The Passage of Power

by Robert A. Caro

  “Inhibited”: Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 33. “During these deliberations, we all spoke as equals,” he says (p. 46). “There was no rank, and, in fact, we did not even have a chairman.… As a result, the conversations were completely uninhibited and unrestricted. Everyone had an equal opportunity to express himself and to be heard directly. It was a tremendously advantageous procedure that does not frequently occur within the executive branch of government …” “the most vivid”: Sorensen, Legacy, p. 686. On Saturday; Bobby, sitting on pool edge: Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 47.

  “In considerable detail”: John McCone, “MEMORANDUM FOR THE FILE—Meeting with the Vice President on Oct. 21, 1962,” Oct. 22, 1962, quoted in TPR—JFK, Vol. III—Oct. 22–28, 1962, p. 7.

  “I’ve been afraid”: TPR—JFK, Vol. III—Oct. 22–28, 1962, p. 467.

  “That is one launch pad …”: Arthur Lundall (Assistant Director, Photographic Interpretation, Central Intelligence Agency) in TPR—JFK, Vol. III, p. 187.

  “It’s a very dangerous”: TPR—JFK, Vol. III, p. 191. “This was the moment”; “His hand went up”: Robert Kennedy’s handwritten notes, RFK Papers, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 514. Schlesinger notes that a “somewhat rewritten and polished” version of this is in Robert Kennedy’s Thirteen Days, pp. 68–71. “Inexplicably”: Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 70. A messenger: Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 71.

  Reading Tuchman: Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 62. “Check first”: TPR—JFK, Vol. III, p. 200. And in fact: TPR—JFK, Vol. III, p. 191.

  “There were”; “After further heated”; “We don’t want to push him”: Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 73–76.

  A cable clattered; “very personal”; “Mr. President, we and you”: TPR—JFK, Vol. III, pp. 349–55. “For the first time”: Kennedy, Thirteen, p. 91.

  “Frequently”: Robert Kennedy memorandum, Nov. 16, 1962, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 525. “Mr. President”: TPR—JFK, Vol. III, p. 72. “I think”: TPR—JFK, Vol. III, p. 86. Every congressional leader; Lyndon Johnson had not said a word: “5:30–6:30 P.M., Meeting with the Congressional Leadership on the Cuban Missile Crisis,” TPR—JFK, Vol. III, pp. 58–91. Kennedy was jolted; “the most difficult”: “he was upset by the time the meeting ended,” his brother says. Kennedy, Thirteen Days, pp. 53, 55.

  “Our hopes”; “raising”: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 712.

  Since the Jupiters: Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 94. “Great injury to NATO”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 519.

  “The most difficult”: Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 93. There were indications; The Russian Ilyushin-28 bombers: TPR—JFK, Vol. III, p. 356. Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 94. McNamara said: TPR—JFK, Vol. III, p. 357. The Joint Chiefs delivered: TPR—JFK, Vol. III, p. 437. “Well, I’m surprised,” Robert Kennedy laughed when he heard the recommendation (p. 438).

  The President kept postponing; ignoring the second letter: Sorensen, Kennedy, pp. 714–16; Counselor, pp. 301–2; Sorensen interview; Schlesinger, A Thousand Days pp. 828–29; Schlesinger interview; Kennedy, Thirteen Days, pp. 101–4. He left Sorensen drafting: Sorensen interview.

  “A U-2”; from all along; “I think tomorrow”: TPR—JFK, Vol. III, pp. 446–50. “Immediate retaliation”; “The hawks, dreaming”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 520. “almost unanimous”; “It isn’t”: Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 98. When he returned; “Gentlemen”: TPR—JFK, Vol. III, p. 452.

  “Radio and TV reports”; and the exchange with Robert Kennedy: pp. 464–65. “Since then”: TPR—JFK, Vol. III, pp. 464–65. “I don’t say it’s a lie”: p. 465. “Did we get off”: p. 466. Johnson’s statements are on TPR—JFK, Vol. III, pp. 469–77. Interrupting Rusk: For an example, see p. 466. “I guess”: p. 476. “Look, the weakness”: p. 470. “He’s [Khrushchev] got to get a little blood”: p. 474. “I think you’re”: p. 469. “This ought to start”: p. 469. All from TPR—JFK, Vol. III.

  “A very substantial”: p. 478. “It would probably”: p. 480. “They’ve upped”: p. 478. “We can’t very well”: p. 481. Johnson interrupting; “It doesn’t mean just”: p. 481. “Bite to eat”: p. 482. All from TPR–JFK, Vol. III.

  A quiet word; “Lyndon Johnson was not”: Sorensen interview. He had his dinner downstairs: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 716.

  “One part”; “The moment Rusk”: Bundy, Danger and Survival, p. 484. The nine men … swore themselves: Sorensen interview. “We agreed without hesitation that no one not in the room was to be informed of this additional message,” Bundy says (p. 484). President Kennedy’s decision to limit attendance implied to those of us present that it was a move about which the other members of ExComm did not need to know,” Sorensen writes (Counselor, p. 302). “Their deliberations would remain secret for the next twenty-five years, until McGeorge Bundy described them in his memoir … Danger and Survival,” Evan Thomas writes (Robert Kennedy, p. 227). “The potential”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 228.

  “I said that”: TPR—JFK, Vol. III, pp. 486–87. Also see Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 108, and Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 521–52. “I thought it was my last meal”: O’Donnell, Powers, and McCarthy, “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,” p. 394.

  “Chilled”: Sorensen interview. “The hawks were rising”; “ ‘All I know’ ”: Sorensen interview. He has a slightly different version of Johnson’s words in Counselors, p. 304, and in Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 97. Johnson’s words are not on the tape. Sorensen says that the tape recorder hadn’t been turned on because President Kennedy had not entered the room to turn it on. A gap in the tapes, before President Kennedy entered the room, is on TPR–JFK, p. 490, of Vol. III.

  “Do anything about”: p. 490. “If our planes”: p. 492. “Let me say, I think”: p. 492. “It’s just a question”: pp. 494–95. “Yes, we can wait”: p. 497. All from TPR–JFK, Vol. III. “Give them that last chance”: President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, on p. 508 of TPR—JFK, Vol. III. “But”; “With respect for you, Khrushchev”: TPR—JFK, Vol. III, p. 517. Everyone stood up: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 717. In a later book he said “everyone stood up and applauded,” but when the author took him through the events of that day, he said it as I have written it. “A trace”: Sorensen, Kennedy, p. 717.

  This was the night: Kennedy, Thirteen Days, p. 110; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 525. “With what we were doing”: RFK, memorandum, Nov. 15, 1962, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 525. “He said after”: Bartlett OH, JFKL.

  “You must know”: Jacqueline Kennedy to Sorensen, quoted in Counselor, pp. 248–49.

  “Together with some”: “Memorandum for the Vice President, from the Attorney General,” undated. When, however, on December 17th: Winnie to Col. Burris, Dec. 17, 1962. “The happy, joyful”: Robert Kennedy to Johnson, Jan. 16, 1963. All from “Kennedy, Robert F. and Family [1957–1964 and undated], Box 6, WHFN.

  “After the”: Lincoln, Kennedy and Johnson, p. 185. “One saw”; “He seemed”; “appeared”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, pp. 1018–19. “I hate”: Lincoln, Kennedy and Johnson, p. 188. “The vice presidency is filled”: Johnson interview with Kearns, Lyndon Johnson, p. 164. Finland trip: Rowan, Breaking Barriers, pp. 227–29. “Like a fool”: McPherson, in Smith, Grace and Power, p. 368–69. “It would be a rich treasure”: Miami Herald, March 17, 1963. what ever happened: Ward Just, The Reporter, Jan. 17, 1963. “ ‘Power is’ ”: Time, Feb. 1, 1963. Candid Camera: James Presley, “What Is an LBJ?” Texas Observer, Oct. 18, 1963.

  Never faded; “Johnson projected”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p.200. “He came”: Johnson, “Reminiscences of Lyndon B. Johnson,” Aug. 19, 1969, transcript of tape recording, OH Collection, LBJL. “They literally”: Richard Goodwin, Walton interviews. “Jack Kennedy’s”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing. “He couldn’t be”: Gonella interview. “the no. 2”: Paul O’Neill, “The No. 2 Man in Washington,” Life, Jan. 26, 1962; “Role of Robert Kennedy: No. 2 Man in Washington, USN&WR, July 10, 1961; and “What Makes Bobby Run,” Time, March 18, 1963.

  “Every time”: Bell
, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 305. “Mr. President” and “Johnny”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 169. “Always talked”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 598. “They hardly”: Isaiah Berlin, quoted in Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 233. “Osmosis”: Thimmesch and Johnson, Robert Kennedy at Forty, p. 110.

  Jenkins call: Seigenthaler interview. Kitchen scene: Spalding OH, March 22, 1969, p. 64; Spalding interview with Stein, from Stein Papers, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 623; Seigenthaler interview, OH; Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 9. Bobby gives a summary of it in his OH, Feb. 29, 1965, Guthman and Shulman, eds., Robert Kennedy: In His Own Words, p. 26. Checking with Seigenthaler: Seigenthaler interview; Seigenthaler OH, Vol. 2 of 4, pp 158–61, JFKL. “Genuine contempt”: Life, Jan. 22, 1962. “Lies all the time”: Guthman and Shulman, eds., In His Own Words, p. 26.

  “A bunch”; “simply because”: Joseph Kennedy, quoted in Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 473. “There is”: Joseph Kennedy, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 47. “To write off”: Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 569. “Came clad”: Goodwin, Remembering America, p. 447. “Horrified”: Rose Kennedy, quoted in Goodwin, Remembering America, pp. 446–47.

  “A subjugated”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, pp. 73–74. “I never saw”; “have become”: Robert Kennedy, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, pp. 75–76. “A maturity”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 77.

  “Nothing came easy”: Jean Kennedy Smith, quoted in Smith, Bad Blood, p. 34. Graduated 56th: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 87. Bunche incident: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, pp. 85–87; Thomas, Robert Kennedy, pp. 55–56. “His black and white”; “the madder”: Davison, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 86. “Gutless”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 55. “An experiencing nature”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 602.

  “Overloaded”: Seigenthaler interview. As he was: Interviews with children in TV specials. “Unlike”; “And please”; “Hush, now”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 187. As if; “Cannot bear”: Paul O’Neill, “The No. 2 Man.” “There wasn’t”: Buchwald, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 585. “Children in”; “Children dissolved”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 585. “Because he”: Robert Kennedy, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 589.

  “Would fly down”: Baldridge, quoted in Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 190. “Dad”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 190; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 589. “Jack … was off”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 91. “You knew that”: Jacqueline Kennedy, quoted in Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 91.

  Frankfurter incident: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 379. “It’s pretty easy”: Spalding OH. “His most tenaciously”: Goodwin, Remembering America, p. 444.

  Soviet Union trip: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, pp. 121–26. “Already Bobby’s reputation”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, pp. 32–33. Meeting frequently: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, pp. 137–38; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, pp. 499–502.

  “The sharpest”; “One immediately”; “Thought he was”: Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 69. “The most impressive”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 111. “His willingness”; a quality “he had”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, pp. 240–41. “He had … a way”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 246. “Bob never pauses”: Dolan OH, quoted in Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 69. “The band of brothers”: One of them, Ed Guthman, named his book We Band of Brothers.

  “In the manner”; less [than]: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 114. “It was”; “That was”; “rather precious”: Clark, Morgenthau, Longworth, quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, pp. 243, 240, 592.

  “The strong, stern”: Quoted in Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 190.

  “Bullshit”: Goodwin, Remembering America, p. 447.

  Schulberg episode: Budd Schulberg, “RFK—Harbinger of Hope,” Playboy, Jan. 1960.

  “The worst of times brought”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 210. “I’m older”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 508. “Very much”: Ball, quoted in Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 210.

  Harriman episode: Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 71. Bowles episode: Sidey, John F. Kennedy, p. 125; Reeves, President Kennedy, pp. 104–5. “Became suddenly”: Goodwin, Remembering America, p. 187.

  “Most obvious fault”; “Why”: Pat Anderson, “Robert’s Character,” Esquire, April 1965. “His eyes get steely”: Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, p. 294. Patterson photograph: Pat Anderson, “Robert’s Character”; New field interview. “Even approaching”: Thimmesch and Johnson, Robert Kennedy, p. 28. “I’d like”: Paul O’Neill, “No. 2 Man.” “Just when”: Schaap, R.F.K., p. 47. “From day one”: Irwin Ross and Joseph Wershba, “The Kid Brother,” NYP, March 29, 1964.

  “An insult”: Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys. “It was almost”; “hysterical,” etc.: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, pp. 146–49. “The Kennedys made clear”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 153. “The truth is unknowable”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 154. In April, 1963: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 239. “My God”: Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, p. 290.

  “Despite”: Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, p. 227. “Walkie-talkies”: Schaap, R.F.K., p. 108. Fourteen grand juries; Orchestrated; “It would”: Thimmesch and Johnson, Robert Kennedy, pp. 262, 78.

  “Bobby hates like me”: NYP, March 29, 1964. And see note, Chapter 3.

  “I’m affected”: Guthman and Schulman, eds., In His Own Words, pp. 410–17.

  “They went”: Gonella interview. She had resigned from his staff in 1962, but was still a part of the Johnson group socially, and would later return to work for him.

  Two middle-level: Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 105.

  “No one can outlast”; “I can’t stand”: Goodwin, Remembering America, pp. 72, 415. “He just eats up”: Guthman and Shulman, eds., In His Own Words, p. 415. “If your brother”: Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 108. “A manipulative”: Smith, Grace and Power, p. 175. “Makes it very difficult”: Guthman and Schulman, eds., In His Own Words, pp. 415, 417. “He [Bobby] recoiled”: Schlesinger interview. “It was southwestern”; No affection: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 623.

  “I don’t”; “He insisted”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 205. “Bobby, literally sick”: Bradlee, A Good Life, p. 210. He couldn’t: The day before the balloting, “the count showed 740—21 short of a majority. He concluded crisply: ‘We can’t miss a trick in the next twenty-four hours. If we don’t win tonight, we’re dead’ ” (Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 206). Ted Kennedy interview.

  Johnson knew: Connally, Corcoran, Reedy interviews. “Ruin”: Caro, Master, p. 831. “That’s Bobby”: Corcoran interview. “If it had had”: Shesol, Mutual Contempt, p. 8. “Never would”: Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, p. xxx. “Always”: Richard Goodwin interview.

  “Losers’ table”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 290.

  Voodoo doll: Hugh Sidey, “He Made a Truce with a Man He Came Almost to Hate,” Life, Nov. 18, 1966. “The merriment was overwhelming,” Sidey reported. He would pore: Busby interview. “The humane”; “all sorts”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 592; A Thousand Days, p. 696. “They’re trying”: Busby interview. A storm: Califano, The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, pp. 294–95. “The response”: Goldman, The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, p. 250. “He just”: Baker, Wheeling.

  “Time is”: Gore Vidal, “The Best Man—1968,” Esquire, March 1963. lbj may face: NYHT, April 6, 1963. “A great many”: Gould Lincoln, WES, March 7, 1963. “Emphatically not”; “This certainly”: Philadelphia Inquirer, March 2, 1963. “At this time”: Wichita Falls Record-News, March 4, 1963. “The Washington press corps”: Reedy to Johnson, Jan. 12, 1963, Office Files of George Reedy. “My future”: Busby interview.

  9. Gestures and Tactics

  Received: Fullerwood and Hawthorne to Johnson, Feb. 23, 1963, “Public Activities—Travel [Florida March 11, 1963],” Box 226, Vice Presidential Papers, 1963 Subject File, LBJL. (Unless otherwise specified, all documents in the St. Augustine section are from this file.) “I cannot go”: Peek interview. “Nothing to get excited”; would embarrass: R
eedy to Johnson, Feb. 28, 1963. Trying to head off the embarrassment, Holland tried—unsuccessfully—to get an appointment with Johnson, and finally sent a message: “I am very anxious to find out what the Vice President’s plans are.… The Negroes … are just trying to make trouble” (Jenkins to Johnson, March 4, 1963).

  Reedy learned: Peek interview; Branch, Pillar of Fire, p. 37. Exactly 62: Hall to Johnson, March 1, 1963. “St. Augustine does not have”; “if necessary”; “emerge”: Reedy to Johnson, Feb. 28, 1963.

  How, with barely: Caro, Master of the Senate, p. 741. “Squat in the road”: Caro, Master, p. 889. Johnson told Reedy: Peek interview. Peek found them amenable: Newton to Peek, Feb. 27, 1963, “March 11, 1963, Remarks by Vice President at Dinner Commemorating …, Box 77, Statements File; Roberts to Johnson, March 1, 1963. Reedy then persuaded: Reedy interview; Branch, Pillar of Fire, p. 38. He didn’t want; It wasn’t just: Reedy interview. Peek was able to assure: Roberts to Johnson, March 1, 1963. “No event”: Johnson to Fullerswood, March 7, 1963, David Colburn Papers, University of Florida, quoted in Branch, Pillar of Fire, p. 36.

  “Fifty-five”: Branch, Pillar of Fire, p. 35.

  “This was probably”; “good tables”; “a major breakthrough”; “one of the Negroes”: “One of the most unusual.…,” undated, Reedy to Johnson, “March 1963,” Box 8, Vice Presidential Aides’ Files of George Reedy.

  “He didn’t want to have”: Peek interview. “I’m eatin’ with ’em”: Peek, quoted in Branch, Pillar of Fire, p. 39. “Don’t forget us”: Robert Hayling, quoted in Branch, Pillar of Fire, p. 39.

  “Very happy”: Peek interview. “Happier than he had been”: Reedy interview.

  Only a tape recorder: Branch, Pillar of Fire, pp. 39–40. Fullerwood and Hawthorne to Kennedy, May 4, “St. Augustine,” Box 24, Lee White Papers, JFKL. “They feel that they went even further”: undated memo, attached to Hobart Taylor to Walker, Aug. 8, 1963, quoted in Branch, Pillar of Fire, p. 40.