Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years (No Series)
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192
RFK “could not admit to them”: Califano, 119.
192
There will be a point when “the national interests of the United States”: William Turner interview with Harry Ruiz Williams, courtesy of Turner.
193
“No, absolutely not”: Author interview with McNamara. The idea that Kennedy would have kept secret from McNamara an imminent invasion of Cuba—which was suggested by Waldron and Hartmann in their book—is exceedingly far-fetched. McNamara was not only the top civilian chief of the country’s military forces, he was the Cabinet member most respected by the president and his brother.
193
“Why would we have done it?”: Author interview with Goodwin.
193
“The phone would ring and it would be Robert Kennedy”: Croft interview with Barbara Lawrence.
194
“tying a rock to a wire”: Quoted in Fursenko and Naftali, 329.
194
[Artime’s] exotic girlfriend aroused agency suspicions: Corn, 98.
195
“My bust is bigger than yours”: Quoted in Bradlee, 147.
195
“So there I was, the ‘beard’ for Mary Meyer”: Quoted in Ralph G. Martin, A Hero for Our Time: An Intimate Story of the Kennedy Years, 398.
196
“I don’t care how many girls” Jack has slept with: Quoted in Bedell Smith, 352.
196
circumstances…forced him to learn how “to destroy”: Cord Meyer, Facing Reality: From World Federalism to the CIA, 8.
198
“he became more Catholic than the Pope”: Thomas Powers, The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA, 63.
198
“Cord entered the agency as a fresh idealist”: Quoted in Frances Stonor Saunders, The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters, 342.
198
Joe Alsop found him repellent: Washington Post, February 7, 1978.
198
“Such a thing can either make or break a marriage”: Quoted in New York Times Magazine, January 7, 1973.
198
Cord “acted like a 17th century cuckold”: Quoted in Nina Burleigh, A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer, 151.
199
“When he was with her, the rest of the world could go to hell”: Herbert Parmet, JFK: The Presidency of John F. Kennedy, 305.
199
They “were in love”: Quoted in Trento, 280.
199
“I think [Angleton] was perhaps even in love with Mary”: Author interview with Bradlee.
199
Meyer and Kennedy took one low dose of the hallucinogen: Burleigh, 212.
200
“Dr. Leary, I’ve got to talk to you”: Timothy Leary, Flashbacks: An Autobiography, 128.
201
“Mary was so much more outgoing [than Cord]”: Leo Damore interview with Timothy Leary, courtesy of Peter Janney.
201
“You have to live with sorrow”: Quoted in Washington Post, February 7, 1978.
203
“None of us has any idea what Angleton did with the diary”: Bradlee, A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures, 271. In a letter sent to newspapers that carried reviews of Bradlee’s memoir, Anne Truitt and Angleton’s widow, Cicely, disputed his version of the diary caper. The two women claimed that Mary Meyer had asked that Angleton “take this diary into his safekeeping” in the event of anything happening to her. The CIA official had undertaken his search for the diary with Tony Bradlee’s consent, the women insisted. When Tony Bradlee found the diary and several papers bundled together in her sister’s studio, she handed them over to Angleton, requesting that he burn the documents. The spy followed Tony Bradlee’s instructions by burning the loose papers, and complied with her dead sister’s request by storing away the diary. When Tony Bradlee later asked for the diary, Angleton gave it to her, after which she burned it in Anne Truitt’s presence. The letter only added to the confusion around the incident.
203
“I thought Jim was just like a lot of men”: Author interview with Bradlee.
203
Helms could not recall just what it was about Mary’s passing: Burleigh, 17.
204
“What are they looking for in my house?”: Ibid., 226.
204
“The same sons of bitches that killed John F. Kennedy”: Quoted in Heymann, The Georgetown Ladies’ Social Club, 168.
204
“Mary Meyer became a female type”: Burleigh, 227.
204
“Suppose the Russians did something now”: Ibid., 212.
206
it elicited only 896 letters from the public: Beschloss, 601.
206
Khrushchev used it to win points with his Central Committee: New York Times, June 29, 1963.
206
“the world would have been different”: Author interview with McNamara.
208
“You want me to accept President Kennedy’s good faith?”: Quoted in Norman Cousins, The Improbable Triumvirate, 99.
209
“The language in the speech is Unitarian language”: Author interview with Sorensen.
210
“in that terrible era known as the nuclear age”: “What Would JFK Do?” forum, April 21, 2002, JFK Library.
210
Khrushchev’s eyes filled with tears: Reeves, 549.
211
“They literally hid him!”: Author interview with Kaysen.
211
The attorney general worried that…McCone…might be disloyal: Beschloss, 632.
211
“I speak to you tonight in the spirit of hope”: Quoted in Reeves, 549.
212
asking him to help activate “a whirlwind campaign”: Cousins, 127.
213
“Mr. President, you’re a hell of a horse trader”: Quoted in Beschloss, 635.
213
“The whole bosom of God’s earth”: Quoted in Reeves, 594.
214
“This one is mine”: Quoted in O’Donnell and Powers, 381.
215
“I think the issue of how JFK would have acted differently than LBJ [in Vietnam]”: Quoted in Boston Globe, June 6, 2005.
215
JFK told O’Donnell that…the United States must withdraw: O’Donnell and Powers, 16.
216
but he never put it in writing: Author interview with Ellsberg.
217
“He never made a decision”: Author interview with Sorensen.
218
“This is disorderly government”: New York Times, October 3, 1963.
218
brought cries for Congress to “turn a permanent floodlight on the [CIA]”: New York Times Magazine, October 26, 1963.
218
“He literally blanched”: Robert McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, 84.
219
JFK called Mary Meyer: Bedell Smith, 422.
219
“we must have a means of disengaging from this area”: McNamara, 79.
219
“I don’t want to talk about that”: Author interview with McNamara.
220
“Kennedy would have had a hell of a problem”: Ibid.
221
“He kept the peace”: O’Donnell and Powers, 343.
222
“So, yes, that’s how McNamara lives with himself”: Author interview with Ellsberg.
222
“it would not have bothered me”: Quoted in New York Times, February 6, 2004.
224
“Castro hadn’t taken his boots off”: Quoted in Summers, Not in Your Lifetime, 304.
224
Castro “made love to me efficiently”: Author interview with Fritzi Lareau.
224
McCone sternly advised
that the “Lisa Howard report be handled in the most limited and sensitive manner”: Quoted in Peter Kornbluh, “JFK & Castro: The Secret Quest for Accommodation,” Cigar Aficionado magazine, September-October 1999.
225
“She liked powerful men”: Author interview with Lareau.
225
He looked with dismay on “the creeping police state” mentality: William Attwood, The Twilight Struggle: Tales of the Cold War, 142.
226
“the word ‘America’ made Che think of a huge hand pressing down on his head”: Ibid, 251.
226
“we have something to gain”: State Department memo, September 18, 1963, NARA record number 176-10010-10052.
227
he felt the peace dialogue was “worth pursuing”: Quoted in Kornbluh.
227
JFK was even more enthusiastic: Ibid.
227
“if we recognize Cuba, they’ll buy our refrigerators”: Croft interview with Ebbins.
227
“he didn’t think there was any reason [to confront] Cuba”: Author interview with Paul “Red” Fay.
227
Schlesinger…later told Attwood that it was meant to help his diplomatic effort: Attwood, 262.
228
JFK’s speech “may have been meant for potential dissident elements”: Quoted in Waldron, 134.
228
“Mother was very naïve”: Author interview with Lareau.
228
Helms urged that the administration slow down the Attwood initiative: Bohning, 172.
229
“and to hell with the president it was pledged to serve”: Attwood, 263.
229
“It wasn’t that I was being smart or tricky”: Helms testimony, Church Committee, June 13, 1975.
230
“Bobby wouldn’t have backed away [from the Cubela meeting]: Thomas, 300.
230
Oswald “has been heralded as a pro-Castro type”: White House memo, November 25, 1963, NARA record number 178-10003-10066.
230
“a good opportunity to punish Bobby”: Author interview with Vidal.
231
“She’s being canned”: Quoted in New York Times, November 19, 1964.
231
“Lisa Howard Pleads to Be Visible Again”: New York Times, December 23, 1964.
231
“He is too inefficient to be ruthless”: RFK letter, June 1, 1965, Senator Robert F. Kennedy papers, JFK Library.
231
“Mother was…having a mental breakdown”: Author interview with Lareau.
232
“She was determined to die”: Ibid.
232
Attwood told Schweiker…he had some suspicions: Attwood letter, October 16, 1975, William Attwood papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
232
“This is why Kennedy was killed,” Castro told him: Attwood memo on Cuba trip for Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, February 28, 1977, ibid.
233
Arthur Schlesinger concurred with Attwood’s assessment: Summers, 307.
233
“We thought there was more to Dallas”: Author interview with Simone Attwood.
233
“the secret negotiations with Cuba were the last straw”: Tomlinson notes on Attwood conversation, January 29, 1986, courtesy of Anthony Summers.
234
“These were fairly nutty people”: Quoted in New Canaan Advocate, June 12, 1980.
5: DALLAS
236
he mused that he found the job “rewarding”: televised JFK press conference, October 31, 1963, Museum of Television and Radio, Beverly Hills.
237
“Scramble is putting it mildly”: Author interview with Sorensen.
238
“the American people are going to save this country next year”: Quoted in Dallas Morning News, November 19, 1963.
238
“Barry Goldwater could give Kennedy a breathlessly close race”: Quoted in Perlstein, 234.
239
“a juicy steak for Connally, a sandwich for me”: Jerry Bruno and Jeff Greenfield, The Advance Man, 88.
239
“Yarborough…felt the trip was too heavy on visits with fat cats”: Ben Barnes, Barn Burning, Barn Building: Tales of Political Life from LBJ to George W. Bush and Beyond, 65.
239
“The president is not coming down to be hidden under a bushel basket”: Quoted in Washington Post, November 20, 1988.
239
“I told the driver to step on it”: Stanley Marcus oral history, Sixth Floor Museum, Dallas.
240
the American eagle [was turning] into a “dead duck”: “Walker Speaks Unmuzzled” pamphlet, General Edwin Walker collection, Sixth Floor Museum.
240
calling Dallas “a very dangerous place”: Quoted in Mahoney, 283.
240
“the president would have thought I had gone out of my mind”: O’Donnell and Powers, 18.
240
“It turned my father and brothers and sisters and I upside down”: Quoted in Edward J. Renehan, Jr., The Kennedys at War: 1937–1945, 2.
241
“I felt a surge of the intellectual power”: Robert MacNeil, The Right Place at the Right Time, 200.
242
“We’re heading into nut country today”: Quoted in O’Donnell and Powers, 11.
242
Vallee…claimed that he was framed by someone with special knowledge of his…“CIA assignment”: Quoted in Waldron, 630.
242
“The Tampa attempt…had even more parallels to Dallas”: Ibid., 653.
243
a suspicious group of exiles moved into the house next door: Ibid., 683.
244
“Politics is a noble adventure”: Quoted in Kerry McCarthy speech, JFK Lancer conference, November 22, 1997.
245
“They stood there rather stonily”: Ralph Yarborough oral history, JFK Library.
247
“his head just opened up and shot down like a dog”: Abraham Zapruder testimony, Warren Commission.
248
Hollywood “could never have dreamed up John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy”: Quoted in Cathy Trost and Susan Bennett, editors, Kennedy Has Been Shot: The Inside Story of the Murder of a President, 16.
248
“you certainly can’t say that Dallas doesn’t love you!”: Nellie Connally, From Love Field: Our Final Hours with President John F. Kennedy, 7.
249
“His last expression was so neat”: Theodore White’s unpublished notes on his interview with Jacqueline Kennedy, November 29, 1963, JFK Library.
249
Connally would save her husband’s life: Connally, 43.
250
“If only I had a minute to say goodbye”: Quoted in Maier, 477.
251
“My whole face was splattered with blood and hair”: White interview with Jacqueline Kennedy.
252
“I wonder if the missiles are flying”: Author interview with James Galbraith.
252
“This is bad news”: Quoted in New Republic, December 7, 1963.
253
Khrushchev took the news as “a personal blow”: Quoted in William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, 604.
254
“I know he and my husband worked together for a peaceful world”: Quoted in Manchester, 610.
254
“The danger troubling my husband was that war could be started”: CNN.com report, “Letters reveal Soviet-U.S. dance following JFK assassination,” August 5, 1999.
254
It was a bloodless coup: According to former KGB chief Vladimir Semichastny, Brezhnev did in fact seriously consider killing Khrushchev, asking the intelligence czar whether his rival could be poisoned or his plane sabotaged. But Semichastny claimed that he refused to
carry out the assassination plot, insisting that he was “not a murderer.” 255 “What kind of socialism is this?” Quoted in Taubman, 626.
255
If Kennedy had lived, the two men could have brought peace: Khrushchev, 557.
6: THE AWFUL GRACE OF GOD
258
a ten-thousand-word broadside that punched disturbing holes in the official version: the National Guardian, December 19, 1963.
258
Marguerite would insist…that her son was a U.S. “intelligence agent”: New York Times, February 13, 1964.
258
“he was the only one who treated the commission with contempt”: Earl Warren oral history, LBJ Library.
259
“we don’t give a damn if blood runs in the streets of New York”: Quoted in Mark Lane, Plausible Denial: Was the CIA Involved in the Assassination of JFK? 11.
259
“He just didn’t like him”: Author interview with Mankiewicz.
259
“but I don’t have the heart for it right now”: Sheridan oral history, JFK Library.
259
“But you’re not going to talk about that, are you?”: Author interview with Lane.
260
“there is something rotten in Dallas”: Letter to RFK, November 28, 1963, Justice Department file, NARA record number 186-10003-10051.
260
“Europeans are convinced the Dallas drama hides a mystery”: Quoted in Thomas G. Buchanan, Who Killed Kennedy? 150.
261
“I think he died for something”: Ibid, 206.
261
Buchanan “sowed vast quantities of seeds of doubt about the assassination”: Washington Post, May 2, 1964.
261
Buchanan “is most anxious to see you without going to the FBI”: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy phone logs, March 9, 1964, JFK Library.
261
a commission staff member…took the journalist’s material and dropped it deep in the files: Buchanan would find a more curious reception for his conspiracy theories with a long-time adversary of Bobby Kennedy’s—Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Today, decades after Che was hunted down by CIA-led trackers in the jungles of Bolivia, visitors to his home in Cuba can still see the books he was reading before he left on his fateful mission. There in his cramped upstairs office—in an alcove underneath his desk, next to several books on Bolivia, Africa, and the Algerian revolution—sits a French edition of Buchanan’s book.
262
Kilgallen “has some information she wants to turn over to you”: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy phone logs, March 9, 1964, JFK Library.
262
she was going to have “the biggest scoop of the century”: Quoted in Lee Israel, Kilgallen: An Intimate Biography of Dorothy Kilgallen, 382.