inscription in the Piazza Cavour: Int. Thomas Stransky, Feb. 27, 1992.
even the boisterous young people: Int. John Oesterreicher, May 24, 1991.
13. GRIEF
banged through the double doors: Miller, Lyndon, p 384.
bowled over a waiter: Wicker, On Press, p. 116.
“moving across that crowd”: Ibid.
Sarah Hughes cried tears: Miller, Lyndon, p. 384.
just as Tom Wicker: Wicker, On Press, p. 118.
shoved Johnson at a trot: Johnson, The Vantage Point, p. 11.
amid clashing orders: Notes dictated by Cliff Carter aboard Air Force One, Nov. 22, 1963, Vice President’s Daily Diary, LBJ.
carload of reporters: Wicker, On Press, p. 120. The first shot at the Kennedy motorcade occurred about 12:30 P.M. Dallas (Central) time. The announcement of President Kennedy’s death was made from Parkland Hospital about 1:20 P.M. Johnson took the oath of office at about 2:38 P.M. Notes dictated by Marie Fehmer aboard Air Force One, November 22, 1963, Vice President’s Daily Diary, LBJ; Manchester, Glory and the Dream, pp. 1231-32.
“I want them to see”: Johnson, White House Diary, p. 6.
“Just ah, think, think, think”: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Arthur Goldberg, 9:00 P.M., Nov. 22, 1963, LBJ.
He laid the crucifix: Int. Sargent Shriver, Feb. 21, 1991.
waxen face sealed: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 658.
first business caller: PDD, Nov. 23, 1963, LBJ.
correct panicky errors: WP “Assassination Files,” Nov. 15, 1993, p. 10.
“That’s one angle”: WP, “Assassination Files,” Nov. 16, 1993, p. 9.
ten hours of television news: Manchester, Glory and the Dream, p. 1232.
Heller took his brief turn: “Notes on Meeting with President Johnson, 7:40 P.M., Saturday, November 23, 1963,” Box 7, Heller Paper, LBJ.
slices of cherry-vanilla pie: “Notes on a Quick Meeting with the President and Other Leading Members of the Kennedy Family,” Nov. 19, 1963, Box 6, Heller Papers, LBJ.
pilloried bankers: Ibid. Also “Confidential Notes on Meeting with the President,” Oct. 21, 1963, Box 6, Heller Papers, 1963.
Heller’s economists had pushed: “War on Poverty” monograph, Heller to the Secretary of Agriculture et al., Nov. 5, 1963, and Heller to Lampman, June 3, 1963, Legislative Background of EOA 1964, Box 1, Heller Papers, LBJ; Lemann, The Promised Land, pp. 129-35.
to offset the tax cut: Comments of William Capron, transcript of Brandeis University conference on “The Federal Government and Urban Poverty,” June 1973, RFK Oral History series, pp. 138-45, JFK.
“Having mounted a dramatic program”: Heller, “Confidential Notes on Meeting with the President, October 21, 1963, Box 6, Heller Papers, LBJ. Also Heller to JFK, June 29, 1963, ibid, in which Heller argues that, “The civil rights message covers a lot of the ground, but there may well be room for a broader program not linked to race.”
“make sure that we’re doing”: “Notes on a Quick Meeting with the President and other Leading Members of the Kennedy Family,” Nov. 19, 1963, Box 6, Heller Papers, LBJ.
fn gain him no votes: Reeves, President Kennedy, pp. 655-57.
“That’s my kind of program”: Lemann, The Promised Land, pp. 140-41.
“Human Conservation”: Heller to Secretary of Agriculture et al., Nov. 5, 1963, Legislative Background of EOA 1964, Box 1, Heller Papers, LBJ.
“push ahead full-tilt”: “Notes on Meeting with President Johnson, 7:40 P.M., Saturday, November 23, 1963,” Box 7, Heller Papers, LBJ; Johnson, The Vantage Point, p. 71.
chew discarded grapefruit: McPherson, Political Education, p. 139. Johnson’s numerous public references to his Cotulla experience include a speech in honor of Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos, Feb. 22, 1964, PPP, 1963-64, pp. 308-10.
fn “[The children] never seemed”: LBJ address to a Joint Session of Congress, March 15, 1965, PPP, 1965, p. 281.
his proudest moment: See LBJ to John Carmody, Jan. 31, 1959, cited in Dallek, Lone Star Rising, p. 183.
lit up 90 percent: Caro, Path to Power, pp. 516-28.
make his point physically: “Notes on Meeting with President Johnson, 7:40 P.M., Saturday, November 23, 1963,” Box 7, Heller Papers, LBJ.
Baxter urged his congregation: McPherson, Political Education, pp. 214—15; Harry McPherson, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, pp. 404-5.
first murder ever broadcast: Manchester, Glory and the Dream, p. 1233.
He began by flatly denying: John McCone, “Memorandum for the Record,” Nov. 25, 1963, regarding meeting at 3:00 P.M., Nov. 24, 1963, of LBJ, Rusk, McNamara, Ball, Bundy, McCone, and Lodge, Meeting Notes File, Box 1, LBJ.
“Lodge said that we were”: Ibid.
Lodge was overly optimistic: Ibid. Also Shapley, Promise and Power, pp. 291-92; reminiscence by Bill Moyers in Saturday Review, Nov. 11, 1967, p. 53.
cool toward Lodge: “Why did you send Lodge out there, for God’s sake?” Johnson asked Senator J. William Fulbright. “I just think he’s got things screwed up good, that’s what I think.” Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Fulbright, 7:01 P.M., Dec. 2, 1963, LBJ. Johnson also generally criticized Lodge and Ambassador Averell Harriman, one of the principal stateside advocates of the coup against Diem, in a conversation with National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Bundy, 5:55 P.M., Dec. 9, 1963, LBJ.
portrait hung: Miller, Lyndon, p. 425.
“We had a hand in killing him”: Ibid.
“Whenever those rich people”: Int. Horace Busby, Feb. 3, 1992.
“I need you a lot more”: Dictabelt and transcript of telephone conversation between LBJ and Larry O’Brien, 4:04 P.M., Nov. 25, 1963, LBJ. The burial ceremony had ended at 3:34 P.M. (NYT, Nov. 26, 1963).
reversed Kennedy’s intention: Dictabelt of telephone conversation among Bill Moyers, LBJ, and Theodore Sorensen, 10:10 P.M., Nov. 25, 1963, LBJ.
thanks to Martin Luther King: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and MLK, 9:20 P.M., Nov. 25, 1963, LBJ.
“all these ambassadors”: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Theodore Sorensen, 10:10 P.M., Nov. 25, 1963, LBJ.
Johnson snatched time: Miller, Lyndon, p. 411.
Senate aide from Texas: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Horace Busby, 1:25 P.M., Nov. 26, 1963, LBJ.
devices such as the parallel: NYT, Nov. 28, 1963, p. 20. The Times identified the device as the “chiasmus.”
“not to turn about”: Ibid.
“Heavens to Betsy”: Ibid., p. 21.
by Johnson’s count: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Adam Clayton Powell, 2:22 P.M., Nov. 27, 1963, LBJ.
“As soon as Lyndon Johnson”: Miller, Lyndon, p. 414.
“Like everyone else”: Lowenstein to “My dear Mr. President,” Nov. 27, 1963, WHCF—Name File, LBJ.
Thanksgiving SNCC conference: Branch, Parting, p. 920; int. Betty Garman Robinson, Jan. 28, 1991.
wiped out the planned agenda: Int. Michael Sayer, June 25, 1992. Sayer remembered the scheduled members of Congress as Rep. Donald Rumsfeld (R-III.) and Rep. William F. Ryan (D-NY).
“the problem of overcoming fear”: Movement Soul, Folkways Album FD5486.
marathon freedom songs: Ibid.
approached Moses to ask: Int. Robert Stone, June 3, 1993.
“the Negro groups as such”: Lawrence F. O’Brien to LBJ, Nov. 29, 1963, Box 3, Henry Wilson Papers, LBJ.
“Say to the Republicans”: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Robert Anderson, 1:30 P.M., Nov. 30, 1963, LBJ.
“I believe that we can”: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Rep. Richard Bolling, 6:50 P.M., Dec. 2, 1963.
“God almighty”: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Rep. Carl Albert, 11:15 A.M., Dec. 4, 1963, LBJ. Also dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Lawrence O’Brien, 6:08 P.M., Dec.
4, 1963, LBJ.
“would be very bad”: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and J. Edgar Hoover, 10:30 A.M., Nov. 25, 1963, LBJ.
fn “I don’t have much influence”: Ibid.
Hoover’s true goal: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Senator Everett Dirksen, 11:40 A.M., Nov. 29, 1963, LBJ.
“the country would be”: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Senator Richard Russell, 4:05 P.M., Nov. 29, 1963, LBJ.
“I couldn’t serve on it”: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Senator Richard Russell, 8:55 P.M., Nov. 29, 1963, LBJ.
“a similar bombardment”: Ibid. Johnson told Russell that Warren had surrendered in tears after Johnson had tongue-lashed him as follows: “I think you can put on your uniform of World War I, fat as you are, and do anything you can to save one American life.” Chief Justice Warren’s similar but less graphic recollection is recorded in Miller, Lyndon, p. 423.
“a West Coast lawyer”: Hoover memorandum for Tolson et al., 1:39 P.M., Nov. 29, 1963, Folder 92, FHOC.
“the proposed group”: Ibid.
“In Florida and on Cape Cod”: Brennan to Sullivan, Dec. 1, 1963, Folder 92, FHOC.
King preached on Thanksgiving: Good, Trouble I’ve Seen, pp. 17-21.
“If they hated him”: Mays to MLK, Nov. 29, 1963, A/KP15f30.
he was wounded: Branch, Parting, p. 918.
campaign in Albany, Georgia: Ibid., pp. 731-32.
Katzenbach turn him down: Int. Nicholas Katzenbach, June 14, 1991.
“I trust that”: RFK to MLK, Dec. 4, 1963, A/KP24f21.
“Is it well?”: Good, Trouble I’ve Seen, pp. 18-20.
merchants along Jamaica Avenue: NYAN, Dec. 7, 1963, p. 29, FMXNY-3980.
Malcolm first repeated statements: Perry, Malcolm, pp. 239-40.
Elijah Muhammad sent out: Malcolm X, The Autobiography, p. 300; comments of Yusuf Shah (Captain Joseph) on “Malcolm X: Make It Plain,” PBS documentary, The American Experience, 1994. Int. Abdulalim Shabazz (Lonnie X Cross), March 14, 1991.
wrote out in advance: Int. Benjamin Karim, March 19, 1991; Perry, Malcolm, p. 240.
“the chickens coming home to roost”: Malcolm X, The Autobiography, p. 301.
“had the nerve to say it”: NYT, Dec. 2, 1963, p. 21.
“speech in which he mocked”: NYT, Dec. 5, 1963, p. 22.
Malcolm X called Muhammad: Wiretap transcript of conversation between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, Dec. 4, 1963, FMXNY-3978, pp. 3-4.
“The nation still mourns”: MS, Dec. 20, 1963, pp. 1, 3.
Kennedy deserved respect: Cf. wiretap transcripts of Muhammad’s conversations with inquiring reporters, Dec. 5 and 6, 1963, FMXNY-3988, pp. 1-2, 5-6.
“my work is in accordance”: Wiretap transcript of Elijah Muhammad conversation, Dec. 5, 1963, FMXNY-3992.
“just a little spanking”: Wiretap transcript of Elijah Muhammad conversation with James Farmer, Dec. 5, 1963, FMXNY-3988, pp. 2-3. An FBI informant quoted Muhammad as saying that “if he [Malcolm X] sticks out his lip and starts popping off, he will get a worse beating the next time.” FMXNY-3978, p. 7.
“the ruler”: NYT, Dec. 5, 1963, p. 22.
Rumors of an impending split: Cf. Ted Poston article in New York Post, Dec. 5, 1963, p. 2.
extended the speaking ban: Perry, Malcolm, p. 242. Also wiretap transcript of conversation between Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, Dec. 4, 1963, FMXNY-3978, pp. 3-4.
dispatched letters to Captain Joseph: Wiretap transcript of conversation between Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, Dec. 7, 1963, in Report to Director from SAC, Phoenix, Dec. 13, 1963, FEM-NR.
block him physically: Perry, Malcolm, p. 242.
fashioned parables: Wiretap transcript of conference call featuring Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, Jan. 2, 1964, in Report to Director from SAC, Phoenix, Jan 23, 1964, FEM-NR. Also int. Abdulalim Shabazz (Lonnie X Cross), March 14, 1991; int. Benjamin Karim, March 19, 1991; int. Yusuf Shah (Captain Joseph), Oct. 17, 1991.
secured Elijah Muhammad’s permission: Wiretap transcript of conversation between Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, Dec. 7, 1963, in Report to Director from SAC, Phoenix, Dec. 13, 1963, FEM-NR.
“I feel like”: Press conference of 12:05 P.M., Dec. 7, 1963, PPP, pp. 34-38.
“I’ve never agreed”: LBJ phone call with Walter Heller, Dec. 14, 1963, Audiotape K6312.08, LBJ.
“You destroyed me”: Dictabelt of telephone conversation between LBJ and Senator Richard Russell, 12:55 P.M., Dec. 7, 1963, LBJ.
“I tried my best”: Ibid. Russell was referring to a consultation by then Secretary of State John Foster Dulles with congressional leaders on April 2, 1954, over a desperate French request for American air strikes in Indochina to rescue the besieged colonial forces at Dien Bien Phu. The congressional leaders convinced Eisenhower, through Dulles, that the United States must not intervene without support from other European powers, which effectively prevented U.S. military intervention that year. Ambrose, Eisenhower: The President, p. 178; Gravel, ed., Pentagon Papers, Vol. 1, pp. 100-101; Dallek, Lone Star Rising, p. 444.
“I’m not going to cavil”: Int. Jack Valenti, Feb. 25, 1991; Johnson, The Vantage Point, pp. 157-58; Stern, Calculating Visions, p. 162.
made peace with James Rowe: PDD, Dec. 1, 1963, LBJ; McPherson, Political Education, pp. 215-16.
facilitated young Congressman Johnson’s: Roberts, LBJ’s Inner Circle, pp. 175-76; Caro, Path to Power, pp. 451-59.
“Uncle Lyndon”: Caro, Path to Power, p. 452.
maiden speech to the U.S. Senate: LBJ speech of March 9, 1949, Congressional Record, Vol. 95, Part 2, pp. 2402-2409; LBJ to James H. Rowe, March 15, 1949, cited in Monroe Billington, “Lyndon B. Johnson and Blacks: The Early Years,” Journal of Negro History, Jan. 1977, p. 39; Dallek, Lone Star Rising, pp. 369-70.
“there won’t be any Senate”: Rowe to “Lyndon,” April 29, 1954, LBJA-Selected Names, Box 32, LBJ.
patched that up, too: Rowe worked briefly for Senate Majority Leader Johnson in 1956. Dallek, Lone Star Rising, p. 493.
Rowe kept pushing candidate Johnson: Rowe to LBJ, Jan. 17, 1959, and Aug. 24, 1960, LBJA-Selected Names, Box 32, LBJ.
“Mogul emperor”: Dallek, Lone Star Rising, p. 587.
Johnson pulled rank: McPherson, Political Education, p. 216.
to the White House Arthur “Tex” Goldschmidt: PDD, Dec. 12, 1963, LBJ; oral histories of Arthur E. Goldschmidt and Elizabeth Wickenden, June 3, 1969, and Elizabeth Wickenden, Nov. 6, 1974, LBJ; Caro, Means of Ascent, p. 11.
called his hero: PDD, Dec. 1, 1963, LBJ.
Aubrey Williams: Miller, Lyndon, pp. 64-68; Durr, Magic Circle, pp. 99-100; Dallek, Lone Star Rising, pp. 125-46.
Williams was a political casualty: Durr, Magic Circle, pp. 246, 249.
segregationist boycott: Ibid., pp. 269, 291.
Louisiana police: Kinoy, Rights on Trial, pp. 213-30; Kunstler, Deep in My Heart, pp. 237-38; O’Reilly, Racial Matters, p. 181; Dombrowski v. Eastland, 387 U.S. 82 (1967).
Williams was in failing health: Bill Moyers to Lady Bird Johnson, Dec. 12, 1963, and Cliff Carter to Aubrey Williams, Dec. 12, 1963, LBJ. Aubrey Williams was buried on March 6, 1965, the day before the Bloody Sunday march in Selma.
“Put them to work!”: Caro, Path to Power, pp. 341-68.
King protested: MLK telegram to RFK, Oct. 6, 1963, A/KP24f20; MLK statement issued Sunday, Oct. 6, 1963, A/KS5.
did sow dissension: Cf. Wiley Branton to MLK, Dec. 11, 1963, A/KP4f47. Branton wrote King that he had been contacted directly by Jack Rogers, counsel for the Louisiana Joint Legislative Committee on Un-American Activities, and told that King was “being duped by ‘communists.’” Although Branton said he knew Rogers was trying to smear King, he nevertheless advised King that there were “things in the report which disturb me and which probably will disturb you….”
“sever any and all relationships”: Jones to MLK, Nov. 26, 1963, A/Kp13f15.
“King is playi
ng a crafty game”: Aubrey Williams to Jim Dombrowski, Feb. 26, 1960, enclosed along with two others in ibid. In his letter, Williams aimed nastier barbs at what he saw as tactical clumsiness on the part of Ralph Abernathy: “Abernathy is a fool.”
“Now interestingly enough”: Interview MLK by Donald H. Smith, Nov. 29, 1963, Donald H. Smith tapes, tape 9, side 1, SHSW.
displayed blown-up reproductions: Branch, Parting, pp. 853-54.
Johnson never mentioned: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p. 308; Lee White to LBJ, Dec. 3, 1963, ExHU2, Pr8-1/K, LBJ.
vulgar Nazi signs: Jet, Dec. 19, 1963, p. 32.
forty-three minutes: 11:37 A.M. until 12:20 P.M., PDD, Dec. 3, 1963, LBJ.
“Well, here’s Dr. King”: LBJ phone call with David McDonald, Dec. 2, 1963, audiotape KG312.17, LBJ.
King praised Johnson: NYT, Dec. 4, 1963, p. 1.
warnings still sounded: According to FBI wiretaps, Clarence Jones told King on December 13 that representatives of the federal government were pressuring SCLC to purge one of its attorneys representing civil rights demonstrators (probably Arthur Kinoy) as a security risk. New York LHM, Dec. 17, 1963, FSC-NR, FJ-NR.
“Red ties”: Column by Robert S. Allen and Paul Scott in Long Island Star Journal, Nov. 25, 1963. King received a copy through New York friends. The FBI preserved a copy in its files, FJNY-258.
“horrifying,” said King: Wiretap transcript of MLK-Clarence Jones conversation of Nov. 30, 1963, cited in SAC, New York, to Director, Dec. 4, 1963, with attached New York LHM, FK-NR.
telephone credit cards: “Office of the President” to “SCLC Credit Card Holders,” Dec. 5, 1963, A/KP32f7.
lawyers were locked: Garrow, Bearing the Cross, pp. 308-9; Jack Greenberg to William Kunstler, Nov. 22, 1963, A/KP17f13; Kunstler to Greenberg, Nov. 27, 1963, and Kunstler to King et al., undated, A/KP31f19. Complaints by King’s lawyers about Kunstler mentioned in wiretap intercepts summarized in New York LHMs of Dec. 10, 1963, and Dec. 18, 1963, FK-NR.
dentist who treated: Dr. Roy Bell to Walker, Dec. 19, 1963, and Walker to Bell, Dec. 19, 1963, A/KP4f18.
quitting for lack of a pay raise: Branch, Parting, pp. 898-900.
“I really have been”: Young to Clark, Cotton, and King, Dec. 17, 1963, A/KP29f12.
scolded the preachers: Clark to King, Dec. 12, 1963, A/KP29f18. Clark advised King in her cover letter that her memo summarized verbal remarks made to Young and Cotton on Nov. 22. “When Kennedy was killed,” she wrote, “I too, felt the guilt of silence and immediately sat down with pen in hand.” At other times, Clark was generous, almost motherly, toward King. Early in November, she had turned down an offered pay raise, saying she could not accept it “and feel perfectly free inside.” She advised King that she did not want to burden him: “A Civil Rights Organization and its leaders have too much to do to help white people mature and Negroes awaken.” Clark to King, Nov. 4, 1963, A/SC3f24.
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