Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House (55 page)

139  
Undersecretary Chet Bowles
:
FRUS: Cuba, 1961–1962
, 178–81, 185–89; Richard Goodwin,
Remembering America: A Voice from the
Sixties
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1988), 176–77; Jackie Kennedy,
Historic Conversations
, 112–13, 312–13; Schlesinger,
Journals
, 109; Schlesinger,
Thousand Days
, 250–51, 258–59; JFK speech to the American Newspaper Publishers Association, April 27, 1961, POF;
Robert Kennedy in His Own Words,
242.

142  
Adlai Stevenson was yet another skeptic
: Schlesinger,
Thousand Days
, 271–72;
FRUS: Cuba
, 230–31.

143  
In the final days before the attack
: Ibid., 191–93, 200.

143  
Despite all precautions
: Jacqueline Kennedy,
Historic Conversations
, 182–83.

143  
The operation was a miserable failure
: Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 309; for the hidden CIA history, see Dallek, “The Untold Story of the Bay of Pigs,” 26, 28; Jacqueline Kennedy,
Historic Conversations
, 185–86;
FRUS: Cuba, 1961–1962
, note on 221 about General Maxwell Taylor being assigned to chair a committee studying the failure, also 304–06; Schlesinger,
Journals
, 109–110;
Robert Kennedy in His Own Words
, 246–47; Dallek,
Unfinished Life
, 359–68; Jon Wiener, “Bay of Pigs Fifty Years Later: The Lessons Kennedy Never Learned,”
Nation
, April 18, 2011.

147  
In a later conversation
: Jacqueline Kennedy,
Historic Conversations
, 190; McNamara,
In Retrospect
, 26–27; Bird,
Color of Truth
, 197–98; Goldstein,
Lessons in Disaster
, 41–43; PPP: JFK, 1961, 312–13; Schlesinger,
Thousand Days
, 289–90.

148  
Not only was it smart politics
: Schlesinger,
Thousand Days
, 258, 296; Goldstein,
Lessons in Disaster
, 41.

149  
Kennedy’s public response
: Thomas E. Ricks,
The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today
(New York: Penguin Press, 2012), 220; Schlesinger,
Thousand Days
, 295–96; Jacqueline Kennedy,
Historic Conversations
, 183; “CIA: Maker of Policy or Toll?”
New York Times,
April 25, 1966; Thomas Powers,
The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA
(New York: Knopf, 1979), 115; Goodwin,
Remembering America
, 181. On Bissell, see Robert F. Kennedy Notes, April 22, 1961, 6–22: Cuba: Personal Notes, RFK Confidential Files, JFKL.

150  
While Kennedy sat on his anger
: Schlesinger,
Thousand Days
, 289; Goodwin,
Remembering America
, 183.

150  
The principal fall guy
: PPP: JFK, 1961, 307–308.

151  
Conflicting memos
:
FRUS: Cuba, 1961–1962
, 295–97, 302–304.

152  
Kennedy shared Bobby’s
: Salinger,
With Kennedy
, 169–70; Wofford,
Of Kennedys and Kings
, 341–42.

153  
The Bowles onslaught
:
FRUS: Cuba, 1961–1962
, 304–306, 313–14; Goodwin, 187.

154  
Bobby Kennedy thought his attack
:
Robert Kennedy in His Own Words
, 264–65; Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, 472.

155  
Bowles’s open dissent
: PPP: JFK, 1961, 518–29; Schaffer,
Chester Bowles
, 220–30.

156  
The principal consequence
:
FRUS: Cuba, 1961–1962,
306–307; also 309–310; Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy,
The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012), 186; RFK to JFK, June 1, 1961, quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, 446–47.

157  
Kennedy now wanted a new voice
:
New York Times
, April 21, 1987; John M. Taylor,
An American Soldier: The Wars of General Maxwell Taylor
(Novato, CA: Presidio, 1989); Schlesinger,
Thousand D
ays, 309–10; Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, 448.

158  
In the first weeks of his term
: Schlesinger,
Thousand Days,
338;
Robert Kennedy in His Own Words
, 247–48.

159  
Kennedy was not indifferent
: JFK, “Imperialism—The Enemy of Freedom,” July 2, 1957, Compilation of Speeches, JFKL; Dallek,
Unfinished Life
, 350–53.

161  
At the end of January 1961
:
Foreign Relations of the United States: Vietnam, 1961
(Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1988), 12–19.

162  
Because political change
: Walter S. Poole,
History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: The Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Policy, 1961–1964
(Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2011), 23–24;
FRUS: Vietnam, 1961
, 28, 40, 46–47, 58–60; Halberstam,
Best and Brightest
, 110, 127–32.

164  
Among Kennedy’s White House advisers
:
FRUS: Vietnam, 1961
, 68–69, 82–86, 131; Walt W. Rostow,
The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1960); Jacqueline Kennedy,
Historic Conversations
, 315–16; Halberstam,
Best and Brightest
, 128–31; Galbraith,
Letters to Kennedy
, 62.

166  
For all these doubts
: Schlesinger,
Thousand Days
, 302–303;
Foreign Relations of the United States: Soviet Union, 1961–1963
(Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1998), 128;
FRUS: Vietnam, 1961
, 126–27.

167  
A Johnson trip
: George A. Smathers, OH, Senate Historical Office, Washington, D.C.; Dallek,
Flawed Giant
, 12–17;
FRUS: Vietnam, 1961
, 143.

168  
Yet as Johnson told Kennedy
: Dallek,
Flawed Giant
, 17–18;
FRUS: Vietnam, 1961
, 149–57; Halberstam,
Best and Brightest
, 133–35.

170  
Walt Rostow didn’t wait
:
FRUS: Vietnam, 1961
, 157–58, 166.

171  
Despite Kennedy’s directive
: Ibid., 172–74.

171  
As it was, White House and Pentagon:
Ibid., 195–96, 198–200.

172  
With the Cuban failure
: “Off the Record Briefing with the President,” Dec. 31, 1961, Box WH 66, Arthur Schlesinger Papers, JFKL.

Chapter 5: “Roughest Thing in My Life”

173  
During his first months in office:
Schlesinger,
Thousand Days,
315; Bayard Rustin, OH, Columbia University; Louis Martin to Sorensen, May 10, 1961, Box 66, RFK Papers, JFKL.

174  
Kennedy hoped
: Taylor Branch,
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–1963
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), 405.

174  
An executive order
: Dallek,
Flawed Giant
, 23–29, 32–35.

175  
The White House came in for additional criticism
: Dallek,
Unfinished Life
, 383–88; Branch,
Parting the Waters
, 414–16.

176  
The administration’s travails
: PPP: JFK, 1961, 396–403; Sorensen,
Counselor
, 334–35.

177  
On April 20
: JFK to LBJ, April 20, 1961, POF, JFKL.

178  
Kennedy largely knew
: Dallek,
Flawed Giant
, 21.

179  
McNamara and Rusk agreed
: Michael R. Beschloss, “Kennedy and the Decision to Go to the Moon,” in Roger D. Launius and Howard E. McCurdy, eds.,
Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997), 57–58.

179  
Kennedy was less inclined
: PPP: JFK, 1961, 403–405.

180  
Kennedy saw serious risks
: Dallek,
Flawed Giant
, 21–22. See Hugh L. Dryden, OH, March 24, 1964, JFKL, who recounts how little discussion there was with JFK about the moon venture. Everything went through Johnson. Also, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., OH, June 12, 1964, JFKL.

180  
Kennedy’s speech also came
:
Foreign Relations of the United States: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962
(Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1993), 3–9.

181  
Kennedy was keen to avoid
: Ibid., 21–22, 25–30; McGeorge Bundy, OH, #1, JFKL.

182  
Brandt’s pessimism
:
FRUS: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962
, 30–44; also Dallek,
Nixon and Kissinger
, 54–56; Dean Acheson, OH, JFKL; Schlesinger,
Thousand Days
, 380–81, 406, 413; Michael Fullilove,
Rendezvous with Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America into the War and into the World
(New York: Penguin Press, 2013), 293.

184  
Conversations with Adenauer and
:
FRUS: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962
, 45–51, 56.

184  
In 1961, in the immediate aftermath
: Ibid., 61–63, 66–69.

185  
Still, unless one side or the other
: Ibid., 77–79.

186  
The recommendations left Kennedy
: Ibid., 80–86; Dallek,
Unfinished Life
, 394–97.

186  
At an initial May 31 meeting
: Sir Alec Douglas-Home, OH; Isaiah Berlin, OH; Charles Bohlen, OH; Nicholas Wahl to McGeorge Bundy, May 1961, Box 331, National Security File; “President’s Visit to de Gaulle,” May 27, 1961, Box 116A, POF, all in JFKL; Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 183;
Time
, June 9, 1961.

189  
As he prepared to meet
: Taubman,
Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
(New York: Norton, 2003), xviii–xx, 492–94.

190  
The State Department
:
FRUS: Soviet Union, 1961–1963
, 153–60, 164–70.

192  
Llewellyn Thompson also had doubts
: Ibid., 163–64.

192  
Averell Harriman
: Schlesinger,
Thousand Days
, 149–50; Halberstam,
Best and Brightest
, 73–75.

194  
Charles Bohlen doubted
: Charles Bohlen, OH, JFKL.

194  
But Khrushchev would concede no weakness
: Simon S. Montefiore,
Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
(New York: Vintage Books, 2005), 152–57; Taubman,
Khrushchev
, 213–15.

195  
Khrushchev learned the art
: Taubman,
Khrushchev
, xi, 427–28, 474–76.

196  
Khrushchev came to Vienna
:
New York Times
, June 4, 1961; Kenneth O’Donnell Tapes, Tape 51, JFKL; Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 191–92; Jacqueline Kennedy,
Conversations
, 198.

197  
The initial formal discussions
:
FRUS: Soviet Union, 1961–1963
, 172–78; Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 196, 234; O’Donnell and Powers,
Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye
, 195; Taubman,
Khrushchev
, 493–500;
Robert Kennedy in His Own Words
, 28–29; Dallek,
Unfinished Life
, 404–14.

199  
What had particularly agitated
:
FRUS: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962
, 87–98.

200  
Kennedy stopped in London:
Henry Brandon Diaries, June 9, 1961, Library of Congress; Harold Macmillan,
Pointing the Way, 1959–1961
(New York: Harper, 1972), 355–59.

201  
On returning to Washington
:
FRUS: Soviet Union, 1961–1963
, 232–37; PPP: JFK, 1961, 441–46.

202  
Kennedy now
: Ibid., 104–105, 107–109; National Action Security Memo No. 55, June 28, 1961, National Security File, JFKL;
The Gallup Poll, 1959–1971
, 1726, 1729;
President Kennedy
, 188–89; PPP: JFK, 1961, 476–77, 481.

203  
On the twenty-eighth, Kennedy
: Schlesinger,
Thousand Days
, 380; McGeorge Bundy,
Danger and Survival: Choices About the Bomb in the First Fifty Years
(New York: Random House, 1990), 371–75;
FRUS: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962
, 138–41, 160–62; Dean Acheson, OH, April 27, 1964, JFKL; Douglas Brinkley,
Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years, 1953–1971
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992), 125, 196; Robert L. Beisner,
Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 629–30;
Robert Kennedy in His Own Words
, 19; Jacqueline Kennedy,
Historic Conversations
, 30–31.

Chapter 6: Advice and Dissent

207  
Despite all the difficulties
:
PPP: JFK, 1961,
481; Schlesinger,
Journals
, 122.

207  
Kennedy’s initial problems
: Paul Boyer,
By the Bomb’s Early Light
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 352–55; Bundy,
Danger and Survival
, 324.

208  
In 1957–58, the Soviet Union
: Glenn T. Seaborg,
Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Test Ban
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), chaps. 1–2 and pp. 30, 32–34.