The Kennedy Men

by Laurence Leamer

  530 “almost a taboo subject”: Edward Lansdale, KLOH.

  531 “understand what Robert Kennedy…”: Fursenko and Naftali, p. 119.

  531 “Goddamn it!”: Frank Saunders, with James Southwood, Torn Lace Curtain (1982), p. 38.

  531 He had gone: TFB, p. 264.

  531 “The weather be …”: Saunders, p. 38.

  532 “Send in the broads”: ibid., p. 43.

  532 Lem had seen: interview, Ralph Horton, BP.

  533 “opportunism …”: “National Intelligence Estimate,” November 9, 1960, Washington, D.C., December 1, 1960, FRUS.

  533 “From the particular vantage point…”: Embassy in Yugoslavia (Kennan) to Secretary of State (Rusk), telegram, at Paris/1/Belgrade, June 2, 1961, 3:00 P.M.., FRUS.

  533-34 “In an exchange …”: Department of State, Washington, D.C., May 23, 1961, FRUS.

  534 “First, and most important…”: Washington, DC, February 11, 1961, NSC files, countries series, USSR (top secret), drafted by McGeorge Bundy on February 13, 1961, “The Thinking of the Soviet Leadership, Cabinet Room,” February 11, 1961, FRUS.

  534 “when the push …”: Martin J. Medhurst,” “Reconceptualizing Rhetorical History: Eisenhower’s Farewell Address,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 80, 1994.

  535 Instead, she perused: LL interview with Joseph Boccehir. Robert White has visited Mr. Boccehir and seen many of Jacqueline Kennedy’s sketches.

  535 “so identical”: Sarah Bradford, America’s Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (2000), p. 196. 535 “This evening, Madame …”: ibid.

  535 “without mixing in politics…”: AWRH, p. 150.

  536 he turned away a glass: Don Shannon papers, JFKPL.

  536 the doctor attended: Dr. Max Jacobson, unpublished memoir.

  536 Travell shot him up: CY, p. 189.

  536 “Once an idea …”: memorandum of conversation, Vienna, June 3, 1961, drafted by Akalovsky, approved by the White House on June 23, 1961, FRUS.

  536 “without affecting …”: ibid.

  538 “The calamities of a war …”: memorandum of conversation, Vienna, June 4, 1961, drafted by Akalovsky and approved by the White House on June 23, 1961, FRUS.

  538 “I had no …”: Joseph Alsop, KLOH.

  538 When Kennedy arrived: LL interviews with Marcus Raskin and Myer Feldman.

  539 a myriad of advice: All of these letters are found in Dr. Travell’s papers, file correspondence, box 1, JFKPL.

  539 The doctor diagnosed: Dr. Janet Travell, KLOH.

  539 “mild virus infection”: “Kennedy Authorized Briefings on Illness,” n.d., Washington Star collection, Martin Luther King Library, Washington, D.C.

  539 “Were any of the exhibits …”: memorandum for Secretary of Defense (McNamara), July 10, 1961, RWC.

  540-41 “With this weekend’s…”: ibid., August 14, 1961.

  541 “The fact is that…”: Joseph Alsop KLOH.

  541 “Ever since the crossbow …”: Henderson, p. xxviii.

  541 Decades later: LL interview with Hugh Sidey.

  542 “The H-Bomb! The H-Bomb! …”: “The Complacent Americans,” available at: www.conelrad.com/media/atomicmusic/complacent.html.

  542 “The every-family-for-itself approach …”: David Arnold, “Blast from the Past: The Bombs Never Fell, but Underground Shelters Still Dot the Suburban Landscape,” Boston Globe Magazine, December 12, 1999.

  542 “Some of us had been …”: Yarmolinsky, Virginia Quarterly, Autumn, 1996.

  542 “There’s no problem here”: RKHT, p. 429.

  543 Joe and the president: Dr. Janet Travell, KLOH.

  543 In the six months: The author has in his possession the bills that Dr. Jacobson submitted for the period from May 13 to October 17, 1961. In that six-month period he charged $25 daily for incidental expenses for thirty-six days, plus travel expenses. This does not include the days he was with President Kennedy on his European trip. Expenses May 12, 1961, to October 17, 1961, Max Jacobson, M.D., October 20, 1961, RWC.

  543 “He wasn’t a real”: LL interview with Joseph Paolella.

  543 “I wasn’t sure …”: LL interview with George Smathers.

  543-44 “Get it away from here!”: Chuck Spalding, KLOH.

  544 “That’s out of the question”: Dr. Max Jacobson, unpublished memoir.

  544 “He felt strongly …”: LL interview with Dr. David V. Becker.

  544 “I am sorry …”: Eugene J. Cohen, M.D., to John F. Kennedy, November 12, 1961, RWC.

  544 Dr. Cohen told: This story was confirmed in an LL interview with Milton Gwirtzman and by two other sources.

  544 “I further told him that…”: Eugene J. Cohen, M.D., to Admiral George Burkley, February 20, 1964, RWC.

  545 “Humbly and respectfully…”: Eugene Cohen, M.D., to John F. Kennedy, n.d. (late 1961?), RWC.

  546 “obvious intense personal interest”: C. A. Evans to Mr. Belmont, June 4, 1962, FBIFOI.

  546 “any barbiturates or narcotics…”: R. H. Jevons to L. W. Conrad, “Subject: Examination of Medicines for the Attorney General,” June 7, 1962, FBIFOI.

  546 “there was no trace …”: Dr. Max Jacobson, unpublished memoir.

  546 when John Jr. rushed forward: LL interview with Larry Newman.

  547 “I will not treat this patient…”: Richard Reeves, p. 273. This was based on an interview with Dr. Kraus shortly before his death.

  547 “Dr. Travell Quitting …”: Travell, p. 396.

  547 “I hate to use …”: Eugene J. Cohen, M.D., to Admiral George Burkley, February 20, 1964, RWC. In her autobiography Dr. Travell asserts that the president told her that he did not want her resignation, and life went on as before. Travell, p. 397.

  547 Dr. Burkley became in effect: Dr. George G. Burkley, KLOH. It was not until July 1963, when the new Government Organization Manual listed Dr. Burkley’s title as “White House physician,” that it became public knowledge that the navy doctor was Kennedy’s personal physician.

  547 many members of the staff: LL interview with Myer Feldman. Deputy Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff says that when he asked what had happened with Travell, he was told not to ask any questions. LL interview with Malcolm Kilduff.

  547 “I asked him many …”: LL interview with Dr. David V. Becker.

  548 frolicking in the White House pool: LL interview with Malcolm Kilduff.

  548 “to give him up …”: Cartha D. DeLoach, Hoover’s FBI: The Inside Story of Hoover’s Trusted Lieutenant (1997), p. 38.

  548 “You must always…”: LL interview with John Kenneth Galbraith.

  549 “I would say I…”: LL interview with Joseph Paolella.

  549 “hit the White House …”: oral history, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, University of Kentucky Library.

  549 At the first state dinner: interview, Esther Van Wagoner Tufty, DHP, and Maxine Cheshire, with John Greenya, Maxine Cheshire, Reporter (1978), p. 44.

  549 “There was a tremendous …”: OTR interview.

  550 “It all happened …”: LL interview with John White.

  551 “A moment later …”: Exner, p. 205.

  551 “I, Anthony Summers …”: LL interview with Anthony Summers.

  551 $5,000 in “expenses”: deposition of Judith Exner, December 4, 1997, Judith Exner, Plaintiff, vs. Random House, Inc., Ballantine Books, Villard Books, Laurence Leamer, Milt Ebbins, does 2-100, and interview, Gerri Hirshey.

  551 “I did try…”: LL interview with Liz Smith.

  551 this is denied by both: LL interviews with Mark Obenhaus and Seymour Hersh.

  552 “from extensive bone …”: transcript of proceedings, Judith Exner vs. Random House, Inc., etal, December 17, 1998, JEP.

  552 “Whenever she’d come …”: LL interview with Robert J. McDonnell.

  24. Bobby’s Game

  553 he hid on the plane: Thomas, p. 110.

  553 “on the basis …”: C. A. Evans to Mr. Belmont, “Subject: Prowler at the Home of the Attorney General,” November 25,
1961, FBIFOI.

  553 “The attorney general…”: interview, Rose Kennedy, RCP.

  553-54 “My father, all of us…”: LL interview with Christopher Kennedy.

  554 “I can understand …”: LL interview with Harris Wofford.

  554 about 70 percent: Branch, p. 374.

  554 “in some areas…”: RKIHOW, p. 79.

  554 “in the interest…”: ibid.

  554-55 spent five weeks: Edwin Guthman, We Band of Brothers: A Memoir of Robert F. Kennedy (1971), p. 160.

  555 There had been: ibid., p. 159.

  555 “Yankee go home!”: from: Special Agent in Charge, Atlanta to: Director, May 5, 1961, FBIFOI.

  555 “Well, we’re not going…”: oral history, Scott I. Peek, administrative assistant to Senator George A. Smathers, 1952-63, U.S. Senate Historical Office.

  556 His hands shook: Branch, p. 414.

  556 “In the worldwide …”: Honorable Robert F. Kennedy, address, May 6, 1961, University of Virginia Library, DHP.

  557 “Stop them!”: Wofford, p. 125.

  557 “The meeting”: LL Interview with Harris Wofford.

  558 “It lasted”: ibid.

  558 “In the election”: Wofford, pp. 128-29.

  558 A few school districts: William Henry Kellar, Make Haste Slowly: Moderates, Conservatives, and School Desegregation in Houston (1999).

  558 about 214,000 out of: Meet the Press, NBC, September 24, 1961, DHP.

  559 The Democrats had lost: MP1960, p. 393.

  559 “I think you should—…”: RKHT, p. 296.

  560 Floyd Mann, the chief: Branch, p. 448.

  561 “a turning point…”: quoted in Robert E. Thompson and Hortense Myers, Robert F. Kennedy: The Brother Within (1962), p. 167.

  562 “You shouldn’t have …”: Branch, p. 464.

  561 “John, it’s more important…”: ibid., p. 465.

  562 “But when all has …”: Thompson and Myers, p. 171.

  562 “Lansdale (the Ugly American)”: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy handwritten notes, November 7, 1961, RFK papers, JFKPL.

  563 “My idea is to stir …”: ibid.

  563 “the people themselves …”: IR, p. 140.

  563 “arouse premature actions…”: ibid., p. 141.

  563 “a dead Castro …”: Chairman of the Board of National Estimates (Kent) to Director of Central Intelligence (Dulles), memorandum, Washington, D.C., November 3, 1961, FRUS.

  564 “special intelligence estimate …”: General Edward Lansdale to Attorney General Kennedy, memorandum, November 30, 1961, FRUS.

  564 “no authoritarian regime …”: memorandum for the record, Washington, D.C., December 14, 1961, CIA, DCI (McCone) files, FRUS.

  564 “we may be heading …”: Director of Intelligence and Research (Hilsman) to Deputy Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs (Johnson), memorandum, Washington, D.C., February 20, 1962, FRUS.

  564 “This effort may…”: memorandum from Chief of Operations (Mongoose) Lansdale, Washington, D.C., December 7, 1961, FRUS.

  564 One of the stories”: Sterling Seagrave, The Marcos Dynasty (1988), p. 145.

  565 “with outside help …”: Chief of Operations (Mongoose) Lansdale, program review, Washington, D.C., February 20, 1962, FRUS.

  565 “to get off your ass …”: IR, p. 141.

  566 One scheme was: ibid., pp. 142-43.

  566 “a major psychological…”: notes on an Operations Group meeting, Washington, D.C., June 7, 1962, Department of State, FRUS.

  566 “The top priority …”: Chief of Operations in the Deputy Directorate for Plans (Helms) to Director of Central Intelligence (McCone), memorandum, Washington, D.C., January 19, 1962, CIA, FRUS.

  566 “monolithic and ruthless …”: quoted in Lawrence Freedman, Kennedy’s Wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam (2000), p. 147.

  567 “Life for him …”: quoted in Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, ed., Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy (1998), p. 133.

  567 “Let me knock you down”: Warren Rogers, When I Think of Bobby: A Personal Memoir of the Kennedy Years (1993), p. 81. 567 Shriver felt uncomfortable: Wofford, p. 386.

  567 her children watched: New York Daily News, December 9, 1961.

  568 “trash barrel assault”: ibid.

  568 In Rome at the end: George Dixon, “Gift to ‘Crash Kennedy,’ “clipping dated March 22, 1962, JFKPL.

  568 Mrs. Nicholas Katzenbach was so bold: notes on Robert Kennedy, Mrs. Nicholas Katzenbach, ASP.

  568 “What do you think …”: John Seigenthaler, KLOH.

  569 “When I go to Hickory Hill…”: interview, Joan Kennedy, Laura Bergquist papers, Boston University.

  570 “I never once …”: Rowland Evans, KLOH.

  570 “I say out!”: LL interview with Charles Bartlett. Mr. Bartlett was present on this occasion at Hickory Hill.

  25. Lives in Full Summer

  572 “You know, the fact…”: Letitia Baldrige Hollensteiner, KLOH.

  572 For a ceremony at the: ibid.

  573 “for the first time …”: Washington Star, December 11, 1961.

  574-75 “Well, I think …”: Salinger, p. 115.

  575 watched by forty-six: Newsweek, February 26, 1962.

  576 “Where did you get…”: LL interview with Hugh Sidey.

  577 “Kennedy used …”: LL interview with John Kenneth Galbraith.

  577 Alsop noted that: Alsop, with Piatt, p. 440.

  578 “Do keep this…”: Theodore H. White to Robert F. Kennedy, March 14, 1961, ASP.

  578 “would be delighted…”: Robert F. Kennedy to Theodore H. White, March 23, 1961, ASP.

  578 “Kennedy’s notion …”: LL interview with Bob Healy.

  578 “Corbin was abrasive …”: LL interview with Larry Newman.

  578 “Kenny just didn’t…”: LL interview with Bob Healy.

  579 “whereas I think …”: quoted in a review of Jules Witcover, The Dark Side of Camelot, Columbia Journalism Review, January-February 1998.

  579 “I may have …”: LL interview with Ben Bradlee.

  579 Seigenthaler, moreover: LL interview with John Seigenthaler. See also

  John Seigenthaler, KLOH. 579 “Jolly Paul Corbin …”: Newsweek, September 4, 1961.

  579 “Fire him!”: John Seigenthaler, KLOH.

  580 “Good Lord, why do …”: Teno Roncalio, KLOH. 580 “I was there …”: interview, Evelyn Jones, RCP.

  580 “We wanted to”: LL interview with Joan Kennedy.

  581 “Don’t lose a day”: Clymer, p. 31.

  581 That was a lesson: Boston Traveler, September 25, 1961.

  581-82 “Nobody forced me to run”: TEEK, p. 147.

  582 “wealthy personable lightweight”: Edward M. Kennedy to Robert F. Kennedy, “Subject: Redbook Profile,” n.d., RFK papers, JFKPL.

  582 “the article should be fair …”: ibid.

  583 “little reason for …”: ibid.

  583 “there are those in …”: William Peters, “Teddy Kennedy,” Redbook, June 1962.

  583 “the entire community”: ibid.

  583-84 “I feel that the Virginia…”: Edward M. Kennedy to Robert F. Kennedy, “Subject: Redbook Profile,” n.d., RFK papers, AG correspondence, JFKPL.

  584 “The vital thing…”: Robert F. Kennedy to Edward M. Kennedy, December 14, 1961, RFK papers, AG correspondence, JFKPL.

  584 “Saddle up…”: Betty Hannah Hoffman, “What It’s Like to Marry a Kennedy,” Ladies’ Home Journal, October 1962.

  585 Joan, unlike Jackie: Louisville Times, June 16, 1962.

  586 “You rich boys …”: Gerald Tremblay, KLOH.

  586 “the naturalness of a newspaperman …”: quoted in Laura Bergquist, “Life on the New Frontier,” Look, January 2, 1962.

  586 On one occasion: New York Times, June 12, 1977.

  587 “My father and mother …”: LL interview with Edward Kennedy. 587 One day he fell: Saunders, pp. 76, 94.

  587 “Why, look at that…
”: LL interview with Luella Hennessey Donovan.

  587 “looked like whores”: Saunders, pp. 83-84.

  588 “everyone in the room …”: John Jay Hooker Jr., KLOH. 588 High up in the: Saunders, p. 100.

  588 “All right, everybody…”: Paul Fay, unedited manuscript PFP.

  588 “He is so big…”: Rose Kennedy, “Thanksgiving ‘61,” HTF, p. 699.

  589 Rose thought: ibid.

  589 “It’s so incredible …”: LL interview with Frank Waldrop. 589 “I had to stay…”: TFB, p. 227. 591 “He’ll be fine …”: Saunders, p. 121.

  591 “nothing more to live …”: interview, Steve Smith, March 5, 1976, ASP.

  591 when she entered: Saunders, p. 134.

  592 One of them covered: Rita Dallas, with Jeanira Ratcliffe, The Kennedy Case (1973), p. 87.

  592 Bobby and Ethel hurried: ibid, p. 36.

  592 “For a group of people …”: interview, Dr. Henry Betts, CP.

  593 “He was very …”: ibid.

  594 “I don’t know, I don’t…”: ibid.

  594 “Uncle Joe, the family …”: Dallas, p. 125.

  594 “I think she …”: interview, Dr. Henry Betts, CP.

  26. Dangerous Games

  597 could have been fined: William J. Eaton, “Rule Notwithstanding, Brumus Joins RFK on Job,” UPI, n.d., FBIFOI.

  597 Bobby had scarcely: R. C. Renneberger to Mr. Callahan, “Subject: Attorney General Visit to Mechanical Section,” February 1, 1961, FBIFOI.

  597 That same evening: H. L. Edwards to Mr. Mohr, “Subject: Attorney General’s Efforts to Get into the Bureau Gymnasium Tuesday Evening, 1/31/61,” February 1, 1961, FBIFOI.

  597 push-ups he performed: J. F. Malone to Mr. Mohr, “Subject: Visit of Attorney General to Basement Gymnasium,” February 8, 1961, FBIFOI.

  597 “is controlled and to a…”: M. A. Jones to Mr. DeLoach, “Subject: Interview of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy,” March 20, 1961, FBIFOI.

  598 “They are not important…”: Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1961, FBIFOI.

  598 “that in regard …”: John Edgar Hoover to Mr. Tolson, Mr. Belmont, Mr. Mohr, and Mr. DeLoach, memorandum, October 9, 1961, FBIFOI.

  598 “Hoover was a …”: LL interview with William Hundley.

  599 Johnson spoke the language: William F. Roemer Jr., Man Against the Mob (1989), p. 206.