Jack Kennedy
Page 44
337 “How could you expect the world”: Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 103.
337 For the first time: Ibid, p. 95.
337 “I’m the responsible officer”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 290.
337 83 percent in a Gallup poll: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, 386. (That April 1961 number would be the highest in his administration.)
337 “In the months that followed”: Fay, p. 171.
337 Even on vacation in Hyannis Port: Ibid.
337 “I will never compromise the principles”: Ibid., pp. 172–73.
339 The French president expressed doubts: KOD.
340 His practical advice: Ibid.
340 even the appearance of negotiating: Ibid.
341 “snapping at him like a terrier”: O’Donnell and Powers, p. 296.
341 “Not too well”: Leaming, p. 309.
342 He tried everything: KOD.
342 Kennedy requested a third meeting: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 402.
343 “If that’s true, it’s going to be a cold winter”: Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 171.
343 “I never met a man like this”: Hugh Sidey, “The Presidency,” Time, October 15, 1984.
343 “It will have to be for much bigger”: JFK to O’Donnell, Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 430.
344 “never come face to face with such evil”: Pitts, p. 220.
344 “Our position in Europe”: Ibid., p. 55.
344 “He’s imprisoned by Berlin”: Hugh Sidey, John F. Kennedy, President (New York: Atheneum, 1964), p. 218.
345 On June 21, he would suffer: Leaming, pp. 321–22.
345 “showcase of liberty, a symbol”: Kempe, p. 423.
345 Five days later, Senator William Fulbright: Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 204.
345 “Why would Khrushchev put up a wall”: Kempe, p. 379.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: ZENITH
348 We’d agreed, as had the Soviets: Leaming, p. 337.
348 “fucked again!”: David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest (New York: Random House, 1972), p. 84.
349 “If we test only underground”: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 462.
350 With it came a new pressure: Leaming, pp. 378–80.
350 “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”: Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 551.
350 “hard-boiled . . . soft-boiled”: Bradlee, Conversations, pp. 52–53.
350 Kennedy’s national security team: Leaming, pp. 378–80.
352 “we were actually superior to the Soviets”: Author interview with John Glenn.
353 In the fall of 1961: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 482.
353 Afterward, JFK called both sides: KOD.
353 His company was raising the price of steel: Ibid.
353 “what you are doing is in the best interest”: Fay int.
353 “You have made a terrible mistake”: Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 296.
353 “These guys felt they were so powerful”: KOD.
354 “cold, deliberate fucking”: Bradlee, Conversations, p. 76.
354 “wrongly, he could not or would”: KOD.
354 “You find out about these guys”: Fay int.
354 “I don’t think U.S. Steel or any other”: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 486.
354 “where possible”: Fay int.
354 “the American people will find it hard”: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 485.
355 “Kennedy’s style of politics”: KOD.
355 “We looked over all of them as individuals”: Robert F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program.
355 “Good night, pal”: To Dave Powers, Smith, p. xiv.
355 He always exhibited great fondness: Bradlee, Conversations, p. 148.
356 Even social friends might step: Ibid., pp. 114–15.
356 He regularly went for a swim: Nancy Tuckerman and Pamela Turnure, John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program. Nancy Tuckerman: “Yes, twice a day.”
356 “Information has been developed”: Perret, p. 346.
357 He’d regularly see Meyer: Bradlee, Conversations, p. 54.
359 Washington efforts: “Summary of Civil Rights Progress,” Box 63, Papers of the President, John F. Kennedy Library.
359 On September 10, the U.S. Supreme Court: KOD.
360 “I won’t agree to let that boy get to Ole Miss”: Ibid.
360 Jack and Bobby both were hoping: Ibid.
361 Jack was now involved in checking: Ibid.
361 When two thousand demonstrators: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 515.
361 “neither Meredith nor any of those men”: KOD.
361 “we knew that most of the National Guard”: Ibid.
362 Kennedy was responsible: Reeves, President Kennedy, pp. 359–64.
362 “They always give you their bullshit”: Ibid, p. 363.
363 “the occupation regime”: Letter from Khrushchev to JFK, July 5, 1962, ibid., p. 41.
363 “bone in my throat”: Ibid., p. 168.
363 “We will not allow your troops to be in Berlin”: From State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States: Cuba, 1962– 1963, pp. 1045–57.
364 he told Udall that he wanted to meet: Frederick Kempe, Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth (New York: Putnam, 2011), p. 493.
364 He sent JFK a letter: Leaming, pp. 378–80.
364 Suddenly it came: Ibid., p. 413.
365 Kennedy now assembled: Sorensen, Counselor, p. 286.
366 “Virtually everyone’s initial choice”: Ibid., pp. 288–89.
367 If Khrushchev was attempting: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 554.
367 “I now know how Tojo felt”: Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, p. 507.
367 Might not an American attack on Cuba: On January 15, 1992, the New York Times reported that the Soviet Union had 43,000 troops in Cuba during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, not 10,000 as was reported by the Central Intelligence Agency. This was according to Robert McNamara, who had just returned from a conference on the crisis in Havana. He said Soviet officials had told him that Moscow had sent short-range nuclear weapons to Cuba and that Soviet commanders there were authorized to use them in the event of an American invasion.
369 Grab your balls: JFK to Salinger, Salinger, p. 115.
370 “I think the pressure of this period”: Bartlett OH.
370 “You’d be interested to know”: Ibid.
371 “ ‘Any communication with any skipper’”: Fay OH.
371 He then instructed Bobby: Sorensen, Counselor, p. 302.
372 “the greatest defeat in our history”: LeMay quote, Dallek, An Unfinished Life, p. 571.
372 “If Kennedy never did another thing”: Macmillan quote, O’Donnell and Powers, p. 284.
372 There was an equal number of warheads: Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War (New York: Knopf, 2008), p. 98.
372 “My thinking went like this”: Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970), p. 494.
373 “The final lesson of the Cuban missile crisis”: Robert Kennedy, Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis (New York: W. W. Norton, 1969), p. 95.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: GOALS
376 “The tax laws really screw people”: Bradlee, Conversations, p. 218.
379 “The decision to make the speech available”: New York Times, June 13, 1963.
379 “The speech and its publication in Izvestia show”: Ibid.
379 “He’s just challenging us”: Bradlee, Conversations, p. 195.
379 “Make him look ridiculous”: Dan T. Carter, The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), p. 149.
380 “most precious and powerful right in the world”: Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy: 1963, p. 14.
381 “the most sweeping and forthright ever”: M
artin Luther King, June 20, 1963, Box 97, President’s Office Files at John F. Kennedy Library.
382 Driving through the streets: Bradlee, Conversations, pp. 95–96. “Just before his trip to Berlin in June, 1963,” wrote Bradlee, “he spent the better part of an hour with the Vreelands (Frederick ‘Frecky’ Vreeland, a young foreign service officer and the son of Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, and his wife) before he could master ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’ “
382 In fact, Jack was secretly: Ibid., p. 84. “For some reason it bugs Kennedy that I speak French.”
383 A million Germans lined the parade route: Michael Beschloss, The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960–1963 (New York: Edward Burlingame Books, 1991), pp. 604–8.
383 “like a man who has just glimpsed Hell”: Hugh Sidey, Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 535.
383 Jack called the time he spent in Berlin: Sorensen, Counselor, p. 325.
383 “When my great-grandfather left here to become a cooper in East Boston”: President Kennedy to the people of New Ross, Ireland, June 1963, John F. Kennedy Library.
383 “The wind from that machine blew my chickens away”: Duchess of Devonshire, The House: A Portrait of Chatsworth (London: Papermac, 1987), p. 222.
384 During those negotiations: Sorensen, Counselor, p. 327.
384 On July 25, 1963, envoys from the three: Leaming, p. 435.
384 John Kennedy considered this his greatest achievement: Sorensen int.
384 “With all human beings, one of the things”: Ormsby-Gore quote, Lord Harlech OH.
385 “He put up quite a fight”: Leaming, p. 298.
385 “defeat Communist insurgency”: Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 50.
385 “I can remember one particular case”: Fay OH.
386 He had the added advantage: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, pp. 988–89.
386 The leader of that faction: Ibid., p. 985.
387 Now he was approving his former ally’s: Leaming, p. 309.
387 “U.S. Government cannot tolerate situation in which power lies in Nhu’s hands”: Reeves, President Kennedy, pp. 562–63.
387 August was also the month of: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, pp. 972–73; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, pp. 350–52.
388 “This was the first time we’d seen Jackie”: Bradlee, Conversations, p. 206.
388 He left at halftime: O’Brien, John F. Kennedy, p. 779.
388 In future visits to the confession booth: Fay, pp. 222–23.
388 light a candle for Joe Jr.: Dalton OH.
388 There were often times when friends: Ibid.
388 president would kneel: Dave Powers int.
389 “An American President, commander in chief”: Sorensen, Counselor, p. 123.
389 On October 4, Jackie left: Leaming, p. 314.
391 “Perhaps he should have guessed that”: Sorensen, Counselor, p. 354.
391 After retreating from the cabinet room: Leaming, p. 323.
391 “Over the weekend”: Presidential recordings, John F. Kennedy Library.
393 “He is instinctively against introduction”: United States State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States: Vietnam, 1961, pp. 532–33.
393 “They want a force of American troops”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 547.
394 “I do not believe he knew”: Sorensen, Counselor, p. 359.
394 At about this same time: O’Neill, p. 177.
394 “mood of the city was ugly”: Bradlee, Conversations, p. 237.
394 “disgraced. There is no other way”: Time, November 1, 1963.
394 The following Thursday, Jack had invited: Pitts, pp. 205–6.
395 He was convinced: Bradlee, Conversations, p. 190.
395 “He’ll end up hating me”: Reeves, President Kennedy, p. 465.
396 Jack spent the next weekend: Barbara Leaming, Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years (New York: Free Press, 2001), pp. 326–27.
396 “A small band of conspirators”: JFK speech to the Inter-American Press Association, November 18, 1963, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
397 “organize an in-depth study”: William J. Rust, Kennedy in Vietnam (New York: Da Capo Press, 1985), pp. 4–5.
397 While Wright laid some of the blame: Author interview with Jim Wright.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: LEGACY
399 “They were wider than pools”: Theodore White’s notes on his interview with Jacqueline Kennedy are at the John F. Kennedy Library.
402 Within hours she’d assumed the reins: Tuckerman/Turnure OH.
402 “Jackie was extraordinary”: Bradlee, Conversations, p. 244.
403 “to an exceptional degree”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 78.
403 “each of us had a certain role we were cast into, whether we knew it or not”: Jim Reed, John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program.
404 “We had a hero for a friend”: William Manchester, The Death of a President: November 20–November 25, 1963 (New York: Harper & Row, 1967), p. 446.
404 “chemistry”: Author interview with Chuck Spalding.
404 “The most charming man I ever knew”: Smathers int.
404 “aura of royalty about him”: Bradlee int.
404 “chasing girls in the South of France”: Bartlett int.
405 “There’s no point in being Irish if you don’t know the world’s going to someday break your heart”: Moynihan, said to columnist Mary McGrory.
405 In a 2009 national poll: National survey conducted for CBS’s 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair, published in January 2010.
INDEX
ABC, 177
Abernathy, Ralph, 311
Acheson, Dean, 176, 307
Adams, John Quincy, 68, 171–72
Addison’s disease, 106, 169, 182, 183–84, 217, 224, 233, 278–79, 291
advertising, politics and, 85
Aeschylus, 321
African Americans, 97, 230–31, 308–11, 359–62, 379–81, 384
Agence France-Presse, 361
Age of Jackson, The (Schlesinger), 108
Alabama, University of, 379–80
Alexander the Great, 4
Algeria, 228, 229
Alliance for Progress, 333
Alsop, Joseph, 108, 193, 232
Ambrose, Margaret, 106
American Field Service Ambulance Corps, 60
American Friends of Vietnam, 387
American Labor Party, 176
American Legion, 77, 110
Americans for Democratic Action, 226, 231
American University, 376, 379
American Veterans Committee, 226
anti-Semitism, 33, 143–44, 256
Apalachin, N.Y. mob summit (1957), 235
Apollo 5, 402
appeasement, 31–38, 99, 100–101, 173, 252, 304
“Appeasement in Munich” (Kennedy), 36–37
Arlington National Cemetery, 401
arms race, 252, 285, 308, 348–52, 384
Army, U.S., 361
Army Air Corps, U.S., 110, 123
Army Department, U.S., 329
Army-McCarthy hearings (1954), 176–77, 179, 181
Art of Living, 286
Arvad, Inga Marie, 40, 43–45, 50, 161
JFK’s war letter to, 57–59
Asquith, Herbert, 34
Asquith, Raymond, 34, 35, 39, 40, 42, 62
atomic bomb, 74, 111, 172, 348, 349, 372
Attwood, Bill, 287–88
Augustine, Saint, 388
Austria, Nazi Anschluss of, 31, 304
Bailey, John, 202, 247, 255, 323
“Bailey Memorandum,” 201–2