At Canaan's Edge (161 page)

He welcomed a potential quest: NYT, Nov. 19, 1967, p. 1.

“Dump Johnson” activist: Steven V. Roberts, “The Dump-Johnson Movement,”
Commonweal,
Oct. 27, 1967, p. 106; Arnold S. Kaufman and Allard Lowenstein, “The Time Is Ripe to Dump Johnson,”
Michigan Daily,
Nov. 2, 1967; “The Move to ‘Dump' Johnson,”
Newsweek,
Nov. 20, 1967; int. Curtis Gans, Oct. 23, 1991.

“Aren't you still waiting for Bobby?”: Transcript,
Meet the Press,
Dec. 3, 1967, Box 54f109, AL, UNC.

Conference of Concerned Democrats: Press agenda, Box 54f109, AL, UNC; keynote address by Rep. Don Edwards, Dec. 2, 1967, Box 54f109, AL, UNC; Harris,
Dreams,
pp. 218–19; Chafe,
Never,
pp. 278–81.

candidate-in-waiting seethed offstage: NYT, Nov. 3, 1967, p. 1; NYT, Dec. 1, 1967, p. 1; “McCarthy Denies a Kennedy Plot,” NYT, Dec. 3, 1967, p. 42; NYT, Dec. 4, 1967, p. 41.

McCarthy's poetic detachment: Powers,
War,
pp. 284–92; cf. Wilfred Stone to McCarthy, Jan. 15, 1968: “I heard you today at Stanford…I want you to
win
the nomination…but I think your speech was, in a political sense, ineffective…a kind of plaintive note, almost a note of self-pity.” Box 54f91, AL, UNC.

Lady Bird Johnson bemoaned: Johnson,
Diary,
pp. 591–92.

he came alone to Johnson with appeals: McNamara cover note to LBJ, Nov. 1, 1967, Meeting Notes File, Box 2, LBJ; McNamara to LBJ, Nov. 1, 1967, in FRUS, Vol. 5, p. 943ff; McNamara,
In Retrospect,
pp. 305–11. McNamara began the cover note of November 1 as follows: “Yesterday at lunch I stated my belief that continuation of our present course of action in Southeast Asia would be dangerous, costly in lives, and unsatisfactory to the American people. The attached memorandum outlines an alternative program.”

“we could even have another Forrestal”: Califano,
Triumph,
p. 249.

Wise Men rejected it: McNamara,
In Retrospect,
p. 309; Kalman,
Abe Fortas,
p. 304; Clifford,
Counsel,
pp. 457–58; Taylor,
Swords,
pp. 377–78; Rostow to LBJ, Nov. 2, 1967, in FRUS, Vol. 5, p. 971; Rostow to LBJ, Nov. 4, 1967, in ibid., p. 986; Clifford to LBJ, Nov. 7, 1967, in ibid., p. 992; Rusk to LBJ, Nov. 20, 1967, in ibid., p. 1037.

“I can think of nothing
worse”:
Fortas to LBJ, Nov. 5, 1967, in FRUS, Vol. 5, p. 991.

off to head the World Bank: Califano to LBJ, Nov. 27, 1967, Name File—Wiggins, LBJ; NYT, Nov. 28, 1967, p. 1; Dallek,
Flawed,
pp. 494–96.

“I do not know to this day”: McNamara,
In Retrospect,
p. 311.

“I am beginning to agree”: Tom Johnson notes of LBJ meeting with Vietnam advisers, Nov. 21, 1967, in FRUS, Vol. 5, p. 1055.

Johnson simply demanded: Dallek,
Flawed,
pp. 497–98.

“show some progress”: Notes, meeting with foreign policy advisers, Nov. 2, 1967, in FRUS, Vol. 5, p. 959.

“deaths and dangers to the sons”: Ibid., p. 958.

General Westmoreland publicly predicted: NYT, Nov. 16, 1967, p. 1; NYT, Nov. 20, 1967, p. 1.

“Oh, hell no”: Sheehan,
Bright,
pp. 646–47.

President Johnson restrained an impulse: Cf. “Johnson Retorts to Critics of War; Scores Rowdyism/ Backs ‘Responsible' Dissent at News Conference, but Not ‘Storm Trooper Acts,'” NYT, Nov. 18, 1967, p. 1.

“Nonviolence can be adapted”: MLK letter to “Dear Friend,” sent “BY LIAISON” from Hoover to Mildred Stegall, Nov. 8, 1967, Box 32, OFMS, LBJ.

scrawled specific instructions: On ibid., next to MLK's signature, LBJ wrote: “M[arvin Watson]—Show this to Abe F[ortas] and to Carol + then to Sheldon [Cohen] + report to me.”

“for the last three or four years”: Unsigned note dated Nov. 20, 1967, attached to Marvin Watson to LBJ, 5:33
P.M.
, Nov. 20, 1967, identifying IRS director Sheldon Cohen as author of the unsigned note, Box 32, OFMS, LBJ.

would announce a grant of $230,000: “Ford Aid Is Given to Negro Clergy,” NYT, Jan. 6, 1968, p. 18; UPI dispatch, Jan. 3, 1968, FSC-2069.

When the President asked Hoover: LBJ note, “Let's see if this can be checked,” on Hoover to Stegall, Nov. 30, 1967, with attached DC LHM marked “Secret,” Nov. 30, 1967, and Stegall reply to LBJ, Dec. 1, 1967, Box 32, OFMS, LBJ.

“to expose, disrupt, misdirect”: Hoover, “PERSONAL ATTENTION TO ALL OF FICES,” Aug. 25, 1967, FBNH-1.

third full-scale COINTELPRO: Powers,
Secrecy,
pp. 339–41, 413–15, 422–25; De-Loach,
Hoover's FBI,
pp. 270–71; O'Reilly,
“Racial,”
pp. 104–5, 195–205, 261–92. Hoover had initiated the earlier COINTELPRO actions secretly against the Communist Party in 1956 and the Ku Klux Klan in 1964.

“FBI's Report on King Ready”: Northern Virginia
Sun,
Aug. 24, 1967, p. 4; Chicago's
American,
Aug. 22, 1967, with handwritten note by Hoover, “This is the article!!!,” FK-NR; Hoover to Tolson, 9:14
A.M.
, Aug. 24, 1967, FCT-NR.

lengthy congressional speech: Remarks by Rep. John Ashbrook,
Congressional Record,
Oct. 4, 1967, p. H27814ff.

Hoover explored ways to revive the King wiretaps: Moore to Sullivan, Dec. 13, 1967, FSC-2042. DeLoach wrote a note on the wiretap proposal: “I doubt that the Attorney General will approve such an installation, but believe we should try, for the record.”

litany of faith, hope, and love: I Corinthians 13.

“You may desire a new beautiful house”: MLK sermon in Montgomery, Alabama, Dec. 10, 1967, Tape 45, A/KS.

“The kingdom of God is in you”: Ibid.; Luke 17:21.

Ku Klux Klan rally: SC, Dec. 16–17, 1967, pp. 1, 4; NYT, Dec. 11, 1967, p. 32; Mobile LHM dated Dec. 12, 1967, FK-NR.

King rushed to Chicago: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 589.

At a Wednesday press conference: NYT, Dec. 14, 1967, p. 39.

“He's done in a week”: Wiretap transcript of telephone call between MLK and Stanley Levison, 5:14
P.M.
, Dec. 13, 1967, FLNY-9-1517a.

Rutherford dismissed the daughter: Int. William Rutherford, Dec. 7, 2004; Chauncey Eskridge to MLK, “Re: Hotel Bills,” Dec. 21, 1967, A/KP10f5; wiretap transcript of telephone call between Chauncey Eskridge and Stanley Levison, 1:40
P.M.
, Dec. 26, 1967, FLNY-9-1530a.

flurry of memos: Hosea Williams to Rutherford, re: Subsistence Workers, Dec. 15, 1967, A/SC57f3; Hosea Williams to Rutherford re: Mr. King Tyler, Dec. 15, 1967, A/SC57f3; Hosea Williams to Rutherford re: Automobile Rental, Dec. 15, 1967, A/SC57f2; Rutherford to Hosea Williams, Dec. 19, 1967, A/SC48f4; Rutherford to Hosea Williams, Dec. 19, 1967, A/SC57f3.

“You promised me your full cooperation”: Rutherford to Jesse Jackson, Dec. 11, 1967, A/SC39f15.

Locks now secured: Int. William Rutherford, Dec. 7, 2004.

suspected that Harrison: Ibid.

informant account coded AT-1387-R: King scholar David Garrow revealed Harrison's role as an FBI informant in his 1981 book,
The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.,
pp. 175–79, 299; McKnight,
Crusade,
p. 23.

forum of one hundred intellectuals: “Violence As a Weapon of Dissent Is Debated at Forum in ‘Village,'” NYT, Dec. 17, 1967, p. 16.

“Generally speaking”: Klein, ed.,
Dissent,
p. 99.

“All politics is a struggle”: Arendt,
On Violence,
p. 35.

“violence is the best way of insuring”: Klein, ed.,
Dissent,
p. 104.

“whether we in this room”: Ibid., p. 121; Young-Bruehl,
Hannah Arendt,
pp. 412–15.

“A White Liberal Shift”: NYT, Dec. 17, 1967, p. 1.

“war may be the last of the tonics”: NYT, Sept. 18, 1967, p. 2.

“You may put me in the position”: NYT, Dec. 17, 1967, p. 16.

Hayden had gone to jail: “Improbable Radical,” NYT, Nov. 13, 1967, p. 2; Branch,
Parting,
pp. 533–37.

“It seems to me”: Klein, ed.,
Dissent,
p. 127.

“Power and violence are opposites”: Arendt,
On Violence,
p. 56.

President Johnson composed a unique: “Memorandum for the File by President Johnson,” 1:40
P.M.
, Dec. 18, 1967, in FRUS, Vol. 5, p. 1118.

left the next day for an odyssey: Ibid., pp. 1120–23; Dallek,
Flawed,
pp. 500–501.

war talks in Melbourne: NYT, Dec. 21, 1967, p. 1.

“A mere handful of you men”: McPherson,
Political,
p. 323.

“We're not going to yield”: NYT, Dec. 23, 1967, p. 1.

reporters infuriated over the blind itinerary: Valenti,
Human,
pp. 223–26.

“My right hand keeps the pressure steady”: Notes, “Meeting of the Pope and the President,” Dec. 23, 1967, Meeting Notes File, Box 2, p. 2, LBJ.

“By terror they are recruiting”: Ibid., p. 13; Valenti,
Human,
pp. 228–32.

“a Phineas Fogg adventure”: McPherson,
Political,
p. 322.

news reports from Vatican sources: “Johnson Confers with Pope Paul on Vietnam War,” NYT, Dec. 24, 1967, p. 1; Valenti,
Human,
pp. 232–38.

two hundred million citizens: Jones,
Expectations,
p. 190.

without a legal execution: Hauser,
Ali,
p. 174; U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Number of persons executed in the United States, 1930–1997,” www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/exe.txt (March 1998).

first-class postage stamp:
Baltimore Sun,
Feb. 7, 1990, p. 1.

military effort in Vietnam became six years old: LBJ and the
New York Times
dated the Vietnam War from the death of Specialist 4 James T. Davis on December 22, 1961, but others put the earliest American fatality as Air Force Sergeant Richard Fitzgibbon on June 8, 1956, and the earliest combat deaths as Major Dale Buis and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand on July 8, 1959. Cf. NYT, June 23, 1968, p. 2; http://www.virtualwall.org/dd/DavisJT01a.htm.

cumulative toll at 15,900: NYT, Jan. 2, 1968, p. 4; Terry,
Bloods,
p. 296; McNamara,
In Retrospect,
p. 321.

1968 alone would approach those totals: U.S. soldiers killed in 1968 numbered 14,589, the highest yearly total for the war. Cf. Sheehan,
Bright,
p. 670.

Westmoreland sent six thousand Marines: Karnow,
Vietnam,
pp. 552–53; Langguth,
Our Vietnam,
pp. 478–79; Braestrup,
Big Story,
pp. 258–65; Wheeler to McNamara, Jan. 13, 1968, in FRUS, Vol. 6, p. 30.

January message on civil rights: Graham,
Civil Rights Era,
pp. 270–72.

“full non-discrimination may take”: Califano to LBJ, Jan. 21, 1968, Joseph Califano Papers, Box 8, LBJ.

Robert G. Clark: SC, Jan. 6–7, 1968, p. 1; SC, Jan. 20–21, 1968, p. 1; Dittmer,
Local People,
p. 416; Parker,
Black Votes,
pp. 74–75; Mills,
Light,
p. 190.

opened 1968 with hearings: NYT, Jan. 17, 1968, p. 42; NYT, Jan. 18, 1968, p. 28.

“Immediately following World War II”: Hearings in New York, NY, U.S. EEOC, Jan. 15–18, 1968, pp. 125, 353, 438, 477.

CBS hired its first black: Clifford Alexander oral history by Joe B. Frantz, Feb. 17, 1972, p. 6.

“white Gentile secretary”: NYT, Jan. 19, 1968, p. 19.

accredited its first black member: Bell,
In the Black,
pp. 45–46, 65–69.

secure Alexander's early resignation: Int. Clifford Alexander, Dec. 17, 2004.

“can look back on 1967”: “Hoover Says Reds Use Black Power,” NYT, Jan. 6, 1968, p. 1.

requested new wiretaps on King: Garrow,
FBI and King,
p. 184.

sent President Johnson a classified blueprint: Hoover to Mildred Stegall, with attached FBI HQ LHM dated Jan. 3, 1968, Box 32, OFMS, LBJ.