The Kennedy Half-Century (94 page)

6
. Jack Gould, “TV: CBS Outsmarted,”
New York Times
, August 14, 1956; Herbert S. Par-met,
Jack: The Struggles of John F. Kennedy
(New York: Dial Press, 1980), 356–57 and 366–69; “Party’s Film Aids Kennedy’s Drive,”
New York Times
, August 14, 1956. The revisionist historian Thomas C. Reeves, author of
A Question of Character
, also sees the Kennedy film as a shrewd political maneuver: “Jack had been selected to narrate the film because he had performed well during television appearances and because
Profiles in Courage
was a best-seller. Kennedy appeared at the rostrum soon after the film’s showing, prompting a placard-waving demonstration by the Massachusetts delegation. The movie and the convention proceedings were televised nationally, and Jack became known to tens of millions. (When Jack’s Georgetown neighbor and friend, television newsman Charles Collingwood, kidded him about the failure of CBS to air the film, Jack shot him a hateful look and said, ‘I know, you bastards.’)” Thomas C. Reeves,
A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy
(Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing, 1992), 134.

7
. Doris Kearns Goodwin,
The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), 395–405; Parmet,
Jack
, 16, 103, 162. See also David Nasaw,
The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy
(New York: Penguin Press, 2012.)

8
. Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 81. Sorensen says that JFK wanted the vice presidential nomination because he was a competitive guy, not because he really wanted the job. He also says that “circumstances” more than calculated political strategy explain why JFK was so successful at the convention (Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 80–85.) Kenny O’Donnell claims that JFK’s father hit the roof when he learned that his son was seeking the vice presidency (Kenneth P. O’Donnell, David F. Powers, and Joe McCarthy,
“Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye”: Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1970), 138. The historian Herbert Parmet agrees and says that JFK was asserting his independence from his father (Parmet,
Jack
, 363). But Thomas Reeves dissents: “That Jack would enter a dangerous factional struggle on
his own and against his father’s wishes is contrary to what we know about the relationship between the two men, before and after 1956. And given the ambassador’s carefully laid plans for his son to this point, and the Kennedys’ long-established and widely known (among insiders) designs on the 1956 ticket, it seems highly unlikely that the elder Kennedy suddenly failed to support his son’s bid for national prominence.” Moreover, Reeves thinks that Joe Sr. was pulling the strings behind the scenes and that his trip to Èze-sur-Mer (on the French Riviera) was a calculated move to convince the public that Jack was his own man (Reeves,
Question of Character
, 131–32). I am skeptical of Sorensen’s claims, and there is plenty of evidence that the Kennedy organization had been carefully preparing the way for JFK’s VP effort. For example, see Fletcher Knebel’s
Look
article, “Can a Catholic Become Vice President?” which ran in June 1956 (34). Knebel later admitted that Sorensen had given him the story. Similarly, Arthur Krock’s
New York Times
article, “In the Nation: The Democratic Party and the ‘Catholic Vote,’ ” which was printed on July 5, 1956 (p. 24) has its roots in the Kennedy camp. The August 6, 1956,
Time
article “Democrats: Who for Vice President?” (
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,862293,00.html
 [accessed December 18, 2012]) references the “persuasive statistical arguments that Catholicism is no longer a national political liability,” and these “statistical arguments” were almost certainly based on the “Bailey Memorandum,” a study that had actually been produced by Sorensen.

9
. “Adlai Above Minimum Required for Nomination, AP Tally of Votes Shows,”
Newport Daily News
, August 16, 1956; Parmet,
Jack
, 370; “Mrs. Roosevelt’s V.P. Choice Must Be Anti-McCarthy,”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, August 15, 1956.

10
. “Gore Is Reported Stevenson Choice,”
New York Times
, August 15, 1956; “2 Senators Lead as Running Mate,”
New York Times
, August 16, 1956.

11
. Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 86–87.

12
. “Democrat Delegates Make Scramble to Stevenson,”
Independent Record
, August 16, 1956; John F. Kennedy,
“Let the Word Go Forth”: The Speeches, Statements, and Writings of John F. Kennedy
(New York: Delacorte Press, 1988), 83.

13
. Kennedy, “Let the Word Go Forth,” 85; Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 87.

14
. Kennedy,
Speeches, Statements, and Writings
, 84; “John F. Kennedy’s Voting Record and Stands on Issues,”
CQ Fact Sheet on John F. Kennedy
(Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1960),
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/John+F.+Kennedys+Voting+Record+and+Stands+on+Issues+Page+3.htm
 [accessed November 16, 2010]; Robert Dallek,
An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–63
(Boston: Little, Brown, 2003), 214.

15
. Kennedy,
Speeches, Statements, and Writings
, 85–86; “Text of Speeches Nominating Two Major Rivals in Democratic Presidential Battle,”
New York Times
, August 17, 1956; Par-met,
Jack
, 372. Kennedy’s description of Stevenson as the “top vote-getter” was perceived as a jab at former president Truman, who continued to hold out hope that Governor Averell Harriman (NY) would win the nomination.

16
. Before 1940, senior party leaders chose the vice presidential nominee. In 1940, FDR established the current practice by personally selecting Henry Wallace as his running mate. Vice presidential votes since have followed the 1940 FDR model and been strictly ceremonial, with the exception of the 1956 Democratic Convention. Lee Sigelman and Paul J. Wahlbeck, “The ‘Veep-Stakes’: Strategic Choice in Presidential Running Mate Selection,”
American Political Science Review
91 (December 1997): 855–64. Stevenson wasn’t sure whom
to choose as his running mate. As he analyzed it, Kefauver might help him in the Midwest farming regions, but the Tennessean had alienated Southerners by refusing to oppose
Brown v. Board of Education
; Humphrey’s close ties to liberals made him unpopular among conservatives; Kennedy was unacceptable to Eleanor Roosevelt and other senior party officials. Parmet,
Jack
, 373–74.

17
. James Reston, “Race Is Left Open,”
New York Times
, August 17, 1956;
Guide to U.S. Elections
, vol. 1, 6th ed. (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2010), 609; Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 87; Parmet,
Jack
, 376.

18
. 
Guide to U.S. Elections
, 609; Willard Edwards, “Running Account of V.P. Nomination,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, August 18, 1956.

19
. Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 89.

20
. LBJ disliked Kefauver, whom he saw as one of his chief rivals for the White House. His opposition to the Tennessean was also a shrewd political move—most Southerners loathed Kefauver. Although LBJ was friendly with JFK, he never took the Massachusetts senator very seriously. Johnson assumed that both Kennedy brothers were errand boys for their powerful father. Ronnie Dugger,
The Politician: The Life and Times of Lyndon Johnson
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1982), 373; Robert A. Caro,
The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002), 826–27; Bruce J. Schulman,
Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism
(Boston: Bedford Books, 1995), 54.

21
. Aull and Ogden,
Proceedings
, 473; Edwards, “Running Account”; Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 90; Drew Pearson, “Kefauver Aided by Gore Switch,”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, August 29, 1956; Parmet,
Jack
, 379. The official report of the convention erroneously credits John Connally with making the Texas delegation’s announcement.

22
. Robert C. Albright, “Tennessean Wins over Kennedy in Seesaw Contest for No. 2 Place,”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, August 18, 1956; Edwards, “Running Account”; W. H. Lawrence, “Finish Dramatic,”
New York Times
, August 18, 1956.

23
. “Kennedy Gets Ovation As He Yields to Winner,”
Los Angeles Times
, August 18, 1956; James MacGregor Burns,
John Kennedy: A Political Profile
(New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1959), 190.

24
. Richard Reeves,
President Kennedy: Profile of Power
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993), 15–16; Guy Paul Land, “John F. Kennedy’s Southern Strategy, 1956–60,”
North Carolina Historical Review
56 (January 1979): 41–63; “Kennedy Will Play Big Campaign Role,”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, September 15, 1956.

25
. “Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at United Steelworkers Convention, Los Angeles, California, September 19, 1956,”
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/JFK+Pre-Pres/1956/002PREPRES12SPEECHES_56SEP19.htm
 [accessed September 17, 2010]; “Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at the Los Angeles World Affairs Council Luncheon at the Biltmore Hotel on September 21, 1956,”
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/JFK+Pre-Pres/1956/002PREPRES12SPEECHES_56SEP21A.htm
 [accessed September 17, 2010]; “Remarks given at the Springfield Rotary Club, Springfield, Massachusetts, October 19, 1956,”
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/JFK+Pre-Pres/1956/002PREPRES12SPEECHES_560CT19B.htm
 [accessed September 17, 2010]. In fairness, it should be noted that Kennedy knew that he would be running for reelection in Massachusetts in 1958.

26
. Reeves,
Profile of Power
, 16.

27
. O’Donnell, Powers, and McCarthy,
“Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,”
144. According to Herbert Parmet, Jack came within “38½ votes of an absolute majority.” Parmet,
Jack
, 379.

28
. “Presidential Hopefuls Blossom Early,”
Los Angeles Times
, January 25, 1957; George Gallup, “Kefauver Leads Kennedy in Poll: Wins over Boston Senator by 49% to 38% as Potential Democrat Candidate in 1960,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 15, 1957, and “Poll Finds Democrats More Hopeful for 1960,”
Los Angeles Times
, March 22, 1957.

29
. Stewart Alsop, “The Dead End Street,”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, April 5, 1957.

30
. Dallek,
Unfinished Life
, 221–29; Kyle Palmer, “All Roads Lead to Washington,”
Los Angeles Times
, May 12, 1957; James Giglio,
The Presidency of John F. Kennedy
(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1991), 12. “Transcript, ‘Mike Wallace Interview’—ABC TV,” Box 30, Folder 20, Clark Clifford Papers, Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Washington, DC; letter from JFK to Clark Clifford, April 27, 1958, Box 30, Folder 18, Clark Clifford Papers, Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Washington, DC. For many years, Sorensen denied that he’d ghostwritten
Profiles in Courage
. At the end of his life, he backpedaled slightly and told a
New York Times
reporter that he had indeed “played an important role.” The reporter interpreted this to mean that Sorensen had written “most of the chapters.” Michael J. Birkner, a history professor at Gettysburg College, believes that “none of Kennedy’s wit, political sagacity, or glamour should obscure a basic fact that Theodore Sorensen’s death has now confirmed: Kennedy did not write
Profiles in Courage
. He simply took credit for it.” See Michael Birkner, “Ghost’s Story,”
Weekly Standard
16 (November 22, 2010),
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/ghost-s-story_516675.html
 [accessed November 27, 2012]. Birkner does not, however, support his accusation with incontrovertible evidence.

31
. Interview with Julian Bond, April 26, 2013.

32
. Telephone interview with Senator Mitch McConnell, December 2, 2011.

33
. Willard Edwards, “The Kennedys—Winning Team!”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, April 28, 1957; Giglio,
Presidency
, 13.

34
. Theresa Romahn, “Colonialism and the Campaign Trail: On Kennedy’s Algerian Speech and His Bid for the 1960 Democratic Nomination,”
Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History
10 (Fall 2009),
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_colonialism_and_colonial_history/toc/cch.10.2.html
 [accessed August 17, 2010]. Romahn sees the speech as a wink and a nod from JFK to civil rights advocates, though it was certainly well disguised. Russell Baker, “Kennedy Urges U.S. Back Independence for Algeria,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1957; “Kennedy Calls on U.S. to Back Algeria’s Fight,”
Washington Post and Times Herald
, July 3, 1957; “ ‘Our’ Algerian Problem,”
Wall Street Journal
, July 8, 1957. JFK’s Irish heritage may also explain his anticolonial views, since the Irish were the first people to be colonized by the English. Kennedy might also have been trying to appease the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Gilbert Harrison, the editor of the influential
New Republic
, wrote a letter to JFK congratulating him on his Algerian speech (“I think you did right to speak your mind on the Algerian question”). Letter from Harrison to JFK, July 9, 1957, Gilbert A. Harrison Papers, Box 2, “John F. Kennedy 1957–60,” Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Washington, DC.