The Kennedy Half-Century (120 page)

87
. Memo from Jack Valenti to LBJ, 11/16/64, EX FG 2/Eisenhower, Dwight, Box 40, FG 2/Kennedy, John F. 5/1/64–11/19/64, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas.

88
. Nan Robertson, “Robert Kennedy Leads the Family as 40,000 Pay Tribute at Arlington,”
New York Times
, November 23, 1964.

89
. Nan Robertson, “Kennedy’s Birthday Marked in Sorrow; Widow at a Mass,”
New York Times
, May 30, 1964.

90
. LBJ to JBK, December 15, 1964, White House Famous Names, Box 7, Folder “Kennedy, Mrs. John F., 1964,” LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.

14. CROSSED SWORDS: CAMELOT VS. THE GREAT SOCIETY

1
. See Lyndon Baines Johnson, “Inaugural Address (January 20, 1965),” Miller Center at the University of Virginia,
http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/4031
 [accessed October 17, 2011]. Johnson did bring up, in passing, “that sorrowful day in November of 1963” as he referred to his oath of office and his original pledge to “do the best I can.”

2
. Horace Busby to LBJ, December 9, 1964, Office Files of Horace Busby, Box 52, Memos to President-December, LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.

3
. “Kennedy Brothers Take Different Role This Time,”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, January 21, 1965.

4
. Those who stayed on were Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Postmaster General John Gronouski, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman, Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Anthony J. Celebrezze, and U.S. Representative to the United Nations Adlai E. Stevenson. Attorney General Robert Kennedy was replaced by Nicholas Katzenbach, and John T. Connor replaced Luther Hodges as secretary of commerce.

5
. Rusk, Udall, Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman, and Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz served all eight years of the Kennedy-Johnson administrations. McNamara served more than seven years, until February 1968.

6
. Interview with Bob Schieffer, March 4, 2013.

7
. See Eric Foner,
Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–77
(New York: Harper and Row, 1988).

8
. Doris Kearns Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream
(New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1976), 227; Irving Bernstein,
Guns or Butter: The Presidency of Lyndon Johnson
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 203–5.

9
. Bernstein,
Guns or Butter
, 156–82.

10
. See LBJ’s “Remarks in the Capitol Rotunda at the Signing of the Voting Rights Act, August 6, 1965,” Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum website,
http://www.lbjubrary.org/collections/selected-speeches/1965/08-06-1965.html
 [accessed October 17, 2011].

11
. Robert Dallek,
Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–73
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 228–29.

12
. Bernstein,
Guns or Butter
, 284 and 303.

13
. Randall B. Woods,
LBJ: Architect of American Ambition
(New York: Free Press, 2006), 709.

14
. Joseph A. Califano, Jr., “Seeing is Believing: The Enduring Legacy of Lyndon Johnson,” Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum website,
http://www.lbjlibrary.org/about-lbj/seeing-is-believing.html
 [accessed October 18, 2011].

15
. Bernstein,
Guns or Butter
, 298.

16
. Ibid., 273.

17
. Woods,
Architect
, 664; Sandra L. Johnson, “Federal Programs and Legislation: An Overview of the National Trails System Act,” American Trails,
http://www.americantrails.org/resources/feds/NatTrSysOverview.html
 [accessed October 18, 2011].

18
. In fairness, it should be noted that Eisenhower refused to get involved in a land war in Vietnam after the fall of Dien Bien Phu, even though the French and the Joint Chiefs pressed him to make just such a move. See Fred I. Greenstein,
The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader
(New York: Basic Books, 1982), 136, 231. For more information on the gradual escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, see David Halberstam,
The Best and the Brightest: Twentieth Anniversary Edition
(New York: Ballantine Books, 1992); David L. Anderson,
The Columbia History of the Vietnam War
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2011); George C. Herring,
America’s Longest War: the United States and Vietnam, 1950–75
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001); Stanley Karnow,
Vietnam: A History
(New York: Viking, 1983); William J. Fulbright,
The Arrogance of Power
(New York: Random House, 1967); Brian VanDeMark,
Into the Quagmire: Lyndon Johnson and the Escalation of the Vietnam War
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); and
The Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of United States Decision-making On Vietnam
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1971).

19
. Jacqueline Jones, Peter H. Wood, Thomas Borstelmann, Elaine Tyler May, and Vicki L. Ruiz,
Created Equal: A Social and Political History of the United States
, 2nd ed. (New York: Pearson Longman, 2006), 886.

20
. Dallek,
Flawed Giant
, 244.

21
. Ibid., 268; “Campus Groups Protest Viet Policy Across U.S.,”
Los Angeles Times
, October 16, 1965.

22
. Bruce J. Schulman,
Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism
(Boston: Bedford Books, 1995), 139.

23
. “Statistical Information About Casualties of the Vietnam War,” National Archives website,
http://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics.html
 #year [accessed November 9, 2011].

24
. William Chapman, “GIs Repel Pentagon Charge; 50,000 Rally Against War,”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, October 22, 1967; Daniel Hallin, “Vietnam on Television,” Museum of Broadcast Communications,
http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=vietnamonte
 [accessed October 18, 2011].

25
. Harry McPherson to LBJ, May 12, 1967, EX FG 1 2/11/67, Box 14, FG 1: 5/5/67–5/27/67, LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.

26
. Joseph Alsop interview, conducted by Paige E. Mulhollan, May 28, 1969, Joseph Alsop Papers, Box 183, Folder 8, Joseph and Stewart Alsop Papers, Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Washington, DC.

27
. Goodwin,
Johnson and the American Dream
, 252–53.

28
. Ibid., 313.

29
. See Lawrence Freedman,
Kennedy’s Wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2000); David Halberstam,
The Making of a Quagmire
(New York: Random House, 1965); Robert S. McNamara and Brian VanDeMark,
In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam
(New York: Times Books, 1995); Theodore C. Sorensen,
Counselor: A Life At the Edge of History
(New York: Harper, 2008); Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,
Robert Kennedy and His Times
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978); and Lawrence Freedman, “Vietnam and the Disillusioned Strategist,”
International Affairs
72, no. 1 (January 1996): 133–51.

30
. E-mail from Ted Sorensen, October 12, 2010. Jacqueline Kennedy, speaking privately in 1964, added a bit of evidence to Sorensen’s claims when she remarked, “Jack always said the political thing [in Vietnam] was more important than the military and nobody’s thinking of that [now, during the Johnson administration].” See Jacqueline Kennedy,
Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy
(New York: Hyperion, 2011), 272.

31
. A Freudian slip is found in McPherson’s memo, when he asks whether those with divided loyalties would “go to the wall for you against Jack.” He clearly meant Bobby, not Jack.

32
. Harry McPherson to LBJ, June 24, 1965, WHCF, Harry McPherson, Box 21, Office Files of Harry McPherson: Kennedy, Robert F., LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.

33
. Telephone interview with Harry McPherson, October 5, 2011.

34
. Bill Moyers to LBJ, September 10, 1966, Files of Marvin Watson, Box 25, Office Files of Marvin Watson: Kennedy, Robert [2 of 4], LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.

35
. Lyndon B. Johnson, “State of the Union (January 12, 1966),” Miller Center website, University of Virginia,
http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/4035
 [accessed August 3, 2011].

36
. Letter from RFK to LBJ, January 1966, White House Famous Names Collection—RFK, Box 8, LBJA Famous Names: Kennedy, Robert F. and Family (1965–68), LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.

37
. Letter from LBJ to RFK, January 27, 1966, White House Famous Names Collection—RFK, Box 8, LBJA Famous Names: Kennedy, Robert F. and Family (1965–68), LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.

38
. Mike Manatos to LBJ, March 29, 1967, EX FG 2/Kennedy, John F. 12/28/67—LBJ Presidential Papers, Box 41, LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.

39
. Tom Johnson to George Christian, August 29, 1967, EX PL/Humphrey, Hubert H./Pro, Box 26, PL/Kennedy, Robert F., LBJ Library, Austin, Texas. Tom Johnson is no relation to LBJ.

40
. Jeff Shesol,
Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud That Defined a Decade
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1997), 386–88.

41
. Note from LBJ to staff, December 10, 1967, Files of Marvin Watson, Box 25, Office Files of Marvin Watson: Kennedy, Robert [2 of 4], LBJ Library, Austin, Texas. On June 3, 1967, RFK introduced the president at the Democratic State Committee Dinner in New York by saying, “In 1964 he won the greatest popular victory in modern times, and with our help he will do so again in 1968 … He is the head of our nation and of our party, our Commander-in-Chief and our chief diplomat, our Chief Executive and our chief spokesman, and the chief repository of our hopes and our fears, our advice and our consent, our complaints, and, yes, our prayers. I am very proud that we have in our midst President Lyndon Johnson,
President of the United States.” See Ben Wattenberg to LBJ, December 8, 1967, Files of Marvin Watson, Box 25, “Office Files of Marvin Watson, Kennedy, Robert [2 of 4],” LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.

42
. J. Chris Arndt and Raymond M. Hyser,
Voices of the American Past
, vol. 2 (New York: Wadsworth, 2001), 506.

43
. Goodwin,
Johnson and the American Dream
, 340.

44
. According to an unofficial White House Museum website, “The East Garden was dedicated by Mrs. Johnson as the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden on April 22, 1965, although it has been called the ‘First Lady’s Garden’ by some later administrations,” namely Nixon’s—Chris Matthews says that Nixon changed the name. See Matthews,
Kennedy and Nixon: The Rivalry That Shaped Postwar America
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), 276. White House Museum,
http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/grounds/kennedy-garden.htm
 [accessed October 19, 2011]. The staff at the John F. Kennedy Library told me, “The Jacqueline Kennedy Garden is the former East Garden, which is in the same location in front of the East Wing as the Rose Garden is in front of the West Wing.”

45
. Jacqueline Kennedy to Lady Bird Johnson, March 15, 1965, White House Famous Names, Box 7, Folder “Kennedy, Mrs. John F., 1965,” LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.

46
. Runnymede is the famous meadow near the Thames River in Southern England where King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215. By placing limits on the king’s power, the Magna Carta nurtured the development of English liberties, which in turn helped bring about the American Revolution and the drafting of the Bill of Rights.

47
. Jacqueline Kennedy to Lyndon Johnson, March 28, 1965, White House Famous Names, Box 7, Folder “Kennedy, Mrs. John F., 1964,” LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.

48
. In May 1854, British sailors aboard HMS
Resolute
were forced to abandon their ship “in latitude 74 degrees 41 minutes N longitude 101 degrees 22 minutes W” while searching for another vessel. The following year, an American whaleboat captain discovered the
Resolute
, which was subsequently refurbished and presented to Queen Victoria as a gift from the president and people of the United States. Touched by the kind gesture, Victoria ordered a desk made out of the ship’s timbers when it was broken up and had it presented to President Hayes. Since then, the “Resolute desk” has become one of the White House’s most iconic furnishings. See “The President’s Desk,” John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum website,
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Miscellaneous-Information/Desk.aspx
 [accessed October 20, 2011].

49
. Bess Abell to Lady Bird Johnson, July 27, 1965, EX FG 2/Eisenhower, Dwight, Box 40, FG 2/Kennedy, John F. 11/20/64–8/31/65, LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.