Read The Passage of Power Online

Authors: Robert A. Caro

The Passage of Power (157 page)

“Mike, these people”
:
Transcript, “1:50 P.M. to Mike Mansfield,” April 1, 1964,
TPR,
Vol. V, pp. 623–24.
Gruening and Bartlett:
NYT, WP,
March 31, April 7, Aug. 21, 1964.
“I am prepared”
:
NYT,
May 14, 1964.

“The daily sessions”
;
“Having learned”
:
Whalen and Whalen,
Longest Debate,
pp. 157, 171.
“We are carving”
; after all;
“he wasn’t”
:
Mann,
Walls of Jericho,
pp. 409–10.

“Going to be against”
:
Transcript, “12:11 P.M. to Hubert Humphrey,” April 30, 1964,
TPR,
Vol. VI, p. 360.
When Johnson telephoned Dirksen:
Transcript, “4:30 P.M. to Everett Dirksen,” May 13, 1964,
TPR,
Vol. VI, pp. 661, 662.

“An idea”
:
Mann,
Walls of Jericho,
p. 442; Whalen and Whalen,
Longest Debate,
p. 185.
He still didn’t:
Whalen and Whalen,
Longest Debate,
p. 189.
Russell suddenly began pressing for amendments:
Newsweek,
June 22, 1964; Whalen and Whalen,
Longest Debate,
pp. 166–67.
“We need more time”
:
Whalen and Whalen,
Longest Debate,
p. 190.
The cloture motion passed, 71–29:
“The Historic Vote: 71 to 29,”
Newsweek,
June 22, 1964.
73–27:
“The Congress: The Final Vote,”
Time,
June 26, 1964.

Overriding the judge:
LAT, NYHT, NYT, WP, NYT, WP,
July 1, 2, 3, 1964.

Voting Rights Act:
Caro,
Means of Ascent,
pp. xiii–xxi;
Master,
pp. 715–16.

24: Defeating Despair

“Defeats Despair”
:
NYT,
Jan. 9, 1964.

“Controlled”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy and His Times,
p. 611.
“Painful”
:
Guthman,
We Band of Brothers,
p. 244.
“As if”
:
Seigenthaler interview.
“It was”
:
Guthman,
We Band,
p. 246.
“At Hobe Sound”
:
Salinger, quoted in Shesol,
Mutual Contempt,
p. 140.
“In the middle”
:
vanden Heuvel and Gwirtzman,
On His Own,
p. 2.
Agents … would see:
Collier and Horowitz,
The Kennedys,
p. 315.
“He was wearing”
:
Seigenthaler interview.
“I don’t”
:
vanden Heuvel inteview.
“So complete”
:
vanden Heuvel and Gwirtzman,
On His Own,
p. 3.
“Smiling, relaxed”
;
“as energetic”
:
“Bobby’s Back,”
Newsweek,
Jan. 20, 1964;
NYT,
Jan. 12, 1964;
WS,
Jan. 12, 1964. “He looks tanned, healthy and more relaxed,” the
WS
said (Jan. 9, 1964).
“Through the election”
;
“staying on”
:
WS,
Jan. 9, 1964.

“The suffering”
: vanden Heuvel and Gwirtzman,
On His Own,
p. 24.
“I didn’t have”
:
Seigenthaler interview, OH.
“A little too large”
:
Murray Kempton, “Pure Irish,”
The New Republic,
Feb. 15, 1964.
“How do?” “You’re young”
:
Collier and Horowitz,
The Kennedys,
pp. 314–15.
“When did he”
:
Jean Kennedy Smith interview.

“Now he is alone”
;
“What is different”
:
Kempton, “Pure Irish.”
“It was almost as if a part of
him
had died”
:
Newfield interview.

“Sensed”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 283.
“Understandable”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 283.
“in a way”
:
Shesol,
Mutual Contempt,
p. 130; Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 277.
“Began”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 283.
“Perhaps”
:
Schlesinger,
Journals,
p. 214.
“Obviously”
:
Bradlee,
Conversations with Kennedy,
p. 131.
“So do I”
:
Collier and Horowitz,
The Kennedys,
p. 317.
“Worried”
;
“restless”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 283–84.
“Quieted”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 284.
“Never really wanted”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 614.
“Wondered how long he could continue”
:
Schlesinger,
Journals,
p. 616.
“I cannot say what his essential feeling”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 616.

“He changed”
:
For example, Newfield, vanden Heuvel interviews. Of course, as Seigenthaler says, “I don’t think you could go through what he went through and not change” (Seigenthaler interview). Anthony Lewis says, “Most people acquire certainties as they grow older; he
lost
his. He changed—he grew—more than anyone I have known” (Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 593).

“It’s an impressive”
:
Penn Kimball, “Robert Kennedy,”
Life
magazine, 1966.
Cuban fishing boats:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 636.
“There was”
:
vanden Heuvel interview.

Orphanage party:
Maas, quoted in Stein and Plimpton,
American Journey,
pp. 146–47; Maas interview;
WS,
Jan. 12, 1964. “The child’s innocent cry knifed to the hearts of all who heard it,” the
WS
said.
Home for the aged:
Bradlee,
A Good Life,
p. 295; Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 293.

“I have”
:
Collier and Horowitz,
The Kennedys,
p. 321.
“There’s nothing”
;
“Unhappy”
;
“He didn’t like”
:
Novello, Kempton, Hundley, all quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 637.
“How’s Jimmy doing?”
:
Seigenthaler interview.
“otherwise”
:
Schle-singer,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 637.
“I saw him”
:
Morgenthau, quoted in Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 283.
“to go where”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 284.

“I’m tired”
:
Thimmesch and Johnson,
Robert Kennedy at Forty,
p. 146.

“What’s important”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 631. And see Goodwin,
Remembering America,
p. 246.
“I had”
:
Bradlee,
A Good Life,
p. 295.
“Anybody”
:
Kimball,
Life
magazine, 1966.
Bobby Kennedy was always
“a work in progress”
:
Newfield interview; Newfield, quoted in Goldfarb,
Perfect Villains,
p. 312.
“Before that”
:
vanden Heuvel interview.
“Knew how to hate”
:
Kempton, “Pure Irish,”
The New Republic,
Feb. 15, 1964.

Never called him “The President”
:
Newfield interview; Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 291.
“What does he know?”
;
“All those”
:
Goodwin,
Remembering America,
pp. 244, 250.

“There were”
;
“An awful”
;
“Said to Jackie”
;
“He was against”
:
Guthman and Shulman, eds.,
Robert Kennedy: In His Own Words,
pp. 405–11.
“I just”
:
Guthman and Shulman, eds.,
In His Own Words,
p. 344.
“They’re all scared”
;
“Ralph Dungan was”
;
“Our President”
:
Guthman and Shulman, eds.,
In His Own Words,
pp. 411–12, 417.

“The thing I feared”
:
Johnson interview with Doris Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream,
pp. 199, 344.
“Royal family”
:
Reedy interview.
“If”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 647.

Appoints Mann:
NYT, WP,
Dec. 15, 1963.
“a colonialist”
:
Goodwin,
Remembering America,
p. 245.
“Our power”
;
“Johnson has”
;
“Staff people”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 630–33.
Proposal was leaked:
Guthman,
We Band,
p. 247; Shesol,
Mutual Contempt,
p. 151. The article is in
WP,
Jan. 13, 1964. “Where did the
Post
get its story on Bobby?” he demanded of Bundy. (Transcript, “1:05 P.M. to McGeorge Bundy,” Jan. 13, 1964,
TPR,
p. 462.)
“I’m going to send”
:
Transcript, “1:25 P.M. to Richard Russell,”
TPR,
pp. 400–04. During the conversation with Russell, the subject of the 1960 convention—and of Bobby’s failure to force Johnson off the ticket—came up, with the two men sneering at the failure. When Johnson tells Russell that he’s sending Bobby to Indonesia, Russell says, “Tell him to be tough, too … like he was in Los Angeles,” and laughs.

Waseda speech;
“Tears”
;
“to remain”
;
“less than private”
;
“Never discussed”
;
“bitter”
:
Guthman,
We Band,
pp. 248–53;
NYHT, NYT,
Jan. 18, 19, 1964.
“We are of”
:
NYT,
Jan. 29, 1964. The photograph of Ken-nedy not looking at Johnson as they shook hands is in the
NYT,
Jan. 29, 1964.
“Used”
:
White,
The Making of the President 1964,
p. 261.

“A gutsy”
:
Guthman,
We Band,
p. 254.
Summoning Kennedy:
Johnson’s version of the confrontation is in Transcript, “5:21 P.M. to Cliff Carter; followed by Richard ‘Dick’ Maguire and Ken O’Donnell,” Feb. 11, 1964,
TPR,
Vol. IV, pp. 472–76. Kennedy’s version is in Guthman and Shulman, eds.,
His Own Words,
pp. 406–07. Kennedy talked to Seigenthaler and Goodwin about the confrontation at the time. Seigenthaler OH, JFKL.
Hadn’t even known:
Guthman and Shulman, eds.,
In His Own Words,
p. 406.
“If he’s such”
:
O’Donnell OH.
“I know”
:
Seigenthaler OH.

“I suggested”
:
Guthman and Shulman, eds.,
In His Own Words,
pp. 406, 407.
“Do it”
:
Goodwin,
Remembering America,
p. 248.
Johnson … recalling it”
:
Transcript, “5:21 P.M. to Cliff Carter, followed by Richard ‘Dick’ Maguire and Ken O’Donnell,” Feb. 11, 1964,
TPR,
Vol. IV, p. 475.
“A bitter, mean”
:
Guthman and Shulman, eds.,
In His Own Words,
p. 406.
“I did you a favor”
:
Goodwin,
Remembering America,
p. 248.
“I told him”
;
“tears got”
:
Transcript, “5:21 P.M.,” pp. 474–75.
“So savage”
:
Bartlett OH, JFKL.

“I’m just like a fox”
:
Caro,
Master,
p. xxi, quoting Dickerson,
Among Those Present,
pp. 154–55.
“Divine retribution” for his “participation”
:
Guthman and Shulman, eds.,
In His Own Words,
pp. 326–27.
Neither of the two:
For example, Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 392.
“We had a hand”
:
Shesol,
Mutual Contempt,
p. 131.
“Whether”
:
Transcript, “1:40 P.M., from J. Edgar Hoover,” Nov. 29, 1963,
TPR,
Vol. I, p. 275.
“President Kennedy”
:
Califano,
The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson,
p. 295.
“Murder, Inc.”
:
Leo Janos, “The Last Days of the President,”
Atlantic Monthly,
July 1973.
“Cruelly”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 292.
“The worst”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 649.
“Does not”
:
Prettyman, Barrett, quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 687.
“He saw”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 687.

25. Hammer Blows

Telephone call to Clifford:
Clifford, Clark,
Counsel to the President,
pp. 545–46. The fact that Johnson made an “early … morning” call to Clifford—at 5:41 A.M., June 5th—is recorded in the President’s Appointments File [Daily Diary]—June 5th. Historian Jeff Shesol asked Clifford about his conversation with Johnson during an interview, and, Shesol reports, Clifford said, “That was a very delicate situation, and I wondered whether I should even mention it [in the book].” He also said, “I don’t want to go on any further than I did in the book.” The Johnson Library says that no recording of the call exists, and there is no recording of it in the library’s “Recordings and Transcripts of Conversations and Meetings” file. Whether Johnson continued to press Clifford on whether Robert Kennedy had the right to be buried at Arlington is unknown, but on June 6 Clifford telephoned to tell him the specific authority that gave Robert Kennedy that right. On that date, Johnson aide Jim Jones reported in a memo to Johnson: “Secretary Clifford reports that a three-acre plot was set aside for President Kennedy at Arlington Cemetery. At the time, Secretary McNamara enunciated that this plot would be available for burial of members of the Kennedy family.… Clifford
just wanted you to know there is authority for the senator to be buried in the Kennedy plot” (Shesol,
Mutual Contempt,
p. 553; Jim Jones to Johnson, June 6, 1968, “June 5–6, 1968, Action Memos after Kennedy Assassination Report,” Box 102, President’s Appointment File [Diary Backup]).

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