Landslide (60 page)
Authors: Jonathan Darman
93
“To step out now would be wrong for your country”
Ibid.
94
“I can’t carry any of the burdens”
Ibid.
95
“As I stood there warmed by the waves”
Johnson,
Vantage Point
, 101.
1
For a while he’d enjoyed a brief nightly reprieve
“The Senior Staff Man,”
Time
, October 23, 1964.
2
On this particular autumn night Al Weisel
, “LBJ’s Gay Sex Scandal,”
Out Magazine
, December 1999.
3
One campaign advertisement
“Vote for President Johnson on November 3,”
Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012
, Museum of the Moving Image,
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1964
.
4
In early September
“Daisy Girl,” September 7, 1964,
Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012
, Museum of the Moving Image,
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1964/peace-little-girl-daisy
.
5
Even the parents of the little girl
Mann,
Daisy Petals and Mushroom Clouds
, 64.
6
“I am not the first president to speak here”
Lyndon Johnson, “Remarks in Cadillac Square, Detroit” (speech, Detroit, September 7, 1964),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1963–64, Vol. II, 1051.
7
“FACT,”
wrote Jack Valenti Memo from Jack Valenti to LBJ, September 7, 1964, WHCF: EX/PL2.
8
In a memo to the DNC
Dallek,
Lyndon Johnson
, 185.
9
“Confessions of a Republican”
“Confessions of a Republican,” 1964,
Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012
, Museum of the Moving Image,
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1964/confessions-of-a-republican
.
10
“probably the most violent advocate of peanut butter”
Hayes,
Smiling Through the Apocalypse
, 393.
11
“frontlash”
“Periscope,”
Newsweek
, October 12, 1964, 25.
12
“this big, booming, leonine Texan”
“Lyndon’s Pace,”
Newsweek
, October 19, 1964.
13
“He needed contact with people”
Marie Fehmer Chiarodo OH III.
14
People respected Johnson’s performance
Horace Busby, memo to Lyndon Johnson, October 5, 1964.
15
“There was nothing in particular”
Robert T. Bower, “Preliminary Report: Reactions to President Johnson’s Acceptance Speech to the Democratic Convention,” September 1, 1964.
16
“my vice president in charge of everything”
Beschloss,
Reaching
, 54.
17
“I need you badly”
Al Weisel, “LBJ’s Gay Sex Scandal.”
18
the Jenkinses offered up their own home
“Johnson Gives Wife, 51, Gift that Helped Him to Win Her,”
New York Times
, December 23, 1963.
19
Practically all of official Washington knew him
For background on Walter Jenkins see Weisel, “LBJ’s Gay Sex Scandal”; Marie Fehmer Chiarodo OH; Harry McPherson OH I; Horace Busby OH; Cartha deLoach OH.
20
“like a nigger slave”
Caro,
Master of the Senate
, 129.
21
“Goddamn it, Walter”
Harry McPherson OH VII.
22
In Bill Moyers, Scotty Reston
“Underground Campaign for the Vice Presidency,”
New York Times
, April 5, 1964.
23
One week later
Beschloss,
Reaching for Glory
, 57.
24
The next day
“12,000 Slosh Through the Rain to Get Report,”
Washington Post
, September 29, 1964.
25
“the commission analyzed every issued”
Anthony Lewis, “Warren Commission Finds Oswald Guilty and Says Assassin and Ruby Acted Alone,”
New York Times
, September 28, 1964.
26
“From Mexico City to Moscow and Minsk,”
“Report Finds No Plot from Reds,”
Los Angeles Times
, September 28, 1964.
27
In a twenty-four-page cover story on the report
“The Warren Commission Report,”
Newsweek
, October 5, 1964, 32-64.
28
“Now where is the Hudson River again?”
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy
, 297.
29
Polls showed
Ibid., 300
30
“Walter came over to see me this morning”
Telephone conversation between Abe Fortas and Lyndon Johnson, October 14, 1964.
31
Fortas and Clifford soon learned
Ibid.
32
“Does his wife know about this?”
Ibid.
33
“I just can’t
believe
this!”
Ibid.
34
“You don’t foresee that you can keep this lid on”
Ibid.
35
“No sir”
Ibid.
36
“Now, I don’t think I have any choice”
Telephone conversation between John Connally and Lyndon Johnson, October 14, 1964.
37
YMCA’s “basement men’s room
“The Senior Staff Man,”
Time
, October 23, 1964.
38
Jenkins’s crime could range “from the seemingly trivial”
Henry Gemmill, “Arrest of Johnson Aide Could Bolster GOP’s Election Day Chances,”
Wall Street Journal
, October 16, 1964.
39
On the phone from Washington
Beschloss,
Reaching
, 73.
40
“nearly every family has had some problem”
Ibid., 74
41
Early the next morning
Liz Carpenter OH IV; Beschloss,
Reaching
, 86.
42
Her whistle-stop tour of the South
Russell,
Lady Bird
, 258.
43
On a train dubbed the
Lady Bird Special
Ibid., 249.
44
A sign in the crowd
Ibid., 259.
45
“This is a country of many viewpoints”
Ibid., 258.
46
“I would like to do two things about Walter”
Telephone conversation between Lady Bird Johnson and LBJ, October 15, 1964, Citation #5895.
47
“I wouldn’t do anything along that line now”
Ibid.
48
“I don’t think that’s
right
”
Ibid.
49
“I don’t want you to hurt him”
Ibid.
50
“Abe approves of the job offer”
Ibid.
51
“My poor darling”
Ibid.
52
“My heart is aching today”
Russell,
Lady Bird
, 268, citing Personal Files 5, Lady Bird, LBJL.
53
“If any responsible person
“The Issue of Integrity,”
Christian Science Monitor
, October 17, 1964.
54
“a bouquet of mixed fall flowers”
“The Jenkins Report,”
Time
, October 30, 1964.
55
“Walter Jenkins came to the White House”
Wallace Turner, “Miller Stresses The Jenkins Case,”
New York Times
, October 21, 1964.
56
“The really remarkable thing was the mail”
Carpenter, Oral History Interview IV.
57
“If they don’t want us”
“Communism and Corruption”
Time
, October 30, 1964.
58
“Just think about it for a moment”
Perlstein,
Before the Storm
, 508.
59
“The Great Society”
Lyndon B. Johnson, “Remarks in Madison Square Garden at a Rally of the Liberal Party of New York” (speech, New York, October 15, 1964),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1963-64, Vol. II, 1349.
60
“I am not a prophet”
Lyndon Johnson, “Remarks in Boston at Post Office Square” (speech, Boston, MA, October 27, 1964),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1963-64, Vol. II, 1466.
61
“utopian society”
Charles Mohr, “Johnson Refers to Jenkins Case,”
New York Times
, October 28, 1964.
62
“It’s the time when man”
Johnson, “Remarks at the Civic Center Arena in Pittsburgh” (speech, Pittsburgh, PA, October 27, 1964),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1963-64, Vol. II, 1479.
63
“I’d seen the film”
Reagan,
American Life
, 391.
64
“I JUST WANTED YOU TO KNOW”
Dean Burch, telegram to Ronald Reagan, October 28, 1964, Box C35, Telegrams in response to “The Speech,” Ronald Reagan Library.
65
“The returns … read like tall tales from Texas”
“LBJ: My Thanks to All America,”
Newsweek
, November 9, 1964.
66
“Listen, I pulled you through up here”
Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy, November 3, 1962, Citation #6142.
67
“Barry Goldwater not only lost the presidential election”
James Reston, “What Goldwater Lost,”
New York Times
, November 4, 1964.
68
“The American people were not prepared”
John G. Tower OH I.
69
Jack Valenti prepared a packet of postmortems
Memo from Jack Valenti to Lyndon Johnson, November 28, 1964, LBJL, Handwriting File, Box 4.
70
“These are the most hopeful times”
Lyndon Johnson, “Remarks at the Lighting of the Nation’s Christmas Tree,” (speech, Washington, DC, December 18, 1964),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1963-64, Vol. II.
1
Seated inside, in a robe and pajamas Charles Mohr
, “President is Ill: Goes to Hospital With Bad Cough,”
New York Times
, January 24, 1965.
2
At a ball at the Mayflower hotel
“Hail to the Chief,”
Newsweek
, February 1, 1965, 17.
3
At his brother’s grave at Arlington
Ibid.
4
Briefing the press on the president’s health
“National Affairs: State of the President,”
Newsweek
, January 11, 1965, 17.
5
“not bourbon but Scotch”
Ibid.
6
the First Lady had come back and checked herself in to the hospital, too
“The Uncommon Cold,”
Newsweek
, February 1, 1965, 18.
7
In the late spring of 1948
Caro,
Master of the Senate
, 618-9.
8
He told Warren Woodward
Caro,
Means of Ascent
, 202.
9
“Settled in her seat”
Russell,
Lady Bird
, 157.
10
“Tell him to go ahead with the blue”
Caro,
Master of the Senate
, 624.
11
“everything will be all right”
Ibid.
12
“I think we’ll be all right in a day or two”
“President Is Ill.”
13
I wouldn’t hesitate at all
. Laurence Stern, “Johnson to Remain in Hospital for Rest,”
Washington Post
, January 24, 1965.
14
“By evening … concern about the president’s health had subsided”
“President is Ill.”
15
He had seen the president only moments before
Ibid.
16
When reporters asked how he was feeling
Charles Mohr, “Johnsons Return to White House,”
New York Times
, January 26, 1965.
17
“The Lord willing and the creek don’t rise”
Enid Nemy, “Lady Bird Johnson, 94, Dies,”
New York Times
, July 12, 2007.
18
“Last night was not a good night”
Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary
, 232.
19
1948 kidney stone
Caro,
Means of Ascent
, 194.
20
“With LBJ’s history”
Beschloss,
Reaching
, 168.
21
“This week’s mood is not good”
Ibid., 170.
22
“the grim, unacknowledged thought”
Beschloss,
Reaching
, 394.
23
“Is our world gone?”
Lyndon B. Johnson, “Inaugural Address” (speech, Washington, DC, January 20, 1965),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1965, Vol. I, 74.
24
On January 7 Johnson
, “Special Message to Congress: Advancing the Nation’s Health” (speech, Washington, DC, January 7, 1965),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1965, Vol. I.
25
April 13, the hundredth day of the new term
The Johnson White House focused its legislative efforts in early 1965 on a 100-day period beginning with Johnson’s State of the Union address on January 5, 1965 and ending on April 12 of that year. The choice to measure one hundred days from the State of the Union, when the new Congress came into session, rather than from when his own new term began on January 20, speaks to the primacy of the legislative branch, and the legislative calendar, in Johnson’s thinking.
26
Republicans must instead offer a “constructive” alternative
“Nation: Aid to Appalachia,”
Time
, March 12, 1965.
27
“Republican rank-and-file enthusiasm”
“Periscope,”
Newsweek
, February 1, 1965, 7.
28
“shouldn’t even be
cast
as governor”
Shana Alexander, “My Technicolor Senator,”
Life
, December 4, 1964, 30.
29
“The history that interests Mr. Johnson”
Drew Pearson, “A Lesson Learned from FDR,”
Washington Post
, November 24, 1964.
30
“not to make Roosevelt’s error”
Evans and Novak,
Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power
, 489-90.
31
“I was just elected by the biggest popular margin”
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, 216; Goldman,
Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson
, 309.
32
“I knew from the start”
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, 291.
33
“With Lyndon Johnson it was the reverse”
Lawrence (Larry) O’Brien OH VI.
34
“wasn’t informing him on an hourly basis”
Ibid.
35
“If it’s really going to work”
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, 226.
36
“I didn’t need anything to eat”
O’Brien, Interview VI.
37
“God, you should have called me”
Ibid.
38
“Economic policy”
“Nation: Toward the Fuller Life,”
Time
, February 5, 1965.
39
“Peace on earth”
Lyndon B. Johnson, “Remarks to the Winners of the Science Talent Search” (speech, Washington, DC, March 1, 1965),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1965, Vol. I, 223.
40
By 1992, distances on earth will have lost all meaning
Ibid.
41
“an area the size of Texas”
Karnow,
Vietnam
, 416.
42
Throughout 1964, a massive and well-organized Vietcong army
Ibid.
43
On Christmas Eve, they took provocative action
Ibid., 424.
44
“We are presently on a losing track”
Ibid., 425.
45
“Both of us are now pretty well convinced”
Ibid., 427.
46
“that bitch of a war”
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, 251.
47
“I knew that Harry Truman”
Ibid., 252-3.
48
After the November election
Karnow,
Vietnam
, 418-20.
49
“Bundy … had resorted to a classic bureaucratic device”
Ibid., 419-20.
50
“we’re all going to die”
Ibid., 427-8.
51
“Not only Americans”
“Pleiku and Qui Nhon: Decision Points,”
Newsweek
, February 22, 1965, 32.
52
The National Security Council considered a request
Karnow,
Vietnam
, 431.
53
“Even as he finished”
Halberstam,
Best and the Brightest
, 522.
54
“Now we’re off to bombing”
Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara, February 26, 1965, Citation #6887.
55
“How long before you should hear something?”
Telephone call between Lyndon Johnson and White House Situation Room, March 2, 1965, Citation # 7008.
56
“We’re going to send the Marines”
Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Richard Russell, March 6, 1965, Citation #7026.
57
“a turncoat if ever there was one”
Branch,
At Canaan’s Edge
, 114.
58
“I don’t know, Dick”
Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Richard Russell, March 6, 1965, Citation #7026.
59
“There’s no end to the road”
Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Richard Russell, March 6, 1965, Citation #7027.
60
“I can’t get out”
Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary
, 248.
61
“Lyndon lives in a cloud of troubles”
Ibid.
62
“I am counting the months”
Ibid.
63
“Get him! Get him!”
Goldman,
Tragedy
, 367.
64
“Negroes stood in line”
“Nation: Selma, Contd.”
Time
, February 5, 1965.
65
“We’ve gone too far now”
Martin Luther King Jr., “Bridge to Freedom” (speech, Selma, AL, 1965).
66
“America didn’t like what it saw”
Goodwin,
Remembering America
, 319.
67
“What do you want left after you when you die?”
Ibid., 323.
68
“I am glad that he is launched”
Beschloss,
Reaching
, 228.
69
“There was, uniquely, no need to temper conviction”
Goodwin,
Remembering America
, 327.
70
“I speak tonight”
Lyndon B. Johnson, “Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise” (speech, Washington, DC, March 15, 1965),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1965, Vol. I, 281.
71
“Pulses quickened”
“Washington D.C. Watches Selma,”
Time
, March 26, 1965.
72
Rarely in any time
“Special Message to the Congress.”
73
This time on this issue there must be no delay
Ibid.
74
Lady Bird had convened a meeting
Sharon Francis OH I.
75
Their cause must be our cause too
“Special Message to the Congress.”
76
Johnson recalled the young Mexicans
Ibid.
77
“It was terrific”
Beschloss,
Reaching
, 228.
78
“The greatest speech you ever made”
Goodwin,
Remembering
, 337.
79
“Your speech was beyond belief”
Beschloss,
Reaching
, 243.
80
Goodwin would recall the smile
Goodwin,
Remembering
, 337.
81
“Let’s have a little whiskey”
Ibid.
82
“Roosevelt’s got eleven”
Telephone conversation between Lawrence O’Brien and Lyndon Johnson, April 9, 1965, Citation #7337.
83
“Lyndon talked of the last week”
Beschloss,
Reaching
, 277.