The Passage of Power (137 page)

“Jack Kennedy had made”
;
“he was perhaps,” etc
:
O’Brien OH I. O’Brien puts the time of his summons to Kennedy’s suite at “6 A.M. or something” like that, but it is clear from his description of what happened when he arrived that it occurred after
John Kennedy’s meeting with Johnson.

“Sam was in”
:
Patman, quoted in Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy,
p. 530.
“Johnson was going to do”
:
Boggs OH I. The exact same words were used by Corcoran in one of his interviews with the author.
“Rayburn was adamant”
:
Clements OH.
Boggs told Corcoran:
Krock, Memoranda, July 1960, p. 1; Hardeman and Bacon,
Rayburn,
p. 442; Boggs OH; Boggs, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon,
p. 256.
“reiterated strongly”
:
Potter, “How LBJ Got.”
Poignant:
The closest Rayburn came to giving voice to those feelings was during his conversation with Johnson immediately after Jack Kennedy had left his suite. He said, according to Johnson, that “He would not be happy without me on the Hill” (Potter, How LBJ Got”).
Rayburn said he would; “I think”
:
Hardeman and Bacon,
Rayburn,
pp. 441, 442.

“John, I’ve got”
:
Holton interview. Holton gave a slightly different version of these quotes to C. Dwight Dorough, in Dorough’s
Mr. Sam,
p. 569.
“I told him”
:
Hardeman and Bacon,
Rayburn,
pp. 443, 519.

“Positively exuberant:
”
Boggs, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon,
p. 257.
He told O’Brien and other aides:
Potter, “How LBJ Got.”
“Briskly”
:
DMN,
July 15, 1960.
“I don’t”
:
Connally interview.
“A wiser man”
:
Potter, “How LBJ Got.” Johnson was to give a longer version of this remark in his “Reminiscences”: “Because I’m a sadder and wiser and smarter man this
morning than I was last night” (“Reminiscences of President Lyndon Baines Johnson,” Aug. 19, 1969, p. 8).

“And then”:
Connally interview.
“It is a trap”
:
White,
The Making of the President, 1964,
p. 86.

Number of meetings conflict:
Jim Rowe says (OH II), “I finally concluded that where everybody misses what actually happened was that there were three periods of conversation between Johnson and Kennedy, and most people got them down to two. That is why I think all this confusion exists.” But it is only part of the reason that confusion exists.
Schlesinger says:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 209.
Connally
says
: “He [Bobby Kennedy] came not once—he came three times.” Transcript, “An American Profile,” C-Span, July 1, 1991, p. 11; Connally interview. Johnson was to say, “He came to my room three times to try to get me to say we wouldn’t run on the ticket” (Johnson, “Reminiscences,” p. 6). Juanita Roberts, in her Pre-Presidential Daily Diary, in effect a log of Johnson’s activities, lists only two
trips that Robert Kennedy made down to the Johnson suite.

Telephone conversations conflict; Graham says four:
They are enumerated in Graham Memo.
Rowe says three:
In his OH II. In his “Private Memorandum, Sept. 22, 1960,” p. 2, Arthur Krock says Jack Kennedy “twice sent his brother, Robert F., to Johnson …” (Arthur Krock Papers, LBJL). The description of these meetings in this book is based on the author’s interviews—repeated interviews,
in an attempt to clear up the discrepancies between the various accounts—with
Busby, Connally, Corcoran, Hardeman, Hol-ton, Jenkins, Reedy, and Rowe. The only people alive present that day who refused to talk to the author about it were Bobby Baker and Bill Moyers. Baker’s description comes from his book,
Wheeling and Dealing.

Another principal source for this section is the memorandum, “Notes on the 1960 Democratic Convention,” dated July 19, 1960, written by Philip Graham and hereafter referred to as “Graham Memo.” Philip Potter interviewed Johnson, both Jack and Robert Kennedy, O’Brien, and O’Donnell, for a detailed account, “How LBJ Got the Nomination,” that appeared in the issue of
The Reporter
dated June 18, 1964.

First meeting:
The account of this meeting is based on Hardeman and Bacon,
Rayburn,
p. 443, and interviews with Connally. Also
BS,
July 16, which quotes Rayburn as saying to Bobby not “Shit!” but “utter nonsense.” The
Sun
said that “Robert was advised that Johnson and his lieutenants were in negotiations with his brother and not with him.” The paper said that “Young Kennedy
refused tonight to confirm or deny this, asserting that he had no desire to contradict an ‘elder statesman of the party.’ ”
“I don’t want”
:
Connally interview; transcript, “An American Profile,” C-Span, July 1, 1991, p. 11.
Were
waiting … “for the obvious”
:
Graham Memo, p. 16.
“His hair all hanging down”
;
“told me”
:
Rayburn, quoted in Hardeman and Bacon,
Rayburn,
p. 443.
“ ‘We’ve got to’ ”
:
Connally interview.
Democratic National Committee offer:
Graham Memo, p. 16. The Rayburn and Connally version of this meeting is supported by Earle Clements, who was in the Johnson suite when Rayburn and Connally emerged from this meeting. Clements says that both Rayburn and Connally told him at that time “that Bobby said there was great opposition from Labor and
wouldn’t Johnson become chairman of the National Committee …” He says that when Rayburn refused that offer, “Bobby said ‘Then he’ll be the nominee for vice president.’ ” The uncertainty in the Johnson camp about Jack Kennedy’s true feelings is shown by a remark Lady Bird made to Clements a few minutes later: “Do you think they really want him?” (Clements OH).
“ ‘Shit’ ”
:
Graham Memo, p. 16; Connally interview; on a television program, he cleaned up the quote, saying, “He just kind of spit and used an expletive” (Transcript, “An American Profile,” C-Span, July 1, 1991, p. 12).

“Lady Bird intervened”
;
“felt L.B.J.”
:
Graham Memo, pp. 8, 9. Connally says she said, “Lyndon, I hope you won’t do this” (Connally interview).

“Agreeing with her; You don’t want it”
:
Graham Memo, p. 9.
“ ‘All of us were pacing’ ”; And “finally”
:
Graham Memo, p. 9.
“By
which, it soon turned out, Johnson meant”
:
Connally, Rowe interviews.
Rayburn went back; “Then it’s Lyndon”
:
Rayburn interview with Hardeman, quoted in Hardeman and Bacon,
Rayburn,
p. 444; Connally interview. Juanita Roberts, in her Pre-Presidential Diary, says: “Bob Kennedy said, ‘Well, it’s Jack and
Lyndon.’ ”
“Suddenly”
:
DMN,
July 15, 1960.

“As witness”
:
Graham Memo, p. 9.

“He said something”
:
Graham Memo, p. 9.
“Both agreed”
;
“Jack was utterly calm”
:
Graham Memo, p. 10. This account is supported by David Lawrence’s son, Gerald, who says
that his father was writing the nomination speech (Gerald Lawrence OH, interview with Donaghy, July 16, 1973, Michael P. Weber Papers, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh).

“Come with me!”
;
“And there was Bobby Kennedy”
:
Busby, Connally interviews.
None of them would ever:
Busby, Connally interviews. Rowe and Holton heard about Rayburn’s remark a few minutes later.

Rayburn refused to see him; “It’s getting worse”
:
Connally interview. In another version, in Transcript, “An American Profile,” C-Span, July 1, 1991, p. 12, Connally says Bobby said, “He’s [Johnson’s] just got to do it. I said, ‘Well, Bobby, he’s not going to do that,’ so he left. Ten minutes later,
he’s back … had been back down to see Rayburn … and had said Jack would phone directly.”

Bobby then said;
“Roughly, 3:00”; No call came; “was considerably”
:
Graham Memo, p. 11.
“Johnson hasn’t heard”
:
Rowe OH II.
Jack said:
Graham Memo, p. 11.
“Stop vacillating”
:
Graham in his Memo (p. 11) says that he told Kennedy that “It was too late to be mind-changing” and “that he should remember ‘You ain’t no Adlai.’ ”
“Agreed about”
:
Graham Memo, p. 11.
“Just don’t go”
:
Rowe OH II.
“Johnson took the call”
;
“Do you really want me?”
Rowe, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon,
p. 261; Rowe OH II; Rowe interview.

“Everybody”
:
Rowe, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon,
p. 261.
“Whom I had never”
;
“Graham, my God”
:
Rowe OH II. Graham Memo, p. 13 says, “Bill Moyers rushed into our room
to say Lyndon wanted me at once. ‘I’ll be along in just a minute.’ ‘That won’t do,’ Moyers yelled, and grabbing my arm dragged me down the hall through a solid jam of press people and into the entrance hall of the suite with Rowe and Connally close behind.”

“There were just the two of us”
:
Robert Kennedy interview with Arthur Schlesinger,
quoted in Guthman and Shulman, eds,
In His Own Words,
pp. 21, 22.

Hawaiian delegates; “LBJ seemed about”
:
Graham Memo, p. 13.
He told them:
Rowe interview. Graham says, “he shouted at me that Bobby Kennedy had just come in and told Rayburn and him that there was much opposition and that Lyndon should withdraw for the sake of the party.”

“What am I going to do?”
;
“I’d never seen him”
:
Rowe interview.
“Phil, call Jack”
;
“ ‘Oh, … that’s all right’ ”
;
“You’d better speak to Bobby”
;
“Well, it’s too late now”
:
Graham Memo, pp. 13, 14. Schlesinger,
A Thousand Days,
p. 56.
“Had just survived”
:
Graham Memo, p. 15.

“Jim, don’t you think?”
Rowe OH II.
“My God”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 210; Schlesinger, “Author’s View—He Grabbed,”
Life.

“As though”
:
WP,
July 15, 1960.

“I urged”
;
“ ‘Bobby’s been’ ”
;
“I later learned”
:
Graham Memo, pp. 3, 14, 16.
“Did Jack offer”
:
Graham Memo, p. 16.

“The only people”
:
Robert Kennedy interviews with John Bartlow Martin, in Guthman and Shulman, eds.,
In His Own Words,
pp. 304, 22.
“I went”
;
“flabbergasted”
;
“Obviously,” etc.
:
Guthman and Shulman, eds.,
In His Own Words,
p. 22.

Scene in suite:
O’Donnell and Powers,
“Johnny, We Hardly,”
p. 194; O’Donnell OH; Miller,
Lyndon,
pp. 258–59.
“Violently”
:
O’Donnell and Powers,
“Johnny, We Hardly,”
p. 19.
“Joe Rauh,
who”
:
Woodcock, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon,
p.258.
“This is the worst double cross”
:
WES,
July 16, 1960.
“Double-cross”
;
“sell-out”
:
O’Donnell and Powers,
“Johnny, We Hardly,”
p. 194.
“Savagely”
:
O’Donnell OH.
Rose
shouted; Conway:
O’Donnell and Powers,
“Johnny, We Hardly,”
p. 194.
“I don’t think”
;
“Bobby was shaken”
:
O’Donnell and Powers,
“Johnny, We Hardly,”
p. 194.

“Do you want me”
:
O’Donnell and Powers,
“Johnny, We Hardly,”
pp. 194–95.
Jack’s determination … appears never to have wavered; Soapy-Governors confrontation; “sitting in an armchair”
:
O’Donnell and Powers,
“Johnny, We Hardly,”
p. 195.
“Not to my recollection”
:
O’Brien OH I.
Lawrence’s speechwriters were drafting:
Governor Lawrence, quoted in Donaghy,
Keystone Democrat,
p. 143. Donaghy interview with Gerald Lawrence, Part I, July 16, 1973, p. 3, Michael P. Weber Papers, Archives Service
Center, University of Pittsburgh Library System.
“The President wanted”
:
Guthman and Shulman, eds.,
In His Own Words,
p. 22.
“As the years”
:
O’Brien OH I.
“That
was”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 98. Shesol’s conclusion on the same point: “Bobby argued that when he had left the Kennedy suite to meet with Johnson, the two brothers had been in agreement: if Johnson seemed amenable, Bobby should ease him off the ticket. But once plunged into the labyrinth of crowded hallways and snarled communications, Bobby did indeed fall ‘out of touch’ and was betrayed, however unintentionally,
by his own brother. This was, perhaps, too painful to admit, but the alternative was unthinkable” (Shesol,
Mutual Contempt,
p. 56).
“I always”
:
Dutton, quoted in Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 98.

“That opened to Johnson”
:
Evans and Novak,
LBJ,
p. 282.