Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson

by Robert A. Caro

  Johnson loaning Reedy, Cook, and Siegel: Reedy, Cook, Siegel OHs; Reedy interview. “I do not”: Manchester, American Caesar, p. 669. Lodge brought up: Time, May 14, 1951. What if Mao: Rovere and Schlesinger, pp. 238–40. “If we”: Manchester, p. 671. “That doesn’t”: Time, May 14, 1951. “Senator, I have asked you”: Rovere and Schlesinger, p. 241; Manchester, p. 671. “When General”: Time, May 14, 1951. “Among themselves”: Manchester, p. 670.

  A compliment: Fite, p. 259. “The civilian”; “flat”: Time, May 14, 1951. Marshall’s testimony: Life, May 21, 1951.

  “Quiet, unruffled”: White, Citadel, p. 246. “It is possible”: Rovere, “Letter from Washington,” The New Yorker, May 19, 1951.

  “I am asking”; “compliment”: Time, May 28, 1951. “Private”; “Frantic”; “iron”: Fite, pp. 260–61. “Every half”: Rovere, “Letter from Washington,” The New Yorker, May 19, 1951. “A careless”: Fite, p. 260; Reedy interview. “In doing so”; “Russell put”: Time, June 4, 1951.

  “One by one”: Manchester, American Caesar, p. 673. “The glamour”: Time, May 21, 1951.

  “Capitol corridors”: Time, June 11, 1951. “The dramatic”: Time, June 4, 1951. “Hey, Mac”: Manchester, American Caesar, p. 683. Only twenty thousand: Time, June 25, 1951.

  “Can only”: Goldsmith, Colleagues, p. 26. Essentially: Fite, pp. 262–64; Galloway, Legislative Process, pp. 156–57. “Without”; “at its best”: White, Citadel, pp. 251, 246. “Power and prestige”: Shaffer, On and Off the Floor, p. 208. “Firmness, fairness”: Life, March 24, 1952. Johnson had suggested: Reedy, U.S Senate, p. 14;Reedy interview. “Preeminent”: Reedy, p. 15. “George, please”: Reedy OH IV, p. 7. “By 1951”: Reedy OH IV, pp. 1, 2. “Russell has soberly”: “Washington Report—Staff,” “Politics,” p. 5, undated, signed Levison, MP.

  17. The “Nothing Job”

  “Without reference”; “Never before,” “unless I want to”: “simply”; Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, pp. 135–38. “I don’t ask”: Donovan, Tumultuous Years, p. 323. “Great debate:” Donovan, pp. 321–25; Josephy, Congress, pp. 379–80; Manchester, Glory and the Dream, pp. 556–58; Schlesinger, pp. 137–40. Eisenhower’s testimony: Manchester, p. 557. “What this foggy”: Galloway, Legislative Process, p. 173. “The effect”: “Has Congress Broken Down?” For-tune, Feb. 1952.

  Years of investigation: Robert Albright, W P, Oct. 21, 1951. “Scarcely got discussed”: Fortune, Feb. 1952. “Completed less”: WS, July 6, 1952. “Almost as many”: “Gallery Glimpses,” W P, May 18, 1952. “Congress is”: Fortune, Feb. 1952. “Many”; “Now that”: Galloway, Legislative Process, pp. 583, 581. Absenteeism worse: WP, June 1, 1952. Senators were remarking on it on the floor. On May 15, 1952, for example, Hubert Humphrey said, “This place looks like an apartment house which has just been vacated” (CR, 82/2, p. 5240). Medical facilities bill: W P, Oct. 21, 1950. “Never say die”: Pearson, WP, March 27, 1952.

  “Lies in”; “have delayed”: Galloway, Legislative Process, p. 583. “Would be cutting”: Monroney, quoted in Fortune, Feb. 1952. “The Senate”: Morse, CR, 82/2, p. 9080.

  “Blind rush”: Cordon, CR, 82/2, pp. 9253–54. A “relic”: Galloway, Legislative Process, p. 584. “The decay”; Twenty-nine countries; “obsolescence”: Galloway, pp. 584, 581.

  McFarland’s first press conference: Darby to Bermingham, Jan. 6, 1951, MP. “I just try”: W P, Dec. 3, 1950. “That’s all right”: Blair Moody, “A Reporter-Senator Reports on the Senate,” NYT Magazine, Aug. 5, 1951. “There are not”: White, Citadel, p. 106. “A nigra mayor”: “Has Congress Broken Down?” Fortune, Feb. 1952. “Simply ineffectual”; “no leader at all”: For example, Time, July 9, 1951. “We’ll be here”: WS, Aug. 22, 1951. First voice: Reedy interview. “Congress is taking”: W P, Sept. 30, 1951.

  “‘Lying Down Johnson’”: Pearson, W P, July 23, 1951.

  McFarland often: Bibolet, Cole, Easley, Reedy interviews.

  “Most people”; “Bobby didn’t”: McPherson OH II, pp. 14, 15. “True believers”: McPherson, Political Education, p. 25. “A great counter”: Rowe, Fortas, quoted in Caro, Path, p. 455. “What the fuck”; McCarran: Busby interview. And see Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 45. White House learned: Jenkins, Reedy interviews. May-bank’s appointment: Ben Bagdikian and Don Oberdorfer, “Bobby Was the Boy to See,” SEP, Dec. 3, 1963. In the drugstore; “homesick”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 22. “So”: “The Silent Witness,” Time, March 9, 1964. “Brought”; [learned]: Baker, pp. 29, 30. The other quotes from Baker are from pp. 32, 55, 34, 37. “Made the Senate”: SEP, Dec. 7, 1963. “Made it”: Evans Thomas, The Man to See, p. 182. “Fascinating”: Baker, p. 45. “Unabashed”: Time, March 9, 1964. “A bootlicker”: Thomas, p. 182. “He would”: Rowe, Bobby Baker Story, p. 19. “His voice”: Rowe, p. 19. “A son”: Evans and Novak, p. 68.

  “The men”: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 69. Truman had no confidence in Lucas’ counts: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 314. “No prying”; “where”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 38–39, 34. “Whenever”: Bibolet interview.

  Scheduling: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 318. “He wanted”: Bibolet interview. Persuaded Bridges; May 1 Calendar Call: CR, 82/2, pp. 4647–649. Word got around: Bibolet interview.

  Pairing: Henry H. Gilfry, Precedents-Decisions, Vol. II, pp. 188–89; Floyd M. Riddick, rev. and ed. Alan S. Frumin, Senate Procedure, pp. 968–70; Floyd M. Riddick, United States Congress, pp. 298–301; Alfred Steinberg, “Shepherds of Capitol Hill,” Nation’s Business, Jan. 1952, who wrote: “In a general pairing, both members are absent. But in a live pair, which is a gentleman’s agreement between whips, a member of one party promises not to vote on a bill even though he will be present, but to permit himself to be paired off with an absent member of the other party who would have voted the opposite to him”; Baker, Ritchie interviews. “A voluntary”: Riddick, Senate Procedure, pp. 777–78. “When accused”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 55. Not “strategic”: Bibolet interview. Skeeter might forget: Bibolet, Reedy interviews.

  Maneuvering over foreign aid: “Slicing the Bundle,” Newsweek, June 9, 1952; Bibolet interview. “We’ve already”: NYHT, May 29, 1952. “Unless”: NYT, June 1, 1952. “Heavy absenteeism”: NYHT, May 28, 1952. “Sensing”: Newsweek, June 9, 1952. “Nothing less”: NYT, May 29, 1952. “Then you”: NYT, May 27, 1952. Russell’s efforts: WP, Oct. 21, 1952. Johnson’s maneuvering; “If Magnuson”: Bibolet interview. Statements before the vote: CR, 82/2, p. 6098. “I am”: NYHT, May 29. Welker-McCarthy exchange: Newsweek, June 9, 1952. “By adroit”: WP, June 1, 1952.

  “I do understand”: McPherson, p. 450.

  Betrayal of Rayburn: Caro, Path, Chapter 30. Exclusion: Caro, pp. 754–57. On his first day back: Caro, pp. 757–63. Calling twenty: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 409. “I don’t”: Bolling interview. “The Chair”: Hardeman and Bacon, Rayburn, p. 342.

  Jenkins’ assignment: Jenkins, Reedy interviews. “Tell Lyndon”: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 281. “I’ve got”: Rowe interview. “Every time”; “Beloved”: Bolling interview. “In that room”; descriptions of Johnson-Rayburn relationship, Harding and of the Board of Education: Caro, Path, Chapters 18, 30, 36; Bolling, Connally, Corcoran, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Dulaney, Hardeman, Holton, Izac, Mahon, McFarlane, Miller, Oltorf, Rayden, Elizabeth Rowe, James H. Rowe interviews. “It was never”: Oltorf interview. “Deferential”: Hardeman interview.

  “Lyndon couldn’t”; “that was”; “vaulting”: Bolling interview. “He understood”: Ramsey Clark interview.

  “Our … problem”: Anderson to Johnson, June 12; Johnson to Anderson, June 16, 1958, “Papers of the Democratic Leader,” Box 365, JSP. “You put”: Nichols to Johnson, April 30, 1956, Masters, Box 56, JSP. “I want”: Johnson to Ellender, March 28, 1958, Box 366, JSP.

  “These $200 droplets”: Johnson to Rayburn, Oct. 10, 1942, Box 52, LBJA CF. “We didn’t know”: Brown interview.

  Wild’s testimony: “In the United States Dis
trict Court for the District of Columbia,” Securities and Exchange Commission vs. Gulf Oil Corporation, Claude C. Wild Jr., Civil Action No. 75–0324, April 26, 1978, pp. 8, 9, 28. “Hundreds”; “envelopes”: Wild interview.

  Not the largest: Clark, Connally, Corcoran interviews. Also Herring, Hopkins, Jenkins, Herman Jones, Kilgore, Lucas, Miller, Oltorf, Rowe, Stehling, Woods, Woodward, Young interviews. “I handled”: Connally interview. “I knew”: Clark interview.

  “I have”: “Resumé of telephone conversations—George Brown,” Jan. 5, 1960, SPF, “WJ Special,” Box 262, JSP. “Ed Clark tells me”: Jenkins to Woodward, Jan. 11, 1960, SPF, “WJ Special,” Box 262, JSP. “How could”: Clark interview. “All we knew”: Corcoran interview. “I’d go get it”: Connally interview. Unions’ cash: Corcoran, Hopkins, Rowe, Young interviews. “Because”; neither … trusted”; other Clark, Wild quotes: Clark, Wild interviews. And in his own book, Baker says that Wild “once told” Senator Kerr “that I had a bad reputation and was a crook.” (Baker recounts that he protested to Kerr that “I’ve never had a nickel’s worth of dealings with the man,” and Kerr then said, “Well, maybe you and Claude ought to get to know each other a little better. He’s got $5,000 that Gulf Oil wants to deliver to [a senator], and I want you to go with him to make the delivery.” Baker says, “I did so,” and he and Wild “walked together to the Old Senate Office Building, where he surrendered the cash” to the senator.) (Baker, with King, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 113) When Connally was asked to whom the money was handed, he refused to reply. “Official bagman”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 51. Baker’s conviction: NYT, WP, Jan. 30, 1967. An account of Baker’s trial is in Thomas, The Man to See, pp. 182, 184, 214–224. “He has $500”: Roberts to Connally, Aug. 14, Box 59, JSP.

  “Asked me”: Kilgore interview. “I personally carried”: Mooney, LBJ, pp. 127–28.

  “Never enough”; “How much”: Clark, Wild interviews. The Davis contributions: Clark interview. “We called them”: Connally interview. He said he would make up different lists for different amounts that Johnson wanted to raise: “If he needed fifty thousand, I’d give him ten people who would give him five thousand each, if he reminded them what he had done for them. If he needed a hundred (thousand) …” The only list the author could find in the Johnson Library, however, dealt with smaller amounts, ranging from $2,500 down to $500. (“Dear Lyndon, Enclosed is the list…. Regards, John. p.s. Keep my comments on these people confidential”; Connally to Johnson, undated but found in Box 63, Senate Political Files for 1956.) The quotations are all from that list. “Let me see”: “Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Dudley Doughty, Beeville, Jan. 25, 1960,” SPF, “WJ Special,” Box 262, JSP.

  Two Convention incidents: Mooney, LBJ p. 134; Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 85–86.

  $5,000 to Bridges: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 86. Blakeley contribution: Kilgore interview.

  Clements contribution: Clark interview. “We can’t”: D. W. Gilmore to Johnson, undated, SPF, Box 173. “I gave him”: Brown, quoted in Selig Harrison, “Lyndon Johnson’s World,” New Republic, June 13, 1960. “Well, I remember”: Symington interview. Ten thousand; “‘Well, I’ve got’”: Stehling interview. “Roosevelt would”: Clark interview.

  Byrd funeral: Busby interview.

  “You know”; “made it”: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 347. With Taft: Steinberg, pp. 347–48. Steinberg says Johnson used this tactic after Taft became Majority Leader in January 1953, but others say it started in 1951 and 1952. Wherry died in November, 1951. Johnson had Baker: Reedy interview.

  “Sometimes”: Symington interview. “He frequently”: Smathers OH. “Schoolteacher habit”: Busby interview. “People like”: Woodward interview.

  “I like to”: “The Humor of LBJ—25th Anniversary” audiocassette, LBJL. “genius for”: Evans and Novak, p. 104.

  18. The Johnson Ranch

  General description of the ranch, its history, and the Johnsons’ life on it: from Newlon, LBJ; Reedy, LBJ; Smith, President’s Lady; Montgomery, Mrs. LBJ; Russell, Lady Bird; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy; Bearss, Historic Resource Study; Dugger, Politician; Bill Davidson, “Texas Political Powerhouse,” Look, Aug. 4, 1959; Flora Rheta Schreiber, “Lady Bird from Texas,” Family Weekly, Sept. 10, 1961; Robert B. Semple, Jr., “The White House on the Pedernales,” NYT, Oct. 3, 1965; Tom Wicker, “LBJ—Down on the Farm,” Esquire, Oct. 1964.

  Also from Kowert, “Johnson Finds Escape from Senate Worries,” SAE, Sept. 12, 1954; unidentified clipping, “Lyndon Johnsons Improve Farm on Pedernales River,” December 1951, LBJA Sen F, Box 2016; “The LBJ Ranch,” “Interpretive Training” (post-Pres), LBJ National Historic Site, LN-1; The Home Place, LBJ Ranch, “Reference File,” LBJL; The Hill Country: Lyndon Johnson’s Texas transcript, NBC-TV, May 9, 1966, “Reference File,” LBJL. “A President’s Legacy,” Southern Accents Magazine, Summer 1983.

  Also from oral histories of Reedy, Evie Symington, and Stuart Symington, and interviews with Busby, Burg, Ed Clark, Cox, Jenkins, SHJ, Lindig, Mayer, Rather, Reedy, Stehling, Tiff.

  The original Johnson Ranch and original Johnson brothers: Caro, Path, Chapter 1. Sam paying too much, going broke: Caro, Chapter 6.

  Martin’s relationship with Sam Ealy Jr.: Dugger, pp. 68–69; SHJ, Cox interviews. Feeling that: Dugger, p. 81; SHJ interview. “The big house”: Cox interview. Looking for a buyer: Dugger, p. 356; Russell, Lady Bird, p. 161.

  “A haunted house”: “Addams Cartoon,” Southern Accents, Summer 1983; WS, July 19, 1960. “Oh, my Lord”; “appalled”: Evie Symington, quoted in Montgomery, p. 44. Visit with Symington: Symington interview, OH. “To my horror”: AA-S, Jan. 20, 1965. “How could you”: Lady Bird Johnson, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 161. “You’re not”: WS, July 19, 1960. Purchased the ranch: Russell, p. 161; Montgomery, p. 207; NYT, Dec. 26, 1966.

  Sam Johnson as legislator: Caro, Path, Chapters 3, 5, 6. Lyndon Johnson’s selling of airtime for influence: Caro, Means, Chapter 6. $3,000 per week: In 1951, KTBC had revenues of $345,115 and expenses of $212,400, leaving a profit for the year of $132,715. That did not include $13,210 written off for depreciation. Mrs. Johnson took a salary for that year of $23,000 and interest of $4,800 on $80,000 in KTBC debentures that she held. At the end of 1951, the station had assets of $439,310, of which $133,465 was in cash (1951, “Financial Reports—FCC General Correspondence [KTBC], FCC Records, RG 173, NA). Television profits: This topic will be dealt with in detail in Volume IV.

  “Used to run dry”: Johnson, quoted in Dugger, p. 86. Building the dam: Burg, Lindig, Tiff interviews; DT-H, Aug. 26, 1953. “The first thing”: Lady Bird, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 419.

  Building up the soil: Lindig, Tiff interviews.

  “Spiritual home”: Lady Bird Johnson, quoted in Smith, President’s Lady, pp. 45–46. “Horror turned”: Lady Bird Johnson, quoted in AA-S, Jan. 1, 1965.

  “Only one picture”: Lady Bird Johnson interview; she said it in writing, in tour, p. 2, “There is only one picture in the room—our dear friend, Speaker Rayburn.” Scratching “Welcome”: Burg interview. “When it wasn’t much”: Symington OH.

  1952 storm: Russell, Lady Bird, pp. 161–63; Lady Bird Johnson interview. “Lucy and I”: Russell, p. 162; Burg, Cox interviews. Contacted Stehling: Stehling interview. When Lady Bird came to the door, she said to Stehling: “Dr. Livingston, I presume.” “Just where”: Burg, Stehling interviews. “The only time”: Lucy, quoted in Russell, pp. 161–62.

  “Every man”: DT-H, Aug. 26, 1953. “All my life”; “lonesome”: “The Hill Country: Lyndon Johnson’s Tapes,” NBC-TV, May 1966, transcript.

  “Haven’t thought”: DT-H, Aug. 26, 1953. “Best people”: SAE, Sept. 12, 1954. Wicker portrait: Wicker, “LBJ—Down on the Farm,” Esquire, Oct. 1964.

  The gully: Caro, Path, pp. 87–88. Filling it in: Cox, SHJ, Lindig interviews; Robert B. Semple Jr., “The White House on the Pedernales,” NYT, Oct. 3, 1965. “Fixation”: Lindi
g interview.

  Portrayed her life: Rebekah Johnson, A Family Album, pp. 25–26, 28–32. Her life is described in Caro, Path, Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7. Sam’s funeral: Caro, pp. 542–43. What she did: RJB, SHJ interviews. Had been rented: Lyndon Johnson to Rebekah Baines Johnson, Jan. 15, 1938. “There is”: LBJ to J. Frank Kendall, March 30, 1938—both from “Family Correspondence, Johnson, Mrs. Sam E., Dec. 1929-Dec. 1939,” Box 1, Family Correspondence. She never did: RJB, SHJ interviews. The author has not been able to determine if that is literally true, but the first lease she gave on the house, to Ross B. Jenkins and his family, was from Jan. 1, 1938, to Dec. 31, 1940. Mrs. Betty Prehn lived in the house “from 1943 until 1947,” according to the Historic Resource Study made for the Department of the Interior. “Oscar Foss rented” the house from Mrs. Johnson “in 1949–1951.” And it was in 1951 that Aunt Frank took possession of the house. The author has not been able to determine who lived in the house during the years not covered by these leases; during at least part of them, Lyndon’s sister Josefa lived there. Blanco County Deed Book, 53, pp. 326–27; Book 55, pp. 407–08, cited in Bearss, pp. 136–37. During those years, Mrs. Johnson rented various apartments in Austin. Died intestate: Bearss, p. 137. Relinquished; Lyndon bought: Blanco County Deed Book, 53, pp. 326, 327; Deed Book, 55, pp. 407–408, quoted in Bearss, p. 137.

  “I have been”: RBJ to LBJ, July 24, 1951. “Courage”: RBJ to LBJ, May 29, 1952, “Family Correspondence, Johnson, Mrs. Sam E., March, 1950-August, 1958,” Box 1, Family Correspondence. Written by staff: Busby, Jenkins, Latimer interviews. “He used”: Latimer interview. “Next Sunday”: Henderson to LBJ, May 12, 1939. “She was”; “would case”; “I liked”: “The First Lady Talks About Her Mother-in-Law,” McCalls, Dec. 1965. “If I had”: Lady Bird Johnson, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, pp. 13, 14. Visitors: Among those who noticed this were Corcoran and Rowe.