The Passage of Power

by Robert A. Caro

  “He hated”: Douglas, In the Fullness of Time, p. 228. Douglas described him as “The world’s largest apple grower, with cheeks as ruddy as his pippins” (p. 228). “He had a habit”: Cotton, In the Senate, p. 165. “Blind to charts”; “if you”: Long interview with Heinemann, Aug. 23, 1989, 14726, Room 109, Shelf 1–5a, Heinemann Papers, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library.

  “When you have to hunt”: Heinemann, Harry Bird of Virginia, p. 7.

  “Debt had robbed him”: Gerald W. Johnson, “Senator Byrd of Virginia,” Life, Aug. 7, 1944; “The Congress: Giving Them Fits,” Time, Aug. 17, 1962. “Improvident political promises”; “The American dollar is the only thing”; “Once the American dollar goes down”: James R. Sweeney, “Harry Byrd: Vanished Policies and Enduring Principles,” The Virginia Quarterly Review, Autumn 1976, pp. 602, 603.

  “Almost a sacred duty”: MacNeil interview. “Would have no truck”: Dillon to Heinemann, July 18, 1989, 14726, Room 109, Shelf 1-a, Heinemann Papers. Franklin Roosevelt; “then this fellow”; “I am the only”: “The Congress: Giving Them Fits,” Time, Aug. 17, 1962; David Lawrence, “The Lesson of Sen. Harry Byrd,” WES, Nov. 15, 1965.

  “Misleading … mythology”; “new words, new phrases”; “Illusions”: Heinemann, Harry Byrd of Virginia, pp. 394, 395.

  “The civilian employment”: Time, Aug. 17, 1962. “Measured his success as a senator”: Long OH, LBJL. Powers as a chairman: Caro, Master, pp. 82–83. “Senator Byrd was a gentleman of the old school”: Dillon to Heinemann, July 18, 1989, Heinemann Papers, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library. “The old man won’t begin”: Heinemann, Harry Byrd, p. 386. The chairman had let it be known: MacNeil interviews; Transcript, “10:20 A.M. from Robert Anderson,” Dec. 2, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, p. 34. “He couldn’t get a quorum”: transcript, “2:10 P.M. to George Smathers,” Nov. 23, 1963, TPR, Vol. I, p. 111. “Pillow fight in the dark”: Greenberg, Presidential Doodles. “Absolute”; “nothing could be done”; “did not oppose”: Dillon to Heinemann, Heinemann Papers.

  “A sweet dear guy—loved him”: Long interview with Heinemann, Heinemann Papers. Douglas was informed: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 407.

  FDR’s attempt: “The Gentleman from Virginia,” Time, Aug. 17, 1962; “The Squire of Rosemont,” Time, Oct. 28, 1966. “Actually helped me”: Heinemann, Harry Byrd, p. 399.

  Trying to create an alliance with Kerr: Goldsmith, MacNeil interviews; Long interview with Heinemann, Heinemann Papers. “Always recognized”: Dillon to Heinemann, July 18, 1989, 14726, Room 109, Shelf 1–5a, Heinemann Papers. And see Heinemann, Harry Byrd, p. 397.

  “Probably” Byrd “has never been more powerful”: WP, Nov. 17, 1963. “You couldn’t go around Harry Byrd”: Busby interview. One of the most powerful Democratic members of the Finance Committee was Clinton Anderson of New Mexico, one of the senators Johnson referred to as the “whales” of the Senate. But, as Johnson said after talking to him, “he, out of deference to Harry Byrd, wouldn’t dare do it” (take it up outside of regular committee procedures) (TPR, Vol. II, p. 35).

  Johnson had spent a lot of time: See Master, pp. 148–49, 338, 413, 562, 629, 865, 901.

  Not offhand: “$100 billion” was “a sum he viewed as a psychological barrier,” wrote John Goldsmith (Colleagues, p. 104).

  “Harry Byrd always”: Transcript, “10:31 A.M. to Clinton Anderson,” Nov. 27, 1963, TPR, Vol. I, p. 194. “It would look a lot better”: Transcript, “10:20 A.M. from Robert Anderson, TPR, Vol. II, p. 36. Mansfield phone call: Transcript, “10:50 A.M. from Mike Mansfield,” TPR, Vol. II, p. 96. Johnson telephoning Byrd: “The Full Treatment,” Time, Dec. 13, 1963; MacNeil interview.

  Planning went into that visit; “had gotten a commitment”: Valenti OH II; Valenti, A Very Human President, p. 196. Not only: Transcript, “2:14 P.M. to Robert Anderson, President Johnson joined by Harry Byrd,” Dec. 5, 1963; TPR, Vol. II, p. 159; MacNeil interview. “They [the Finance Committee] are going to”: Transcript, “3:30 from Willard Wirtz,” TPR, Vol. II, p. 192. “If you don’t mind”: Time, Dec. 13, 1963. “I told the President you simply can’t”: WP, Dec. 11, 1963. “Kermit”; “He had to get that tax cut”: Valenti OH, interview. “The committee … knows how”: “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL—Troika Meeting with President Johnson, Monday, Nov. 25, 1963,” p. 3, Notes by Gardner Ackley, Box 1, Appointment File [Diary Backup].

  “The talk”: Lady Bird Johnson, A White House Diary, p. 17. “He went back”: “Mrs. Johnson’s Diary,” Dec. 20, Box 1, LBJL. “I worked as hard”: Johnson, The Vantage Point, p. 36. “Then”: Valenti OH II.

  “Abundantly clear”: Kermit Gordon, “Memorandum to Heads of Departments and Agencies,” Box 14, Kermit Gordon Papers, JFKL, quoted in TPR, Vol. II, p. 347. “Is anyone going up on you?”: Transcript, “9:40 A.M. to Kermit Gordon,” Dec. 12, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, p. 347. “He’s the only guy”: Transcript, “2:14 P.M. to Robert Anderson, President Johnson joined by Harry Byrd,” Dec. 5, 1963; TPR, Vol. II, p. 162. Announced: NYT, Dec. 8, 1963.

  “Obviously”: Freeman Diary, Dec. 11, 1963, quoted in TPR, pp. 327–28. “Orville Freeman’s”: Transcript, “9:40 A.M. to Kermit Gordon, Dec. 12, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, pp. 344–49.

  “We haven’t”; “General”: Transcript, “12:15 P.M. to John Gronouski,” Dec. 23, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, pp. 703–08. Ten days later, Gronouski announced: NYT, Jan. 3, 1964. “If I am”: Manatos to O’Brien, Jan. 7, 1964, “Tax Bill 1963–1965 [1 of 2],” Box 9 [2 of 2], Office Files of Mike Manatos, JFKL.

  The Long amendment: Transcript, “4:50 P.M. from C. Douglas Dillon, “Dec. 12, 1963,” TPR, Vol. II, pp. 369–73.

  “I’m working in”; “Right”: Transcript, “11:33 A.M. from Harry Byrd,” Dec. 13, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, pp. 383, 384. “You can tell”: Heinemann, Harry Byrd, p. 400; Goodwin, Remembering America, pp. 261–62. Russell Long watched: Long interview with Heinemann, Heinemann Papers.

  20. “The Johnsons in Johnson City”

  “I think”: Henry Wilson to O’Brien, Jan. 10, 1964, “Wilson: Presidential,” Box 5, Ex LE/HU, LBJL. “They tell me”: Transcript, “10:15 P.M., to Andy Hatcher,” Dec. 23, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, p. 774.

  Every time: For example, NYT, Dec. 5, 1963. In NYT, Dec. 5, “McCormack said Smith would not agree to the plan. He said there was therefore no choice but discharge.” “The only thing”: “Notes on the First Congressional Leadership Breakfast Held by the President on Dec. 3, 1963,” Presidential Appointments File [Diary Backup], p. 2, LBJL. Had, in fact: NYT, Dec. 5, 1963. “Indignity”: NYT, Dec. 8, 1963. “Given signature”: O’Brien to Johnson, Nov. 29, 1963, “Office Files of the White House Aides—Henry Hall Wilson, Jr.,” 1963–1967, LBJL. “I’ve never”: NYP, Dec. 4, 1963. Telephoning Bolling: “6:56 P/M., to Richard Bolling,” Dec. 2, TPR, Vol. II, pp. 70–74. “I was always reluctant”: Dec. 3, 1963.

  Had asked for a group: WP, Dec. 3, 1963. “What about one meeting a day?” Roberts to Johnson, “Lee White asks for times …,” undated, “December 1963,” Box 2, Diary Backup, LBJL.

  “With Johnson”: Wilkins with Matthews, Standing Fast, pp. 243–44, 294–96; Wilkins OH I. “Some of”: Farmer OH. Kennedy “believed”: Wilkins, Standing Fast, pp. 294, 296. Johnson took the call: Transcript, “9:51 A.M., from G. Mennen Williams,” TPR, Vol. II, pp. 28–30. Not merely explaining to King: Kotz, Judgment Days, p. 66. “A magnolia”: Whalen and Whalen, The Longest Debate, p. 81. “I left”: Wilkins, Standing Fast, p. 296. “There has been”: NYT, Dec. 3, 1963. “As a southerner”: WP, Dec.4, 1963. Showing King the list; “LBJ is a man”: Kotz, Judgment Days, pp. 66, 67. “Almost by a Negro ghostwriter”: Wilkins, quoted in “White to Mitchell,” Feb. 4, 1964, LE/HU 2, Jan. 30, 1964–Feb. 19, 1964, LBJL. “Still signing mail”: Transcript, “10:30 P.M. to Roy Wilkins, TPR, Vol. II, pp. 777–81.

  And they came: “The labor and Negro leaders are streaming in,” Doris Fleeson reported (WP, Dec. 5, 1963). “Congressional mail is reported heavy in favor of action now” (WP, Dec. 5, 1963).
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  “Republicans have”: Wilson to O’Brien, Dec. 2, “Office Files of the White House Aides—Henry Hall Wilson, Jr.,” 1963–1967, LBJL.

  Bringing Meany: Amrine, This Awesome Challenge, p. 123; “ ‘This Is Lyndon’—And It Is,” Newsweek, Dec. 16, 1963; Biemiller interview. “This cemented”: Biemiller OH, interview.

  Leadership breakfast; “Where do you get”: “Notes on the First Congressional Leadership Breakfast Held by the President on Dec. 3, 1963,” Presidential Appointments File [Diary Backup]. “Definite word”: Transcript, “12:10 P.M. to David McDonald; President Johnson joined by Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Dec. 3, 1963, p. 98. McCormack had been wondering: Transcript, “12:10 P.M. to David McDonald; President Johnson joined by Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Dec. 3, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, p. 98. “Can we make”: Transcript, “3:00 P.M. to Carl Albert,” Dec. 3, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, pp. 101–08. “We’re going”: Transcript, “1:29 P.M. to Dave McDonald,” TPR, Vol. I, pp. 263–65. Vote counting: Transcript, “6:00 P.M. to Carl Albert,” Dec. 4, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, pp. 143–44.

  “Your judgment”: Transcript, “11:11 A.M. to Albert Thomas,” Dec. 5, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, pp. 153–55. “Told him”: Transcript, “3:22 P.M., from Homer Thornberrry,” Dec. 3, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, pp. 108–12.

  “President Johnson”: NYT, Dec. 4, 1963. “This move”; “The consensus”: NYT, Dec. 5, 1963. Business Advisory Council meeting: WP, Dec. 5, 1963. “I talked to both of them”: Transcript, “6:00 P.M. to Carl Albert,” Dec. 4, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, pp. 143–44. “I am the only President”: NYP, Dec. 5, 1963. “That they either”: Transcript, “6:00 P.M. to Carl Albert,” Dec. 4, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, p. 144. “Labor meeting: BS, Dec. 5, 1963.

  “Guys with”: Shuman interview; Watson, Lion in the Lobby, p. 580. Meany explained; Wilkins “repeated”: BS, NYP, NYT, WP, WES, Dec. 5, 6, 1963.

  Johnson and O’Brien knew: Reedy interview; Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 80. Contacting the priests: NYT, Dec. 5, 1963. “Negro and labor”: WP, Dec. 4, 1963. “Heavy in favor: WP, Dec. 5, 1963. “We’ve just got”: Transcript, “6:08 P.M. from Larry O’Brien,” Dec. 4, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, p. 146.

  A quiet meeting: Watson, Lion in the Lobby, p. 581; MacNeil interview.

  “reasonably soon”: Richmond TimesDispatch, Dec. 5, 1963; NYHT, NYP, NYT, WP, Dec. 5, 6, 1963. Brown explained: NYP, NYT, Dec. 6, 1963. A firm date had been set: WP, Dec. 4, 1963. “It was a compromise”; “spared himself”: NYT, Dec. 8, 1963. “But by then”: “Despite ‘Frugality,’ the Budget Rises, Newsweek, Dec. 16, 1963.

  Actually filed not by: NYT, WP, Dec. 9, 1963; NYP, WES, Dec. 9, 10, 1963. “Larry? Larry?” Transcript, “3:35 P.M. from Larry O’Brien,” Dec. 9, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, pp. 257–58. Put Jenkins: Reedy interview. “They’ll sign it”; Smith confessed: Transcript, “7:06 P.M. to Carl Albert,” Dec. 9, 1963, TPR, Vol. II, p. 280. Headlines of triumph: WP, NYT, Dec. 6.

  “texan sits tall”; Steele article: John L. Steele, “The Political Virtuoso Gathers the Forces to Take on the Job,” Life, Dec. 13, 1963.

  “There was nothing tentative”: West with Kotz, Upstairs at the White House, pp. 283–87. “I think we’ll probably”: West, Upstairs, p. 288. “I had our favorite”: Lady Bird Johnson, A White House Diary, p. 14. “Does this telephone” West, Upstairs, p. 290. “Mr. West”: West, Upstairs, pp. 290–91.

  “Congress seemed”; “demanding of”: Evans and Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson, pp. 366–67. On Dec. 21: NYT, WP, Dec. 20–25, 1963. “Perhaps”: Amrine, This Awesome Challenge, p. 125. “At that moment”: Johnson, The Vantage Point, p. 40. “Had dodged”: Amrine, This Awesome Challenge, p. 126.

  21. Serenity

  In this chapter, all December quotes are from December 1963 and all January quotes from January 1964 unless otherwise noted.

  Much of the description of these two weeks on the ranch comes from the many hours of newsreel footage, including outtakes, taken at these events.

  “Sere and bleak”; “whisked off”: Cormier, LBJ: The Way He Was, p. 19. “So empty”: Wicker interview. “Island town”: Gliddon, quoted in Caro, The Path to Power, p. 57.

  Photo session: “The Presidency: Whatever You Say, Honey,” Time, Jan. 3, 1964; “Sparerib Summit,” Newsweek, Jan. 6, 1964; Betty Beale, “Johnson’s House Tells of His Life,” Life, Nov. 15, 1964; BS, Dec. 26, 1963. Lynda’s red shift; to prove: Newsweek, Jan. 6, 1964. BS, Dec. 26, 1963: “It’s marimaki. It’s not what you think it is,” he told reporters. “She blushed, and so did some of us,” Cormier says (LBJ, p. 23). “Overflowing”: Cormier, LBJ, p. 23. “That’s where”: LAT, Dec. 29, 1963; Newsweek, Jan. 6, 1964. “I’ve got”: Cormier, LBJ, pp. 24, 25.

  Erhard visit: Wray Weddell, Jr., “Talk of the Towns,” AA-S, Dec. 27–Dec. 31, 1963, Jan. 2, 1964; Fredericksburg Standard, Dec. 30, 1963; NYHT, Dec. 30, 1963; San Antonio Light, Dec. 27, 1963; Time, “The Presidency: Waging Peace,” Jan. 10, 1964. “Alert and”: NYHT, Dec. 29, 1963. “Nothing remotely”: NYT, Dec. 28, 1963. “Diplomatic staffers”: Newsweek, Jan, 6, 1964.

  “A rare bit of Nuremberg”: WPA, Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State, p. 639. Visited the Pioneer Memorial: A-AS, BS, DMN, NYT, Dec. 30. State dinner: AA-S, Fredericksburg Standard, Home Democrat, Midland Reporter, Dec. 27, 1963; NYT, NYHT, Jan. 1, 1964. “No one”: Cormier, LBJ, p. 29. “The leaders of two”: DMN, Dec. 30, 1963. “The George Jessell”: LAT, Dec.29, 1963.

  “The fact that”: Unidentified official, quoted in DMN, Dec. 31, 1963. “The homelike”: Erhard, quoted in NYT, Dec. 30, 1963. Felt that: For example, “What seemed to please both sides most was the rapport developed by Mr. Johnson and Dr. Erhard and the extreme good feeling that now seems to prevail between the two governments. That was not always the case when Dr. Adenauer and President Kennedy were at the head of their governments” (NYT, Dec. 30, 1963).

  “The same moral views”; looked at the world”: NYT, Dec. 30, 1963. “All these questions”; “Enchanted”: Time, Jan. 10, 1964. “That I think”: NYT, Dec. 31, 1963. “Stetson Statesmanship”; “Sparerib Summit”: Newsweek, Jan. 6, 1964. “Somehow”: Cormier, LBJ, p. 28.

  “The Kennedys transported”: NYHT, Jan. 1, 1964.

  “I’ve got to be thinking”: Elizbeth Wickenden, quoted in Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 61; Goldschmidt, Wickenden interviews.

  “The [military] situation”: John McCone, “Memorandum for the Record,” Dec. 29, 1963, p. 28, “Meetings with the President—23 Nov 1963—27 Dec. 1963,” Box 1, John McCone Memoranda, LBJL.

  “undermined”: Sorensen, Counselor. “We spent”: Stephen Sorensen interview.

  Full press corps tour: DMN, Dec. 29, 1963. “There go the winter oats”: DMN, Dec. 29, 1963. Bundy: NYT, Dec. 28. Newspapermen; “in vain”: DMN, Dec. 29, 1963. “With a view”: NYT, Dec. 28, 1963.

  Salinger was aware; “I gave”: BS, Dec. 28, 1963. Salinger on horse: Newsweek, Jan. 6, 1964; DMN, Dec. 29, 1963. “Rode off into”: NYT, Dec. 28, 1963. “It is not”: BS, Dec. 28, 1963. “Members of the press”: NYT, Dec. 28.

  “Entertainment arouses”: Tom Wicker, “LBJ Down on the Farm,” Esquire, Oct. 1964.

  Boating excursion: “At the LBJ,” BS, Jan. 6, 1964.

  “A good man”: Cormier, LBJ, p. 19. Giving them gifts; Calling Potter’s editor: Time, Jan. 17, 1964; Wicker interview.

  Oreole visits: BS, NYT, Jan. 6, 1964; Cormier, LBJ, pp. 31–32. “It is an experience”: Wicker, “LBJ Down on the Farm.”

  Joint Chiefs: NYT, Dec. 31, 1963.

  A “highly-sophisticated”; “Cornball”: LAT, Jan. 5, 1964. “A notable lack”: Peter Lisagor, “On the LBJ Ranch,” NYP, Dec. 27, 1963. Driving back to Austin: NYHT, Jan. 1, 1964. “His own brand”; “A Johnson we had never seen”: Cormier, LBJ, p. 19. “Politics has been”; “He seems a casual king”: Wicker, NYT, Jan. 6, 1964. “Unaffected,” “old-shoe”: Lisagor, “On the LBJ Ranch.” “Relaxed”: LAT, Dec. 29, 1963. “Presidential home life”: BS, Jan. 6, 1964. “Washington’s canniest”: Russell Baker, NYT, Jan. 9, 1964. “The one”: Wicker, “LBJ Do
wn on the Farm.” “Perfect”: “The Press: Down on the Ranch,” Time, Jan. 17, 1964.

  “The Bunton strain”: See chapter with that title in Caro, Path. Showing a house he wasn’t really born in: DMN, Dec. 29, 1963. He told reporters he was born “right in that room there, pointing to the corner” (NYT, January 6, 1964; BS, Dec. 26, 1963). He told reporters, “Don’t miss the old house a half mile down the road where I was born.” “No, you weren’t, corrected his aunt Jessie Hatcher.” “Well, it was in the same place, it wasn’t the same house,” he amended.” “There used”: Robert Semple, “The White House on the Pedernales, NYT, Oct. 3, 1965. His father’s last stand: Caro, Path, pp. 87–88. “The most important thing”: SHJ interview.

  Behind those doors: Fehmer, Gonella, Jenkins, Rather interviews. Might have seemed: The description of Johnson making phone calls in which he was determined to get the person on the other end to do something comes from the descriptions of, among others, Busby, Jenkins, SHJ, Rather, Reedy, Valenti.

  “I had,” she was to say, questions: Mayer interview. “Margaret always”: Busby interview. Johnson telephoned: Transcript, “8:45 P.M. to Albert Jackson,” TPR, Vol. III, pp. 144–51. Jackson … continually trying to cultivate: Busby, Reedy interviews. For example, in 1959 Jenkins reported to Johnson that “Albert Jackson called and said that he had not been satisfied with some of the columns that Bob Hollingsworth and Margaret Mayer had written, and he told them so—that is in connection with the slant they give their articles about Senator Johnson. He says he has been keeping as close check as possible, but that you can’t always control the articles.… What I would like for you to do when you have something you want brought out in an article, get in touch with me and I will see that it is brought out.… Ask George [Reedy] to call me and tell me what is wanted and I will see that it is done” (“Resume of Telephone Conversations by Long Distance … Albert Jackson,”) Nov. 7, 1959, “Master File Index 1959—Jenkins, Walter [2 of 2], Box 96, JSP. In the morning: Transcript, “11:00 A.M. from Albert Jackson,” TPR, Vol. III, pp. 157–58.