“By the summer”: Graham, Personal History, p. 240. “I knew”: Graham interview. “So Phil”: Graham, p. 241. Sleeping on couch: Graham, Reedy interviews. “From the point”: Graham, p. 241. “You could see”: Reedy interview. Confirmed by Rauh interview.
“In those days”: Wilkins, pp. 243–44. “If”: Humphrey, quoted in Wilkins, p. 246. Leadership conference meeting: Wilkins, pp. 245–46. “Reedy’s note”: Reedy to Johnson, Aug. 7, Box 420, JSP. “All day long”: Rauh OH. “If I had”: Wilkins, p. 246. “Disappointing as: CR, 85/1, pp. 13852–853. See also “To: Executive Staff, From: Secretary,” Aug. 7, NAACP Papers, Box III, A 71, LC. “The 16”; “Give it a try”: WP, Aug. 8. Lyndon Johnson wrote Philip Graham on that date: “You stepped into the breach at the critical hour. That is something that I will never forget, and I wish there was some way of telling the country that your contribution to an effective, enforceable bill was decisive.”
“The strangest call”: Philip Graham, quoted by Rauh, OH and interview. “Joe understood”: “Katharine Graham—Joe Rauh memorial—September 27, 1992.” A few other sentences from that eulogy: “Joe never changed from the time Phil and I first knew him and Olie over fifty years ago, to the moment of his death…. Joe always lived his beliefs more than anyone in our whole generation, or anyone I know…. He never lost his faith in the ultimate victory of liberal values. He never gave up the fight.” Unless: NYHT, NYT, Aug. 11. “Infinitely better”: NYT, Aug. 14. “Asked how”: NYT, Aug. 13. “A monstrosity”: Minnich, “Supplementary Notes,” Aug. 6, LMS, Box 4, DDEL. “Spoke at length”; “The Vice President”: Minnich, “Supplementary Notes,” Aug. 13, LMS, Box 4, DDEL. Rayburn’s wishes; House compromise: Baltimore Sun, Aug. 10; NYT, Aug. 23; Bolling, Rogers interviews; Ambrose, pp. 412, 413.
More than a few: Byrd said, “I can’t conceive that the Senate would agree to that [compromise]. I stand on the principle that where there is a criminal action involved, the federal judge should not have the right to deny a jury trial” (WP, Aug. 23). Talmadge said, without a jury trial, “a judge would have to prejudge a case without evidence” (W P, Sept. 23). Olin Johnston said, “The cornerstone of human liberty is being shattered” by “the House measure” (HP, Aug. 29). Sam Ervin said, “The compromise leaves the question of whether a defendant shall have a jury trial dependent on ‘the discretion and caprice’ of man rather than on law” (HP, Aug. 29). Russell countering Thurmond: Cohodas, Strom Thurmond, p. 294. “I can assure”: Robertson to Davis, Aug. 28, Drawer 45, AWRP, College of William and Mary.
Thurmond’s filibuster: CR, 85/1, pp. 16263–456; Cohodas, pp. 294–97. “They felt”: White, NYT, Aug. 30. “Oh, God”: Reedy OH III, p. 20. “Rumblings”: Bates, “Political Notebook,” AC, Aug. 30, X. Civil Rights Material, Winder, RBRL. “Nothing to gain: AC, Aug. 31, quoted in Cohodas, p. 298. “Adamant”: Cohodas, p. 299.
“I’d like to come”; “this message”: Taylor to Johnson, with Mary Rather’s note to Taylor written on it, Aug. 27, Box 420, JSP.
Lyndon Johnson and Angel Macias: The photograph appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug. 28.
The little party: WP, Aug. 29.
The big party: Rowan, “Eyes of Texas Turn on Lyndon,” WP, Aug. 28; Walsh, “Majority Leader Has a Birthday,” WS, Aug. 28; HP, Aug. 29; Dale Miller interview. “The biggest birthday present”: HP, Aug. 29; Time, March 2; Jenkins interview. Neely’s weight on this day was less than ninety pounds.
“Well, the people”; Welcoming Proxmire: HP, NYT, WP, Aug. 29. “For the fine things”: Proxmire, CR, 85/1, p. 16684. Junket: WP, Aug. 31. “Good medicine”: McGrory, WS, Sept. 3.
“It seems”: Reedy interview. Reedy was given to frequently repeating some version of this phrase. In his The U.S. Senate (p. 13), for example, he wrote, “Obviously, we were proceeding on the ‘half a loaf’ theory at which many people scoff. But it seems to me that the scoffers must be men and women who have never been hungry.” A “crumb”: Humphrey, quoted in Wilkins, p. 246. “Presented”; “by allowing”: Ambrose, pp. 414, 419. As Brownell had contended: Brownell, Advising Ike, pp. 365–84. “When Johnson took”: Rauh, quoted in Miller, pp 208, 209; Rauh interview. “Lack of will”: Watson, p. 401; Burns, Crosswinds, p. 322; United States Commission on Civil Rights, With Liberty and Justice for All: An Abridgement of the Report of the United States Commission; Lawson, Black Ballots, pp. 231–32, 249. A flat zero: Dallek, Lone Star, p. 526.
“Just a beginning”: Johnson, quoted in McPherson, Political Education, p. 148. “Failed to recognize”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 120. “Crucial”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 179. “If he got one”: Reedy interview. “We’ve started”: Johnson, quoted in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 152. “Impact”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 179. “Perhaps it is”: Kempton, “The Happiest Man in Town,” NYP, Aug. 8. “It was Congress”: Woodward, “The Great Civil Rights Debate,” Commentary, Oct. 1957.
Praise: NYT, WP, WS, Aug. 11; “Purists and Progress,” New Republic, Aug. 12. “Background” memo: “In analyzing the so-called ‘victories,’” Aug. 8, Box 420, JSP. Used them as edited; Cater asked; “Eye think”:
For example, Reedy wrote, supposedly for Cater’s “background” information: “From the beginning, it was realized that there could be no ‘compromise’ in the sense of an empty and evasive deal.” Cater wrote: “Johnson remarked to me recently, ‘It was realized that there could be no “compromise” in the sense of an empty and evasive deal.’” “George—Sen. Johnson said OK,” Mary Rather reported. Undated, but attached to Reedy to Johnson, Aug. 24, Box 420, JSP; Cater, “How the Senate Bill Was Passed,” The Reporter, Sept. 5. “Most remarkable”: AFL-CIO News, Aug. 12. “Sen. Bible was”: Taylor to Johnson, Aug. 12.
“A modern Henry Clay”: Tucker, Tucson (Ariz.) Daily Citizen, Aug. 9. “To certify”: Duke to Johnson, Sept. 4, “Legislative Files,” Box 291, JSP.
“Hoax and sham”: Morse, quoted in Drukman, Wayne Morse, p. 307. “Emerged”: Douglas, Fullness of Time, pp. 290, 291. “The Moderate Texas”: Detroit News, Aug. 5. Fritchey’s anger; “some of”: Carver, Bethine Church, quoted in Ashby and Gramer, Fighting the Odds, p. 91. “A soup”: Shuman OH.
“The Senate bill”: Cohen to Johnson, Aug. 13, Box 290, JSP. “I don’t think”: Acheson to Johnson, Aug. 13, Box 408, JSP; Rovere, “Letter from Washington,” The New Yorker, Aug. 31. “It took”: “Purists and Progress,” New Republic, Aug. 12. “It is one”: Eleanor Roosevelt, “My Day,” NYP, Aug. 6. “If you think”: Drummond, NYHT, Aug. 30
“Struggle”: Roger Wilkins, NYT, July 4, 1990. “So great”: King, quoted in NYT, Sec. IV, Jan. 17, 1988. “Led them into voting booths”: Caro, Means, p. xxi.
Johnson’s speech: CR, 85/1, pp. 13897, 13898. “When at last”: McPherson, Political Education, p. 147. Description of East Texas parade; McPherson’s reaction: McPherson, Political Education, pp. 154–55.
42 Three More Years
“Eager”: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 196. “You know”: Rowe to Johnson, Dec. 4, 1958, Box 32, LBJA SN.
Clark letter: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 494. McNamara demanded: NYT, April 9, 1949. Proxmire and Muskie attitude; “until”: Proxmire, Muskie interviews. A “chickenshit”: Baker, quoted in Steinberg, p. 495. “Might as well”: Ralph K. Huitt, “The Morse Committee Assignment Controversy: A Study on Senate Norms,” APSR, June 1957, pp. 313–29. “Like Wayne and Paul”: Ralph K. Huitt, “The Outsider in the Senate: An Alternative Role,” APSR, Sept. 1961, p. 569; Shuman interview. “Never been”: WS, Feb. 23; NYT, Feb. 24, 1959; Steinberg, p. 496. Proxmire’s attacks: NYT, WP, Feb. 24, March 1, 10, April 13, May 29, 30, 1959; Byrd, Senate, Vol. I, pp. 620–21.
“Fairy godmother”: Johnson, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 496. Delegated to Mansfield: Evans and Novak, p. 199.
Democratic caucuses: “Minutes of the Senate Democratic Conference, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 1958, Room 201, Senate Office Building,” Minutes of the U.S. Senate Democratic Conference, 1903–1964, ed. Donald A. Ritchie, Washington: GPO, 1998, pp.
505–72 (cited hereafter as “Conference Minutes”). “Determined”: Clark, Sapless Branch, p. 12. Clark resolution: Conference Minutes, p. 515. “The more senior”: Clark, p. 12. Would be happy: Conference Minutes, p. 518. “The end”: Clark, p. 12. 51 to 12 vote: Conference Minutes, p. 535. “Any”: Proxmire, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 497. “David and Goliath”: Public Affairs Institute, “Washington Window,” March 13, 1959. “Bravest bull”: Fite, Russell, p. 405.
“The success”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 178. “Seven-room spread”: Chicago Tribune, Dec. 21, 1958. Taj Mahal descriptions: Office of Senate Curator, Lyndon Baines Johnson Room, S. Pub. 105–60; “The Lyndon Baines Johnson Room, Remarks for the Secretary of the Senate,” Senate Historical Office; Miller, Lyndon, p. 217; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 505–06; Fleeson, WS, Jan. 7, 1959; Busby, Gonella, Reedy, Shuman, Sidey, Steele, Tames interviews. “Marbled city”: Hugh Sidey, “Eye on the Oval Office,” Time, Aug. 26, 1985. “On entering”: Shaffer, On and Off, p. 214. “That huge”; “monument”: Steele to Williamson, Jan. 30, 1959, SP. “Nimbus”: Dallek, Lone Star, p. 540. Elevators: Tames interview.
“Well”: Mansfield, quoted in Gonella interview. “His children”: Gonella interview. “You know”: Johnson, quoted in Steele to Williamson, Nov. 12, 1958, SP. “Needed”: Steele to Williamson-III, March 4, 1958, SP. “Alan”: Bernstein interview. Stennis: Evans and Novak, p. 102.
Instructing Reedy: Steele to Williamson-XIV, March 4, 1958, SP; Reedy interview. “Hoisted”; “Without rival”: “Sense and Sensitivity,” Time, March 17, 1958. Disability: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 483–84. “Who is”: Stewart Alsop, “Lyndon Johnson: How Does He Do It?” SEP, Jan. 24, 1959.
“Straining”; “uneasy”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 272. “This is”: Stennis to Russell, Oct. 17, 1957. Symington’s insistence: Symington to Russell, Oct. 5, 1957, J. General, Missile File, Box 403, RBRL. Russell calling Johnson; “so thorough”: Steele to Williamson, March 4, 1958, SP. “Has a lot”: “Nov. 5, 1957—LD conversation with Senator Bridges in Concord, New Hampshire,” Box 40, LBJA CF. “More or less”: Russell to Marcy, Jan. 9, 1958, J. General, Missile File, Box 9, RBRL.
“Kept alive”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 182. Weisl, Vance involvement: McGillicuddy, Edwin Weisl Jr., Vance interviews.
“All the right”: ACWD, Nov. 6, 1957, quoted in Ambrose, Eisenhower, p. 430. “No ‘guilty’”: Minutes of Preparedness Subcommittee meeting, Nov. 22, 1957, SP, Box 405, quoted in Divine, ed., Johnson Years, Vol. II, p. 222. “Very much”: “Oct. 21, 1957—LD conversation between Secy. Neil McElroy …and Sen. Johnson in Corpus Christi,” Box 433, JSP. “If he”: LBJ-Dulles telephone conversations, Oct. 31, Nov. 5, 1957, Dulles Papers, quoted in Dallek, p. 530. “Will serve”; “hit the extreme”: McConaughy to Williamson, Feb. 15, 1958, SP. “This may”: Reedy to Johnson, Oct. 17, 1957, Reedy: Memos, SP, Box 420, quoted in Divine, p. 219. Leaking: Busby, Reedy interviews. “To elevate”: Evans and Novak, p. 192. “Painted”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 183.
Reedy’s suggestion: Reedy to Johnson, Nov. 23, 1957, Box 421, JSP. Johnson’s rejection: Busby, Reedy interviews. And Busby, at Johnson’s suggestion, then used the Pearl Harbor comparison in Johnson’s speeches. “Comparable to Pearl Harbor”: Press releases, undated, Preparedness Subcommittee, SP, Box 355. “An even greater challenge”: “Inquiry into Satellite and Missile Programs,” Hearings Before the Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee of the Committee on the Armed Forces, U.S. Senate, 85 Cong, 1st and 2nd Session (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1958), pp. 1–3. “Our finest hour”; Alamo: Divine, pp. 223, 224.
“A sense”: Rowe to Johnson, Nov. 21, 1957, Box 421, JSP. “This was”; “light”; Medaris announcement: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 482; Time, Jan. 20, Feb. 17, 1958; Newsweek, Feb. 17, 1958; USN&WR, Jan. 17, 1958; Steele to Williamson, Jan. 10, Feb. 15, March 4-VIII; to Lunsden, Jan. 9, 1958, SP; BeLieu, McGillicuddy, Reedy, Steele interviews.
Eisenhower’s reassurances: Ambrose, pp. 427–35. Johnson’s statements: Johnson, pp. 273–75. “We have reached”: Johnson, p. 275. “Full mobilization”: Johnson, quoted in Steinberg, p. 480. “How long”; “Painted”: Johnson, quoted in Steinberg, pp. 481, 480. “Control”: “Johnson speech to Democratic caucus, Jan. 7, 1958,” Statements file, JSP. “In retrospect”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 184.
“In a week”: “Lyndon Johnson Has the Ball,” Life, Jan. 20, 1958.
“I believe”: Rowe to Johnson, Feb. 5, 1958, Box 32, LBJA SN. “Just plain”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 185; LBJ, p. 13; Reedy OH, interview. “Would actually”: Evans and Novak, p. 193. “Did not bother”: Reedy, LBJ, pp. 12, 13. “Some of the staff”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 186. “Worried”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 13.
NASA bills: Divine, pp. 226–28. “A textbook”: Evans and Novak, p. 191.
“Made it clear”; “in later”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 13. Little different: Divine (pp. 227–28) notes that “over the next three years, the Space Council met on only rare occasions…. Johnson could not force the president to use the Space Council to give central guidance to the nation’s space program.” Also BeLieu, Reedy interviews.
“Dreary”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 187.
“Monstrosity”: Rauh, “The Truth About Congress and the Court,” The Progressive, Nov. 1958. “Well”: Johnson, quoted in Mann, p. 232. “Lyndon”; jumping to his feet: McPherson, p. 133. “Mr. President”; writing the names: Mann, p. 233. “You boys”: McPherson, quoted in Mann, p. 233. “If you want”: Johnson, quoted in Evans and Novak, p. 166. “I don’t know”; bringing Lewis, Reedy along: Evans and Novak, p. 166; Lewis, Reedy interviews. “In the course”: Lewis interview. “A display”: Lewis, quoted in Mann, p. 234. “Johnson always”; slapping his own cheeks: Lewis interview.
Tactics the next day: Evans and Novak, pp. 166–67; Mann, pp. 234–35; McPherson, p. 134. “Could truthfully”: Mann, p. 234. 1959 and 1960 civil rights bills: Clark, pp. 13–14;Douglas, pp. 291–92; Evans and Novak, pp. 22–222; Fite, pp. 374, 375; Mann, pp. 239–61; Watson, pp. 415–26. Rule 22 compromise: Mann, pp. 239–41. “Sugar-coated”: “News from NAACP,” Jan. 22, 1959, Box 408, JSP. “Gone was”: Mann, p. 258. Johnson working with Rogers: Rogers interview. “Crumbs”; “Here is”: Clark, Sap less Branch, p. 14.
43. The Last Caucus
“Power is”: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 280.
“Probably hoping”; his plan: Humphrey, Education, p. 243. “Hang on to”; “The illusion”; “Would offend”; “He’s not”: Humphrey OH. “Asked if I”: Mansfield, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 547. Retaining the Taj: Evans and Novak, p. 306. Retaining Baker: “Mansfield put up no argument …when Johnson suggested he retain Bobby Baker as the secretary for the majority. Senators expected Bobby to carry out Lyndon’s orders in the next Congress, just as he had in the past (Steinberg, p. 547); Evans and Novak, p. 306.
“A buoyancy”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 133–34. “Apprehensions”; “Brooding”: Evans and Novak, p. 306. “Having watched”: Evans and Novak, pp. 308, 307. “Reserved”: Baker, p. 134.
Mansfield’s motion: “Minutes of the Democratic Conference,” Jan. 3, 1961, Minutes, 1903–1964, p. 578. “Can you imagine”: Byrd, Senate, Vol. 1, p. 624. “Mansfield”: Evans and Novak, p. 306. Description of caucus: Minutes, 1903–1964, pp. 577–81; Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 135–36; Byrd, p. 624; Evans and Novak, pp. 306–08; Goldsmith, Colleagues, pp. 83–84; Humphrey, p. 243; Miller, Lyndon, pp. 275–76; Steinberg, pp. 547–48. “Might as well”: Gore, quoted in Miller, p. 276. Other hands: “The depth of the revolt against Mansfield’s motion …was discernible only in the” opposition of Anderson, Robertson and Johnston, Evans and Novak write on p. 307. “Unbelievably”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 136. “Look ridiculous”: Evans and Novak, p. 307. “Ashen”; “no getting around”: Baker, p. 135. “We are creating”: Monroney, quoted in Steinberg, p. 547.
Mansfield in favor: Minutes, p. 578. Resignation threat; “under”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 135. �
��Even though”: Gore, quoted in Steinberg, p. 548. “Wasn’t going to work”: Goldsmith, p. 84.
“I was one”: Humphrey OH. “It fell”: Humphrey, p. 243.
Not present at next three caucuses: “Minutes of the Democratic Conference,” Jan. 4, 5, 10, 1961, pp. 581–88. “The President has”: Mansfield, “Minutes,” February 27, p. 588. 1963 caucuses: “Minutes,” Jan. 9, Feb. 7, 1963; Muskie, Proxmire, Yarborough interviews.
Stepping down from dais: Muskie interview. Coming into cloakroom: McPherson, Political Education, p. 184; Muskie, Hynes interviews. “Those were”: Lady Bird Johnson interview.
Robert A. Caro, who has won two Pulitzer prizes, was graduated from Princeton University, was for six years an award-winning investigative reporter for Newsday, and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.
To create The Power Broker, Caro spent seven years tracing and talking with hundreds of men and women who worked with, for, or against Robert Moses, and examining mountains of files never before opened to the public. The Power Broker won both the Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Francis Parkman Prize, awarded by the Society of American Historians to the book that “exemplifies the union of the historian and the artist.” It was chosen by Modern Library as one of the hundred greatest nonfiction books of the twentieth century.
To research The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Caro and his wife, Ina, moved from his native New York City to the Texas Hill Country and then to Washington, D.C., to live in the locales in which Johnson grew up and in which he built, while still young, his first political machines. He has spent years examining documents at the Johnson Library in Austin and interviewing men and women connected with Johnson’s life, many of whom had never before been interviewed. The first volume of the Johnson work, The Path to Power, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for the best nonfiction work of 1982. The second volume, Means of Ascent, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for 1990. In preparation for writing Master of the Senate, the third volume, Caro immersed himself in the world of the United States Senate, spending week after week in the gallery, in committee rooms, in the Senate Office Building, and interviewing hundreds of people, from pages and cloakroom clerks to senators and administrative aides. Master of the Senate won the 2002 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson Page 187