At Canaan's Edge (113 page)

Katzenbach himself strongly opposed: Int. Nicholas Katzenbach, June 14, 1991.

“leave control of voting machinery”: Katzenbach to Moyers and White, March 1, 1965, Moyers Papers, Box 6, LBJ.

“The game now is in the fourth quarter”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 9:10
A.M.
, Feb. 26, 1965, Cit. 6887, Audiotape WH6502.06, LBJ.

bleak reality that guerrilla armies were defeating: Cf. Bundy to LBJ, Feb. 7, 1965

(“…defeat appears inevitable…prospect in Vietnam is grim….”) in FRUS, Vol. 2, pp. 174–81; Logevall,
Choosing,
pp. 330–32; Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 306–10.

“forgive you for anything except being weak”: LBJ phone call with Richard Russell, June 11, 1964, Cit. 3680-81, Audiotape WH6406.05, LBJ.

“this is a terrible thing”: LBJ phone call with McGeorge Bundy, 11:24
A.M.
, May 27, 1964, Cit. 3522, Audiotape WH6405.10, LBJ.

“makes the chills run up my back”: LBJ phone call with Richard Russell, 10:55
A.M.
, May 27, 1964, Cit. 3519a, Audiotape WH6405.10, LBJ.

approved secretly on February 13: Logevall,
Choosing,
pp. 343–44.

another military coup by South Vietnamese allies: NYT, Feb. 19, 1965, pp. 1, 10; Karnow,
Vietnam,
pp. 392–402.

six chronically unstable governments: Ibid. The nature of South Vietnamese politics made regimes difficult for Americans to count, and the
Times
put the number at nine. NYT, March 3, 1965, p. 10.

“Now we're off to bombing those people”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 9:10
A.M.
, Feb. 26, 1965, Cit. 6887, Audiotape WH6502.06, LBJ.

President transfixed by a report: Robert Kleiman, “U.S. Said to Plan Limited Air War as Lever on Hanoi,” NYT, March 1, 1965, p. 1. Datelined Saigon, the story reported that the “highest American and South Vietnamese officials” were “virtually certain” of Johnson's approval for a sustained air war that would be “neither announced nor officially admitted.” The story quoted a high official that the goal of the new campaign was not to bomb North Vietnam into submission but to “do something we could stop doing to them, in return for equivalent concessions.”

“Am I wrong in saying”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 10:46
A.M.
, March 1, 1965, Cit. 7002-03, Audiotape WH6503.01, LBJ.

mountainous doubt and brutally frank pessimism: Ambassador Maxwell Taylor to the Department of State, 11:00
A.M.
, Jan. 6, 1965, FRUS, Vol. 2, pp. 12–19. On February 22, 1965, opposing General William Westmoreland's request that same day for Marine combat units in Vietnam, Ambassador Taylor cabled Washington as follows: “White-faced soldier, armed, equipped and trained as he is not suitable guerrilla fighter for Asian forests and jungles. French tried to adapt their forces to this mission and failed; I doubt that US forces could do much better.” Gravel, ed.,
Pentagon Papers,
pp. 418–19. See also McNamara,
In Retrospect,
pp. 146–74; Langguth,
Our Vietnam,
pp. 333–48.

“Somebody ought to be removed, Bob”: LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara, 10:46
A.M.
, March 1, 1965, Cit. 7002-03, Audiotape WH6503.01, LBJ.

“We are going to bring”: NYT, March 2, 1965, pp. 1, 10.

one surprise dispersal: Branch,
Pillar,
p. 586.

around the Lowndes County courthouse: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
pp. 120–21; “Great Day at Trickem Fork,”
Saturday Evening Post,
May 22, 1965, p. 94.

“Who is that little fella”: Int. John Hulett, Sept. 8, 2000.

“refused to know their own selves”: Int. Elzie McGill by Robert Wright, Aug. 4, 1968, RJBOH.

spoke with an odd accent: Int. Rocena Haralson, Feb. 16, 2001.

Emma and Matthew Jackson: Int. Matthew Jackson and int. Emma (Mrs. Matthew) Jackson by Robert Wright, Aug. 4, 1968, RJBOH.

“In the name of humanity”: NYT, March 2, 1965, p. 1.

people managed to finish: Ibid.

Wilcox County seat of Camden: McCarty,
Reins,
p. 20.

“too small to be a republic”: Applebome,
Dixie,
p. 103.

“2,250 whites registered”: McCarty,
Reins,
p. 137.

no electric lights: Ibid., p. 97.

Ben Miller took a cow: Ibid., p. 104.

sixty-eight families of Negro sharecroppers: Callahan,
Quilting Bee,
pp. 35–36.

never had seen a water faucet: Ibid., p. 74.

“Well, how about you acting”: McCarty,
Reins,
p. 144.

“Don't even carry a hair clamp”: Callahan,
Quilting Bee,
p. 166.

fifty wet Alabama state troopers: Fager,
Selma, 1965,
p. 84.

two riflemen intended to shoot him: Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 591–97.

“This is a magnificent thing”: NYT, March 2, 1965, p. 19.

named for Robert Y. Hayne: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
p. 90.

William Lowndes Yancey: McCarty,
Reins,
pp. 34–35.

sell Marlboro cigarettes or Falstaff beer: Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
p. 113.

refused to give his name or title: NYT, March 2, 1965, pp. 1, 19.

“You are damned dumb”: Fager,
Selma, 1965,
p. 84; Eagles,
Outside Agitator,
pp. 120–21.

Photographers snapped a picture: WP, March 2, 1965, p. 8.

fired from his regular job: Int. Lorenzo Harrison, Sept. 8, 2000; Rev. Maurice McCrackin pamphlet, “Operation Freedom Helps in Selma,” April 1965, RSP1.

“revealed no incidents throughout”: Teletype, Mobile office to Director, March 1, 1965, FDCA-453.

he hesitated for six minutes: Teletype, Mobile office to Director, March 1, 1965, FDCA-454.

3: DISSENT

PAGE

In full academic regalia: CDD, March 3, 1965, p. 1.

reprise on his Nobel Peace Prize lecture: Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 542–43.

“The war in Vietnam is accomplishing nothing”: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 394; “MLK on

Vietnam/Washington, DC,” misdated March 6, 1965, A/KS.

brought the number of Americans killed: NYT, March 7, 1965, p. 3.

no formal announcement of the new bombing policy: FRUS, Vol. 2, p. 390.

Air Force jets, six of which were lost: Ibid.; Logevall,
Choosing,
p. 363.

forty policemen who stood guard: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 394.

seeking counsel about his dilemma: Hoover to Marvin Watson, March 9, 1965, FK-971.

Bad weather delayed: Teletype, Mobile office to Director, March 3, 1965, FDCA-460.

two thousand mourners filed past: Fager,
Selma, 1965,
p. 85.

the afternoon funeral procession: BAA, March 13, 1965, p. 13; Mendelsohn,
Martyrs,
pp. 148–49.

“a tear glistened”: NYT, March 4, 1965, p. 23.

Recycling the text: Ibid. Also Branch,
Pillar,
p. 600; Fager,
Selma, 1965,
pp. 85–86.

“What time they be marchin'?”: Webb and Nelson,
Selma, Lord, Selma,
p. 71.

rain rinsed its blue dye: Ibid., p. 81.

He set the starting date for Sunday, March 7: NYT, March 4, 1965, p. 23.

To give himself some wiggle room: STJ, March 4, 1965, p. 1.

At a crisis staff meeting: Int. Fay Bellamy, Oct. 29, 1991; int. Frank Soracco, Sept. 12–14, 1990; int. Silas Norman, June 28, 2000.

Bellamy had introduced herself to Malcolm X: Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 578–79.

an opposing war council: Lesher,
George Wallace,
p. 319; Carter,
Politics,
pp. 246–47.

“laughingstock of the nation”: Jones,
Wallace Story,
pp. 355–56.

Stanley Levison rode an elevator: Hoover to Marvin Watson, March 9, 1965,

FK-971.

“We cannot afford to lose him”: SAC, New York, Teletype to Director, March 4, 1965, FK-963.

warning to President Johnson: Hoover to Marvin Watson, March 5, 1965, FK-931.

information that Levison had been a Communist: Garrow,
FBI and King,
pp. 42–46;

Branch,
Parting,
pp. 516–17, 835–36.

preserved secretly as the official predicate: Ibid. Also Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 153–54.

“on a highly confidential basis”: Baumgardner to Sullivan, March 2, 1965, FK-938.

insisted that the advisers “clear” Levison: Int. Harry Wachtel, Nov. 29, 1983.

“Escalation in the manner recently conducted”: Stanley D. Levison to LBJ, “Dear Mr.

President,” Feb. 14, 1965, Name File, LBJ.

“to express my vigorous dissent”: Clarence B. Jones to LBJ, March 4, 1965, Name File LBJ.

upbringing in a chauffeur's household: Branch,
Parting,
pp. 317–18; Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 41–47.

Assuming that Wallace would stop Sunday's march: SAC, New York, Teletype to Director, March 6, 1965, FK-969; Abernathy,
Walls,
p. 326.

a side dispute that awkwardly followed: Garrow,
Bearing,
pp. 394–95; int. Harry Wachtel, Nov. 29, 1983.

He took Walter Fauntroy with him: Handwritten note that King was received in the Fish Room with Fauntroy, Bernard Lee, and Andrew Young on March 5, attached to briefing memo from Lee White to LBJ, March 4, 1965, EX HU2/ST 24, Box 26, LBJ.

past a line of uniformed American Nazis: Washington, D.C., LHM, March 8, 1965, “American Nazi Party/Racial Matters,” FK-NR.

close to a common agenda: BAA, March 13, 1965, p. 1; notes on King meeting with LBJ, 6:17–7:35
P.M
., PDD, March 5, 1965, LBJ.

“The President told me”: NYT, March 6, 1965, p. 9.

Airline sources told FBI agents: SAC, Atlanta, to Director, March 5, 1965, FK-964.

basement of Frazier's soul food café: Minutes, SNCC executive committee meeting 9:45
P.M
., March 5, 1965, A/SN6; Carson,
Struggle,
p. 158; Lewis,
Walking,
p. 319.

rules of procedure: Ibid. Also three-page, eleven-point rules of procedure “Adopted by the Executive Committee March 5, 1965, Atlanta, Georgia,” Reel 1, SNCC.

“Who the hell is Robert”: Int. Martha Prescod Norman, June 29, 2000.

Disagreements festered: Carson,
Struggle,
pp. 123–52; Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 479–82, 506–9.

Nearly a hundred of the summer volunteers: Forman,
Making,
pp. 414–22; Sellers,
River,
p. 130.

addressed internal racial hostilities: Branch,
Pillar,
pp. 223–24, 295–96.

withdrawal announcement at the previous meeting: Ibid., pp. 588–90.

A ruling from the chair suspended: Minutes, SNCC executive committee meeting, 9:45
P.M
., March 5, 1965, A/SN6. 30 Silas Norman had left Wisconsin: Int. Silas Norman, June 28, 2000. 31 the Selma project had opposed Bevel's plan: “A Short Summary of the Executive Committee Meeting, March 5 and 6, 1965 in Atlanta, Ga.,” A/SN6.

to ask why SNCC should participate: Minutes, SNCC executive committee meeting, 9:45
P.M.
, March 5, 1965, A/SN6.

drafting a letter to Martin Luther King: Ibid. Also int. Silas Norman, June 28, 2000; int. Ivanhoe Donaldson, Nov. 30, 2000.

4: BOXED IN

“Good God, I'd rather hear”: LBJ phone call with Richard Russell, 12:05
P.M.
, March 6, 1965, Cit. 7026-27, Audiotape WH6503.03, LBJ.

Russell had been breathing: Fite,
Richard Russell,
pp. 426–27.

morose stall on the Marine orders: Preparations to send the Marines were underway, but Johnson told National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy that he had not made the decision, saying, “I'm still worried about it.” LBJ phone call with McGeorge Bundy, 10:30
A.M.
, March 5, 1965, Cit. 7022, Audiotape WH6503.02, LBJ.