The Passage of Power (150 page)

“I want to think out”
:
Valenti interview.
“A sounding board”
:
Carter OH; Jack Valenti, “Achilles in the White House: A Discussion with Harry McPherson and Jack Valenti,”
Wilson Quarterly,
Spring 2000.

Johnson talking:
Valenti interview; Carter OH; Valenti OH II. Valenti, “Achilles in the White House”; Valenti interview.
“We sat”
;
“Everything”
:
Carter OH.
“By God”
:
Valenti interview.
“That whole night”
:
Moyers, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon,
p. 325.
“Do you realize”
:
Valenti interview.
“He told Moyers”
:
Carter OH.

Until three:
“President’s Diary–Nov. 22, 1963,” Box 2, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL.
“Well, good night”
:
Valenti interview. When he went to his bedroom, Moyers says, “I looked down and could see shadowy figures moving through the grounds. The Secret Service had on a heavy guard.”

“As it did”
;
“Her face”
:
Goodwin,
Remembering America,
pp. 228, 230.
A decision:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy and His Times,
p. 610; Manchester,
The Death of a President,
pp. 435, 442–43.
“For a moment”
:
Schlesinger,
Journals,
pp. 204, 205.
“Close it”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 443.
“Why, God?”
:
Spaulding in recorded interview, Jan. 22, 1970, quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 611.

Bundy had told Johnson Friday evening:
Stegall to Johnson, 8:05 a.m., Nov. 23, “Manchester File,” Box 1, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL.
Johnson didn’t get:
unaddressed, unsigned, yellow notepaper. “Mac comes in early Sat. & saw Bobby & Mrs. Lincoln said he hoped they didn’t (have to) move quickly—But [evidently Bundy] failed to tell & Pres. went into little office.… Finally an amicable basic agreement that office would be occupied after funeral—“Current,” Box 4, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL.
“I have an appointment”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 453. Manchester quotes Secret Service Agent John J. O’Leary, who Manchester says was standing by Evelyn’s desk, as saying that there was “anxiety on his [Johnson’s] part to get in. In his book
Lyndon,
Merle Miller says (p. 601) that Moyers was present at this encounter, and that Moyers “said that Lyndon was not at all rude, but on the contrary, told Mrs. Lincoln when he saw her packing up things, ‘You don’t have to do that—you just take your time.’ ” Miller also says that “in
Robert Kennedy and His Times,
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., mentions no such encounter.” But in fact Schlesinger does indeed mention it, on page 627, in an account that is fundamentally the same as Manchester’s, and that Schlesinger says is based not only on an interview Kennedy gave to Manchester, but on an account Lincoln gave to him, Schlesinger, as recorded in his journals on March 25, 1964. Lincoln gave a similar account to me in my interview with her in 1993. And in a recorded interview with John Bartlow Martin, Robert Kennedy says, “He came to the White House on Saturday and started moving all my brother’s things out Saturday morning at nine o’clock. I went over and asked him to wait, at least until Sunday or Monday” (Guthman and Shulman, eds.,
Robert Kennedy: In His Own Words,
p. 406). Johnson did, in fact, have an appointment scheduled for 9:30, with Dean Rusk (“The President’s Appointments, Sat., Nov. 23, Box 1, Diary Backup, LBJL). The author couldn’t reconcile Moyers’s statement with those of Lincoln and Robert Kennedy, because of Moyers’s refusal to be interviewed.
“A mix-up”
:
Bundy, quoted by Kennedy, in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 627.

“Ran so”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 626.
“During”
:
Johnson interview by William J. Jordan, Aug. 12, 1969, OH Collection, LBJL.

“Very short”
:
Bundy to Johnson, Nov. 23, Special Files.
“No pictures”
:
Bundy, Nov. 23, “[President Johnson’s Statements and Schedule, Nov. ’63–Jan. ’64],” Box 3, Special Files. Assassination, LBJL.
“I was upset”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 627.
“Bobby was late”
:
Bundy, quoted in Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 476.
“Quite clear”
:
Shesol,
Mutual Contempt,
p. 120.
“Awful”
;
“We won’t”
:
Freeman Diary, quoted in Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 477.
“There was real”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 478.
“Kennedy expressed”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 627.

“I’ll make it”
:
Transcript, “3:54 P.M. to John McCormack,”
TPR,
Vol. I, pp. 115–16.
“The Kennedy aura”
:
Transcript, “2:10 P.M. to George Smathers,
TPR,
p. 109.
“Might be resented”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 478.
“I didn’t like that”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 627–28; Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 480.
“It will”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 480.

“Block by block”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 537.
“All you”
;
“the drums”
:
Major General Philip Wehle Clifton, quoted in Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 538.
“A sea of faces”
:
Lady Bird Johnson,
A White House Diary,
pp. 8, 9.

“Can I have”
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 541.
“There was”
:
UPI and American Heritage,
Four Days,
p. 84.
If Jackie
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 540.
“Her behavior”
:
Lady Bird Johnson,
A White House Diary,
pp. 8, 10.
“You just kiss”; Joint Chiefs
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 542.

“The juxtaposition”
;
“A new dimension”
:
NYT,
Nov. 24.
“Marked … the first time”
:
NYT,
Nov. 25, 1963.
“Clustered”
:
Heren,
No Hail, No Farewell,
pp.4, 9.

“The mighty”
:
WP,
Nov. 24, 1963.
“A strange counterpoint”
:
Johnson,
The Vantage Point,
p. 33.

“The drama”
:
Sidey,
A Very Personal Presidency,
p. 43.

“I would to God”
:
Russell,
Lady Bird,
p. 231.
Surprisingly small:
McNeil, Sidey, Steele interviews.

All dates 1963 unless otherwise noted.

The atmosphere in 274 comes from interviews with Fehmer, Jenkins, Reedy, Sidey, Steele; from oral histories by Carter, Fehmer, Juanita Roberts, Nelson; from the memos sent back to
Time
magazine in New York by Washington bureau chief John L. Steele and correspondents Lansing Lamont and Loye Miller.

Some of the items:
All from “November 23, 1963, “Diary Backup,” Box 1.
“It was … almost”
:
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson,
p. 201.
“With which”
:
John McCone, “Memorandum for the Record,” Nov. 25, 1963, “Meetings with the President—23 Nov. 1963–27 Dec. 1963,” Box 1, John McCone Memoranda, LBJL.

“There will be”
:
Transcript, “5:52 P.M. to McGeorge Bundy,” Nov. 23,
TPR,
Vol. I, p. 123.

Had turned to Smathers before:
Caro,
Master of the Senate,
pp. 658, 855.
He telephoned him:
Transcript, “2:10 P.M. to George Smathers,” Nov. 23,
TPR,
Vol. I, pp. 107–12.

“We stand”
:
Gordon to Johnson, Nov. 23, 1963, “FI 4 Budget—Appropriations Nov. 22, 1963–Jan. 31, 1964,” Box 21, WHCF—FI (Gen).
“I told him”
;
“Now I want to say”
:
Walter Heller, “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL–“Notes on Meeting with President Johnson, 7:40 P.M., Saturday, Nov. 23, 1963,” Papers of Gardner Ackley, microfilm Reel #2, LBJL.
Anderson told him:
Transcript, “1:55 P.M. to Robert Anderson and Ollie Mae Anderson,” Nov. 23,
TPR,
Vol. I, pp. 102–4.
Udall, Wirtz and Freeman had urged:
For example, “Secretary Freeman called and said as follows …,” “Jenkins to Johnson, Nov. 23,” November 23, “Diary Backup,” Box 1.

“Indefensible”
:
Evans and Novak,
Lyndon B. Johnson,
pp. 365–66;
WP,
Nov. 16, 21, 23, 6.
“Just the moment”
:
Reedy interview.
“They’ve got the bit”
:
Reedy interview.
“We could not afford”
:
Johnson,
The Vantage Point,
p. 39.
The two leaders:
Humphrey,
The Education of a Public Man,
p. 264; Amrine,
This Awesome Challenge,
pp. 54, 55.
“They don’t know”
:
McPherson interview.
“They told me”
:
Transcript, “3:30 P.M. from John McCormack and Hale Boggs,”
TPR,
Nov. 26, Vol. I, p. 182. Humphrey himself recounts that Johnson asked him, “How many votes do you have?,” and he replied, “I’m not sure.” Johnson, Humphrey says, said, “That’s the trouble with that place up there. You fellows don’t count votes” (Humphrey,
Education,
p. 264).
When Johnson tried to reach O’Brien:
Reedy interview.

“Grief and disbelief; “the details”
:
Sorensen,
Counselor,
pp. 367, 380–81; Sorensen interview.

“Gov. [George] Romney”
:
All from “Diary Backup—November 23, 1963,” Box 1, Diary Backup.
“Harry Provence”
:
Jenkins to Johnson, Nov. 23, “Diary Backup—November 23, 1963,” Box 1, Diary Backup.
McCone closed:
Steele interview.
“The President”
:
Jenkins to Johnson, Nov. 23.
“You’re wonderful”
:
Transcript, “1:44 P.M., from Ralph Yarborough,” Nov. 23,
TPR,
Vol. I, p. 101.
“One call after”
:
Reedy interview.
“Apparently”
:
Reedy to Johnson, Nov. 23. All from “Diary Backup—November 23,” Box 1, Diary Backup.

“The President and Mrs. Johnson”
:
“Draft—Program at Rotunda, Attachment # 1, November 24, 1963,” Box 1, Diary Backup.
An usher
: Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 518.

“I think we ought”
:
“7:01 P.M. to J. William Fulbright,” Dec. 2,
TPR,
Vol. II, p. 80.
“Talked little”
:
Valenti,
A Very Human President,
p. 152.
Lodge, who:
Gibbons,
U.S. Government and the Vietnam War,
pp. 203, 209.
McCone said:
Johnson,
Vantage Point,
p. 43.
“Net result”
:
Johnson,
Vantage Point,
p. 44.
It was decided:
Gibbons,
U.S. Government,
pp. 209–11; Johnson,
Vantage Point,
p. 45. The preliminary plan, NSAM 273, would be approved by Johnson on Nov. 26.
“Only South Vietnam”
:
Johnson,
Vantage Point,
p. 22.

“It was so”
:
Logevall,
Choosing War,
p. 108.
“Firm”
:
Wicker,
JFK and LBJ,
p. 205.
“We had spent”
:
Johnson,
Vantage Point,
p. 44.
“The main objective”
:
Johnson,
Vantage Point,
p. 44; Dallek,
Flawed Giant,
p. 99.
“I am not going”
;
“I don’t think”
:
Wicker,
JFK and LBJ,
p. 205; Wicker interview. Wicker says Moyers told him after the meeting that Johnson had said this.

On Oct. 2, McNamara and Taylor:
NYT, WP,
Oct. 3.
“We need a way”
:
Dallek,
Unfinished,
p. 680.
Salinger announcement;
“their judgment”
:
Dallek,
Unfinished,
p. 680.
“Reaffirmed”
:
NYT,
Nov 25.
“White House sources said”
:
WP,
Nov. 25.
NSAM 273:
Gibbons,
U.S. Government,
pp. 209–10.

“Days filled”
;
“Sometimes he”
:
Juanita Roberts OH.
“A changed man”
:
Fehmer interview.
“I’ve never”
:
Moyers, quoted in Miller to Parker, Nov. 28, p. 5,
Time
files, Box 321, “LBJL of 22,” White Papers, JFKL.
“Direct”
:
Steele to Parker, “Johnson Cover & Kennedy Narrative XVII,” Nov. 23, White Papers.
“There were”
:
Sidey interview.
“Seems to be”
:
Miller to Parker, Nov. 23, “Johnson Cover—VIII—Nation,”
Time
files.
“He was thinking”
:
Busby interview.