JFK
Page 93
23. TS to JFK, November 22, 1955, box 7, Sorensen Papers, JFKL. Kennedy had already mused about the possibility, telling Stevenson himself on October 21 that he was preparing a statement pledging his support for Stevenson’s candidacy. JFK to AES, October 21, 1955. See also Parmet, Jack, 338.
24. The announcement read in part: “I supported Adlai Stevenson for the nomination in 1952. I shall support him again in 1956. No other candidate in 1952 possessed his unique combination of qualifications for that most arduous of offices. In the intervening years, his intelligence, farsightedness, and temperate approach to difficult problems have not diminished nor been matched by any other potential nominee.” Announcement of Senator Kennedy, March 8, 1956, box 47, EAS. Stevenson offered his thanks by telegram to Kennedy, March 12, 1956, box 47, AES.
25. “The Catholic Vote in 1952 and 1956,” box 9, TSP.
26. “The Catholic Vote in 1952 and 1956,” box 9, TSP. In the key state of New York, according to the report, Catholics made up an estimated 32 percent of the electorate; in Pennsylvania, 29 percent; in New Jersey, 39 percent; in California, 22 percent; in Massachusetts, 50 percent; in Michigan, 24 percent; and in Illinois, 30 percent.
27. Fletcher Knebel OH, JFKL; Knebel column, February 23, 1956, box 8, TSP. See also Knebel, “Can a Catholic Become Vice President?” Look, June 12, 1956.
28. New York Times Magazine, December 18, 1955; Shaw, JFK in the Senate, 129; Sorensen to JFK, September 12, 1955, box 7, TSP.
29. NYT, January 1, 1956.
30. SEP, February 18, 1956.
31. Parmet, Jack, 320–21.
32. NYT, January 7, 1956.
33. Parmet, Jack, 321–23; O’Brien, John F. Kennedy, 289; Boston Herald, February 9, 1956; Remarks at the National Book Awards Dinner, February 7, 1956, box 894, JFK Pre-Pres. Kennedy concluded his speech by calling on writers and politicians to join together: “Somehow we in the political world will have to find time to read more than the local newspapers and the latest Gallup Poll. And somehow you in the literary world must find time to devote increasing attention to the political issues of our day….Could not politicians and intellectuals pool our forces to ask where we are going, what we are doing and why—to analyze our political directions and institutions—not in the rigid, traditional and emotional patterns of the Left or the Right, not in terms of political parties or personalities, but in the detached yet experienced view that only a combination of politics and scholarship can achieve? Let us forget our petty quarrels of the past and the present—and unite our talents for the challenge of the future.”
34. The story of the Pulitzer Prize and the fallout from it will be discussed in more detail in volume 2 of this biography.
35. Gloria L Sitrin OH, JFKL; Jean McGonigle Mannix OH, JFKL; Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 59–61; Manchester, One Brief Shining Moment, 71; Oliphant and Wilkie, Road to Camelot, 82.
36. As Garry Wills later noted with respect to Profiles in Courage, “This kind of political production is normal, not only for an officeholder’s speeches but his books….There is no deception in this, because there is no pretense that the man signing his name did all or even most of the writing.” Wills, Kennedy Imprisonment, 135. In Robert Dallek’s view, “the final product was essentially Jack’s.” Dallek, Unfinished Life, 199. See also the unambiguous assessment in Sorensen, Counselor, 151.
37. Brogan, Kennedy, 35–36. As Sorensen would put it, “Of all the honors he would receive throughout his life, none would make him more happy than his receipt in 1957 of the Pulitzer Prize for biography.” Sorensen, Kennedy, 68. See also Sorensen, Counselor, 151–52.
38. Of the two men Kennedy was by far the more bookish. Stevenson read relatively little, preferring to spend his time with people. Martin, Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, 476. Kennedy, according to his wife, read constantly. “He’d read walking, he’d read at the table, at meals, he’d read after dinner, he’d read in the bathtub, he’d read—prop open a book on his desk—on his bureau while he was doing his tie.” Kennedy: Historic Conversations, 40–41.
39. A perceptive and massively detailed biography is Nelson, John William McCormack.
40. Oliphant and Wilkie, Road to Camelot, 28; Sorensen, Kennedy, 78.
41. Joseph Rauh OH, JFKL.
42. BG, May 8, 1956; NYT, May 8, 1956; O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny,” 108–10; O’Donnell, Brotherhood, 146.
43. O’Brien, No Final Victories, 50; Nelson, John William McCormack, 513–15; BG, May 20, 1956.
44. Donald Malcolm, “The Man Who Wants Second Place,” New Republic, July 30, 1956; Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 9–13.
45. Oliphant and Wilkie, Road to Camelot, 33–34. See also Schlesinger to Stevenson, n.d. (May 1956), box P-23, AMSP.
46. The article, “What My Illness Taught Me,” appeared in the May 29 issue of The American Weekly. “I would not wish to exaggerate the compensation of being ill,” he wrote. “It is better by far to be well. But if illness strikes, though we may grumble at first about the long days away from our normal work and routine—if we recognize the potential those long days make possible, we will realize that our disability—whatever its pains and discomforts—may in some ways have been a blessing in disguise.”
47. Harvard Commencement Address, June 14, 1956, box 895, JFK Pre-Pres, JFKL; NYT, June 15, 1956. A version of the address was published in article form under the title “Brothers, I Presume?” in Vogue, April 1956. On the address, see also Drew Gilpin Faust, “A Common Cause,” in Smith and Brinkley, JFK: A Vision for America, 69–70. That spring Harvard also granted him the honorary degree his father had so craved but failed to get.
CHAPTER 22: A VERY NEAR THING
1. NYT, June 15, 1956; Christian Science Monitor, June 22, 1956; Parmet, Jack, 355.
2. NYT, June 26, 1956; JFK to JPK, June 29, 1956, printed in Sandler, Letters, 53–54; Martin, Adlai Stevenson, 343.
3. According to Connecticut state party chair John Bailey, Ribicoff wrote to Kennedy in the spring, “Adlai is giving considerable thought to you for the second spot.” Oliphant and Wilkie, Road to Camelot, 23.
4. Newton Minow OH, Columbia University, quoted in Parmet, Jack, 339. Kennedy’s speech is in box 12, JFK Pre-Pres.
5. Sorensen, Kennedy, 81–82; Sorensen, Counselor, 160; John M. Bailey OH, JFKL.
6. Sorensen, Counselor, 169.
7. Newton Minow to AES, March 30, 1956, box 47, AES; JFK to Minow, April 16, 1956, box 47, AES; JFK to James Finnegan, May 2, 1956, box 47, AES; Stan Karson memo to AES, May 22, 1956, box 47, AES; JFK to AES, telegram, June 6, 1956, box 47, AES.
8. JPK to JFK, May 25, 1956, box 4, JPKP; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 205; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 131.
9. JFK to JPK, June 29, 1956, box 4, JPKP.
10. Sargent Shriver to JPK, July 18, 1956, box 810, JFK Pre-Pres, JFKL; Eunice Shriver to JPK, August 1, 1956, box 4, JPKP; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 205–6.
11. JPK to Sargent Shriver, July 18, 1956, printed in Smith, Hostage to Fortune, 673–75.
12. JPK to JFK, July 23, 1956, box 4, JPKP.
13. Time, August 6, 1956.
14. On the challenges the party faced on the civil rights issue in the looming presidential campaign, see Schlesinger to Stevenson, June 11, 1956, box P-23, AMSP.
15. Levingston, Kennedy and King, 14–15.
16. Bryant, Bystander, 54–55.
17. Transcript of Face the Nation, July 1, 1956, box 12, TSP; Bryant, Bystander, 55–56.
18. Dore Schary OH, JFKL; Sabato, Half-Century, 34–35; Longley, Gore, 127–29.
19. Quoted in Goodwin, Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, 782.
20. NYT, August 14, 1956. The title of the articles summarized the thrust: “Party’s Film Aids Kennedy Drive.”
21. Martin, Hero for Our Time, 109.
22. Martin, Ballot
s and Bandwagons, 416; Parmet, Jack, 368. According to Time, Roosevelt stressed in her appearances in Chicago that her late husband was “a man of moderation,” and implied that Stevenson was the same. Time, August 27, 1956.
23. Martin, Ballots and Bandwagons, 394–95.
24. Offner, Hubert Humphrey, 117–18.
25. Martin, Ballots and Bandwagons, 396.
26. Tom Winship OH, JFKL, quoted in Oliphant and Wilkie, Road to Camelot, 42; NYT, August 17, 1956; O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny,” 121.
27. Quoted in Caro, Years of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 3, 825.
28. O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny,” 122; Mahoney, Sons and Brothers, 19.
29. Martin, Ballots and Bandwagons, 407; O’Donnell, Brotherhood, 166.
30. Lasky, J.F.K., 187; Martin, Ballots and Bandwagons, 407–11. One supporter said afterwards, “Bobby Kennedy was supposed to be floor manager for Jack at that convention, but that’s a lot of crap. There was no floor manager; there was just nobody in control. Everybody was out on his own, talking to anybody and everybody he could, and there was a helluva lot of overlapping.” Martin and Plaut, Front Runner, 71.
31. Sorensen, Kennedy, 88.
32. Sorensen, Kennedy.
33. O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny,” 123.
34. Sorensen, Kennedy, 89. An illuminating firsthand journalistic account is Thomas Winship, “Inside Senator’s Room: What Kennedy Did, Said as Tide Came in, Ebbed,” BG, August 18, 1956.
35. Caro, Years of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 3, 826–27.
36. A remarkable video survives of the concluding balloting and Kennedy’s brief speech. See “Kennedy vs Kefauver ’56,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlIej3uTwHM.
37. NYT, August 18, 1956, quoted in Oliphant and Wilkie, Road to Camelot, 46.
38. The aide was Arthur Schlesinger Jr. See Oliphant and Wilkie, Road to Camelot, 52; Martin and Plaut, Front Runner, 107.
39. Gorman, Kefauver, 260; Matthews, Jack Kennedy, 209–10. Bobby Kennedy later spoke of encountering this personal attachment to Kefauver among the delegates in Chicago: “It really struck me that it wasn’t the issues which matter. It was the friendships. So many people said to me they would rather vote for Jack, but that they were going to vote for Estes Kefauver because he had sent them a card or gone to their home. I said right there that we should forget the issues and send Christmas cards and go to their homes next time.” Toledano, RFK, 142.
40. Dallek, Unfinished Life, 208; BG, August 18, 1956, and August 19, 1956. See also Caro, Years of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 4, 50.
41. AES to JFK, August 26, 1956, box 47, AES.
42. O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny,” 124; Sorensen, Kennedy, 91–92.
43. Martin, Hero for Our Time, 120.
44. Martin, Ballots and Bandwagons, 453.
45. JPK to Morton Downey, August 24, 1956, printed in Smith, Hostage to Fortune, 677; Nasaw, Patriarch, 708.
46. O’Brien, John F. Kennedy, 322.
47. RK to Patricia Kennedy Lawford, August 26, 1956, box 4, JPKP.
48. For the former view, see, e.g., O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny,” 125; Parmet, Jack, 383; Goodwin, Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, 785; McCarthy, Remarkable Kennedys, 164. For the latter, see, e.g., Collier and Horowitz, Kennedys, 209; Reeves, Question of Character, 138.
49. Quoted in Perrett, Jack, 226. Smathers was not always the most reliable witness; he would make dubious claims regarding Kennedy’s later relationship with Marilyn Monroe, to be examined in the second volume of this work.
50. O’Brien, John F. Kennedy, 323.
51. Matthews, Jack Kennedy, 212.
52. John Sharon OH, JFKL; Sorensen to James Finnegan, September 17, 1956, box 47, AES; Sabato, Half-Century, 39–40.
53. JFK to Finnegan, October 3, 1956, box 47, AES; Martin, Adlai Stevenson, 356. For Stevenson’s initial invitation to the Philadelphia dinner, see AES telegram to JFK in Èze-sur-Mer, August 23, 1956, box 47, AES.
54. Speech transcript, September 21, 1956, box 895, JFK Pre-Pres; Muehlenbeck, Betting on the Africans, 35–36.
55. BG, October 26, 1956.
56. Goodwin, Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, 786.
57. Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 134. Harrison Salisbury of The New York Times had a similar impression: “Bobby always seemed to be on the fringe of the crowd someplace. He was always watching what was going on.” Stein, American Journey, 65–66.
58. Already in the spring, advisers had tried to coax Stevenson to change his campaigning style and speechmaking. See, e.g., Schlesinger Jr. to Stevenson, May 15, 1956, box P-23, AMSP.
59. On Suez, see Zelikow and May, Suez Deconstructed; and Nichols, Eisenhower 1956. In December, under U.S. pressure, British and French forces withdrew; in March 1957, again in response to American pressure, Israel relinquished control of the canal to Egypt.
60. The most pressing problems facing the nation, Kennedy said early in the film, were “peace and security.” “Yet nowhere has the Republican Administration of Mr. Eisenhower and Mr. Nixon told us less or misled us more. Actually, Governor Stevenson, this adds up pretty much to what you’ve been saying, does it not?” Stevenson: “That’s right. This administration has been using foreign policy for political purposes at home. It has been unwilling to admit its failures. It has refused to take people into its confidence. It has attempted to describe reverses as victories.” Film transcript, September 17, 1956, box 47, AES. A longer transcript is in box 167, GBP.
61. McKeever, Adlai Stevenson, 388.
62. McKeever, Adlai Stevenson, 136. On November 18, Stevenson wrote to Kennedy: “I should have thanked you long before this. I can think of no one to whom we should all be more grateful than to you. And I am only sorry that I did not better reward you for your gallantry in action. I have confident hopes for your future leadership in our party, and I am sure you will help immeasurably to keep it pointed in a positive direction. With my boundless gratitude, and affection regards, Cordially, Adlai.” AES to JFK, November 18, 1956, box 47, AES.
63. Burns, John Kennedy, 190.
64. Oliphant and Wilkie, Road to Camelot, 55; O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny,” 125–26. With respect to the itinerary, Sorensen would later write: “I took over a briefcase filled with speaking invitations that had poured in from all over the country. I placed on his dining room table those I thought were of serious interest, arranging them by geography and date, trying to form a rough speaking schedule for the next several months, arranging them also in terms of priority and category—including political gatherings, universities and civic organizations. After a long night working out a tentative schedule, he casually uttered seven fateful words, ‘You may as well come with me.’ ” Sorensen, Kennedy, 100.
65. Manchester, One Brief Shining Moment, 81.
66. Remarks at the Tavern Club, November 8, 1956, Speeches and Press Releases File, box 896, JFK Pre-Pres.
67. Kennedy, True Compass, 116; Goodwin, Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, 787–88.
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