Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House

by Robert Dallek

  346 The State Department also downplayed: FRUS: Vietnam, January–August 1963, 161–62, 169–73, 189.

  347 Robert G. K. Thompson: Ibid., 193, 198–200, 205, 207–13.

  348 Still, Diem and the Nhus: Ibid., 207–13, 222–25, 232–35, 243–46.

  349 By the spring of 1963: Ibid., 256–58, 261–62, 265, 268, 270; taped conversation, May 7, 1963, JFKL.

  349 In May, if Kennedy needed: FRUS: Vietnam, January–August 1963, 277–78, 283, 294–300, 303–05.

  350 Kennedy was caught between: New York Times, May 5, 1963; JFK Press Conference, May 22, 1963; O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, 16. Also see Newman, JFK and Vietnam, 319–25, who argues that Kennedy was playing a double game: talking in public about winning the war, while using it as a cover to withdraw under the guise of victory.

  351 Because Kennedy had lost: FRUS: Vietnam, January–August 1963, 316–24.

  351 Pressure to dump Diem: New York Times, June 9, 14, 16, 1963; FRUS: Vietnam, January–August 1963, 362–64, 366–69, 374, 377–78, 381–83.

  352 Rusk’s warning to Diem: Dallek, Unfinished Life, 594–606.

  355 Despite Kennedy’s injunction: FRUS: Vietnam, January–August 1963, 386–87, n. 5, 393–95, 405–09, 413–15; New York Times, June 14, 1963.

  356 Kennedy’s eagerness: FRUS: Arms Control, 599–601; Foreign Relations of the United States: Kennedy-Khrushchev Exchanges, 1961–1963 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1996), 204–05, 234–36, 238–40.

  356 Khrushchev’s response: FRUS: Kennedy-Khrushchev Exchanges, 238–39, 247–49, 253–55, 262–65; Seaborg, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Test Ban, 178–81, 184–85.

  357 Although Khrushchev clearly: Seaborg, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Test Ban, 193–95; PPP: JFK, 1963, 80.

  357 Prime Minister Macmillan: FRUS: Arms Control, 655–58, 676–78, 683–87, 693–99.

  358 On May 30, Kennedy: Ibid., 707–08; Saturday Review of Literature, Nov. 7, 1964; Norman Cousins, The Improbable Triumvirate: John F. Kennedy, Pope John, Nikita Khrushchev (New York: Norton, 1972), 111–20.

  359 Cousins’s urgings: Sorensen, Kennedy, 821–26; PPP: JFK, 1963, 459–64; FRUS: Arms Control, 710–14; Dallek, Unfinished Life, 618–21.

  360 But Castro: The documents covering the discussions in November about the IL-28s are in FRUS: Kennedy-Khrushchev Exchanges; JFK’s quote is on 223; and FRUS: Cuban Missile Crisis. For an excellent summary of the dispute, see Fursenko and Naftali, “One Hell of a Gamble,” 290–310.

  361 Yet Kennedy could not ignore: FRUS: Cuban Missile Crisis, 379–80, 394, 499, 548, 574, 582–83.

  362 For many of Kennedy’s advisers: Ibid., 587–89, 597, 608. See Russell D. Hoffman, “The Effects of Nuclear Weapons,” online, 1999, who cites the 1962 Air Force pamphlet; Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 247–48; Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 337–38; taped conversation, Dec. 5, 1962, POF, JFKL.

  363 On December 27: JFK Conference with Joint Chiefs, Dec. 27, 1962, Box 345, National Security File, JFKL.

  364 Two days later, Kennedy spoke: Richard Goodwin, “President Kennedy’s Plan for Peace with Cuba,” New York Times, July 5, 2000; FRUS: Cuban Missile Crisis, 635–36; O’Donnell and Powers, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, 276–77; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 535–38; Lawrence Freedman, Kennedy’s Wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 225–26; Jacqueline Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 193–94.

  365 There were good reasons: FRUS: Cuban Missile Crisis, 648–51.

  365 Kennedy liked Bundy’s plan: Ibid., 658–62, 665.

  366 Kennedy wanted: Ibid., 666–68, 670–75; and Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 538.

  366 Kennedy was torn: FRUS: Cuban Missile Crisis, 668–69, 681–88.

  367 At an NSC meeting: Ibid., 681–94, 698–99, 708–10.

  369 By March, Kennedy: Ibid., 713–18; RFK to JFK, March 14, 1963, Box 35, Theodore Sorensen Papers, JFKL; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 538–39; Thomas, Robert Kennedy, 239.

  370 But he had limited control: FRUS: Cuban Missile Crisis, 728, 732–34.

  371 The raids opened a new round: Ibid., 739–43.

  372 Under pressure from the CIA and the Florida: Ibid., 748–54. Also see Taubman, Khrushchev, 578–81.

  373 Had Kennedy’s advisers: Gallup, The Gallup Poll, 1959–1971, 1993, 1800, 1807, 1811, 1815.

  373 In response to all the cross pressures: FRUS: Cuban Missile Crisis, 754–56, 759–60; Bundy, Danger and Survival, 462.

  374 On the same day Kennedy wrote: FRUS: Cuban Missile Crisis, 761–64.

  375 The discussion of how to deal with Castro: Ibid., 780, 791, 795–97, 802–04, 814, 821–23.

  376 And so the CIA just continued: Ibid., 822, 828–34, 837–38, 842–45, 851. McCone’s warning is in recently released material in the RFK Papers, JFKL.

  Chapter 10: “The Two of You Did Visit the Same Country, Didn’t You?”

  379 In the second half of 1963: Widmer, Listening In, 86, 208–09.

  380 Kennedy sent a stellar delegation: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 902–09.

  380 The more difficult battle: Taubman, Khrushchev, 603.

  381 Kennedy’s principal problem: Poole, History of the Joint Chiefs, 102–04; JFK–Mike Mansfield telephone conversation, Aug. 12, 1963, JFKL; Bernard J. Firestone, “Kennedy and the Test Ban: Presidential Leadership and Arms Control,” in Douglas Brinkley and Richard T. Griffiths, eds., John F. Kennedy and Europe (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999), 82–85.

  382 Bringing the Chiefs to support: Poole, History of the Joint Chiefs, 104–05; telephone conversations: JFK-LeMay, July 19, 1963; JFK-Rusk, July 24, 1963; JFK-Truman, July 26, 1963; JFK-Fulbright, Aug. 23, 1963, JFKL; Firestone, “Kennedy and the Test Ban,” 88–93.

  383 As he was winning his fight: FRUS: Cuban Missile Crisis, 837–38, 848, 853.

  383 Still, no matter how much: Ibid., 861–63.

  384 Despite Kennedy’s plea: Ibid., 864–65.

  384 Kennedy, supported by Bundy and McNamara: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 551–52; FRUS: Cuban Missile Crisis, 868–70.

  385 The CIA immediately countered: Ibid., 871–73.

  385 At the same time, Kennedy saw: Ibid., 875–77; Poole, History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1961–1964, 184.

  386 Ending agitation about Cuba: FRUS: Cuban Missile Crisis, 877.

  386 Still, the president, Bobby: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 552–53; Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 376.

  387 On October 31, Attwood: FRUS: Cuban Missile Crisis, 879–83, especially 882.

  388 Like Castro, Kennedy found: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 553–54; FRUS: Cuban Missile Crisis, 883–89.

  389 Castro was not: Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1963 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office 1964), 872–77; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 554–56; Dallek Unfinished Life, 662–63.

  391 Pressure on Diem to settle: FRUS: Vietnam, January–August 1963, 432, 447–49, 451–53.

  392 What was Kennedy supposed to believe: New York Times, July 3, 1963; FRUS: Vietnam, 455–56, 465–66, 470–78, 481.

  393 At a July 17 press conference: JFK Press Conference, July 17, 1963.

  393 At the end of July: FRUS: Vietnam, January–August 1963, 541–43.

  394 On August 5, when the press: Ibid., 553–55, 557–60.

  394 On August 15, Kennedy met: Ibid., 567; JFK–Henry Cabot Lodge taped conversation, Aug. 15, 1963, Tape 104/A40, JFKL.

  395 Kennedy, of course, could not control: New York Times, Aug. 15, 1963; FRUS: Vietnam, January–August 1963, 584, 589.

  395 For all his antagonism: Robert Kennedy in His Own Words, 161–65; Reeves, President Kennedy, 363; FRUS: Vietnam, 585–88, 590–91.

  395 On August 21, when reports: Tape 106/A41, Aug. 21, 1963, JFKL; FRUS: Vietnam, 598–602, 604–05.

  396 Embassy dispatches: FRUS: Vietnam, 611–14, 620–25.

  397 On August 24, Forrestal: Ibid., 625–26, 628–31. On the controversy, see Gib
bons, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War, 148–50.

  397 On August 26, Kennedy met: Tape 107/A42, Aug. 26, 1963, JFKL; FRUS: Vietnam, 638–41.

  398 While the White House debated: Ibid., 647, 649.

  399 But the problem of what to do: Ibid., 650, n. 6, 653, 658–59.

  399 The 4 P.M. meeting: Ibid., 659–65; tape 107/A42, Aug. 27, 1963, JFKL.

  400 The struggle over how to proceed: FRUS: Vietnam, January–August 1963, 668, 670–72.

  400 Meanwhile, back in Washington: FRUS: Vietnam, August–December 1963 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1991), 1–9; tapes 107/A42, 108, and 108/A43, all Aug. 28, 1963; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 713–14.

  401 At the evening meeting: FRUS: Vietnam, August–December 1963, 12–17.

  402 During all this debate: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 968–73.

  403 The pressure on Kennedy: FRUS: Vietnam, August–December 1963, 20–31, 35.

  403 The problem, however: Ibid., 38, 53, 55, 63–64, 66, 76, 78–79.

  404 Later that morning, at another: Gibbons, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War, 160–61; FRUS: Vietnam, Aug–Dec. 1963, 69–74. The mea culpas of McNamara and Bundy are respectively in McNamara, In Retrospect, and Goldstein, Lessons in Disaster. Interview with McGeorge Bundy, Sept. 25, 1993.

  405 Lodge was now instructed: FRUS, 75–79; JFK Interview with Cronkite, Sept. 2, 1963, online; Gibbons, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War, 163.

  406 In suggesting that it was Vietnam’s: FRUS: Vietnam, August–December 1963, 98–104, 111–12.

  406 Nonetheless, Vietnam remained: Ibid., 146, 161–63, 165; tape 109, Sept. 10, 1963, JFKL.

  407 The inability of his advisers: FRUS: Vietnam, August–December 1963, 169–71, 176.

  408 In the meantime, Kennedy: Ibid., 166, 174–75.

  409 The continuing daily conversations: Ibid., 192–93, 195, 203, 205, 208–209, 212, 218–20, 235; Gibbons, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War, 177–80.

  409 Because Kennedy saw no likelihood: FRUS: Vietnam, August–December 1963, 252–56, 278–79, 282–83.

  410 Predictably, the McNamara-Taylor visit: Ibid., 311, 317, 321, 336–39, 346, 353.

  411 The White House then issued: PPP: JFK, 1963, 759–60.

  411 The public pronouncement: Gibbons, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War, 186, 188.

  412 Above all, now, he wanted to repress: FRUS: Vietnam, August–December 1963, 166, 350–52; Gibbons, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War, 188–89.

  412 But Kennedy couldn’t plug leaks: New York Times, Sept. 29, Oct. 3, 8, 17, 1963; FRUS: Vietnam, August–December 1963, 364–65.

  413 Kennedy made Halberstam the focus: Halberstam, Making of a Quagmire, 201–03; Susan E. Tifft and Alex S. Jones, The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind the New York Times (Boston: Little, Brown, 1999), 388–89.

  414 But Kennedy could no more control: FRUS: Vietnam, August–December 1963, 393, 423–24, n. 5, 427, 429.

  414 On the twenty-seventh, the divide: Gibbons, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War, 196; FRUS, 453–55, 467. The details about the cable on the twenty-seventh are noticeably absent from the FRUS volume; and the Kennedy Library, as Gibbons, the author of The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War, points out, has no record of this directive. We only have the recollections of Ball, Hilsman, and Johnson that such a cable was sent, but its date is in dispute.

  415 The limits of White House control: FRUS: Vietnam, August–December, 1963, 468–75.

  416 But Lodge, who remained: Ibid., 484–85, 488, 500–502.

  417 But the exchanges: Ibid., 525–26, 533, 537.

  417 In a recording on November 4: JFK tape, Nov. 4, 1963, JFKL.

  418 Regardless of what happened next: FRUS: Vietnam, August–December 1963, 579–80; JFK Press Conference, Nov. 14, 1963; William J. Rust, Kennedy in Vietnam (New York: Da Capo Press, 1985), 3–5; Forrestal’s quote can be found on the Internet under JFK Nov. 21, 1963, discussion of Vietnam with Forrestal.

  Epilogue: “What He Is Slated to Become Depends on Us”

  422 For those who saw themselves: Sorensen, Counselor, 372; Jacqueline Kennedy, Historic Conversations, xiii; Glen Johnson, “Camelot Revisited,” Associated Press, 1995.

  422 In March 1964, Jackie Kennedy: Jacqueline Kennedy, Historic Conversations, foreword and introduction, especially xv, xx–xxi.

  423 Schlesinger was more than happy: Schlesinger, Journals, 218–19, 224.

  424 As soon as Schlesinger left: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, ix, x.

  425 Like Jackie Kennedy and Schlesinger: Sorensen, Kennedy, 3–8; Sorensen, Counselor, chaps. 27–28, especially 371–72, 382.

  426 No one was more determined: Schlesinger, Journals, 210, 214–15, 228–30, 237; Dallek, Flawed Giant, 57, 137–43, 165.

  427 After Bobby won his Senate election: Robert Kennedy, Thirteen Days; Robert Kennedy: In His Own Words.

  427 McGeorge Bundy was one member: Schlesinger, Journals, 205, 238, 333; Bird, Color of Truth, 319–23, 348–49; Goldstein, Lessons in Disaster, 128–29, 193–201, 217–18.

  428 After he left the government: Goldstein, Lessons in Disaster, 144–50.

  429 In his pursuit of this goal: Schlesinger, Thousand Days, 432–37; Dallek, Flawed Giant, 87–88, 99; Rusk, As I Saw It; Time, Feb. 4, 1908.

  430 Robert McNamara’s historical reputation: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 494–95; McNamara, In Retrospect.

  431 Walt W. Rostow was the most unrepentant: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 296–97; interview with Walt W. Rostow, July 27, 1992.

  432 Paul Volcker, the chairman: Paul Volcker, “What the New President Should Consider,” New York Review of Books, Dec. 6, 2012, 10.

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