Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House

by Robert Dallek

  Whatever the outcome of a second Kennedy term might have been, speculation about it as better than what Johnson gave the country serves Kennedy’s historical reputation, which remains extraordinarily high. The affection for him generated by his persona and the tragedy of his assassination have encouraged positive assessments of his leadership. Fifty years after his death, there is no sign that Kennedy’s hold on Americans is anywhere in retreat.

  Notes

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  Chapter 1: John F. Kennedy: Prelude to a Presidency

  1 Small wonder: Schlesinger related his conversation to me in 2001. Also see, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978), 228.

  2 Immediately after: For JFK’s medical history, see the Dr. Janet Travell medical records at the John F. Kennedy Library (JFKL). Also, Janet Travell Oral History at the JFKL. For LBJ’s attack on JFK, see Robert Dallek, Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908–1960 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 571–73. The medical bag is discussed in Abraham Ribicoff Oral History (all oral histories hereafter abbreviated OH), Columbia Universirty. On Nixon and the break-ins, see Robert Dallek, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963 (New York: Little, Brown, 2003), 286, and the note on 755; also 299–300 on post-election questions about JFK’s health; Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy (New York: Bantam Books, 1966), 268.

  3 Kennedy echoed: Kenneth P. O’Donnell and David F. Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970), 234.

  3 Kennedy’s route: Dallek, Unfinished Life, 6–13, 19, 157–58.

  6 No one, however, contributed more: Ibid., 14–25, 53, 112. Also Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987), 446–48, 498–99.

  7 Joe’s reach: Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 164; Michael R. Beschloss, Kennedy and Roosevelt: The Uneasy Alliance (New York: Norton, 1980), 123–28, and chap. 6; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 53–54.

  9 The fall in public: Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, 600–04, 621–23.

  9 Joe’s hopes for: John H. Davis, The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster, 1848–1983 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984), 104–06; U.S. Air Force Report, Aug. 14, 1944, JFKL; William G. Penny to JFKL, Aug. 14, 2001, JFKL.

  10 But not for long: Dallek, Unfinished Life, 27, 33–35, 73–75.

  11 His medical ordeal: Ibid., 76–77.

  11 Kennedy’s medical issues: Ibid., 51–68, 111–17.

  12 In 1945–46: JFK Tape Recording 39, October 1960, JFKL; Joan and Clay Blair, Jr., The Search for JFK (New York: Berkley, 1974), 356.

  13 Once committed: James McGregor Burns, John Kennedy (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1959), 99; Twain quote is in Anthony Jay, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 372; Charles Spaulding, OH, JFKL; JFK interview with James McGregor Burns, March 22, 1959, JFKL; Victor Lasky, J.F.K. (New York: Macmillan, 1963), 117.

  14 The Senate was: Dallek, Unfinished Life, chap. 6, especially 177–78, 189–92, 226; Ted Widmer, Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy (New York: Hyperion, 2012), 30–31.

  15 Journalists and party leaders: William V. Shannon, New York Post, Nov. 11, 1957; James Reston, New York Times, Oct. 10, Nov. 10, 1958; Peter Lisagor, OH, JFKL; Widmer, Listening In, 287.

  15 Many in the Democratic Party: Newton Minow, OH; William Attwood, OH; William Benton, OH; and William McCormick Blair, Jr., OH, Columbia University; Peter Collier and David Horowitz, The Kennedys: An American Drama (New York: Summit Books, 1984), 294.

  16 In running for: Harris Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1980), 36–37.

  17 “I claim not”: Quoted in David Donald, Lincoln Reconsidered (New York: Vintage Books, 1961), 138.

  17 His fight for: Dallek, Unfinished Life, 252–58.

  18 The question shadowed: O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, 205–208; Sept. 12, 1960, speech, Box 1061, Pre-Presidential Papers (PPP), JFKL.

  19 It did not: On the vote, see Louis Harris to Joseph Alsop, Nov. 16, 1960, “An Analysis of the 1960 Election for President,” Joseph and Stewart Alsop Papers, Library of Congress (LOC); Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1960 (New York: Atheneum, 1961), 350–65; JFK’s New Frontier speech, July 15, 1960, Box 1027, PPP; and John Kenneth Galbraith, Letters to Kennedy, ed. James Goodman (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), 10.

  19 Kennedy and his advisers: On Nixon, see Robert Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), chap. 1.

  20 The importance of: White, Making of the President, 1960, 286–94; Galbraith, Letters to Kennedy, 14.

  21 Kennedy won: White, Making of the President, 1960, 350–65; Sorensen, Kennedy, 238–51; O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, 229; Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965), 125.

  22 The same week: See New York Times, Nov. 15, 1960; O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, 229.

  22 Two meetings with: Robert F. Kennedy, OH; Charles Spaulding, OH, JFKL; for the Dec. 5, 1960, and Jan. 19, 1961, meetings with Eisenhower, see the documents in Box 29A, President’s Office Files (POF), JFKL, which list the topics for discussion.

  24 Kennedy, however, had no: Clark Clifford, Counsel to the President: A Memoir (New York: Random House, 1991), 319–20.

  24 At the same time, Kennedy: Richard Neustadt, “Organizing the Transition,” Sept. 15, 1960, POF, JFKL; Richard Neustadt, OH, Columbia University; Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, 122–23.

  25 Neither Clifford nor: The quote is in Carl M. Brauer, Presidential Transitions: Eisenhower Through Reagan (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 64.

  26 Kennedy saw: The Adams and Wilson quotes are in Robert Dallek, “Presidential ‘Disability’: An American Dilemma,” University Lecture, Boston University, 1999. For the Eisenhower comment, see Stephen E. Ambrose, Eisenhower: The President (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984), 599–600.

  26 As the former Senate: Dallek, Lone Star Rising on LBJ’s pre–vice presidential career; Robert Dallek, Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 8–9; Jacqueline Kennedy, Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy (New York: Hyperion, 2011), 56; Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Roosevelt (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957–1960); Brauer, Presidential Transitions, 65–66.

  28 But whatever Kennedy: George F. Kennan, OH, JFKL.

  29 Yet however wise: Interview with Priscilla Johnson; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 151–52, 192–95.

  31 Kennedy’s affinity for: Mimi Alford, Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath (New York: Random House, 2012), see esp. 82–83, 101–105, 109, 124–25, 127.

  Chapter 2: Robert Kennedy: Adviser-in-Chief

  35 As Kennedy searched: The Parnell quote is in Antony Jay, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 284.

  35 Kennedy saw: See my discussion of Joe Kennedy’s views on his family in Dallek, Unfinished Life.

  35 When Jack first entered: Ibid., 118–19, 121–26.

  37 Whatever Jack’s limitations: Widmer, Listening In, 32; Ralph G. Martin and Ed Plaut, Front Runner, Dark Horse (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1960), 133; Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, 183; Blair and Blair, Jr., The Search for JFK, 478–79, 495.

  38 Once in office: Arthur Krock, OH, JFKL; Lasky, J.F.K., 117.

  38 The alternative: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 42–66. Also see James W. Hilty, Robert Kennedy: Brother Protector (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998), chaps. 1–3.

  40 While Jack served: Dallek, Unfinished Li
fe, 67–81.

  41 In the fall: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 60–93; RFK Diary in Folder “Trips 1951, Mid & Far East,” Box 24, RFK Papers, JFKL.

  42 The moment came in 1952: Thomas J. Whalen, “Evening the Score: John F. Kennedy, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., and the 1952 Massachusetts Senate Race,” Ph.D. Dissertation, History Department, Boston College, 1998, 243–55, 285; Martin and Plaut, Front Runner, Dark Horse, 164; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 94–98; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 168–76.

  44 In January 1953: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 99–109.

  45 Perhaps Bobby’s: Ibid., 109–29. Also Dallek, Lone Star Rising, 451–59.

  46 In 1956: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 130–33; Dallek, Lone Star Rising, 489–91, 502–504; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 203–208. “Hi, sonny” is in Evan Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 96.

  49 Despite his assessment: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 133–36; for JFK’s speeches between September and November 1956, see Compilation of Speeches, JFKL; Herbert Parmet, Jack: The Struggles of John F. Kennedy (New York: Dial Press, 1980), 384–86; Goodwin, Fitzgeralds and Kennedys, 791–92.

  50 The 1956 ventures: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, chaps. 8–9; Goodwin, Fitzgeralds and Kennedys, 787–88.

  51 By October: Sorensen, Kennedy, 35, 117; Handwritten Notes: “Oct. 28, 1959—RFK House—Hyannis Port,” JFKL; Paul B. Fay, Jr., The Pleasure of His Company (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), 76–77.

  51 Bobby’s initial field assignment: Dallek, Lone Star, 559; Jeff Shesol, Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade (New York: Norton, 1997), 10–11.

  53 And for Bobby Kennedy: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 194–97; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 239–51.

  54 West Virginia: White, Making of the President, 1960, 96–114; Hubert H. Humphrey, The Education of a Public Man (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976), 208, 216–17, 475; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 198–204; Thomas, Robert Kennedy, 93–96; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 252–58.

  56 Jack and Bobby: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 204–206; Dallek, Lone Star Rising, 569–73; Earl Mazo, OH, Columbia University; Bobby Baker, Wheeling and Dealing: Confessions of a Capitol Hill Operator (New York: Norton, 1978), 118.

  57 It was an empty: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 206–11; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 267–74.

  58 Once Jack had: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 211–19; Thomas, Robert Kennedy, 100–08; Earl Mazo, OH, Columbia University; Abraham Ribicoff, OH, Columbia University; Parmet, Jack, 34; Eleanor Roosevelt to JFK, Aug. 16, 1960; Eleanor Roosevelt to Mary Lasker, Aug. 15, 1960, Box 32, POF.

  61 With Jack exhausted: Newsweek, Nov. 21, 1960; New York Times, Nov. 23, 1960; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 228–36; Thomas, Robert Kennedy, 109–11; John Seigenthaler, OH, JFKL; RFK to Drew Pearson, Dec. 15, 1960, Box 23, RFK Papers, JFKL; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 316–20.

  65 Bobby’s appointment: C. Douglas Dillon, OH, JFKL.

  Chapter 3: “A Ministry of Talent”

  67 The day after: Richard Reeves, President Kennedy: Profile of Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 25.

  68 Compounding Kennedy’s worries: Dallek, Unfinished Life, 92–94.

  68 The Soviets might have: L. James Binder, Lemnitzer: A Soldier for His Time (Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 1997), chaps. 1–17, especially pp. 2–12 and 281–83; Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Journals, 1952–2000 (New York: Penguin Press, 2007), 126.

  71 Admiral Arleigh Burke: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 200–201; Arthur Sylvester, OH, JFKL; New York Times, Jan. 28, 1961; Arleigh Burke, OH, JFKL; and Dallek, Unfinished Life, note for p. 337 on p. 762.

  72 Kennedy’s biggest worry: McGeorge Bundy to JFK, Jan. 30, 1961, Box 313, National Security File, JFKL; Roswell Gilpatric, OH; Memorandum, Feb. 24, 1961; JFK conference with military chiefs, Feb. 27, 1961, Box 345, National Security File; Binder, Lemnitzer, 315–16; “Thomas S. Power,” Wikipedia; and Warren Kozak, The Life and Wars of Curtis LeMay (Chicago: Regnery, 2009), which paints a sympathetic portrait. Fred Kaplan, The Wizards of Armageddon (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983), 43–44, 256, quotes LeMay; Sorensen is quoted on p. ix of Kozak.

  74 When Kennedy’s national security adviser: Kai Bird, The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy: Brothers in Arms (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998), 208–10.

  75 At the time: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 912.

  76 No one on his staff: Obituary, New York Times, Oct. 31, 2010.

  76 Sorensen was born: Sorensen, Counselor, chaps. 1–8, especially, pp. 93, 97, 100–102, 192–93; Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 17–19; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 179–80. I leave it to readers of my biography of Kennedy to see the extent to which JFK, his family, and staff misled voters in 1960 about his medical history and judge whether it would have changed the outcome of the race. Sorensen thinks fuller revelations would not have changed the result.

  80 During his lifetime: Sorensen, Counselor, 129; Schlesinger, Journals, 143–44.

  80 Sorensen’s importance: Counselor, 195–96, 198–99.

  81 As Sorensen would eventually find out: Ibid., 237–40.

  81 Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. was: Sorensen, Kennedy, 296–97; Schlesinger, Thousand Days, chaps. 1–3, especially pp. 143 and 162; Schlesinger, Journals, 63–93, 446–47; Edwin O. Guthman and Jeffrey Shulman, eds., Robert Kennedy: In His Own Words (New York: Bantam, 1988), 419.

  83 While Sorensen and Schlesinger: David Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 3–10; Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 129.

  85 With Lovett out of the picture: Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam (New York: Times Books, 1995), chaps. 1–4.

  88 The Kennedys didn’t care: Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 10; Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 166–67; Deborah Shapley, Promise and Power: The Life and Times of Robert McNamara (Boston: Little, Brown, 1993), xv–xvi, 11, 21, 88, 234, 270, 539–40.

  89 Kennedy was more focused: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 208–10; Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 44–46, 56–81; Bird, Color of Truth, 13–14, 135, 108, 151–53, 190, 192–93.

  91 Because Kennedy intended: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 150; Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 43; Dallek, Flawed Giant, 296; see the Walt W. Rostow File at JFKLibrary.org, Digital Archive, especially Rostow to JFK, Aug. 8, 1960; author interview with Rostow, July 27, 1992.

  92 Kennedy had initially: Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 43–44; Bird, Color of Truth, 185–86.

  93 Bundy recruited: Bird, Color of Truth, 186–89.

  93 Adlai Stevenson had wanted: Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 26–28, 316; Guthman and Shulman, eds., Robert Kennedy, 6. The JFK-Stevenson relationship in 1960 is clearly documented in the 1960 Stevenson file, in POF, JFKL. Also see Abraham Ribicoff, OH; William Atwood, OH; John Sharon, OH; William McCormick Blair, OH, all at Columbia University; Reeves, President Kennedy, 25.

  95 Although Kennedy: See Stevenson’s report in his 1960 file, POF; also see, John Sharon, OH.

  95 Kennedy’s thoughts: On Fulbright’s early years, see Randall B. Woods, Fulbright: A Biography (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1995); on his relations with JFK, see Fulbright’s January–August 1961 file in POF, JFKL; also Fulbright’s oral history in JFKL. On Fulbright’s appointment as secretary, see Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 139–40; Guthman and Shulman, eds., Robert Kennedy, 36–37; and Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 29–30.

  97 With Fulbright eliminated: Guthman and Shulman, eds., Robert Kennedy, 5, 37–38.

  97 It was not as if: On Rusk’s career up to 1960, see Warren I. Cohen, Dean Rusk (Totowa, NJ: Cooper Square, 1980), chaps. 1–5.

  98 When Kennedy offered Rusk: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 140–41; Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 32–37; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 223; Brauer, Presidential Transitions, 88–89; Schlesinger, Journals, 98; Dean Rusk, As I Saw It (New York: Norton, 1990), 201–204.

  100 Rusk’s caution: Rusk, As I Saw It, 197–98.

  101 Yet Rusk was never: Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 3
2–33, 63, 196–97.

  101 Once he made Rusk secretary: Ibid., 11–24; Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986), 583; Howard B. Schaffer, Chester Bowles: New Dealer in the Cold War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), chap. 10, especially pp. 169–70.

  103 Kennedy’s appointment of George Ball: George W. Ball, The Past Has Another Pattern: Memoirs (New York: Norton, 1982), 157–62; James A. Bill, George Ball: Behind the Scenes in U.S. Foreign Policy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), 56–60.

  104 With his national security: JFK’s Inaugural Address is available at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=8032; Galbraith, Letters to Kennedy, 11.

  106 Anyone listening: George Gallup, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935–1971 (New York: Random House, 1972), 1676, 1691; Galbraith, Letters to Kennedy, 7.

  106 Yet, however much: William E. Leuchtenburg, A Troubled Feast: American Society Since 1945 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), 111, 113; Alan Ehrenhalt, “Are We as Happy as We Think?” New York Times, May 7, 2000; on poverty in the United States, see Michael Harrington, The Other America (New York: Macmillan, 1962); also see Scott Stossel, Sarge: The Life and Times of Sargent Shriver (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2004), chap. 25, especially pp. 336–38.

  107 Kennedy understood: Dallek, Unfinished Life, 291–93.

  109 Powers was the first: Pierre Salinger, With Kennedy (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966), 71–72, 90; O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, vii–ix, 52–55; Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Times to Remember (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), 310; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 127, 307, 476, note about JFK’s womanizing on p. 779.

  110 Kenneth O’Donnell was: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 93; Salinger, With Kennedy, 64–65; O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, 81ff, but especially 81, 252–57. RFK’s committee was the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field.