The Kennedy Half-Century (117 page)

27
. In addition to Oliver Stone’s
JFK
, there have been numerous films and TV shows that incorporate or have allusions to the Kennedy assassination in their plots, including
Executive Action
(1973),
The Parallax View
(1974), Robert Altman’s
Nashville
(1975),
In the Line of Fire
(1993), and the remake of
The Manchurian Candidate
(2004). A
Twilight Zone
TV episode in 1985, “Profile in Silver,” used time travel to stop the assassination from happening, at least temporarily. The Kennedy assassination has played a central role in American culture in almost every way, and it is featured in hundreds of plays, comic books, novels, television shows, and with the passage of time, comedies, from
Seinfeld
to
Robot Chicken
. Hunter S. Thompson first used the phrase “fear and loathing” to describe the Kennedy assassination in a November 22, 1963, letter to a friend; it would later become the title of Thompson’s most famous book,
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
(New York: Random House, 1971). One of the best-known comedy entries is the fraternity movie
Animal House
(1978) starring John Belushi. The film’s director, John Landis, has indicated that the climactic homecoming parade scene was intentionally dated November 21, 1963, since the film portrayed a happy-go-lucky postwar America that ended with the JFK assassination. One of the homecoming floats was set to the theme of the New Frontier and dominated by a likeness of President Kennedy, with
the women on the float all dressed in the pink suit and pillbox hat Jackie wore in Dallas. Two well-known songs were written as a result of the assassination: Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” and the Beach Boys’ “The Warmth of the Sun.” An interesting question with an unknowable answer is: Was Oswald’s assassination plan influenced by two movies about presidential assassination that he might well have seen? In 1951, when Oswald was twelve, MGM released
The Tall Target
, starring Dick Powell. It was a film about the alleged Baltimore plot to assassinate Presidentelect Lincoln as he passed through the Confederate-sympathizing city on February 23, 1861, on his way to Washington for his inauguration. Lincoln was scheduled to leave his train and give a speech, and the conspirators placed their assassin in an open window of a building overlooking the site. The conspirators described a “rifle with a telescopic lens.” Then in 1962, when Oswald was back living in the United States, United Artists released
The Manchurian Candidate
, starring Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury. This film also spotlighted a potential presidential assassination from a window high above the national convention of an unnamed party. The assassin again uses a rifle with a telescopic lens. Marina Oswald also told the Warren Commission that Lee had watched two assassination-related films,
We Were Strangers
(about the assassination of a Cuban dictator) and
Suddenly
(about the attempted assassination of a U.S. president). The precise dates of viewing have never been determined, though Marina thought her husband might have watched them in October 1963. See Warren Commission Hearings, vol. I, p. 71, and John Loken,
Oswald’s Trigger Films: The Manchurian Candidate, We Were Strangers, Suddenly?
(Ann Arbor, MI: Falcon Books, 2000). Gary Mack told me: “I spent a lot of time on this and could not confirm it—there were no double features on local TV or any time when
We Were Strangers
was scheduled. The other film did air on two different days, as I recall, but not
Strangers
.” E-mail from Gary Mack, June 15, 2012. Marina was not asked about
The Tall Target
, which is actually closer to the November 22 reality, but then, Oswald might have viewed it years before he met Marina.

28
. Recent bestsellers on the Lincoln assassination include Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard,
Killing Lincoln
(New York: Henry Holt, 2011); Michael Kauffman,
American Brutus
(New York: Random House, 2005); Kate Clifford Larson,
The Assassin’s Accomplice
(New York: Basic Books, 2008); and James L. Swanson,
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer
(New York: Harper Perennial, 2007). The History Channel has produced a number of documentaries on the Lincoln assassination, including
The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth
(2008),
Conspiracy? Lincoln Assassination
(2007), and
The Lincoln Assassination
(2004).

29
. 
Leave It to Beaver, The Donna Reed Show, Ozzie and Harriet, I Love Lucy
, and
The Andy Griffith Show
, all of which aired during the Kennedy years.

30
. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was one. On several occasions during our conversation, she became very emotional about President Kennedy’s death.

31
. Fenn says that he was riding to JFK’s burial service with the journalist Mary McGrory when he made the comment and that McGrory mistook him for Moynihan and later misreported the incident. Telephone interview with Dan Fenn, December 16, 2010.

32
. These figures are based on a poll conducted by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. See my book
The Rise of Political Consultants: New Ways of Winning Elections
(New York: Basic Books, 1981), 102.

33
. It is time-consuming and difficult to identify and count all of the monuments, streets, buildings, and other structures around the world that are named for John F. Kennedy, though we have made an attempt. Our findings appear in the concluding chapter. The
only previous researcher to try, Gerald Steinberg, eventually abandoned the attempt. See the Gerald Steinberg Papers, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts. A partial list of Reagan memorials can be found at
http://www.ronaldreaganlegacyproject.org/
 and
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/reference/thingsnamed.html
 [accessed October 5, 2011].

34
. See Robert W. Merry,
Where They Stand: The American Presidents in the Eyes of Voters and Historians
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012).

35
. Not all successor presidents had as much trouble as Andrew and Lyndon Johnson. It was not long before Theodore Roosevelt had all but consigned William McKinley to the back pages of history. By the end of Roosevelt’s seven and a half years in office, it was apparent that TR would be the more significant chief executive by far. Similarly, Harry Truman—though wrongly viewed as inadequate during his tenure—has achieved “near great” status with both historians and average Americans after eight tumultuous years in the White House.

13. “LET US CONTINUE”: LYNDON JOHNSON—PRETENDER TO THE THRONE

1
. Robert A. Caro, “The Transition: Lyndon Johnson and the Events in Dallas,”
New Yorker
(April 2, 2012): 32–49.

2
. According to William Manchester, LBJ and Lady Bird saw Jackie in her bloodstained clothes just before the swearing-in ceremony. “As always, this one [Jackie’s glove] seemed a part of Jackie. And it was caked with her husband’s blood. Bird filled up. She suggested, ‘Can we get someone to help you put on fresh things?’ ‘Oh no,’ Mrs. Kennedy replied. ‘Perhaps later I’ll ask Mary Gallagher. But not right now.’ The three of them sat on the bed, Mrs. Kennedy in the middle. After a pause [Lyndon] Johnson said uncertainly, ‘Well—about the swearing in.’” William Manchester,
The Death of a President: November 20–November 25, 1963
(New York: Harper and Row, 1967), 316. Steven Gillon describes the swearing-in ceremony this way: “Moments later, Mrs. Kennedy walked into the cabin. The room went silent. Smith described the former First Lady as ‘white-faced but dryeyed.’ ‘Her pink blouse was spattered with blood and white flecks of her husband’s brain,’ recalled [LBJ aide] Jack Valenti. Johnson took both of her hands in his and positioned her to his left and Mrs. Johnson on his right … Johnson then introduced Hughes, telling Mrs. Kennedy that she was a district judge appointed by JFK.” Steven M. Gillon,
The Kennedy Assassination
—24 Hours After: Lyndon B. Johnson’s Pivotal First Day as President (New York: Basic Books, 2009), 137–38.

3
. At 7:20 P.M. on the day Kennedy died, LBJ wrote, “Dear John: It will be many years before you understand fully what a great man your father was. His loss is a deep personal tragedy for all of us, but I wanted you particularly to know that I share your grief. You can always be proud of him.” He penned a similar letter to Caroline ten minutes later. White House Famous Names, Box 7, Folder “Kennedy, Mrs. John F., 1963,” Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas.

4
. Letter from JBK to LBJ, November 26, 1963, White House Famous Names, Box 7, Folder “Kennedy, Mrs. John F., 1963,” Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas.

5
. Doris Kearns Goodwin writes: “Although Johnson approached these men differently, according to their various relationships with John Kennedy … all his appeals ended in the same way: ‘I know how much he needed you. But it must make sense to you that if he needed you I need you that much more. And so does our country.’ ” Doris Kearns Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream
(New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1991), 175. The historian
Steven Gillon says that LBJ told Dick Maguire, “I know what a great personal tragedy this is to you, but it is to me too. And you have been so wonderful to the president, that I want you to know … that I’ve got to rely on you more than he did.” Gillon,
Kennedy Assassination
, 178. LBJ told Bobby Kennedy, “I need you more than the president needed you.” Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,
Robert Kennedy and His Times
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002), 627.

6
. Bruce J. Schulman,
Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism
(Boston: Bedford Books, 1995), 69.

7
. Randall B. Woods,
LBJ: Architect of American Ambition
(New York: Free Press, 2006), 443.

8
. FDR served a bit over twelve years as president, before the passage of the Twenty-second Amendment. Because Johnson was filling out less than half of JFK’s elective term, he was eligible to run for two full terms of his own and thus could theoretically have held the White House until January 20, 1973.

9
. There was no official home for vice presidents until 1974. As incredible as it may seem today, the second highest official lived in his family’s own house in a neighborhood in the Washington area—yet another security nightmare for the Secret Service.

10
. The full exchange was as follows. LBJ reportedly said, “I guess we won’t be going home for a while,” to which Lady Bird responded, “Well, at least it’s only for nine months.” After realizing that her husband would have to serve beyond the 1964 Democratic Convention, Lady Bird corrected herself: “No, I guess it will be for fourteen months.” Horace Busby, who was in the room at the time, said, “Mrs. Johnson, it won’t be nine months—it is more likely to be nine years.” Lady Bird was irked by Busby’s comment. “No,” she retorted emphatically. “I’m afraid Buzz is right,” LBJ said. “At least, it may be for five years.” Gillon,
Kennedy Assassination
, 188–89. See also Woods,
Architect
, 422.

11
. Lyndon Baines Johnson, “Address to Joint Session of Congress (November 27, 1963),” Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia,
http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3381
 [accessed July 11, 2011].

12
. Mrs. Kennedy also requested that LBJ “affirm that JFK’s commitment to the renovation of Washington, D.C …. not be sidelined … [O]n November 30 Johnson [issued] a special statement reiterating President Kennedy’s promise to make Washington a world-class capital.” Max Holland,
The Kennedy Assassination Tapes
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 113.

13
. Lyndon Baines Johnson, “Thanksgiving Message (November 28, 1963),” Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia,
http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/5657
 [accessed July 25, 2011].

14
. Woods,
Architect
, 443. Evidently, LBJ was serious about appointing Jackie. Woods reports that LBJ called JFK aide Kenny O’Donnell on December 27 and “told him he wanted to appoint Jackie U.S. ambassador to Mexico. O’Donnell said that he did not think she would accept.” LBJ also told JFK’s press secretary, Pierre Salinger, “She was always nicer to me than anybody in the Kennedy family … [S]he just made me feel like I was a human being. So I’d just like to [appoint her] … [T]hat’s the biggest thing I got, and I think it’ll just revolutionize Latin America.” Eric Engberg, “LBJ and Jackie Kennedy,” CBS News, February 11, 2009,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/09/18/national/main17861.shtml
 [accessed August 23, 2011].

15
. Hal C. Wingo, letter to the editor,
New Yorker
, April 23, 2012. Wingo was present at the December 31, 1963, session. See also Larry J. Sabato,
Feeding Frenzy: How Attack Journalism Has Transformed American Politics
(New York: Free Press, 1991), 43.

16
. E-mail from JFK Library, August 3, 2011; “World-Wide Fund Drive,”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, November 27, 1963.

17
. The stamp was issued on what would have been JFK’s forty-seventh birthday, May 29, 1964. A quarter of a billion of the stamps were prepared for sale, double the usual number for a commemorative. Marjorie Hunter, “Coin Up to Congress,”
New York Times
, December 11, 1963; “Half Dollars—Kennedy Half Dollar, Silver, 1964,”
CoinWeek
, October 10, 2010,
http://www.coinweek.com/coin-guide/type-coins-silver/half-dollars-kennedy-half-dollar-silver-1964/
 [accessed July 21, 2011]; Bart Barnes, “Johnson Leads Tribute at Kennedy Gravesite,”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, May 29, 1964.