The Passage of Power

by Robert A. Caro

  Johnson asked Kennedy for an office: Lincoln, Kennedy and Johnson, p.153. “To appoint a staff within”: “TITLE 3—THE PRESIDENT, Executive Order Number ___,” “Kennedy, John F.—National Security Council,” Box 4, WHFN. “He told me”: BeLieu interview.

  Several persons: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 308–9; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 551. After discussing: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 165. After discussing the matter with Neustadt, Doris Goodwin wrote that “shortly after the inauguration, he [Johnson] sent an unusual Executive Order to the Oval Office for President Kennedy’s signature. Outlining a wide range of issues over which the new Vice President would have ‘general supervision,’ it put all the departments and agencies on notice that Lyndon Johnson was to receive all reports, information, and policy plans that were generally sent to the President himself.” Would be revised: Revised draft: “TITLE 3—THE PRESIDENT, Executive Order Number ____,” Moyers to Johnson, Jan. 26, 1961, with another version of the Order attached; “Kennedy, John F.—National Security Council,” Box 4, WHFN. (Reedy wrote that “He actually proposed that President Kennedy sign a letter which would virtually turn over the national defense, establishment and exploration of outer space to his vice president” (Reedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 133). So confident was Johnson that Kennedy would sign the order that he had a press release prepared to be released when Kennedy had done so: “President Kennedy announced today that he has designated Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson ’to exercise continuing surveillance …,” undated, “Memos—1961 [1 of 4],” Box 6, Presidential Aides’ Files of George Reedy, LBJL. See also Mark O. Hatfield, with the Senate Historical Office, Vice Presidents of the United States, 1789–1993, p. 21.

  Suggestions incorporated: “Dear Mr. Vice President: Recognizing the need,” undated; “Title 3—The President,” undated; Moyers to Johnson, Jan. 26, 1961, Box 4, WHFN. All reports: Neustadt, quoted in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 165. Revised drafts; Busby’s comments: “Title—THE PRESIDENT, Executive Order Number ____,” undated, “Kennedy, John F.—National Security Council,” Box 4, WHFN.

  “Did not like”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 133. BeLieu showed: BeLieu interview. “A blunder”; “Before I”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 133. “Flabbergasted”; “frankly”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, pp. 308, 309.

  A new draft was handed to him: Kennedy to Johnson, Jan. 28, 1961, “Kennedy, John F.—1961,” Box 6, WHFN. Johnson apparently pleaded for more staff, and Kennedy agreed that sixteen persons could be placed in the Department of Defense “to assist you carrying out the responsibilities outlined in the accompanying letter,” but, according to BeLieu, Johnson, realizing that they would be reporting also to McNamara, didn’t take advantage of this offer. Kennedy to Johnson, Jan. 28, 1961, “Kennedy, John F.—1961,” Box 6, WHFN. “He couldn’t hire anyone for the little Joint Chiefs of Staff,” BeLieu says. “He didn’t have the space (personnel lines) for them” (BeLieu interview). See also Moyers to O’Donnell, Feb. 16, 1961, Box 4, WHFN. That had disappeared: Reedy wrote that “I do not believe Lyndon Johnson ever received a verbal acknowledgment” of his proposed order—“let alone anything in writing” (Reedy, LBJ, p. 132).

  “He understood”: Reedy to Johnson, Feb. 9, 1961, “Reedy Memos to LBJ—1961” [1 of 2], Box 6, Presidential Aides’ Files of George Reedy.

  “A prime minister”: Goodwin, Team of Rivals, p. 342. “There were predictions”: Marquis Childs, “Johnson’s Role,” WP, Feb. 17, 1961. “Had Mr. Lincoln”: Nicolay, quoted in Goodwin, Team of Rivals, p. 342. “The whole thing”: Reedy, LBJ, p.132. Steinberg quotes Kennedy aides as saying, “Lyndon wants to pull a William Seward” (Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 551). O’Donnell says, “He still was going to be majority leader and vice president” (O’Donnell OH I).

  “Flabbergasted”: Lincoln, Kennedy and Johnson, p. 153. Sixteen posts: Kennedy to Johnson, Jan. 28, 1961, “Kennedy, John F.—1961,” Box 4, WHFN.

  “Not one that”: Caro, Master, pp. 1022–1030. Kennedy asked; Wiesner: Divine, ed., The Johnson Years, Vol. II, p. 229. “Wanted to control”; Kennedy “was not about to”: Webb OH. “Mr. Johnson’s hand”: Tom Wicker, “L.B.J. in Search of His New Frontier,” NYT, March 19, 1961.

  “You will become the target”: “Reedy to Johnson, July 18, 1961,” Box 6, Presidential Aides’ Files of George Reedy, LBJL. Richard Russell … had been: Caro, Master, pp. 201–2, 221, 797–98. “I don’t have any budget”: Dallek, Flawed Giant, pp. 25, 26. Committee’s powers: “Reedy to Johnson, July 18, 1961”; Wicker, “L.B.J. in Search”; Kheel, Reedy interviews. “General supervision”: Kheel, “Report on Government Programs against Discrimination,” Aug. 30, 1962, p. 10; Kheel interview. “Under the way”: “Reedy to Johnson, Aug. 7, 1961,” “Memos—1961 [3 of 4],” Box 6, Presidential Aides’ Files of George Reedy. “Administration is in”: “Reedy to Johnson, April 10, 1961,” “Memos—1961 [1 of 4],” Box 5, Presidential Aides’ Files of George Reedy. “Jerry Holleman is”: “Reedy to Johnson, May 2, 1961,” “Reedy Memos to LBJ—1961 [2 of 2],” Box 6, Presidential Aides’ Files of George Reedy. “It is going to be somewhat”: “Reedy to Johnson, Feb. 8, 1961,” “Memos—1961 [1 of 4],” Box 6.

  “There was a tribute”: Russell Baker, “Feud,” The New York Review of Books, Oct. 23, 1997. “Oh, Jack”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 5.

  7. Genuine Warmth

  “Liked Johnson personally”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 704. “Always had”; “He saw”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, p. 621. “The President and Vice President”; “Their initial”: Sorensen, Kennedy, pp. 265–66. As late as 1974, Schlesinger stated flatly: “Kennedy liked Johnson … and treated him with great personal consideration” (The Cycles of American History, p. 349).

  “I can’t”: O’Donnell OH I, LBJL. “In charge”: O’Donnell OH. Permission: O’Donnell, Powers, and McCarthy, “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,” p. 8. “I want you”: Duke, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 278. Instructed Lee White: Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 78. “Don’t”: O’Brien OH, quoted in Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 78. “President Kennedy was”: Reedy, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 621. “The President made”: White, The Making of the President, 1964, p. 42. “Had genuine regard”: Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 10.

  First leaders breakfast: Lincoln, Kennedy and Johnson, pp. 143–45. “Fiddling”: Lincoln, Kennedy and Johnson, p. 145. Mrs. Lincoln was to calculate: Lincoln, Kennedy and Johnson, p. 161; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 622. Breakfasts: “Favors Granted,” Box 26, Office Files of White House Aides—Lawrence O’Brien, LBJL. Had had more breakfasts with FDR: Caro, The Path to Power, pp. 666–67. “The smaller”; “did not invite”: Sorensen, Legacy, p. 108. “It didn’t take long”: O’Brien OH I.

  “Frost is”: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 323. “Did not want”: Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 10. “Was so great”: Feldman, quoted in Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 99. “If he had been”: McPherson, quoted in Smith, Grace and Power, p. 172. “If Kennedy had allowed”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 707. “Never”: McPherson OH I. “Tactful and courteous”; Sunday brunches: Smith, Grace and Power, pp. 171, 172.

  “So resentful”: O’Donnell OH. Kicking Humphrey in the shin: Caro, Master of the Senate, p. 594. “Couldn’t stand”: Harbin interview, and Caro, Path, p. 229. “The picture”: Caro, Path, p. 548. “The President had”: Mills, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 305. “Those who”: Tom Wicker, “L.B.J. in Search of His New Frontier,” NYT, March 19, 1961.

  Crying to Jim Rowe: Caro, Master, pp. 656, 657.

  Now this technique: Evans and Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 313; Baker, The Johnson Eclipse, p. 43; Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 79. “I’m not competent to advise you on this”: Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 732. “I cannot stand”: Smathers OH.

  On Saturday morning: Baker, Johnson Eclipse, p. 44, 45. Flying to Norfolk: NYT, April 16, 1961. “Systematically excluded”: Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 16. Johnson attended a meeting in January and three meetings in March “at which the Cuba covert program was discusse
d.” The last one he attended was on March 16, so he attended none in the month before the invasion (“Favors Granted,” Box 26, Office Files of Larry O’Brien, LBJL). Had asked: Baker, Johnson Eclipse, p. 45. Introducing Adenauer: WP, April 17, 1961.

  “One of”: Dallek, An Unfinished, p. 363. “Those”: Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 103. “There’s an old saying”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, pp. 289, 290. Salinger found; disheveled: Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 95. “How could I”: Dallek, An Unfinished, p. 367. Walking into O’Donnell’s: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 274. “It was”: Cushing, quoted in O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 276. “A general criticism”; “Lyndon, you’ve got”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 289.

  “Pull a William Seward”: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 551. “White House is unhappy”: Busby to Johnson, Feb. 21, 1961, Box 5, Office of the Vice President, LBJL. “At least”: Sidey, “The Presidency,” Time, Jan. 6, 1968. “Knows every newspaperman”: O’Donnell OH. “Immediate thought”: Lincoln interview. “Constant”: Lincoln, Kennedy and Johnson, pp. 159, 180. Walking through Lincoln’s office: Lincoln, Kennedy and Johnson, pp. 149–51.

  “Kennedy is funny”: Bradlee, Conversations with Kennedy, p. 194. “Monstrous”: Alsop OH, quoted in Smith, Grace and Power, p. 174.

  Busby’s visit to Sorensen: “HB to The Vice President, Re: Visit with Ted Sorensen, Feb. 21, 1961,” Box 5, Office of the Vice President File, LBJL. “A liability”; “He couldn’t issue”: Gonella interview. Johnson’s feelings: Fehmer, Gonella interviews. Simply submitted; planes: Burris to Jenkins, July 7, 1961, “Chron. File—Burris—April 1961–June 1962 [2 of 2],” Box 6, Vice Presidential Security File. Not routinely assigned: For example, Burris to Johnson, Nov. 30, 1962, “Memos to the VP from Col. Burris—July 1962—April, 1963 [1 of 2],” Box 6, Vice Presidential Security File. “You had to”: Fehmer interview. Air Force agreed; “Mr. McNamara’s office”: Burris to Johnson, March 19, 1962, Box 5, VP Security File. “The President has reached”: Unaddressed, undated, “Vice President—Office of [2 of 2],” Box 185, VP Security File. “He just couldn’t”: SHJ, My Brother Lyndon, p. 108. “Terrible mistake”: O’Donnell OH. Sarah Hughes episode: O’Donnell OH; O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” pp. 9, 10; Evans and Novak, LBJ, pp. 314–15. “That bill of yours”; “Sonny, everybody”: O’Donnell OH I; O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 9. Worked out: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny We Hardly,” p.8; O’Donnell OH I.

  “Don’t get me crossways”: Walton interview. He was aware also: “He wanted no part of a quarrel with Sam Rayburn,” O’Donnell says (O’Donnell OH I). Telephone episode: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny, We Hardly,” p. 8; O’Donnell OH I.

  Scrounging for a car: “CADILLAC USE FOR LBJ AT RITES REFUSED,” unidentified UPI wire copy, clipping from unidentified paper, Aug. 15, 1963, “Colonel Burris [1 of 2],” Box 6, VP Security File.

  “Casual banter”: Sorensen, Counselor, p. 267; Sorensen interview. “You think”: Walton interview. “About as low”: Sorensen interview. “Could not”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 703.

  Rayburn dying: Caro, Path, pp. 762–63. Almost twenty years before: Caro, Path, pp. 757–58. “Dear Mr. Speaker”; “Dear Bird”: Lady Bird Johnson to Rayburn, Aug. 26, 1961; Rayburn to Lady Bird, Aug. 30, 1961, Box 52, LBJA CF. “Although the pain was”: Caro, Path, pp. 762, 763. “Was it worse”: Connally interview.

  Four Hereford heifers: Johnson to Jacqueline Kennedy, June 5, 1961, “Kennedy, Mrs. John F. 1961,” Box 5, WHFN. A pony: Johnson to Jacqueline Kennedy, June 5, 1961, “Kennedy, Mrs. John F. 1961,” Box 5, WHFN; Adkins to Johnson, Oct. 26, 1961, “Kennedy, John F. 1961,” Box 4, WHFN; Lincoln, Kennedy and Johnson, pp. 154–57. “I can see myself”: Jacqueline Kennedy to Johnson, undated, but filed with Roberts to Johnson, Oct. 28, 1962, “Kennedy, Mrs. John F. 1962,” Box 5, WHFN. In the event: Jacqueline Kennedy to Johnson, May 27, 1963; Carpenter to Johnson, undated, “Kennedy, Mrs. John F. 1961,” Box 5, WHFN; “Kennedy, Mrs. John F.—1963,” Box WHFN. “Unbelievable”: Jacqueline to Lady Bird Johnson, Dec. 26, 1961, “Kennedy, Mrs. John F.—1961,” Box 5, WHFN. See also Rather to Territo, June 27, 1973, in “Kennedy, John F.—1962,” Box 4, WHFN.

  Christmas letter: Johnson to Kennedy, Jan. 9, 1962, “Kennedy, John F.—1962,” Box 4, WHFN; Reedy interview.

  “Three-hour monologue”: “LBJ, The Quiet Statesman,” Aug. 7, 1961, “Once Confidential Memoranda Prepared by John Steele for the editors of Time, Aug. ’61—Sept. ’68,” SP. No press conferences: FWS-T, Sept. 11, 1963. He adhered: Wicker on March 19 writes, “As Leader, LBJ used to see the press often and at length, privately and en masse. The only way to interview him now is by requesting an appointment and waiting to be called—sometimes weeks later. Even then, most of what is said is put off the record and none of it constitutes news.” “In private”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, pp. 309, 310. “Made an appointment with him”: Bartlett OH, LBJL. “Even in his most private harangues”: Shesol, Mutual Contempt, pp. 105, 106. “Either quit”: SHJ, My Brother Lyndon, pp. 114, 115. “Even old”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 310. “There was never”: Bartlett OH, LBJL. “I always”: Evans and Novak, LBJ, p. 312. “For a man”: Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 105. “A triumph”: Sidey interview.

  8. “Cut”

  “I don’t”: Caro, Master of the Senate, p. 1040; Hynes interview.

  “You knew”: Busby interview. “This was”: Reedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 134. “The White House”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 182. “Wandering”: Busby interview. “Because”: Sam Houston Johnson, My Brother Lyndon, p. 109. “Could no longer”: Mooney, LBJ: An Irreverent Chronicle, p. 141. “He used”: Sidey interview.

  “Clapped my back”: Baker, The Good Times, p. 285; Russell Baker, “Feud,” New York Review of Books, Oct. 23, 1997. “I couldn’t”: Oltorf interview. “You know”: Herring interview.

  “Yearning”: White, quoted in Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 1018. “I don’t want”: Schesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 102. “Great”: Rusk, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 178. “He had to”: Wickenden interview.

  “Rarely”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 165.

  where’s lyndon?: Robert W. Richards, Copley News Service, July 24, 1962; NYHT, July 8, 1962. lyndon johnson guessing game: Des Moines Tribune, June 26, 1962. “Now that”: Walter Trohan, “Report from Washington,” CT, July 28, 1962. “Chas—Why?”: Scribbled on DMN¸ July 15, 1962, “Memos—July 1962,” Box 7, Office Files of George Reedy, LBJL.

  “Self-effacement”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, pp. 705, 706; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 622. “A man”; “This is a bull”: Moyers, Moynihan, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 622. “Being vice president”: Bolling interview.

  “Too worn out”: Reed to Johnson, Feb. 21, 1962. “No”: Scribbled on Willie Day to Johnson, Feb. 26, 1962, both in “Memos—Jan.–Feb. 1962 [5 of 5],” Box 8, Office Files of George Reedy. “After considering”: Reedy to Johnson, March 7, 8, 9, 1962, “Memos—March, April, May 1962 [1 of 3],” Box 8, Office Files of George Reedy. Malechek suddenly: Smith, Grace and Power, p. 368. “Grabbing”: Wright interview. “Utter”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 167.

  “The question raised”: Reedy to Johnson, “Memos—August 1962,” Box 8, Office Files of George Reedy. “Go”: BeLieu interview. “Sureness”: Lincoln, Kennedy and Johnson, p. 186.

  “He has written”: Boatner to Johnson, Oct. 1, 1962, “Memos—Oct. 1962,” Box 8, Office Files of George Reedy. Telephoning Louviere: Baker, The Johnson Eclipse, p. 115. Telephoning Rusk: Dungan to Kennedy, Oct. 1962, Box 30, POF: LBJ.

  As President Kennedy: Bird, The Color of Truth, p. 227. Shocked disbelief: Robert Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 27. In favor of quick action: Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 31. “You have any”: TPR—John F. Kennedy, Vol. II, September–October 21, 1962, p. 415.

  “The question”: TPR—JFK, Vol. II, pp. 415–16.

  Joint Chiefs advocated: TPR—JFK, Vol. II, p. 428; Kenned
y, Thirteen Days, p. 36.

  “I don’t think”: TPR—JFK, Vol. II, p. 422. “We had to be sure”: Sorensen, pp. 675, 676.

  “Any premature disclosure”: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 676. He and the Vice President: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 686. “I don’t think”: TPR—JFK, Vol. II, p. 454. “The first word”: Darden interview. “A monumental sense”; Wayne Morse episode: Caro, Master, p. 199.

  “I have a Grumman”: TPR—JFK, Vol. II, p. 427.

  “Blur” of “the crucial meetings”: Sorensen interview, Sorensen, The Kennedy Legacy, p. 109.

  “I now know”: Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 31. “Rather impassioned”; “a Pearl Harbor in reverse”: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 684. “I could not accept”: Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 37. “For 175 years”: Leonard C. Meeker, memorandum of Oct. 19, 1962, meeting of [ExComm], quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 509.

  “We spent more”: Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 39. “very much surprised”: George Ball, quoted in Stein and Plimpton, eds., American Journey, p. 135. “with an intense and quiet”: Douglas Dillon, quoted in Stein and Plimpton, eds., American Journey, p. 136. “Decisive”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 510. Dean Acheson felt; “moved by”: Acheson, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 508.