Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson

by Robert A. Caro

  5. The Path Ahead

  The description of Johnson and the circle of young New Dealers is based on the author’s interviews with the following members of that circle: Benjamin V. Cohen, Thomas G. Corcoran, Abe Fortas, Arthur (Tex) Goldschmidt, Elizabeth and James H. Rowe, and Elizabeth Wickenden.

  The description of Johnson’s relationship with his office staff is based on the author’s interviews with the following members of that staff: Roland Bibolet, Yolanda Boozer, Horace W. Busby, John Connally, Nadine Brammer Eckhardt, Ashton Gonella, Jack Gwyn, Charles Herring, Walter Jenkins, Sam Houston Johnson, Eugene Latimer, Margaret Mayer (the same Margaret Mayer who was also, at different times, a journalist), J. J. (Jake) Pickle, Mary Rather, George Reedy, James H. Rowe, Gerald W. Siegel, O. J. Weber, Warren Woodward, and Mary-Louise Glass Young.

  It is also based on the author’s interviews with the following persons who observed Johnson’s relationship with his staff: Richard Bolling, Thomas G. Corcoran, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Bryce Harlow, Welly Hopkins, Joe M. Kilgore, Frank McCulloch, Daniel McGillicuddy, Dale Miller, Edward Puls, Benjamin H. Read, Harry Schnibbe, Howard Shuman, Stuart Symington, George Tames, and Harold Young. And with journalists Rowland Evans, Neil MacNeil, Sarah McClendon, Hugh Sidey, John Steele, and Alfred Steinberg.

  It is based as well on oral history interviews, many of them with the same persons, conducted by the Lyndon B. Johnson Library, the Senate Historical Office, and other institutions; on the intraoffice memoranda found in many different files in the Lyndon B. Johnson Library; and on books and magazine articles cited individually below when they are quoted directly.

  Bunton clan: Caro, Path, Chapters 1 and 3. “Commanding”: Caro, p. 4. “If you”: Cox, quoted in Caro, p. 3. “Afterward”: Davie, Foreign Observer’s Viewpoint, p. 8. “Exceptional”: Davie, The Observer, July 18, 1965. Santa Claus incident: Busby interview.

  “He just”: John Skuce, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 213. “A mountain”: Benjamin Read interview. Weight: Dr. Willis Hurst interview. “You could”: Tames interview. “Fun”: Elizabeth Rowe, in Caro, Path, p. 453. “Never a dull”: Fortas, in Caro, pp. 454–55. Take his ball: Edwards, SHJ, in Caro, p. 71. Sleeping at table: Eliot Janeway, Elizabeth Rowe interviews. “If he’d”: Redford, in Caro, p. 76.

  “Always repeating”: SHJ interview. “What convinces”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 124. “Revving up”: Clark interview. “Got bigger”: Donald Oresman interview. “Let it fly”: Goodwin, Remembering America, p. 258. “I want to”: Sidey, “Way Out There in Vietnam, He Can’t See ’Em or Hear ’Em,” Life, June 3, 1966.

  Pissing: Lucas interview. Urinating: Bolling, Busby, Reedy interviews. “Jumbo”: Caro, Path, p. 155; SHJ interview. “And shaking”: Walton interview. “Have you”; “crude”: Bolling interview; Bolling, quoted in Miller, p. 541.

  Relationship with Latimer, Jones: Caro, Path, pp. 229–40. “Apparently”: Goodwin, Remembering America, pp. 256–58. “Lubriderm”; inhaler: For example, Busby, Gonella, Mary-Louise Young interviews.

  Harsh lesson: Caro, Means, p. 128. Trying for Appropriations: Caro, Path, p. 541. “The only”: Garner, quoted in Caro, Path, p. 317.

  “No Democrat”: Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 205. The plaque: Steinberg, Sam Rayburn, p. 236.

  Johnson and his staff: Interviews listed above; also Mooney, LBJ, Chapter 5 and passim; Miller, pp. 533–57; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 277–81. Roosevelt imitation: Busby, Jenkins interviews. “Johnson created”: Connally interview. Day Roosevelt died: Busby interview. Johnson had not: Steinberg, Sam Rayburn, p. 226. “You felt”: L. E. Jones interview. “That”: Pickle interview.

  Gonella’s strategy: Gonella interview. “That’s forty-five”: Busby interview. “His rages”: Bolling interview; Bolling quoted in Miller, p. 214. Latimer’s map: Latimer interview. “You’ve poisoned”: Mooney, LBJ, p. 85; Busby interview. “I didn’t get”: Nellie Connally, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 135. “Had to be”: Gonella interview. Ordering women’s lives: Boozer, Gonella interviews. “Well, I see”; “A little windy”; “he was”: Boozer, quoted in Miller, p. 536. “Why don’t”: Steinberg, San Johnson’s Boy, p. 280. “I don’t”: Busby interview. “Everybody”: Gonella interview. “There wasn’t”: Jones interview. “Like a slave”: Sidey interview. Asleep in the bathtub: Puls, quoted in Caro, Path, p. 496. “Loyalty”: Halberstam, “Lyndon,” Esquire, Aug. 1972. Another version was given by Hubert Humphrey to Merle Miller: “Mr. Johnson always said, ‘I want a guy to be 150 percent loyal, kiss my ass in Macy’s window and stand up and say, “Boy, wasn’t that sweet”’” (Miller, p. 542).

  Connally had: Connally, Busby, Jenkins interviews. Pleading with Harlow: Harlow interview. “I can’t”: Gwyn, in Caro, Path, p. 118. “It was”: James Rowe interview.

  “Well, I”; Inaugural Ball tickets: Woodward interview. Forcing Connally to return: Connally, Busby, Jenkins interviews.

  6. “The Right Size”

  Marlin meeting: Oltorf interview. A somewhat different version, in which Johnson is asking only for the Finance Committee, was given by Oltorf in his OH, but the version he gave in the interview was confirmed by an interview with John Connally.

  Telephoning Hayden; Hayden’s reply; “Tendered”: Hayden to Johnson, Nov. 18, 1948, Box 45, LBJA CF; Connally, Jenkins interviews. And see Woodward to Jenkins, Dec. 3, Box 61, LBJA CF. Asked the Speaker: Johnson to Rayburn, Dec. 2, 1948. And Rayburn did: Rayburn to Barkley, Dec. 8, 1948, Papers of Tom C. Clark, Box 48, LBJ(1), HSTL; Jenkins interview. “Put in”: Johnson to Corcoran, Dec. 15, 1948; Corcoran interview. “I want very much”; “since Texas”: Johnson to McKellar, Johnson to Barkley, both Nov. 13, 1948; Johnson to Corcoran, undated, with attached Johnson to McKellar, Dec. 22, 1948—all Box 48, LBJ(1), Papers of Tom C. Clark, HSTL. Also, Johnson to McKellar, Nov. 19, 1948, Box 49, LBJA SN. Trying to enlist Tom Connally’s support for Appropriations, Johnson wrote him expressing “my intense interest in being assigned to Appropriations,” and then including Agriculture and Armed Services among “other committees for which I would like to be kept in mind,” but Johnson’s staffers explain that that letter—and a similar one to Barkley (a copy of which Johnson sent to Connally)—were really intended only as “a sop” to make Connally think he was taking his advice seriously (Johnson to Connally, Dec. 12, Box 49, LBJA SF; Johnson to Barkley, Box 49, LBJ(1), Papers of Tom C. Clark, HSTL; Busby, Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins interviews).

  Parking encounter: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 276–77; Carpenter, “The Whip from Texas,” Collier’s, Feb. 17, 1951. Senate’s response: Busby, Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins, Rather interviews. Pro forma: For example, McKellar to Johnson, Dec. 23, McMahon to Johnson, Dec. 24, Box 49, LBJA SF. As late as Dec. 27, Tydings replied to Johnson’s request with a polite note (Tydings to Johnson, Dec. 27, 1948, Box 116, LBJA SF). In an interview thereafter—apparently that same day—Johnson realized that Tydings was not really intending to help (Busby, Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins interviews). Barkley’s letter: Barkley to Johnson, Nov. 27, 1948, Box 52, LBJA SN. “Of course”: Rayburn to Johnson, Dec. 8, 1948, Box 48, LBJ(1), Papers of Tom C. Clark, HSTL. Showed him: Busby, Connally interviews. “Your letter”: E. Chance to Johnson, Dec. 29, 1948, Box 116, LBJA SF. “The trouble”: Busby, Jenkins interviews. “I am pleased”: Hayden to Johnson, Dec. 18, 1948, Sen. 81A-F15, Rules and Administration (402), NA. Extra room: Busby, Jenkins interviews; Hayden to Gillette, Jan. 3, 1949, Sen. 81A-F15, Rules and Administration (402), NA. From other senators, Johnson received, in answer to his committee-assignment requests, pro forma replies to “do everything I can to help you.” For example, O’Mahoney to Johnson, Dec. 23, 1948; Tydings to Johnson, Dec. 27, 1948, Box 116, LBJA SF.

  Johnson in doorway: Jenkins interview; Jenkins, quoted in Miller, p. 141. Jenkins repeated Johnson’s remarks to Busby at the time (Busby interview).

  “Watch”: Busby interview.

  “Seemed to sense”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 87. “One on one”: Latimer interview.
People had been saying this since college: Caro, Path, p. 177. “The knack”: Brown, quoted in Caro, p. 552. “Operated best”: Reedy interview.

  “Could be”: Theis OH.

  “Most interactions”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 126.

  Being sworn in: CR, 81/1, pp. 3–5; AA-S, DMN, HP, HC, Jan. 4, 1949. his own desk: The desk is Desk No. 18.

  Winked and grinned: Mayer, “Your Capital City,” AA-S, Jan. 12, 1949.

  Tirades during campaign: Caro, Means, pp. 239–42. “I had”: Busby, quoted in Caro, Path, p. 422.

  Graciousness during campaign; “Here, Buzz”: Caro, Means, p. 269; Busby interview.

  Driving to work: Paul F. Healy, “The Frantic Gentleman from Texas,” SEP, May 19, 1951; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 318; Rather interview. Shouting: Miller, p. 182. Glass affair: Caro, Path, Chapter 25.

  Douglas’ career: Douglas, Full Life; Scobie, Center Stage. “Ten of”: Broun, quoted in Scobie, p. 24. “Has made”: NYHT, Oct. 25, 1936. “Had prepared”: Louisville Courier-Journal, quoted in Scobie, p. 170. “Surrounded”: Baltimore Sun, Jan. 28, 1945, quoted in Scobie, p. 171. “She stood”: Bethune, quoted in Scobie, p. 270. “Her waistline”: NYP, July [date unclear], 1949. “Number One”: New York Daily News, June 4, 1950.

  “Draped”: Douglas, Full Life, p. 204. “He never”: Douglas interview. “In a hurry”: Douglas OH. “Willing”: Douglas, p. 260. “Was it”: Douglas OH. “One of”; “he cared”: Douglas OH. “He knew”: Douglas, Full Life, p. 205. FDR’s funeral; “He looked”: Douglas OH, Douglas interview. Rankin episode: Douglas, Full Life, pp. 226–31; Douglas OH.

  Arriving together: Davidson, “Texas Political Powerhouse,” Look, Aug. 4, 1959. Holding hands: Busby, Mary-Louise Young interviews. Dinner, parties together: Evelyn Chavoor, Charles A. Hogan OHs. “Over the”: Scobie, Center Stage, p. 181. “Strikingly handsome”: Hogan OH.

  “Affair with Lyndon”: Mary-Louise Young interview. “It started”: Busby, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 196. “For quite”: Busby interview. “Lyndon would”: Fath, quoted in Scobie, p. 172.

  Helped her: Scobie, pp. 244, 283; Busby interview. Swimming pool scene: Busby, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 212.

  “Blow open”: Skuce, quoted in Miller, p. 213. “Tell Jake”; “What does”: Mary-Louise Young interview. Necktie-tying: Califano, The Triumph, p. 27; Connally interview. “What that woman needs”; “LBJ made”: Califano, pp. 169–70. “Lyndon’s idea”: Woods, quoted in Caro, Path, p. 182. “Let nature”: Sidey, Time, May 13, 1974.

  “When he barks”: Healy, “Frantic Gentleman,” SEP, May 19, 1951. “The other”; “He wouldn’t”: Woodward interview. Sending in note: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 104. “Hi, Jake”: Carlton interview. Walter George scene: Busby interview; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 345. “He took”: Woodward interview.

  Joking with Vandenberg: AA-S, DMN, HP, Jan. 4, 1949. Drawing for desk: Pearson, WP, Feb. 12, 1949. “Howdy”: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 276. Photograph: FWS-T, Jan. 1, 1949. At Graham party: Gooch to Johnson, March 12, 1951, Box 483, JSP. Unceasingly: For Johnson’s credit-grabbing in the House, see Caro, Path, pp. 523–33. “Avoid”: Busby to John Connally and Walter Jenkins, Jan. 7, 1949, Box 863, JSP. Let his aides: Busby, Connally, Jenkins interviews.

  Johnson on the floor: Busby interview. “A general feeling”: Woodward interview. “Gentlemen”: Busby interview.

  “Time and again”: Connally interview.

  “Mild-mannered”: Willard Shelton, “The New ’Truman Committee,” The Nation, Oct. 21, 1950. “His manner”: “The Watchdog Committee and How It Watches,” Newsweek, Dec. 3, 1951. “I found”: Lucas, quoted in

  Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 33.

  “I always”: Johnson, quoted in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, pp. 120–21. Flattery at college; contemporaries’ contempt: Caro, Path, Chapters 8, 11, 16. “Uriah Heep”: Caro, p. 489. “Smiling and”: Corcoran, quoted in Caro, p. 449. “I never”: Clark, quoted in Caro, p. 363.

  Johnson and Rayburn: Caro, Path, Chapter 18. Betraying Rayburn: Caro, Chapter 30. Heart melting: Caro, Chapter 36.

  “Don’t forget”: Vinson to Johnson, Dec. 22, 1949, Box 57, LBJA.

  “He could”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 103. “Now they”: Johnson, quoted in Goodwin, p. 120.

  “A classic prototype”; “as nearly pro-labor”; “To hear Senator Murray’s response”: William S. White, “Democrats’ ‘Board of Directors,’” NYT Magazine, July 10, 1955. Murray aging: McClure OH; Reed, Tames interviews. Sometimes: McClure OH. Lit up: Tames interview.

  “Real sweet”: Busby, Latimer interviews. “I certainly”: Johnson to Ed Johnson, April 23, 1956, Box 381, JSP. “Boy, whenever”: Reedy interview. “During”: Shuman to Caro, Jan. 13, 1984, p. 2 (in author’s possession). “The very”: Baker, Friend and Foe, p. 22. “Christ”: Connally interview. “Johnson thought”: Mooney OH. Hayden found: Hayden to Wever, Jan. 27, Box 116, LBJA SF. “When he”: Busby interview. “After”: Connally interview. “Mr. Johnson”: Jenkins, quoted in Miller, p. 141.

  Baker conversation: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 40, 41; Parker, Capitol Hill, p. 73. “Mr. Baker, I understand”: Johnson, quoted in Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 34. “Just another”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 40. Waiter saw: The waiter was Parker, who described the scene in Capitol Hill, p. 73. “The power”: Baker, quoted in Miller, p. 142.

  Johnson and Evans: Caro, Path, pp. 149, 152, 192. And Wirtz: Caro, pp. 392–93. With Roosevelt: Caro, pp. 448–49 and passim.

  7. A Russell of the Russells of Georgia

  The boy’s game: Fite, Richard B. Russell, p. 9; Harold H. Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1951; Reedy recalls Russell telling him about “Fort Lee” and reenacting the southern charges (Reedy interview).

  “From the oldest”: Robert Paul Turbeville, Eminent Georgians, quoted in Fite, p. 1. Father’s legislative, judicial career: Marion H. Allen, “Memorial to Chief Justice Richard Brevard Russell,” Georgia Bar Association, Report of Proceedings, 56th Annual Session, May 25–27, 1939, pp. 171–77. “Always looking”: Fite, p. 3. “The Senate post”: Russell speaking in “Richard Russell, Georgia Giant,” three-hour documentary, Atlanta, Ga.: WSB-TV, Cox Enterprises, broadcast 1970, Tape, Part 1. (Referred to hereafter as “Georgia Giant.”) “Speaking”: Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1957. “Radical” or: “Georgia Giant,” Tape, Part 1. “The poorest”: Leonard, “The Russells of Our Flock,” University of Georgia Alumni Record, May 1967, quoted in Fite, p. 3. “Got in”: And Ina Russell Stacy says in her OH, “He was never defeated for a judicial position, and never elected to any of the others.”

  Moving to Winder; “would be”; “distraught”: Fite, pp. 4, 5.

  “I was”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 10. “Round the curve!”: Author’s visit to Winder; “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 4; Richard B. Russell III interview; Fielding Russell OH. “He might”: Fite, p. 6. “Thought that”: WS, March 9, 1969. “My mother”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 3.

  “With a sense”: WS, March 9, 1969. Family close: Fite, pp. 12–15. A gang: Harold H. Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1951; Griggs to Williamson, Aug. 1, 1957, SP. “Those funny songs”: Stacy OH. “Although”: Peterson OH.

  “My own”: Ina Russell Stacy, quoted in Fite, p. 14.

  “Where”; “I read”: Fite, p. 12. Listening to the veterans: Karen K. Kelly, “Richard B. Russell: Democrat from Georgia,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1979, p. 22.

  Father’s letters: Fite, pp. 24, 22, 29. Mother’s letters: Fite, p. 22. “She wrote”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 9. “Becomingly”: Fite, p. 17.

  “Oh”; “you bear”: Fite, pp. 20, 18.

  “The finest”; “I expect”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, pp. 12–13, 18. “Almost”: Fite, p. 37.

  “His tribute”: Winder New
s, April 27, 1922. “Was careful”: Fite, p. 41. “Young Turks”: Robert Byrd, CR, 87/2, p. S 349; Roy Harris OH. Father’s 1926 campaign: Fite, p. 49; Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 32. “A great bit”: Rev. Henry E. Russell OH.

  “Though young”: Fite, p. 50.

  “These are”: Fite, p. 51. “The closest thing”: Griggs to Williamson, Aug. 1, 1957, SP. “Leader who”: Isaac S. Peoples, quoted in Fite, p. 58.

  Race for Governor: Harold H. Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1951; Griggs to Williamson, Aug. 1, 1957; Fite, Chapter 4. Borrowing a thousand dollars: “The Southern General,” Time, Aug. 12, 1957. “Nothing save”: Fite, p. 66. “No man”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 21. “Never used”; “Ananias”; “farmers seemed”: Fite, pp. 65, 63.

  “He considered”: Fite, p. 96. Who realized: Fite, p. 361. Dated women: Griggs to Williamson, Aug. 1, 1957.

  “So many”: Jordan interview. “Lights glow”: Atlanta Georgian, Dec. 26, 1931, quoted in Fite, p. 96. Governorship: Fite, Chapter 5; Life, March 24, 1952. Agricultural research: WS, March 9, 1969. “Flatter, cajole”: Fite, p. 87. “A new day”: Fite, p. 83.

  “The worst”: Fite, p. 102. Without canceling: Harold H. Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1951. “Kilowatt Charlie”: Griggs to Williamson, Aug. 1, 1957.

  “If I can’t: “Footnotes on Russell,” Robert Allen and John Goldsmith, Macon Telegraph, Jan. 30, 1971. Ultimatum to Robinson: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 28. “A wild-spoken”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 28. “Buy his peace”; “Old Ed”; “I got to be”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 29.

  “To a minimum”: Fite, p. 125. Memorizing the rules; He borrowed: Harold H. Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1951; McConaughy to Williamson, July 31, 1957, SP. Discussing with Watkins: Riddick interview. A legend: Fite, p. 125.

  Not a single: “The Rearguard Commander,” Time, Aug. 12, 1957. “Sis”: Fite, p. 502. Lunch: Reedy, Tames interviews. “You’re lucky”: Fite, p. 473. “Well”: Shaffer, On and Off, pp. 202–03; Time, Aug. 12, 1957. “In addition”: Ervin OH, RBRL.