The Kennedy Men

by Laurence Leamer

  655 anyone within half a mile: ibid., p. 242.

  655 “We all know….”: Ex Comm meeting, October 27, 1962, 4:00 P.M.., Cabinet Room, tapes 42 and 43, JFKPL.

  656 “Well, the only …”: ibid.

  657 “spoiling for a fight”: Dobrynin, p. 87.

  658 Bobby was almost crying: Thomas, p. 228.

  658 “that some day …”: Dobrynin, p. 90.

  658 Castro himself had admonished: Fursenko and Naftali, pp. 272-73.

  658 “In order to save …”: ibid., p. 284.

  659 “has given a …”: Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy, Moscow, October 28, 1962, Department of State, FRUS.

  659 “the greatest danger …”: John F. Kennedy, speech on aid for Greece and Turkey, record of House of Representatives, April 1, 1947.

  660 “Once we’ve got these …”: National Security Council meeting, November 7, 1962, tape 53A. The dialogue here and in the rest of this chapter are from tapes at the JFKPL that are here transcribed for the first time.

  661 “conducting surveillance …”: NSC meeting, November 12, 1962, tape 56, JFKPL.

  662 “Bobby’s notion is…”: NSC meeting, either November 14 or 15, 1962, tape 58, JFKPL.

  662 “personal opinion”: Fursenko and Naftali, p. 300.

  662 “definite schedule … let’s say …”: ibid., p. 303.

  662 “We have the firm impression …”: ibid, p. 310.

  29. The Bells of Liberty

  664 “Ted Kennedy in Italy”: Joseph A. Page, “The Precocious Ted Kennedy,” The Nation, March 10, 1962.

  665 When he left Panama: Walter Trohan, Political Animals: Memoirs of a Sentimental Cynic (1975), p. 327.

  665 “some 200 million …”: quoted in Clymer, p. 35.

  665-66 “Bobby was opposed …”: John Sharon, KLOH.

  666 “The only argument…”: LL interview with Chuck Spalding.

  666 “Can you put it in …”: LL interview with Bob Healy. See also Clymer, p. 36, and TEEK, p. 158.

  667 “Teddy and his brothers…”: LL interview with Milton Gwirtzman.

  668 The count was: Clymer, p. 39.

  669 “… it was wrong …”: ibid, p. 38.

  669 “Now listen, Eddie”: Fay, p. 226.

  670 talked to Trohan: LL interview with Walter Trohan.

  670 “In Israel he almost…”: quoted in TEEK, p. 181.

  670 “Now, Mr. President…”: LL interview with Milton Gwirtzman.

  670-71 “his candidacy has already…”: Joe McCarthy, “One Election JFK Can’t Win,” Look, November 6, 1962.

  671 “widely regarded here.…”: quoted in Clymer, p. 38.

  671 “You want something …”: ibid., p. 47.

  671 “Teddy, these ate….”: ibid.

  672 “The major wheels….”-. Washington Star, April 27, 1962.

  672 “In the field of party …”: Sidney Hyman, “Why There’s Trouble in the New Frontier,” Look, July 2, 1963.

  672 “In rough issues…”: ibid.

  672 There were 15,600: David Kaiser, American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Origins of the Vietnam War (2000), p. 201.

  673 “They’re not certain …”: presidential recordings, telephone conversations, cassette E, JFKPL.

  673 The Americans placed: LL interviews with John Nolan and Barrett E. Prettyman Jr.

  674 In a phrase: Thomas, p. 238.

  674 “The time will probably …”: notes of President Kennedy’s remarks at the 508th NSC meeting, January 22, 1963, NSC files, FRUS.

  674 “putting glass…”: ibid.

  674 “He felt a very …”: LL interview with John Nolan.

  674 On April 3: Thomas, p. 239.

  674 “contingencies such as the …”: summary record of the second meeting of the NSC Cuba Standing Group, NSC files, April 23, 1963, FRUS, JFKPL.

  675 Neither Bobby: LL interview with John Nolan.

  675 they brought a wet suit: John Nolan has a picture of Castro in the wet suit hanging in his Washington law office.

  675 the CIA had prepared: IR, p. 86.

  675 “very interested”: Gordon Chase, memorandum for the record, “Subject: Mr. Donovan’s Trip to Cuba,” March 3, 1963, NSC archives, www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/.

  676 “always the possibility”: President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to the Standing Group of the National Security Council memorandum, April 21, 1963, NSC files, “The Cuban Problem,” FRUS.

  676 “desire for some noise level…”: Gordon Chase, NSC staff, to President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy), memorandum, April 11, 1963, FRUS.

  676 “a railway bridge …”: ibid.

  676 “might initially intensify…”: memorandum for the NSC Cuba Standing Group, NSC files, countries series, Cuba, general, May 1-15, 1963, FRUS.

  677 Manuel Artime, their leader, received: Russo, p. 172.

  677 “I had many chances …”: Blight and Kornbluh, p. 121.

  678 One Sunday morning: Thomas, p. 239.

  678 “in the dark-of-the-moon …”: memorandum for the record, June 19, 1963, CIA, “Subject, Meeting at the White House Concerning Proposed Covert Policy and Integrated Program of Action Towards Cuba,” FRUS.

  678 “sabotage of Cuban …”: paper prepared by the CIA for the NSC Cuba Standing Group, Washington, D.C., June 8, 1963, NSC files, FROUS JFKPL.

  678 when they had burned: LL interview with Samuel Halpern.

  678 “We fixed that”: LL interview with Bradley Earl Ayers.

  679 “set Cuba aflame”: LL interview with Grayston Lynch, and Lynch, p. 171.

  679 “We could float…”: summary record of the tenth meeting of the NSC Cuba Standing Group, July 16, 1963, NSC files, FRUS, JFKPL.

  680 “I need a phrase …”: LL interview with Myer Feldman.

  681 “if he had said …”: Lord Harlech, KLOH.

  681 “These were the three happiest…”: Dorothy Tubirdy, KLOH, and LL interview with Dorothy Tubirdy.

  682 “more British than Irish”: Dr. Thomas J. Kiernan, KLOH.

  682 “You’ll have to move it”: LL interview with Malcolm Kilduff.

  683 “I think he felt back home”: LL interview with Mary Ryan.

  683 “He had always …”: Jacqueline Kennedy, in a worldwide broadcast on what would have been JFK’s forty-seventh birthday, clipping, May 30, 1964, JFKPL.

  685 “Bells mark…”: JFK notes written sometime on European trip, June 1963, JFKPP.

  685 “Heroes of the past…”: President John F. Kennedy, “Heroes Watch Us!: Some Words to Live by for Independence Day,” ibid.

  686 “Admiral, I want to express…”: audiotape of 1963 reunion. Courtesy R. F. Duffy.

  30. The Adrenaline of Action

  688 At the first dance of the winter of 1962-63: Nina Burleigh, A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer (1998), p. 217.

  688 Once, at Hickory Hill: ibid., p. 177.

  688 For a year: ibid., pp. 208-16.

  688 “She was a very interesting …”: LL interview with Ben Bradlee.

  689 “Mary, where have …”: Burleigh, p. 217.

  689 “What is the scandal?”: presidential recordings, telephone conversations, John F. Kennedy and Arthur Schlesinger Jr., March 22, 1963, cassette E, JFKPL.

  690 “How serious do …”: interview, George Smathers, BP.

  690 “Have we learned …”: Evans to Belmont, July 2, 1963, FBIFOI.

  691 Baker’s assertion: LL interview with Bobby Baker. See also Thomas, p. 255.

  691 “the best oral sex I ever had”: Thomas, p. 444.

  691 LaVern Duffy, one of Bobby’s: ibid., p. 257.

  691 “The White House was…”: LL interview with Marcus Raskin.

  692 “I don’t know …”: LL interview with Joseph Paolella.

  692 “debaucher of a girl…”: memorandum to Mr. Mohr, October 27, 1961, FBIFOI.

  692-93 “I think that all men …”: The Thunderb
olt, no. 54, November 1963.

  693 In July, the FBI: M. Jones to Cartha DeLoach, July 9, 1963, FBIFOI.

  693 “would have been …”: LL interview with Edwin Guthman.

  693 Kennedy’s aide Mike Feldman: LL interviews with Myer Feldman and Cartha DeLoach.

  693 “I know how you dislike …”: Charles Bartlett to John F. Kennedy, July 19, 1963, PC.

  694 “the committee would have …”: Charles Bartlett, memo of conversation with Kenny O’Donnell, February 1, 1963, PC.

  694 “the buffer and the string cutter”: LL interview with John Seigenthaler.

  694 “O’Donnell’s remark…”: Charles Bartlett, untitled memo, July 19, 1963, PC.

  694 Bartlett admitted years: LL interview with Charles Bartlett.

  694 Newman had not: Larry Newman has verified this statement by showing the author his work records at the Secret Service.

  694 He was bewildered: When Newman was transferred to the Washington field office shortly before the end of the standard two-year tour, he suspected even more that something was wrong. In September just before he left, he went into the Oval Office to have his picture taken with the president. The Secret Service agent might have spoken about the matter, but he knew that was not done. “I was afraid to say something,” Newman said three decades later, when the matter still profoundly rankled him and he continued to feel that his honor had been betrayed. “I thought if I said something my whole career might blow up in my face.” LL interview with Larry Newman.

  695 “Charley, there are …”: Charles Bartlett to Larry Newman, April 21, 1997, PC.

  695 “The president never gave …”: LL interview with Charles Bartlett.

  695 It was supposed to cost: Newsweek, March 25, 1963.

  695 “It’s the only house …”: AWRH, p. 190.

  696 “I just hope …”: James Reed, KLOH.

  697 The thirty-one-foot-long device: Atlanta Constitution, August 9, 1963.

  697 “to keep her courage up”: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 377.

  698 “My dear Jack, let’s go …”: Look, November 17, 1964.

  698 “Did you ever think …”: Cape Cod Times, November 20, 1983.

  698 “Jack was one of these …”: LL interview, with Myer Feldman.

  698 “I think that Jack…”: LL interview with Betty Coxe Spalding.

  699 “Take that out…”: LL interview with Evelyn Lincoln.

  699 “Jackie—Onassis.”: presidential doodles, September 20, 1963, JFKPP.

  699 “The yacht has been secured …”: President Kennedy, notes written during his stay at the Bing Crosby residence in Palm Beach, presidential doodles, JFKPP, and press release, September 30, 1963, JFKPL.

  699 “twisting in the historic …”: Newsweek, October 28, 1963.

  699 “Well, why did you let…”: LL interview with Marie Rider.

  699 “What’s the helicopter coming …”: LL interview with Malcolm Kilduff.

  700 “I’m a great big bear”: Kay Halle, CBS interview, n.d., NHP.

  701 “I loved you from …”: Jacqueline B. Kennedy to John F. Kennedy, October 5, 1963. Robert White shared excerpts from this letter with the author in late 1997.

  701 it could have been written: LL interview with Nina Burleigh.

  701 “Why don’t you …”: JFK letter, n.d., PC.

  701 Kennedy scribbled: notes for toast, JFKPP.

  702 When it came time: James Reed, KLOH, and LL interview with Joan Kennedy.

  702 When Bartlett gave: Fursenko and Naftali, pp. 321-22, and LL interview with Charles Bartlett.

  702 “Everyone will suppose …”: ATD, p. 835.

  702-03 “through the motions…”: CY, p. 570.

  703 “It was personal…”: interview, Robert F. Kennedy, ASP.

  704 King sent: Branch, p. 757.

  704 “assurance that a Negro”: James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (1963), p. 4.

  705 “You don’t have no …”: quoted in Branch, p. 810.

  706 “You’ve got…”: ibid, p. 811.

  706 “the most dramatic …”: ibid.

  707 “Pretty good job …”: Presidential Recordings, tape 88, JFKPL.

  707 “I’d like to bet…”: Strober and Strober, p. 287.

  707 “My impression of…”: ibid.

  708 “the back of an envelope …”: RKIHOW, p. 200.

  709 “Do you think we …”: RKHT, p. 348.

  709 “this was going …”: RKIHOW, p. 176.

  709 “They’re going to come …”: Thomas, p. 443.

  709 “a financial pillar …”: Branch, p. 209.

  710 Hoover and his colleagues: David J. Garrow, The FBI and Martin Luther King Jr. (1981), p. 91.

  710 “I assume you know …”: Branch, p. 837.

  710 “You’ve read …”: ibid., pp. 835-37.

  711 “there was considerable doubt…”: Courtney Evans to Belmont, June 25, 1963, FBIFOI.

  711 “grab one little brother”: Thomas, p. 263.

  711 “So you’re down here …”: ibid.

  712 “This doesn’t have anything …”: Branch, p. 884.

  713 “a secret member of…”: RKIHOW, p. 141.

  713 Bobby had gone: New York Post, March 10, 1961.

  713 Instead, he might suddenly: LL interview with David Hackett.

  713 He learned that there were: Robert F. Kennedy, “Buying It Back from the Indians,” Life, March 23, 1962.

  714 “I’ll talk to Ethel…”: William V. Shannon, “Bobby’s Day,” New York Post, May 6, 1963.

  31. To Live Is to Choose

  715 “long, hard fight…”: Boston Globe, November 17, 1963.

  715 “The New Frontier …”: AP, August 5, 1963.

  715 “Of course, they are …”: John F. Kennedy and Harold Hughes, telephone conversation March 9, 1963, presidential recordings, tape E, JFKPL.

  716 “I don’t know …”: John F. Kennedy and C. Douglas Dillon, IRS rules on expense accounts, March 12, 1963, ibid.

  716 “We might just as well…”: John F. Kennedy and Paul Fay, naval base closings, March 12, 1963, ibid.

  716 “to keep them …”: John F. Kennedy and Arthur Schlesinger Jr., prospective posting to Latin America for Samuel Beer, March 22, 1963, ibid.

  716 “withdrawal from Vietnam …”: presidential doodles, April 2, 1963, JFKPP.

  717 “Military aid … aid etc …”: notes of President Kennedy written during a NSC meeting, April 20, 1963, ibid.

  717 In January 1963, General: Kaiser, p. 188.

  717 “they didn’t know …”: quoted in ibid., p. 245.

  717 Diem’s own elder brother: Ellen J. Hammer, A Death in November: America in Vietnam, 1963 (1987), p. 62.

  718 almost been killed in 1962: Kaiser, p. 275.

  718 “an authoritarian organization …”: ibid., p. 61.

  718 “To govern is to choose”: John F. Kennedy, notes, August 26, 1963, JFKPP.

  718 That summer: Cape Cod Times, November 20, 1983, and O’Donnell and Powers, p. 13.

  719 “felt that he had …”: RKIHOW, p. 394.

  719 “plans to withdraw 1,000 U.S….”: national security action memorandum no. 263, “Subject: South Vietnam,” Department of State, S/S-NSC files: Lot 70 D 265, NSC meetings (secret), printed in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John P. Kennedy, 1963, pp. 759-60.

  720 “Viet-Nam is not a …”: from Saigon to secretary of State, October 16, 1963 (top secret), Roger Hilsman papers, JFKPL.

  720 “The United States can …”: Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. papers, vol. 2, Massachusetts Historical Society.

  720 “McCone hated …”: RKIHOW, p. 397.

  720 “Diem and Nhu were undoubtedly…”: Department of State, memorandum of conversation, “Subject: Viet-Nam,” August 28, 1963 (no distribution), Roger Hilsman papers, JFKPL.

  720-21 “You’d better get…”: quoted in Kaiser, p. 264.

  721 “The difficulty is, I’m sure …”: president’s office files, October 29, 1963, meetings record
ings, tape 118/A54, JFKPL.

  722 A top-secret October 25: “Top Secret Check-List of Possible U.S. Actions in Case of Coup,” October 25, 1963, Roger Hilsman papers, JFKPL.

  723 “taken alive …”: memorandum of August 30, 1963, quoted in Hammer, p. 295.

  723 “It’s hard to believe he’d commit…”: assessment of the coup in Vietnam, Ex Comm meeting, November 2, 1963, president’s office files, meetings recordings, tape A55, JFKPL.

  726 “One two three …”: president’s office files, telephone recordings addendum, cassette M, JFKPL.

  728 bases in Costa Rica and Nicaragua: memorandum for the record, Special Group meeting, November 12, 1963, FRUS.

  728 “Bob Kennedy, it seems…”: Blight and Kornbluh, p. 122.

  728 trained for an operation: Jack Anderson, “Oil Raid Story Told,” St. Paul Dispatch, April 22, 1971; LL interviews with Bradley Ayers and Samuel Halpern; and Bradley Earl Ayers, The War that Never Was (1976), pp. 210-36.

  729 “He [Fitzgerald] offered me …”: Rolando Cubela Secades, HSCA interview, August 28, 1978, p. 10.

  729 “I have looked …”: quoted in Russo, p. 433.

  729 the administration began: Peter Kornbluh, “JFK and Castro: The Secret Quest for Accommodation,” Cigar Aficionado, September-October 1999.

  729 “the U.S. must require …”: memorandum for the record, minutes of the special meeting of the Special Group, November 5, 1963, FRUS.

  730 FitzGerald was convinced: Russo, p. 390.

  730 The president spent: appointments book, president’s office files, JFKPL.

  730 “Look who’s here, Dad”: Dallas, p. 11.

  731 At least his foreign aid: Boston Globe, November 16, 1963.

  732 “complaints … to pour …”: Boston Globe, November 3, 1963. 732 “During her nearly …”: Advertiser, November 3, 1963.

  734 “vibrating so violently…”: DP, p. 85. 734 “You know, last night…”: ibid., p. 121.

  736 “two high-powered rifles…”: CIA Targets Fidel: Secret 1967 Inspector General’s Report on Plots to Assassinate Fidel Castro (1996), p. 90.

  32. Requiem for a President

  738 already sent the Honey Fitz: LL interview with Ham Brown, Secret Service agent attached to Joseph P. Kennedy.

  738 “Uncle Joe, there’s …”: Dallas, p. 14.