los Angeles Times, December 16, 1968.
“The Impossible Dream”: Charlotte Curtis, “When It’s Mr. and Mrs. Eisenhower, the First Dance Will Be ‘Edelweiss,’” New York Times, December 14, 1968.
At the end of November: Robert B. Semple Jr., “Nixons See Eisenhowers,” New York Times, November 29, 1968.
It was that Nixon consider appointing: Dwight D. Eisenhower to Richard M. Nixon, December 13, 1969, Presidential Papers: Special File: Post-Presidential, 1961–69 (Folder “Nixon, Richard M., 1968”), Eisenhower Library.
“Both!” he said: Safire, Before the Fall, 623.
One concession to biography: Charlotte Curtis, “Julie Nixon Wed to David Eisenhower,” New York Times, December 23, 1968.
Her sense of history guiding tradition: Nixon, RN, 361.
The funeral arrangements had been made: “Eisenhower: Soldier of Peace,” Nation, Time, April 4, 1969.
Nixon had the pocked boards pulled up: David Eisenhower, Going Home to Glory, 18.
Chapter 13: “I Want the Break-In”
“Chowder and Marching”: Hugh Sidey, “Richard Nixon: Fanfare for an Uncommon Man,” Nation, Time, May 9, 1994.
He reread every inaugural address: “Nixon’s Message: Let Us Gather the Light,” Nation, Time, January 24, 1969.
“Despite the fact that he had the reputation”: Bob Greene, Fraternity: A Journey in Search of Five Presidents (New York: Crown Publishers, 2004), 30.
And like Franklin: William Safire, Before the Fall: An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975), 103–4.
He was giving Nixon his first tour: Monica Crowley, Nixon Off the Record (New York: Random House, 1996), 17.
The second meeting: “An Interregnum without Rancor,” Nation, Time, November 22, 1968.
“He is a pillar of strength”: Richard M. Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1978), 358.
“Fast”: H.R. Haldeman and Joseph DiMona, The Ends of Power (New York: Times Books, 1978), 80–81.
“We’ll get that goddamn bugging crap”: Anthony Summers, The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon (New York: Viking, 2000), 315.
You could say that he was already acting: Haldeman and DiMona, The Ends of Power, 54.
“I want that Goddamn Gelb material”: Ibid., 219–20.
But not Charles Colson: Ibid., 5.
“a flag-waving, kick-’em-in-the-nuts”: Summers, The Arrogance of Power, 312.
“Need to be good to do good”: Richard Reeves, President Nixon: Alone in the White House (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 21.
“I believe you should keep your troubles”: Greene, Fraternity, 36.
His aide: Haldeman and DiMona, The Ends of Power, 26.
“No one”: Stephen E. Ambrose, Nixon, Vol. 1: The Education of a Politician 1913–1962 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987), 350.
Nixon sat at the piano: “The First Two Months: Between Brake and Accelerator,” Nation, Time, March 28, 1969.
It would be his job: Richard M. Nixon, “Executive Order 11456—Providing for a Special Assistant to the President for Liaison with Former Presidents,” National Archives, http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/11456.html.
“If [Schulz] does not check with you”: James Giglio, “Harry S. Truman and the Multifarious Ex-Presidency,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 12, no. 2 (1982).
“I supposed flattery has to be r
elated”: Safire, Before the Fall, 158.
“It feels good”: “L.B.J.: Hurting Good,” Nation, Time, January 31, 1969.
The library staff: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 363.
In August 1969: “The Politics of Reconciliation,” Nation, Time, September 5, 1969.
It was start to finish a Nixon production: H.R. Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1994), 82.
The photographers snapped pictures: “The Politics of Reconciliation,” Time.
“Is obviously completely absorbed”: Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries, 82.
“Thank you from the bottom of our hearts”: Richard M. Nixon, “Remarks at the Dedication of Lady Bird Johnson Grove in Redwood National Park in California,” August 27, 1969; The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=2213.
Haldeman, needless to say: Robert Dallek, Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 616.
“This nation can only have one”: “The New Burdens of War,” Nation, Time, May 11, 1970.
“I stand ready to help”: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 617.
“Because he was convinced”: Safire, Before the Fall, 664.
“For want of a toggle switch”: Haldeman and DiMona, The Ends of Power, 81.
“Rather than leaving the nation”: David S. Broder, “A Risky New American Sport: ‘The Breaking of the President,’” Washington Post, October 7, 1969.
It was the largest leak: Neil Sheehan, “Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U.S. Involvement,” New York Times, June 13, 1971.
“They’re gonna end up in a massive gut-fight”: Richard M. Nixon and Alexander Haig, 005-050 (phone call), June 13, 1971, transcript and MP3 audio, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://whitehousetapes.net/transcript/nixon/005-050.
“People have gotta be put to the torch”: Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger, 005-059 (phone call), June 13, 1971, transcript and MP3 audio, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://whitehousetapes.net/transcript/nixon/005-059.