Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House

by Robert Dallek

  111 Kennedy’s objective: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 678–86, especially 685.

  112 Larry O’Brien: Lawrence F. O’Brien, No Final Victories: A Life in Politics—from John F. Kennedy to Watergate (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), chaps. 1–6, especially pp. 100–101; Guthman and Shulman, eds., Robert Kennedy, 48–49; Dallek, Flawed Giant, 8–11.

  114 Pierre Salinger’s selection: Salinger, With Kennedy, chaps. 1–3 and pp. 49–59. Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 716–17; Sorensen, Counselor, 341.

  116 Kennedy’s limited focus: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 133–36; Schlesinger, Journals, 93–96; Guthman and Shulman, eds., Robert Kennedy, 39–40; New York Times obituary of Dillon, Jan. 12, 2003; Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 435–36.

  118 For both substantive: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 137; Walter Heller, OH; Heller, “Meeting with the President-elect,” Dec. 23, 1960; “Recollections of early Meetings with Kennedy,” Jan. 12, 1964, Box 5, Walter Heller Papers, JFKL.

  119 Before Kennedy selected: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 71–72; Brauer, Presidential Transitions, 78–79.

  119 A last consideration for Kennedy: “Wofford, Harris,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Jan. 29, 2006; Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 35ff., especially 36, 40, 58, 63–64, 67, 130–34.

  122 Despite Kennedy’s directive: Ibid., note on 133; Guthman and Shulman, eds., Robert Kennedy, 57, 77–79.

  122 Kennedy’s choice: Burke Marshall obituary, New York Times, June 3, 2003; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 288–89.

  123 Executive action: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 10–11.

  123 The president-elect also asked: Dallek, Lone Star Rising, 529–32.

  124 The person most notably: Jacqueline Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 319, 347–48, 201–203. The tour can be accessed on YouTube.

  Chapter 4: “Never Rely on the Experts”

  127 Freezing weather: President’s Appointments, January 21, 1961; Charles Bartlett, OH, JFKL.

  127 He believed that the combined: Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1961 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962), 5, 10, 15–16, 18.

  128 Kennedy’s inspiration: “Report to the President on the Peace Corps,” February 1961; “Conversation between the President and Eleanor Roosevelt Discussing the Peace Corps,” March 1, 1961, POF, JFKL. Also see Stossel, Sarge, 169–72, 198–208; Theodore Sorensen, Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History, 329–33; Peace Corps Online.

  130 The Alliance for Progress: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 193, 223–26; JFK’s Inaugural Address; Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 49.

  130 Goodwin was a brilliant: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 192–94.

  131 When Kennedy announced: Stephen G. Rabe, “John F. Kennedy and Latin America,” Diplomatic History (Summer 1999); Thomas Mann, OH, JFKL; Schlesinger to JFK, Feb. 6, 1961, POF; Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 205.

  131 The need for wise counsel: Foreign Relations of the United States: Cuba, 1961–1962 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1997), p. 5, n. 3; pp. 25, 44. (Foreign Relations of the United States hereafter abbreviated FRUS.)

  132 Because promises of a new day: Ibid., 46–57.

  133 The great question then for Kennedy: Ibid., 61–69, 89–90, 92–93. “Be landed gradually” is on 90. Howard Jones, The Bay of Pigs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008); Bird, Color of Truth, 198; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 359–61; Robert Dallek, “The Untold Story of the Bay of Pigs,” Newsweek, Aug. 22 and 29, 2011, 26, 28; Gordon M. Goldstein, Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam (New York: Times Books/Henry Holt, 2008), 38–40; O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, 274.

  137 Part of Schlesinger’s problem: Bird, Color of Truth, 198–99.

  137 During February and March: FRUS: Cuba, 1961–62, 107–108, 118–20, 143–45, 156–60, 177; Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 246–47; Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 251.

  139 Undersecretary Chet Bowles: FRUS: Cuba, 1961–1962, 178–81, 185–89; Richard Goodwin, Remembering America: A Voice from the Sixties (Boston: Little, Brown, 1988), 176–77; Jackie Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 112–13, 312–13; Schlesinger, Journals, 109; Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 250–51, 258–59; JFK speech to the American Newspaper Publishers Association, April 27, 1961, POF; Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 242.

  142 Adlai Stevenson was yet another skeptic: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 271–72; FRUS: Cuba, 230–31.

  143 In the final days before the attack: Ibid., 191–93, 200.

  143 Despite all precautions: Jacqueline Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 182–83.

  143 The operation was a miserable failure: Sorensen, Kennedy, 309; for the hidden CIA history, see Dallek, “The Untold Story of the Bay of Pigs,” 26, 28; Jacqueline Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 185–86; FRUS: Cuba, 1961–1962, note on 221 about General Maxwell Taylor being assigned to chair a committee studying the failure, also 304–06; Schlesinger, Journals, 109–110; Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 246–47; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 359–68; Jon Wiener, “Bay of Pigs Fifty Years Later: The Lessons Kennedy Never Learned,” Nation, April 18, 2011.

  147 In a later conversation: Jacqueline Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 190; McNamara, In Retrospect, 26–27; Bird, Color of Truth, 197–98; Goldstein, Lessons in Disaster, 41–43; PPP: JFK, 1961, 312–13; Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 289–90.

  148 Not only was it smart politics: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 258, 296; Goldstein, Lessons in Disaster, 41.

  149 Kennedy’s public response: Thomas E. Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today (New York: Penguin Press, 2012), 220; Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 295–96; Jacqueline Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 183; “CIA: Maker of Policy or Toll?” New York Times, April 25, 1966; Thomas Powers, The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA (New York: Knopf, 1979), 115; Goodwin, Remembering America, 181. On Bissell, see Robert F. Kennedy Notes, April 22, 1961, 6–22: Cuba: Personal Notes, RFK Confidential Files, JFKL.

  150 While Kennedy sat on his anger: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 289; Goodwin, Remembering America, 183.

  150 The principal fall guy: PPP: JFK, 1961, 307–308.

  151 Conflicting memos: FRUS: Cuba, 1961–1962, 295–97, 302–304.

  152 Kennedy shared Bobby’s: Salinger, With Kennedy, 169–70; Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 341–42.

  153 The Bowles onslaught: FRUS: Cuba, 1961–1962, 304–306, 313–14; Goodwin, 187.

  154 Bobby Kennedy thought his attack: Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 264–65; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 472.

  155 Bowles’s open dissent: PPP: JFK, 1961, 518–29; Schaffer, Chester Bowles, 220–30.

  156 The principal consequence: FRUS: Cuba, 1961–1962, 306–307; also 309–310; Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012), 186; RFK to JFK, June 1, 1961, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 446–47.

  157 Kennedy now wanted a new voice: New York Times, April 21, 1987; John M. Taylor, An American Soldier: The Wars of General Maxwell Taylor (Novato, CA: Presidio, 1989); Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 309–10; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 448.

  158 In the first weeks of his term: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 338; Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 247–48.

  159 Kennedy was not indifferent: JFK, “Imperialism—The Enemy of Freedom,” July 2, 1957, Compilation of Speeches, JFKL; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 350–53.

  161 At the end of January 1961: Foreign Relations of the United States: Vietnam, 1961 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1988), 12–19.

  162 Because political change: Walter S. Poole, History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: The Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Policy, 1961–1964 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2011), 23–24; FRUS: Vietnam, 1961, 28, 40, 46–47, 58–60; Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 110, 127–32.

  164 Among Kennedy’s White House advisers: FRUS: Vietnam, 1961, 68–69, 82–86, 13
1; Walt W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1960); Jacqueline Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 315–16; Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 128–31; Galbraith, Letters to Kennedy, 62.

  166 For all these doubts: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 302–303; Foreign Relations of the United States: Soviet Union, 1961–1963 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1998), 128; FRUS: Vietnam, 1961, 126–27.

  167 A Johnson trip: George A. Smathers, OH, Senate Historical Office, Washington, D.C.; Dallek, Flawed Giant, 12–17; FRUS: Vietnam, 1961, 143.

  168 Yet as Johnson told Kennedy: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 17–18; FRUS: Vietnam, 1961, 149–57; Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 133–35.

  170 Walt Rostow didn’t wait: FRUS: Vietnam, 1961, 157–58, 166.

  171 Despite Kennedy’s directive: Ibid., 172–74.

  171 As it was, White House and Pentagon: Ibid., 195–96, 198–200.

  172 With the Cuban failure: “Off the Record Briefing with the President,” Dec. 31, 1961, Box WH 66, Arthur Schlesinger Papers, JFKL.

  Chapter 5: “Roughest Thing in My Life”

  173 During his first months in office: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 315; Bayard Rustin, OH, Columbia University; Louis Martin to Sorensen, May 10, 1961, Box 66, RFK Papers, JFKL.

  174 Kennedy hoped: Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–1963 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), 405.

  174 An executive order: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 23–29, 32–35.

  175 The White House came in for additional criticism: Dallek, Unfinished Life, 383–88; Branch, Parting the Waters, 414–16.

  176 The administration’s travails: PPP: JFK, 1961, 396–403; Sorensen, Counselor, 334–35.

  177 On April 20: JFK to LBJ, April 20, 1961, POF, JFKL.

  178 Kennedy largely knew: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 21.

  179 McNamara and Rusk agreed: Michael R. Beschloss, “Kennedy and the Decision to Go to the Moon,” in Roger D. Launius and Howard E. McCurdy, eds., Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997), 57–58.

  179 Kennedy was less inclined: PPP: JFK, 1961, 403–405.

  180 Kennedy saw serious risks: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 21–22. See Hugh L. Dryden, OH, March 24, 1964, JFKL, who recounts how little discussion there was with JFK about the moon venture. Everything went through Johnson. Also, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., OH, June 12, 1964, JFKL.

  180 Kennedy’s speech also came: Foreign Relations of the United States: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1993), 3–9.

  181 Kennedy was keen to avoid: Ibid., 21–22, 25–30; McGeorge Bundy, OH, #1, JFKL.

  182 Brandt’s pessimism: FRUS: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, 30–44; also Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger, 54–56; Dean Acheson, OH, JFKL; Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 380–81, 406, 413; Michael Fullilove, Rendezvous with Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America into the War and into the World (New York: Penguin Press, 2013), 293.

  184 Conversations with Adenauer and: FRUS: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, 45–51, 56.

  184 In 1961, in the immediate aftermath: Ibid., 61–63, 66–69.

  185 Still, unless one side or the other: Ibid., 77–79.

  186 The recommendations left Kennedy: Ibid., 80–86; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 394–97.

  186 At an initial May 31 meeting: Sir Alec Douglas-Home, OH; Isaiah Berlin, OH; Charles Bohlen, OH; Nicholas Wahl to McGeorge Bundy, May 1961, Box 331, National Security File; “President’s Visit to de Gaulle,” May 27, 1961, Box 116A, POF, all in JFKL; Beschloss, Crisis Years, 183; Time, June 9, 1961.

  189 As he prepared to meet: Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (New York: Norton, 2003), xviii–xx, 492–94.

  190 The State Department: FRUS: Soviet Union, 1961–1963, 153–60, 164–70.

  192 Llewellyn Thompson also had doubts: Ibid., 163–64.

  192 Averell Harriman: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 149–50; Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 73–75.

  194 Charles Bohlen doubted: Charles Bohlen, OH, JFKL.

  194 But Khrushchev would concede no weakness: Simon S. Montefiore, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar (New York: Vintage Books, 2005), 152–57; Taubman, Khrushchev, 213–15.

  195 Khrushchev learned the art: Taubman, Khrushchev, xi, 427–28, 474–76.

  196 Khrushchev came to Vienna: New York Times, June 4, 1961; Kenneth O’Donnell Tapes, Tape 51, JFKL; Beschloss, Crisis Years, 191–92; Jacqueline Kennedy, Conversations, 198.

  197 The initial formal discussions: FRUS: Soviet Union, 1961–1963, 172–78; Beschloss, Crisis Years, 196, 234; O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, 195; Taubman, Khrushchev, 493–500; Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 28–29; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 404–14.

  199 What had particularly agitated: FRUS: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, 87–98.

  200 Kennedy stopped in London: Henry Brandon Diaries, June 9, 1961, Library of Congress; Harold Macmillan, Pointing the Way, 1959–1961 (New York: Harper, 1972), 355–59.

  201 On returning to Washington: FRUS: Soviet Union, 1961–1963, 232–37; PPP: JFK, 1961, 441–46.

  202 Kennedy now: Ibid., 104–105, 107–109; National Action Security Memo No. 55, June 28, 1961, National Security File, JFKL; The Gallup Poll, 1959–1971, 1726, 1729; President Kennedy, 188–89; PPP: JFK, 1961, 476–77, 481.

  203 On the twenty-eighth, Kennedy: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 380; McGeorge Bundy, Danger and Survival: Choices About the Bomb in the First Fifty Years (New York: Random House, 1990), 371–75; FRUS: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, 138–41, 160–62; Dean Acheson, OH, April 27, 1964, JFKL; Douglas Brinkley, Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years, 1953–1971 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992), 125, 196; Robert L. Beisner, Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 629–30; Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 19; Jacqueline Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 30–31.

  Chapter 6: Advice and Dissent

  207 Despite all the difficulties: PPP: JFK, 1961, 481; Schlesinger, Journals, 122.

  207 Kennedy’s initial problems: Paul Boyer, By the Bomb’s Early Light (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 352–55; Bundy, Danger and Survival, 324.

  208 In 1957–58, the Soviet Union: Glenn T. Seaborg, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Test Ban (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), chaps. 1–2 and pp. 30, 32–34.

  209 In March 1961: Ibid., pp. 45–48, 63–66; Foreign Relations of the United States: Arms Control and Disarmament, 1961–1963 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1995), 38–41, 53–57, 69–71, 81–83.

  210 The exchanges at the conference: FRUS: Arms Control, 83–92; Seaborg, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Test Ban, 66–68.

  210 After Vienna, Moscow: Seaborg, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Test Ban, 68–78; Schlesinger, Thousands Days, 398; Reeves, President Kennedy, 223; PPP: JFK, 1961, 486–87; FRUS: Arms Control, 150–56.

  211 At the same time, Kennedy: PPP: JFK, 1961, 618–26.

  212 But the Russians seemed impervious: Seaborg, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Test Ban, 84, 111; FRUS: Arms Control, 217–21.

  213 Kennedy’s ambivalence: Seaborg, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Test Ban, 126–31; FRUS: Arms Control, 282–88.

  213 With little success in turning: FRUS: Cuba, 1961–1962, 640–47, 654–55, 657.

  215 At the same time, however: Ibid., 641, 657.

  215 But White House discussions: Ibid., 664–68; Bird, Color of Truth, 199; Thomas, Robert Kennedy, 145–48.

  217 Yet the administration: FRUS: Cuba, 1961–1962, 684–89; Thomas, Robert Kennedy, 151–52.

  217 Lansdale was the president’s and Bobby’s: Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 378; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 461–62, 466–67; Thomas, Robert Kennedy, 148–50; New York Times obituary, Feb. 24, 1987; Jonathan Nashel, Edward Lansdale’s Cold War (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2006).

  219 As much as the Kennedys: Robert Ken
nedy in His Own Words, 378; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 478–85; Thomas, Robert Kennedy, 151–52.

  220 The Joint Chiefs also got into: The documents on Operation Northwoods are available at the National Archives website.

  220 Unhappily for the president: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 477–78.

  221 While nuclear talks and Cuba: Newsweek, July 3, 1961.

  221 The Newsweek article: FRUS: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, 187–202, 209–22; Acheson’s comment is in Honoré M. Catudal, Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis (Berlin: Berlin-Verlag, 1980), 182; McGeorge Bundy, OH, JFKL; Acheson Speech, July 25, 1961, POF, JFKL.

  222 To counter Acheson’s assault: PPP: JFK, 1961, 513–21.

  223 The questions to Kennedy: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 390–91.

  223 Kennedy saw the speech: Dallek, Unfinished Life, 422–24; PPP: JFK, 1961, 533–40.

  224 Kennedy’s speech had its desired effect: Taubman, Khrushchev, 503–506.

  225 The Wall touched off: Bird, Color of Truth, 212; Shapley, Promise and Power, 121; Poole, History of the Joint Chiefs, 148–49; FRUS: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, 339–42.

  226 Kennedy and his White House advisers: O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, 303; FRUS: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, 330–32.

  226 The pressure on Kennedy: O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, 299; Dallek, Flawed Giant, 19–20.

  227 But uncertainties remained: FRUS: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, 359–60, 377–78, 392, 397–98, 435–37.

  228 The clash of opinions: Ibid., 444–55; Salinger, With Kennedy, chapter 12.

  229 With the opening of negotiations: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 400.

  229 Kennedy’s decision in early July: FRUS: Vietnam, 1961, 195–96, 198–200, 205–207.

  230 Rostow was not alone: Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 147; FRUS: Vietnam, 1961, 216–20.

  231 Others in the Kennedy administration: Ibid., 234–36, 243–44, 248–51.

  232 Three days after his July 25: Ibid., 252–56; Galbraith, Letters to Kennedy, 70–71; PPP: JFK, 1961, 624.

  234 Mindful that Kennedy: Galbraith, Letters to Kennedy, 76–77.

  234 Galbraith thought: FRUS: Vietnam, 1961, 256–57, 267–69, 292; William C. Gibbons, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships, 1961–1964 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1984), 60–61; Halberstam, Best and Brightest, 150; White to JFK, Oct. 11, 1961, POF, JFKL.