Debts
DURING THE TWELVE YEARS since the previous volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson was published, the research team that works with me on the project has published its own book, and is well under way on a second, yet it has found time—made time, really—to continue doing research on the current volume.
The team—Ina Caro, that’s the whole team, the only person besides myself who has done research on the three volumes, or on the biography of Robert Moses that preceded them, the only person I would ever trust to do so—has, during these twelve years, ranged all across the United States in search of information about Lyndon Johnson and the years he spent in the Senate. She has traversed mountains of files in presidential libraries: the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York; the Harry S Truman Library in Independence, Missouri; the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas—archivists in each of these libraries have taken occasion to tell me how deeply, watching her at work, they came to admire her tirelessness and diligence. And of course she has searched painstakingly and perceptively through the red and gray document boxes at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Austin, Texas. That’s just presidential libraries. Archival collections from Athens, Georgia (the Richard B. Russell Library) to Williamsburg, Virginia (the A. Willis Robertson Papers at the College of William and Mary), to Norman, Oklahoma (the Robert Kerr and Elmer Thomas Papers at the University of Oklahoma) have been subject to her incisive historian’s eye, as have collections at a place to which she didn’t have to take a plane but only a subway: Columbia University, where she has gone through, among many archives, the papers of Herbert H. Lehman.
Among the more memorable pieces of original research she accomplished is her work at the Russell Library, and she may also have read through more letters, memoranda, drafts of legislation and other documents from the members of the Senate’s Southern Caucus of the 1950s than any human being on the face of the earth. For the previous volumes, the libraries in which Ina worked included the tiny libraries of isolated towns all across the Texas Hill Country, where she found early histories of the towns, and copies of ancient weekly newspapers that the librarians had thought no longer existed, and for those books, also, she accomplished other notable feats of research—transforming herself into an expert on rural electrification and soil conservation, for example—that I tried to acknowledge at the time. But I don’t think that even for those books, Ina Caro achieved more in the way of pioneering archival research than she did for this one.
Ina was meant for libraries. She doesn’t like to do interviews, but is always happy when she knows that the next week—or month—will be spent among books and papers, and there is still the same lilting joyfulness in her voice when she telephones me about some new discovery as I remember in her voice thirty years ago. This book, like the others before it, is improved in a hundred—or a thousand, who can count?—ways by the discoveries she has made in the files of vanished statesmen and bigots. The more I learn about history and historians, the more I realize what an exceptional historian she is: a researcher of remarkable tenacity and unshakable integrity—my beloved idealist, always.
THIRTY YEARS AGO, Bob Gottlieb and I began working together, over the 3,300-page manuscript of the Robert Moses book, The Power Broker. We are still working together, so all four of my books have benefited from the unique literary gifts of this talented and energetic editor. I am very grateful for that, as the dedication of this book attests.
Thirty years ago, another person was often in the room with her “two Bobs.” Katherine Hourigan, Knopf’s managing editor, has also been an integral part of both the editorial and production process on all four of my books. After the last one, I wrote that “Her editorial judgments are characterized not only by perceptivity but by an unflinching integrity that has only grown stronger over the years.” Now more years have passed. The statement is still true. I also wrote, after that book, that it “presented daunting production problems. I have seen the ingenuity and tireless effort she put into solving them—and I have appreciated it.” I would have to amend that. The production problems for Master of the Senate, a book by an author who can’t seem to stop rewriting at every stage, were even more daunting. And I have appreciated even more deeply her efforts to solve them.
In a literary world of which so many aspects seem increasingly transitory, it seems marvelous to me that I have somehow managed to have been working with the same people for such a long time. And I don’t mean just Bob and Kathy. As I walk around the halls of my publishing house, Alfred A. Knopf, they seem filled with friends of three decades. The ads for every one of my four books have been designed by the same person: Nina Bourne. When I came to Knopf in 1970, while I was still writing The Power Broker, Nina was Knopf’s advertising manager, and when the book was published in 1974, she designed the ads for it, and I can still remember how thrilled I was by them. She designed the ads for the first two volumes of the Johnson project, and she is still Knopf’s advertising manager. Nina offers editorial criticism of my books, too. She never presses it on me, but I have learned that when this uniquely gifted woman says something, I’d better listen. When I came to Knopf, Bill Loverd and his enthusiastic love of books were part of the house, and they are a part still. Every one of my Johnson books has been designed by the same person: Virginia Tan.
Other people at Knopf have not been there quite as long, but they have been there long enough for me to appreciate them. The president and editor-in-chief, Sonny Mehta, published my last book as perfectly as a book could be published, in my opinion, and in the years since, he has always been there when I needed him. The guidance that Paul Bogaards, now Knopf’s executive director of promotion and publicity, gave me on my last book made me understand and appreciate his energy and intelligence.
I have, luckily for me, had the same legal adviser for three decades—for longer than three decades, in fact, for when, during the 1960s, I was a young and totally inexperienced investigative reporter for Newsday, Andrew L. Hughes was its calm, deliberate—and ever wise—attorney. On Master of the Senate, as on my first three books, he has given me not only valuable legal guidance, but valuable literary guidance, too. It seems only a fitting part of the wonderful continuity of my writing life that his son Andrew W. Hughes is also a big part of my work. Andy, Knopf’s vice president of production and design, supervised the production of my first two Johnson volumes, and is of course supervising it on this volume, too. I want to say a special word about Andy. I am aware of all the problems that my possibly excessive attention to detail has caused, and I want to say thanks to him for solving them—and for the way my books look when, finally, they actually appear.
Thanks also to these people at Knopf: Pat Johnson, Karen Mugler, Carol Carson, Kathy Zuckerman, Nicholas Latimer, and Gabrielle Brooks. For the past year and a half, Nathan Chaney has been Kathy Hourigan’s assistant. His unfailing cheerfulness has meant a lot to me in rushed times.
As for Carol Shookhoff, also a longtime compatriot, she has been of help to me in so many ways that I hardly know how to thank her.
My literary agent—she has, of course, always been my agent—is Lynn Nesbit. She was one of the first people to read the manuscript of this book, and I waited anxiously for her opinion, for I have learned that she has a literary sensibility I can always trust.
Lynn has always been there when I needed her. Thanks.
IN 1975, the Senate created a Senate Historical Office, and within a remarkably short time thereafter the institution possessed, for the first time, an institutional memory, and, for journalists and historians, a storehouse—a treasure house, really—of information about it.
This occurred because of the two historians who were appointed—and to this day have been its only—Senate Historian and Associate Historian, respectively: Richard A. Baker and Donald A. Ritchie. It would have been easy for the Historical Office to become simply another bureaucratic backwater lodged in a few rooms in the Senate’s Hart Office Building. But Drs. Baker and Ritchie are historians in the highest sense of the word. They made it their business to learn their subject, previously a real terra incognita on the American political landscape—to learn it, and to know it, inside and out, in all its ramifications, and to make that knowledge available to anyone who wanted to write about it.
A principal beneficiary of their largesse has been me. Since I began trying to learn about the Senate twelve years ago, I have badgered Dick Baker and Don Ritchie incessantly for information about the institution’s history, its rules and precedents, its procedures, and the men who have served it.
I have been impressed times beyond counting with the extent to which these two men have had the most arcane facts at their fingertips—and impressed even more by their willingness, which so far as I can tell has no limits, to spare no effort to find out facts they didn’t know. A single example—it involves Dr. Ritchie but plenty of other examples would involve Dr. Baker—will show what I mean. To illustrate how early in his Senate years Lyndon Johnson’s quest for extra office space had begun, members of his staff laughingly told me about his attempt, during 1950, his second year in the Senate, to do something—it is not clear exactly what—to commandeer a tiny passageway (four square feet in size) that had once existed in the thick wall between his office—SOB 231 in what is now the Senate’s Russell Building—and the Senate Cafeteria next door; the passageway had at some time in the past been boarded up and plastered over on the side leading to Johnson’s office and used as a closet for cafeteria workers. Johnson’s staffers couldn’t tell me exactly how the attempt had been resolved, and I couldn’t find out, so I asked Don Ritchie to help. He ran down architectural drawings, and correspondence, but, as it happened, he couldn’t find out. On May 2,1994, after a final effort, he wrote me, “Dear Bob: I’ve spent this morning in search of four square feet…. How I wish I could report that I know exactly the answer to your question, but honestly I don’t.” In a sense, then, he had not been able to help me in that instance (which is the reason the incident is not in the body of my book), but in a more important sense, what mattered was his willingness to make so earnest an effort to help. And the closet inquiry was one of the few inquiries I made during the twelve years I was working on this book to which Don—or Dick Baker—didn’t find the answer, often after painstaking effort. I have abused shamefully the helpfulness of these two distinguished historians—each of them is the author of several books of his own—interviewing and telephoning them constantly, at their homes and in the evenings and on weekends, to fill in the vast blanks in my knowledge about the Senate. They never complained, were always helpful—and I will be forever grateful for that help. Any mistakes about the Senate in this book are there in spite of them; the responsibility is all mine. But to whatever extent the book is an accurate depiction of the Senate, it is accurate because of them.
• • •
FOR ME, during the past twelve years, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library has meant a single person: Claudia Wilson Anderson.
Claudia came to work on Johnson’s papers before there was a library. It opened in 1971; she had already been working on Johnson’s papers since March, 1969, when the archives of the newly departed President were still stored at the Federal Building in downtown Austin.
During the intervening years, she has become the Library’s great expert on the domestic presidential papers of the Johnson Administration, and on what the Library calls “Pre-Presidential Material”—which includes, of course, the Senate archives which form so large a part of the foundation for this volume.
Claudia is a Senior Archivist at the Library—a title which does not adequately do justice to her abilities, or to her significance in the study of American history. Like Dick Baker and Don Ritchie, she is an historian in the highest sense of the word. She knows—she has made it her business to know—the archival material in her charge as thoroughly as it is possible for a single human being to know those thousands of boxes of documents. And she wants historians—and through them history and the world—to know that material. And in addition to this motivation—the motivation of the true historian—there is about her work a rare integrity and generosity of spirit. I can’t even imagine how many questions I have asked of Claudia (Where would I find material on this senator or that issue? Didn’t I once, years ago, see a piece of paper somewhere in which George Reedy was advising Johnson not to keep ignoring Hubert Humphrey? What file might that be in?). No matter how many questions I asked her, however, I cannot remember one on which she didn’t make as much of an effort as possible to answer it. And beyond such help on individual inquiries, her overall expertise—her guidance through the Lyndon Johnson Archives—has been the guidance of a perceptive and discriminating expert. I notice that every biographer of Lyndon Johnson has thanked Claudia for her help. They should have. History’s knowledge of Johnson will be richer for her help. I can’t imagine any biographer who owes her more than I do.
AT THE JOHNSON LIBRARY ALSO, Linda Seelke, E. Philip Scott, Ted Gittinger, and Kyla Wilson have been of help with this volume, and I thank them.
INA AND I are deeply indebted to a number of librarians at archival collections around the United States. We are especially indebted to the Russell Library’s Sheryl Vogt. Her knowledge of the Russell papers was invaluable in steering Ina through the manuscript collection, as was her assistance in reading Russell’s handwriting. Not only did she make Ina’s trips to Athens productive, she was always available, even years later, to answer any questions we might have. The Eisenhower Library’s Dwight Strandberg was also invaluable to Ina, both with his archival expertise and in making the library a pleasant and efficient research facility. The archivists at the Truman Library were so helpful and efficient that they had every file relating to Lyndon Johnson available and waiting every time Ina arrived in Independence. And Robert Parks at the Roosevelt Library, who remembers Ina from the time she first came to that library twenty-nine years ago as the researcher for The Power Broker, has for all that time been unstintedly generous in his assistance. Our gratitude also goes to Norman Chase at the Library of Congress, to Michael Gillette at the National Archives, and to Matthew Gilmore and Roxanna Deane at the Martin Luther King Library in Washington. The morgue of the defunctWashington Star, now in residence at that library, has been an invaluable resource for Master of the Senate, and Mr. Gilmore and Ms. Deane were very helpful in making it available.
I first met Greg Harness, the Senate Librarian, twelve years ago, when I was starting on this book, and for twelve years he has, with great expertise and unfailing graciousness, been providing me with information that I needed.
WILLIAM H. JORDAN JR. went to work for Richard Russell in 1955, and worked for him until Russell died in 1971, staying in the Senator’s office every night until Russell went home. Bill revered the Senator, whom he considers one of the greatest of American statesmen, and during the three decades since his death has worked faithfully to ensure that he received his proper place in history. To try to ensure that I understood Russell and portrayed him accurately, Bill spent many hours talking to me, as well as driving me to Winder and arranging for me to spend time in Russell’s home, and in the family graveyard behind it, as well as to talk with the Senator’s grandnephew, Richard Brevard Russell III. I thank him for that, and for the hospitality that he and his wife, Gwen (who was also a member of Russell’s staff and whose comments on him were also perceptive) extended to me. I thank Bill the more especially because he did all this although I think he understood that my view of Russell would coincide with his only in some respects. There was an honorableness about that that I admire.
Howard E. Shuman brought to the Senate the keen eye of a political scientist and economist, and he observed the Senate close-up for twenty-seven years, as an administrative assistant first to Senator Paul Douglas and then to Senator William Proxmire. His perceptive observations have been embodied in books and in many articles, and they were embodied also in the many hours of his time which he spent educating me about the Senate. I thank him for them.
Many journalists who covered the Senate during the 1950s and Lyndon Johnson during his senatorial and presidential years generously gave me the benefit of their observations and insights in hundreds of hours of interviews. These included Bonnie Angelo, John Chadwick, Benjamin Cole, Allen Drury, Tex Easley, John Finney, Alan Emory, Rowland Evans, John A. Goldsmith, Seth Kantor, Murray Kempton, William Lambert, Anthony Lewis, Sarah McClendon, Karl Meyer, John Oakes, Irwin Ross, Hugh Sidey, Alfred Steinberg, J. William Theis, Theodore H. White, and Frank Van der Linden.
To a number of journalists, I am more than usually indebted. The word pictures of Lyndon Johnson briefing the press on the Senate floor just before noon each day that were given to me by Robert A. Barr were especially helpful, as was the research on the Senate which Bob volunteered to do for me.
In Neil MacNeil, who came to Washington with the United Press in 1949, and was immediately assigned to the Senate, and who later was the congressional correspondent for many years for Time magazine, I found a journalist with a remarkable knowledge of the institution, its history, its mores, and its men. Neil shared all this with me most generously, in many hours of interviews, and in rereading my notes on these talks, I was struck over and over with the depth of his insights. I could use almost the same words in thanking John L. Steele. Over and over again, when I needed a detail to fill out a scene, or a piece of Senate history or custom to augment my knowledge, I had only to pick up a telephone and call Mr. Steele, and my problem was solved. I thank him for both the keenness of his perceptions and his willingness to share them with me.
I had long admired the photographs of George Tames, and after I began talking with him, I learned that his eye was sharp even when it was not behind a camera. On several days—long days—George took me from room to room in the Capitol and the SOB, recounting to me scenes he had observed in each one, and helping me immeasurably in my attempts to grasp what the Senate was like decades ago.
Katharine Graham provided me with many hours of insights into Washington, into Lyndon Johnson, and into the relationship between Philip Graham and Johnson, so crucial in this volume, and crucial also in the volume to come. Moreover, she graciously provided me with transcripts of a few of her own interviews with people who figure in this book. I list Mrs. Graham here, among the journalists, because I believe this is where she would want to be listed. And I thank also her researcher, Evelyn Small.
In Margaret Mayer, I found a remarkable journalist. Her interviews with Johnson, and the vivid portraits her words painted of him, helped me in my attempts to see him as he was. Ms. Mayer covered him for the Dallas Times-Herald for many years, and worked for a short time on his staff. She has a very keen eye, and a real gift for words, and she put both at my disposal.
During our many visits to Austin, Greg Curtis and his wife, Tracy, made things very pleasant for Ina and me, generously driving Texas-length distances to introduce us to various versions of barbecue. My conversations with Greg, who during his many years as editor of Texas Monthly elevated that magazine to the first rank of American journalism, were an education to me about Texas’ changing culture. I am grateful for those conversations.
Sources
A NOTE ON SOURCES
IN TRYING TO RE-CREATE the world of the Senate of the 1950s, and Lyndon Johnson’s place in it, a basic source is of course the written materials found in the Senate Historical Office, the Senate Library, and the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington; in the collections of the papers of individual senators in various libraries around the United States—the papers of Richard B. Russell at the Russell Library in Athens, Georgia, were especially helpful for this work, but so were the papers of senators like A. Willis Robertson at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia; Robert Kerr and Elmer Thomas at the Carl Albert Center at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma; and Herbert H. Lehman at Columbia University in New York City—and in collections such as the NAACP Papers at the Library of Congress. And of course there are the papers in the Johnson Library in Austin, Texas. As I have explained in previous volumes of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, the papers in the Johnson Library are stored in document cases, some plain red or gray cardboard, most covered in red buckram (and stamped with a gold replica of the presidential seal). There are 2,082 boxes that deal with the Senate, and they contain, by the Library’s estimate, about 1,665,000 pages of documents. Some of them are only newspaper clippings or form letters to constituents, but there are hundreds of thousands of pages of significant letters, inter- and intra-office memoranda, scribbled notes, transcripts of telephone conversations, and speech texts in various edited versions. I don’t know how many of those pages I’ve read during the twelve years I’ve been working on this volume, but I’ve read a lot of them.
In some areas, these papers are illuminating. The series in the Johnson Senate Papers labeled “Papers Relating to the Armed Services Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee,” for example, are valuable because in order for freshman Senator Lyndon Johnson to obtain the staffing and funding he wanted for this subcommittee, he had to submit to senior senators detailed requests, and not only these requests but the work papers that went into the final requests provide significant insight into his thinking and maneuvers. The Senate Papers (which are described at the end of this Note) contain the office files and memoranda of various Johnson assistants, most notably Walter Jenkins, George Reedy, Solis Horwitz, and Gerald Siegel, and their reports to Johnson are detailed and informative.
I have found the Johnson papers rather unrevealing, however, about an area that is a major concern of this book: the nature of senatorial (or, in a larger sense, legislative) power, and how Johnson acquired and employed that power; how the Senate works, in other words, and how Lyndon Johnson made it work.
Primary written sources for the Senate itself, in the National Archives and the Senate Library and in other collections in Washington, are also not as helpful as they might be. For one thing, the source that should be the most basic and complete record for events on the Senate floor—the Congressional Record—cannot always be relied on as an accurate reflection of what occurred there. Senators and their assistants routinely “corrected”—meaning “edited,” and, not infrequently, meaning expunged, or made more politic—the words they actually spoke on the floor. Lyndon Johnson made extensive use of this opportunity to alter the historical record, which during his later years in the Senate took place, as his assistant Colonel Kenneth E. BeLieu, staff director of Johnson’s Preparedness Subcommittee from 1957 to 1961, states, in a room behind the Senate floor that “we called Dino’s room, only because it was supervised by a man named Dino. This was … where staffs corrected the Senators’ floor statements for spelling, grammar and content.”
“Often,” BeLieu says, after Senator Stuart Symington and Johnson “had engaged in a spirited floor argument, Ed Welch and I went to Dino’s to do our duties, Ed for Symington and I for the Leader. We both had written their respective and suggested remarks. I announced to Ed, ‘What Lyndon said bears no resemblance to what I wrote for him.’ Ed countered, ‘What Symington said will bear no resemblance to what I’m now writing.’”* During Johnson’s earlier years in the Senate, the editing was often done by Donald Cook and George Reedy, sometimes by other members of his staff, and sometimes by Johnson himself. His staff member Solis Horwitz, who worked for him from 1957 to 1959, was to recall that one morning in 1957, when a number of Johnson staffers were meeting in the office of Secretary of the Senate Felton (Skeeter) Johnston, “the Senator came in, and he had made a long speech on the floor that morning and had gotten into a great deal of dialogue. He had the transcript with him, and … he was correcting the transcript while sitting there.” (Horwitz says he “never saw him do that again in all the years that I was with him. Because after that, we always corrected the transcript.”)† Other members of the staff said that while Johnson did the editing himself infrequently during the years after he became Democratic Leader, he did it more frequently during the years before that. One area in which this altering of the Record is particularly damaging to historical accuracy is that of civil rights; during interviews, journalists and Senate staff members would vividly recall for me venomous racist remarks that some southern senator or other had made during a debate, but time and again when I went to the Record for the relevant date, no such remark (or any approximate version of it) was there.
Primary written sources are also not particularly helpful because of the nature of Senate life in the 1950s, in which so much crucial business—negotiating, persuading, the fashioning of compromises—was conducted not in writing but orally, face to face, or over the telephone, between the people involved, so that the only way to try to re-create the world of the Senate, and of Johnson’s role in it, was to talk to these people.
I began my work on this volume in time for it to be possible for me to do this—but only just in time, as I was reminded, poignantly, by a letter written to the Caros (actually to my wife, Ina), on April 16, 2000, by Johnson’s longtime assistant Horace W. Busby. Buzz, as Ina and I had come to call him, had been rushed to a hospital in Santa Monica, California, the previous weekend. “Quite a time,” he wrote. “In and out of it for two nights—remember thinking it will be hard on Robert, nobody else can tell him about the Vice Presidency.”
In the letter, Buzz said he was recovering. I was not sure he meant that; he closed the letter with a word he had never used before: “Farewell.” He never really recovered, and he died, on May 31, 2000, at the age of seventy-six, without talking to me again.
Buzz’s memory had failed him a bit in the hospital on one point: he had talked to me about “the Vice Presidency”—Lyndon Johnson’s vice presidency—and about the presidency, as he had, of course, about Lyndon Johnson’s years in the Senate. I had begun interviewing Buzz in 1976 in Austin. During the 1980s and 1990s, the interviews continued in Washington, some in his office, some in his apartment, some in a coffee shop, the Cozy Corner on Twentieth Street NW, that he liked to frequent, some in restaurants of a higher caliber. Some went on all day. In 1999, in failing health, he moved to Santa Monica, where his children could care for him, and the interviews continued by telephone. And he would write letters to clarify points he felt he had not made clear enough—or that I had stubbornly refused to accept because of conflicting information from other sources—during the conversations. Sometime after he moved, he lost his eyesight. He could still touch-type, however, and the letters continued. The occasional line which ran off the page, and the large, scrawled, very shaky B with which he signed the letters in hand, was the only sign of his disability. (“This B is not an affectation—best I can do since stroke,” he typed once.)
It is difficult to calculate how many interviews I had with Horace Busby. I formally transcribed only seventeen of them; for scores of other lengthy interviews I made only handwritten notes (sometimes these, too, ran many pages); and is it correct to dignify with the title “interview” a brief telephone call he made to me in order to add a detail to a story he had previously told me, or to tell me a new anecdote about Lyndon Johnson that he had just remembered? I only know that when Buzz died, I still had so many more questions I wanted to ask him.
I had received previous reminders that among the problems involved in the writing of this volume was that of the human life span. Horace Busby was not the only member of Lyndon Johnson’s staff who made an extensive effort to help me understand the extraordinary individual for whom they had worked, and to understand the years Johnson spent in the Senate of the United States. And he was not the only member of Johnson’s staff whose help was cut off abruptly. George Reedy, whom I began interviewing in 1985 over gargantuan platters of choucroute in Milwaukee’s German-American rathskellers, was in later years talking to me by telephone from his room in a nursing home in that city, with the same eagerness as Busby for me to get it right. My notes for a call I made to him on January 14, 1999, show that his first sentence was “I was hoping you would call me back. One point I didn’t make clear …” One day in March, 1999, when I telephoned his room, there was no answer. I didn’t attach any significance to that; there had been other occasions when I hadn’t been able to get in touch with him for a few days. But this time, a day or two after my call, I picked up the New York Times and found myself reading his obituary. Ken BeLieu, John Connally, Walter Jenkins, Gene Latimer, Dan McGillicuddy, Mary Rather, Jim Rowe, Slug Tyler, Mary Louise Glass Young—all these people worked in Lyndon Johnson’s various offices during his Senate years, all talked to me at length, and the assistance and insights of each of them were cut off while I still had questions to ask—as has also been the case, I must add, with an unfortunately large number of other men and women who were, in one capacity or another, involved in Johnson’s life, and who have also died. Over and over again during the course of researching these books, I was abruptly reminded of the opportunity I was being given by the cooperation of these men and women—and of how that opportunity wasn’t going to last indefinitely.
I feel it would be gratuitous to say that some of them—perhaps all of them—would not agree with everything I have written. But whatever success I may have had in re-creating the Senate of Lyndon Johnson is due beyond measure to the effort of these people to help me understand him, and the world of the Senate (and it is also due, of course, to the help of members of Johnson’s staff who thankfully are still with us; particularly valuable insights and descriptions have been given me by Roland Bibolet, Yolanda Boozer, Nadine Brammer Eckhardt, Ashton Gonella, Gerald Siegel, and Warren Woodward). Some other members of Johnson’s staff refused my requests for interviews, but they have given extensive oral history interviews to the Johnson Library, so that at least some of their views are on record. And the help of those who did talk to me has, I hope, reduced the significance of those refusals.
In addition to Johnson’s staff, there were other interviews. Eleven were with senators: Bill Bradley of New Jersey, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Carl T. Curtis of Nebraska, William J. Fulbright of Arkansas, Eugene J. McCarthy of Minnesota, Edmund S. Muskie of Maine, William Proxmire of Wisconsin, Abraham A. Ribicoff of Connecticut, Stuart Symington of Missouri, Herman Talmadge of Georgia, and Ralph W. Yarborough of Texas. Some of these interviews—with Fulbright, Muskie, and Symington—were extensive and valuable. And about others a particular word might be said. Ralph Yarborough was interviewed, after his retirement from the Senate, in a one-man law firm in Austin that seemed out of a daguerreotype of the Old West, with the mounted horns of a Texas longhorn over the receptionist’s desk and, in his inner office, a long, long old-fashioned conference table covered, from one end to the other, in deep stacks of legal papers. He lavished time on me, in five intensive discussions, in an attempt to make me understand the Senate as he found it when he arrived there in 1957, and Lyndon Johnson as he had known him since he began encountering him in Texas politics during the 1930s. The interview with Herman Talmadge at his home in Henry County, Georgia, was painful—literally, since he was suffering badly from congestive heart failure, and every answer he made to my questions required an effort that was hard to watch. But the answers were given, and they provided me with new insight into Lyndon Johnson’s relationship with the southern senators. Bill Bradley had thought quite deeply about the workings of the Senate, and about the nature of power in it. A series of interviews with him in 1996 both in Washington and in New York were more like lectures from a very thoughtful and perceptive scholar. In addition, Senator Bradley provided one bit of assistance that he was unusually (almost uniquely, in fact) qualified to give. Many of the men who had been present on the Senate floor during the 1950s had told me how Lyndon Johnson was so tall that he “towered” over senators in the well as he stood at his Majority Leader’s front-row desk one step above it, and how his eyes were almost at the level of the clerks and the presiding officer on the dais across the well. Bill Bradley, as I realized from perusing an old program I had kept from a Princeton University basketball game, was six feet four and a half inches tall, just slightly taller than Johnson. When, near the end of the wonderful day on the floor that he arranged for me, he asked if there was anything further he could do to be of assistance, I said there was. The then Majority Leader, Bob Dole, wasn’t at his desk. I asked Senator Bradley if he would mind going over and standing at it, so I could get a picture of precisely to what degree Johnson had in fact “towered” as he stood there. Bill was gracious enough to comply. Since this was an opportunity I was not likely to have again, I was determined to get the picture fixed firmly in my mind no matter how long that took. After a while, I realized that Bill had been standing there for quite some time, and that he was in fact looking at me as if to inquire if he had been there long enough. I said I would appreciate it if he would stand there a while longer, and he did, uncomplainingly—for as long as I needed.
It seems to have become a custom for biographers to total up the number of interviews they conducted for a book. I see by my notes that the number of people I interviewed is 263, but of course not just Busby and Reedy and Yarborough but many of these people were interviewed many times. With some of the key sources for this book—Bob Barr, Dick Bolling, Herbert Brownell, Ed Clark, Ava Johnson Cox, Tex Easley, Bryce Harlow, L. E. Jones, Bill Jordan, Margaret Mayer, Neil MacNeil, Posh Oltorf, Joe Rauh, Jim Rowe, Howard Shuman, John Steele, Arthur Stehling, many others, too—our relationship became so friendly that whenever I had a question, I was able to simply pick up a telephone and call them, informally. And of course those names do not include Dick Baker and Don Ritchie, who during these twelve years have spoken to me, formally, informally, in person, over the telephone, from their office, from their homes, so many times that I am sure they never want to hear from me again. Adding up the interviews I conducted is difficult, but by the most conservative estimate the number is more than a thousand.
Here is a description of the papers in the Johnson Library that form part of the foundation for this third volume—and an explanation of how they are identified in the Notes that follow.
Senate Papers, 1949–1961 (JSP): The papers kept in files in Johnson’s various offices, including the one he maintained in Austin, Texas; his “Texas Office” in the Senate Office Building; his Democratic Majority Leader’s Office in the Capitol; and from files of the Democratic Policy Committee, from 1949 through January, 1961. These include memoranda (both intra-office and with others), correspondence from and to constituents, correspondence relating to presidential nominees to federal and diplomatic positions for which Senate confirmation was required; correspondence, drafts of bills, reports and drafts of reports as well as memoranda and work papers and press relating to his work on the various Senate committees and subcommittees of which he was a member; transcripts of committee and subcommittee executive sessions and hearings. These papers include Congressional Record tear sheets. They also include the “Papers of the Democratic Leader,” which are made up of the files of individual members of his staff, including Policy Committee staff members George Reedy, Solis Horwitz, and Gerald W. Siegel. They include meeting agenda, analyses of proposed legislation, intra-office and inter-office memoranda, correspondence with other senators, and with members of the House of Representatives, and with lobbyists, officials of federal agencies; speech drafts and final versions, and drafts and final versions of press releases. “George Reedy’s Confidential Memo File,” part of these Senate Papers, contains memos on many topics. Many have no date recorded, but some are filed in folders by month. Some are from Reedy to Johnson, giving him information; some were written by Reedy at Johnson’s instructions, or dictation, to be shown to other senators as if they were Reedy’s own thoughts, to reinforce arguments Johnson wanted to make to them.
Senate Political Files (SPF): These files cover a time period from 1949 to 1960. They concern the consolidation of Johnson’s position in Texas following the 1948 campaign; the 1954 Senate campaign; his 1956 bid for the presidency; and his bid in 1960 for the presidential nomination. They also contain numerous Texas county files. They were made into a separate file by the Library staff.
Lyndon Baines Johnson Archives (LBJA): These files were created about 1958, and consist of material taken both from the House of Representatives Papers and from Johnson’s Senate Papers. It consists of material considered historically valuable or of correspondence with persons with whom he was closely associated, such as Sam Rayburn, Abe Fortas, James Rowe, George and Herman Brown, Edward Clark, and Alvin Wirtz; or of correspondence with national figures of that era. These files are divided into four main categories:
1. Selected Names (LBJA SN): Correspondence with close associates.
2. Famous Names (LBJA FN): Correspondence with national figures.
3. Congressional File (LBJA CF): Correspondence with fellow congressmen and senators.
4. Subject File (LBJA SF): This contains a Biographic Information File, with material relating to Johnson’s year as a schoolteacher in Cotulla and Houston; to his work as a secretary to Congressman Richard M. Kleberg; to his activities with the Little Congress; and to his naval service during World War II.
Pre-Presidential Confidential File (PPCF): This contains material taken from other files because it dealt with potentially sensitive areas.
Pre-Presidential Memo File (PPMF): This file consists of memos taken from the House of Representatives Papers, the Johnson Senate Papers, and the Vice Presidential Papers. While these memos begin in 1939 and continue through 1963, there are relatively few prior to 1946. While most are from the staff, some are from Johnson to the staff. The subject matter of the memos falls in numerous categories, ranging from specific issues, the 1948 Senate campaign, and liberal versus conservative factions in Texas to phone messages and constituent relations.
Family Correspondence (LBJ FC): Correspondence between the President and his mother and brother, Sam Houston Johnson.
Personal Papers of Rebekah Baines Johnson (RBJ PP): This is material found in her garage after she died. It includes correspondence with her children (including Lyndon) and other members of her family, and material collected by her during her research into the genealogy of the Johnson family. It also includes scrapbooks.
Personal Papers of Alvin Wirtz (AWPP): Twenty-five boxes.
White House Central File (WHCF): The only files in this category used to a substantial extent in this volume were the Subject Files labeled “President (Personal)” (WHCF PP). They contain material about the President or his family, mainly articles written after he became President about episodes in his early life.
White House Famous Names File (WHFN): This includes correspondence with former presidents and their families, including Johnson correspondence when he was a congressman with Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Documents Concerning Lyndon B. Johnson from the Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, John M. Carmody, Harry L. Hopkins, and Aubrey Williams (FDR-LBJ MF): This microfilm reel was compiled at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park and consists of correspondence to and from Johnson found in various PPF and OF files at the Roosevelt Library. Whenever possible, the author has included the file number, by which the original documents can be located at the Roosevelt Library.
A WORD OF EXPLANATION is necessary about the citations in the Notes that read “Georgia Giant.”
These citations refer to a three-hour television documentary, “Richard Russell: Georgia Giant,” which aired in 1970 on Cox Broadcasting’s WSB-TV in Atlanta, Georgia. When the citations read “unedited transcript,” they refer to the typed transcript of twenty-five hours of interviews conducted with Russell by the journalist Harold Suit that were filmed for the documentary, mostly on the front porch of the Russell home in Winder. Quotations from this transcript are identified by the number of the reel of film to which the transcript refers. The citations that read “edited transcript” refer to the typed transcript of the three-hour documentary which actually aired. In two instances, Russell is seen on the first hour of the documentary (actually on the first of three videotapes of the program) talking about his father, and the edited transcript does not contain those quotes, so in those two instances the source is cited as “‘Georgia Giant,’ Tape, Part I.” All transcripts are in the Richard B. Russell Library.
When a citation refers to an “interview conducted by Katharine Graham,” it means one of the interviews that Mrs. Graham conducted for her own book, Personal History, sometimes in conjunction with her researcher, Evelyn Small. Transcripts of these interviews were given to the author by Mrs. Graham.
AUTHOR’S INTERVIEWS
Lola Aiken • Bonnie Angelo • James Anton • Rodney Baines • Richard A. Baker • Ross K. Baker • Inspector Leonard H. Ballard • Jean Douglas Bandler Robert Barr • Alan Barth • Joseph Bartlett • Robert T. Bartley • Melinda Baskin • Kenneth E. BeLieu • Merton Bernstein • James Bethke • Roland H. Bibolet • Andrew Biemiller • Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt • Richard Boiling • Paul Bolton • Yolanda Boozer • Bill Bradley • Jim Brady • T. Edward Braswell • Howard Bray • George R. Brown • Herbert Brownell • Marcus Burg • Horace W. Busby • Robert Byrd • John Carlton • John Carver • James Casey • Emanuel Celler • John Chadwick • Brady Chapin • Zara Olds Chapin • Evelyn Chavoor • Bethine Church • Blair Clark • Edward A. Clark • Ramsey Clark • Benjamin V. Cohen • Benjamin Cole • W. Sterling Cole • James P. Coleman • John B. Connally • Nellie Connally • John Sherman Cooper • Thomas J. Corcoran • Ava Johnson Cox • Anne Fears Crawford • William E. Cresswell • Margaret Tucker Culhane • Carl T. Curtis • Lloyd Cutler • Patrick Dahl • William H. Darden • Hadassah Davis • Phil Davis • Willard Deason • Earl Deathe • Harry Dent • Oliver J. Dompierre • Helen Gahagan Douglas • Allen Drury • H. G. Dulaney • Lewis T. (Tex) Easley • Nadine Brammer Eckhardt • Julius G. C. Edelstein • Albert Eisele • Gerry Eller • Alan S. Emory • Grover Ensley • Rowland Evans • Creekmore Fath • Bernard J. Fensterwald • Thomas C. Ferguson • John Finney • O. C. Fisher • Gilbert C. Fite • Abe Fortas • William J. Fulbright • Barbara Gamarekian • David Garth • Sim Gideon • Michael L. Gillette • Tom Glazer • Stella Gliddon • Arthur J. Goldberg • Reuben Goldberg • Arthur (Tex) Goldschmidt • John Goldsmith • Glee Gomien • Ashton Gonella • William Goode • Katharine Graham • Ralph Graves • Kenneth Gray • Bailey Guard • John Gunther • Jack Gwyn • D. B. Hardeman • Bryce Harlow • Lou Harris • Richard Helms • Charles Herring • Pat Holt • John Holton • Alice Hopkins • Welly K. Hopkins • Barbara Howar • Phyllis Hower • Ward Hower • Thomas Hughes • Dr. J. Willis Hurst • Patrick B. Hynes • Edouard V. M. Izac • Eliot Janeway • Elizabeth Janeway • Beth Jenkins • Walter Jenkins • Lady Bird Johnson • Sam Houston Johnson • Herman Jones • James Jones • Luther E. Jones • Gwen Jordan • William H. Jordan Jr. • Seth Kantor • Carroll Keach • Chapman Kelly • Murray Kempton • Mylton (Babe) Kennedy • Vann M. Kennedy • Eugene J. Keogh • Theodore W. Kheel • Joe M. Kilgore • Robert (Barney) Knispel • Fritz Koeniger • Louis Kohlmeier • Henry Kyle • Joseph Laitin • William Lambert • Joseph P. Lash • Trude Lash • Gene Latimer • Anthony Lewis • Oliver Lindig • R. J. (Bob) Long • Kathleen Louchheim • Wingate Lucas • Diana MacArthur • Neil MacNeil • George H. Mahon • Frank Mankiewicz • Gerald C. Mann • Caryl Marsh • Maury Maverick Jr. • Margaret Mayer • Edward A. McCabe • Eugene J. McCarthy • Sarah McClendon • Richard T. McCulley • Frank C. McCulloch • Daniel J. McGillicuddy • Bill McPike • Dale Miller • Powell Moore • Ernest Morgan • Edmund S. Muskie • Roger Newman • John Oakes • John Olds • Dr. Marianne Olds • Frank C. (Posh) Oltorf • Donald Oresman • J. J. (Jake) Pickle • William Proxmire • Edward Puls • Julie Leininger Pycior • Carolina Longoria Quintanilla • Alexander Radin • Richard Rashke • Mary Rather • Joseph L. Rauh Jr. • Elwyn Rayden • Benjamin H. Read • Emmette Redford • George Reedy • Abraham A. Ribicoff • Horace Richards • Floyd Riddick • Donald A. Ritchie • William P. Rogers • Irwin Ross • Elizabeth Rowe • James H. Rowe Jr. • Richard B. Russell III • Darrell St. Claire • Ray Scherer • Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. • Harry Schnibbe • Budd Schulberg • John Sharnick • Emmet Shelton • Howard E. Shuman • Hugh Sidey • Gerald L. Siegel • E. Babe Smith • Lon Smith • Carl Solberg • Bernard V. Somers • Theodore Sorensen • Natalie Springarn • Jerome Springarn • John L. Steele • Arthur Stehling • Alfred Steinberg • Philip M. Stern • Walter J. Stewart • Steve Stibbens • Elizabeth Stranigan • Marsha Suisse • James L. Sundquist • Mimi Swartz • Stuart Symington • Herman Talmadge • George Tames • J. William Theis • Bernard R. Toon • Dr. Janet G. Travell • Marietta Tree • J. Mark Trice • Margaret Truman • Lyon L. Tyler • Cyrus Vance • Frank Van der Linden • Melwood W. Van Scoyoc • James Van Zandt • William Walton • Delbert C. Ward • Gerald Weatherly • Robert C. Weaver • O. J. Weber • Edwin Weisl Jr. • William Welsh • John Wheeler • Theodore H. White • Vernon Whiteside • Elizabeth Wickenden • Tom Wicker • Claude C. Wild Jr. • Wendy Wolff • Claude E. Wood • Wilton Woods • Warren Woodward • Ralph W. Yarborough • Harold H. Young • Mary Louise Glass Young • Sam Zagoria • Murray Zweben
ORAL HISTORIES
Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Austin, Texas
George D. Aiken, Carl B. Albert, Robert S. Allen, Stewart J. Alsop, Clinton P. Anderson, Eugenie M. Anderson, James Anton, Robert G. (Bobby) Baker, Malcolm Bardwell, Charles E. Bohlen, Richard Boiling, Paul Bolton, Kenneth E. BeLieu, Levette J. (Joe) Berry, Roland Bibolet, Sherman Birdwell, James H. Blundell, Charles K. Boatner, T. Edward Braswell, George R. Brown, Richard Brown, Russell M. Brown, Raymond E. Buck, Cecil E. Burney, Horace W. Busby, Bo Byers, James Cain, Clifton C. Carter, Clifford P. Case, S. Douglass Cater, Emanuel Celler, Oscar L. Chapman, James E. Chudars, Frank Church, Ramsey Clark, Tom C. Clark, Earle C. Clements, Clark Clifford, W. Sterling Cole, James P. Coleman, Donald C. Cook, John Sherman Cooper, John J. Corson, Ben Crider, Ernest Cuneo, Carl T. Curtis, Price Daniel, William H. Darden, Willard Deason, Marjorie Delafield, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Paul H. Douglas, David Dubinsky, Clifford and Virginia Durr, L. T. (Tex) Easley, James O. Eastland, Allen J. Ellender, Virginia Wilke English, Truman and Wilma G. Fawcett, Thomas K. Finletter, Elaine Fischesser, O. C. Fisher, Sam Fore Jr., Abe Fortas, Gordon Fulcher, Hector T. Garcia, Reynaldo G. Garza, Eugene B. Germany, W. Sim Gideon, Irving L. Goldberg, Arthur and Elizabeth Goldschmidt, Ashton Gonella, Callan Graham, Katharine Graham, Walter G. Hall, Bourke B. Hickenlooper, Estelle Harbin, D. B. Hardeman, Robert Hardesty, Bryce Harlow, Mrs. Jessie Hatcher, Carl Hayden, Richard M. Helms, Charles Herring, Welly K. Hopkins, Welly K. and Alice Hopkins, Ardis C. Hopper, Walter Hornaday, Solis Horwitz, Hubert Humphrey, Henry M. Jackson, Robert M. Jackson, Jake Jacobsen, W. Ervin (Red) James, Leon Jaworski, Walter Jenkins, Alfred T. (Boody) Johnson, Sam Houston Johnson, Luther E. Jones Jr., Marvin Jones, Edward Joseph, Carroll Keach, Jesse Kellam, Mylton L. Kennedy, Sam Kinch Sr., William Knowland, John Fritz Koeniger, Eugenia Boehringer Lasseter, Gene Latimer, Ray Lee, Erich Leinsdorf, Kittie Clyde Leonard, Gould Lincoln, Otto Lindig, C. P. Little, R. J. (Bob) Long, Russell Long, Stuart M. Long, J. C. Looney, Kathleen C. Louchheim, John E. Lyle Jr., Warren Magnuson, George Mahon, Gerald C. Mann, Leonard Marks, Joe Mashman, Margaret Mayer, Sarah McClendon, Frank McCulloch, Ernest W. McFarland, Vicky and Simon McHugh, Marshall McNeil, Harry McPherson, George Meany, Dale and Virginia (Scooter) Miller, Clarence Mitchell, A. S. (Mike) Monroney, Booth Mooney, Powell Moore, Robert W. Murphey, Dorothy J. Nichols, Frank C. (Posh) Oltorf, Wright Patman, Harvey O. Payne, Drew Pearson, Arthur C. Perry, J. J. (Jake) Pickle, W. Robert Poage, Ella SoRelle Porter, Paul A. Porter, Harry Provence, William Proxmire, Graham Purcell, Daniel J. Quill, Mary Rather, Joseph L. Rauh Jr., Benjamin H. Read, Cecil Redford, Emmette S. Redford, George E. Reedy Jr., Horace E. Richards, Chalmers M. Roberts, A. Willis Robertson, Fenner Roth, Payne Rountree, Leverett Saltonstall, Harold Barefoot Sanders, Josefa Baines Saunders, Norbert A. Schlei, Arthur Schlesinger, Emmett Shelton, Polk and Nell Shelton, Hugh Sidey, Gerald W. Siegel, Margaret Chase Smith, Anthony M. Solomon, John Sparkman, Max and Evelyn Starcke, John C. Stennis, Sam V. Stone, O. B. Summy, James L. Sundquist, Stuart Symington, Herman E. Talmadge, Willie Day Taylor, J. William Theis, Strom Thurmond, Bascom N. Timmons, Grace Tully, Mary Margaret Wiley Valenti, Carl Vinson, H. Jerry Voorhis, Harfield Weedin, Edwin L. Weisl Jr., Edwin L. Weisl Sr., June White (Mrs. William S. White), William S. White, R. Vernon Whiteside, Tom G. Wicker, James Russell Wiggins, Claude C. Wild Sr., Roy Wilkins, Glen and Marie Wilson, Wilton Woods, Warren G. Woodward, James C. Wright Jr., Zephyr Wright, Milton R. Young.
United States Senate Oral History Program, Senate Historical Office
Leonard H. Ballard, Roy L. Elson, Grover W. Ensley, Pat M. Holt, Carl M. Marcy, Stewart E. McClure, Jesse R. Nichols, Scott I. Peek, Warren Featherstone Reid, Floyd M. Riddick, Darrell St. Claire, Dorothye G. Scott, Howard E. Shuman, George A. Smathers, George Tames, J. William Theis, Rein J. Vanderzee.
Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, Kansas
George Aiken, Jack Z. Anderson, John Bricker, Herbert Brownell, Prescott Bush, Ralph Flanders, Barry Goldwater, Andrew J. Goodpaster, Homer Gruenther, Bryce Harlow, Robert C. Hill, Jacob Javits, Kenneth B. Keating, William F. Knowland, Edward A. McCabe, L. Arthur Minnich, Gerald Morgan, E. Frederick Morrow, Maxwell Rabb.
Sam Rayburn Library, Bonham, Texas
Carl Albert, Robert S. Allen, Robert T. Bartley, John Brademas, Cecil Dickson, H. G. Dulaney, John Holton, Walter K. Jenkins, Lady Bird Johnson.
Richard Brevard Russell Memorial Library
University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
Harry F. Byrd Jr., Robert Byrd, Lawton Miller Calhoun, John Thomas Carlton, Earl Cocke Jr., George W. Darden, William H. Darden, Robert Mark Dunahoo, James O. Eastland, Allen Ellender, Sam J. Ervin Jr., Luck Coleman Flanders Gambrell, Spenser M. Grayson, Mary Willie Russell Green, Roy Vincent Harris, Roman Lee Hruska, Hubert H. Humphrey, Lady Bird Johnson, Felton Johnston, Wayne P. Kelly Jr., Earl T. Leonard, Russell B. Long, Mike Mansfield, Powell Moore, Richard Nixon, Patience Russell Peterson, William Proxmire, Barboura Raesly, Dean Rusk, Fielding B. Russell, Reverend Henry Edward Russell, Leverett Saltonstall, Carl Sanders, George Smathers, Clara Smith, Jack Spain, Ina Russell Stacy, Betty Talmadge, Strom Thurmond, Robert Troutman Jr., Samuel E. Vandiver Jr., Cash Williams.
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Notes
ABBREVIATIONS
AA-S |
Austin American-Statesman |
AC |
Atlanta Constitution |
ACWD |
Ann C. Whitman Diary |
APSR |
American Political Science Review |
AWNS |
Ann Whitman Name Series |
AWPP |
Alvin Wirtz Personal Papers |
AWRP |
A. Willis Robertson Papers |
CCC-T |
Corpus Christi Caller-Times |
CR |
Congressional Record |
DDEL |
Dwight D. Eisenhower Library |
DDEPP |
Dwight D. Eisenhower Public Papers of the Presidents |
DMN |
Dallas Morning News |
DT-H |
Dallas Times-Herald |
FDRL |
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library |
FWS-T |
Fort Worth Star-Telegram |
HC |
Houston Chronicle |
HHLP |
Herbert H. Lehman Papers, Columbia University |
HP |
Houston Post |
HSTL |
Harry S Truman Library |
JNYA |
Johnson National Youth Administration Papers |
JSP |
Johnson Senate Papers |
KGP |
Katharine Graham Papers |
LAT |
Los Angeles Times |
LBJA |
Lyndon Baines Johnson Archives |
LBJA |
CF LBJA Congressional File |
LBJA |
FN LBJA Famous Names File |
LBJA |
SF LBJA Subject File |
LBJA |
SN LBJA Selected Names File |
LBJL |
Lyndon Baines Johnson Library |
LC |
Library of Congress |
LLM |
Legislative Leaders Meetings |
LMS |
Legislative Meetings Series |
LOP |
Leland Olds Papers |
MP |
MacNeil Papers |
NA |
National Archives |
NAACPP |
NAACP Papers |
NARA |
National Archives and Records Administration |
NYHT |
New York Herald Tribune |
NYP |
New York Post |
NYT |
New York Times |
NYWT |
New York World Telegram |
OH |
Oral History |
PPCF |
Pre-Presidential Confidential File |
PPMF |
Pre-Presidential Memo File |
RBRL |
Richard B. Russell Library |
RP |
Rauh Papers |
SAE |
San Antonio Express |
SEP |
Saturday Evening Post |
SHO |
Senate Historical Office |
SLP-D |
St. Louis Post-Dispatch |
SP |
Steele Papers |
SPF |
Senate Political Files |
SRL |
Sam Rayburn Library |
USN&WR |
U.S. News & World Report |
UVaL |
University of Virginia Library |
WHFN |
White House Famous Names File |
WN |
Washington News |
WP |
Washington Post and Times Herald |
WS |
Washington Star |
WSJ |
Wall Street Journal |
W-SJ |
Winston-Salem Journal |
WT |
Washington Times |
Introduction: The Presence of Fire
Barbour County episode: “Testimony of Margaret Frost, Eufaula, Barbour, Ala.,” U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Hearing Held in Montgomery, Alabama, Dec. 8, 1958, pp. 262–67; Ina Caro and Robert Caro interviews with David Frost and Margaret Frost; see also Testimony of George R. Morris and Andrew Jones, pp. 248–262. “There is”:U.S. Senate, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, Eighty-fifth Congress, First Session, on S. 83, And Amendment 2.S.83, S. 427, p. 239. See also Strong, Registration of Voters in Alabama; U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, With Liberty and Justice for All, pp. 59–75, 84–95.
“Back then”: Hugh Sidey, “The Presidency,” Time, Dec. 15, 1985.
240: Hurst interview.
“If you’re”: Humphrey, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 166. For Humphrey describing Johnson’s gesture in slightly different words, see his OH II, pp. 10, 11, and OH III, pp. 9, 10.
“For all”: Steele to Williamson, June 9, 1955; March 4, 1958; SP; Steele interview. “It was”: Sidey, Personal Presidency, p. 45. “He signaled”: Sidey interview.
“I do understand”: Johnson, quoted in McPherson, Political Education, p. 450. “Would explain”: Jackson, quoted in Reston, Deadline, pp. 304, 305. “I’m just”: Johnson, quoted in Dickerson, Among Those Present, pp. 154–55.
“The South’s unending”: White, Citadel, p. 68.
1. The Desks of the Senate
Webster’s reply to Hayne: Wiltse, ed., Papers of Daniel Webster, pp. 349–93 (Reported Version); Byrd, The Senate, Vol. I, pp. 109–15; Vol. III, pp. 3, 4.
“Coarse homespun”; “White, triumphant”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 111. “Could shake”; “great cannon”: Emerson, quoted in Schlesinger, Age of Jackson, p. 84. Smile faded: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 113. Tears; “even Calhoun”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 114. “Thrilled”: Josephy, The Congress, p. 178.
“Embellished”: Wiltse, ed., Papers of Daniel Webster, p. 286. Edition followed: Wiltse, ed., p. 286. “Has probably”; “No speech”; “raised”; “part”: Peterson, The Great Triumvirate, pp. 179–80.
“The Founding”: Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, p. 79. “The turbulence”: Madison, Notes of Debates (1920 ed.), p. 34. “Real”: Madison, Debates, (1987 ed.), pp. 193–94; Hamilton, Federalist Papers, p. 387. “A necessary”: Madison, Debates (1987 ed.), p. 194. “To be guarded”; “first”: Madison, pp. 194–95, 193.
“The use”: Madison, Debates (1920 ed.), p. 34, quoted in Haynes, The Senate of the United States, Vol. I, p. 14. “An anchor”: Hamilton, p. 385. “Why”: Josephy, p. 46.
“Numerous”: Hamilton, pp. 379, 380. When Wilson: Haynes, Vol. I, p. 11. “The people”; “the evils”: Madison, Debates (1920 ed.), p. 71, quoted in Haynes, Vol. I, p. 11.
“Filtration”; “refinement”: Madison, Debates (1920 ed.), p. 69, quoted in Haynes, Vol. I, p. 13. “Change of men”; what good: Hamilton, pp. 380, 381. “The object”; “hold”: Madison, p. 34, quoted in Haynes, Vol. I, p. 16. “It was so”: White, Citadel, pp. 33–34. “Where else”: Hamilton, No. 65, p. 441.
“The senatorial trust”: Hamilton, p. 376. “As”: Haynes, Vol. I, p. 15.
Judiciary Act: Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 14, 17; Josephy, pp. 10, 67–69. “Almost an appendage”: Josephy, p. 67.
The desks: Description of Senate Chamber from Adams, History, pp. 454–55.
“Better calculated”; “such success”: Adams, pp. 437, 438. “To impeachment”: Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, p. 30. Republicans succeeded: Josephy, p. 134; Malone, Jefferson: First Term, pp. 148, 460–64.
“Outrageously”: Garraty, American Nation, p. 220. “Towered”: Malone, p. 464.
“Nothing more”: John Quincy Adams, Memoirs, Vol. I, pp. 321–22, quoted in Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, p. 30. Endangered: Garraty, p. 220.
“Aged patriot”: Harper, quoted in Elsmere, Justice Samuel Chase, pp. 285–86. Description of the voting: Adams, pp. 462, 463; Elsmere, pp. 293–306. White House pressure: Elsmere, p. 295, says, “The President had attempted discreetly throughout the trial to aid the prosecution. Guests at several dinners included Aaron Burr, some of the managers, and the more important senators or those whose votes were in doubt.”
“Crooked gun”; offered two: Elsmere, p. 217; Adams, p. 450. “Almost”: Samuel Taggert, quoted in Elsmere, p. 269. “Fresh”; “a stillness”: Josephy, p. 135. Burr’s speech: Baker, The Senate, “Reading No. 16: Aaron Burr’s Farewell to the Senate, March 2, 1805,” pp. 148–49. “The Senate”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 48.
“Ideal: Josephy, p. 176. And see Baker, The Senate, p. 33. Ridiculous; “within”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 86. Houston’s clothing: Josephy, p. 203. Bluntly: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 177.
Buzzing: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 122; Josephy, p. 179. “Disunion”; “within”: Peterson, pp. 216, 221. On the day: Peterson, pp. 222–23. The most difficult: Peterson, p. 409. “Commanding”: Schlesinger, Age of Jackson, pp. 242–43. “His voice”: Matthews, Oratory and Orators, p. 312, quoted in Peterson, pp. 408, 409. How much; “the arch”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 123. “A caged”; “the impious”: Peterson, p. 222.
“Hypnotize”; “depopulate”; “white gloves”; “No lover”; “Stepping”: Peterson, pp. 167, 379; Matthews, Oratory and Orators, Van Deusen, Life of Henry Clay, passim; Josephy, p. 200. “So penetrating”: Matthews, p. 38. “Made”: Schlesinger, Age of Jackson, p. 83. Clay’s speech: Peterson, pp. 227–30.
“Such was”: William T. Hammett to F. W. White, Feb. 12, 1833, quoted in Peterson, p. 227. “Day and night”; “Would generally”; “ornaments”: Peterson, pp. 232–34.
“He spoke”: Peterson, p. 457. “If any”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 188. Visiting Webster: Kennedy, Profiles in Courage, pp. 61–62, 65–67. “Rose”: Van Deusen, p. 399. “I implore”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 189. “When”: National Era, July 18, 1850, quoted in Peterson, p. 472. “Seized”: Peterson, p. 459. “What”: New York Herald, Jan. 31, Feb. 8, 1850, quoted in Peterson, p. 458. “Emaciated”: Charles Wiltse, ed., John C. Calhoun, Vol. III, quoted in Byrd, Vol. I, p. 190. Sitting at his desk: Richard M. Ketchum, “Faces from the Past—XXII,” American Heritage, Oct. 1967. “The greatest”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 190. “Not since”: Peterson, p. 462. Webster’s speech: Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 191–92. Their last exchange:Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 193, 194; Congressional Globe, 31/1, Appendix, pp. 271, 273. “If I”: Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, Vol. III, p. 475, quoted in Byrd, Vol. I, p. 194; Congressional Globe, 31/1, p. 520.
“A higher”: Garraty, p. 386. “Let him fire!”: Baker, The Senate, p. 48. “A truly”: “the mighty”: Peterson, p. 495.
The fuse: Josephy, p. 210. Sumner’s caning: Burns, Vineyard of Liberty, p. 552.
Bought the time: Baker, The Senate, p. 33. “Perhaps”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 200. “Beginning”: Peterson, p. 234. “The Senate contains”: Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. I, pp. 204, 205. “The only”; “the most”: Lindsay Rogers, “The Gentlemen and Their Club,” NYT Book Review, Jan. 13, 1957.
“It only”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 227. “If people”: Josephy, p. 233.
“Andrew Johnson”; “Johnson’s opponents”: Schlesinger, Age of Jackson, p. 73. “The condition”: Kennedy, pp. 134–35. “Let me”; “the question”; “fearful”: Kennedy, pp. 131, 148, 135. “His level”; “he has”: Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 241, 283. “The country”: Kennedy, p. 145. Grimes’ vote: “We have”; “I shall”; Kennedy, p. 150. The removal:Schlesinger, Age of Jackson, p. 74.
“One of”: Garraty, quoted in Josephy, p. 249. “After”; “agreed”; “unspoken”: Josephy, pp. 247–50. Numbered men: Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 336–37; Garraty, p. 684. “Fount”; “more”; “unequaled”: Josephy, pp. 247, 250. “Senate Supreme”: Josephy, Chapter 6. “A government”: Adams, Democracy, p. 28.
“A social”: Josephson, The Politicos, p. 327. “The members”: Josephy, p. 269; Josephson, p. 445. “The best”; “to keep”: Josephy, p. 267. “Behind”; “but to whisper”: Josephson, p. 446.
Great care; “dissidents”: Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 365–66. “Operated”: Josephy, p. 206.
“Was not”: Josephy, p. 269. “Does not”; “singularly”: Garraty, p. 683. “Not a single”: Garraty, p. 696.
“The Bosses”: Keppler’s cartoon is reproduced in Josephy, pp. 254–55. “The Senate”: Ostrogorski, Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties, quoted in Baker, The Senate, p. 207.
“With relish”: Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, p. 80. “As a servant”: Wilson, Congressional Government, pp. 49, 59, 233–34. Most secretaries: Twenty of the twenty-four secretaries of state between 1811 and 1892 had previously been senators (Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, p. 80).
“I have”: Garraty, p. 722. Beveridge, Hoar speeches: Byrd, pp. 360–62.
“The international”: The discussion of the rise of the executive agreement is based on Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, pp. 79–92. The quotations are from these pages.
Leaving New York harbor: Burns, Workshop, p. 448. “To found”: Burns, Workshop, p. 450. “Tended”: Garraty, p. 790. In favor: Burns, Workshop, p. 458; Garraty, p. 792. Had been known: Smith, When the Cheering Stopped, p. 55; Thomas A. Bailey, “Woodrow Wilson Wouldn’t Yield,” American Heritage, June 1957. “I never”; “sinister”:Burns, Workshop, p. 459. “Shifty”: Smith, p. 55. “Pygmy-minded”: Thomas A. Bailey, “Woodrow Wilson Wouldn’t Yield,” American Heritage, June 1957. Wilson refused: Smith, p. 55.
“The thing”: Josephy, p. 329. “(It) has never”; “war can”: Lodge, quoted in Widenor, “Henry Cabot Lodge: The Astute Parliamentarian,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, p. 43. “At weakening”: Lodge, The Senate of the United States, quoted in Widenor, in First Among Equals, p. 42. “At the core”; “faith”: Burns,Workshop, pp. 459, 468. “Who”: Josephy, p. 329. “Round Robin”; “The Senate”: Thomas A. Bailey, “Woodrow Wilson Wouldn’t Yield,” American Heritage, June 1957. “Anyone”: Garraty, p. 792. “The gentlemen”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 424.
“No one”: W. Stull Holt, quoted in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, p. 44. “The only”: Burns, Workshop, p. 458. “Reverberated”: Burns, Workshop, p. 457. Hearings: Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 424–26; Thomas A. Bailey, “Woodrow Wilson Wouldn’t Yield,” American Heritage, June 1957. “You may call me”; if Lodge: Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 425–26.
“Mustering”: Burns, Workshop, pp. 461–62. “Where am I”: Smith, When the Cheering Stopped, p. 59. “Appeal to Caesar”: Smith, p. 58. “I have it”: Burns, p. 465. An epic: Burns, pp. 463–65. “By crusading”: Burns, p. 465.“For decades”; “ultimately”: Burns, pp. 466–67.
The “Senate Four”: Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 371–87. Sitting: A picture of them on the porch is in Byrd, Vol. I, p. 372. “The four bosses”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 372. Across Long Island Sound: Josephson, President Makers, pp. 123–24. “I want to be sure”: Josephson, p. 150. While: Josephy, pp. 302–04. “Sound and wise”: Josephson, p. 125. “The current”:Josephson, p. 168. “Paramount”; “we’ll get you”: Josephy, p. 305. Did not require: Garraty, pp. 750–52.
Since he was; “drawn”: Josephy, pp. 314–15; Morison, Commager, and Leuchtenburg, Growth of the American Republic, Vol. II, p. 322. “Prairie fire”: Josephson, President Makers, p. 299. Summoned: Garraty, p. 756. “Dictator”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 381. “Where”: Byrd, p. 383. Progressives’ fight: Byrd, pp. 382–87; Josephy, pp. 315–16; Garraty, p. 757. “Consummation”: Josephy, p. 316.
2. “Great Things Are Underway”
Inaugural Address: Burns, Workshop, p. 384; Morison et al., Growth of the American Republic, Vol. II, pp. 425–28. For a century: Byrd, The Senate, Vol. I, pp. 409–10; Josephson, President Makers, p. 476. As was the Leader: Walter J. Oleszek, “John Worth Kern: Portrait of a Floor Leader,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, pp. 20, 23–25, 27–33. Kept attacking: Morison et al., pp. 431–38; Josephson, pp. 478–79. Dramatic appeal: Burns, Workshop, p. 385; Link, The New Freedom, p. 187. “Think of it”: Burns, Workshop, pp. 386–87. Sitting: Josephson, p. 479. During it transformed: Garraty, American Nation, pp. 761–63; Josephson, pp. 489–94; Josephy, The Congress, pp. 320–22.
“Like a deck”: Russell, Shadow of Blooming Grove, p. 380. “Will not try”: William C. Widenor, “Henry Cabot Lodge: The Astute Parliamentarian,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, p. 51. “Sign”; “Bouncing”: Josephy, pp. 338, 389.
“Frankly”: Josephy, p. 338.
Raised duties: Schlesinger, Crisis of the Old Order, p. 164. “The product”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 447. “No doubt”: Burns, Workshop, p. 499.
Mail sacks: Caro, Path, pp. 240–46. Little help: Caro, pp. 246–52.
“COME”: Garraty, p. 839. “They know”: Schlesinger, Coming of the New Deal, p. 13. “Roosevelt had”: Josephy, pp. 347–48.
“This should”: Burns, Crosswinds, p. 26. Norris had fought: Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 435–36. The discussion of Norris and the TVA is also from Schlesinger, Coming of the New Deal, pp. 320–34.
“Magna”: Josephy, p. 350. “Never lifted”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 474. Are actually monuments: As Schlesinger writes (Coming of the New Deal, pp. 554–55), “The contemporary cliché about ‘rubberstamp’ Congresses should not conceal the fact that the national legislature at this time … on crucial occasions itself assumed the legislative initiative…. It played a vital and consistently underestimated role in shaping the New Deal. A number of important measures … were entirely of congressional origination.”
“An all but”; “The smiling”: Alsop and Catledge, 168 Days, pp. 48, 22. Meeting at the White House; “Boys”: Alsop and Catledge, pp. 65–67; Baker, Back to Back, pp. 3–8, 17; Josephy, p. 351.
Holding his nose; “the people”: Alsop and Catledge, pp. 69, 184. “Because”: Baker, Back to Back, p. 65. Sumners refused: Baker, Back to Back, pp. 19, 65. “The shabby”: Alsop and Catledge, p. 10. “Here is”: NYT, March 5, 1937. “You who”: NYT, March 10, 1937.
“Was also”: Alsop and Catledge, p. 87. “On board”: Corcoran interview. “Kentucky’s”: Baker, Back to Back, p. 63. “Prelude”: Alsop and Catledge, p. 65. “I replied”; “Received”: Baker, Back to Back, p. 68. Judiciary hearings: Josephy, p. 352. “It is easy”; “The great”: Alsop and Catledge, pp. 107, 177.
“You were”: Alsop and Catledge, p. 257. “May not”; “rather”; O’Mahoney unexpectedly: Alsop and Catledge, pp. 155, 195. Wheeler’s refusal; “I’m going”; “Save”; Norris’ question: Baker, Back to Back, pp. 237–39; Alsop and Catledge, pp. 100–01, 95.
“The high, wide”; “Robinson and”: “All”: Alsop and Catledge, pp. 254–55, 258–59, 262. Freshmen: Baker, Back to Back, pp. 255–56.
“Like a”: Alsop and Catledge, p. 277. “Do you”: Fisher, Cactus Jack, pp. 133–34. “The Supreme Court”; let: Alsop and Catledge, pp. 293–95; Baker, Back to Back, pp. 272–73.
“In a way”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 477. Headlines: Garraty, p. 851. “The sense”; “Marked”: Garraty, p. 849.
“Congressional procedure”: Life, June 18, 1945. Three hundred: Henry F. Pringle, “Can Congress Save Itself?” SEP, Oct. 6, 1945. Six persons: Sen. 81A-F15, “Rules & Administration (402), Various Subjects & Correspondence,” NA. Smallness of staffs; lack of expertise: Galloway, Congress at the Crossroads; Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 537–47; Henry F. Pringle, “Can Congress Save Itself?” SEP, Oct. 6, 1945. Four of seventy-six: William Hard, “Congress’ Biggest Job,” Reader’s Digest, Oct. 1942. Still three: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 552. “There could be”: Wilcox OH, SHO, p. 35. “With occasional”: Floyd M. Riddick, “Third Session of the Seventy-Sixth Congress, Jan. 3, 1940 to Jan. 3, 1941,”APSR, April 1941.” Unable to create it: From the turn of the century through 1946, 19 of the most significant pieces of legislation that became law were substantially created by the executive branch, 29 were joint products of the executive and Congress, and 35 were essentially congressional in origin. (Seven had non-governmental origins.) But, as Raymond Moley wrote in 1946, “if we consider only those laws among the 90 which were passed after 1932, … 70 per cent have been executive products,” only 30 percent were created in Congress. “Congress,” he wrote, “has lost most of its effective power over the content of legislation” (Raymond Moley, “Can a Location Run Congress?”Newsweek, May 6, 1946). “Technical equipment”: Corcoran, quoted in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, p. 137. 600, eight employees: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 543.
Barkley’s lectern: Donald A. Ritchie, “Alben W. Barkley: The President’s Man,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, pp. 127–62. “The damned”: MacNeil interview. MacLeish’s proposal: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 438.
Pragmatic considerations: Interviews with Richard Baker, MacNeil, Ritchie, Steele. And see Byrd, Vol. I, p. 544. “A cadre”; A “suspicion”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 544. “A deep, vested”: Strout, New Republic, March 18, 1946.
“Senator Borah”: Coolidge, quoted in Byrd, Vol. I, p. 483. “It seemed”; Coolidge proposed: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 483. World Court: Garraty, p. 859. “I do not think the Senate would take favorable action on any such proposal, and unless the requirements of the Senate resolution are met, I can see no prospect of this country adhering to the Court,” Coolidge said. Japan invaded Manchuria: Leuchtenberg, FDR and the New Deal, p. 212. Shadowed: Josephy, pp. 348–49. In 1933: Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, p. 96. In 1935: Garraty, p. 865; Josephy, pp. 359–60. The President urged: Leuchtenberg, pp. 215–16. “Señor Ab Jap”; “To hell”: Leuchtenberg, p. 216. “Thank God!”; that same year: Schlesinger, The Politics, pp. 5, 270. 1936: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 489; Garraty, p. 866. So Congress passed: Josephy, p. 360. “While German”: Garraty, p. 866.
“With every”: Leuchtenberg, p. 224. “No”; “quarantine”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 490. Nye and Borah: Borah said that “this running around all over the world trying to placate every situation and adjust every controversy” was “not the business of democracy.” A number of isolationist congressmen called for Roosevelt’s impeachment. “It’s a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you’re trying to lead, and find no one there,” Roosevelt said privately (Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 490, 491). “The Atlantic”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 491.
“We are not going”: Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, p. 100. “Gad”: Leuchtenberg, p. 287.
“I’ve fired”; “Well, Captain”: Leuchtenberg, p. 292. Not until: Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 491, 492. 84 percent: Leuchtenberg, p. 293.
Planes could: Leuchtenberg, p. 299. “A step”; Senate amended: Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, pp. 105, 106. Roosevelt, fearing: Schlesinger, pp. 105–09; Garraty, p. 868.
“The new Triple A”: Burns, Soldier of Freedom, p. 44. “I had”: Josephy, p. 362.
Nye was speaking; “Twenty years”; for once: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 495. “The emasculation”: Lippman, U.S. Foreign Policy, p. 42. “A bunch”: Bohlen, Witness to History, p. 210. “To saving”: Wilkie, quoted in Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, pp. 127. Mary: Schlesinger, p. 99.
“Congress quickly”: Josephy, pp. 364–68. “All”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 539. An irrelevancy: Baker, The Senate, pp. 86–87; Josephy, p. 364. “In the event”: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 540.
Bitterness: Josephy, p. 364. “A real”: Drury, A Senate Journal, p. 87 [Feb. 22, 1944].
Drury’s A Senate Journal: The quotations are on pp. 156–57, 144, 125, 228, 34, 33, 78–80. Pensions, Bundles: Byrd, Vol. I, p. 539. “I never”: NYT magazine, May 25, 1947.
3. Seniority and the South
Not even mentioned: Haynes, Senate of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 294–300; George Goodwin Jr., “The Seniority System in Congress,” APSR, June 1959, pp. 413–29. A child: Josephy, Congress, pp. 205–06.
In December: Baker, Senate, p. 45; Byrd, Senate, Vol. IV, p. 514;Chandler, The Natural Superiority of Southern Politicians, p. 178; Josephy, p. 206. “Once appointed”: Galloway, Congress at the Crossroads, p. 188; Matthews, U.S. Senators, pp. 160–75. “Are not awarded”; “once”; “Perquisite”; “ineluctable”: White, Citadel, pp. 183–84.“Assignments”: Byrd, Senate, Vol. I, p. 365.
Governed every: Baker, Barr, MacNeil, Muskie, Proxmire, Riddick, Ritchie, St. Claire, Shuman, Steele, Yarborough interviews. Where senators sat: Galloway, Legislative Process, p. 368. “Proceeds”: White, Citadel, pp. 196–97. When a subcommittee: Matthews, pp. 162–63. “What chance”: Haynes, Vol. I, p. 334. Almost invariably; “tremendous powers”: Haynes, Vol. I, p. 333. “Too often”: Humphrey interview.
Assignment of office suites: “Memorandum—Confidential,” St. Claire to Jenner, Jan. 13, 1957; Hayden to Chapman, Hayden to Flanders, both Nov. 29, 1948; Martin to Seidel, Dec. 27, 1948—all from Sen. 81A-F15, “Rules & Administration (402), Various Subjects & Correspondence,” NA; Galloway, Legislative Process, pp. 367–68. At dinners:Galloway, p. 367.
Formulas: Byrd, Vol. IV, p. 189; Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 413. “One may”: White, Citadel, p. 183. “Passage”: White, p. 82.
“Did not rise”: Matthews, p. 93. “Any fledgling”: Albright, WP, Feb. 25, 1951. “Freshmen”: Matthews, p. 94. “That son”: Matthews, p. 93. “Skeptical”; “back home”: Matthews, p. 103; Muskie interview. (Matthews does not identify the “former Governor,” but it appears to be John Pastore of Rhode Island.) “Reached national fame”:White,Citadel, p. 82.
In 1949: Congressional Directory, 81/1, March 1949. Average age; Hiram Johnson shuffling in: Drury, Senate Journal, p. 357. “The ghost”: Drury, p. 381.
The real powers: Galloway, Legislative Process, p. 289; White, Citadel, pp. 179–80, 189–97; Byrd, Vol. I, pp. 295, 649. Could not even: Senate Rule XXVI, Riddick, Senate Procedure, p. 315; White, Citadel, pp. 189–90. No chairman: Three chairmen, Robert M. La Follette (R-Wis.), Edwin F. Ladd (R-N.D.), and Albert B. Cummins (R-Iowa), had been removed from committee chairmanships in 1924 by the Republican caucus, the first two because of their support for the Progressive Party, Cummins because he had been responsible for controversial railroad legislation that the GOP wanted repealed. Prior to 1924, no committee chairman had been removed since 1871, when Charles Sumner was removed because of GOP anger over his opposition to President Grant’s proposed annexation of the Dominican Republic (Byrd, Vol. IV, pp. 612–13). “‘Old Bulls’”: Barr interview. “A living”: Drury, p. 36. “He could neither”: George Goodwin Jr., “The Seniority System in Congress,” APSR, June 1959, p. 420. “From the guarded”:Drury, p. 364. “In his day”: Drury, p. 3. Would pound: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 286. “In reply: Baker, American in Washington, pp. 143–44. Five other: The five, and their committees and ages were: Tom Connally, Foreign Relations, age 72; Walter George, Finance, 71; Pat McCarran, Judiciary, 73; Carl Hayden, Rules, 72; Elmer Thomas, Agriculture, 73.
“It has”: Lindley, “Washington Tides,” Newsweek, Nov. 29, 1948. “The utilization”; “flaunts”: Young, This Is Congress, pp. 108–09. “Gerontocracy”; “adherence”: WP, Nov. 8, 1948. “The accident”: Galloway, Congress at the Crossroads, p. 190. “The seniority line”; “if either”: Oliver, quoted in Galloway, p. 191. “A protection”:Reedy OH VIII, p. 8. “A new”: George Goodwin Jr., “The Seniority System in Congress,” APSR, June 1959, p. 420.
“Nobody”; “would no more”: White, Citadel, p. 184. “The longer”: George Goodwin Jr., “The Seniority System in Congress,” APSR, June 1959, p. 420 fn. A part: WP, n.d.
“If you”: “A History of the Russell Senate Office Building,” SHO, pp. 7, 8. “Never”; “a thousand”: NYT, March 14, 1909. The man: Elliott Woods to Charles Moore, June 22, 1903, quoted in Curtis Blake, “The Architecture of Carrere and Hastings,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, 1976, p. 287. Descriptions of building and architects’ philosophy: Curtis Blake, “The Architecture of Carrere and Hastings,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, 1976, passim; Mechlen, “New Public Buildings,” The Architectural Review, July 1908, pp. 180–89. Senate Historical Office: “A History of the Russell Senate Office Building,” SHO; Jean-Pierre Isbouts, “Carrere and Hastings,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Kunsthistorisch Institut, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1980; “Cornerstone Laid for Senate’s New Building,” WP, Aug. 1, 1906; “The Senate’s Office—Cost Five Millions,” NYT, March 14, 1909; Senate Historical Office, “The Russell Office Building,” S. Pub 105–57; Federal Writers’ Project, Washington: City and Capital, pp. 282–85.
“Detract from the effect”: WP, Aug. 1, 1906. “More”: Curtis Blake, “The Architecture of Carrere and Hastings,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, 1976, p. 288. “Elegance”: Jean-Pierre Isbouts, “Carrere and Hastings,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Kunsthistorisch Institut, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1980, p. 184. “Color would”:Carrere to Woods, May 7, 1906, quoted in Blake, p. 293.
“It was”: MacNeil interview.
McClellan’s boast: Baker, Friend and Foe, p. 93. “You can tread”: Robert Albright, “Glimpses,” WP, April 8, 1951. “Dropping in”: Stranigan interview. “When he got”: Ballard interview. “If you saw”: Trice interview. “He just”: BeLieu interview. “Where else”: Blair Moody, “The United States Senate,” Holiday, Feb. 1954.
Talked in private: This specific dialogue from Rules Committee meetings is found in U.S. Senate, Report of Proceedings: Hearings Held Before the Committee on Rules and Administration, S. Res. 17, Executive Session, Jan. 24, 1951, Ward & Paul, official reporters, pp. 4, 22.
“You just didn’t barge in”: Dompierre interview.
“Of every single”: Josephy, p. 206. “Human institutions”: Baker, American in Washington, p. 46. 7 of the 9; “on the other”: White, Citadel, p. 70.
The three most powerful: Matthews rates these three first for the period his book covers, 1947 through 1956 (pp. 149–50). Horn, covering the period from 1957 to 1966, notes the “agreement in both periods on the most prestigious, although in his ranking, Appropriations and Foreign Relations are the most prestigious, Finance was tied by Armed Services” (Unused Power, p. 10). “Not especially relevant”: White, Citadel, p. 180. In 1949, southerners were chairmen not only of Appropriations (Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee), Foreign Relations (Tom Connally of Texas), and Finance (Walter George of Georgia), but of Banking (Burnet Maybank of South Carolina), Expenditures in the Executive Departments (John McClellan of Arkansas), and Post Office and Civil Service (Olin Johnston of South Carolina). The committees chaired in 1949 by firm southern allies were Agriculture (Elmer Thomas of Oklahoma), Armed Services (Millard Tydings of Maryland), Commerce (Ed Johnson of Colorado), Judiciary (Pat McCarran of Nevada), Labor (Elbert Thomas of Utah), and Public Works (Dennis Chavez of New Mexico). Joseph O’Mahoney of Wyoming, the chairman of Interior, was not a southern ally.
“No matter”; “latitude”; “unchallenged”: Horn, Unused Power, pp. 16, 10, 37. “Interlocking”: An unidentified senator quoted in Horn, p. 100.
“A modest”: Donald A. Ritchie, “Watkins, Charles Lee,” in Williams, ed., Arkansas Biography, p. 303.
“Because of”: White, Citadel, p. 74. “I recommend”: Ritchie interview.
In 1604: Galloway, The Legislative Process in Congress, p. 560. For many years: Burdette, Filibustering in the Senate, passim; Galloway, p. 560. In 1872: Galloway, p. 569. “A little group”: Byrd, The Senate, Vol. II, p. 122. “Whose stated purpose”; a loophole: Galloway, p. 561; White, p. 61; Riddick, Zweben interviews. “The reading”:Rule III, Standing Rules of the Senate, para. 1; Riddick, Senate Procedure, p. 713; Riddick, Zweben interviews. Harrison sauntered: Haynes, Senate of the United States, p. 411; Galloway, p. 561; Riddick, Zweben interviews. “The cloture rule was safe, because it was its own defense; you could not get to it to change it, without using it” (McPherson, A Political Education, p. 136).
“To most peculiar”: All following quotes are from White, Citadel, pp. 68–72.
All remarks: Riddick, Senate Procedure, p. 623. “A safeguard”; “There is”: CR, 61/1, pp. 2431–32, quoted in Haynes, Senate of the United States, Vol. I, p. 387. “If you think”: Barkley, That Reminds Me, p. 255. “No Senator”; “offensively”: Rule XIX, Standing Rules of the Senate, paras. 2, 3. “When such matter”: Riddick, pp. 503–04, 591.“When a senator”: Rule XIX, Standing Rules, paras. 4, 5; Riddick, pp. 588–89. “To be called”: Ritchie interview. “Gracefully”: White, Citadel, p. 76. “As elaborately”: Baker, American in Washington, p. 144.
“Archaically”: White, Citadel, pp. 72, 73. “Was peculiar”; “chat”: White, pp. 68–70.
“A oneness”; “for all”: White, Citadel, pp. 74, 78. “Walk as a body: A vivid picture of the southerners marching into the Chamber is in Drury, A Senate Journal, p. 162. “The South”: Steele interview. Had allies: Baker, American in Washington, pp. 154–56; Shuman OH, interview.
“We seldom”: Drury, p. 196. “Hell”: Drury, p. 169. Leaving”; “warning”: Drury, p. 167. “Regardless”: Drury, pp. 138–41.
“Happily”: McCullough, Truman, p. 468. Homebuilding: Phillips, The 1940s, p. 347. In Chicago alone, McCullough says, “there were reportedly 100,000 homeless veterans” (Truman, p. 470). Other Truman programs: Phillips, pp. 347–49.
Went further on race: Phillips, The 1940s, pp. 346–47; McCullough, p. 586. Thirty-one: Phillips, p. 347. “Congressmen”: Time, Dec. 24, 1945.
“Rewriting”: USN & WR, March 15, 1946.
The Senate stood: Baker, American in Washington, pp. 151–52; Byrd, Vol. I, p. 586; Josephy, p. 366. “My very”; “when the mob”: McCullough, pp. 588, 589. Special message: Phillips, The 1940s, pp. 349–51. “The crime”: McCullough, p. 587. “A lynching”: Donovan, Conflict and Crisis, p. 354. Jefferson-Jackson Dinner: McCullough, p. 588.
“The inefficiency”: Strout, New Republic, March 18, 1946. “The life”; “the people”: Henry F. Pringle, “Can Congress Save Itself?” SEP, Oct. 6, 1945. “The Senate’s”: Baker, American in Washington, p. 142. “For generations”; “breaking down”: Fortune, Feb. 1952. “For years the House diligently”: Baker, American in Washington, p. 153.“Never”: Matthews, p. 6. “I’ve never”: Barkley, quoted in Pathfinder, Feb. 11, 1948.
“Run by”: McCullough, p. 661. “No, we’re”: Manchester, Glory, p. 459. “A mob”; “Majority to hades!”; “we are”; “Dear Dago”; “It was cloture”: I. F. Stone, “Swastika over the Senate,” The Nation, Feb. 9, 1946. “I don’t like you”: NYT, Sept. 5, 1977. “Ten thousand”; “Typically”; “There is”: I. F. Stone, “Swastika over the Senate,”The Nation, Feb. 9, 1946. “This is”: I. F. Stone, The Nation, 1948.
“Communistic”; “un-American”: McCullough, Truman, p. 667. “There’s not”: Bass and Thompson, Ol’ Strom, p. 188.
4. A Hard Path
The material in this chapter is drawn from Volumes I and II of The Years of Lyndon Johnson.
5. The Path Ahead
The description of Johnson and the circle of young New Dealers is based on the author’s interviews with the following members of that circle: Benjamin V. Cohen, Thomas G. Corcoran, Abe Fortas, Arthur (Tex) Goldschmidt, Elizabeth and James H. Rowe, and Elizabeth Wickenden.
The description of Johnson’s relationship with his office staff is based on the author’s interviews with the following members of that staff: Roland Bibolet, Yolanda Boozer, Horace W. Busby, John Connally, Nadine Brammer Eckhardt, Ashton Gonella, Jack Gwyn, Charles Herring, Walter Jenkins, Sam Houston Johnson, Eugene Latimer, Margaret Mayer (the same Margaret Mayer who was also, at different times, a journalist), J. J. (Jake) Pickle, Mary Rather, George Reedy, James H. Rowe, Gerald W. Siegel, O. J. Weber, Warren Woodward, and Mary-Louise Glass Young.
It is also based on the author’s interviews with the following persons who observed Johnson’s relationship with his staff: Richard Bolling, Thomas G. Corcoran, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Bryce Harlow, Welly Hopkins, Joe M. Kilgore, Frank McCulloch, Daniel McGillicuddy, Dale Miller, Edward Puls, Benjamin H. Read, Harry Schnibbe, Howard Shuman, Stuart Symington, George Tames, and Harold Young. And with journalists Rowland Evans, Neil MacNeil, Sarah McClendon, Hugh Sidey, John Steele, and Alfred Steinberg.
It is based as well on oral history interviews, many of them with the same persons, conducted by the Lyndon B. Johnson Library, the Senate Historical Office, and other institutions; on the intraoffice memoranda found in many different files in the Lyndon B. Johnson Library; and on books and magazine articles cited individually below when they are quoted directly.
Bunton clan: Caro, Path, Chapters 1 and 3. “Commanding”: Caro, p. 4. “If you”: Cox, quoted in Caro, p. 3. “Afterward”: Davie, Foreign Observer’s Viewpoint, p. 8. “Exceptional”: Davie, The Observer, July 18, 1965. Santa Claus incident: Busby interview.
“He just”: John Skuce, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 213. “A mountain”: Benjamin Read interview. Weight: Dr. Willis Hurst interview. “You could”: Tames interview. “Fun”: Elizabeth Rowe, in Caro, Path, p. 453. “Never a dull”: Fortas, in Caro, pp. 454–55. Take his ball: Edwards, SHJ, in Caro, p. 71. Sleeping at table: Eliot Janeway, Elizabeth Rowe interviews. “If he’d”: Redford, in Caro, p. 76.
“Always repeating”: SHJ interview. “What convinces”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 124. “Revving up”: Clark interview. “Got bigger”: Donald Oresman interview. “Let it fly”: Goodwin, Remembering America, p. 258. “I want to”: Sidey, “Way Out There in Vietnam, He Can’t See ’Em or Hear ’Em,” Life, June 3, 1966.
Pissing: Lucas interview. Urinating: Bolling, Busby, Reedy interviews. “Jumbo”: Caro, Path, p. 155; SHJ interview. “And shaking”: Walton interview. “Have you”; “crude”: Bolling interview; Bolling, quoted in Miller, p. 541.
Relationship with Latimer, Jones: Caro, Path, pp. 229–40. “Apparently”: Goodwin, Remembering America, pp. 256–58. “Lubriderm”; inhaler: For example, Busby, Gonella, Mary-Louise Young interviews.
Harsh lesson: Caro, Means, p. 128. Trying for Appropriations: Caro, Path, p. 541. “The only”: Garner, quoted in Caro, Path, p. 317.
“No Democrat”: Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 205. The plaque: Steinberg, Sam Rayburn, p. 236.
Johnson and his staff: Interviews listed above; also Mooney, LBJ, Chapter 5 and passim; Miller, pp. 533–57; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 277–81. Roosevelt imitation: Busby, Jenkins interviews. “Johnson created”: Connally interview. Day Roosevelt died: Busby interview. Johnson had not: Steinberg, Sam Rayburn, p. 226. “You felt”: L. E. Jones interview. “That”: Pickle interview.
Gonella’s strategy: Gonella interview. “That’s forty-five”: Busby interview. “His rages”: Bolling interview; Bolling quoted in Miller, p. 214. Latimer’s map: Latimer interview. “You’ve poisoned”: Mooney, LBJ, p. 85; Busby interview. “I didn’t get”: Nellie Connally, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 135. “Had to be”: Gonella interview.Ordering women’s lives: Boozer, Gonella interviews. “Well, I see”; “A little windy”; “he was”: Boozer, quoted in Miller, p. 536. “Why don’t”: Steinberg, San Johnson’s Boy, p. 280. “I don’t”: Busby interview. “Everybody”: Gonella interview. “There wasn’t”: Jones interview. “Like a slave”: Sidey interview. Asleep in the bathtub:Puls, quoted in Caro, Path, p. 496. “Loyalty”: Halberstam, “Lyndon,” Esquire, Aug. 1972. Another version was given by Hubert Humphrey to Merle Miller: “Mr. Johnson always said, ‘I want a guy to be 150 percent loyal, kiss my ass in Macy’s window and stand up and say, “Boy, wasn’t that sweet”’” (Miller, p. 542).
Connally had: Connally, Busby, Jenkins interviews. Pleading with Harlow: Harlow interview. “I can’t”: Gwyn, in Caro, Path, p. 118. “It was”: James Rowe interview.
“Well, I”; Inaugural Ball tickets: Woodward interview. Forcing Connally to return: Connally, Busby, Jenkins interviews.
6. “The Right Size”
Marlin meeting: Oltorf interview. A somewhat different version, in which Johnson is asking only for the Finance Committee, was given by Oltorf in his OH, but the version he gave in the interview was confirmed by an interview with John Connally.
Telephoning Hayden; Hayden’s reply; “Tendered”: Hayden to Johnson, Nov. 18, 1948, Box 45, LBJA CF; Connally, Jenkins interviews. And see Woodward to Jenkins, Dec. 3, Box 61, LBJA CF. Asked the Speaker: Johnson to Rayburn, Dec. 2, 1948. And Rayburn did: Rayburn to Barkley, Dec. 8, 1948, Papers of Tom C. Clark, Box 48, LBJ(1), HSTL; Jenkins interview. “Put in”: Johnson to Corcoran, Dec. 15, 1948; Corcoran interview. “I want very much”; “since Texas”: Johnson to McKellar, Johnson to Barkley, both Nov. 13, 1948; Johnson to Corcoran, undated, with attached Johnson to McKellar, Dec. 22, 1948—all Box 48, LBJ(1), Papers of Tom C. Clark, HSTL. Also, Johnson to McKellar, Nov. 19, 1948, Box 49, LBJA SN. Trying to enlist Tom Connally’s support for Appropriations, Johnson wrote him expressing “my intense interest in being assigned to Appropriations,” and then including Agriculture and Armed Services among “other committees for which I would like to be kept in mind,” but Johnson’s staffers explain that that letter—and a similar one to Barkley (a copy of which Johnson sent to Connally)—were really intended only as “a sop” to make Connally think he was taking his advice seriously (Johnson to Connally, Dec. 12, Box 49, LBJA SF; Johnson to Barkley, Box 49, LBJ(1), Papers of Tom C. Clark, HSTL; Busby, Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins interviews).
Parking encounter: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 276–77; Carpenter, “The Whip from Texas,” Collier’s, Feb. 17, 1951. Senate’s response: Busby, Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins, Rather interviews. Pro forma: For example, McKellar to Johnson, Dec. 23, McMahon to Johnson, Dec. 24, Box 49, LBJA SF. As late as Dec. 27, Tydings replied to Johnson’s request with a polite note (Tydings to Johnson, Dec. 27, 1948, Box 116, LBJA SF). In an interview thereafter—apparently that same day—Johnson realized that Tydings was not really intending to help (Busby, Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins interviews). Barkley’s letter: Barkley to Johnson, Nov. 27, 1948, Box 52, LBJA SN. “Of course”:Rayburn to Johnson, Dec. 8, 1948, Box 48, LBJ(1), Papers of Tom C. Clark, HSTL. Showed him: Busby, Connally interviews. “Your letter”: E. Chance to Johnson, Dec. 29, 1948, Box 116, LBJA SF. “The trouble”: Busby, Jenkins interviews. “I am pleased”: Hayden to Johnson, Dec. 18, 1948, Sen. 81A-F15, Rules and Administration (402), NA.Extra room: Busby, Jenkins interviews; Hayden to Gillette, Jan. 3, 1949, Sen. 81A-F15, Rules and Administration (402), NA. From other senators, Johnson received, in answer to his committee-assignment requests, pro forma replies to “do everything I can to help you.” For example, O’Mahoney to Johnson, Dec. 23, 1948; Tydings to Johnson, Dec. 27, 1948, Box 116, LBJA SF.
Johnson in doorway: Jenkins interview; Jenkins, quoted in Miller, p. 141. Jenkins repeated Johnson’s remarks to Busby at the time (Busby interview).
“Watch”: Busby interview.
“Seemed to sense”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 87. “One on one”: Latimer interview. People had been saying this since college: Caro, Path, p. 177. “The knack”: Brown, quoted in Caro, p. 552. “Operated best”: Reedy interview.
“Could be”: Theis OH.
“Most interactions”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 126.
Being sworn in: CR, 81/1, pp. 3–5; AA-S, DMN, HP, HC, Jan. 4, 1949. his own desk: The desk is Desk No. 18.
Winked and grinned: Mayer, “Your Capital City,” AA-S, Jan. 12, 1949.
Tirades during campaign: Caro, Means, pp. 239–42. “I had”: Busby, quoted in Caro, Path, p. 422.
Graciousness during campaign; “Here, Buzz”: Caro, Means, p. 269; Busby interview.
Driving to work: Paul F. Healy, “The Frantic Gentleman from Texas,” SEP, May 19, 1951; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 318; Rather interview. Shouting: Miller, p. 182. Glass affair: Caro, Path, Chapter 25.
Douglas’ career: Douglas, Full Life; Scobie, Center Stage. “Ten of”: Broun, quoted in Scobie, p. 24. “Has made”: NYHT, Oct. 25, 1936. “Had prepared”: Louisville Courier-Journal, quoted in Scobie, p. 170. “Surrounded”: Baltimore Sun, Jan. 28, 1945, quoted in Scobie, p. 171. “She stood”: Bethune, quoted in Scobie, p. 270. “Her waistline”:NYP, July [date unclear], 1949. “Number One”: New York Daily News, June 4, 1950.
“Draped”: Douglas, Full Life, p. 204. “He never”: Douglas interview. “In a hurry”: Douglas OH. “Willing”: Douglas, p. 260. “Was it”: Douglas OH. “One of”; “he cared”: Douglas OH. “He knew”: Douglas, Full Life, p. 205. FDR’s funeral; “He looked”: Douglas OH, Douglas interview. Rankin episode: Douglas, Full Life, pp. 226–31; Douglas OH.
Arriving together: Davidson, “Texas Political Powerhouse,” Look, Aug. 4, 1959. Holding hands: Busby, Mary-Louise Young interviews. Dinner, parties together: Evelyn Chavoor, Charles A. Hogan OHs. “Over the”: Scobie, Center Stage, p. 181. “Strikingly handsome”: Hogan OH.
“Affair with Lyndon”: Mary-Louise Young interview. “It started”: Busby, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 196. “For quite”: Busby interview. “Lyndon would”: Fath, quoted in Scobie, p. 172.
Helped her: Scobie, pp. 244, 283; Busby interview. Swimming pool scene: Busby, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 212.
“Blow open”: Skuce, quoted in Miller, p. 213. “Tell Jake”; “What does”: Mary-Louise Young interview. Necktie-tying: Califano, The Triumph, p. 27; Connally interview. “What that woman needs”; “LBJ made”: Califano, pp. 169–70. “Lyndon’s idea”: Woods, quoted in Caro, Path, p. 182. “Let nature”: Sidey, Time, May 13, 1974.
“When he barks”: Healy, “Frantic Gentleman,” SEP, May 19, 1951. “The other”; “He wouldn’t”: Woodward interview. Sending in note: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 104. “Hi, Jake”: Carlton interview. Walter George scene: Busby interview; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 345. “He took”: Woodward interview.
Joking with Vandenberg: AA-S, DMN, HP, Jan. 4, 1949. Drawing for desk: Pearson, WP, Feb. 12, 1949. “Howdy”: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 276. Photograph: FWS-T, Jan. 1, 1949. At Graham party: Gooch to Johnson, March 12, 1951, Box 483, JSP. Unceasingly: For Johnson’s credit-grabbing in the House, see Caro, Path, pp. 523–33.“Avoid”: Busby to John Connally and Walter Jenkins, Jan. 7, 1949, Box 863, JSP. Let his aides: Busby, Connally, Jenkins interviews.
Johnson on the floor: Busby interview. “A general feeling”: Woodward interview. “Gentlemen”: Busby interview.
“Time and again”: Connally interview.
“Mild-mannered”: Willard Shelton, “The New ’Truman Committee,” The Nation, Oct. 21, 1950. “His manner”: “The Watchdog Committee and How It Watches,” Newsweek, Dec. 3, 1951. “I found”: Lucas, quoted in
Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 33.
“I always”: Johnson, quoted in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, pp. 120–21. Flattery at college; contemporaries’ contempt: Caro, Path, Chapters 8, 11, 16. “Uriah Heep”: Caro, p. 489. “Smiling and”: Corcoran, quoted in Caro, p. 449. “I never”: Clark, quoted in Caro, p. 363.
Johnson and Rayburn: Caro, Path, Chapter 18. Betraying Rayburn: Caro, Chapter 30. Heart melting: Caro, Chapter 36.
“Don’t forget”: Vinson to Johnson, Dec. 22, 1949, Box 57, LBJA.
“He could”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 103. “Now they”: Johnson, quoted in Goodwin, p. 120.
“A classic prototype”; “as nearly pro-labor”; “To hear Senator Murray’s response”: William S. White, “Democrats’ ‘Board of Directors,’” NYT Magazine, July 10, 1955. Murray aging: McClure OH; Reed, Tames interviews. Sometimes: McClure OH. Lit up: Tames interview.
“Real sweet”: Busby, Latimer interviews. “I certainly”: Johnson to Ed Johnson, April 23, 1956, Box 381, JSP. “Boy, whenever”: Reedy interview. “During”: Shuman to Caro, Jan. 13, 1984, p. 2 (in author’s possession). “The very”: Baker, Friend and Foe, p. 22. “Christ”: Connally interview. “Johnson thought”: Mooney OH. Hayden found:Hayden to Wever, Jan. 27, Box 116, LBJA SF. “When he”: Busby interview. “After”: Connally interview. “Mr. Johnson”: Jenkins, quoted in Miller, p. 141.
Baker conversation: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 40, 41; Parker, Capitol Hill, p. 73. “Mr. Baker, I understand”: Johnson, quoted in Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 34. “Just another”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 40. Waiter saw: The waiter was Parker, who described the scene in Capitol Hill, p. 73. “The power”: Baker, quoted in Miller, p. 142.
Johnson and Evans: Caro, Path, pp. 149, 152, 192. And Wirtz: Caro, pp. 392–93. With Roosevelt: Caro, pp. 448–49 and passim.
7. A Russell of the Russells of Georgia
The boy’s game: Fite, Richard B. Russell, p. 9; Harold H. Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1951; Reedy recalls Russell telling him about “Fort Lee” and reenacting the southern charges (Reedy interview).
“From the oldest”: Robert Paul Turbeville, Eminent Georgians, quoted in Fite, p. 1. Father’s legislative, judicial career: Marion H. Allen, “Memorial to Chief Justice Richard Brevard Russell,” Georgia Bar Association, Report of Proceedings, 56th Annual Session, May 25–27, 1939, pp. 171–77. “Always looking”: Fite, p. 3. “The Senate post”:Russell speaking in “Richard Russell, Georgia Giant,” three-hour documentary, Atlanta, Ga.: WSB-TV, Cox Enterprises, broadcast 1970, Tape, Part 1. (Referred to hereafter as “Georgia Giant.”) “Speaking”: Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1957. “Radical” or: “Georgia Giant,” Tape, Part 1. “The poorest”: Leonard, “The Russells of Our Flock,” University of Georgia Alumni Record, May 1967, quoted in Fite, p. 3. “Got in”: And Ina Russell Stacy says in her OH, “He was never defeated for a judicial position, and never elected to any of the others.”
Moving to Winder; “would be”; “distraught”: Fite, pp. 4, 5.
“I was”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 10. “Round the curve!”: Author’s visit to Winder; “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 4; Richard B. Russell III interview; Fielding Russell OH. “He might”: Fite, p. 6. “Thought that”: WS, March 9, 1969. “My mother”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 3.
“With a sense”: WS, March 9, 1969. Family close: Fite, pp. 12–15. A gang: Harold H. Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1951; Griggs to Williamson, Aug. 1, 1957, SP. “Those funny songs”: Stacy OH. “Although”: Peterson OH.
“My own”: Ina Russell Stacy, quoted in Fite, p. 14.
“Where”; “I read”: Fite, p. 12. Listening to the veterans: Karen K. Kelly, “Richard B. Russell: Democrat from Georgia,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1979, p. 22.
Father’s letters: Fite, pp. 24, 22, 29. Mother’s letters: Fite, p. 22. “She wrote”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 9. “Becomingly”: Fite, p. 17.
“Oh”; “you bear”: Fite, pp. 20, 18.
“The finest”; “I expect”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, pp. 12–13, 18. “Almost”: Fite, p. 37.
“His tribute”: Winder News, April 27, 1922. “Was careful”: Fite, p. 41. “Young Turks”: Robert Byrd, CR, 87/2, p. S 349; Roy Harris OH. Father’s 1926 campaign: Fite, p. 49; Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 32. “A great bit”: Rev. Henry E. Russell OH.
“Though young”: Fite, p. 50.
“These are”: Fite, p. 51. “The closest thing”: Griggs to Williamson, Aug. 1, 1957, SP. “Leader who”: Isaac S. Peoples, quoted in Fite, p. 58.
Race for Governor: Harold H. Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1951; Griggs to Williamson, Aug. 1, 1957; Fite, Chapter 4. Borrowing a thousand dollars: “The Southern General,” Time, Aug. 12, 1957. “Nothing save”: Fite, p. 66. “No man”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 21. “Never used”; “Ananias”; “farmers seemed”: Fite, pp. 65, 63.
“He considered”: Fite, p. 96. Who realized: Fite, p. 361. Dated women: Griggs to Williamson, Aug. 1, 1957.
“So many”: Jordan interview. “Lights glow”: Atlanta Georgian, Dec. 26, 1931, quoted in Fite, p. 96. Governorship: Fite, Chapter 5; Life, March 24, 1952. Agricultural research: WS, March 9, 1969. “Flatter, cajole”: Fite, p. 87. “A new day”: Fite, p. 83.
“The worst”: Fite, p. 102. Without canceling: Harold H. Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1951. “Kilowatt Charlie”: Griggs to Williamson, Aug. 1, 1957.
“If I can’t: “Footnotes on Russell,” Robert Allen and John Goldsmith, Macon Telegraph, Jan. 30, 1971. Ultimatum to Robinson: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 28. “A wild-spoken”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 28. “Buy his peace”; “Old Ed”; “I got to be”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, p. 29.
“To a minimum”: Fite, p. 125. Memorizing the rules; He borrowed: Harold H. Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1951; McConaughy to Williamson, July 31, 1957, SP. Discussing with Watkins: Riddick interview. A legend: Fite, p. 125.
Not a single: “The Rearguard Commander,” Time, Aug. 12, 1957. “Sis”: Fite, p. 502. Lunch: Reedy, Tames interviews. “You’re lucky”: Fite, p. 473. “Well”: Shaffer, On and Off, pp. 202–03; Time, Aug. 12, 1957. “In addition”: Ervin OH, RBRL.
“I would attribute”: Ervin OH.
“Very unobtrusive”: Krock, NYT, March 17, 1935. “When he spoke”: Fite, p. 126.
“With the blood”: CR, 78/1, pp. 8859–66. “Let us”: Russell to Truman, Aug. 7, 1945, White House Central Files, OF 197, HSTL. Truman’s reply is revealing of the difference between the two men. The President wrote “Dear Dick” that while Japan was “a terribly cruel and uncivilized nation in warfare,” he could not agree that “because they are beasts, we should ourselves act in the same manner.” He was unwilling, he said, to decimate an entire people because of their leaders’ “pigheadedness” unless “it is absolutely necessary” (Truman to Russell, Aug. 9, 1945, White House Central Files, OF 197, HSTL).
“No more ardent”: Robert Byrd, “Richard Brevard Russell,” CR, 100/2, p. S 353. “If Sherman”: Milton Young OH; Fite, p. 353. “I want”: Fite, p. 353. “In the field”: Jack Bell, “Dick Russell, King of the Filibusterers,” advance for AMs of Sunday, July 28, 1963, III Speech, Box 78, folder “Russell Material (Biog. and articles),” RBRL. “He is considered”: Manatos to Johnson, May 20, 1968, WHCF, Box 344, LBJL.
“Every great”: Fite, pp. 466–67. Agreeing with Humphrey: Meg Greenfield, “The Man Who Leads the Southern Senators,” The Reporter, May 21, 1964. For thirty-eight years: Russell’s long fight for farmers is based on Fite, pp. 149–60, 212–16, and Robert Byrd, “Richard Brevard Russell,” CR, 100/2, pp. 350–51. “He kept”: Harold H. Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1951. “Essentially”: Fite, p. 187. “Throughout”: Robert Byrd, “Richard Brevard Russell,” CR, 100/2, pp. 350, 351.
“He considered”: Fite, p. 145. “There are no”: Fite, p. 167; CR, 75/3, p. 1101. “I was”: WS, Feb. 29, 1960. “The rights”: Meg Greenfield, “The Man Who Leads the Southern Senators,” The Reporter, May 21, 1964. Challenged in his bid for a full Senate term by Georgia’s most politically powerful racist, Governor Eugene Talmadge, he replied to Talmadge’s charge that he was unreliable on segregation by calling the Governor “despicable” for “doing what every candidate who is about to be beaten does. He comes in crying nigger.” But Russell vigorously defended white supremacy and segregation, and said in one speech that “this is a white man’s country, yes, and we are going to keep it that way.” In another speech, he said that it was an insult to the people of Georgia “to even insinuate that I stand for political and social equality with the Negro.” As Fite puts it (p. 149), “He used legal arguments in contrast to Talmadge’s bombastic accusations of dictatorship, but the difference between the Russells and the Talmadges in the South was mainly one of degree rather than substance.” Full-dress speeches: CR, 75/3, pp. 374–75, 1098–1115; CR, 77/2, pp. 8804–05; CR, 78/2, pp. 8859–66; CR, 80/2, pp. 7355–64; Current Biography, 1949. “More”; “strike vital”: Fite, p. 167.
“Been evolved”: CR, 75/3, p. 1101. “We believe”; “promotes”: CR, 79/2, pp. 10259–61. “In a short”: CR, 75/3, p. 1101. “I challenge”: CR, 77/2, p. 8904. “Whites and blacks alike”: CR, 75/3, p. 1101. “We have worked”: CR, 77/2, p. 8904.
“Unnecessary”: CR, 75/3, pp. 374–75, 1098–1115. “As interested”: “The Rearguard Commander,” Time, Aug. 12, 1957. “If it”: CR, 75/3, p. 1101.
“Let the”: CR, 77/2, p. 8904.
“I don’t know”: Time, Aug. 12, 1957. “We’ve had”: Fite, p. 184. “Russell did not”: Fite, pp. 184, 168.
Borah, Norris: Fite, pp. 167–68.
“At opposite”: “Senator Russell of Georgia: Does He Speak for the South,” Newsweek, Aug. 19, 1963. “Not a racist”; “must be respected”: Shaffer, pp. 202, 206. “Honest”: Harold H. Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1951. “Roots”: Time, Aug. 12, 1957.
“Knightly”: Ervin OH. 1908 lynching: Winder Weekly News, Dec. 10, 1908. 1922 lynching: Winder Weekly News, Sept. 7, 1922.
Dorsey attempting; He “avoided”: Fite, p. 43.
“Georgia exceeds”: Burns, Out of These Chains, p. 369. A vivid description of the chain gangs is in T. H. Watkins, “A Fugitive’s Epic,” Constitution, Fall 1993. “I used to”: Martin, Deep South, p. 176. “I suppose”; “had never”: “Georgia Giant,” edited transcript, Part I, pp. 25, 26. “So hungry”: NYWT, undated, but obviously 1932. Promise broken: Burns, Out of These Chains, p. 387; T. H. Watkins, “A Fugitive’s Epic,” Constitution, Fall 1993. “Real importance”: NYT, Jan. 31, 1932. “One would”: NYHT, Jan. 18, 1932.
Georgia’s Governor demanded; affidavits: Burns, Out of These Chains, pp. 382–83. Russell’s statements: AC, Dec. 23, 1932. “A slander”: Russell, quoted in Burns, Out of These Chains, pp. 396–97. Russell added, in what Watkins calls “a nasty aside,” that “the decision makes it easy to understand how the most horrible crime of modern times—the kidnapping of the Lindberg baby—could occur and go unpunished in a State whose Governor has such ideas of law….” (T. H. Watkins, “A Fugitive’s Epic,” Constitution, Fall 1993). “Telling the world”: NY Sunday News, Dec. 25, 1932.
Russell saw it: David B. Potenziani, “Look to the Past: Richard Russell and the Defense of White Supremacy,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Georgia, 1981, pp. 15 ff. Potenziani’s thesis is a perceptive analysis of Russell’s racial views. “To force”: CR, 77/2, p. 9065. Blocked: NYT, Nov. 24, 1942.
“I am afraid”: Russell to Cobb C. Torrance, May 31, 1944, X. Civil Rights Series, FEPC, 1944–1949, RBRL. “Any southern”: Russell to Alan Reid, Feb. 4, 1936, IV, Early Office Series, RBRL. “A terrible”: Russell to Storey, Feb. 13, 1942, Series X, Box 158, RBRL. Not necessary; “Fully aware”: Marion Young to Russell, Aug. 15, 1942; Russell to Mrs. Young, Aug. 18, 1942, X. Civil Rights Series, Negro File, Box 139, RBRL.
“In the last”: Russell to R. F. Hardy, July 4, 1942, Series X, Box 158, RBRL. “Fading away”: Russell in CR, 80/2, p. 7360. Marines: When S. D. Mandeville of Tennille, Ga., wrote Russell that the Marine Corps “have achieved a brilliant record and a great fighting spirit without the aid of the Negro. Don’t let them ruin the morale of the boys by letting the Negro in the Marine Corps,” Russell wrote back, “I feel just as you do about the enlistment of Negroes in the Marine Corps, and I have vigorously protested any such policy.” (Mandeville to Russell, Feb. 5, 1942; Russell to Mandeville, Feb. 13, 1942, both from X. Civil Rights Series Negro File (subject) Correspondence, Box 139, RBRL.“These people”: Patience Russell Patterson OH. “In spite”: David B. Potenziani, “Look to the Past: Richard Russell and the Defense of White Supremacy,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Georgia, 1981, p. 41. “Health and morals”: CR, 80/2, p. 5666. “No more intimate”: CR, 80/2, pp. 7356, 7361. Special camps: Russell to George Reynolds and to Theodore Cowart, Jan. 25, 1943, X. Civil Rights Series, Negro File, 1942–43, Box 157, RBRL.
“All of the men”: III A. Speech, Box 32, Folder, “Dragon Speech,” pp. 18, 19, RBRL. This is a typed, 22—page text, evidently transcribed from notes taken by a secretary to whom Russell dictated it. On the typed text are changes made in Russell’s handwriting. Archivists at the RBRL say that Russell dictated the text after rushing from the Senate floor in a rage after he had suffered a setback during the 1957 civil rights debate, and that the speech was never delivered. The purpose of the speech would have been “to ask unanimous consent that” an article, dated July 20th, from the Portland Oregonian describing the rape “be printed in the Record.” The precise date that Russell dictated it is unknown. It was filed in his office files on Sept. 28, 1957. An unknown individual in Russell’s office named it the “Dragon Speech” because its theme is that in order to slay an imaginary “Southern dragon,” northerners had given themselves illegal powers. As a result, says the text Russell dictated, “the N.A.A.C.P. had achieved such power”—“controlling the policies of [America’s] only two political parties” that “the rights of ordinary white people, the most numerous group in the country, are enjoyable contingent upon the possibility that they may collide with any right, real or imaginary, claimed by a Negro citizen” (p. 20).
“No such thing”: Russell to Hansell, Sept. 30, 1957, Civil Rights, Little Rock, Box 345, RBRL. “They are determined”: Undated newspaper clipping, Mrs. Ina Russell’s scrap-book, 1947–48, RBRL, cited in Fite, p. 233.
“Scathingly”: Drury, A Senate Journal, p. 122.
“I am sick”: Fite, p. 183.
Even “baseball [and] football”: Fite, p. 184. “Almost entirely”: Russell to John M. Slaton, Aug. 17, 1944, Series X, RBRL. “A wild-eyed”: Fite, p. 229.
Transit plot: Drury, p. 238.
1948 FEPC speech: CR, 80/2, pp. A-1863–64. “The agitation”: CR, 76/3, p. 1102. “This bill”: CR, 79/2, p. 179. “Any white man”: CR, 79/2, p. 380.
Lynching in Monroe: NYHT, NYT, July 27, 1946. “We can’t cope”; “persons unknown”: NYT, NYHT, July 28, 1946. “Mr. President”: CR, 79/2, pp. 10258–60; NYT, July 28, 1946. Other 1946 lynchings: Zangrando, NAACP Crusade, p. 174; Egerton, Speak Now Against the Day, p. 362. “I mean”: Donovan, Conflict and Crisis, p. 334.
“South haters”; “hellhack”; “obloquy”: Meg Greenfield, “The Man Who Leads the Southern Senators,” The Reporter, May 21, 1964. “To alienate”: Fite, p. 226. “Cannot”: Russell to Lemuel S. J. Smith, Feb. 20, 1948, RBRL. “Gestapo”: Fite, p. 231. “hordes”: CR, 80/2, p. A-1864.
Facing Connally down: Margaret Shannon, Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Nov. 24, 1963. “A good case”: “The Rearguard Commander,” Time, Aug. 12, 1957.
“Whether”: CR, 79/2, p. 161. “We’ve had”: Fite, p. 184.
“The Negro”; “Under Russell”: Harold H. Martin, “The Man Behind the Brass,” SEP, June 2, 1951.
“Almost Roman”; “Olympian”: Frederic W. Collins, NYT Magazine, Oct. 20, 1963. “No one laughed”: Wicker, On Press, p. 40.
“A monumental”: Douglas Kiker, “The Old Guard at Its Shrewdest,” Harper’s, Sept. 1966. “dishonorable”: WS, March 15, 1964; BeLieu interview. “His colleagues”: Fite, p. 200. “A thousand”: Harold Davis, quoted by Fite, p. 200. “His bond”: Fite, p. 289. “Incomparably”: White, Citadel, p. 87.
“Remember so well”: Humphrey OH. “A wink”: Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 75. “Check it”: Jack Bell, “Dick Russell, King of the Filibusterers,” advance for AMs of Sunday, July 28, 1963. “No major”: Don Oberdorfer, “The Filibuster’s Best Friend,” SEP, March 15, 1965. “Well, I want”: Gale McGee, quoted in Fite, p. 323. “Scores”: Fite, p. 317. “Favorite uncle”: Fite, pp. 323, 199.
“It has not”: Meg Greenfield, “The Man Who Leads the Southern Senators,” The Reporter, May 21, 1964.
“Of their own”: CR, 80/2, pp. 7355–64. “I could not”: CR, 80/2, p. 5666. Not one got through: Mann, p. 43. “As such”: CR, 77/2, pp. 8904–05.
“Thin gray line”: NYT, March 2, 1960. “Words of war”: Meg Greenfield, “The Man Who Leads the Southern Senators,” The Reporter, May 21, 1964. Don Oberdorfer, “Richard Russell, Senator of Influence,” WP, Jan. 22, 1971. “The last ditch”: Ervin OH. “Our position”: Russell to Ervin, July 29, 1948, Dictation Series, Civil Rights, RBRL.
8. “We of the South”
“That persuasive”; “The greatest”: Fite, Russell, pp. 43, 203. “That’s a”: Russell, replying to a question by Harry Reasoner on “Portraits,” CBS News, July 17, 1963.
Collins relationship: Fite, pp. 171–72, 201.
“About as close”: Fite, p. 326. Puttering around: Richard Russell III interview (the Senator’s nephew). Could think best: Griggs to Williamson, Aug. 1, 1957, SP. “We could run”: Rev. Henry E. Russell OH.
“He just”: Harry O. Smith, quoted in WP, May 11, 1952. He often walked around the town barefoot. “Warm feelings”; “A host”; “somewhat”: Fite, p. 208. “I had always”; six months: McConaughy to Williamson, July 31, 1957, SP. Stopped; “frankly”: Fite, pp. 201–02.
With his staff, and the pattern of his life: Fite, passim; interviews with BeLieu, Braswell, Darden, Gwen Jordan, William H. Jordan, Moore, Reedy; and the OHs of BeLieu, John T. Carlton, Darden, Robert M. Dunahoo, Felton M. (Skeeter) Johnston, Gwen Jordan, William Jordan, Barboura Raesly, Dorothye Scott. “‘Miss’”: Fite, p. 207.
Going to Opening Day: Felton Johnston OH. Eating at O’Donnell’s: Jordan, BeLieu interviews. BeLieu saw him there; Fite, p. 468. “My life and work”: Cecil Holland, WS, March 15, 1964.
“I knew”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 103. Actually, Johnson had included Armed Services—as his third choice—on his list of desired committee assignments in some of his earlier letters requesting a seat on Appropriations. John Connally and Walter Jenkins say this was done as what Connally calls a “sop” to Tom Connally, to make the senior senator feel Johnson was following the suggestion Connally had made to him in Marlin. The Bobby Baker discussion apparently took place during the week after Christmas, 1948. Dropping by: Busby, Connally, Jordan interviews. Invitations to dinner: Lady Bird Johnson OH. “An entirely”: Oltorf interview.
“The best of us”: Caro, Path, p. 759. And see also Path, pp. 762–63.
“I early knew”: Lady Bird Johnson OH. Were encouraged: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 42; Dugger, The Politician, p. 344.
“We both like”: “Georgia Giant,” unedited transcript, Reel 19, p. 30, Atlanta, WSB-TV, Cox Enterprises, 1970. “Hot dogs”: Lady Bird Johnson OH. “I doubt”: Connally with Herskowitz, In History’s Shadow, p. 122. Now began: Busby, Connally, Jenkins interviews.
“With no one”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 105. “You never”: Oltorf interview.
“I shall take you”: Caro, Path, Chapter 17.
“My mentor”: Goodwin, p. 105. “Snickered”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 42. “He flattered”: Baker, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 142. “Had he”: Baker, on The American Experience: LBJ, PBS Home Video, 1997. “Well, I suppose”: “Georgia Giant,” unedited transcript, Reel 21, p. 30.
“Bosom friend”: Stennis interview, April 21, 1971, quoted in Stephen B. Farrow, “Richard Russell and Lyndon Johnson: Principle and Pragmatism in Senatorial Politics, 1949–52,” unpublished senior thesis, University of Tennessee, 1979, p. 34. Stennis also said, “Personal things didn’t mean anything to Russell where constitutional principles were concerned” (Stennis OH, RBRL).
Maiden speech: CR, 81/1, pp. 2042–49.
A “nove l”: CCC-T, March 9, 1949. “No quarrel”: Dallek, Lone Star, p. 367.
Russell telling reporters: Dugger, p. 344; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 291. “Worth a story”: “Sense and Sensitivity,” Time, March 17, 1948. “Long line”: Lubbock Journal, March 10, 1949. Russell the first: San Angelo Standard-Times, March 10, 1949. “One of the ablest”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 106. And the conservative columnist Holmes Alexander reported that “Russell pronounced it to be the best speech on the subject ever made before this body” (Berkeley [Calif.] Gazette, April 28, 1956).
“The President”: Stokes, quoted in Donovan, Tumultuous Years, p. 22. “It seems”: Krock, NYT, Jan. 30, 1949.
“Gird our loins”: NYT, Feb. 1, 1949. “Know if”: Russell to Anderson, Dec. 13, 1949, Civil Rights, FEPC, Correspondence, Box 127, folder FEPC Dictation, 1944–49, RBRL. “Made it”; Russell told: Fite, p. 246; NYT, Feb. 27, 28, 1949. “A number”; “Will forecast”; “Taft’s help”: Thomas Sancton, The Nation, April 9, 1949. Vandenberg’s ruling: NYT, March 11, 12; WP, March 12, 1949. “In the final analysis,” Vandenberg also said, “the Senate has no effective cloture rule at all…. The existing rules … still leave the Senate, rightly or wrongly, at the mercy of unlimited debate ad infinitum” (NYT, Jan. 30, 1949). Strategy worked: For example, Krock, NYT, Feb. 22, 1949.“Working”:New Republic, March 14, 1949. “Has virtually”: NAACP, Box 61, “Press Releases, 1949,” LC. Lucas confessing: NYT, March 15, 1949. Barkley’s ruling; Russell’s appeal: Newsweek, March 21, 1949; NYT, WP, March 11, 12, 1949. See also NYT, March 5, 11, 1949. “Not simply”: Newsweek, March 21, 1949. “Sinking heart”:Time, March 21, 1949. “Mr. Vandenberg has”: The Nation, March 19, 1949. “An aura”: NYT, March 12, 1949. The vote: NYT, WP, March 15, 1949. Agreeing after the vote to drop attempts at cloture, Lucas said, in a definitive statement on the southerners’ strength: “We realize that the filibuster can go on for weeks. They [the southerners] have the manpower to do it. Meanwhile, rent control would go out the window.” The Times said: “Senator Lucas noted also that other major bills … were lagging in the legislative process. There was thus, he declared, a log jam that could not be allowed to continue.” “With less”: Byrd to Chapman, March 16, 1949, Box 118, Personal Miscellaneous, RBRL. A sample of the feeling of other members of the Southern Caucus toward their general is in Stennis to Russell, and Johnston to Russell, March 18, 1949 (same file as Byrd letter).
“To his cohorts”: Stephen B. Farrow, “Richard Russell and Lyndon Johnson: Principle and Pragmatism in Senatorial Politics, 1949–52,” unpublished senior thesis, University of Tennessee, 1979, p. 44. “compromise”: NYT, WP, March 18, 1949.
An accepted part: Goodwin, p. 106; Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 32; Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 82. Dallek, who seems to feel that the Caucus was formed in 1949 (it had actually been a major fact of Senate life for at least a decade before that), writes (p. 367): “To defeat Truman’s cloture proposal and his whole civil rights program, senators from the former eleven Confederate states organized themselves into a southern caucus and met to map strategy…. Johnson stayed away from the southern strategy meeting.” “Senator Johnson”: Darden OH. “I was”: Darden interview.
“No, no”: Busby, Connally, Young interviews. When the author interviewed Busby in 1985, Busby related this incident, and said he wasn’t sure whether Johnson had or had not been at the Caucus (he also said he didn’t know which Caucus it was), but in 1988, when he was interviewed by an oral history interviewer for the Lyndon Johnson Library, he said Johnson had not been at the Caucus, and related an elaborate explanation that Johnson had given him to explain he had been elsewhere. When, also in 1985, the author asked John Connally about the incident, Connally at first didn’t recall it, but after the author told him about Busby’s account, did remember it, and said, smilingly, “We didn’t know whether he didn’t want to comment because he wasn’t there, or because he was there.” Mary-Louise Young was not in the office at the time of the incident but was told about it later by other members of the staff. She says that Johnson didn’t want to comment because he had been at the Caucus. In his book, The Walls of Jericho, Mann, relying on Dallek’s account, says that Johnson was holding the door closed to keep the Associated Press reporter from asking “why he was not at the meeting” (Mann, p. 82). More importantly, both Mann and Dallek write as if there was only one meeting of the Southern Caucus or bloc in 1949; in fact, there were many.
“Yes, he did”: “Georgia Giant,” unedited transcript, Reel 19, pp. 34, 35; Reel 24, pp. 11–12.
“At another”: NYT, Jan. 13, 1949.
“Twenty-one met”: NYT, Feb. 15, 1949. Coverage of this Caucus shows the discrepancies between newspapers on the total number of attendees. The New York Herald Tribune put the number of attendees at fifteen, the Washington Post at eighteen. (The Post also said that that number included some “Border State senators” but longtime observers of the Caucus say that only senators from the eleven southern states were invited to the Caucuses.) “The caucus counted”: NYT, WP, Feb. 25, 1949. Rather entries: Johnson’s “Desk Diary” for the appropriate dates, Desk Diary, Box 1, LBJL; Rather interview. “During his first”: “Sense and Sensitivity,” Time, March 17, 1958. “Russell knew little”:McConaughy to Beshoar, June 10, 1953, SP. “At the first”: Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Nov. 24, 1963. “Senator Lyndon”: Stennis to Ina Smith, March 7, 1949, Box 55, LBJA CF.
“In view”: Russell to Byrd, June 7, 1949. (At the bottom is a note: “This letter sent to attached list of 19 southern senators.” The two senators to whom the letter was not sent were Pepper and Kefauver. Johnson is one of the nineteen.) “Relative to”: Johnson to Russell, June 9, 1949. Both from Dictation, Civil Rights, March-Sept. 1949, RBRL.Vote for Eastland bill: The bill, “District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1949 (S.1527), would have required a referendum of qualified voters on any change in segregation policy in the District of Columbia. (“Entire Senate Voting Record of Senator Lyndon Johnson, by Subject, from January 3, 1949, to October 13, 1962,” Senate Democratic Policy Committee, p. 147.)
“Stood right with us”: “Georgia Giant,” unedited transcript, Reel 22, p. 3. “Our political”; “In a way”: “Georgia Giant,” unedited transcript, Reel 19, p. 30.
“Impressed”; “well-organized”: Darden OH.
“Can-do”: “Georgia Giant,” unedited transcript, Reel 4, p. 2. “Made more”: Meg Greenfield, “The Man Who Leads the Southern Senators,” The Reporter, May 21, 1964.
9. Thirtieth Place
“Turkey hash”: Mayer interview. “Makes me feel”: Quoted in W P, Dec. 17, 1950. “By God”: Bartley interview.
Lady Bird’s life: See the “Lady Bird” chapters in Caro, Path and Means. Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes are from those chapters.
Glass affair: See “Longlea” chapter in Caro, Path, and, in Means, pp. 25–27, 34, 58–60, 70, 237; Connally, In History’s Shadow, pp. 69–71. “I can write”: Glass to Oltorf, Sept. 16, 1967 (in author’s possession). “Disgusted”; “sexual side”: Young interview.
“Changed”: Caro, Means, p. 69.
“Nigger maid”: Caro, Means, p. 70.
KTBC: See “Buying and Selling” chapter in Caro, Means.
“Who’s in town”; “Goddammit”: Rather, Jenkins interviews. “Look”: Young interview. “Contempt”: Fisher interview. “Beaten-down”: Lucas interview. “‘Bird!’”: Mahon interview. “The women”: Nellie Connally interview.
Scenes with Symington: Symington interview. “Heavens, no”: Lady Bird, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 116.
“Every inch”: Elizabeth Rowe interview. “Texas friends”: Time, June 22, 1953. Signing at home: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 405.
“You may be”: Johnson to Jones, Nov. 22, 1943, Box 21, LBJA SN. “I do assure”: Rowe to Johnson, March 4, 1944, Box 32, LBJA SN. “Here’s hoping”; “I hope”: Jones to Johnson, March 13, 1944, Box 21, LBJA SN; Johnson to Jones, March 17, 1944, Box 21, LBJA SN.
Doctors advised: Miller, Lyndon, p. 113. Miscarriage: Virginia Wile English OH. “We’re waiting”: Stehling interview. “Never thought”: Russell, Lady Bird, p. 153. And see Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 209–10, 229. “You know”: Gonella interview. “I’ve always wished”: LBJ, quoted in Alsop, “Lyndon Johnson: How Does He Do It?”SEP, Jan. 24, 1959.
“Daddy was”: W P, July 9, 1989. “I never”: Mayer, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 155. “A second mother”: Lady Bird, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 283. “Raised by”: Steinberg, p. 283. “I felt deprived”: Lucy, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 155. “Why”: Lynda Bird, quoted in Mooney, LBJ, p. 250. “Cut the pattern”:Lady Bird, quoted in Washington Sunday Star, Aug. 15, 1954. “So subservient”: Quoted in Harrington, “A Woman Between Two Worlds,” WP, July 9, 1989. “Just so sad”: Bentsen, quoted in Harrington, “A Woman Between Two Worlds,” WP, July 9, 1989.
10. Lyndon Johnson and the Liberal
All dates are 1949 unless otherwise indicated.
Leland Olds’ life: From interviews with members of his family—his daughter Zara (now Mrs. Wallace Chapin); his son John; his grandson, Brady Chapin; and his daughter-in-law Marianne Egier Olds. With the Oldses’ neighbors on McKinley Street—Philip Davis, Caryl Marsh, Jerome and Natalie Springarn. With members of his staff at the FPC—Reuben Goldberg and Melwood Van Scoyoc. With Alex Radin, general manager of the American Public Power Association. With members of Washington’s liberal community: Alan Barth, Benjamin V. Cohen, Thomas G. Corcoran, John Gunther (then a lobbyist for the ADA), Joseph L. Rauh, James H. Rowe, Jr. With Paul Douglas’ administrative assistant Frank McCulloch. From the oral histories of Rauh and Rowe.
From Delos W. Lovelace, “What’s News Today,” NY Sun, May 23, 1944; Oliver Pilat, “Head Man in the Nation’s Powerhouse,” NYP, Sept. 23, 1944; Sherrill, Accidental President, pp. 155–66; Douglas, Fullness of Time, pp. 463–65.
From the transcript of Olds’ own testimony at the hearings on his renomination: “Reappointment of Leland Olds to Federal Power Commission,” Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, United States Senate, Eighty-first Congress, First Session, Sept. 27, 28, 29, and Oct. 3, 1949, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1949 (hereafter identified as Hearings). And from material in the Leland Olds Papers (LOP) at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Boxes 73–161.
“The central”: “The Enemies of Leland Olds,” New Republic, Oct. 17.
“Jolly”: Van Scoyoc interview. Olds at work: Goldberg, Van Scoyoc interviews.
“Liked fun”: Delos W. Lovelace, NY Sun, May 23, 1944. Beloved: Sherrill, p. 156.
“I learned”: Olds, Hearings, p. 108. “I searched”; “a great deal”; “people really”: Hearings, p. 109. “Were not”: Hearings, p. 115. “That the church”: Douglas R. Chapin, “The Persecution and Assassination of Federal Power Commissioner Leland Olds, as Performed by the Honorable Lyndon B. Johnson Under the Direction of the National Gas and Oil Industries of these United States” (unpublished paper, Jan. 16, 1973, p. 1). “My experience”: Hearings, p. 109.
Shock: Hearings, p. 116. “Inspiring”: Hearings, p. 114. “Railroad workers”: Hearings, p. 120.
“Labor angle”; Federated Press: Hearings, pp. 131–32. Baldwin persuaded: Hearings, p. 132.
“A genuine”; “along socialistic”: Schlesinger, Crisis of the Old Order, pp. 40, 41.
“Hardships”: Olds, Industrial Solidarity, July 1, 1925, quoted in Hearings, p. 50.
Saw the power: Olds, The Daily Worker, July 26, 1925, quoted in Hearings, p. 37. Bishop: Olds, Federated Press Labor’s News, July 20, 1929, quoted in Hearings, p. 340. “Give”: The Daily Worker, July 16, 1925, quoted in Hearings, p. 36.
“Hollow”; “a political”: Federated Press Labor Letter (hereafter abbreviated as FPLL), June 14, 1928, quoted in Hearings, p. 45.
“The complete”: Olds, The Daily Worker, July 5, 1928, quoted in Hearings, p. 43.
Transformation had: Olds, FPLL, April 27, July 28, 1927, quoted in Hearings, pp. 61, 65.
“In my opinion”: “Supplemental Statement of Leland Olds,” Hearings, p. 291. “I rejected”: Olds, Hearings, p. 108. New party: “Statement of Leland Olds—Resumed,” Hearings, p. 136. “Leads the world”: Olds, FPLL, April 27, 1927, quoted in Hearings, p. 344. “The attempt”: Olds, FPLL, Nov. 11, 1925, quoted in Hearings, p. 343.“Theories developed”: Olds, Hearings, p. 136.
“Two alternatives”: FPLL, April 6, 1927, quoted in Hearings, p. 40. “Socialistic, if you like”: Franklin D. Roosevelt, quoted in Schlesinger, Crisis of the Old Order, p. 124. “Giant”: FPLL, May 4, 1927, quoted in Hearings, p. 41.
“Even men”: Oliver Pilat, “Head Man in the Nation’s Powerhouse,” NYP, Sept. 23, 1944.
At Crerar Library: Oliver Pilat, “Head Man in the Nation’s Powerhouse,” NYP, Sept. 23, 1944; Hearings, p. 140. “Who and what”: Gunther, Inside U.S.A., p. 183. When: Schlesinger, Crisis of the Old Order, p. 120. “All his life”: James M. Kiley, Leland Olds Manual, p. v.
“I haven’t; Walsh call: Olds to Jerome Walsh, Sept. 16, 1949, Box 74, LOP, FDRL; Oliver Pilat, “Head Man in the Nation’s Powerhouse,” NYP, Sept. 23, 1944. Executive Mansion discussion: Samuel I. Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt, pp. 34–35; Burns, Lion and the Fox, p. 113.
Camping: Zara Chapin interview.
Olds at NYS Power Authority: Adolf Berle, Hearings, pp. 18–21; Julius H. Barnes to Ed Johnson, Sept. 26, 1949, in Hearings, p. 336. “Just one day”: Hearings, pp. 148, 9.
Views changed: Hearings, p. 134; Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 463; McCulloch, Rauh, Van Scoyoc interviews; NYT, April 12, 1944. “Great reforms”: Hearings, p. 134. “The greatest”: NYT, Aug. 16, 1942. Impassioned attack: NYT, March 2, 1937. Formation of ALP: Burns, Lion and the Fox, pp. 287, 377–78; Schlesinger, Crisis of the Old Order, p. 593. Joined because; “invites all”: NYT, Oct. 4, 1938. He resigned: See Chapter 11.
Olds at the FPC: C. Herman Pritchett, “Staff Report on the Federal Power Commission,” Committee on Independent Regulatory Commissions, Sept. 1, 1948, pp. II, 5–6; Goldberg, Radin, Van Scoyoc interviews. “In Butte”: Goldberg interview. “Like Einstein”: Kiley, p. 5. The Einstein comparison was made by others, including William C. Wise, then deputy administrator of the Rural Electrification Agency, who said: “There was only one Lee Olds…. Just as there has only been one Albert Einstein in mathematics—only one George Norris in the United States Senate—there has been only one who, having been blessed … with a fertile and imaginative brain, force[d] himself to work as much as fourteen and sixteen hours, six and seven days, week in and week out, in an attempt to bring to fruition … dreams” of low-cost electric energy (Wise, quoted in Kiley, p. iv). “Many of you”: NYT, April 12, 1944.
Moore quoted: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate Commerce, United States Senate, Seventy-eighth Congress, Second Session, on Leland Olds’ Reappointment as Commissioner to the Federal Power Commission, July 6, 7 and 8, 1944. Washington: Government Printing Office: 1944 (hereafter referred to as 1944 Hearings), pp. 176–77. Without a job: NYHT, June 20, July 9, 1944; NYT, July 9, 1944. “I think”: 1944 Hearings, pp. 166–67. “I do not”: Tunnell, CR, 78/2, pp. 7692, 7693. Not a single: NYT, Sept. 14, 1944; McCulloch interview.
Brown & Root purchasing: Dugger, The Politician, pp. 282–83; Time Feb. 24, 1947; Newsweek, Nov. 24, 1947; “Natural Gas—Whoosh!” Fortune, Dec. 1949; Time, July 1, 1957. Johnson’s intervention: Clark, Connally, Corcoran, Harold Young interviews. Natural gas and FPC: The New Leader, Oct. 15; NYP, Oct. 30. Phillips: Stokes, WS, June 18, 1955; Joseph P. Harris, “The Senatorial Rejection of Leland Olds: A Case Study,” American Political Science Review, Sept. 1951, p. 680. “Courageously”: Joseph P. Harris, “The Senatorial Rejection of Leland Olds: A Case Study,” APSR, Sept. 1951, p. 679. Truman’s veto: Box 156, LOP, FDRL; Newsweek, April 29, 1950; NYHT, April 16, 1950. A single figure: Among many statements on this point is one by one of the country’s most respected experts in the public utility field, Professor James C. Bonbright of Columbia University, who said in 1949, “In my opinion, millions of people in this country today are presently paying lower utility rates than they would be paying but for the presence of Leland Olds on the Federal Power Commission” (Joseph P. Harris, “The Senatorial Rejection of Leland Olds: A Case Study,” APSR, Sept. 1951, p. 676). “Would establish”: Dugger, p. 351. “Nothing”: Francis to Johnson, June 28, 1949, attached to Francis to Tom Connally, June 28, Box 18, LBJA SN.
“Olds was”: Oltorf interview. “Transcended”: Connally interview.
Lyndon knew: The description of Johnson’s strategy and tactics is from interviews with Horace Busby, Ed Clark, John Connally, Walter Jenkins, Mary Rather, and Mary Louise Glass Young, and from Dugger, pp. 351–55, and Sherrill, pp. 155–66.
Persuaded Ed Johnson: “Clifford—Tel. to LO—Talk W Frank Myers,” undated, Box 73, LOP, FDRL; Dugger, p. 351.
“He suggested”: Lyle OH, p. 38. “We did an awful lot of research on Olds,” Walter Jenkins recalls (Jenkins OH IX, p. 25). HUAC memorandum: “Information from the files of the Committee on Un-American Activities, United States House of Representatives; date, July 14, 1949; subject, Leland Olds,” quoted in Hearings, pp. 255–56. And Johnson’s staff was also in communication with HUAC: Busby, Young interviews; Young to Johnson, Oct. 10, Box 216, JSP.
Coordinating research in Austin: Clark, Jenkins, Yarborough interviews. Wirtz description: Caro, Path, pp. 373–76.
Johnson decided: Lyle OH, Busby interview and OH. Forty thousand shares; “‘Communists!’”: Clark interview. “I don’t care”: Rather to Johnson, Sept. 20, 1949, Box 216, JSP. Wirtz hated: Clark, Hopkins, L. E. Jones, Rather, Harold H. Young interviews. Sent lists: Clark to Johnson, Sept. 8, 1949, Box 216, JSP. Suggestions: Francis to Johnson, Aug. 8, Sept. 16, Box 336, JSP. Culled: Johnson to Francis, Aug. 28; to Nixon, Sept. 24, Box 336, JSP. He also asked HUAC for information on William Berle (Glass to Johnson, Oct. 10, Box 863, JSP).
“A hero of mine”: Rauh interview.
They believed: Cohen, Corcoran, McCulloch, Rauh, Rowe interviews. The link: Caro, Path, pp. 450–51, 469, 518–19. Brief disagreement: Olds to Ellis, Feb. 17, 1960, Box 6, WHCF, OF, HSTL. “In fact”: Olds to James Lee, June 15, LOP, FDRL. “What can I do”: William A. Roberts to Olds, June 15, Box 75, LOP, FDRL. The assumption:For example, Cooke to Johnson, June 18, Box 75, LOP, FDRL. Cooke noted that eight of the thirteen members of the Commerce Committee were Democrats, and said, “We who supported you in the past urge you to press for favorable action Olds.”
“Good deal”: “Kefauver,” “Miscellaneous Notes,” Box 73, LOP, FDRL. “Afraid”: Olds’ note to himself, undated but August from surrounding materials, following a conversation with Clark Clifford, “Miscellaneous Notes: Phone Conversations re Nom.,” Box 73, LOP, FDRL. Believed … Kerr: For example, SLP-D, June 19; NYP, July 1, 13.“Rather agreed”: “Kefauver, 8/18,” “Miscellaneous Notes,” Box 73, LOP, FDRL. “Serious danger”: Stokes, WS, Aug. 25.
“Open hostility”: Olds to Fred Freestone, Sept. 16, Box 74; Olds’ “Desk Diary,” Sept. 22, Box 73, LOP, FDRL. Five members: WS, Aug. 25. Now seven: Ed Johnson to Lyndon Johnson, Aug. 24, in Hearings, p. 1. “Unalterably”; “unsatisfactory”: Olds, “Clifford—Tel to LO,” undated, Box 73, LOP, FDRL. And McGrath’s report to Clifford, who relayed the report to Olds, shows how totally Olds’ fate was linked to his abandoning his attempts to make natural gas companies adhere to the law. After talking to Clifford, Olds made the following note to himself: “Reed—will not be opposed if before my nomination amendments to natural gas act are passed.” Johnson’s reason for increase: The New Leader, Oct. 15; Busby interview. Truman had: MW to Clifford, Aug. 8, Box 12, Papers of Clark Clifford, HSTL.
“Stacked”: “Clifford—Tel to LO,” undated, Box 73, LOP, FDRL. “I am”: Olds to Berle, Sept. 15, 1949, Box 74, LOP, FDRL. “Seldom”: Childs, NYP, July 1, 1949. “We thought”: McCulloch interview. Olds had no idea: MuCulloch, Rauh, Van Scoyoc interviews.
11. The Hearing
All dates are 1949 unless otherwise indicated.
Room 312: That room has been renumbered, and is now Room 318 in the Senate’s Russell Building.
Olds didn’t know: Busby, Rauh, Van Scoyoc interviews. Lyle’s testimony: “Reappointment of Leland Olds to Federal Power Commission,” Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, United States Senate, Eighty-first Congress, First Session, Sept. 27, 28, 29, and Oct. 3, 1949, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1949 (hereafter identified as Hearings), pp. 28–101.
Tobey sympathetic: Othman, El Paso Herald Post, Sept. 28. Had given proxy: Tobey to Johnson, Sept. 29, Box 216, JSP. “A man has”: Tobey, Hearings, p. 30. “The Congressman”: Lyndon Johnson, Hearings, p. 31.
“Without objection”: Lyndon Johnson, Hearings, p. 44. “Shocked”: McFarland, Hearings, p. 101. Tobey left: That evening, he took back the proxy he had given Lyndon Johnson and gave it to Ed Johnson instead, writing Lyndon, “I will explain more fully when we meet again” (Tobey to Johnson, Sept. 29, Box 216, JSP).
“Mr. Olds”: Lyndon Johnson, Hearings, p. 106. “Rejected”: Olds, Hearings, p. 108. Never … for Daily Worker: Hearings, pp. 132–33. “An open book”: Hearings, p. 154.
Capehart began: Hearings, p. 107. “Mr. Chairman”: McFarland, Hearings, p. 101. “Let us”: Johnson, Hearings, p. 108.
“Had he not”; “it may be: Johnson, Olds, Hearings, p. 110. “When you accepted”: Johnson, Hearings, p. 111. Brandishing it: Johnson’s demeanor at the hearings is described by Busby and Van Scoyoc. Sherrill (Accidental President, p. 159) speaks of the “cold sarcasm” with which Johnson questioned Olds, and of his “mocking” Olds. “It was my”: Hearings, p. 111. “Did you ever”: Capehart, Hearings, p. 110. Olds’ exchange with McFarland: Hearings, pp. 111–22. “I am telling”: Olds, Hearings, p. 114. “Wirtz picked up”: Yarborough, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 295.
“Is it correct”; “‘yes’ or ‘no’”: Johnson, Hearings, p. 120. “No, sir”: Olds, Hearings, p. 120. His exchanges with Johnson, Cape-hart, and Reed are on pp. 120–25.
“The important thing”: Johnson, Hearings, p. 126. “Let me make”: Reed, Hearings, p. 126. “A full-fledged … Communist”: Reed, WP, Sept. 29.
“Rocked”: HP, Sept. 29. “Tic”: Busby interview. “He kept”: Van Scoyoc interview.
Stokes, Othman columns: WS, WDN, Sept. 28. Johnson felt: Busby, Jenkins interviews. Johnson began the afternoon session by saying, “During the lunch hour I was informed, and, I might say, somewhat entertained by today’s press reports on our hearings…. While we are waiting for some of the members, I would like to put in the record …” And he proceeded to read the two columns into the record verbatim. “So far”: Johnson, Hearings, p. 133. “Frequently”: Olds, Johnson, Hearings, pp. 134, 135. “I thought”: Hearings, p. 145.
“Make it clear”: Olds, Hearings, p. 136. “What date”: Johnson, Hearings, p. 136. Found: His letter—Olds to William Barlo, Sept. 18, 1939—was inserted in Hearings, p. 138, after the hearings were over.
“I gather you”; “I do not think”: Johnson, Olds, Hearings, p. 142. “You are aware”; “I did not know”: Johnson, Olds, Hearings, p. 143.
The impression; Johnson’s demeanor: Busby interview. “You do not”; “unless I can answer”: Johnson, Olds, Hearings, pp. 155, 156. Unleashed Capehart: Hearings, pp. 151–52.
“Olds’ FPC record”: “Reward for Service,” New Republic, Oct. 10.
“Do you really believe”: Hearings, p. 197. Johnson’s response: Hearings, p. 198. “Single-minded”: Reed, Hearings, p. 174.
“A full-fledged”: Reed, WP, Sept. 29. “SENATOR REED”; “SENATOR SAYS”: NYT, WP, Sept. 29.
“The money”: Gunther interview. “Despicable”: W P, Sept. 30. “I found”: Mellett, WS, Oct. 1. “And then”: Van Scoyoc interview. Johnson making calls: Busby, Jenkins interviews. Stopwatch: Pearson, WP, Oct. 4; Busby interview.
“Witnesses”: Joseph P. Harris, “The Senatorial Rejection of Leland Olds: A Case Study,” APSR, Sept. 1951, p. 681. “You have”: Alpern, Hearings, p. 213. “If we”; “Well, I”: Johnson, Alpern, Hearings, p. 214. “The courageous”: Alpern, Hearings, p. 215. Exchange over time: Hearings, p. 215.
“Human memory”: Proctor, Hearings, p. 219. “A man”: Houston, Hearings, p. 205. “Any”: Sanders, Hearings, p. 207. “Numerous”: Van Scoyoc to Caro, Dec. 7, 1992 (in author’s possession).
“The man”; “We never”: CCC-T, April 6, 1980. “Am sure”: Johnson to Nixon, Sept. 3. Nixon had, in fact, volunteered Head’s services to Johnson for the Olds fight, writing Johnson that “His head is really in the task assigned him. Here is hoping for success.” Both from “Appts—Olds, Leland,” Box 336, JSP.
“Is Mr. Bonner”; “a traitor”: Johnson, Bonner, Hearings, pp. 255, 259–60.
“All the more”: Head, Hearings, pp. 280–85.
Told callers: Busby interview. “Now, Mr. Bonner”: Johnson, Hearings, p. 257. “Dear Lyndon”: Bonner to Johnson, Oct. 31, Box 216, JSP. Reading the Photostat: Hearings, pp. 255–56. Bricker: Hearings, pp. 258, 285.
Headlines: H P, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, Sept. 30.
“The rumor”: Hearings, p. 252.
“I think”: Hearings, p. 173. “Not be available”; “the material”: Olds to Johnson, Sept. 29, Box 74, FDRL. Cooper’s call: Olds’ Desk Diary, Sept. 29, Box 11, LOP, FDRL.
“I had asked”: “Conversation with Leland Olds” (verbatim typed transcript), Sept. 30, Box 336, JSP. “Very kind”: “Later Conversation with Leland Olds,” Sept. 30; Olds’ Desk Diary, Sept. 30, Box 73, LOP, FDRL.
“At the outset”; “Do you repudiate”: Hearings, pp. 291–94, 305–06, 313–20. “The committee has not”: Johnson, Hearings, p. 316.
“I am not asking”: Hearings, p. 313. “The question”: Hearings, p. 315.
“Mr. Olds himself”: Lincoln, “The Political Mill,” WS, Oct. 15. “Chameleon-minded”: DMN, Oct. 5. “He is”: McNaughton to Bermingham, Oct. 7, McNaughton Papers, HSTL.
“I am aware”: Truman to Ed Johnson, Oct. 3, in NYT, Oct. 5. “Beside the point”: Ed Johnson to Truman, Oct. 4, in NYT, Oct. 5. 7–0 vote: Lyndon Johnson to Ed Johnson, Oct. 4, Box 316, JSP; NYHT, NYT, Oct. 5. “President Truman’s”: NYT, Oct. 6.
Rebel yells: Danciger to Johnson, Oct. 5, Box 321, JSP. “What a subcommittee!”: “Washington Wire,” New Republic, Oct. 10. “Olds, shouts”: “The Enemies of Leland Olds,” New Republic, Oct. 17. “I know of”: Lerner, Childs, NYP, Oct. 6. “Vendetta”: The Nation, Oct. 15. “This is the reason”: Stone, Baltimore Sun, Oct. 7. “Hardly”:Joseph C. Harsch, “State of the Nation,” Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 12. Editorial: WP, Sept. 30.
“So hostile”: New Republic, Oct. 10. “Against Olds is”: New Republic, Oct. 17.
Fortune article: “Men of the Gold Coast,” Oct. 1949. “This may explain”: Mellett, WS, Oct. 4. The headline over his column was “Big Inch and Little Inch Pipelines, Senator Lyndon Johnson and Mr. Olds.”
“Because he”: Rowe interview. Similar feelings surfaced in his Oral History. “I told”: Corcoran, quoted in Joe B. Frantz, “Opening a Curtain: The Metamorphosis of Lyndon B. Johnson,” The Journal of Southern History, Feb. 1979, p. 17. “Shameful”: Cohen interview. “Disgusted”; “There were”: Rauh interview. “Really”: Rauh, quoted in Frantz, “Opening a Curtain,” The Journal of Southern History, Feb. 1979, p. 15. “I sort of”: Rowe interview.
“My, I wish”: Rowe OH.
“Enthusiastic”: “Clifford,” Olds’ “Miscellaneous Notes: Phone Conversations,” Box 73, LOP, FDRL. “The main”: Olds to Eleanor Roosevelt, Oct. 1, Box 75, LOP, FDRL. “I knew Mr. Olds”: Eleanor Roosevelt, “My Day,” NYP, Oct. 2. Other friends attempting: Box 73, LOP, FDRL; McCulloch interview. “Certain”: CR, 81/1, p. 14371.Voorhiis statement: Voorhiis to Douglas, Oct. 7, Box 74, LOP, FDRL. Too late: Campbell to Douglas, Oct. 7, Box 74, LOP, FDRL. “No place”: “Clifford,” undated, Box 73, LOP, FDRL. “Importance”: “Notes for Talk with Clifford,” undated, Box 73, LOP, FDRL.
Only twenty-nine: Newsweek, Oct. 17. Truman orders Boyle: WS, Oct. 6; NYT, Oct. 7. “Brazen”: WS, Oct. 7. “Deliberate”: WP, Oct. 8. “Deliberately”; to twenty-four: Newsweek, Time, Oct. 17.
“Most important”: FWS-T, Oct. 17.
12. The Debate
All dates are 1949 unless otherwise noted.
“Because of”: McCulloch interview. “In the afternoon”: Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 464.
Speeches for Olds: CR, 81/1, pp. 14362–375.
Lyndon Johnson’s speech: CR, 81/1, pp. 14379–385.
“Did change”: McNaughton to Bermingham, Oct. 14, p. 2, McNaughton Papers, HSTL. He also reported that “several senators said they knew of ‘four or five’ votes changed…. Ed Johnson confirms this.” “It took”: Sherrill, Accidental President, p. 163. “Most”: Michael Gillette, “The Leland Olds Controversy,” unpublished paper cited in Miller,Lyndon, p. 145. “Stunned”: McNaughton to Bermingham, p. 4. “About”: WS, Oct. 14.
“It’s not”; “I’ve never”: FWS-T, Oct. 17. “Almost alone”: Rauh, quoted in Miller, p. 146. During: Gunther interview. “In the minds”: Mellett, WS, Oct. 18.
“The outstanding”: DT-H, Oct. 16. “A whopping”: DMN, Oct. 14. “PRINCIPLE”: HP, Oct. 15. Carpenter article: FWS-T, Oct. 17. “The junior”: DMN, Oct. 16.
“People all over”: Caro, Path, p. 767. Doubts had lingered: Among other interviews, those with Busby, Clark, Connally, Jenkins. “I hope”: Busby to Johnson, undated, but with Dec. 1949 letters, Box 863, JSP.
REA speech: HP, Oct. 20. At 8-F and hunting camp: Clark, Oltorf interviews. Busby careful: Johnson even got mail in 8-F (Busby to Rather, Lamar Hotel, c/o Suite 8-F, Dec. 19, Box 863, JSP). “Senator cannot”: Jenkins to Johnson, Nov. 9, Box 863, JSP. “Shinnery”: Glass to Busby, Nov. 4. Even the: Glass to Jenkins, Nov. 7—all Box 863, JSP.
“Even after”: Oltorf interview. “Listen, you”: Brown interview. “It is”: Woodward to Busby, undated but attached to Woodward to Busby, Oct. 31, Box 863, JSP. “One of”: Johnson to Douglas, Dec. 23, Box 3, LBJA.
Almost exhausted: Zara Olds Chapin interview.
“Of course”: Truman to Olds, Nov. 10. President’s Personal File, 5124, HSTL. “Would still”: NYT, WS, Oct. 20. And see NYT, Oct. 21. Boyle told: Blumenthal to Pearson, undated, Box F165 (3 of 3), Drew Pearson Papers. Water Policy Committee: WS, Jan. 4, 1950; NYT, Aug. 5, 1960. Interagency: NYT, Aug. 5, 1960.
On the advice: Radin, Van Scoyoc interviews. Kiley says the firm was “created for the purpose of giving him a modest living….”; Kiley, Leland Olds Manual, p. v. “Yes”: Author’s interview with Radin. “A poor man”: Davis interview.
“My mother”: Zara Olds Chapin interview. “Very upset”: Zara Chapin, Marsh, Marianne Olds interviews. “Never once”: Radin, Davis interviews. “Quite possibly”: Fortune, May 1952. “Olds was crushed”: Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 464. “Killed”: Rauh, quoted in Joe B. Frantz, “Opening a Curtain: The Metamorphosis of Lyndon B. Johnson,” The Journal of Southern History, Feb. 1979.
“Lee”: Van Scoyoc, Zara Olds Chapin interviews. (Olds recounted this incident to Ms. Chapin.)
“A great”: Murray, CR, 86/2, p. 15010. “In a sense”: Kennedy, WP, Aug. 5, 1960.
13. “No Time for a Siesta”
All dates are 1950 unless otherwise noted.
“I’m young”: Johnson to Russell, Oct. 17, 1949, V., Intra-Office Communications, Personal Miscellaneous, Jan. 1950, RBRL.
Hunting trip: Connally, Oltorf interviews. “Dear Lyndon”: Russell to Johnson, Nov. 25, 1949, V., Personal Miscellaneous, Jan. 1950, RBRL.
Only once: “Contacts with President Truman,” Box 8, WHFN. Starting to brood: Busby, Corcoran, Rowe interviews.
Call to Rusk: Alsop with Platt, I’ve Seen the Best of It, p. 308. “He called me”: Busby interview.
“Usurped”: Phillips, Truman Presidency, p. 299.
Johnson’s letter: Johnson to Truman, June 28; Truman to Johnson, June 30, Box 471B, “Tender of Services—J,” Official File, HSTL. “I remember”: Busby interview. “Never quite”: Margaret Truman interview.
“Truman Committee”: McCullough, Truman, Chapter 7. “The most”: McCullough, p. 287.
Had McClellan: For Johnson’s concern about the Committee on Expenditures, see Report of Proceedings, Hearing Held Before Committee on Armed Services, Executive Session, July 17, Box 345, JSP, p. 8; and memo, “Congressional scrutiny of …,” undated, unsigned, Box 345, JSP. Had Symington: Busby interview. A summary of these arguments is in an article by Bascom Timmons on July 31, newspaper not identified. Truman took: Busby interview.
Tydings’ dilemma: Goldsmith, Colleagues, p. 20; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 305. Tried to keep: NYHT, July 18. Pursuant to: Report of Proceedings, pp. 9–15. “Millard”; “I believed”: Johnson to Tydings, July 19. Sought to reassure: “Memorandum to Senator Tydings,” July 25, “Preliminary Organizations: Preparedness Subcommittee,” Box 345, JSP.
Reassuring Truman: “Memorandum: Visit at White House,” Aug. 8; Library of Congress Legislative Reference Service, W. C. Gilbert to Johnson, Aug. 25, Box 8, WHFN; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 306–07. “Talked it over … with Russell”: Steinberg, p. 304; Goldsmith, p. 20. “No other factors”: Symington interview. “No rancor”:Goldsmith, p. 20. Saying privately: Busby interview. Tydings’ announcement: NYHT, July 28.
“Today faces”: FWS-T, July 31. “With the outbreak”: The Nation, Oct. 21.
Assembling staff: “Memorandum for the Record of the Preparedness Subcommittee—Staff Meeting with Senator Johnson,” Aug. 1, 2, 3, Box 346, JSP; interviews with staff members Anton, Busby, McGillicuddy, Siegel, and Tyler. Codifying regulation: Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, Section 202(f), Senate Resolutions 319 of the 78th Congress and 77 of the 79th Congress, cited in Smith to Thompson, Sept. 23, 1948, p. 2, Box 345, JSP. “Nearly all”; “highest-ranking”: Smith to Thompson, Sept. 23, 1948, pp. 4, 5.
Cook’s reluctance; he was told: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 307; Busby, Rowe interviews. Circumventing; “temporary”; violated: “Minutes,” Aug. 23, “The Preparedness Subcommittee met …,” Box 346, JSP; “Executive Session, Transcripts,” The U.S. Senate Report of Proceedings: Hearing Held Before the Committee on Rules and Administration, Pursuant to Senate Resolution 17, Executive Session, Jan. 24, 1951, Ward & Paul, official reporters, pp. 18, 21, 22, 26–29; Ritchie, Tyler interviews; Cook to Johnson, Jan. 24, 1951, Box 116, LBJA SF; Committee on Rules & Administration, SEN 82A-E16, pages attached to printed transcript, Executive Session, Jan. 24, 1951, NA.
Hiring Siegel; Making it clear: Siegel OH, interview. Rent-free rooms: McGillicuddy, Tyler interviews.
Tyler’s hiring: Tyler interview. twenty-five: CR, 81/2, p. 8624; 82/1, p. 474.
First report: Investigation of the Preparedness Program, First Report of the Preparedness Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate Under the Authority of S. Res. 93 (81st Congress)—Interim Report On: Surplus Property, Rubber, letter of transmittal, Johnson to Tydings, Sept. 5. (Hereafter the subcommittee’s reports will be cited as Subcommittee Reports.) Simply a recycling: Busby, McGillicuddy, Tyler interviews; Donald Cook, “Work of the Preparedness Subcommittee,” The Federal Bar Journal, March 1951, p. 232. After boasting about the speed with which the subcommittee had gotten under way, Cook wrote: “I must qualify this statement to a degree. In fact the Subcommittee’s work began before it was created. Senator Lyndon Johnson had for some time been blowing the bellows hard under our synthetic rubber and surplus disposal programs. Hence, the Subcommittee, when it brought the hammer down, found the iron already hot.”
“A number”; Symington told Johnson: Investigation … First Report, p. 3; Busby, McGillicuddy interviews. Johnson wrote Hise: Johnson to Hise, July 29, Investigation … First Report, p. 27. Symington had informed: Symington to Hise, July 28; Symington to Johnson, Aug. 3; Hise to Johnson, Aug. 17; Investigation … First Report, pp. 29, 30; “Surplus Property Generally,” handwritten Johnson memo, undated, “Preliminary Organization,” Box 345, JSP; Donald Cook, “Investigations in Operation: Senate Preparedness Subcommittee,” University of Chicago Law Review, Spring 1951. Body of opinion: “Akron Rubber Plant,” Box 350, JSP; Howard to Johnson, Investigation … First Report, pp. 114–15. “Truman appears: SLP-D, Oct. 8; NYT, Sept. 7; Symington interview. “Because of this”: Investigation … First Report, p. 4.
Drafting the report: Busby interview. Newspaper reaction: NYHT, NYT, Sept. 7; WS, Sept. 8, 10; WP, Sept. 17. “A model”: Krock, NYT, Sept. 19.
As a Schenley: NYHT, Nov. 22. “Lagging seriously”: NYT, Dec. 31. Actually larger: NYT, Dec. 31.
“Government agencies”; “paper preparedness”; “Compulsory”; “‘Pearl Harbor’”: Newspaper clippings, Boxes 354, 2012, 2013, JSP. $6.89: NYT, Nov. 10. Busby’s determination: Busby interview. “A joking”: Reedy OH I, p. 2. “Inevitable”: WP, June 12, 1951. “It’s all right”: Alexander, “Some Hot Reading,” LAT, June 17.
Drawing up agenda; Truman’s reaction: “Subjects to be Covered at Meeting on Friday, Aug. 4,” attached to Johnson to Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson, Aug. 2; Truman to Louis Johnson, Aug. 4, which includes: “I am returning the letter from Lyndon Johnson, together with the subjects he desires to cover. Apparently he has never read about the conduct of the war in the 1860s.” President’s Secretary’s Files—General File, PSF Box 124, HSTL. Masterstroke: “General Survey of the Truman Committee (Requested by Senator Johnson Aug 2) … (The following are direct quotes from the Final Report of the Truman Committee), Box 116, LBJA SF, “Statement of Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement of Policies and Procedures of Subcommittee” (with Johnson’s markings in margins). This statement is dated July 31, but it is based on the Aug. 2 “General Survey” and Busby says it was drafted in response to Truman’s displeasure; Official File 419, OF Box 1239, HSTL. Johnson sent him: “Dear Matt, I want you to see a copy of a statement…. Some paragraphs in which you might be especially interested are marked…. I hope, whenever you can, you will have the President look this over, too …,” Johnson to Matt Connelly, Aug. 3; “I … have passed it on to the President,” Matt Connelly to Johnson, Aug. 7, Official File 419, OF Box 1239, HSTL. In furtherance of this strategy, Johnson also sent Truman a list of “Excerpts from Truman Committee Reports,” with the covering note: “Reverting again to the President’s own experiences serving in a similar capacity, we have attempted on the subcommittee to follow the President’s example in vigorously criticizing those situations where it appeared that criticisms would forward the national defense. As a matter of interest, we are attaching some precedents in that respect, set for this subcommittee by the Truman Committee” (Box 124, General File, HSTL). Phrases that echoed: McCullough, pp. 255–91. “Approved them”; “MEMORANDUM: Visit at White House”: Aug. 8, unsigned, Box 116, LBJA SF.
“A NEW”: Albright, “Gallery Glimpses,” WP, Aug. 6. In talking to Albright, Johnson noted another similarity to the original Truman Committee. After talking to him, Albright wrote that the Johnson Subcommittee “will get down to ‘cases’ and try to correct them. The old Truman Committee used the ‘case system,’ scouting out bottlenecks in the preparedness effort and trying to break them.” “Like father”: WS, Sept. 19.
Work of one man; involving other: McCullough, Chapter 7. “They would”: McCullough, p. 263. Johnson discouraging participation: Busby, McGillicuddy, Reedy interviews. Kefauver’s proxy: Transcript of Johnson telephone conversation with Allen, March 30, 1951, “Notes and Transcripts of Johnson Conversations—1951,” Box 1; Kefauver to Johnson, Aug. 28, Box 345, JSP. Chapman’s drunkenness: Busby, Jenkins interviews. Receptivity: Goldsmith, p. 21. “An apparatus”: MacNeil interview. Would value: Anton interview. Get his quid: Anton, McGillicuddy interviews. “Work will take”: AP story, paper unidentified, Aug. 1.
Truman Committee’s openness: Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Special Committee of the Senate to Investigate National Defense Program, 1941–1948, compiled by Harold E. Hufford, assisted by Toussaint L. Prince; General Services Administration; 1952, 8E-2, 5/15/5, Boxes 14, 27, NA; National Archives Preliminary Inventory No. 48: Records of the Special Committee, 1952; NA, Washington, D.C.; Gillette, McCulley interviews. (Truman was chairman from April 15, 1941, to June 19, 1944.) “Memorable Days”: McCullough, pp. 272 ff. The contrast between the Truman and Johnson committees came through in a memo from Cook to Johnson “Re: Work of the Truman Committee.” The memo covers the earlier committee’s work even after Truman, having become vice president, was no longer chairman. The memo says that “during the seven years of its existence, the Committee issued fifty-one reports (including two minority reports) and held 432 public hearings…. In the first year of its existence, the Committee issued only six reports. During the remainder of 1942, it issued eight more reports … On the other hand, the Committee held a large number of public hearings … Hearings were in progress during almost every month of the Committee’s existence during the first year, and the record indicates that this procedure continued practically throughout the Committee’s entire existence.” As for the Johnson Subcommittee, Cook was to write—in an article published in 1951—that “in practice, the subcommittee had not found it necessary to conduct elaborate hearings where witnesses are interrogated at great length” because the information it needed was available in documents or was given to the subcommittee’s staff “informally.” “Occasionally,” he wrote, “the explanations are made at a formal hearing before the subcommittee in executive session. Since it is a policy announced by Senator Johnson … to develop the substantial rather than to exploit the sensational, very rarely are the hearings public.” (Donald Cook to Johnson, July 11, 1951, Box 116, LBJA SF; Cook, “Investigations in Operation: Senate Preparedness Subcommittee,” University of Chicago Law Review, Spring 1951). See also unsigned, “General Survey of the Truman Committee (Requested by Senator Johnson, Aug. 2); “Excerpts from Truman Committee Reports”; “Memorandum to the Senator,” unsigned, undated, all Box 116, LBJA SF.
Few Johnson hearings: S. Res. 18, U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Armed Services, Legislative Calendar, 81st Cong., 1949–1950; 82nd Cong., 1952; “Senate Armed Services Committee Calendar,” CR, 82/2; 83/1 and 2. Bulk closed: Ibid., 82/2; 83/1 and 2; BeLieu; Busby, McGillicuddy, Reedy interviews. “On S. 1”; “to facilitate”; not even funded: Richard T. McCulley, Memo Concerning Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee on Armed Service and the Universal Military Service and Training Act of 1951 (82nd Congress, 1951–1952), Oct. 19, 2001, Finding Aid for the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Center for Legislative Archives, NA. Nineteen open hearings: Even this figure may be misleading. Nine of the nineteen were on alleged scandals in the construction of overseas bases, and they followed a series of articles by Homer Bigart in the NYHT. Johnson had no choice but to open these hearings to the press, Daniel McGillicuddy says. “After all the press had broken the story. We couldn’tkeep them closed.”Staffers involved: Busby interview. “Unusual”: Darden OH. Stennis became a member of the Presidential Preparedness Subcommittee on March 13, 1951, after the hearing on S.1 had been concluded. “Skillfully guided”: Fite, p. 253. “The UMT thing”: Busby interview. Task forces; “Chairman Johnson”: Richard T. McCulley, Memo Concerning Task Forces of the Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Oct. 4, 2001, Reference Reports, 7/1999, Center for Legislative Archives, NA, Busby, McCulley, Reedy interviews.
Several simply rewritings; drafting procedure: Busby, McGillicuddy, Reedy interviews. “If you get”: McGillicuddy interview. “He looked”; “fifteen”: McGillicuddy interview. “We just”; “Johnson wanted”: Busby interview. “He got every report unanimous. Sounds great. You’re talking statesman” (MacNeil interview).
Infused: MacNeil, Steele interviews; McNeil OH.
“PACKETING”: Levison to Beshoar, Aug. 31, 1951. “NOT FOR USE”: “Johnson—Acheson—McNaughton,” undated. “Trouble is”: McConaughy to Beshoar, undated. “Had a long”; “I think”: Beal to Elson, Sept. 16, all SP.
“He worked”: McNeil OH. “TEXAS WATCHDOG”: Time, Sept. 18. “Mild-mannered but determined”: The Nation, Oct. 21. “Prominence”: Leslie Carpenter, “The Whip from Texas,” Collier’s, Feb. 17, 1951.
“It was”; “when Tydings”: Busby interview. McCarthy defeating Tydings: Reeves, Joe McCarthy, Chapters 13, 14. Big money from Texas: Theodore H. White, “Texas: Land of Wealth and Fear,” The Reporter, May 25, 1954. Ten thousand dollars: Reeves, p. 337.
14. Out of the Crowd
All dates are 1951 unless otherwise noted.
“The whole”: McGillicuddy interview. “No”: BeLieu interview.
Complaints about Lackland: NYT, WP, WS, Jan. 27. Rumors were all they were: NYT, WP, Jan. 30; WS, Feb. 4. “We are all”: Finletter to Johnson, Feb. 6, Appendix 2, Investigation of the Preparedness Program: Fifth Report … Interim Report on Lackland Air Force Base, Feb. 26 (referred to hereafter as Fifth Report).
Johnson emerged: WP, Jan. 28. “To make”: Johnson quoted, NYT, WP, Feb. 1. “We’ve got”: Johnson, quoted by Busby, Tyler. “He points”: Johnson quoted in Tyler interview. Busby’s feelings; “Listen”: Busby interview.
“INVESTIGATORS SLEEP”: DMN, Feb. 1. “No undue”; no suicides; no pneumonia epidemic, etc.: Fifth Report, pp. 2–4. Johnson was informed: Busby interview. “Many parents”: FWS-T, Feb. 19. Johnson touch: Fifth Report, pp. 1–13.
McNeil’s prediction: NYWT, Feb. 19. “Sizzling”: For example, AA-S, Feb. 18. “It was”: FWS-T, Feb. 19. “GREED”; “MESS”; “HOARD”: WS, WT-H, WP, Feb. 19. “Completely”: FWS-T, Feb. 19.
“I want”: Johnson, quoted in FWS-T, Feb. 19. “All branches”: Investigation of the Preparedness Program … Ninth Report: Military Indoctrination Centers, April 16.
McGillicuddy at Breckenridge: McGillicuddy interview. “We hit”: McGillicuddy, Tyler interviews. Housing conditions at Breckenridge: Investigation of the Preparedness Program … Twenty-eighth Report … Interim Report on Substandard Housing and Rent Gouging of Military Personnel, July 19, and Thirtieth Report: Second Report on Substandard Housing and Gouging…, Sept. 24. “This will”: Reedy, quoted by McGillicuddy in interview. Reedy confirmed McGillicuddy’s account. “When you go”; Johnson’s rage: McGillicuddy interview.
“A thousand signs”: Smathers OH. “He had to win”: Emmette Redford interview. “Any kind”: Siegel OH.
“A real challenge”: Goldsmith, Colleagues, p. 21. Kefauver had, in fact, given Johnson his proxy to use in subcommittee meetings, Kefauver to Johnson, Aug. 28, Box 345, JSP. “Drinking makes you”; “Bobby, you tryin’” Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 75–77. His drinks weaker: Gonella interview. Drinking with Chapman: Busby interview.
“As trustworthy”: McPherson, Political Education, p. 79. “Why, you”: Mooney, LBJ, p. 47. Tactics with Saltonstall: Reedy interview. Saltonstall once said of Johnson: “He knew how to go after people, so to speak. He never put the whips on men, to use that expression, in any sense of the word. He would say, ‘Help me’” (Saltonstall OH, quoted in Mooney, p. 54).
Helping Bridges on wool: Cook to Bridges, March 30, Box 353, JSP. Help against constituents: Report of Proceedings, Hearing Held Before Preparedness Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services—Executive Session, July 9, 1951. “Some investigator”: Bridges, ibid., pp. 33, 4. “Whenever”: Cook, ibid., p. 34. Rapport: Busby, Reedy interviews.
“Wake him up!”: Busby interview. Chapman’s death: WS, March 8.
Obtaining unanimity: BeLieu, Busby, McGillicuddy interviews. “Sometimes”: McGillicuddy interview. “He’d tell”: BeLieu interview.
Aides would hear: Busby, Jenkins interviews. “A detailed”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 123. “Most chairmen”: BeLieu interview. “Especially remarkable”: “The Watchdog Committee and How It Watches,” Newsweek, Dec. 3.
“Chiselers”: NYT, Sept. 30. Biloxi: WP, Oct. 20. “Inexcusable”: NYHT, NYT, Nov. 11. Warm clothing: NYHT, Nov. 1.
“Congress has”: Alexander, Boston Herald, Nov. 22. Long articles: Leslie Carpenter, “The Whip from Texas,” Collier’s, Feb. 17; Eliot Janeway, “Johnson of the Watchdog Committee,” NYT Magazine, June 17; Paul Healy, “The Frantic Gentleman from Texas,” SEP, May 19.
Leaking to Newsweek; “not very substantive”: Reedy OH IV, p. 21; Reedy interview. “We didn’t”: Investigation of the Preparedness Program … Thirty-fifth Report: Interim Report on Defense Mobilization, p. 15. “This report”: FWS-T, Nov. 29; Newsweek, Dec. 3. Foster’s letter: NYHT, Nov. 28, 29; NYT, FWS-T, Nov. 29.
Waiting for the cover: Jenkins interview. “Walter says”: Rather to Johnson, Nov. 28. “TOO MUCH BUTTER”: Newsweek, Dec. 3. Getting Reedy out of town: Reedy OH IV, pp. 21–24. “Unfair”: Jenkins, quoted in NYHT, Nov. 29. “Doubletalk”: NYT, NYHT, Nov. 20. “Just didn’t know”; “people”: NYHT, Dec. 2. Also see NYT, Dec. 3,NYHT, Dec. 7. Friendly’s study: WP, May 12–17, 1952.
“Often criticized”: McConaughy to Beshoar, June 19, 1953. “Much ado”: Blair to Beshoar, June 13, 1953, both SP.
15. No Choice
Development of leadership: Primarily Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, Vol. II, pp. 167–268, and Vols. I and II, passim; Galloway, Legislative Process, pp. 542–90; Matthews, U.S. Senators, pp. 118–46; Floyd M. Riddick, Majority and Minority Leaders; Alsop and Kintner, “Sly and Able: The Real Leader of the Senate, Jimmy Byrnes,” SEP, July 20, 1940.
Interviews particularly with Richard A. Baker, Neil MacNeil, Floyd M. Riddick, Donald A. Ritchie and Howard E. Shuman.
“Were generally”: Byrd, The Senate, Vol. II, p. 187. “No one”: Wilson, Congressional Government, p. 147. “No single”: Walter J. Oleszek, “John Worth Kern: Portrait of a Floor Leader,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, p. 8. “Baronial”: Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, p. 1. Lacked; “Priority”: Riddick,Senate Procedure, p. 883.
Primarily: Oleszek, “John Worth Kern,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, p. 24. One study states: “Never before had the president’s party in the Senate intentionally elected a floor leader for the primary purpose of implementing an executive-initiated legislative program” (Margaret Munk, “Origin and Development of the Party Floor Leadership in the United States Senate,” Capitol Studies, Winter 1974).
“He roars”: Alsop and Catledge, “Joe Robinson: The New Deal’s Old Reliable,” SEP, Sept. 26, 1936. Ran it on behalf: Donald Bacon, “Joseph Taylor Robinson: The Good Soldier,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, pp. 74, 75. George Norris was to accuse Robinson of voting “contrary to his party’s policies” during the Coolidge Administration. During the Depression, Al Smith was to say, “He has given more aid to Herbert Hoover than any other Democrat.” “A socialistic dole”; “the most humiliating”; “I know”: Bacon, “Joseph Taylor Robinson,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, pp. 77–78. H. L. Mencken was to write that although Robinson “was still” the New Deal’s “spokesman on the floor of the Senate, and he roared and sweated for it every day, everyone knew that he was in the forefront of the opposition to it behind the arras, and the only question in doubt was whether he would ever summon up courage enough to denounce it in the open” (Mencken, “Hero or Hack,”The American Mercury, Dec. 1937).
“Congress doesn’t”: Will Rogers, quoted in Bacon, “Joseph Taylor Robinson,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, p. “not interested”; “his loyalty”: Bacon, “Joseph Taylor Robinson,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, pp. 86, “Joe’s Job”; Huey Long “drove”: Alsop and Catledge, “Joe Robinson: The New Deal’s Old Reliable,” sep, Sept. 26, 1936. “He Did”; of Which: Bacon, “Joseph Taylor Robinson,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals,” pp. 93, 83–84.
“Woe”; “no one”; “there remains”; “a large”: William S. White, “Rugged Days for the Majority Leader,” NYT Magazine, July 3, 1949.
Forced; “Dear Alben”; “public humiliation”: Ritchie, “Alben W. Barkley: The President’s Man,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, pp. 127–34. “Real leader”: Alsop and Kintner, “Sly and Able,” SEP, July 20, 1940. Life poll: “Washington Correspondents Name Ablest Congressmen,” Life, March 20, 1939. “Bumbling Barkley”: Ritchie, “Alben Barkley,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, p. 129. Barkley was to admit that that label stuck to him “like tar did to Br’er Rabbit.”
Salted; “as the unhappy”: Alsop and Kintner, “Sly and Able,” SEP, July 20, 1940.
McKellar incident: Ritchie, “Alben Barkley,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, pp. 142–43. “Now he”: Sen. Elbert Thomas of Utah, quoted in Ritchie, “Alben Barkley,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, p. 148. “I have nothing” Drury, Reedy interviews. A different version (“I didn’t have anything to threaten them with, and it wouldn’t have worked even if I had tried”) is given in Matthews, p. 126, quoting Truman, Congressional Government, p. 136.
“Taft is”: White, Wallace, quoted in “Old Guard Supreme,” New Republic, Jan. 13, 1947. Looked back; “Rearview”: White, The Taft Story, p. 58; Drury interview. “Boss”: Time, Jan. 1947, quoted in Robert Merry, “Robert A. Taft: A Study in the Accumulation of Legislative Power,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, p. 177.“No desire”: Merry, “Robert Taft,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, p. 174.
“Barrymore”: Sidney Shallett, “The Senator Almost Got an Ulcer,” Collier’s, Jan. 14, 1950; Robert Albright, W P, Feb. 20, 1949. “Formidable”; “worn”; “hostile”: William S. White, “Rugged Days for the Majority Leader,” NYT Magazine, July 3, 1949. Russell approved: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 40. Caught between: Krock,NYT, March 20, 1949. “Ever more”; “rumors”: “The Perennial Filibuster,” New Republic, April 18, “It now”; little poems: Shallett, “Senator Almost Got an Ulcer,” Collier’s, Jan. 14, Without even: Willard Shelton, “Battle in a Paper Bag,” The Nation, May 20, 1950. Displaced-persons bill; “snake”: “Everything but Liars,” Newsweek, March 20, 1950. “Out of control”: “Taft Holds the Key,” New Republic, May 22, 1950.
“Debating” empty chair: MacNeil, Dirksen, p. 90. In “a serious”: Shallett, “Senator Almost Got an Ulcer,” Collier’s, Jan. 14, 1950. The most unhappy: Evans and Novak, p. 41.
One item: Reedy, U.S. Senate, pp. 41–42. Other than that: Reedy interview.
Johnson’s feelings; staff would hear: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, pp. 106–11; Busby, Jenkins, Rowe interviews. “Restlessness”: Johnson, quoted in Goodwin, p. 106. To wait: Rowe interview. “He told Russell”: Goodwin, p. 107.
“With him”: Darden interview. Russell felt: Fite, Russell, p. 266; Goldsmith, Colleagues, p. 23; Darden, Jordan interviews. “And there”: Darden interview. “You could”: Sparkman to Russell, Nov. 28, 1950; Russell to Sparkman, Dec. 1, 1950, VI A—Dictation Series, Personal Political Files, “Majority Leader,” Box 31, RBRL.
Solid on cloture: Robert Albright, “Gallery Glimpses,” W P, Dec. 3, 1950. “Perhaps yearning”: Evans and Novak, p. 43. “Amiable”: Mellett, WS, Jan. 2, 1951. Liberals behind O’Mahoney: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 317; WS, Dec. 12, 1950.
“Johnson had”: Robert Byrd, “Addresses on the History,” CR, Feb. 1, 1988, p. S 354. “Once”; “eyebrows went”: MacNeil interview. “Simply”: Evans and Novak, p. 39. “Lyndon, you”: Stennis OH. “The world outside”: Evans and Novak, p. 39. Walking: Goldsmith, p. 24. Sparkman withdrawing: AA-S, Jan. 3, 1951.
16. The General and the Senator
“It is doubtful”: Rovere and Schlesinger, The General, p. 5.
“The homecoming”: Life, April 30, 1951. “The largest”: Nixon, quoted in Life, April 23, 1951. First seventy thousand: Manchester, American Caesar, p. 648. “A gesture”: Life, April 30, 1951.
“Most Americans”: Life, April 30, 1951. “Stepped down”; “we heard God”; sobbing”; “reincarnation”: Manchester, American Caesar, p. 661. “A senior”: White, Citadel, pp. 243–44. “The only”: Reedy OH IV, p. 7. “[T]he adoring”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 58. “One of”: White, Citadel, p. 244. “The greatest”: Time, April 30, 1951.
“Almost runaway”: White, Citadel, p. 250. “What was bad”: Life, April 9. “Perhaps”: White, Citadel, pp. 241–42. “Popular”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 14.
“Absolutely”; “Boy”: Reedy OH IV, p. 8.
“When the U.S.”: Hugh Sidey, “Playing the Middle Octaves,” Time, Dec. 15, 1986. “Rather amusing”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, pp. 13, 14;Reedy OH IV, p. 4.
“Deep sense”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 15. “Russell believed”: Reedy OH IV, p. 5. “He believed”: Fite, Russell, p. 256.
“Anxious”: Time, May 14, 1951. “We are entering”: Time, May 21, 1951. “Whether closed”: Fite, p. 257. “I have been”: Time, May 14, 1951.
“Down from the Cross”: Richard Rovere, The New Yorker, April 21, 1951. “On the permanent”: Rovere and Schlesinger, p. 184. “For three”: Time, May 14, 1951. “No man”: Life, May 14, 1951. “I was operating”; “no policy”: Rovere and Schlesinger, pp. 187, 188. “It isn’t”: Manchester, American Caesar, p. 667. “I am not”; “quite a difference”: Time, May 14, 1951.
Johnson loaning Reedy, Cook, and Siegel: Reedy, Cook, Siegel OHs; Reedy interview. “I do not”: Manchester, American Caesar, p. 669. Lodge brought up: Time, May 14, 1951. What if Mao: Rovere and Schlesinger, pp. 238–40. “If we”: Manchester, p. 671. “That doesn’t”: Time, May 14, 1951. “Senator, I have asked you”: Rovere and Schlesinger, p. 241; Manchester, p. 671. “When General”: Time, May 14, 1951. “Among themselves”: Manchester, p. 670.
A compliment: Fite, p. 259. “The civilian”; “flat”: Time, May 14, 1951. Marshall’s testimony: Life, May 21, 1951.
“Quiet, unruffled”: White, Citadel, p. 246. “It is possible”: Rovere, “Letter from Washington,” The New Yorker, May 19, 1951.
“I am asking”; “compliment”: Time, May 28, 1951. “Private”; “Frantic”; “iron”: Fite, pp. 260–61. “Every half”: Rovere, “Letter from Washington,” The New Yorker, May 19, 1951. “A careless”: Fite, p. 260; Reedy interview. “In doing so”; “Russell put”: Time, June 4, 1951.
“One by one”: Manchester, American Caesar, p. 673. “The glamour”: Time, May 21, 1951.
“Capitol corridors”: Time, June 11, 1951. “The dramatic”: Time, June 4, 1951. “Hey, Mac”: Manchester, American Caesar, p. 683. Only twenty thousand: Time, June 25, 1951.
“Can only”: Goldsmith, Colleagues, p. 26. Essentially: Fite, pp. 262–64; Galloway, Legislative Process, pp. 156–57. “Without”; “at its best”: White, Citadel, pp. 251, 246. “Power and prestige”: Shaffer, On and Off the Floor, p. 208. “Firmness, fairness”: Life, March 24, 1952. Johnson had suggested: Reedy, U.S Senate, p. 14;Reedy interview.“Preeminent”: Reedy, p. 15. “George, please”: Reedy OH IV, p. 7. “By 1951”: Reedy OH IV, pp. 1, 2. “Russell has soberly”: “Washington Report—Staff,” “Politics,” p. 5, undated, signed Levison, MP.
17. The “Nothing Job”
“Without reference”; “Never before,” “unless I want to”: “simply”; Schlesinger, Imperial Presidency, pp. 135–38. “I don’t ask”: Donovan, Tumultuous Years, p. 323. “Great debate:” Donovan, pp. 321–25; Josephy, Congress, pp. 379–80; Manchester, Glory and the Dream, pp. 556–58; Schlesinger, pp. 137–40. Eisenhower’s testimony:Manchester, p. 557. “What this foggy”: Galloway, Legislative Process, p. 173. “The effect”: “Has Congress Broken Down?” For-tune, Feb. 1952.
Years of investigation: Robert Albright, W P, Oct. 21, 1951. “Scarcely got discussed”: Fortune, Feb. 1952. “Completed less”: WS, July 6, 1952. “Almost as many”: “Gallery Glimpses,” W P, May 18, 1952. “Congress is”: Fortune, Feb. 1952. “Many”; “Now that”: Galloway, Legislative Process, pp. 583, 581. Absenteeism worse: WP, June 1, 1952. Senators were remarking on it on the floor. On May 15, 1952, for example, Hubert Humphrey said, “This place looks like an apartment house which has just been vacated” (CR, 82/2, p. 5240). Medical facilities bill: W P, Oct. 21, 1950. “Never say die”: Pearson, WP, March 27, 1952.
“Lies in”; “have delayed”: Galloway, Legislative Process, p. 583. “Would be cutting”: Monroney, quoted in Fortune, Feb. 1952. “The Senate”: Morse, CR, 82/2, p. 9080.
“Blind rush”: Cordon, CR, 82/2, pp. 9253–54. A “relic”: Galloway, Legislative Process, p. 584. “The decay”; Twenty-nine countries; “obsolescence”: Galloway, pp. 584, 581.
McFarland’s first press conference: Darby to Bermingham, Jan. 6, 1951, MP. “I just try”: W P, Dec. 3, 1950. “That’s all right”: Blair Moody, “A Reporter-Senator Reports on the Senate,” NYT Magazine, Aug. 5, 1951. “There are not”: White, Citadel, p. 106. “A nigra mayor”: “Has Congress Broken Down?” Fortune, Feb. 1952. “Simply ineffectual”; “no leader at all”: For example, Time, July 9, 1951. “We’ll be here”: WS, Aug. 22, 1951. First voice: Reedy interview. “Congress is taking”: W P, Sept. 30, 1951.
“‘Lying Down Johnson’”: Pearson, W P, July 23, 1951.
McFarland often: Bibolet, Cole, Easley, Reedy interviews.
“Most people”; “Bobby didn’t”: McPherson OH II, pp. 14, 15. “True believers”: McPherson, Political Education, p. 25. “A great counter”: Rowe, Fortas, quoted in Caro, Path, p. 455. “What the fuck”; McCarran: Busby interview. And see Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 45. White House learned: Jenkins, Reedy interviews. May-bank’s appointment: Ben Bagdikian and Don Oberdorfer, “Bobby Was the Boy to See,” SEP, Dec. 3, 1963. In the drugstore; “homesick”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 22. “So”: “The Silent Witness,” Time, March 9, 1964. “Brought”; [learned]: Baker, pp. 29, 30. The other quotes from Baker are from pp. 32, 55, 34, 37. “Made the Senate”: SEP, Dec. 7, 1963. “Made it”: Evans Thomas, The Man to See, p. 182. “Fascinating”: Baker, p. 45. “Unabashed”: Time, March 9, 1964. “A bootlicker”: Thomas, p. 182. “He would”: Rowe, Bobby Baker Story, p. 19. “His voice”: Rowe, p. 19. “A son”: Evans and Novak, p. 68.
“The men”: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 69. Truman had no confidence in Lucas’ counts: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 314. “No prying”; “where”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 38–39, 34. “Whenever”: Bibolet interview.
Scheduling: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 318. “He wanted”: Bibolet interview. Persuaded Bridges; May 1 Calendar Call: CR, 82/2, pp. 4647–649. Word got around: Bibolet interview.
Pairing: Henry H. Gilfry, Precedents-Decisions, Vol. II, pp. 188–89; Floyd M. Riddick, rev. and ed. Alan S. Frumin, Senate Procedure, pp. 968–70; Floyd M. Riddick, United States Congress, pp. 298–301; Alfred Steinberg, “Shepherds of Capitol Hill,” Nation’s Business, Jan. 1952, who wrote: “In a general pairing, both members are absent. But in a live pair, which is a gentleman’s agreement between whips, a member of one party promises not to vote on a bill even though he will be present, but to permit himself to be paired off with an absent member of the other party who would have voted the opposite to him”; Baker, Ritchie interviews. “A voluntary”: Riddick, Senate Procedure, pp. 777–78. “When accused”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 55. Not “strategic”: Bibolet interview. Skeeter might forget: Bibolet, Reedy interviews.
Maneuvering over foreign aid: “Slicing the Bundle,” Newsweek, June 9, 1952; Bibolet interview. “We’ve already”: NYHT, May 29, 1952. “Unless”: NYT, June 1, 1952. “Heavy absenteeism”: NYHT, May 28, 1952. “Sensing”: Newsweek, June 9, 1952. “Nothing less”: NYT, May 29, 1952. “Then you”: NYT, May 27, 1952. Russell’s efforts:WP, Oct. 21, 1952. Johnson’s maneuvering; “If Magnuson”: Bibolet interview. Statements before the vote: CR, 82/2, p. 6098. “I am”: NYHT, May 29. Welker-McCarthy exchange: Newsweek, June 9, 1952. “By adroit”: WP, June 1, 1952.
“I do understand”: McPherson, p. 450.
Betrayal of Rayburn: Caro, Path, Chapter 30. Exclusion: Caro, pp. 754–57. On his first day back: Caro, pp. 757–63. Calling twenty: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 409. “I don’t”: Bolling interview. “The Chair”: Hardeman and Bacon, Rayburn, p. 342.
Jenkins’ assignment: Jenkins, Reedy interviews. “Tell Lyndon”: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 281. “I’ve got”: Rowe interview. “Every time”; “Beloved”: Bolling interview. “In that room”; descriptions of Johnson-Rayburn relationship, Harding and of the Board of Education: Caro, Path, Chapters 18, 30, 36; Bolling, Connally, Corcoran, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Dulaney, Hardeman, Holton, Izac, Mahon, McFarlane, Miller, Oltorf, Rayden, Elizabeth Rowe, James H. Rowe interviews. “It was never”: Oltorf interview. “Deferential”: Hardeman interview.
“Lyndon couldn’t”; “that was”; “vaulting”: Bolling interview. “He understood”: Ramsey Clark interview.
“Our … problem”: Anderson to Johnson, June 12; Johnson to Anderson, June 16, 1958, “Papers of the Democratic Leader,” Box 365, JSP. “You put”: Nichols to Johnson, April 30, 1956, Masters, Box 56, JSP. “I want”: Johnson to Ellender, March 28, 1958, Box 366, JSP.
“These $200 droplets”: Johnson to Rayburn, Oct. 10, 1942, Box 52, LBJA CF. “We didn’t know”: Brown interview.
Wild’s testimony: “In the United States District Court for the District of Columbia,” Securities and Exchange Commission vs. Gulf Oil Corporation, Claude C. Wild Jr., Civil Action No. 75–0324, April 26, 1978, pp. 8, 9, 28. “Hundreds”; “envelopes”: Wild interview.
Not the largest: Clark, Connally, Corcoran interviews. Also Herring, Hopkins, Jenkins, Herman Jones, Kilgore, Lucas, Miller, Oltorf, Rowe, Stehling, Woods, Woodward, Young interviews. “I handled”: Connally interview. “I knew”: Clark interview.
“I have”: “Resumé of telephone conversations—George Brown,” Jan. 5, 1960, SPF, “WJ Special,” Box 262, JSP. “Ed Clark tells me”: Jenkins to Woodward, Jan. 11, 1960, SPF, “WJ Special,” Box 262, JSP. “How could”: Clark interview. “All we knew”: Corcoran interview. “I’d go get it”: Connally interview. Unions’ cash: Corcoran, Hopkins, Rowe, Young interviews. “Because”; neither … trusted”; other Clark, Wild quotes: Clark, Wild interviews. And in his own book, Baker says that Wild “once told” Senator Kerr “that I had a bad reputation and was a crook.” (Baker recounts that he protested to Kerr that “I’ve never had a nickel’s worth of dealings with the man,” and Kerr then said, “Well, maybe you and Claude ought to get to know each other a little better. He’s got $5,000 that Gulf Oil wants to deliver to [a senator], and I want you to go with him to make the delivery.” Baker says, “I did so,” and he and Wild “walked together to the Old Senate Office Building, where he surrendered the cash” to the senator.) (Baker, with King, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 113) When Connally was asked to whom the money was handed, he refused to reply. “Official bagman”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 51. Baker’s conviction: NYT, WP, Jan. 30, 1967. An account of Baker’s trial is in Thomas, The Man to See, pp. 182, 184, 214–224. “He has $500”: Roberts to Connally, Aug. 14, Box 59, JSP.
“Asked me”: Kilgore interview. “I personally carried”: Mooney, LBJ, pp. 127–28.
“Never enough”; “How much”: Clark, Wild interviews. The Davis contributions: Clark interview. “We called them”: Connally interview. He said he would make up different lists for different amounts that Johnson wanted to raise: “If he needed fifty thousand, I’d give him ten people who would give him five thousand each, if he reminded them what he had done for them. If he needed a hundred (thousand) …” The only list the author could find in the Johnson Library, however, dealt with smaller amounts, ranging from $2,500 down to $500. (“Dear Lyndon, Enclosed is the list…. Regards, John. p.s. Keep my comments on these people confidential”; Connally to Johnson, undated but found in Box 63, Senate Political Files for 1956.) The quotations are all from that list. “Let me see”: “Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Dudley Doughty, Beeville, Jan. 25, 1960,” SPF, “WJ Special,” Box 262, JSP.
Two Convention incidents: Mooney, LBJ p. 134; Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 85–86.
$5,000 to Bridges: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 86. Blakeley contribution: Kilgore interview.
Clements contribution: Clark interview. “We can’t”: D. W. Gilmore to Johnson, undated, SPF, Box 173. “I gave him”: Brown, quoted in Selig Harrison, “Lyndon Johnson’s World,” New Republic, June 13, 1960. “Well, I remember”: Symington interview. Ten thousand; “‘Well, I’ve got’”: Stehling interview. “Roosevelt would”: Clark interview.
Byrd funeral: Busby interview.
“You know”; “made it”: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 347. With Taft: Steinberg, pp. 347–48. Steinberg says Johnson used this tactic after Taft became Majority Leader in January 1953, but others say it started in 1951 and 1952. Wherry died in November, 1951. Johnson had Baker: Reedy interview.
“Sometimes”: Symington interview. “He frequently”: Smathers OH. “Schoolteacher habit”: Busby interview. “People like”: Woodward interview.
“I like to”: “The Humor of LBJ—25th Anniversary” audiocassette, LBJL. “genius for”: Evans and Novak, p. 104.
18. The Johnson Ranch
General description of the ranch, its history, and the Johnsons’ life on it: from Newlon, LBJ; Reedy, LBJ; Smith, President’s Lady; Montgomery, Mrs. LBJ; Russell, Lady Bird; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy; Bearss, Historic Resource Study; Dugger, Politician; Bill Davidson, “Texas Political Powerhouse,” Look, Aug. 4, 1959; Flora Rheta Schreiber, “Lady Bird from Texas,” Family Weekly, Sept. 10, 1961; Robert B. Semple, Jr., “The White House on the Pedernales,” NYT, Oct. 3, 1965; Tom Wicker, “LBJ—Down on the Farm,” Esquire, Oct. 1964.
Also from Kowert, “Johnson Finds Escape from Senate Worries,” SAE, Sept. 12, 1954; unidentified clipping, “Lyndon Johnsons Improve Farm on Pedernales River,” December 1951, LBJA Sen F, Box 2016; “The LBJ Ranch,” “Interpretive Training” (post-Pres), LBJ National Historic Site, LN-1; The Home Place, LBJ Ranch, “Reference File,” LBJL;The Hill Country: Lyndon Johnson’s Texas transcript, NBC-TV, May 9, 1966, “Reference File,” LBJL. “A President’s Legacy,” Southern Accents Magazine, Summer 1983.
Also from oral histories of Reedy, Evie Symington, and Stuart Symington, and interviews with Busby, Burg, Ed Clark, Cox, Jenkins, SHJ, Lindig, Mayer, Rather, Reedy, Stehling, Tiff.
The original Johnson Ranch and original Johnson brothers: Caro, Path, Chapter 1. Sam paying too much, going broke: Caro, Chapter 6.
Martin’s relationship with Sam Ealy Jr.: Dugger, pp. 68–69; SHJ, Cox interviews. Feeling that: Dugger, p. 81; SHJ interview. “The big house”: Cox interview. Looking for a buyer: Dugger, p. 356; Russell, Lady Bird, p. 161.
“A haunted house”: “Addams Cartoon,” Southern Accents, Summer 1983; WS, July 19, 1960. “Oh, my Lord”; “appalled”: Evie Symington, quoted in Montgomery, p. 44. Visit with Symington: Symington interview, OH. “To my horror”: AA-S, Jan. 20, 1965. “How could you”: Lady Bird Johnson, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 161.“You’re not”: WS, July 19, 1960. Purchased the ranch: Russell, p. 161; Montgomery, p. 207; NYT, Dec. 26, 1966.
Sam Johnson as legislator: Caro, Path, Chapters 3, 5, 6. Lyndon Johnson’s selling of airtime for influence: Caro, Means, Chapter 6. $3,000 per week: In 1951, KTBC had revenues of $345,115 and expenses of $212,400, leaving a profit for the year of $132,715. That did not include $13,210 written off for depreciation. Mrs. Johnson took a salary for that year of $23,000 and interest of $4,800 on $80,000 in KTBC debentures that she held. At the end of 1951, the station had assets of $439,310, of which $133,465 was in cash (1951, “Financial Reports—FCC General Correspondence [KTBC], FCC Records, RG 173, NA). Television profits: This topic will be dealt with in detail in Volume IV.
“Used to run dry”: Johnson, quoted in Dugger, p. 86. Building the dam: Burg, Lindig, Tiff interviews; DT-H, Aug. 26, 1953. “The first thing”: Lady Bird, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 419.
Building up the soil: Lindig, Tiff interviews.
“Spiritual home”: Lady Bird Johnson, quoted in Smith, President’s Lady, pp. 45–46. “Horror turned”: Lady Bird Johnson, quoted in AA-S, Jan. 1, 1965.
“Only one picture”: Lady Bird Johnson interview; she said it in writing, in tour, p. 2, “There is only one picture in the room—our dear friend, Speaker Rayburn.” Scratching “Welcome”: Burg interview. “When it wasn’t much”: Symington OH.
1952 storm: Russell, Lady Bird, pp. 161–63; Lady Bird Johnson interview. “Lucy and I”: Russell, p. 162; Burg, Cox interviews. Contacted Stehling: Stehling interview. When Lady Bird came to the door, she said to Stehling: “Dr. Livingston, I presume.” “Just where”: Burg, Stehling interviews. “The only time”: Lucy, quoted in Russell, pp. 161–62.
“Every man”: DT-H, Aug. 26, 1953. “All my life”; “lonesome”: “The Hill Country: Lyndon Johnson’s Tapes,” NBC-TV, May 1966, transcript.
“Haven’t thought”: DT-H, Aug. 26, 1953. “Best people”: SAE, Sept. 12, 1954. Wicker portrait: Wicker, “LBJ—Down on the Farm,” Esquire, Oct. 1964.
The gully: Caro, Path, pp. 87–88. Filling it in: Cox, SHJ, Lindig interviews; Robert B. Semple Jr., “The White House on the Pedernales,” NYT, Oct. 3, 1965. “Fixation”: Lindig interview.
Portrayed her life: Rebekah Johnson, A Family Album, pp. 25–26, 28–32. Her life is described in Caro, Path, Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7. Sam’s funeral: Caro, pp. 542–43. What she did: RJB, SHJ interviews. Had been rented: Lyndon Johnson to Rebekah Baines Johnson, Jan. 15, 1938. “There is”: LBJ to J. Frank Kendall, March 30, 1938—both from “Family Correspondence, Johnson, Mrs. Sam E., Dec. 1929-Dec. 1939,” Box 1, Family Correspondence. She never did: RJB, SHJ interviews. The author has not been able to determine if that is literally true, but the first lease she gave on the house, to Ross B. Jenkins and his family, was from Jan. 1, 1938, to Dec. 31, 1940. Mrs. Betty Prehn lived in the house “from 1943 until 1947,” according to the Historic Resource Study made for the Department of the Interior. “Oscar Foss rented” the house from Mrs. Johnson “in 1949–1951.” And it was in 1951 that Aunt Frank took possession of the house. The author has not been able to determine who lived in the house during the years not covered by these leases; during at least part of them, Lyndon’s sister Josefa lived there. Blanco County Deed Book, 53, pp. 326–27; Book 55, pp. 407–08, cited in Bearss, pp. 136–37. During those years, Mrs. Johnson rented various apartments in Austin. Died intestate: Bearss, p. 137. Relinquished; Lyndon bought: Blanco County Deed Book, 53, pp. 326, 327; Deed Book, 55, pp. 407–408, quoted in Bearss, p. 137.
“I have been”: RBJ to LBJ, July 24, 1951. “Courage”: RBJ to LBJ, May 29, 1952, “Family Correspondence, Johnson, Mrs. Sam E., March, 1950-August, 1958,” Box 1, Family Correspondence. Written by staff: Busby, Jenkins, Latimer interviews. “He used”: Latimer interview. “Next Sunday”: Henderson to LBJ, May 12, 1939. “She was”; “would case”; “I liked”: “The First Lady Talks About Her Mother-in-Law,” McCalls, Dec. 1965. “If I had”: Lady Bird Johnson, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, pp. 13, 14. Visitors: Among those who noticed this were Corcoran and Rowe.
Rebekah’s ulcer; “highly precarious”: RBJ to Lyndon Johnson, March 7, 1950; July 24, 1951. Stories about Josefa: Busby, Knispel, Kyle, Smith, Stehling interviews. Called on: Stehling interview. “If there”: Mayer interview.
“Josefa situation”: Busby interview. If she wasn’t: Lyndon Johnson to RBJ, Jan. 6, 1940, Box 1, Family Correspondence.
“These wonderful”: Caro, Path, p. 183. “He worships”: RBJ to Lyndon Johnson, undated but among 1937 letters, “Family Correspondence, Dec. 1929-Dec. 1939,” Box 1. “Smarter”: Deason interview. “More than”: Mooney, LBJ, p. 195. “He didn’t”: Brown OH. New York trip: SHJ interview; Johnson, My Brother Lyndon, pp. 50–51.“Alcoholic haze”: Lloyd Shearer, Texas Parade, March 9, 1975. NYA: SHJ interview. Wirtz trying: Wirtz to Johnson, July 3, 1940, Box 5, AWPP, LBJL. “When”: Brown OH. Seeing Sam on TV: Sunday Hereford (Tex.) Brand, Sept. 28, 1958. “Just a flunky”: SHJ interview. Would disappear: Koeniger interview.
Rodney, Sam’s son: Rodney Baines interview. “The 1948”: Baines interview. Died of AIDS: William M. Adler, “A Death in the Family,” Texas Monthly, April 1989.
120: SHJ OH. “A shrunken”: Mooney, LBJ, p. 192. “Shattered nerves”: RBJ to LBJ, Feb. 4, 1953, “Family Correspondence, Johnson, Mrs. Sam E., March, 1950-August, 1958,” Box 1, Family Correspondence. Hardshell; “Sneaking”; “almost”: Caro, Path, pp. 91–93. “I don’t”: Caro, p. 163.
“Didn’t sleep”: Rather interview. Picture of Johnson on ranch: Busby, Cox, SHJ, Rather, Reedy, Stehling interviews.
“A wild drinking bout”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 53. More often on the ranch: Jenkins, Rather interviews.
“Her constant pacification”: Sidey, Time, Jan. 14, 1985. Incident in car: Busby, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 205. “Slapped”: Busby, quoted in Texas Monthly, Aug. 1999; interview with author. “Harem”: Janeway, quoted in Dallek, Lone Star, p. 189.
19. The Orator of the Dawn
“Johnson fixed”: White, Professional, p. 201.
“His native strength”: Hawthorne, quoted in Schlesinger, Age of Jackson, p. 42.
Convention scene, Humphrey speech: Eisele, Almost to the Presidency; Griffith, Humphrey; McCullough, Truman; Ross, The Loneliest Campaign; Solberg, Hubert Humphrey. “The very air”: McCullough, p. 636. “Interpret”: Ross, p. 117. Their first look; “dazzled”: Solberg, pp. 12–13. “Lead”: Humphrey, The Progressive, April 1946.“Who does”; “sellout”: Solberg, p. 14. Only his: Griffith, p. 153. “Joe, you”: Niles, quoted in Solberg, p. 16. “ADA bastards”; “not at all”: Griffith, pp. 152, 153. “Sacrificing”: Ross, pp. 119–20.
“It was sobering”: Humphrey, Education, pp. 112, 113. Freeman: Goulden, Best Years, p. 385.
“Shining”: McCullough, p. 639. “I can see”; “hard-boiled”: Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 133. “The audience”: Solberg, p. 17. Not in text: Solberg, p. 18. “Parade”: Douglas, Fullness of Time, pp. 133–34. “The latter”: Ross, p. 122. “In part”: Humphrey, Education, p. 115. “Can you”: Anderson, quoted in Solberg, p. 119.
“At the”; “the fact”: McCullough, p. 640. “The only”: Solberg, pp. 18, 19. “It was”; “on fire”: Douglas, quoted in Eisele, p. 68. “The orator”: Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 133.
“Glib, jaunty”: “Education of a Senator,” Time, Jan. 17, 1949. “Well-knit”: New Republic, Oct. 18, 1948. “I had”: Humphrey, pp. 115–16.
Press conference; “I’ll knock”; Howard speech: Solberg, pp. 135–39. “My God”: Rowe interview. Taking King to lunch: Humphrey, p. 121. “I would be”: Humphrey, p. 147.
“Sometimes”: Solberg, p. 137; Eisele, p. 89. “unprepared”: Humphrey, Education, p. 124. “Anathema”: Solberg, p. 129. “Still”: Humphrey, p. 157. Committee assignments: Solberg, p. 136. “The most sacred”: Eisele, p. 89. Small Business Committee: Humphrey, p. 158. “Of course”: Humphrey OH I, p. 12.
The snubbing: Humphrey, pp. 123–25; Solberg, pp. 136–38. “Too early”: Jenner, quoted in Eisele, p. 89. “‘Can you imagine’”: Russell, quoted in Humphrey, p. 124.
Byrd Committee: Eisele, pp. 90–93; Sol-berg, pp. 143–45. “Ominously”; “The senator”: Solberg, p. 144; “Paddling a Freshman,” Newsweek, March 13, 1950; “The Elephant Hunt,” Time, March 13, 1950; Anderson and Blumenthal, “The Washington Merry-Go-Round,” WP, Aug. 2, 1950. Capehart incident: Eisele, p. 94; Solberg, p. 161.
“I just”: Humphrey OH I, p. 11. “Dark days:” Humphrey, Education, p. 147. “Just couldn’t believe”; “I always worked”: Humphrey OH I, p. 11. “I was prepared”; “I hated”: Humphrey, pp. 124–25. “I didn’t feel”: Eisele, p. 93. Crying: Solberg, p. 136; McCulloch interview.
“Johnson and I”: Humphrey, Education, p. 161. Conversation on subway: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 34. “He started”: Humphrey OH I, p. 4. “To invite”: Humphrey, Education, p. 162. “Fascinating”: Humphrey OH I, pp. 15, 16. “I am learning”: Humphrey to Johnson, Dec. 9, 1955, Box 2, WHFN. Humphrey told an oral history interviewer: “In some ways I suppose he was a kind of teacher.” (OH I, p. 18). “Johnson said”: Humphrey OH II, p. 5. “Very beginning”: Humphrey, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 149. “Knew Washington”: Humphrey, Education, p. 162. “At the feet”: Humphrey, on The American Experience: LBJ. PBS Home Video, 1997.
“You have just”; “a lion”: Humphrey OH III, p. 7. “Like a plant”: Humphrey, quoted in Miller, p. 420. “Those great big”; “muscular”: Humphrey, quoted in Miller, pp. 166, 346. “A very strong”: Humphrey OH III, p. 27. “Political lover”: Humphrey OH III, p. 8. “Like a tidal wave”: Humphrey, quoted in Miller, p. 175.
“Always able”: Humphrey OH III, p. 8. “Johnson was like a psychiatrist,” he said on another occasion. “Unbelievable man in terms of sizing up people, what they would do, how they would stand up under pressure, what their temperament was” (Humphrey OH I, p. 26). “What’s so”: Eisele, p. 59. “From the moment”: Rauh interview. Hyde Park visit: Solberg, p. 125.
Why Johnson befriended: Reedy to Johnson, undated but attached to GER to Senator, Jan. 2, 1957, Box 5, PPMF; Reedy, Solberg interviews.
“Nobody can”: “London Dispatch 5434, from Robert Manning” to NA, Nov. 13, 1958 (in author’s possession), p. 3. Humphrey repeated: Manning, Rauh, Rowe, Solberg interviews; Rowe to Johnson, April 8, 1957, Box 32, LBJA SN. In interviews with Solberg, Thomas Hughes said, “Johnson was … opening vistas to him.” Rowe said, “For Johnson Humphrey was a bridge to the liberals. For Humphrey Johnson was a bridge to power” (Hughes interview with Solberg, March 3, 1981; Rowe interview with Solberg, Nov. 3, 1980; both in author’s possession).
“Our little”: Humphrey, quoted in Solberg, p. 161; Humphrey OH I, p. 8.
“A Roosevelt man”: Humphrey OH III, p. 11; OH I, p. 6. “I knew”: Humphrey OH III, p. 11. “Never was”: Humphrey OH I, pp. 6, 7. “We were”: Solberg, p. 163. “I really”: Humphrey OH I, p. 36. “Johnson had”: Humphrey, quoted in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 132. “The same old”: Steele to Williamson, March 4, 1958, SP.
Letters from Texas: Johnson to Humphrey, Dec. 15, 1953; Sept. 18, 1956; Feb. 27, Sept. 9, 1957, all Box 2, WHFN; Aug. 27, 1954, “1954 Austin Office General Files,” Box 533, JSP. “The privilege”: Humphrey to Johnson, Jan 26, 1957, Box 2, WHFN.
“You know”: Califano, Triumph, p. 66.
The 7:30 conversations: Solberg, p. 163. “Compromise”: Humphrey, pp. 136, 137. “It doesn’t bother me”: Humphrey OH I, p. 17.
“Senator, Hubert”: White, Professional, pp. 201, 202; Reedy interview. Humphrey and George in cloakroom: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 345. Working on Russell: Reedy interview. “The South and”; Russell present: Humphrey, p. 162. “Humphrey utilized”: Steinberg, p. 345. “Came to”: Goldsmith, Colleagues, p. 23.
“Actually becoming”: Humphrey OH I, p. 5. “Since there”: Humphrey, p. 161. “My apprenticeship”: Humphrey, p. 161. Brought Russell around: Humphrey OH II, p. 8.
“Seemed to foresee”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 132.
20. Gettysburg
All dates are 1952 unless otherwise noted.
Steinberg interview: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 320–21. “Despite”: “Who will run with Truman?” undated, Feb. 1952, from internal evidence, SP.
“The only way”: Reedy interview. “Russell has”: Time, March 10. “The chances”: Russell to Ayres, March 2, 1951, Dictation Series, Political, RBRL. “I’m under”: NYT, Dec. 12, 1951.
More for: Fite, Russell, pp. 271–77. “Has to all”: NYT, April 16. “Destroy a fable”: Atlanta Journal, May 29.
Big Ed; McCarran: Fite, p. 287. “Assuming”: Van Linden interview. “Those”: Young, quoted in NYT, March 2. “I am the only”: AC, April 26. For another version of this thought, see Roscoe Drummond, “State of the Nation,” Christian Science Monitor, June 26. “Dick: I hope”: “March, 1945, from President Truman,” in XV, General EE, Redline File, 1941–67, RBRL.
Johnson had persuaded: Unidentified to Russell, Feb. 4, Box 24, II, Intra-Office Communications A., Memoranda: 1952, RBRL. “We felt”: Connally interview. “Richardson regarded”: Connally with Herskowitz, In History’s Shadow, p. 142.
“A new league”: Russell to Cocke, March 14, Political, Presidential Campaign, 1952, RBRL. Arranging: Clark, Connally interviews.
Lined up Texas: Dugger, Politician, pp. 374ff. “Let’s Hussle”: Johnson to Russell, March 18; Russell to Johnson, March 21, LBJ Congressional File, RBRL. Russell’s optimism: Fite, p. 289. “I told”: RBR, “Truman, Harry Memo,” June 10, VI Political, G., Pres. Cmpn., “Winder” Folder, RBRL. And see Fite, p. 290.
“When he started”: Darden interview. “He had”: Connally interview. “A fixation”: WS, April 25.
“Enumerated”; “He could not”; “Morally bound”; ignore: Fite, pp. 285–89.
“Of all of them”: Muskie interview. “‘My God, Senator’”: Reedy OH IV, p. 34; Shaffer, On and Off, p. 207. Bad news: Atlanta Journal, July 13.
“They thought”: Connally interview. “Surprise”: Roy V. Harris OH, RBRL. “Senator Lyndon”: AC, July 25. “In one day”: Anne O’Hara McCormick, NYT, July 22, quoted in Manchester, Glory, p. 622.
“Things began”: Vandiver OH.
A “visceral”: Goldsmith, Colleagues, p. 30. “It’s one”: Reedy OH IV, p. 34. Began to complain; “excellent”: Goldsmith, p. 30. From this time on: Darden interview. “Energy”: Lady Bird Johnson OH, RBRL, pp. 11, 14. “Something”: Shaffer, p. 207. “Bitterness”: Reedy OH IV, p. 35. “Querulous”: Reedy interview.
“He worked”: Russell, “Georgia Giant,” 1970 unedited version, Reel No. 19, p. 25.
“Soberly predicted”: “Washington Report—Staff,” p. 5, undated but with 1952 memos, MP. “Became aware”; “as an instrument”: Reedy interview. “Made no bones”: Reedy OH V, p. 11. “Hope that”: Goldsmith, p. 65. Because “Johnson”: Talmadge, AC, Feb. 20, 1959. “Gave me”; “Master and Servant”; “None”: Talmadge interview.“Bosom friend”: Stennis interview, April 21, 1971, quoted in Stephen B. Farrow, “Richard Russell and Lyndon Johnson,” unpublished senior thesis, University of Tennessee, 1979, p. 34. “You’re just fighting”; “I know”: “The Rearguard Commander,” Time, Aug. 12, 1957; NYT, Jan. 22, 1971. “Was very determined”: Reedy OH VIII, p. 100.
Including, notably: For a discussion of Johnson’s role in the 1952 presidential campaign, see Dugger, pp. 376–77, 471; Martin, Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, pp. 652, 682, 734; Miller, Lyndon, p. 153; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 328–31.
“When McFarland lost”: Ralph Huitt, quoted in Miller, p. 154. “Well, thank you”: O’Brien, No Final Victories, pp. 36–37. “I’ll do”; “must have”; set one: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 51. “All you’ve”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 60–61; Dugger, p. 379. “I very frankly”: Stennis OH. “I was strong”: Hoey to Russell, Nov. 14, VI, Personal Political 1951–1954, RBRL.
To every: McConaughy to Beshoar, June 10, 1953, SP; MacNeil, Steele interviews. Russell replied: “I have no desire to serve as leader of either the majority or the minority in the Senate. I think Lyndon is entitled to a promotion, and he will do a good job” (Russell to Hoey, Nov. 12, VI. Personal Political 1951–1954, RBRL). “Saw L. Johnson”:Nov. 10, “Winder Materials—Calendars, 1952,” RBRL. “A number”: NYT, Nov. 11. “Practically”: McConaughy to Beshoar, Nov. 12, MP. By November 10: Evans and Novak, p. 54. A majority: McConaughy to Beshoar, June 10, 1953, SP.
He had in mind: Johnson’s thinking is explained in Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 61; Evans and Novak, p. 54; and in Reedy and Rowe interviews. To Hayden: Bibolet, Reedy, Rowe interviews. Bibolet’s boss, McFarland, wired Johnson, “Talked to Carl. All OK and he will call you …,” McFarland to Johnson, Nov. 8, Box 117, LBJA SF.“A good”: Rowe to Johnson, Jan. 12, 1953. On the same date, he wrote Joe Kennedy, “I think Lyndon did very well for Jack on the committee assignments, and I hope you do” (Rowe to Kennedy and Landis, Nov. 12, 1953, Box 32, LBJA SN). “I want”: Kennedy to Johnson, Nov. 13, Box 117, LBJA SF.
McCarran’s problem, possible solution: Murray Marder, “Modern Marbury,” WP, Jan. 1, 1953; Chalmers Roberts, “Political David,” WP, Jan. 4, 1953; “(McCarran),” wire service bulletin, Dec. 29, in Pearson Papers, Box F 162. McCarran asked; Johnson said; McCarran agreed: Truman to Johnson, Jan. 13, 1953, Box 8, WHFN; Jenkins, Reedy, Rowe interviews.
Lists; Winder: VI, political E, Special Name Lyndon Johnson, RBRL; Boxes 116, 117, LBJA SF. Explanation of lists: Jenkins, Reedy, Rowe interviews.
Jenkins snatched: Jenkins interview. “Happy”: “Statement of United States Senator Theodore Francis Green, Nov. 12, 1952,” Box 117, LBJA SF. “At the direction”; “THANKS”: Higgins to Johnson, Nov. 12; Johnson to Green, Nov. 13, Box 117, LBJA SF. “Identified”: NYT, Nov. 13. “Senator Clements”: Jenkins to Johnson, Nov. 12, Box 117, LBJA SF.
“Suggests”: NYT, Nov. 16. “Upset”: Humphrey, Education, p. 163. “Worried”: McConaughey to Beshoar, June 10, 1953, SP. “Knife you”: Jenkins to Johnson, Nov. 13, Box 117, LBJA SN.
“Humphrey wanted”: Baker, quoted in Miller, p. 154. “Their only”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, pp. 107–08. She says that Hill had agreed to support Johnson “only a few minutes earlier,” but actually Hill had agreed several days before this, because the meeting was some time after Nov. 13.
Settling on Murray: Humphrey, quoted in Miller, p. 154. “He had”: Stewart McClure OH. Stevenson telephone call: “Adlai—Stevenson—LBJ,” Nov. 20, “Notes and Transcripts of Johnson Conversations,” Box 1; Johnson to Stevenson (and attached telegram), Jan. 22, 1953, Box 118, LBJA SF.
“Although”: Excerpt from Humphrey on “Reporters Roundup,” Dec. 15, JSP. “More calls”: Reedy interview.
“Hubert can’t win”: Johnson, quoted in Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 61. Promised “candy”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 61, 62. Telephoning; “exhilarating”; “prepared”: Humphrey, p. 163.
Meeting with Hunt, Lehman, Douglas: Humphrey, p. 163; Humphrey OH I, pp. 19, 20. Coming back alone: Humphrey, pp. 163–64; Humphrey, quoted in Miller, p. 154.
Democratic caucus: “Minutes of Democratic Conference, Friday, Jan. 2, 1953,” Minutes of the U.S. Senate Democratic Conference, 1903–1640, Donald A. Ritchie, ed., Washington, USGPO, 1998, pp. 487–93. “Very wonderful”: “Attached are Senator Russell’s notes which he wrote in preparation for the speech. Senator Johnson wants you to put them away safely…,” Rather to Lady Bird Johnson, Jan. 8, 1953, LBJA Subject Files, “Senate, U.S.,” Box 118, “Minority—Russell Remarks.” “Senator Murray”: Humphrey, p. 155. “I’ll never forget”: Humphrey, quoted in Miller, p. 155. “Number One”; “don’t come”; “I would be”: Humphrey OH and Education, pp. 164, 165.
The youngest: Richard A. Baker to Caro, Dec. 2, 1994 (in author’s possession). “He had just”: Pearson, Diaries, p. 246. “Almost”: Evans and Novak, p. 50.
21. The Whole Stack
All dates are 1953 unless otherwise noted.
“I shoved in”: McConaughy to Beshoar, June 10, MP; John Steele, “A Kingmaker or a Dark Horse?” Life, June 25, 1956. “The Senate would”: White, Citadel, p. 184.
Grasped quickly; “was a personal”: Reedy to Johnson, Nov. 12, Box 7, SPF; Reedy interview. “Total decay”: Joseph and Stewart Alsop, “The Democrats Rally,” NYHT, Feb. 1.
Foreign Relations going; should be shored; “Mansfield”: NYT, Jan 13; NYT Magazine, Feb. 1; Fleeson, WS, Jan. 14;McConaughy to Laybourne, Jan. 14, SP. Only one example: McConaughy to Berger, Jan. 16, MP; Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, pp. 63, 64; H P, Jan. 19.
The description of Johnson’s changing the committee-assignment system and the Policy Committee’s significance is drawn from memoranda written to Johnson by Reedy between November 21, 1953, and June 18, 1954, Boxes 116 and 118, LBJA SF, and “Papers of George Reedy,” Box 413, JSP; from the intraoffice memoranda and “Confidential Worksheets” cited below; from the Drew Pearson Papers at the LBJL; from Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 63–65; Evans and Novak, pp. 61–65, Goldsmith, Colleagues, pp. 33–35; Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, pp. 110–17; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 344–48; from McConaughy to Laybourne, Jan. 14, SP, and to Berger, Jan. 16, MP. It is also drawn from the oral history interviews of Humphrey, McClure, Reedy, and Siegel, and from the author’s interviews with Bibolet, Corcoran, Goldsmith, Jenkins, MacNeil, Reedy, Ritchie, Rowe, Siegel, and Steele. Baker says that changing the seniority system was his idea, but Reedy says that it was his idea.
Sold with humor: Various versions of the story are in Miller, Lyndon, p. 157; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 344; Reedy OH. I have used the version from “The Humor of LBJ—25th Anniversary” audiocassette. The South’s last; “I’ve just”; No one was being forced: Reedy, Steele interviews. “LBJ very early”: Reedy OH V, pp. 10, 11.“The foundation”; “Johnson dissembled”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 112.
“We’ll be making”: Steele interview. Proved: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 113. Also see Goldsmith, p. 33. “A leg up”: Goldsmith, p. 33. “When Johnson broached”: Evans and Novak, p. 64. “You’re dealing”: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 344. “Playing with”; While he: Evans and Novak, p. 64; Reedy interview.
Byrd said: Childs, SLP-D, Jan. 17, 21; Reedy interview. Magnuson unmoved: “Confidential Work Sheet No. 1, Present Democratic Membership of Standing Committees of the Senate (Requests for Assignments),” pp. 2, 3, and “Confidential Work Sheet No. 2”; Jenkins to Johnson, “Requests of Senators with Reference to Committee Assignments, Nov. 14”; “Requests of Senators…,” Jan. 5, Box 116, LBJA, SF; Jenkins interview. Johnson scrawled: “list of committees and committee assignments…,” Nov. 6, 1952, Box 116, LBJA SF.
Morse problem: CR, 83/1, pp. 143–44; Bibolet to Johnson, Jan. 12, Box 116, JSP; “one of,” Reedy to Johnson, undated, Box 116, JSP; McConaughy to Laybourne, Jan. 14;Ralph K. Huitt, “The Morse Committee Assignment Controversy: A Study in Senate Norms,” APSR, June 1957, pp. 315–18; Newsweek, Jan. 12; Time, Jan. 12, 19; NYT, Jan. 8, 14;WP, Jan. 14;Ritchie interview. At four a.m.: McConaughy to Berger, Jan. 16, MP.
Outmaneuvering Taft: Case, Taft, Butler (Nebr.), Jenner, Cooper, “Proposed Report for Special Committee on Size and Number of Committees,” Jan. 2, Box 116, JSP. (On which Johnson shows that he was thinking of the Appropriations increase, writing on it by hand, evidently at a later date, “Russell, McCarran, Murray—acceptable to them for one each to be added to Appropriations”); “S. Res [blank],” undated, “Resolved that section (1),” Box 116, JSP; Simms to Johnson, “Memorandum for Senator Lyndon Johnson,” Jan. 9, Box 116, JSP; CR, 83/1, pp. 232–33, 279–81; McConaughy to Berger, Jan. 16, McConaughy to Beshoar, June 10, MP. “So far”: Taft to C. Wayland Brooks, Jan. 17, quoted in Patterson, Mr. Republican, p. 589. No plans: “Freshmen Republican Senators…,” Merry-Go-Round Release, Feb. 5, 1957, Box 116, JSP; Ritchie interview; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 343. Appears; both senators agreed: “Senators Receiving New Committee Assignments,” undated, Box 116; WP, Jan. 13; Reedy interview.
Humphrey-Johnson conversation: Humphrey OH II. “A forum”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 65. Clements-Johnson arrangement: Reedy interview. Persuading Russell Long: NYT, Jan. 13; Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 64; Connally, Reedy interviews.
McCarthy was going: Evans and Novak, p. 64. “McCarran requests”: “Memorandum to Senator Johnson,” Jan. 5, p. 2, Box 116, LBJA SF. Hinting: “Political David Girding Against Nevada Goliath,” WP, Jan. 4. McCarran forced: “(McCarran),” AP Dispatch, Dec. 29, 1952, Drew Pearson Papers, F 162, 2 of 3, LBJL. “Is not”: WP, Jan. 1.“All right”: Drew Pearson, WP, Feb. 6. “As you know”: Truman to Johnson, Jan. 13, Box 8, WHFN; Jenkins interview. Drew a line: On “Requests of Senators,” Jan. 5; Reedy interview. And see NYT and WP, Jan 13. “None”: Evans and Novak, p. 64. When he filled: WP, Jan. 13. “I disapprove”: Kennedy, quoted in WP, Jan. 13.
McClellan suggested: McConaughy to Berger, Jan. 16; Reedy interview. “Desirable”: Johnson to Johnston, Jan. 13, Box 43, LBJA CF.
Through wall: Jenkins, Rather interviews. “It was like”: Carroll Keach, quoted in Caro, Path, pp. 425–27. Appealing to them; “Bob Taft is”; “McCarthy’s going”: This description of Johnson’s arguments is based on recollections of the phraseology he used by members of his staff who heard him, and by friends in Washington and Texas to whom he repeated his arguments in describing how he persuaded various senators. Their names are in the fifth paragraph of the notes to this chapter. And see McConaughy to Laybourne, Jan. 14;NYT, WP, Jan. 13; White, “The Foreign Relations Committee,” NYT Magazine, Feb. 1. Russell nodded: Reedy interview. “Now”: McConaughy to Berger, Jan 16, MP.
Dropped: “For Immediate Release—Chairman Lyndon B. Johnson announced today,” Jan. 12, Box 16, LBJA SF. “I still remember”: Goldsmith interview. “Dared”: Time, Jan. 26. “Remarkable”: Fleeson, WS, Jan. 14. “Rather miraculously”: Alsop and Alsop, NYHT, Feb. 1. “FRESHMAN DEMOCRATS”: WP, Jan. 13. “Extraordinary”:NYT, Jan. 13. “In barely two weeks”: McConaughy to Berger, Jan. 16, MP. “Was greeted”: Childs, SLP-D, Jan. 17.
“Dear Lyndon”: Rowe to Johnson, Jan. 13, Box 32, LBJA SN. “We’ve got”; “more control”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 65, 64.
Had not fulfilled: Reedy, U.S. Senate, pp. 11, 12; Galloway, Legislative Process, p. 604. Memoranda: “Dr. Galloway’s views…,” Reedy to Johnson, undated, and “The material available on the policy committees…,” Nov. 19, 1952, Box 116, LBJA SF; Bone, Party Committees, pp. 166–96; “An Introduction to the Senate Policy Committees,”APSR, June 1956. The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 had charged the two Policy Committees with “the formulation of over-all legislative policy of the respective parties”; Robert C. Byrd, “Mr. President, as to the Democratic Policy Committee,” CR, 96/2, pp. 10612–616; Galloway to Reedy, Nov. 21, 1952, Box 116, LBJA SF; Jewell, “The Policy Committees,” Chapter 5, Senatorial Politics; Reedy, Siegel OHs; Bibolet, Reedy, Siegel interviews.
“Would emerge”: McPherson, Political Education, p. 15. “All we got”: Evans and Novak, p. 61.
Cook wouldn’t: Evans and Novak, pp. 61, 62; Siegel OH; Weisl interview. Harlow unwilling: Harlow interview. Rowe turned down: Rowe interview.
“We’d call”; “make the changes”: Siegel OH. Membership of Policy Committee: Bone, p. 173; William S. White, “Democrats’ ‘Board of Directors,’” NYT Magazine, July 10, 1955. Murray’s dotage: McClure OH. “An echo”; “solidify”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 64. “One hundred percent”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 65.“Unless”: Siegel OH. “Was really it”: Smathers OH. Hawaiian bill: “Minutes of Meeting—Democratic Policy Committee, Monday, Feb. 3, 1953, Room G-18, U.S. Capitol, 12:45 p.m.,” Box 364, JSP.
“Usually late”: White, Citadel, p. 210; Bibolet to Caro, March 4, 1995 (in author’s possession); Bibolet, Reedy interviews. “Nowhere”: Bone, p. 175. “No leaks”: Steele interview. Liberals “saw”; “Private”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 65.
Few caucuses: CR, 96/2, pp. S10611–613.
$25: “Minutes—Feb. 3,” p. 1. “Senator Johnson … explained”: “Minutes … Feb. 3,” p. 2, Box 364, JSP. “Replies furnishing”: “Minutes of Meeting—Democratic Policy Committee, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 1953, 12:45 p.m., Room G-18, U.S. Capitol,” p. 1, Box 364, JSP. “The Senate”: Johnson to (each committee chairman), Feb. 6, Box 116, LBJA SF.Staff would be better: Bibolet, Reedy, Siegel interviews.
“He came in”: McClure OH. “Of course”: Bibolet interview.
“He accomplished this”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 114.
22. Masterstrokes
All dates are 1953 unless otherwise noted.
“For three”: Ambrose, Eisenhower, p. 31. “Statesmanlike”: Richard Rovere, The New Yorker, Jan. 31. Shot his arms: Ambrose, p. 42.
“Privately”; “The great”: Alsop and Alsop, NYHT, Feb. 1. “Looking for an excuse”; “The General Manager”: Time, June 22.
Mooney “interview”: Mooney, LBJ, p. 13. Would be easy: Reedy, U.S. Senate, pp. 104, 105. “Had actually”: Reedy OH V, p. 5; OH VI, p. 6.
“A wonderful”: Hardeman and Bacon, Rayburn, p. 377. “I told”: Rayburn to Hall, April 2, quoted in Hardeman and Bacon, p. 378. “Any jackass”: DMN, Jan. 3.
“Old-fashioned”: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 170.
Hour after hour; “cheap and partisan”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 104. “To announce”: Reedy OH V, p. 4. “I have”: FWS-T, Jan. 3. “Americans everywhere”: “Minutes of Meeting—Democratic Policy Committee, Feb. 3, 1953,” Box 364, JSP.
“Resurgent”: Richard Rovere, The New Yorker, Feb. 14. “The form”: Ambrose, p. 66. “It should”: Shaffer, On and Off, p. 63. “Republican senators”: DDE Diary, Feb. 7, Box 3; April 1, Box 4, DDEL. “The adoption”: Shaffer, p. 67. “Would not”: Ambrose, pp. 65–67.
Allies were planning: Ambrose, p. 67; NYT, Feb. 24. “President Eisenhower’s”: NYT, Feb. 24. “It would”: LLM, Supplementary Notes, March 2, Box 1, DDEL. “How can we”: “Memorandum of Telephone Conversation—Secretary Dulles calling Senator Johnson,” March 3, Notes and Transcripts of Johnson Conversations—1953.” “I really”; “forget”: Ambrose, p. 67. “The picture”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 79.
“I reject”: MacNeil, Dirksen, p. 114. “Nominations passed over”: “Executive Calendar,” CR, 83/1, various dates. McCarran, McCarthy attacks: Ambrose, pp. 59–61; MacNeil, pp. 113–14;Patterson, Mr. Republican, pp. 595–96. “I have known”; “Confident”: Eisenhower, quoted in Ambrose, p. 60. “There was”: Taft, quoted in White, Taft Story, p. 237.
“High-water”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 80. “As if”: This remark is generally attributed to the NYHT’s television critic John Crosby. Introduction of S.J. Res. 1: CR, 83/1, pp. 156, 160–61.
Conservatives’ fear: Ambrose, p. 68; Brownell, Advising Ike, pp. 264–65. “A complex”: Ambrose, p. 154; Tananbaum, Bricker Amendment, p. 91. “Making it”: Minnich, LMS, Jan. 11, 1954, DDEL. “Stupid”: Hagerty, Diary, p. 7 (Jan. 14, 1954). Touched: Ambrose, p. 68. “Many”: NYT, Feb. 6, 17, 1954.
“An incredible”; “no hope”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 82. Neil MacNeil says, “It was plain that there were enough votes in the Senate to approve the Bricker amendment” (MacNeil, Dirksen, p. 117). “In all”: Reedy, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 158. “The worst”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 90. “A slap”: Evans and Novak, p. 76.“Probably”:DDE Diary, Phone Calls, Jan. 28, 1954, Box 5, DDEL.
“Bricker seems”: Hagerty, p. 8 (Feb. 8, 1954). “People for it”: DDE Diary, Phone Calls, Box 5, DDEL. “There was”: Ambrose, p. 69. “A secret”: Manchester, Glory, p. 674. Reported it out: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 359. “Lyndon Johnson”: Dulles to Eisenhower, DDE Diary, June 25, Box 5, DDEL. “Unalterable”: NYT, Jan. 31, 1954.“Insured that”: MacNeil, p. 118.
Johnson’s broadcast: “Address by Senator Lyndon B. Johnson … For Release to Monday AM’s, Sept. 14, 1953,” Statements, Box 13, JSP. Down on the ranch: Rather, Reedy interviews. Johnson’s thinking: Reedy interview and OH; Steele interview; Siegel OH; Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 90–91; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 358–60; Tananbaum, pp. 145–46; “Senator Johnson Discusses Bricker Amendment,” Sept. 14, Statements, Box 13, JSP; Reedy to Johnson, Jan. 21, 1954; Siegel to Johnson, Jan. 23, 26, 28, 29, 30, 1954, Box 374, JSP.
“We’ve got”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 91. “To get”: Humphrey OH II, p. 16. Two memoranda: Siegel to Johnson, both Jan. 23, 26, 1954, Box 374, JSP. “Just a quick”: Siegel OH. George amendment: NYT, Jan. 28, 1954. “Sounded”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 83. Johnson further flattered George by making it appear as if he was the leader of the fight. When he and Russell met reporters during the fight, he said, “We’re standing with Walter” (NYT, Jan. 30, 1954), “Within”: NYT, Jan. 28, 1954.
“DDE Diary,” Phone calls: Eisenhower to Smith, Jan. 27, 1954, Box 5, DDEL. “Broadly”; Bricker’s speech: NYT, WP, Jan. 29. “Republicans”: Telephone call from Smith, Jan. 28, 1954. “Were reluctant”: Tananbaum, p. 150. “Pretty soon”: DDE Diary, Phone Calls, Eisenhower to Brownell, Jan. 29, Box 5, DDEL. “Couldn’t:” DDE Diary, Phone Calls, “Conversation with Atty. Gen. Brownell,” Feb. 3, 1954, Box 5, DDEL. “So tired”: Hagerty, pp. 13, 14 (Feb. 1, 2, 1954). “The fight was”; “Different philosophies”; “the headlines”: NYT, Jan. 31, 1954.
GOP liaison men: DDEP, OF 116-H-4, DDEL; Harlow, Holt interviews; Tananbaum, p. 174. 42 to 50: NYT, WP, Feb. 26, 1954. And see DDE Diary, Jan. 18, 1954, Box 4.
“Passed the word”: Newsweek, Feb. 15, 1954. Tried to prepare: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 90, 91; Tananbaum, pp. 179, 188–89; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 359; Harlow, Reedy, Rogers interviews. William S. White would later report that Jackson and Magnuson first voted for the George Amendment as a substitute and then, “out of respect” for George, switched and voted against it (NYT, Feb. 27, 1954). “Continued”: Tananbaum, p. 174. “Mr. President”: Know-land, CR, 83/2, pp. 2371–372. “If we are not”: “Vote! Vote! Vote!”: CR, 83/2, pp. 2373–375; Time, March 8, 1954. “Mark”; saluted: George, quoted in Time, March 8; CR, 83/2, pp. 2373–374.
Switching: NYHT, NYT, WP, WS, Feb. 27. Kilgore’s vote: Maddox, Kilgore, p. 317; Time, Newsweek, March 8, 1954. Baker, Wheeling and Dealing (p. 91), says he was ill. Time says he “had been resting on a couch in his office all afternoon.” Others, including Tananbaum (pp. 179–80) and Holt (interview), say the reason he was resting was alcohol.“Stall”; “How am I”: Time, March 8, 1954. The CR (83/2, p. 2373) has a different version of Magnuson’s statement.
“Wanted major”: Ambrose, pp. 65, 66.
Told Brown, Richardson: Clark interview. “We had”: Johnson to Clark, March 3, 1954, Box 15, LBJA SN (folder 4 of 4).
23. Tail-Gunner Joe
“The most”: Robert Sherrill, “The Trajectory of a Bumbler,” NYT Book Review, p. 11, June 5, 1983. “A fraud”: Byrd, The Senate, p. 571. “From the”: Byrd, p. 573. Johnson was asked: White, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 163; McCulloch, Rauh, Rowe interviews. “Something”: Rowe interview. In his OH, White says he told Johnson, “You really must do something about this damned fellow.”
“I’m for”: Malone, quoted in Sidey, “The Presidency,” Life, April 29, 1966. Asset; “Keep talking”: Patterson, Mr. Republican, p. 446. “There was”: NYT, Jan. 7, 1951.
Lehman episode: Alsop, The Center, pp. 8, 9. “At that”: Reedy, quoted in Miller, p. 166. “For what he says”: White, Citadel, p. 123. “Would be forced”: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 81.
“Joe will go”: Evans and Novak, p. 81. “About how”: Arthur Stehling, “A Country Lawyer,” unnumbered page, unpublished memoir (in author’s possession). “He said”: Stehling interview. “Well, I met”: Oltorf interview (Oltorf was present during this exchange). “it seems”: Evans and Novak, p. 81. “Loudmouthed”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 94.
Largest: Oshinsky, Conspiracy, pp. 319, 419; Gary Cartwright, “Hugh Roy Cullen’s Last Hurrah,” Texas Monthly, Jan. 1986; Theodore H. White, “Texas: Land of Wealth and Fear,” The Reporter, May 25, June 8, 1954; Edward T. Folliard, “Texas Big Dealers,” WP, Feb. 14–19, 1954.
“A nut”: Clark interview. “A screwball”: Reedy interview; Reedy, quoted in Miller, p. 162. “Old witch”: Fath, quoted in Miller, p. 161.
“Bill, that’s”: Miller, p. 163. “to kill a snake”; “He kept”: Miller, p. 166.
“He just”: Humphrey OH I, p. 24. “To realize”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 106. “Has been dragged”; “Joe has made”: Miller, p. 166. “God”: Reedy OH III, p. 12. “The Hayden episode”: Reedy, p. 107; St. Claire interview. Also see Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 143.
Russell’s signal: Fite, Russell, p. 284. “Come on”: Humphrey, quoted in Miller, p. 170, and OH. “Give names: Miller, p. 170. “Tarnished”; “hurt”: Oshinsky, p. 321. “The fact”: Symington interview. “You wait”: Oshinsky, p. 293. “Behind”; “I would not”: Patterson, pp. 594, 595.
Liberals pleaded: Byrd, p. 573; Cohen, McCulloch, Rowe, Symington interviews; Humphrey, quoted in Miller, p. 171. Lehman asked: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 362. “Everybody”: Maverick to Johnson, April 2, 1954; Johnson to Maverick, April 27, May 12, 1954, LBJA CF, Box 50. “If I were”; Johnson told: Evans and Novak, pp. 81, 82. Popularity began; “Ike wants”: Oshinsky, pp. 464, 438. “He knew”: SHJ, quoted in Miller, p. 168. 30 percent; “that weapon”: Oshinsky, p. 465. “That Maine”: Shaffer, On and Off, p. 23.
On July 29: “Minutes of Democratic Policy Committee, Room G-18, July 29, 1954,” Box 364, JSP. He had lined up: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 94.
Selecting the committee: Evans and Novak, pp. 83–84; White, Citadel, pp. 127–31. “Knowland theoretically”: White OH. “It had never”: Reedy, quoted in Miller, p. 172. Ed Johnson hated; “Essential”: Evans and Novak, p. 84.
“Left”: Oshinsky, p. 481. “Contrary”: White, Citadel, p. 132. Lined up behind it: Oshinsky, pp. 484–85, 491; Humphrey, quoted in Miller, p. 171. “Squiggly”: Reedy, Johnson, p. 108.
“The size”; “on rather”; “We have”: Oshinsky, p. 492. “Whatever”: McCulloch interview. “Splendid”: Douglas OH.
“Could have been”: Oshinsky, p. 507. “Johnson’s role”: Dallek, Lone Star, p. 458.
24. The “Johnson Rule”
All dates are 1955 unless otherwise noted.
Morse deal: Drukman, Wayne Morse, pp. 224–25; Smith, Tiger in the Senate, Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 392; White, Citadel, pp. 187–88; Fleeson, WS, Jan. 11; Pearson, WP, Jan. 2; Steele to Williamson, Jan. 13, SP. “Morse never”; “I don’t know”: Steinberg, p. 392. “He would”: NYT, Jan. 11.
“I respectfully”; “I would”: Quoted in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 115. “Four measures”: O’Mahoney to Johnson, Aug. 15, 1958, “Papers of the Democratic Leader,” Box 367, JSP.
Using Siegel, Reedy, Bibolet: Siegel, Reedy, Bibolet interviews and OHs. Starting to manage the bills: Riddick, Shuman, Zagoria, Zweben interviews. “In the past”: Riddick interview. “A spring”: Johnson, quoted in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 121. “Assurance that”: Robertson to Johnson, March 15, 1956, “Legis—B&C Com., Bank Holding Co. Bill, Sen. Res. S. 2577,” Robertson Papers, College of William and Mary. “Now”: Rid-dick interview.
“Save”: Stokes, WS, Jan. 6. “We have”: NYHT, May 6. “Have been”: Stewart Alsop, WP, May 21. “He didn’t”: Smathers OH.
“Lyndon, I want”: “Conversations with Senator Kefauver, 11 a.m., Jan. 11, 1955,” Box 47, LBJA.
Badly wanted: Lehman to Johnson, Nov. 4, 1954; Dec. 2, 1954; Jan. 13, 1955; Johnson to Lehman, Nov. 8, Dec. 21, 1954, Jan. 13, 1955, HHLP. “Was more concerned”: Pearson, WP, Jan. 2. No Senate rule: Edelstein to Kilgore, Dec. 10, 1954; Edelstein interview. Johnson gave: Pearson, WP, Jan. 2.
“The finance”: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 101. “It had been”: Stokes, WS, Jan. 11. “I’m gonna”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 66.
“At his best”: Fleeson, WS, Jan. 11.
“Just not”: St. Claire interview; Maybank to Skeeter, Nov. 7; Kefauver to Johnson, Sept. 9, Oct. 22, 1953, Dec. 18, 1954; Johnson to Kefauver, Dec. 27, 1954; Gore to Johnson, Aug. 31, Box 506, JSP.
Master keys: Jenkins interview. The startled Ensley: Ensley to Caro, Dec. 11, 1981 (in author’s possession); Ensley interview, OH. “After”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 103.
A silence: Busby, Jenkins interviews. “He wouldn’t”: Edelstein interview. Incident: “Lehman, Telephoned …,” Nov. 26, “Immigration Bill re: hearings” folder, HHLP; Edelstein interview.
“You’d walk”: Edelstein interview. Chat with assistant: McCulloch, Shuman interviews. “Skeeter would”: Shuman interview. “Longshoremen’s”: MacNeil interview. “Cutting”: Edelstein interview. “What the”: Schnibbee interview.
“My God”: Evans and Novak, p. 102. Aides gossiped: Interviews with aides, including BeLieu, Bernstein, Fensterwald, McCulloch, McGillicuddy, Schnibbe, Shuman, Zweben.
Symington’s feelings: Symington interview, OH. Johnson resented: BeLieu, Busby interviews.
“Not a team player”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 65. Baker says that “this was another way of saying that Symington was an independent loner who refused to let LBJ get a grip on him.” Johnson felt that Symington was an “ingrate” because of the “campaign money” Johnson had raised for his campaigns. Sam Houston Johnson says that “Johnson didn’t like” Symington because Symington was a rival for the presidential nomination (SHJ interview); Symington interview.
“Senators mutually”: MacNeil, Dirksen, p. 137. “Hell”: Lucas, quoted in Reedy interview. If President Kennedy: Jackson, quoted in Reston, Deadline, pp. 304–05.
“As for”: Long, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 456. “When somebody”: Van den Linden interview.
“Unanimous Consent Agreements”: In 1955, Rule XII, paragraph 3 read: “No request by a senator for unanimous consent for the taking of a final vote on a specified date upon the passage of a bill or joint resolution shall be submitted to the Senate for agreement thereto until, upon a roll call ordered for the purpose by the presiding officer, it shall be disclosed that a quorum of the Senate is present; and when unanimous consent is thus given the same shall operate as the order of the Senate, but any unanimous consent may be revoked by a unanimous consent granted in the manner prescribed above, upon one day’s notice” (Senate Manual, 83/1, pp. 18–19).
Prior to World War II: Galloway, Legislative Process, pp. 555–56.
“It was”: Riddick interviews; OH. “After Mr. Johnson came”: Riddick OH, p. 253. Riddick says that with these innovations “Mr. Johnson … introduced a new procedure in the Senate or at least expanded it, or made it more common than it had ever been before in modern times.” This discussion of his unanimous consent agreement innovations and their impact on the Senate is drawn from Riddick, Senate Procedure, principally pp. 1064–1102; Evans and Novak, pp. 114–15; Galloway, Legislative Process, pp. 552–57; from interviews with Riddick, who was assistant parliamentarian of the Senate from 1951 to 1964, and parliamentarian from 1964 to 1974; with Murray Zweben, assistant parliamentarian from 1964 to 1974 and parliamentarian from 1974 to 1980; with Bernard V. Somers, assistant journal clerk during the 1950s; with Senate Historian Richard A. Baker and Associate Historian Donald A. Ritchie; and with many senatorial staff members, of whom Frank McCulloch, Darrell St. Claire, and Howard Shuman were especially helpful.
“Johnson would come up”: Riddick interview.
“There is … no rule”: Riddick, Senate Procedures, p. 1066. “Can be set aside” only: Riddick, p. 1066. Rules very different: Riddick, pp. 1065–1102. “Must be presented … without debate”: Riddick, p. 1069. “Where an amendment”: Riddick, p. 1073. Had to be subtracted: Riddick, pp. 52–56, 1073, 1083–85.
“Russell held”: Riddick interview. “Not germane … out of order”: Riddick, p. 51.
“A senator cannot be recognized”: Riddick, p. 1083. And see pp. 886–87. “Because of”; “if a senator offered”: Zweben interview.
“Of course”: Evans and Novak, p. 115.
“As long as”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 3. “diversionary”: Reedy, LBJ, pp. 82, 86. “Hubert prepares”: Johnson, quoted in Moody, LBJ, p. 52. “Whenever”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 4. “Relic”; “interlude”: McPherson, Political Education, p. 76. “Keep it”; “We’ve got”: Edelsten, Shuman interviews. “Greek tragedy”: Douglas, quoted in Goodwin,Lyndon Johnson, p. 136. “It is”: Johnson, quoted in Goodwin, p. 141.
“He regarded”; “absolutely”; “merely exercises”: Reedy, Johnson, pp. 6, 7, 68. “Attitude left no room”; Reedy, p. 82. “The role of public debate”: Reedy, p. 7. “A natural”: Goodwin, p. 130. “Abhorred”: Reedy, p. 6. “His constant”: McPherson, p. 169. Did not believe: Edelstein interview. “If”: Shuman interview.
25. The Leader
“He would stand”: The description of Johnson briefing the journalists, and of Johnson running the Senate, is based on interviews with journalists Robert Barr, Jim Brady, John Chadwick, Benjamin Cole, Allen Drury, Lewis T. (Tex) Easley, Alan S. Emory, Rowland Evans, John Finney, John Goldsmith, Neil MacNeil, Sarah McClendon, Hugh Sidey, John L. Steele, Alfred Steinberg, George Tames, J. William Theis, Tom Wicker, Frank Van Der Linden, and Sam Zagoria; with the following Senate staff members (who would often have been on the podium): Parliamentarian Floyd Riddick, Secretary to the Parliamentarian Murray Zweben, and Assistant Journal Clerk Bernard V. Somers; as well as the senators, assistants to senators, and members of the Senate’s staff and Lyndon Johnson’s staff listed in the “Note on Sources.” “He would”: Steele interview. “Somebody”; “if you”; “he knew”: Barr interview. “There would”: Mooney, LBJ, p. 162. “He would answer”: MacNeil interview. “You didn’t”: Barr interview. “The buildup”: Drury interview. “Power just”: Barr interview. “In command”: Cole interview.
“C’mon, c’mon”: Riddick, Zweben interviews.
Potter exchange: CR, 83/1, May 26, 1955.
“And even”: Barr interview. “Lister”; “if you”; “he would”: Patrick J. Hynes interview. “Viciously”: Reedy interview. “Good places”: Hynes interview. “Don’t quit”: McCulloch interview. Sending Baker: Rid-dick interview. “Don’t talk”; “I’d go”: Edelstein interview.
“Make it short”: McCulloch interview. “Like a coon dog”; “The Senate was”: Steele to Williamson, March 4, 1958, SP. “Get the lead”: Fensterwald interview. “Why don’t”: Davidson, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 220.
“Seeing how”: Read interview. “You ready”: Schnibbe interview. “Jiggling”: Shuman interview. “Going from”; “baggy-cut”: MacNeil to Williamson, March 4, 1958, MP.
“By God!”: Fensterwald interview. “Fucking senator”: Schnibbe interview. Grabbed Baker’s: Fensterwald, Steele interviews. “Look”: Robert S. Allen, quoted in Miller, p. 175; Allen OH, SRL.
Lifting up Pastore: Mooney, p. 31; Reedy interview. Mutter along; “CALL THE QUESTION!”: Riddick, Steele, Zweben interviews.
“Revving up”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 177; Reedy interview. “Orchestra conductor”: Steele interview and Steele to Williamson, March 4, 1958, SP. Johnson directing Senate voting: Interviews with Barr, Fensterwald, MacNeil, Shuman, Steele, and Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 114;Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 130; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 412. “You would see”: Wicker interview. “In front”: MacNeil interview. “Change your vote”: Evans and Novak, p. 96; Steinberg, p. 497. “His mind attuned”: Sidey, Personal Presidency, p. 45. “Signal, and”: Sidey interview.
“Often”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 90. “Played Leader”: Sidey interview. “Master”: Dugger, Politician. The subtitle of Ronnie Dugger’s biography of Johnson, The Politician, is The Life and Times of Lyndon Johnson, the Drive for Power, from the Frontier to Master of the Senate.
26. “Zip, Zip”
All dates are 1955 unless otherwise noted.
Reciprocal trade bill: Fleeson, WS, June 3; McClendon, Sherman Democrat, May 17, HP, June 12; NYT, April 5, May 21; WP, April 5; Steele to Williamson, May 5, SP. “Could have”: Stewart Alsop, “A Real Pro at Work in the Senate,” WP, May 21.
Kilgore report: CR, 84/1, May 25. In a single: Newsweek, June 27. “Certainly”: Alsop, CR, 84/1, May 25.
“Engage”; “elbow room”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, pp. 93, 107; interview. “Southern dons”: Mooney, LBJ, p. 48. “Lyndon”: Mooney, p. 31. Not invited: Reedy interview.
“Just as”: Dent interview.
“We had”: Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 280. “Shrewd”: “FROM: Walter White … For release … Jan. 13, 1955” attached to Humphrey to Johnson, Jan. 13, Box 2, WHFN. Using Hubert: Douglas, p. 280; Solberg (Hubert Humphrey, pp. 169–71) says dryly: “It is hard to see what Humphrey was getting in legislation in return for his cooperation with Johnson. Not a single one of his measures went through in those years.” “Abandon”: Steele to Williamson, Jan. 6, quoted in Dallek, Lone Star, p. 478. “Should give”; “bad mistake”; “sealed”: Douglas, p. 280.
Powell’s amendment: Hamilton, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., pp. 225–35. “The issue”: WS, June 6. Eisenhower spoke: NYT, June 9.
“The informal … footrace”: Cormier, AP story, newspaper unidentified, Jan. 9, clippings file, LBJL. “Millions”: Ambrose, Eisenhower, p. 249. Shunted; “It is difficult”: Donahue, “The Prosecution Rests,” The New Republic, May 23. Same point made by Fleeson, WS, April 21.
Democratic dinner: H P, WP, April 17. “Moderation”: WN, April 18. Truman interview: NYT, April 18. “I have got”: CCC-T, April 19. “My heart”: WP, April 19. “Many Democrats”: WN, April 18. “Some Democrats”: Fleeson, WS, May 11. “Southern”: Fleeson, WS, June 3. “Malleable”: Drummond, DT-H, May 6. “Lyin’ Down”:Pearson,WP, quoted in Dugger, Politician, p. 377.
70,000: CR, 84/1, p. 7723.
Anathema: Goldsmith, Colleagues, p. 48. Capehart’s amendment: CR, 84/1 pp. 7726–727.
“Taken for granted”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 108. “Exercises”: Shaffer, On and Off, p. 113. Counts the same; “the housing bill”: Reedy memo, June 8, Box 412, JSP; Steele to Williamson, June 9, SP. With an air: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 150. “Affably”: Baltimore Sun, June 8; Steele to Williamson, June 9, SP. A mask: Reedy interview.It was true: Johnson’s arguments to the southerners are in Matthews, U.S. Senators, pp. 128–29; in Miller, Lyndon, pp. 177–78; in Reedy memo, June 8; Reedy, U.S. Senate, pp. 107–10, and LBJ, pp. 83–84; Humphrey, Sparkman OHs; Reedy, Steele interviews. “Only a little”: Reedy, quoted in Miller, p. 178. “One”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 178.“Lyndon”: Steele to Williamson, June 9, SP. For an expurgated version: Reedy, quoted in Miller, p. 178.
“Anyone”: Douglas, in CR, 84/1, pp. 7734–735.
Getting Humphrey to Chamber: CR, 84/1, p. 7759; Humphrey OH II; Reedy interview. “Damn it”; “as the”; had Johnson needed: Steele to Williamson, June 9, SP. “Capehart’s head”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 109. Vote: CR, 84/1, p. 7753. Later, when it was certain that their votes would make no difference in the outcome, Russell and East-land voted aye, and were so recorded. 60 to 25:CR, 84/1, p. 7754. “As soon”: Reedy, pp. 109–10. And see Goldsmith, p. 49. “A genius”; “I am frank”: CR, 84/1, p. 7759. Scene in G-14: Evans and Novak, p. 151; Shuman interview.
Eisenhower had proposed; working on subcommittee: Evans and Novak, p. 149. One-dollar minimum: Lincoln, WS, June 5.
“The cloakroom”: McCulloch interview. “I think”: Humphrey OH III, p. 27. “Mr. President”: CR, 84/1, p. 7873. “Zip, zip”; “boy, oh”: Humphrey OH III, p. 27. Hill didn’t know; Lehman “speechless”: Evans and Novak, p. 150.
“Obviously”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 13. Neely’s agreement; “some of”: CR, 84/1, p. 7874. “I was wrong”: McCulloch interview. The last time: Entire Senate Voting Record, p. 301; Dugger, p. 293. Laughing among themselves: Fleeson, WS, June 9.
“The talk”: Carpenter, HP, June 12. “LYNDON MOVES”: Lincoln, WS, June 11. “The Texas-sized”: WSJ, June 10. “On several”: WP, June 30. “Snatched”: Fleeson, WS, June 9. “The deftness”: Pearson, WP, June 13. “THE TEXAN”: Newsweek, June 27.
Lack of enthusiasm: For example, Fleeson, WS, June 3. Russell’s withdrawal; “Will inherit”: Timmons, DMN, May 28. Byrd himself: CR, 84/1, p. 9559. Smathers had; editorial: Abilene Reporter-News, Orlando Sentinel, July 3; Jenkins interview. “Exuberant”: The New Republic, July 4. “Gallery Glimpses”: WP, July 3. “Be on”: Evans and Novak, p. 89.
27. “Go Ahead with the Blue”
All dates are 1955 unless otherwise noted.
Krock luncheon: NYT, July 7. “More than”: Gonella interview; Mooney, LBJ, p. 58. “It has”: WP, July 3. So ashen: Leslie Carpenter, HP, June 12. Hardly one: Jenkins interview. “Chain-smoking”: Baker, Good Times, pp. 335–37. “A starving”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 70.
Illness during first campaign: Caro, Path, pp. 433–36. “I never”: Caro, Path, p 425. During second campaign: Caro, Means, Chapter 10.
Suddenly clutched: WP, Aug. 14;Mooney OH; Busby interview. “He ate”: Smathers, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 413. Cursory: Steinberg, p. 298. “A flutter”: Chadwick interview. “Near the edge”: Steele, WS, July 6. Dinner: Symington OH I, pp. 14, 15.
During the morning: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 414. Chadwick episode: Chadwick, Theis interviews; Theis OH; Chad-wick, “When a Lieutenant Outranked a Commander,” AP Cleartime, Nov. 1998, pp. 1, 2. Lunch: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 91. “I remember”: Lyndon B. Johnson, “My Heart Attack Taught Me How to Live,”American Magazine, July 1956; Johnson, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 101. At Huntlands: Brown, Oltorf interviews, OHs; Anderson OH.
“Lyndon, I think”: Anderson OH; Anderson, quoted in Evans and Novak, p. 91, and in Miller, p. 181. “An absolute”: Caro, Path, p. 156; also see p. 174. Coolness in Pacific: Caro, Means, Chapter 3. Ambulance ride: Oltorf interview.
At Bethesda: Dr. J. Willis Hurst, Lady Bird Johnson interviews; Jenkins, Reedy interviews and OHs; Montgomery, Mrs. LBJ, p. 53; Russell, Lady Bird, pp. 175–76; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 416. “A real”: Newsweek, Nov. 7; Reedy interview. “Where his will”: Jenkins OH. “Tell him”: Mrs. Johnson, quoted in Miller, p. 181.“Sensuous”:Mrs. Johnson, quoted in Dallek, Lone Star, p. 486. Doctors said: Dr. Hurst interview; Jenkins OH.
28. Memories
All dates are 1955 unless otherwise noted.
“Fifty-fifty”: Lyndon B. Johnson, “My Heart Attack Taught Me How to Live,” American Magazine, July 1956; Los Angeles Inquirer, Dec. 2; Reedy OH VIII.
Details of heart attack: Interviews with Dr. Willis Hurst, M.D.; Cain OH; Lady Bird Johnson, “Can You Prevent a Heart Attack?” This Week, Feb. 12, 1956. “A myocardial”: NYT, WP, July 6. “The immediate”: Fleeson, WP, July 5. “HEART ATTACK”: Nashua Telegraph, July 6. “Six months”: NYT, July 10.
“He felt”: Jenkins OH. “White”: Culhane interview. “For almost”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 151, 152. “For the”: Reedy OH VIII. “Project Impossible”: Mooney, LBJ, pp. 60, 61.
“His nurses”: Cain, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 182. “Simultaneously”: NYP, May 28, 1956. “He really”: Reedy OH VIII. “Demanding”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 151, 152. “We”: Jenkins to Johnson, July 18, Box 96, Masters, JSP. “Oh, now”: Boston Globe, Sept. 15. “Why”: Lyndon B. Johnson, “My Heart Attack Taught Me How to Live,” American Magazine, July 1956. “If he”: Cain OH. “To cut”: Reedy OH, interviews. “Mary”: Jenkins to Rather, July 23, Chronology, “Chronologies,” 1955, LBJL.
“Over and over”: Reedy OH VIII. Illness had deepened: Reedy OH VIII; Busby, Jenkins, Rather, Reedy interviews. “Give Lyndon”; “I miss”: Smith, President’s Lady, pp. 64, 65. “Everybody”: McGrory, WS, Aug. 21.
“Stay with me”; “at first”; Worley dinner: Montgomery, Mrs. LBJ, p. 53. “Lyndon wanted”: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 418. “Did fear”: Jenkins OH.
Put the pack: Lyndon B. Johnson, “My Heart Attack Taught Me How to Live,” American Magazine, July 1956; Newsweek, Nov. 7; Mooney, p. 62; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 419; Jenkins, SHJ interviews. “Every”: Gonella interview. Did not smoke; Cigarettes and coffee: Jenkins, SHJ interviews; Jenkins OH. “He became”; “incautiously”: Reedy OH VIII. “A fatty”: WP, Sept. 14. “A cantaloupe”: Jenkins OH. “I believe”: Mrs. Johnson to Terrell Maverick, July 28, LBJA SN, Box 27. “I’ve thrown”: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 419.
“Stories began”: Mooney, p. 62. “There are”: McGrory, WS, Aug. 21. “Sprawled”: Newsweek, Nov. 7. “Innumerable”: Beaumont Journal, Aug. 29. “Easy-going”: McClendon, AA-S, Aug. 21. “A man”: McGrory, WS, Aug. 21.
“Representatives”: AA-S, Aug. 26. “Thinnest”: Rather, quoted in Miller, p. 182. Drew an X: SHJ interviews. Nightmares: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 125.
Responses to Little Beagle: Montgomery, p. 56; SHJ, Rather interviews. “Some days”; “He’s going”; Sam Houston knew: SHJ, Rather interviews. “Many things”: SAE, Sept. 11. And see Jenkins to Johnson, Aug. 26, Box 3, PPCF.
“The only deal”: Califano, Triumph, pp. 29, 30.
Life at the ranch: SHJ interviews; Jenkins, Rather, Reedy interviews and OHs. “Oh”: Jenkins OH. “Every”: Reedy OH. “Outlets”: Stewart Alsop, “Lyndon Johnson: How Does He Do It?” SEP, Jan. 24, 1959. “His finger”: Califano, pp. 51, 52. “Hog call”: Corcoran interview. “When this”: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 420. “Get along”:Lady Bird to Nellie Connally, July 16, Box 39, JSP.
“On new”: Johnson to Reedy, Sept. 21, Box 566, JSP. “Dear John”: Johnson to Bricker, Sept. 16, Box 557, JSP. “Never seemed”; “going”: Palmie OH. Subcommittee reports, leaks: Newsweek, Sept. 26; NYT, Sept. 13, Oct. 9; WS, Oct. 13; Reedy to Siegel, Sept. 5, Box 555, JSP. To persuade Time: Jenkins to Carter, Aug. 25, Box 30, “Master Files,” JSP; Carpenter to Johnson, undated, Box 557, JSP.
“Johnson’s Manso”: Rather to Moursund, Dec. 20, Box 566, JSP. “I don’t”: Jenkins OH. KANG negotiations: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 335–36; for example, Jenkins to Johnson, Aug. 31, Box 96, “Masters File,” JSP; Life, Aug. 21, 1964; WSJ, Nov. 23, 1964; WS, June 9, 1964; Jenkins interview and OH; Stehling interview. “It speeded”:Reedy OH VIII.
Johnson’s strategy: Newsweek, Oct. 31; CSM, Oct. 18, Nov. 7; HP, Nov. 13. See notes for Chapter 35 (“Convention”). “If his”: Corcoran ms., Corcoran Papers, quoted in Dallek, Lone Star, p. 491.
Johnson’s reaction: Reedy OH VIII, and see notes for Chapter 33. Instead: Rather OH. Press conference: “A Social Visit,” Time, Oct. 10; AA-S, NYHT, NYT, Sept. 30; H P, Oct. 2; Reedy OH VIII. “Pointedly”: NYT, Oct. 18. “I’m not”: Martin, Adlai Stevenson, p. 211. Johnson and Rayburn: Corcoran, Rowe interviews. “He spoke”: Rowe to Johnson, Oct. 26, LBJA SN. “Lyndon will be”: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 426.
“Political capital”: Reedy to Johnson, Oct. 19, Box 3, PPMF. Polls: SA News, Dec. 9. “Backing”: Fleeson, WS, Oct. 31. “Outside of”: HC, Oct. 2. “Reasonable”: H P, Nov. 13, attached to Johnson to Rowe, Oct. 28, LBJA SN. “Here”: New Republic, Oct. 18. “Some of”: NYT, Oct. 18.
“Unjustified”: Reedy interview. After a visit to Rayburn, Corcoran wrote that “Sam was disturbed by the way he thought the William White story might upset the calculations of convenience on which the State Chairman—favorite son—plans had been built” (Corcoran to Mrs. Johnson and Johnson, Nov. 10, Corcoran Papers). Joseph Kennedy episode: Dallek, pp. 490, 491; Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, pp. 780–81; Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 3. “He never”; “malaria-ridden”: Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds, p. 780.
“I am sure”: Cain to Corcoran, Nov. 14, Corcoran Papers. “Lyndon”: Cain to Johnson, Nov. 19, Corcoran Papers. “Back”: Reedy to Johnson, Box 3, PPMF. “A Program with a heart”: AA-S, NYT, Nov. 22; Baltimore Sun, Nov. 23; WP, Nov. 25; WS, Nov. 27. A glowing description of the Whitney event is in Rather to Corcoran, Nov. 27, Corcoran Papers. “It looks”: Nichols to Johnson, Nov. 23, Box 566, JSP.
“Is talking”: Albright, WP, Nov. 27. “The Democrats”: FWS-T, Aug. 24. Met: Hughes’ representative was Noah Dietrich, one of his top aides. Reedy OH VIII; “Chronology,” 1955, LBJL; Clark, Connally interviews. Kefauver visit: Abilene Reporter News, DT-H, Nov. 24. Taking steps: Pearson, WP, Oct. 19. “I’d like”: Johnson to Stevenson, Nov. 22, Box 566, JSP.
“Lyndon Johnson Day”: San Marcos Record, Nov. 25; Whiteside interview. Who had cut out: Caro, Path, pp. 197, 198. “I knew”: Carol Davis and Lyndon Johnson are discussed in Caro, pp. 161, 172–73, 205, 294.
“With his feet”: Providence Bulletin, Dec. 13. Doctors’ report: NYT, Dec. 15.
“Every time”: Johnson, quoted in Flora Schreiber, “Lyndon B. Johnson: Courageous Man of Action,” Family Weekly, Feb. 2, 1964. “Could scarcely”; “whatever”; “sensed”: Montgomery, pp. 54, 55. “Of course”; “I never”: Reedy OH VIII. “They weren’t: Rather OH. “Some of”: Flora Schreiber, “Lyndon B. Johnson: Courageous Man of Action,” Family Weekly, Feb. 2, 1964.
Laugh: Montgomery, pp. 58–61.
“Let’s each”: Flora Schreiber, “Lyndon B. Johnson: Courageous Man of Action,” Family Weekly, Feb. 2, 1964. “Lyndon has”: Rowe to Lady Bird, Nov. 8; Lady Bird to Rowe, Nov. 26, LBJA SN. Changing her excuse; “rediscovering”: Lady Bird Johnson, “Can You Prevent a Heart Attack?” This Week, Feb. 12, 1956. “I firmly”: Irwin Ross,NYP, March 28, 1957.
“Her greatest achievement”: Sidey, “The Second Toughest Job,” Time, Jan. 14, 1985. “Politics was”: Lady Bird OH, RBRL. “Somebody”: Steele interview. “Deliver”: Ross, NYP, March 28, 1957. “If ever”: Mooney, p. 236. “That’s enough”; coattail; Scotch: Mooney, pp. 236, 241, 244. “Right behind you”: Tames interview. “Don’t let”:Steele, Feb. 22, 1965, SP.
“Next to us”: Rowe, Corcoran interviews. “He enjoyed”: Reedy, Johnson, p. 52; Reedy interview. “Loved people”: Lady Bird Johnson, quoted in People, Feb. 2, 1987.
“I felt”; “He became”: Jenkins OH. “Never seen”: BeLieu interview. “Now he had”: Connally interview.
29. The Program with a Heart
All dates are 1956 unless otherwise noted.
Opening day: Baltimore Sun, NYHT, NYT, WP, Jan. 4. “Everlasting”: “Minutes of Meeting—Democratic Policy Committee,” Jan. 5, Box 364, JSP, Reedy interview. Press Club: NYT, WS, Jan. 4.
Rowe’s memorandum: McCullough, Truman, pp. 590–92; Reedy OH IX, p. 71; Reedy, Rowe interviews.
“I wish”: Rowe interview.
“Napping”: Scott OH.
“Very, very”: Smathers OH.
“All know”: Paul Douglas, “The Case for the Consumer of Natural Gas,” Georgetown Law Review, June 1956, p. 573. Taken the stance: Elizabeth Sanders, Regulation of Natural Gas, pp. 83 ff; Walter Goodman, “Piping Hot Air to the Consumer,” New Republic, June 27. During those: Edgar Kemler, “Democratic Giveaway: The Natural Gas Bill,”The Nation, Feb. 4. FPC reversal: Richard Smith, “The Unnatural Problems of Natural Gas,” Fortune, Sept. 1959. Each one-cent increase for the price of a thousand cubic feet of natural gas would, Fortune estimated, “pour some $70 million a year into the producers’ pockets.” Superior oil: W-SJ, Dec. 22, 1955; NYT, Feb. 22. Texas Eastern:Standard & Poor’s Corp., Standard Corporate Descriptions, 1949–1956; Clark interview.
Michigan and Wisconsin vs. FPC: Richard Smith, “The Unnatural Problems of Natural Gas,” Fortune, Sept. 1959. Two committees: WP, Aug. 8. Funds collected by Maston Nixon: “The Oil Lobby,” New Republic, Sept. 24. Distributed by: Clark, Connally, Herring, Wild interviews. “Once the lines”; “to eliminate”: Walter Goodman, “Piping Hot Air to the Consumer,” New Republic, June 27. Southerners split; had been intending: Joseph and Stewart Alsop, WP, Dec. 12; McPherson, Political Education, p. 89. “Lyndon was”; “transcended”: Oltorf interview. Estimates: Walter Goodman, “Piping Hot Air to the Consumer,” New Republic, June 27, 1955.
Stakes: Paul Douglas, “The Case for the Consumer of Natural Gas,” Georgetown Law Reviews, June 1956, p. 585. “Very frankly”: “Minutes—Democratic Policy Committee,” July 26, 28, 1955,” Box 364, JSP. “I wanted”: “Minutes,” Jan. 5, 1956, Box 364, JSP.
“They sent”: Oltorf interview. Mayflower scene: Connally, Dale Miller, Wild interviews. Humble paying Clark: Clark interview. Patman was informed: “The question has been raised…,” undated statement but obviously 1961, G 242, 1 of 3, Drew Pearson Papers; Wild interview. “I remember”: Miller interview. “For twenty years”: Caro,Path, pp. 269–73. “You know”: Wild interview.
“At whoever’s”: Brammer interview. Allowed them to use: Crawford and Keever, Connally, p. 62; Brammer, Clark, Connally, Jenkins, Miller, Wild interviews. “He would call”: Clark interview. “Harder”; Bridges at Huntlands: Oltorf interview. “I was asked”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 86. Patman’s in New Hampshire: NYT, March 8.“The reason”: Connally interview. Rubbed together: Clark interview. Patman sent Neff: NYT, Feb. 12. “I was”: Wild interview. “He got”: Oltorf interview. Enough to win: Wild interview.
Outrage: NYT, Jan. 27; Nation, Feb. 4; New Republic, June 27, 1955; Fleeson, WS, Jan. 27. Proclaiming: Johnson, quoted in Stokes, WS, Jan. 26; NYT, Jan. 8.
Johnson had told: “Bob has gotten word to all our folks not to question the opponents in debate” (Jenkins to Johnson, Jan. 19, Box 268, JSP). “That left”: Othman, WDN, Jan. 25. “For the”: Stokes, WS, Jan. 26. “The concentrated”: Congressional Quarterly, Feb. 7. “In droves”: WP, Jan. 27. “Never”: Pearson, WP, Jan. 25. “Douglas gave a (long) speech against the gas bill,” Howard Shuman recalls. “No one came. Johnson wouldn’t let them come” (Shuman interview).
Case’s speech: CR, 84/2, Feb. 3. “SENATOR TELLS”: WP, Feb. 4. “You are”: Clark interview. Vacant rooms; Connally knew: Clark, Wild interviews. “White-faced”: Pearson and Anderson, Case, p. 142. “Sat paralyzed”: Reston Jr., Lone Star, p. 170. “No attempt”: Connally with Herskowitz, In History’s Shadow, p. 147.
“I think”: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 433. “A vague”: AP wire, PA 121 PM, Feb. 4. “Thus far”: NYT, Feb. 5. A deliberate; “a complete”; no delay; “just”: NYT, WP, Feb. 5, 6, 7. “Can ill afford”: NYT, Feb. 7. “Casting aside”: NYT, Feb. 7. An indication of how anger at Case crossed party lines is given in a memo from Jack Anderson to Drew Pearson (Feb. 15, Pearson Papers): “Postmaster General Summerfield was commenting at a cock tail party the other day…. He said that Case was like the little boy at the Sunday School picnic who spit in the lemonade. (Except he used a stronger word than spit.)”
Hennings said: NYT, Feb. 7. “The whisper”: NYT, Feb. 19. “On reflection”: Russell Baker, NYT, March 11. “If there”: James Reston, NYT, Feb. 20. Johnson pulled: Reston Jr., Lone Star, p. 170; White, NYT, Feb. 19. Digitalis: Childs, WP, Feb. 15; Pearson, WP, Feb. 14. “I felt”: Reston Jr., Lone Star, p. 170.
Johnson-Knowland resolution: “S. Res. 205, In the Senate of the United States,” in Report No. 1724, Select Committee for Contribution Investigation, March 29, 1956, pp. 1, 2, Box 117, LBJA SF. Krock, NYT, Feb. 9, 15; Pearson, WP, Feb. 16. “Without known”: NYT, Feb. 15. Letter: George to Case, Feb. 7, Box 400, JSP. “Mr. George just”:NYT, Feb. 9. Johnson’s meeting with Hennings, Gore: WP, Feb. 16. “Let’s go”: WP, Feb. 16. Also see Pearson, Diaries, p. 356. Attempt to gag: Stokes, WS, Feb. 9. “IT DOESN’T PAY”: NYT, Feb. 9.
“Bored in”: NYT, Feb. 11. Neff, Patman testimony: Report No. 1724, pp. 3, 4; NYT, Feb. 12. Ross declared: Report No. 1724, p. 4; NYT, Feb. 18, 21; Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 1956, p. 474. “This handful”: Time, Feb. 27. “To get in contact”: NYT, Feb. 21, 29; Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 1956, p. 474. “Had $2,500”: NYT, WP, March 1, 6. “Inadvertently”: Report No. 1724, p. 6. The list: Report No. 1724; NYT, WP, March 1. “Substantial”: Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 1956, p. 473. “He was worried”: Mooney, LBJ, p. 97.
At one point; “He was not asked”; “scratching”: NYT, Feb. 14. “Only”: NYT, Feb. 22. “Or was”: Krock, NYT, Feb. 14. “Personally”: Richard Rovere, “Letter from Washington,” The New Yorker, Feb. 25; NYT, Feb. 16. It “was limited”: Report No. 1724, p. 2. Suspended sentences: NYT, Dec. 15, 1956.
Its “strangest”: WP, April 9. “Carefully circumscribed”: Childs, WP, April 4.
“A great stench”: Ambrose, Eisenhower, pp. 302, 303. “Doubt”: NYT, Feb. 18. Ike’s veto: Ambrose, p. 302. Ambrose notes that “Eisenhower wrote private letters to a number of his oil-industry friends, including Sid Richardson, explaining his motives and assuring that he felt the ‘questionable aura that surrounded its passing’ had been created ‘by an irresponsible and small segment of the industry.’” “Since”: NYT, Feb. 18.
“Slippery”: Denver Post, Feb. 16. “The honor”: WP, Feb. 20. “every reason”: NYT, Feb. 15. “This city”: Reston, NYT, Feb. 20.
“Unfairly”: NYT, Feb. 22. “Saddle your horse”: Time, March 5. “Has been”: NYT, Feb. 21. “Liveliest”: Time, Feb. 27.
Bridges’ maneuvers: Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 1956, pp. 743, 744; NYT, WP, WS, March 1–10. “Boiling”: Newsweek, March 12. “Bipartisanship”: New Republic, March 12. McClellan’s law firm: “Memo to DP from Donovan,” March 8, Pearson Papers. “Evinced”: NYT, March 1.
“Which might”: NYT, March 12. “File clerk”: WDN, April 13. Never asked: A discussion of the committee’s work is in Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 1956, pp. 743–48.
“The big to-do”: Wild interview. “As his first assignment”: “Report of the Special Review Committee of the Board of Directors of Gulf Oil Corporation, In the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Civil Action No. 75–0325: Securities and Exchange Commission v. Gulf Oil Corporation and Claude C. Wild, Jr., Defendants,” p. 64.
“Shirks”; “Insufficient”: Richard A. Smith, “The Unnatural Problems of Natural Gas,” Fortune, Sept. 1959. $10.7 billion: Ibid. Value of Kecks’ stock: NYT, June 20, 1959. Had Texas Eastern: Richard A. Smith, “The Unnatural Problems of Natural Gas,” Fortune, Sept. 1959; Standard & Poor, 1959–1960, p. 9051. A billion: Actually $1,045,943,000; ibid., p. 1286.
“I don’t”: Smathers OH. “I have had”: Cain to Corcoran, Feb. 8, “Lyndon Johnson,” Thomas Corcoran Papers, LC. Johnson’s examination: NYT, WP, Feb. 20. “He could be”: Brammer interview. Rowe told Johnson: Jenkins, Rowe interviews.
Brown could not: Clark, Oltorf interviews. “Quite sincere”: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, pp. 154, 155.
“Over a year”: Evans and Novak, p. 157. “Clearly”: Reedy interview. “I happen”: Johnson to Meany, July 19, LBJA FN. “The Administration”: Reedy, quoted in Miller, p. 189. Malone vote: Evans and Novak, pp. 158, 159; Miller, p. 189; Oliver OH. “Dog loyal”: Mooney, p. 50. “Serious”: Smathers OH. “Bob”: Oliver OH. “Johnson fully”:Evans and Novak, p. 159. Refused: Clark interview. “Was seated”: Baker OH. “He arranged”; “infuriated”: Mooney, pp. 50, 51. “I remember”: Mooney OH. “No doubt”: Evans and Novak, p. 159. “Put a lot”: Baker OH. Johnson’s reaction: Mooney, p. 51. “Senator Clements”; “Johnson tried”: Baker OH. Does not jibe: Busby, Clark, Wild interviews. “Pointed out”: Mooney, p. 51.
30. The Rising Tide
Six works are the basic sources for the general background on black voter registration and on the legal situation of black Americans and the civil rights movement up to 1960. They are Taylor Branch’s Parting the Waters, John Egerton’s Speak Now Against the Day, Richard Kluger’s Simple Justice, Steven F. Lawson, Black Ballots: Voting Rights in the South, 1944–1969, Margaret Price, The Negro Voter in the South, and United States Commission on Civil Rights, With Liberty and Justice for All, 1959.
Bullock County incident: Aaron Sellers et al. versus S. B. Wilson et al.—United States District Court, Middle District, Alabama, Sept. 10, 1954, 123 F. Supp. 917, in CR, 85/1, pp. 13320–322; United States Commission on Civil Rights, Dec. 8, 1958, “Hearing Held in Montgomery, Alabama,” pp. 267–81, 313–14, 321 (referred to as “1958 Hearing”); United States Commission on Civil Rights, With Liberty and Justice for All: The Report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,” 1959; Price, Negro Voter, p. 11; Strong, Registration of Voters in Alabama; and author’s interviews with John Holt, Aaron Sellers, and Gladys Sellers Washington.
“Voucher System”: 1958 Hearing, pp. 176–77, 313–14.
Out of eleven thousand, five: With Liberty and Justice for All, An Abridgement of the Report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1959, p. 73; Birmingham News, Sept. 18, 1960. “Was not connected”: Kennamer, district judge, in CR, 85/1, p. 13321. “What’s your trouble”: Sellers, in 1958 Hearing, pp. 270–71; Sellers interview. “The white people”: Sellers interview. Only Wilson appeared: CR, 85/1, p. 13321. “Told us”: Sellers, 1958 Hearing, p. 272. “I just”: Sellers interview. “Whenever the plaintiffs”: Kennamer ruling, in CR, 85/1, p. 13321. “We couldn’t”: Sellers, 1958 Hearing, p. 275.
“Fragments”: William P. Rogers, in U.S. Senate, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, p. 225. “Flashed”: Kluger, p. 88. “The Jim Crow era”: Kluger, p. 72. “Officially”: Kluger, p. 9. “Blotted out”: Bilbo, quoted in Egerton, pp. 402–03.
“Serious consideration”; Only about 2 percent: Henry W. Grady, quoted in Kluger, pp. 62, 233. Smith v. Allwright: Egerton, p. 380; Kluger, pp. 234–36. 15 percent, “the warning siren”; “success”: Egerton, p. 397.
“Things would be different”: Egerton, p. 329. “A lot of”: Hastie, quoted in Kluger, p. 294. Life covers: Egerton, p. 513. “Spreading sense”: Egerton, p. 324.
“Stomach turned”: William E. Leuchtenburg, “The Conversion of Harry Truman,” American Heritage, Nov. 1991.
Brown v. Board of Education: General situation from Kluger. “I have”: Kluger, p. 667. Reed looking at Marshall: Marshall, quoted in Egerton, p. 608. And see Kluger, pp. 7, 8, 9. Knelt: A vivid scene of two black preachers—the Revs. Wyatt T. Walker and Vernon Johns—kneeling by the side of a Virginia highway when they heard the news over the car radio is in Branch, p. 285.
Confederacy rose in rage: Egerton, pp. 615–18. Martin, Deep South, passim; Stan Opotowsky, “Dixie Dynamite: The Inside Story of the White Citizens Councils,” series in NYP, Jan. 7–17, 1957. “Refuses to recognize”: Brady, quoted in Martin, Deep South, p. 16. “A separate suit”: Martin, p. 73.
“These laws”: Egerton, p. 615; Kluger, pp. 702, 720, 723–24, 752–53, 778; Martin, pp. 72–73, 79–103. Fifty-three Negroes: Martin, Deep South, pp. 20–30; Halberstam, The Fifties, p. 430. Jackson petition: Martin, Deep South, p. 29. 1955 situation: Martin, Deep South, p. 163.
Attempts to liberalize Rule 22 in 1947, 1949, 1951, 1953: See notes for Chapters 3, 7, 8, 19, 20. Also Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 277. Sixty-one separate bills: Congressional Record Index, 1953, 1954, 1955.
“In view”: Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 281.
Rev. George Lee murder: Civil Rights Education Project, Free at Last, pp. 36, 37. “A real”: Halberstam, p. 430. “Get the niggers”; “When I saw”: Ruby Hurley, quoted in Howell Raines, My Soul Is Rested, p. 132. Could “have been fillings”: Wilkins, Standing Fast, p. 222; Civil Rights Education Project, Free at Last, p. 37.
Lamar Smith murder: Civil Rights Education Project, Free at Last, pp. 38–39.
Gus Courts wounding: Price, Negro Voter, pp. 21–22. Senate Committee on Judiciary, “Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights,” 1957, pp. 532–63; WP, March 1, 1957. Brownell said: Brownell, Advising Ike, p. 204; NYT, Dec. 7, 1955. “The nation’s press”: Halberstam, p. 431.
Emmett Till murder: Basic sources are Halberstam, pp. 430–40; Whitfield, A Death in the Delta; Williams, Eyes on the Prize; William Bradford Huie, “Approved Killing in Mississippi,” Look, Jan. 24, 1956; I. F. Stone’s columns, collected in The Haunted Fifties; and Murray Kempton’s columns in NYP, Sept. 19–26, 1955.
Talking “fresh”: Whitfield, p. 16; Williams, pp. 41–42.
Taking Till away: Whitfield, pp. 20, 38. “Mama, Lord have mercy”: Reed, a witness at the trial, quoted in Whitfield, p. 40.
“Went by custom”: Smith, quoted in Whitfield, p. 21. Identified by ring: Williams, p. 43. “Have you ever”: Mamie Till Bradley, quoted in Williams, p. 44. “Is aroused”: Whitfield, p. 22. “Jungle fury”; For many reasons; “Here”: Halberstam, p. 436.
“The boy who”; “How old”: Williams, p. 42. If he testified: Whitfield, p. 38.
Unusual public officials: The Nation’s correspondent singled out Swango and Chatham as “native Mississippians whose devotion throughout this occasion was to justice above states’ rights and local customs”; Wakefield, quoted in Whitfield, p. 44.
Not a single Negro: Whitfield, pp. 44–45. “There ain’t”: Strider, quoted in Halberstam, p. 49. Diggs incident: Halberstam, p. 440; Whitfield, p. 37. “Like a circus”: Hurley, in Raines, p. 132. Wright at the trial: Vivid descriptions of the trial are in Whitfield and Halberstam, among others, but best is Kempton in NYP, Sept. 19–25, 1955.
“An expression”; “humble”: Whitfield, pp. 40–43; Stone, p. 107; Williams, p. 41.
“Sexy whopper”: Stone, Haunted Fifties, Oct. 3, 1955. “Your ancestors”: Carlton, quoted in Halberstam, p. 441. Bottle of pop: Whitfield, p. 42. “If she tried”: Jury foreman J. A. Shaw Jr., quoted in Stone, Oct. 3, 1955. “For the first time”; “We’ve got”: Whitfield, p. 333. “The fear”: Moody, Coming of Age, pp. 121, 127. “Shook the foundations”: Myrlie Evers, quoted in Whitfield, p. 60. “Cried”; “Everyone”: Williams, pp. 43, 47. “Covered”: Hicks, quoted in Williams, p. 51.
“The fact remains”: NYT, Sept. 7, 1955; Whitfield, p. 24. “Both the wolf whistle”: Whitfield, p. 46. “Scandalous”; “the life”: Quoted in Whitfield, p. 46.
“The other”; “needs a Gandhi”: Stone, pp. 107–09. “The same disease”: Whitfield, pp. 45–46. “Evil, bigoted”: NYT, Sept. 25, 1955. “A critical junction”: Halberstam, pp. 436–47. “Emmett Till’s River”: Quoted in Martin, p. 8. “That river’s”: Whitfield, p. 34. “Controlled hostility”: NYT, Sept. 20, 1955. “You lie”: Dan Wakefield, “Justice in Summer,” The Nation, Oct. 1, 1955. “Historic”: Diggs, quoted in Williams, p. 49.
Start of Montgomery Bus Boycott: Branch, pp. 131–35.
31. The Compassion
of Lyndon Johnson
“I’m not”: Johnson, quoted in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, pp. 232, 230. “The man”: Reedy OH III, p. 27. “I’m telling”: Douglas, Full Life, p. 363.
“You’re dead”: Clifford and Virginia Durr OH.
In 8-F: Brown, Clark, Oltorf interviews. “He went out of his way to let them know he felt the way they did,” Oltorf says. “He didn’t wait to be asked.” Clark’s “joke”: Clark interview.
“We were”: Stibbens interview. “Natives very much”: “LBJ World War II Diary,” p. 3, Box 73, LBJA SF. Reinforced: Connally interview. “Negro problem”: “LBJ World War II Diary,” p. 8. “I don’t think”: Stibbens tape. “I know”: Wicker, JFK and LBJ, p. 196. “If we”: Sidey to NYK, Jan. 29, 1968, p. 4, SP. Eurasian references:Dugger,Politician, p. 312; AA-S, DMN, HP, May 23, 1948; Busby, Clark, Vann Kennedy, Lawson interviews. “I talk”: Caro, Path, p. 70.
“He said”: Hopkins OH. “My God”: Hopkins interview. Snake joke: Dan White to Caro, April 2, 1986 (in author’s possession); Bethke, Lon Smith, Stehling interviews. “Boy, you”: Clark interview. “I’ll make you”: Bethke interview.
“We shall overcome”: Caro, Means, pp. xiii-xix.
“No ‘darkies’”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 155.
“Yet for years”: Parker, Capitol Hill, pp. v, vi, 16, 23. When Parker’s book was published in 1986, Jack Valenti and Horace Busby attacked his veracity. Busby said that although he was on Johnson’s staff in 1949 and 1950, Parker was “no one I knew. I never saw him.” Valenti called the book a “hoax.” But Johnson aide Lloyd Hand, who was on his Senate staff from 1957 until 1960, “confirmed” to Lois Romano of the Washington Post, as she reported on June 14, 1986, “that Johnson had known Parker, and said he remembered Parker serving at Johnson’s parties.” John Connally confirmed to the author that Parker had indeed served as Johnson’s part-time chauffeur and as a bartender and waiter at his parties. Walter Jenkins, during a discussion with the author—some years before Parker’s book was published—about Johnson’s use of “patronage” employees to supplement his own staff, mentioned Parker as an example.
“There wasn’t”: Crider, quoted in Dugger, p. 71. Description of picking cotton: Caro, Path, pp. 115–16. “A man-killing”: Humphrey, Farther Off, p. 55. “Boy”: Ava Johnson Cox, quoted in Caro, Path, p. 121. Working on the road gang: Caro, pp. 121, 132–33. “Did not”: McPherson, Political Education, p. 138.
Lyndon Johnson in Cotulla: Caro, Path, Chapter 10 (“Cotulla”). “I saw”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 66. “I could never”: Dugger, p. 115.
“I’m gonna”: Johnson-Walker Stone telephone tape, Jan. 6, 1964, citation 1196, White House Tapes. “No teacher”: Caro, Path, p. 168.
Saving from foreclosure: Caro, Path, pp. 256–58. Brought electricity: Caro, Chapter 27 (“The Sad Irons”) and Chapter 28 (“‘I’ll Get It for You’”).
“The best”: Corcoran interview.
“Hustle”; “It sorta”: Dugger, pp. 187–88. “You have any”: Elliott, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 56; Monroe Billington, “Lyndon B. Johnson and Blacks: The Early Years,” The Journal of Negro History, Jan. 1975, p. 29.
Choreographed: Interviews with Deason, Morgan, and one NYA staff member who asked not to be quoted by name.
“Easily”: Akridge, “Brief Report by Mr. Akridge on the States in His Region,” Feb. 2, 1937, Box 10, JNYA. “He always”; “I think”; “‘You can’t’”: Brown OH. “Kept talking”: Weaver, quoted in Miller, p. 56. “One who has proven”: Bethune to Johnson, May 3, 1937, “Box 1, Correspondence B, 1937 Campaign,” JHP, cited in Christie Bourgeois, “Lyndon Johnson’s Years with the National Youth Administration,” unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Texas, May, 1986, p. 73. “Whenever”: Brown OH.
“He never asked”: Deason, quoted in Miller, p. 56. “Johnson did”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 231. “Mules”: Durr OH.
“Daily”: Jones interview. Wirtz accompanying Johnson: Deason, Jones, Rather interviews.
Told by NYA administrators: Johnson was to note that he had “discussed this matter thoroughly” with Corson on the telephone and “at some length” when he came to Washington to attend a conference of the NYA’s state directors in August. On Sept. 17, Corson pressed him further. (See below.) “Outstanding”: “Special Report of Negro Activities of the NYA of Texas …,” March 5, 1936, Submitted by Lyndon B. Johnson, Box 9, JNYA. “Large number”: Corson to Johnson, Sept. 17, 1935, Box 8, JNYA. Johnson’s letter: Johnson to Corson, Sept. 22, 1935, Box 8, JNYA. “Under”: Corson to Williams, Sept. 25, 1935, “Copies of Internal Memoranda, 1935–1940,” Box 10, JNYA.
Seven of the ten: McKelvey to Linville, Dec. 2, 1935, “Directors—File of Reports of State Directors of Negro Affairs,” RG 119, E 120, NA, gives the names of the Negro Board members for Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. Tennessee’s African-American Board member, Dr. Charles Johnson, was appointed March 9, 1936. Georgia’s, Alva Tabor, was appointed Jan. 28, 1937 (“Reports of the State Advisory Commissions and Membership Data, 1937–1942,” Box 2, RG 119, NA). Mississippi’s two black Board members, William H. Bell and Laurence Jones, were appointed Feb. 11, 1937, and Nov. 10, 1939, respectively (“Report on Mississippi,” April 1, 1941, Box 7, RG 119, NA). Alabama also had two black Board members (Bryan to Williams, April 10, 1941, Box 3, RG 119, NA).
“It does not”: Bethune, quoted in Weisenberger, Dollars and Dreams, p. 130. “In those states”: “Summary of Program—NYA,” Feb. 26, 1936, Box 2, RG 119, NA. Ten of eleven: “Negro Representatives on State Staffs,” “Director’s File of Reports of State Directors of Negro Affairs,” RG 119, NA. Did not appoint: No administrator for Negro Affairs was hired by the Texas NYA until Mr. J. W. Rice was hired in 1940 (Weisenberger, p. 135). Used as liaison: “Special Report of Negro Activities of NYA in Texas,” March 16, 1936, Box 9, JNYA.
Not given adequate; “feels … that”: Saddler to Brown, March 28, 1936, Records of the NYA, Records of the Director, Division of Negro Affairs “Inactive Files” Correspondence, 1935–38, Box 4, NA; B. Joyce Ross, “Mary McLeod Bethune and the National Youth Administration,” The Journal of Negro History, Jan. 1975, p. 14;Stanford P. Dyer, “Lyndon B. Johnson and the Politics of Civil Rights, 1936–1960,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Texas A&M University, 1978, pp. 37, 38; Deason, Jones interviews. “I was”: Saddler to Johnson, April 9, 1936, Box 2, JNYA.
“We feel”: Brown to Johnson, Aug. 3, 1936; Johnson to Brown, Aug. 12, 1936, Box 9, JNYA. “What was said”; “Apparently”: Weisenberger, p. 135. Billington agrees with this conclusion. “He operated a segregated administration,” he wrote, adding that “that was to be expected in view of the … times.” And he wrote that Johnson “did not appoint blacks to paid supervisory capacities” (Monroe Billington, “Lyndon B. Johnson and Blacks: The Early Years,” The Journal of Negro History, Jan. 1975, p. 31).
Further down: One of Johnson’s white administrators, Joseph Skiles, says, “I don’t think … that we had any black staff members of great stature” (Skiles OH). Two top supervisors; every counselor: Saddler to Johnson, March 28, 1936; Deason interview. And see Stanford P. Dyer, “Lyndon Johnson and the Politics of Civil Rights, 1936–1960,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Texas A&M University, 1978, pp. 39, 48–50.
Mrs. Roosevelt insistent; Williams sought: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, pp. 537–54; Weisenberger, p. 127; Lash interview. “Certainly”; “while”: NYA Division of Negro Affairs, “Problems and Suggestions in Regard to the Operation of the Program Among Negro Youth,” Nov. 1936, Records of the National Youth Administration, Box 118, RG 119, NA.
“In going over”: Brown to Johnson, Jan. 22, 1936, NYA RG 119, Box 49, NA. Monthly racial breakdowns of the Texas NYA’s overall programs can be found for only two months, March 1936, when the percentage of the Texas NYA’s total aid distributions that went to black youths was 11.3 percent, and February 1937, the last month of Johnson’s tenure, when the figure was 13.7 percent (U.S. Govt. Records, NYA, 1935–1938, Box 9, LBJL). “Special Report of Negro Activities of the NYA of Texas, in response to letter from Richard R. Brown … March 16, 1936,” Box 9; L. B. Griffith to Johnson, April 27, 1936, Box 10, U.S. Govt. Records, NYA, 1935–1938, LBJL. (Administrative Reports: Jan.-June 1937, NYA 1935–38, Box 6, LBJL. Appendix to NYA Monthly Narrative and Statistical Report, ESTIMATED REPORT ON EMPLOYMENT … for Month Ending Feb. 28, 1937, attached to Kellam to Brown, March 10, 1937, Administrative Reports: Jan.-June 1937, NYA 1936–38, Box 6, LBJL.) Scattered and incomplete: NYA Administrative Reports, Boxes 5, 6, LBJL. “Considerable difference”: McKelvey to Morrow, Jan. [29?], NYA Box 3, LBJL. Another possible criterion of fairness is noted by Stanford P. Dyer: “Under Johnson’s leadership, Texas’s NYA helped 18,000 high school and college students stay in school. He also found employment on work relief projects for 11,000 out-of-school youths. Included in these numbers were about 3,600 blacks or about twelve percent of the total. At that time blacks made up a little more than fourteen percent of Texas’s population; thus their participation was a little less than their actual numerical proportion. However, in 1937 black youths constituted over forty percent of those who qualified for NYA assistance. On the basis of need, then, blacks received far less than their proper proportion” (Stanford P. Dyer, “Lyndon B. Johnson and the Politics of Civil Rights, 1936–1960,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Texas A&M University, 1978). A more detailed analysis of these figures casts more light on Dyer’s “far less” phrase. When Lyndon Johnson became Texas NYA Director, there were 123,890 men and women between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five (the age group, characterized as “youth,” that the NYA was authorized to help) on relief in the state (AA-S, Sept. 3, 1935). The best estimate available says that 40 percent—or about 50,000—of this number were black (Weisenberger, p. 134; “Youth Population by States,” Box 10, JNYA). Since the number of blacks receiving NYA assistance during Johnson’s tenure seldom (if ever; for many months, the figures are unavailable) rose above 4,000, the NYA was helping, at the most, about 8 percent of the eligible blacks. There were, by this estimate, about 74,000 white youths on relief, and the monthly NYA roll included assistance to about 23,000 of them—or about 30 percent.
Treatment of Mexican Americans: Pycior, LBJ and Mexican Americans, pp. 30–35. Not a single: Johnson to Brown, June 15, 1936, Box 1, JNYA; and see Weisenberger, p. 142. Classifying them: Pycior, p. 31. “Know how”: “Suggested Labor Supervisory Requests for Johnson City NYA-REA Building, n.d., Box 191, JHP. “Categorized”:Pycior, p. 35.
“It was”: Birdwell OH. “Thus”: Pycior, pp. 31–33. “Did not”: Pycior, p. 33; Deason interview.
“Real, though expendable”: Dugger, p. 14. Saw headline: Caro, Path, pp. 389–95.
Austin housing problems: Orum, Power. Cash payments: Caro, Path, p. 407. “It might”; “I think”; “I’ll never”: E. H. Elliot, F. R. Rice, B. E. Conner, respectively, all quoted in Dugger, p. 197. “Now look”: Dugger, p. 209.
“Tarnish” speech: CR, 75/3, Feb. 3, 1938; Pycior, pp. 37, 38. “Because”: Keyserling, quoted in Miller, p. 72.
Story after story: Summed up in Orum, p. 133. Every one: AA-S, Jan. 25, 1938. Strong opposition; Johnson named: Orum, pp. 133–35, 170; Clark, Gideon, Herring interviews. “Lyndon was”: Brown, quoted in Caro, Path, p. 471. “Serious flaw”: Dugger, p. 211. Number of apartments: Housing and Home Finance Agency, Public Housing Administration, “State of Texas—Congressional District No. 10—as of March 31, 1948,” Box 70, LBJA SF. “War Projects, Vets Housing, Austin, Jan. 1946,” Box 221, Annual Report, Housing Authority of the City of Austin for 1950, Housing Authority; Berry, University of Texas, pp. 52–53; Boxes 221, 273, JHP.
Assured: Johnson to Johnny Clark, March 4, 1948, JHP. Voting record: “Complete House Voting Record of Congressman Lyndon Johnson, by Subject, from May 13, 1937, to December 31, 1948,” Box 75, LBJA SF. “A farce”: AA-S, May 23, 1948. “He just”: Izac, quoted in Caro, Pat h, p. 549.
“Hardly mentioned”: Billington, “Lyndon B. Johnson and Blacks: The Early Years,” The Journal of Negro History, Jan. 1975, p. 34. “For U.S.”: Houston Informer, July 24, 1948, quoted in Dyer, p. 69. “They had”: Clark interview. “DO NOT RELEASE”: Statements File, Box 6, LBJL.
32. “Proud to Be of Assistance”
All dates are 1949 unless otherwise indicated.
Longoria’s death: Si Dunn, “The Legacy of Private Longoria,” Scene Magazine, DMN, April 6, 1975.
“The whites won’t like it”: “Statement,” Mrs. Beatrice Longoria before notary public Hector de Pena, Feb. 9, Box 2, PPCF.
“The white people”: Kennedy, quoted in CCC-T, Jan. 11. “But in this case”: “Conversation on the telephone,” Gladys Blucher before de Pena, Feb. 9, Box 2, PPCF. Garcia’s telegram: Garcia to Johnson, Jan. 10, Box 2, PPCF.
“By God”: Connally interview. Arlington burials: “Procedure on Joint Funerals Held in Arlington National Cemetery,” Box 2, PPCF.
Johnson’s “immediate reaction”: Connally interview; Jenkins OH. Checking Garcia’s account: Connally, “Memo for the Files, Re: Felix Longoria,” Jan. 11; Connally, “Re: Felix Longoria File,” Jan. 14, both Box 2, PPCF. Johnson’s telegram: Johnson to Garcia, Jan. 11, Box 2, PPCF.
G.I. Forum rally: CCC-T, Jan. 12; Busby interview. “HUMBLY GRATEFUL”: Beatrice Longoria to Johnson, Jan. 12, Box 2, PPCF.
Johnson dissatisfied with Jenkins’ draft: His rewriting of the last sentence is on Johnson to Beatrice Longoria, Jan. 12, Box 2, PPCF.
Called in White; telephoned Winchell: Connally, Busby interviews. “The State of Texas”: Winchell, quoted in Pycior, LBJ and Mexican Americans, p. 69. “U.S. TO BURY”: NYHT, Jan. 14. “G.I. DENIED”: WS, Jan. 13. “A ringing blow”: Sherman Democrat, Jan. 16. “A WRONG IS RIGHTED”: Denison Press, Jan. 24. VFW wire: Peter J. White, Cmdr., NYC Post 505, VFW, to Johnson, Jan. 13, Box 2, PPCF. “It was impossible”: Johnson to Beatrice Longoria, Jan. 13, Box 2, PPCF. “His reaction”: Connally interview.
“We began”: Connally interview. “I think”: Jenkins OH. “Inspired”: Pycior, p. 71. “The phones”: Connally, quoted in Pycior, p. 71.
First sign; “any answer”: “Buzz,” “Memo to Mr. Johnson,” Jan. 14, Box 2, PPCF. Kennedy and Ramsey statements: CCC-T, Jan. 13, 14;Valley Morning Star, Jan. 13. “It’s too bad”: Buzz to Connally, undated, Box 2, PPCF. Johnson understood: Connally interview. “No wild-eyed”: Caro, Path, p. 273. “Realized”: Oltorf interview.
Voting practices in South Texas: Caro, Path, pp. 720–23, 732–33; Caro, Means, pp. 182–83, 321. “You get”: Clark interview.
“WE DEPLORE”: Three Rivers C of C to Johnson, Jan. 15 (two telegrams), Box 2, PPCF.
Brought him: “Statement,” Carolina Longoria, March 7, before notary public J. Guadalupe Trevino, and statement, “On this 20th day of February …,” Guadalupe Longoria Sr., Feb. 20, both Box 3, PPCF. Statement he wouldn’t sign: “The following is a statement made …,” Box 2, PPCF. “His grief”: Stanford Dyer and Merrell Knighten, “Discrimination After Death: Lyndon Johnson and Felix Longoria,” Southern Studies, Winter 1978, p. 421.
“They gave it”: CCC-T, Jan. 15. “There were reasons”: Kennedy, quoted in Three Rivers News, Jan. 20. Blucher on extension: Stanford Dyer and Merrell Knighten, “Discrimination After Death: Lyndon Johnson and Felix Longoria,” Southern Studies, Winter 1978, p. 415. “Latin people get drunk”: “Sworn Statement,” signed Gladys Blucher, Feb. 9.
“The stigma”; “Gray was”; Connally interview and quoted in Pycior, p. 71. “Dear Lyndon”: Chesnut to Johnson, Jan. 14, Box 2, PPCF. Kennedy issued: “Statement by T. W. Kennedy,” CCC-T, Jan. 12.
Bexar resolution: “The Bexar County Central Council of the American Legion … passed the following resolutions,” Jan. 27, Box 2, PPCF; CCC-T, Jan. 28. “Many who”: DMN, Jan. 30. “Became”; “there were”: Connally interview. He and Clark: Clark, Connally interviews. “They were”: Oltorf interview.
“Previous”: Cunningham and Goebel to Johnson, Three Rivers News, Jan. 20. Implored: Smith to Garcia, Jan. 17, Box 3, PPCF. “Honored”; “proud”: For typical letters, see Johnson to Chapter 76, Disabled American Veterans, Jan. 12, or Johnson to Sergi, Jan. 13, both Box 2, PPCF.
“According to”: CCC-T, Jan. 16; Connally interview. Successive drafts: Johnson to Ramsey, Jan. 21; Johnson to “My dear Friend,” undated, Box 2, PPCF. “I did not”: Johnson to Rabe, Jan. 26, Box 2, PPCF. “MY ONLY”: Johnson to Montgomery, Jan. 28. By February 3rd, Johnson would be putting it this way: “I am not, nor have I ever been, personally interested in where the body of Felix Longoria is laid to rest. I received a telegram from a constituent setting out certain facts which I investigated before I replied to that telegram. I told the widow of Felix Longoria his body could be reburied in the Arlington National Cemetery or the National Cemetery at Fort Sam. I did not recommend what Mrs. Longoria should do, and I have consistently maintained that it was none of my business where the boy was reburied, but it was a matter for the next of kin, Mrs. Beatrice Longoria, to decide” (Johnson to Floore, Feb. 3, Box 3, PPCF). By March 15, Johnson would be writing that all he had done was to arrange “for the burial of an American soldier killed in action in the National Arlington Cemetery upon the request of his widow. This is, as you know, the privilege of every soldier. All that I did was to comply with the widow’s request by making this information available to her” (Johnson to Farley, March 15, Box 2, PPCF).
Johnson’s actions during Longorias’ visit: Busby, Connally, Jenkins, Woodward interviews. Johnson’s Desk Diary, which lists his appointments, has no mention of the Longorias on February 15th or 16th, or indeed at any time during that entire week (“Johnson’s Desk Diaries,” Box 1). “I don’t”: Connally interview. Johnson’s aides attempted to put the best face possible on his actions. For example, Busby says that Johnson didn’t stand with the Longoria family and the other dignitaries because “he didn’t want to detract from the family.” Connally said, “He didn’t go because his presence would have been interpreted as he was trying to make political capital out of the incident.” Given the closeness between Johnson and William S. White, and the extent to which the New York Times accepted White’s evaluation of the newsworthiness of Johnson’s activities, the contrast between the paper’s coverage of the original story about Longoria and of the funeral may be significant. The original story was on page 1. The paper apparently did not send White, or any other reporter, to the funeral. Its story on the funeral—a small story on page 18—was a UP dispatch. Articles in other newspapers may indicate that Johnson attempted—successfully—to stay out of the public eye at the funeral. The story in the New York Herald said that General Vaughan “stood at the head of the two long rows of coffins.” It does not mention Johnson. The Associated Press dispatch on the funeral—the article used by most newspapers—lists persons who attended, and includes Vaughan, Sierra, and the members of the Longoria family. The dispatch does not mention Johnson. (See, for example, the dispatch as carried in the CCC-T, Feb. 18.) Exactly where he stood during the service is unclear. The Washington Post said that Johnson “was joined at the graveside” by Vaughan, but the Dallas Morning News said Johnson “stood not far away as the family gathered at the graveside.” Johnson does not appear to have given a statement to reporters. Many newspapers carried this quote from Vaughan: “I came here because of the stupidity of that undertaker” (see, for example, WP, Feb. 18). No newspaper, so far as the author could determine, carried a quote from Johnson. “Because of”: Vaughan, quoted in Richard Zalade, “Last Rites, First Rights,” Texas Monthly, Jan. 1986.
“Impressive ceremony”: Johnson to Hector Garcia, Feb. 16, Box 2, PPCF. Texas House resolution: CCC-T, DMN, AA-S, Feb. 18. “Truth or”: DMN, Feb. 17.
Clark’s role: Clark, Oltof interviews. “Without Clark”: Oltorf interview. Oltorf understood: Oltorf interview, confirmed by Clark, Connally interviews. “He would ask”: Oltorf interview. Hearings: Pycior, pp. 72–73; DMN, HP, AA-S, CCC-T, March 10–12. “We don’t serve”: Sworn statement of Juventino Ponce, before notary public Hector de Pena, March 12, Box 3, PPCF. “Every time”; “no one ever”: Oltorf interview.
“Your name”: Gus Garcia to Johnson, March 16, Box 2, PPCF, confirmed by Oltorf interview. “John”: Nichols to Connally, undated; “I trust”: Johnson to Gus Garcia, March 18, Box 2, PPCF.
Majority, minority drafts: “Reports of the Committee Pursuant to H.S.R. No. 68, April 7, House Journal, pp. 1510–15. “A slap”: CCC-T, April 8. “I could not”: “Reports of the Committee, Minority Report,” p. 1514. “The two dissensions”; “a catalyst”; “into”: Richard Zalade, “Last Rites, First Rights,” Texas Monthly, Jan. 1986.; CCC-T, April 9.Before that: Hector Garcia, quoted in AA-S, Dec. 15, 1985. “He never”: Connally interview.
“He hated”: Connally interview.
Recounted: Pycior, LBJ and Mexican Americans, p. 80. “Olé”: Pycior, p. 92; Reedy interview.
“He addressed”; Corpus Christi boy; “I’m the helpful”; “He (Johnson)”: Hector Garcia OH. Adroit: Pycior interview. “Garcia thought”: Pycior, p. 76. “He answers”: Pycior interview.
Garza’s judgeship: Garza OH. Bravo’s job: Quezada, Border Boss, pp. 194–95, 201–05. “Johnson had”: Reedy OH VIII, p. 104.
“Bracero” program: Goodwyn, Lone Star Land, pp. 35–38. “Exiled”: Goodwyn, p. 35. “Something must be done”: Torres to Johnson, Mar. 10, 1952, Box 233, JSP. “Delighted”; “The people”: Johnson to growers, May 29, 1951; Looney to Johnson, July 13, 1951, Box 233, JSP. Looney was to recall that Johnson “abided by what you told him pretty much” (Pycior, p. 76).
In 1951 and 1952: Ronnie Dugger, “Johnson’s Record—I,” The Texas Observer, June 3, 1960.
“Flooded”; “Whereas”: Ed Idar Jr., “To Whom It May Concern,” July 6, 1952, Box 20, LBJA SN. “I am sorry”: Johnson to Idar, Nov. 14, 1952, Box 20, LBJA SN. “Opposed”: Brownell interview.
“Where else”: Clark, Connally interviews. “Johnson was aware”: Dyer, pp. 87, 88. “Disappointed”: Pycior, p. 93. “Believe me”: Johnson to Garcia, July 31, 1954, Box 66, JSP.
33. Footsteps
Bryant and Milam’s story: William Bradford Huie, “Approved Killing in Mississippi,” Look, Jan. 24, 1956. Pride of their lawyers: J. J. Breland, quoted in Whitfield, Death in the Delta, p. 54; Halberstam, The Fifties, p. 434.
“Day”: Autherine Lucy, quoted in “Alabama’s Scandal,” Time, Feb. 20, 1956. “Chased”; “murder”; Folsom’s orders: “Where Responsibility Lies,” New Republic, Feb. 20, 1956. “I could still”: Lucy, quoted in “Alabama’s Scandal,” Time, Feb. 20, 1956. Trustees’ action: “Miss Lucy of Alabama,” Commonweal, Feb. 24, 1956. “God knows”:Time, Feb. 20, 1956. At Moore’s home; “All I could do”: “South Worries over Miss Lucy,” Life, Feb. 20, 1956. At La Guardia: “Round Two in Alabama,” Time, March 12, 1956; “Segregation Victory,” Newsweek, March 12, 1956. Riot “worked”: Dennis Holt, quoted in Time, March 12, 1956; Branch, Parting the Waters, p. 181.“Woke”; “They filed”: Quoted in Martin, Deep South, p. 39. “Solid once more”: Martin, p. 41. Also see “Where Responsibility Lies,” New Republic, Feb. 20, 1956.
“Come”: Gayle, quoted in Halberstam, p. 556. “To a largely”: Branch, p. 145. “I’m not walking”: Quoted in Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound, p. 76. “Every member”: King, quoted in Branch, p. 116. “That’s where”: King, quoted in Halberstam, p. 554. “Just happened”: King, quoted in Halberstam, p. 561. “Never given”: King, quoted in Oates, p. 78. “Hate begets”: King, quoted in Oates, p. 79. King’s arrest: Branch, p. 160; Oates, p. 86. “Get up”; Johns dropping his dime: Halberstam, pp. 544, 545.
“In every stage”: Eastland, quoted in Oates, pp. 91–92.
Grand jury and indictments: Branch, pp. 168, 176–78. “We have walked”: Abernathy, quoted in Branch, p. 173. King in Atlanta: Oates, pp. 92–94. With a number: Branch, p. 178.
Bombing of King’s home: Branch, pp. 164–66. “The remote calm”: Branch, p. 165. “I owe”: Oates, p. 90. A Gandhi: “Many of the Negroes would liken the sight of King with his hand raised to the famous poses of Gandhi or to Jesus calming the waters of the troubled sea” (Branch, p. 166).
Press coverage of bus boycott: Halberstam, pp. 555 ff.; Oates, pp. 97 ff.; Branch, pp. 185 ff. “The more coverage”: Halberstam, p. 560. “Are you afraid”; “the kind of welcome”: New York Amsterdam News, March 31, 1956, quoted in Branch, p. 185. “I went directly”: Edita Morris to King, Aug. 10, 1956, quoted in Lamont H. Yeakey, “The Montgomery Alabama Bus Boycott, 1955–56,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1979, Vol. II, p. 606.
Injunction and King’s trial: Oates, p. 102; Branch, pp. 192–94. “I’m afraid”; “clock said”: King, quoted in Oates, p. 102. “Yes, I am”: Halberstam, p. 562.
Heightened fury: Oates, pp. 108–09. “Lord”: King, quoted in Oates, p. 110.
Dawson’s political power: Lemann, Promised Land, pp. 74–75. “Just one step”: Dawson, quoted in White, Making of the President, 1960, p. 232.
Train and bus stations: Lemann, pp. 15, 43. Black migration to North: Lemann, passim; Halberstam, pp. 442–55; White, Making of the President, 1960, pp. 203, 230–37. “They went north”: Halberstam, p. 443. “Money and dignity”: Lemann, p. 65. Twenty thousand, etc.: Lemann, p. 70. Ninety percent: White, p. 231. A better job: Reston, quoted in Halberstam, p. 442.
Kennelly and Dawson: Lemann, pp. 76–77.
“A new kind”; “these men”: White, Making of the President, 1960, pp. 232–36; Carl Rowan, “Who Gets the Negro Vote?” Look, Nov. 13, 1956.
Democratic strategists: Branch, p. 192; White, Making of the President, 1960, pp. 232–34; Watson, Lion in the Lobby, pp. 355–56; Richard L. Neuberger, “Democrats’ Dilemma: Civil Rights,” NYT Magazine, July 7, 1957; Cabell Phillips, “Civil Rights Pose Hard Choice for Democrats,” NYT, Sec. IV, April 18, 1956. Also such 1956 newspaper articles as Amarillo Globe-Times, Nov. 1; WSJ, April 6; WP, April 1; Stokes, WS, April 3. Thirty-five districts: Reston, NYT, July 24, 1957. “We Negroes”: Rowan, “Who Gets the Negro Vote?” Look, Nov. 13, 1956. Republican strategy: NYT, Dec. 2, 1956; WP, May 14, 1955; USN & WR, July 26, 1957; Brownell interview.
“Republicans would”: Minnich, LLM, Jan. 16, 1956, Box 12, DDEL. “Reaffirmed”: Minnich, LLM, Jan. 24, 1956, Box 12, DDEL. “I did not agree”: Eisenhower, White House Years, p. 149. “He had many”; “darkies”: Ambrose, Eisenhower, p. 125. Stag dinner: Warren, Memoirs, p. 291–92. “I personally”: DDEPP (1957), pp. 546–57, 555, quoted in Ambrose, p. 410. Not once: Kluger, Simple Justice, p. 753. Kluger, pp. 726–28, 753–54, has a summary of Eisenhower’s attitude on Brown. In Ambrose, it’s pp. 190–92, 304–06, 408. “to associate himself”: Ambrose, p. 143. “I think”: DDEPP (1956), pp. 736–37, DDEL; Williams, Eyes on the Prize, p. 38. “The President’s”:Ambrose, p. 409. “To stand”: Kluger, p. 753. “Tremendous”: Kluger, p. 753. “The people”: Ambrose, p. 337.
Eisenhower and Till case: Ambrose, p. 305; Whitfield, pp. 70–75. Did not even respond: Whitfield, pp. 74–75. Lucy case: Ambrose, p. 306. On King case: DDEPP (1956), p. 335, DDEL. “A fine general”: Wilkins, Standing Fast, p. 222.
“Strong”: Harlow interview. “Compulsion”; “core beliefs”: Ambrose, pp. 327, 125. Nelson story: Ambrose, p. 369. Had seen a chance: Lawson, Black Ballots, pp. 150–52; Manchester, Glory, pp. 769–70; New Republic, Aug. 12, 1957; Amarillo Globe-Times, Nov. 1, 1956; NYT, Jan. 8, 1956, July 21, 1957; Reston, NYT, July 24, 1957.
Brownell’s attitude and strategy: Anderson, Eisenhower, pp. 14–27; Brownell, pp. 190–218; Brownell, Harlow, Rogers interviews. “Unbounded”: Ambrose, p. 124. “Scourge”: Brownell, p. 199. Had left instructions; “quite deeply”: Brownell interview.
“Our hands”: Brownell, p. 219. Gave him permission: Ambrose, p. 304; Brownell, p. 199. “I initially”: Brownell, p. 218. “Where”: Cabinet Series, March 9, 1956, Box 6, DDEL. “After”: Brownell, p. 219. “Another Charles Sumner”: Brownell, Advising Ike, p. 219. “If someone”: Eisenhower, quoted in Ambrose, p. 327. Keating maneuver:Anderson, pp. 40–41, 43.
Celler subordinating: Edelsberg and Brody, “Civil Rights in the 84th Congress,” p. 5; Washington, D.C., Office, Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, Welsh Collection, File No. 4, “Civil Rights,” Oct. 29, 1956; Bolling, Celler, Rauh interviews. “A model bill”: Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 281. “A dream bill”: Rauh interview. Situation in the House: Hardeman and Bacon, Rayburn, pp. 418–21; Bolling, Brownell, Celler interviews. “He wanted”: “only fair”: Bolling interview. “Rayburn was for it.”: Bolling, Rauh interviews. Anderson (Eisenhower, p. 47) says, “By things left unsaid and undone, rather than by any affirmative commitment, the Speaker had given his party’s liberals a clear impression that he would not block the bill if it could be brought to the floor.”
“I am sick”: Unidentified senator, in NYT, April 8, 1956. Hennings’ bills: Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 1956, pp. 463–64; Watson, p. 335; NYT, March 4, April 1, 10, 1955; Jan. 1, 12, 1956. And then: “Telephone call from Tom Hennings,” March 19, 1956, Box 45, LBJA SN; NYT, March 4, April 1, 10, 1956. Exactly twelve: Edelsberg and Brody, “Civil Rights in the 84th Congress,” Washington, D.C.: Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, Oct. 29, 1956, p. 1.
“I had special”: Eastland, quoted in Lawson, Black Ballots, pp. 156–57; in Sherrill, Accidental President, p. 210; “Eastland Speech Excerpts,” Aug. 13, 1956, NAACP, WB-134, LC, quoted in Watson, p. 338. “You are not required”: Eastland, quoted in Whitfield, p. 35. “The one seat”: New Republic, March 12, 1956. “Unthinkable”: NYT, Feb. 24, 1956. “Maybe”: NYT, March 4, 1956. Johnson’s reply: Reedy, Steele interviews. “I had”: Eastland OH; Watson, p. 338. Out of his way: Eastland OH. Unrecorded vote: NYT, March 3, 1956; Time, March 12, 1956. “A mad dog”: NYT, March 5, 1956.
34. Finesses
All dates are 1956 unless otherwise noted.
“Southern Manifesto”: NYT, March 12, 13. Drafted by Thurmond, Byrd; edited by Russell: Cohodas, Strom Thurmond, pp. 283–84; Fite, Russell, p. 333; Goldsmith, Colleagues, p. 51; NYT, March 13. “One would”: Morse, quoted in Cohodas, p. 286.
“A dangerous, deceptive”: Gore, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 187. “Kefauver said, ‘I just don’t agree with it’ The Supreme Court decision is now the law of the land and must be followed, Mr. Kefauver said” (NYT, March 12). “He had not been shown”: NYT, March 12. Johnson’s formal statement said: “I have neither seen this document, nor have I been asked to sign it.” “STATEMENT BY SENATOR LYNDON B. JOHNSON (D-TEX), MARCH 10, 1956,” Box 423, JSP.
He had been present: LBJ Chronologies, 1956, p. 3. In his oral history interview with George Reedy, Mike Gillette, then Director of Oral History for the Johnson Library, said, “LBJ did attend a meeting for southern senators in Senator George’s office in early February, I guess, and they did discuss the issues of segregation and interposition.” Reedy replied, “Yes. I don’t remember it at all” (Reedy OH VIII, p. 102). When the author asked Reedy if Johnson had attended any of the Southern Caucus meetings about the Southern Manifesto, Reedy said, “Well, I remember one where there was one heck of a fight, but I wasn’t there.” Asked how he knew about it, he said he had been told about it by both Johnson and Russell.
“You liberals”: Humphrey OH III, p. 13. Humphrey also said: “He was very proud of the fact that he didn’t sign it. Also, he used it” (Humphrey, quoted in Dallek, p. 496). “Was, indeed”: White, Professional, p. 211. “One of the”: Neuberger, quoted in Miller, p. 188. Reedy said: “I suspect that what he [Russell] sold them on was ‘Hey, look, we might get a southerner in the White House, don’t queer it’ He wouldn’t use that kind of language, but I believe that’s what he probably told them privately. But the public rationale was you would not ask the leadership to sign something like this” (OH VIII, p. 100).
“Russell was very”: Reedy OH VIII, p. 100. “Anybody that signed”: Reedy OH VIII, p. 99. In his 1996 book, Robert Mann wrote, “An unabashed Johnson fan, Neuberger perhaps exaggerated the extent of his leader’s valor” (Mann, p. 164). “The real reason”: Fite, p. 336. “He had to”: Stennis OH. “In my opinion”: “STATEMENT BY SENATOR LYNDON B. JOHNSON (D-TEX), MARCH 10, I956,” Box 423, JSP. “He believed”: NYT, April 22. “No question”: Russell, quoted in AC, June 29.
“One hundred percent”: Ellender, quoted in San Antonio News, March 23. “One thousand percent”: Smathers, quoted in Mexia Daily News, March 12. Almost every: For Holland’s endorsement, see Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 8; for Byrd’s, Williamson Star, April 26; for Robertson’s, Robertson to Symington, April 12, Drawer 115, Folder 11, Robertson Papers; for Price Daniel’s, NYT, March 12; for Russell’s official endorsement, WP, July 1; for a general roundup of the support for Johnson from southern senators, Baltimore News-Post, March 20; WS, March 25.
Hennings’ bills: Hennings to Johnson, March 19, Box 45, LBJA SN. “The Senate rules”: Eastland OH. Eastland’s tactics in committee: Eastland, quoted in Watson, Lion in the Lobby, p. 347.
Rayburn let Boiling know: Boiling, quoted in Hardeman and Bacon, Rayburn, p. 419. And see Rayburn statements on pp. 420, 421.
Rayburn’s tactics: Steinberg, Sam Rayburn, pp. 313–316. Hardeman and Bacon, pp. 410–20; Watson, Lion in the Lobby, pp. 344–45; Edelsberg and Brody, “Civil Rights in the 84th Congress,” Washington, D.C., Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, Oct. 29, p. 5. LBJ at Board of Education: Boiling interview. Rayburn’s feelings, “Lyndon was asking”; “To my shame,” etc.: Boiling interview; Hardeman and Bacon, p. 419, say that not only did he not “press” in the Rules Committee, but that he “decided that his best course was to impede the bill’s progress even more” to ensure that it didn’t reach the Senate too early. Stepin Fetchit: Quoted in Watson, p. 342. “The jig’s up”: NYT, June 28. “Rayburn senses”; “You’d better get”: Harry R. Sheppard (D-Calif), quoted in Hardeman and Bacon, p. 420. “I started”: Boiling interview.
Tricking Douglas: Douglas, Fullness of Time, pp. 281–82; interviews with Richard A. Baker, Bartlett, McCulloch, Shuman, Reedy, Welsh. “I don’t know”: Richard Baker interview. “Nearing its end”; “Badly divided”; “Even if”: Douglas, p. 283. “Behind the scenes”; “searchlight”: Shuman interview. “More remote”; “Only power”:Reedy,LBJ, pp. 109–10. “Even if: Welsh interview. “Paul felt”: McCulloch interview. “If: Rauh interview. “Might be wrong”: Edelstein, McCulloch, Shuman, Rauh, Welsh interviews. “Allowed himself”: Miller, p. 191. Douglas says (p. 281) that Lehman was “overworked and ill.” Hill asking Mansfield to yield; “without objection”: CR, 84/2, July 23, p. 13937. “My dear boy”: Douglas, p. 282.
Humiliating Douglas: Douglas, Fullness of Time, pp. 282–83; Watson, p. 346; Othman, “Senators Stop the Calendar,” Abilene Reporter-News, July 26; “Why Those Poor Senators,” HP, July 27; Alsop, “Johnson Civil Rights Strategy,” DT-H, Aug. 1. “As you know”: Rowe to Johnson, July 24, Box 32, LBJA SN. Russell’s tactic: McCulloch, Shuman interviews. “Sat there”: Abilene Reporter-News, July 26. Of course it wasn’t: CR, 84/2, p. 14161. “I object”: CR, 84/2, pp. 14163, 14171. “So we are”; not at all: CR, 84/2, pp. 14161–62; Abilene Reporter-News, July 26. “There will not be”: “In the Nation,” NYT, Aug. 3. Johnson persuading Knowland: Alsops, DT-H, Aug. 1. “It is only kidding”: “In the Nation,” NYT, July 26. “Let us consider”; “I say”: HP, July 27. “I can still”: McCulloch interview. “All men differ”: Russell, quoted in “In the Nation,” NYT, Aug. 3. Watson wrote (p. 346) that “The defeat was a glaring example of how practical politics could overwhelm principles.”
“The dirtiest trick”: Rauh interview. “An effort”: McCulloch interview. “Even my friend”: Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 283. “Push”: Shuman OH, p. 142; Shuman interview. Douglas, Fullness of Time, on p. 283, gives a slightly different wording. Cried: Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 283.
“Organized”: Robertson to John L. White-head, Sept. 20, Drawer 114, Folder 14, Robertson Papers. For further documentation of Johnson’s role in bottling up the 1956 civil rights bill, see Robertson to Ralph Widener and to Lindsay Almond, July 24, Drawer 113, Folder 58, and Drawer 40, Folder 14, Robertson Papers. Robertson wrote Widener: “The Policy Committee, headed by Majority Leader Johnson, has the privilege of scheduling what is to be taken up for floor actions and Johnson, of course, is against the civil rights bill.”
“With a series”: NYT, July 30. “He has brought”: Rauh, quoted in AA-S, March 24.
35. Convention
All dates are 1956 unless otherwise noted.
“Professional prognosis”: NYT, Aug. 2. Stevenson writing speech: Newsweek, Aug. 20.
“THE IRRESPONSIBILITY”: Shannon, SLP-D, June 7. “Brokerage house”: Rauh, quoted in Waco Tribune, Aug. 10. “No ardent advocate”: Alsop, WP, May 9.
Southerners believed him: For example, Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, May 8; WP, Aug. 12. On the eve of the convention, John Sparkman told journalist Ronnie Dugger, “Lyndon has told me repeatedly that he does not regard himself as a serious candidate” (Texas Observer, Aug. 15). Southerners comfortable: Luther Hodges of North Carolina, for example, said, “Mr. Stevenson is a great person” (WP, Aug. 12). “Toward gradualism”: Martin, Adlai Stevenson and the World, p. 248.
“Dramatic incident”: Allen, Abilene Reporter-News, June 24. “I’ve never said”: Rayburn, quoted in Abilene Reporter-News, Aug. 16. When another reporter asked him whom he was for, Rayburn said: “Johnson. I don’t play them two ways” (WP, Aug. 12). Rayburn’s assessment: Connally, Corcoran, Rowe interviews.
“A deep scar”: Connally interview. “I’m going”: Russell, quoted in NYP, Aug. 13. Spectre of “humiliation”: Explaining just prior to the convention that he was not a serious, but only a favorite son, candidate, Johnson said that he didn’t intend to leave his name before the convention too long. “I don’t invite humiliation, and I don’t intend to have my name up there without cause and purpose,” he told Ronnie Dugger (Texas Observer, Aug. 15). “Ego reasons”: Connally interview.
“Mine still hurts”: NYP, Aug. 2. “He is sincere”: James Saxon Childers, Atlanta Journal, June 21.
Byrd’s pleading: Texas Observer, Aug. 15. And as late as May 8, asked if Johnson would be a candidate, Byrd could say only, “I think we’ll have to wait and see” (Richmond [Va.] Times-Dispatch).
“It has happened”; “does not share”: Rovere, “Letter from Chicago,” The New Yorker, Aug. 25. “Was affronted”: Ball, quoted in McKeever, Adlai Stevenson, p. 198. “Why, if: Time, Aug. 20.
“I am not”; “I’m going”: Truman, quoted in Time, Aug. 20. Party insiders knew: Newsweek, Aug. 20.
“Get up”: Kilgore interview. “Serious about everything”: Johnson, quoted in DMN, Aug. 12, 19. “Very unlikely”: FWS-T, Aug. 12. “Erased”: Allen Duckworth, DMN, Aug. 12. “The best qualified now”: DMN, Aug. 12. “15- and 16-hour”: Time, Aug. 20; DMN, Aug. 12. “You don’t always”: “I’m opening”: Truman, quoted in Time, Aug. 20. See also DMN, Aug. 19; Newsweek, Aug. 20. “Wide open”: Connally, quoted in DMN, Aug. 12. “He thought”: Corcoran interview.
Adlai’s slip: Martin, Adlai Stevenson and the World, p. 348. “Big blocks”: NYT, Aug. 11, 1956. Newsweek (Aug. 20) said it more strongly: “If the favorite sons failed to come to Stevenson’s rescue, hundreds of southern delegates were planning to switch to Johnson.” Quick reversal: Time, Aug. 20. Telegram: NYT, Aug. 11.
Johnson’s belief: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, pp. 234–39; Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins, Reedy, Rowe interviews and OHs; Mooney, LBJ, pp. 118–21; Oliver OH. “Forgot”: Richard Rovere, “Letter from Chicago,” The New Yorker, Aug. 25.
“Knocked”; “no talking”: Corcoran interview. “Another new”: Newsweek, Aug. 10. “He just”: Rowe interview. “Ambivalent”: Rowe OH.
Johnson, Rayburn on plane ride: Albert OH, SRL; Mooney, p. 119; Steinberg, Ray-burn, p. 306; Evans and Novak, p. 235. “Embarrassing”: Steinberg, p. 306. White House briefing: Time, Aug. 20; Johnson, quoted in Ambrose, Eisenhower, p. 333. “Persisted”: Evans and Novak, pp. 235–36. “I don’t see”; “I haven’t said”: Mooney, p. 119. “It’s a serious”; “a good many”: Ray-burn, quoted in NYT, Aug. 13. “No illusions”: Mooney OH. “I told”: Rayburn, quoted in NYP, Aug. 13. “I said you”; “I agree”: Rowe interview, OH.
“One man”: Rovere, “Letter from Chicago,” The New Yorker, Aug. 25. “Let us tell”: Lyle, quoted in NYT, Aug. 14. “My name”: ATP, Aug. 13.
Declining invitations: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 437; Houston Press, Aug. 14;Wichita Falls Record-News, Aug. 15. “A very odd”: Rowe interview. “I didn’t”: HP, Aug. 17. “Different”: Wichita Falls Record-News, Aug. 15. “While”: McGrory, WS, Aug. 15. “Not unlike”: DMN, Aug. 14;WF R-N, Aug. 15. “Flown in”: HP, Aug. 14.“Most crowded”: NYT, Aug. 14. Stevenson thirty, Kefauver five; Johnson made sure: DMN, Aug. 14;Amarillo Daily News, DMN, NYP, WS, Aug. 15.
Southern states maneuvering: DMN, Aug. 19; Kempton, “The Last Hurrah,” NYP, Aug. 13; Baltimore Sun, Aug. 13; WS, Aug. 13; Connally interview. “Asked him”; “that firm”: DMN, Aug. 19. Byrd, Battle maneuvering: WS, Aug. 13; Kempton, “Last Hurrah,” NYP, Aug. 13; WP, Aug. 14. Georgia maneuvering: NYT, Amarillo Daily News, Aug. 15. “Until an”: NYT, Aug. 14, 18.
Believing Harry, Jr.: WP, Aug. 13; Kempton, NYP; Wichita Falls Record-News, Aug. 15. “A very fruitful”; “Lyndon Leaves ’Em Guessing”: Houston Press, Aug. 14. “Biggest block”: Wichita Falls Record-News, Aug. 15. Could not imagine; “Listen”: Corcoran, Rowe interviews. “For one day”: Connally interview.
Reality: DMN, Aug. 15, 19.
“The old man”: Kempton, “Last Hurrah,” NYP, Aug. 13. “Fooling around”: Breyhill, quoted in WS, Aug. 13.
Finnegan’s arguments: Evans and Novak, p. 236; Martin, Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, pp. 348–49; Miller, Lyndon, pp. 197–98; Time, Aug. 27; Rowe OH. “Some of: NYT, Aug. 15. “Uncertainty”: NYP, Aug. 15. Johnson’s confidence about Reuther: Rowe OH, interview. “The great fruit”: Kempton, “Last
Hurrah,” NYP, Aug. 13.
“Hello, Sammy”: Kempton, “Last Hurrah,” NYP, Aug. 13. And see Time, Aug. 27. “A minority”: Williams, quoted in WP, Aug. 15. Bringing the news to Johnson: Rowe OH, interview.
Meyner’s refusal; finger across throat: Time, Aug. 27. Southerners annoyed; “may not”: WS, Aug. 13; NYT, Aug. 14, 15.
“Too defeatist”: Truman, quoted in NYT, Aug. 15. “To confirm”: NYT, Aug. 15. Bargaining with Finnegan: Miller, p. 198; Rowe OH, interview.
“Fire”: DMN, Aug. 19. “Let there be”: Waco News-Tribune, SAE, Aug. 17. “Had they missed”: Mooney, p. 120. Mooney quoted in Miller, p. 198; Connally interview. “Without a flicker”: Waco News-Tribune, Aug. 17. In his autobiography, Connally wrote: “The show was Sam Rayburn’s doing…. Whether Johnson won or lost, Sam Rayburn would still be Speaker of the House and no one wanted to offend Mr. Sam” (Connally with Herskowitz, In History’s Shadow, p. 133). For descriptions of the demonstration, see also Amarillo Daily News, Aug. 16, SAE, San Angelo Times, Aug. 17; Connally, Jenkins interviews.
“Lyndon, don’t ever”: Russell, quoted in Oliver OH.
“Senator, are you”: Houston Press, Aug. 16. “It became”: Holleman, quoted in Miller, p. 199. Rayburn recognized: Waco News-Tribune, Aug. 17; Texas Observer, Aug. 22.
Puzzling over his actions: Rowe, Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins, Reedy interviews. Because of Shivers: McGrory, WS, Aug. 15. “I never could”: Rowe OH. “Made no sense”: Connally interview. “Explosion”: Felix McKnight of the DMN, quoted in Crawford and Keever, Connally, p. 68. “He hadn’t: Brown interview. “He couldn’t bear”:Corcoran interview.
“I have not”; “I am not”: DMN, Aug. 15. “Reported ready”: McKnight, quoted in Crawford and Keever, p. 69. And Mike Monroney told the Associated Press that “he understood Senator Johnson might now be receptive to the (vice presidential) nomination. ‘Don’t count Johnson out,’ he said” (WP, Aug. 17).
“Go in”: Rowe OH, interview. Rayburn advising Johnson: Texas Observer, Aug. 22. “I saw”: Corcoran interview. “I have never”: Rayburn, quoted in Abilene Reporter-News, Aug. 17. “‘Go back’”: Rowe OH, interview.
“Profanely”: Martin, Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, p. 350. “Mr. Sam”; “All right”; “Stay out”: Martin, Ballots and Bandwagons, pp. 400–02. “Within minutes”: Time, Aug. 27. “Under no”: San Antonio News, Aug. 17. “I talked”: Kennedy, quoted in Evans and Novak, p. 238. Humphrey first choice: Reedy, quoted in Miller, pp. 199–200.“Kefauver can’t”: Rayburn, quoted in Abilene Reporter-News, Aug. 18.
“Al Smith”; “a wealthy”: Hardeman and Bacon, Rayburn, pp. 404–05. Texas caucus is described there, and p. 104, and in Texas Observer, Aug. 22.
Clements withdrawing; “We’re gonna”; “very grateful”: Texas Observer, Aug. 22. Rayburn told him; “use my name”; “stone-faced”: Texas Observer, Aug. 22; Time, Aug. 27.
“As Rayburn”: Hardeman and Bacon, p. 405. Johnson’s talk: Texas Observer, Aug. 22. “We’ve got”: Pearson, Texas Observer, Aug. 29; Time, Aug. 27.
“Texas proudly”; “All right”: Texas Observer, Aug. 22. Scene in Texas delegation; “if we can’t”; “We don’t”: Abilene Reporter-News, Aug. 18; Texas Observer, Aug. 22.
“Lace”: Ian Campbell to author, Dec. 27, 1989.
“Lyndon Johnson’s”: Rovere, “The Last Hurrah,” The New Yorker, Aug. 25. “Would have to”: WP, Aug. 17.
“Bloopers”: Leslie Carpenter, Abilene Reporter-News, Aug. 18. “Mystery”: McClendon, Waco Tribune-Herald, Aug. 19. “What’s?”: Houston Press, Aug. 17. “Cellophane bag”: Pearson, W P, Aug. 22.
“A sectional”: Krock, NYT, Aug. 14. “Fantasy”: Reston, NYT, Aug. 14.
36. Choices
All dates are 1957 unless otherwise noted.
General background for this chapter is found in the following magazine articles: Douglass Cater, “How the Senate Passed the Civil-Rights Bill,” The Reporter, Sept. 5; Tris Coffin, “How Lyndon Johnson Engineered Compromise on Civil Rights Bill,” The New Leader, Aug. 5; Richard L. Neuberger, “Democrats’ Dilemma: Civil Rights,” NYT Magazine, July 7; Reinhold Neibuhr, “The Civil Rights Bill,” The New Leader, Sept. 16; Richard Rovere, “Letter from Washington,” The New Yorker, Aug. 31; William S. White, “Battle Lines on Civil Rights,” NYT Magazine, July 7; C. Vann Woodward, “The Great Civil Rights Debate,” Commentary, October; “Washington,” The Atlantic Monthly, March; “Purists and Progress,” The New Republic, Aug. 12.
“Banker, preacher”: Larry L. King, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 443. “Ferocious”; “if”; “Woodrow Bean”: Steinberg, pp. 443–45.
Depression: Mooney, LBJ, p. 122. “In all fairness”: Lehman to Douglas, Aug. 10, Special File 224b, HHLP. “I want”: Johnson quoted in Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise of Power, p. 119. Johnson’s post-convention thinking: Clark, Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins, Reedy, Rowe interviews and OHs.
“To cultivate”: Galbraith, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 202. “Frank, why”: McCulloch interview. Rowe and Reedy: Reedy to Johnson, March 30 (with attached memo, “The Liberal Line”); Rowe to Johnson, March 22 (attached to Reedy to Johnson, March 29), Box 420, JSP. “Never known”: Evans and Novak, p. 104. Schlesinger conversation:Schlesinger, Aide-Mémoire, “Washington, March 30–31, 1957: Conversations with Lyndon Johnson, Joe Clark, David Bruce,” pp. 1–2; Schlesinger interviews; Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, pp. 10–11. See also Evans and Novak, pp. 104–05. “He is a man”: Reedy to Johnson, March 30, Box 420, JSP. “I had carefully”:Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 11. “A good meeting”: Galbraith, quoted in Miller, p. 202.
Graham visit: Katharine Graham interview; Graham, Personal History, pp. 236–38. Profile of Johnson: Robert Albright, “‘Johnson Formula’ Heals His Party,” W P, Jan. 13. “I know”: Johnson to Philip Graham, Jan. 14, KGP. “Sort of”; Shooting the deer: Graham interview; Graham, p. 237. “Phil always”: Rauh interview. “Pushing Lyndon”:Graham, p. 241. “Completely”; “Looking”: Graham, p. 237. “How Civil Rights Came to Johnson City”: Katharine Graham OH, pp. 36–37; Graham, p. 237; Graham interview. Water purifier: Johnson to Philip Graham, May 21, Box 101, LBJA SN.
“You certainly did”: Rowe to Johnson, Dec. 21, 1956, Box 32, LBJA SN. “I found”: Schlesinger, Aide-Mémoire. “Will believe anything”: Rowe to Johnson, April 8, Box 423, JSP.
“What did?”: Radin interview. “Anguish”: Stokes, San Angelo Standard-Times, Dec. 8. “Digging”: NYT, Nov. 10, 23, 1956; W P, Nov. 23, 1956; Eisele, Almost to the Presidency, p. 104; Solberg, Hubert Humphrey, p. 178. “Johnson is a southerner”: Fleeson, AA-S, Nov. 12, 1956. Diggs: AA-S, Nov. 30, 1956. ADA resolution: Rauh, in Irwin Ross, NYP, Dec. 19. National Committee: WS, Feb. 27. “A fight”: Lehman, in Ross, NYP, Dec. 22, 1956. “All this talk”: Arvey, in NYT, Dec. 27, 1956. “Some of”: Galbraith, quoted in Miller, pp. 201–2. “A challenge”: NYT, Nov. 28, 1956.
“I don’t think”: Kirwan, in W P, Dec. 19, 1956. “First blood”: Lincoln in WS, Dec. 12, 1956. “Our fight”: Butler in WP, Dec. 14, 1956. “Though similar”: NYT, Dec. 27, 1956. “That he”: Krock, in NYT, Nov. 13, 1956. Not the point: The Nation, Dec. 8, 1956. Herblock cartoon: W P, Nov. 28, 1956.
African-American voting trend: Branch, Parting the Waters, p. 192; Henry Lee Moon, “The Negro Vote in the Presidential Election of 1956,” Journal of Negro Education, Summer 1957. “Of all”: Watson, Lion in the Lobby, p. 355. “Not in the South”: Moon, ibid., p. 227; Carol A. Cassel, “Change in Electoral Participation in the South,” The Journal of Politics, Aug. 1979, p. 910.
“From every”: Scammon in New Republic, Sept. 16. The larger; Harlem and Chicago South Side trends: Reston, “Politics and Civil Rights,” NYT, July 24. Boston trend; “even a 50–50”: Scammon in New Republic, Sept. 16. “The Negro voter”; “Washington”: Atlantic Monthly, March 1957. “Would automatically”: Mitchell, Sept. 9, 1956, Mitchell Papers, cited in Watson, p. 352. Nixon in Harlem: Mitchell, pp. 354, 355; Wicker, One of Us, p. 184. “Seldom”: Mitchell, Nov. 11, 1956, Mitchell Papers, cited in Watson, p. 355. Eastland as liability: Neuberger, “Democrats’ Dilemma: Civil Rights,” NYT Magazine, July 7.
“It could”: USN & WR, Aug. 16. “the … dilemma”: Neuberger, “Democrats’ Dilemma: Civil Rights,” NYT Magazine, July 7. Give us: Reston, “Politics and Civil Rights,” NYT, July 24.
“One thing”: Childs, NYP, Aug. 1. Brownell’s enthusiasm: Brownell, Rogers interviews.
Southern situation: Martin, Deep South Says Never, pp. 163–67. “In recent”; “no prospect”: Martin, p. 167. “We face”; “assembled”: Heinemann, Harry Byrd of Virginia, p. 345. “Massive”: Heinemann, pp. 334–37. An overall account of Byrd’s policy is in Heinemann, pp. 325–49, and Wilkinson, Harry Byrd and the Changing Face of Virginia Politics, 1945–1966, pp. 113–46.
Voting in the South: Price, Negro Voter in the South; Mendelson, Discrimination; Southern Regional Council, The Negro and the Ballot in the South; Fairclough, Race and Democracy; Lawson, Black Ballots. Klan on the rise: Martin, p. 157. “Legislative hoppers”: Stan Opotowsky, “Dixie Dynamite: The Inside Story of the White Citizens Councils,” NYP, Jan. 7–18. Porgy, Red Cross: Opotowsky, NYP, Jan. 7.
“A flag”: Martin, p. 41. “Are subjected”: Optowsky, “Dixie Dynamite,” NYP, Jan. 7. “Consistent and insistent”: Abram, quoted in NYT, Dec. 1, 1956. “Solid once more”: Martin, p. 41. “An upsurge”: NYT, Dec. 2–27, 1956. Klan: Martin, pp. 157–59; Optowsky, “Dixie Dynamite,” NYP, Jan. 7, 1956. Camden incident: NYT, Dec. 29, 1956.Violence rising; Brownell’s attitude: Branch, pp. 197–203. “Resistance”: Martin, p. 169. “Most southerners agree,” he concluded. “One, a liberal editor, said regretfully, ‘It’s gone now. The segregationists moved too fast.’ Never? Never is a long time. But for so long that I can’t see when.” Talmadge interview: Martin, pp. 176–81. “The supplanting”: Watson, p. 382.
Philip Graham memo: Undated, but attached to note, “This memo is very rough …,” Graham to Johnson, Dec. 20, 1956, Box 101, LBJA SF. Johnson’s reply, on Dec. 22, is pro forma: “I have read and reread your memorandum a number of times and I am greatly impressed…. I don’t know that I agree with every part of it, but it has a direction and an impact with which I am greatly intrigued and I am going to ponder it thoroughly.” Johnson to Graham, Dec. 22, 1956, Box 101, LBJA SF. Arguing; “perhaps”: Graham, Personal History, p. 238.
“Pope or God”: Reedy OH IX, p. 71. Rowe memos; temporizing: Rowe to Johnson, Dec. 13, 21, 1956; Johnson to Rowe, Dec. 17, 1956, Box 32, LBJA SN. At the bottom of the typed letter, Johnson wrote in hand what he considered an important question about Carroll: “How does he feel about Johnson?” “If he didn’t”: Corcoran interview.“Already knew”: Rowe interview. “The issue”; “as a man”; “One thing”: “I knew”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, pp. 147–48.
Almost impossibly: Description of Johnson’s thinking relies on Reedy memos and on interviews and OHs with Clark, Connally, Corcoran, Jenkins, Reedy, Rowe. “Some conservative”: Reedy OH. “Unlimited”: Reedy to Gillette, June 2, 1982, p. 5, attached to Reedy OH XI. Some liberals: For example, Stokes, WS, June 20, Box 2045, JSP.Among more realistic: Including Corcoran, Harlow, Rowe interviews; W P, June 22. “You got up”: Harlow interview. “They unquestionably”: Reedy to Gillette, June 2, 1982, p. 4, attached to Reedy OH I. Five since: The House passed bills to outlaw the poll tax in 1945, 1947, and 1949; a bill to make the FEPC permanent and expand its powers in 1950, and, of course, the Brownell civil rights bill in 1956 (SHO). “They couldn’t send”: Talmadge, quoted in Martin, p. 180. “I will never”: Thurmond, quoted in Cohodas, Strom Thurmond, p. 90.
“Out of nowhere”: Reedy interview. Reedy remembered Russell’s words slightly differently on other occasions. In an oral history interview for the Lyndon Johnson Library, he said that in Paris Russell had said, “George, maybe we can get this man elected President yet” (Reedy OH V, p. 12). He told John Goldsmith that Russell had said, “George, we’ll make this man President yet!” (Colleagues, p. 52). In a letter, Reedy wrote that “During one memorable (to me) evening … in Paris, he confided to me that ‘we can never make him President unless the Senate first disposes of civil rights.’” In this letter Reedy added that “Russell never went so far as to say to me that if he had to choose between accepting a civil rights bill or leaving the gap unbridged that he would accept the bill. But I had the clear impression that such a thought was somewhere in his mind” (Reedy to Gillette, June 2, 1982, p. 6, attached to Reedy OH XI). “When they”: Oltorf interview.
Russell’s reaction, Johnson’s acquiescence: Solberg, p. 178. “You broke”: Pearson, W P, Jan. 13; Solberg, p. 178. “Now, Lyndon”: Eisele, p. 104. “Senator Humphrey”: AP 11, 12, 15—“Humphrey,” undated. “In a few”: Solberg, p. 178. “A flat ‘No’”: W P, Nov. 27, 1956. Smathers scene: Smathers OH.
Liberal meeting: Shannon, NYP, Jan. 2; NYT, Jan. 3. Nixon’s decision: Childs, SLP-D, Aug. 1. Nixon’s maneuver: Anderson with Viorst, Outsider in the Senate, pp. 144–45; NYT, NYHT, WP, WS, Jan. 5. “MEMORANDUM: It has been suggested,” attached to Rauh to Wilkins and Aronson, Jan. 7, Box 44, Rauh Papers, LC; Rauh, Rogers, Schnibbe interviews. And see Mann, p. 183.
“A classic performance”; “calm”: Shannon, NYP, Jan. 3. “Vice Presidents”: NYHT, Jan. 5. “We would then”: NYT, Jan. 3. “Senator Russell suggested”: Howard Shuman, “Senate Rules and the Civil Rights Bill: A Case Study,” APSR, Dec. 1957, p. 958; NYT, Jan. 3. Johnson demanding recognition; Nixon’s opinion: CR, 85/1, pp. 9–11, 178–79; Howard Shuman, “Lyndon B. Johnson: The Senate’s Powerful Persuader,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, p. 225; Krock, NYT, Jan. 4; NYT, NYHT, WP, Jan. 5; Howard Shuman, “Senate Rules,” APSR, Dec. 1957, p. 960; Watson, p. 359; Rauh, Zweben interviews. “Their vice president”; “our big chance”: Shuman interview. “Fait accompli”: Fleeson, NYP, Dec. 6, 1956. And see Robertson to Johnson, Dec. 1, 7, 1956, Box 53, LBJA SN. “Disappointed”: Amarillo News, Jan. 9. “He resented”: Schnibbe interview. “I encountered”: Church, quoted in Miller, pp. 209–10.
Church wanted to follow Borah: Ashby and Gramer, Fighting the Odds, pp. 11–12; Carver interview. “He arrived”; “was aiming”; Johnson had: Ward Hower interview. “The Leader’s”: Carver interview. Vote on Johnson’s motion: NYT, Jan. 5.
“Once again”: NYP, Jan. 6. Rovere: In The New Yorker, Jan. 26.
Persuading the southerners: This description of Johnson’s conversations with the southern senators is based on the author’s interviews with BeLieu, Cresswell, Dent, Easley, Fulbright, Goldsmith, Guard, Harlow, Reedy, Steele, Talmadge, Van der Linden, Yarborough, and Zweben; on the oral history interviews of, among many others, Ellender, Ervin, Harlow, Hill, Rowe, Siegel, Smathers, Sparkman, Stennis, Talmadge, and Thurmond. With Reedy, Steele, and Yarborough, in particular, the author had them try to re-create, at length, the arguments they heard Johnson using to the southerners. William Jordan’s perceptive analysis of the southerners’ thinking was also helpful.“Hang out”; “would erode”: Dent interview. “Don’t filibuster!”: Reedy interview. Doris Kearns Goodwin (Lyndon Johnson, p. 148) deals with this point this way: Johnson, she says, influenced “the action of others by persuading them to share in his apprehension of dangerous possibilities. Johnson determined that his first task must be to persuade the ‘reasonable’ southerners to abandon their support for a filibuster, by demonstrating that even if it was successful the only result would be a Pyrrhic victory for the South. Northern passions were rising …and would no longer accept defeat by filibuster; instead the attack would focus on the filibuster rule itself.” Siegel told Miller (Lyndon, p. 209): “His approach to the southern senators was, ‘Well, if you don’t allow progress on this issue, you’re going to lose everything. There’s going to be cloture; and your opportunity to delay or to slow down and to bring some kind of order or change will be gone.’ They recognized this was a possibility, and it had an effect.”
Validity difficult: Reedy, in his books, Lyndon B. Johnson: A Memoir and The U.S. Senate, in his oral histories and in his interviews with the author, sometimes seems to feel that a filibuster could be beaten, and, at other times, that it couldn’t. On p. 144 of LBJ, for example, he writes: “There was sufficient Southern strength in the Senate to kill this measure by filibuster. Legislative victory for civil rights was possible only if they were persuaded that the cost of successful obstruction would be too high.” In his OH III, p. 15, he says, “I don’t think a filibuster could have been broken because the southerners all by themselves couldn’t sustain one, but they would have enough allies in the western states to have kept it going indefinitely.” On June 2, 1982, he wrote an eleven-page letter to Michael L. Gillette, then Chief of Acquisitions and Oral History Programs at the LBJ Library, to clarify his views. In it (p. 4) he states that the senators “from the former Confederate states … unquestionably had the power to defeat—through any fillibuster—any or all Civil Rights proposals and there was no prospect whatsoever of shutting off their fillibuster through a cloture move.” And Reedy was also to write (in Lyndon B. Johnson, p. 84) that “His capacity to exaggerate liberal strength in talking to conservatives and conservative strength in talking to liberals was little short of outrageous.”
No need to filibuster: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 149. “We’re up against”: Dent interview. “Felt”: Zagoria interview. “Down deep”: Zweben interview.
“In private conversations”; “some leeway”; “he deliberately”: Reedy OH V, pp. 10, 11. And during one interview with the author, Reedy said, “He now [by 1957] had the southerners under sufficient control that they understood that he had to do something on civil rights if he was ever going to become President. And if they had gone this far, they might as well go the rest of the way.” In his oral history interviews with the Johnson Library, Reedy said, “I know that he was deliberately using the fact that he might be President as one of the ways of buying elbow room from the southern Democrats. That I know. Because I wrote too many memos that he used and too many speeches and everything else based on that assumption” (OH V, p. 13—italics in original). “He used this feeling; he played on it; this was a deliberate tactic of his,” Reedy said.
“He was running”; “he made them think”: Yarborough interview. “Johnson would be”: Talmadge, quoted in AC, Feb. 20, 1959. “Strom really”: Barr interview. “I think”: Thurmond OH.
“Johnson felt”: McPherson, A Political Education, p. 153. “Johnson argued”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 148. “We’re talking”: Dent interview. “Johnson deplored”: Mooney, LBJ, pp. 49, 50. “You have”: East-land to Johnson, Aug. 11, 1956, Box 43, LBJA CF. Actively: “Sen. Eastland …yesterday put Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson at the top of his list for the Democratic presidential nomination”: WS, July 10, 1959. Supported for presidency: Wilkinson, p. 250. Stennis: Face the Nation, transcript, Jan. 6, 1959. Robertson: Robertson to Johnson, Aug. 29, 1958, Box 53, LBJA CF.
“At first”: Talmadge interview. In his memoir, Talmadge: A Political Legacy, A Politician’s Life, Talmadge wrote (pp. 192, 193) that when Johnson became President, “It came as quite a surprise to me that he would become a crusader for civil rights.” Although Johnson “shifted his loyalties from the Southern bloc to the national party” after he became Majority Leader, “still, Lyndon seemed more of a follower than a leader on this issue…. We thought that in his heart Lyndon was still one of us” (italics added).
“LBJ’s whole gambit”: Dent interview. “I think”; “these guys”: Goldsmith interview. “Have been debated”: Goldsmith, Colleagues, p. 65. “We’ll do”: Byrd, quoted in McConaughy to Williamson, July 31, SP. Anderson telling: Evans and Novak, p. 24. REPORT BEING: NYP, Jan. 12. “The Senate’s”: NYHT, Jan. 12. Even stranger:Newsweek, Jan. 21; Douglass Cater, “How the Senate Passed,” The Reporter, Sept. 5; “Washington,” Atlantic Monthly, March 1957. “Floor debate”: Newsweek, Jan. 21.
“This story”: Russell’s handwritten note on White’s article in NYT, March 25, “Winder Materials 10, Civil Rights,” RBRL. “Dream bill”: Rauh, in interview conducted by Katharine Graham, p. 26. Most hurtful: Rauh interview with author; McCulloch interview. “In the course”: Miller, Lyndon, p. 208. “Frustration”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 111.
“Was hailed”: NYT, Jan. 5. “We got”: Shuman OH. “In 1953”: Shuman interview. “We made”: Douglas, quoted in NYT, Jan. 6. “Raised”: Time, Jan. 21. “Generation-old”; “As they”: Newsweek, Jan. 21, Jan. 14. “There should”: Time, Jan. 21.
“Civil Rights”: LLM, Box 2, Jan. 8, DDEL. “No trouble”: Minnich, LMS, Box 4 (handwritten notes), Jan. 8, DDEL. “No question”; “Unequivocably”: CR, Jan. 9, p. 312; Congressional Quarterly, Jan. 11, p. 61; Watson, p. 361. Couldn’t stop it: Congressional Quarterly, March 1.
Hennings and Judiciary: Javits with Steinberg, Javits, pp. 324–26; Howard E. Shuman, “Senate Rules and the Civil Rights Bill: A Case Study,” APSR, Dec. 1957, pp. 955–75, particularly pp. 961–65; CR, 85/1, pp. 6191–94; Mitchell to Wilkins, Jan. 22; Jackson, M. D., “Telephoned messages from Clarence Mitchell—Apr. 29,” NAACP III A73 (Civil Rights Legislation), NAACPP, LC; McCulloch, Reedy, Shuman interviews; WP, Jan. 23. “Have hearings”: Knowland, in Minnich, LMS, Box 4 (handwritten notes), Jan. 8, DDEL. Eastland now: NYT, WP, Jan. 23; WS, Jan. 22, 24. “Very”: W P, Jan. 31. “The soft-spoken”: Wicker, W-SJ, March 15. “I will not”: WS, Jan. 13.
Length of sessions: Joint Committee on Printing, Congressional Directory, 106th Cong., S. Pub. 106–21, Washington, GPO, pp. 530–31. “If you wait”: Reedy OH VII, p. 16. “They’d come back”: Johnson, in Beschloss, Taking Charge, p. 85.
Senate would not: Johnson, quoted in NYT, May 1. “Therefore”: Reedy OH VII, pp. 15, 16. Administration’s list: NYT, NYHT, July 14. “I am waiting”: “Why can’t?”: Morse, Chavez, quoted in Time, March 11. “The 85th”: NYHT, Feb. 14.
Tone changing: Minutes, “Supplementary Notes,” and Minnich’s handwritten notes of Legislative Leadership Meetings, Jan. 23, 29, Feb. 5, March 5, 12, 26, April 2, Bi-Partisan Legislative Meeting, Feb. 20, “Pre-Press Conference Notes,” March 7, Box 5, DDEL. And see W P, Feb. 15, NYT, WP, Feb. 19, NYT, Feb. 22, 27, 28.
Eastland’s generosity: Best is Wicker, W-SJ, April 2, April 16; Pearson in WP, April 28. “Sen. Knowland again”: Minnich, LMS, Box 4, April 9, DDEL. “It is always”: NYT, April 11. See also NYT, April 23. “In serious”: WP, April 28. “Quite right”: Drummond, in NYHT, April 29. “There is need”: WP, May 5. “Everything”: Cotton in WP, April 28.
Johnson losing hope: Corcoran, Reedy, Rowe interviews. “There was”: Reedy OH, interview.
“It is expected”: “Legislative Leadership Meetings,” May 1, 14, 21. Hennings raised: WP, May 5; Wicker, W-SJ, May 14. Eisenhower’s leadership: NYT, May 23. “Senate leaders”: WP, May 22. “Still in control”: Wiley in NYHT, May 14. May 13th exchange: CR, 85/1, pp. 6782–84; NYT, May 14. “Far from”: Williams, “The Legend of Lyndon Johnson,” The Progressive, April. Arvey interview: For example, in FWS-T, May 26. “Impossibility”: Reedy interview. “More remote”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 109.
“A change”: Bolling interview. “Something changed”: Siegel interview.
37. The “Working Up”
Lyndon Johnson’s need to believe in arguments he was making was explained to the author by, among many others, George R. Brown, Edward A. Clark, John Connally, Thomas G. Corcoran, Ava Johnson Cox, Sam Houston Johnson, Joe Kilgore, Frank C. (Posh) Oltorf, and James H. Rowe Jr.
“He was”: SHJ. “What convinces”: Johnson interview with Doris Kearns Goodwin, quoted in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 124. “Would quickly”: Talking about Johnson’s “credibility problem” as President, Joseph Califano writes that it “was exacerbated because LBJ became the most gullible victim of his own revisionist claims.” Citing an example of Johnson’s coming “to believe” a certain story even though “what he was saying …was clearly not true,” Califano writes that he “had witnessed the authentic increase in the President’s conviction each time he recited it” (Triumph, pp. 174–75, and see pp. 99–100). “I believe”: Reedy, LBJ, pp. 2, 3. “He was an emotional man”:Clark interview.
“‘The problem’”: Kilgore interview. “I remember”: Bethine Church interview.
A new story: There are many versions of Johnson telling it. This one is the version Johnson himself gave in his memoir, Vantage Point, pp. 154–55, 160. Eugene Williams, in his oral history interview, recalls Johnson demanding, “Gene, I want an answer.” Probably about 1951: In his OH, p. 7, Williams says, “Then in ’51, I would make the drive twice a year…. At this time, he asked me to take Beagle with us.” But, Williams makes clear, although he explained to Johnson why he was reluctant to do so, and was excused from taking the dog, they still had to make the drive twice a year: “From here to [Texas] and back twice a year…. I would go from here [Washington] to the ranch and from the ranch back here…. I remember one night …I won’t forget. I believe Zephyr was with us. We got into Knoxville, Tennessee, I guess, around ten o’clock. I guess it was one o’clock that night before we could find a place to sleep. You know, things like that. So that’s most of the experience I had, from here to Texas and back on those kind of deals.” Saying that Johnson’s three black employees began making the drive to Texas “about 1950 or ’51, I guess,” Jenkins said that after they expressed reluctance to take Beagle, they no longer had to do so, but that they continued to drive the Johnsons’ car back and forth each year. Asked how long they did so, he said he couldn’t recall exactly but that they did so “all through the Senate period, so far as I can recall. And thereafter.” “I just wouldn’t go”: Wright OH, p. 7. She says, “I wouldn’t go to Texas for ten years; I just wouldn’t go.” It is impossible to date her refusal exactly, but Jenkins says it came “quite early on, as I remember.” McPherson’s description: McPherson OH.“Made him angry”: Califano, p. 53.
A civil rights: Coffin, “How Lyndon Johnson Engineered Compromise on Civil Rights Bills,” The New Leader, Aug. 5, 1957. “Tirelessly”: Mooney, LBJ, p. 99. “Quietly”: Mooney, The Politicians, pp. 268–69.
“Areas”; “They were”: Reedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, pp. 112–14;Reedy interviews. “A basic”: Byrd, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 434. Lyndon Johnson realized: This description of Johnson’s feelings is from interviews with Connally, Corcoran, Reedy, Rowe, and from Cater, “How the Senate,” The Reporter, Sept. 5, 1957.
“Just give”: Johnson, quoted in Reston, Deadline, p. 307. “Kissing their ass”: Johnson, quoted in Humphrey OH. “You felt this”: Rowe interview. “Break the virginity”: Rauh interview.
38. Hells Canyon
All dates are 1957 unless otherwise noted.
Price too high: Reedy, LBJ, p. 114. “Now completely”: Reedy to Johnson, undated, Box 420, JSP. Had to find allies: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, pp. 141–42; Shuman OH.
The Hells Canyon issue: Drukman, Wayne Morse, particularly pp. 230–31, 267–68, 285, 302; Gunther, Inside U.S.A., pp. 127–29; Smith, Wayne Morse, pp. 304–07, 343–47; “The Hells Canyon Controversy,” Congress and the Nation, 1945–1964 (Washington: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1965). “Last year the governors …”: undated, pp. 23–25, “Interior—Hells Canyon” folder, Box 288, JSP; Carver, Ward Hower, McCulloch, Shuman interviews.
McKay’s “giveaway”; “shocking”: Drukman, p. 230; Smith, Wayne Morse, p. 343; W P, June 9; NYP, June 21. “Republican”: Smith, p. 305. “Tooth and nail”: Carver interview. For an example of Senate speeches on the subject, see Mansfield’s in CR, 85/1, pp. 9775–76.
“Irrelevant”: Fite, Russell, p. 340; Wicker, W-SJ, June 22.
Secret deal: Merton Bernstein interview. Long: “I had voted against the high dam in Hells Canyon because Herman Welker had supported my position in the Tidelands,” Long OH II, p. 4.
Negro population of Mountain States: The World Almanac and Book of Facts for 1956, p. 259. “I began”: Johnson, quoted in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 150. Arranging the deal: Fite, p. 340. “With Herman”: Long OH II, p. 6. “Look”: Siegel OH IV, p. 3. “I need”: Pearson, WP, June 20; Shuman, quoted in NYP, June 27. Pearson wrote in this column that “although Murray was tempted, …no deal was made.” But Murray did, in the event, vote with the South despite his earlier support for civil rights. See, for example, Rowe interview, and WP, June 21. Steinberg, among others, says, “Russell now proposed a swap…. Five northern liberal senators agreed,” and names Murray as one (Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 469). Southern votes available: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 469; Rowe interview. Johnson spelled out: Smith, Wayne Morse, p. 344.
Russell agreed: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 469. “In return”: Johnson, in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 150. Luncheon conversation: Bernstein interview. “Put together”: Long OH III, p. 4. As few as possible: Ward Hower, McCulloch interviews.
Humphrey, Douglas, Eastland encounter: Javits, Autobiography, pp. 325–26.
Discouragement in White House: Pearson in WP, June 9. “Prospects”: NYT, May 23. Morrow’s memo: Morrow Papers, Records Box 10, DDEL. “Turn up the heat”: clipping, June 6, Box 2030, JSP. Rayburn’s rulings, Republican moves: NYT, WP, NYHT, June 14–22. “Teaming up”: WP, June 16. “Don’t”: Russell, in W P, June 20. 45 to 39 vote; the very next item: CR, 85/1, p. 9827. Johnson voted with: NYT, June 21. “I desire”: Johnson, CR, 85/1, p. 9832. “A surprise”: WP, June 22, 1957. Analysis of votes: “UNITED STATES SENATE VOTE ON PASSAGE OF S. 555…. June 21, 1957”; Lyndon Johnson’s tally sheet, undated but with “Hells Canyon,” written in his handwriting on top, both Box 1299, JSP; W P, June 22. Senator Arthur V. Watkins (R-Utah) said, “Civil rights yesterday had a lot to do with the vote today—more than most people realize.” Wicker wrote in the W-SJ (June 22), “Southern Democrats apparently assured themselves of a trial by jury amendment” by their Hells Canyon vote. “Authoritative sources indicate that the Southern action was a quid for which they expect to receive a quo composed of a trial-by-jury amendment to the civil rights bill.
“Western Democrats handed southerners five votes—not enough to sustain their position but enough, as one observer put it, ‘to let ’em know where the votes are.’ A source within liberal ranks reported his belief that western senators would now deliver enough votes for a jury trial amendment.”
Church’s maiden speech: NYT, WP, other papers, June 22. “Magnificent”: Ashby and Gramer, Fighting the Odds, p. 80. “Boy orator”: WS, Jan. 11; quoted in Ashby and Gramer, p. 81. Photograph: NYT, June 22. “It made him”: Ward Hower interview. Only a temporary: Church OH; Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 188. “If this bill”: Church OH.“All credit”: Church to Johnson, June 22, Box 41, LBJA CF. “If it”: Neuberger, AA-S, June 28.
“A vicious”: AP story in W-SJ, June 22. “No deal”: Mansfield, in UP story, in W-SJ, June 24. He also said he hoped “the author (Sen. Potter) will reconsider his position and retract a statement which is untrue on the face of it” (AP in W-SJ, June 22). “Civil rights yesterday”: Watkins, W P, June 22. “A deal”: Alcorn in WP, June 24. “Fellows supposed”: NYT, June 22.
“Frank, I’m afraid”: Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 287; Newsweek (July 1) said: “In any event, the bill was not expected to be taken up by the House this session, and even if it passed there, President Eisenhower would certainly veto it.” “Look”: Childs, in NYP, June 26. “Beat down”: WP, June 22. “The action”: NYT, June 23. Liberal caucus:Drew Pearson described it in his WP column of June 22. His description is apparently based on his handwritten notes, which are found in Pearson Papers, Box G201 LBJL. The senator who gave him the information was apparently Morse, for a handwritten note (not in Pearson’s handwriting) in the upper-right-hand corner of the first page says, “file—Morse.” Douglas, describing the caucus himself, wrote: “I told Morse to his face that his action was unpardonable. If he had experienced an honest conversion from his earlier position, he should have informed me before taking the floor. Morse left the room in anger. The break was complete….” (Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 286).“Authoritative”: Wicker, W-SJ, June 22.
39. “You Do It”
All dates are 1957 unless otherwise noted.
“It was Part III”: Rauh OH. Feelings of liberals and Republicans: For example, NYP editorial, June 23; Stokes, WS, June 27. Brownell, Harlow, McCulloch, Rauh, Reedy, Rogers, Rowe, Shuman, Yarborough interviews. “Racial integration”: NYHT, July 15. As the Senate: WS, July 4; Childs, W P, June 26; Stokes, NYP, June 27; W P, June 23, July 4; NYT, June 28, July 1; Alsop, W P, July 3; Time, July 1; Minnich, LLM (handwritten notes), July 9; June 27; July 2, Box 4, DDEL; Brownell, Harlow, McCulloch, Rauh, Reedy, Steele interviews.
Russell speech: CR, 85/1, pp. 10771–78. Atmosphere on Senate floor as he spoke: Mann, Walls of Jericho, pp. 192–94. Although Mann says that Russell spoke “in his usual low voice,” this was not the case after he got to the Reconstruction portion of his speech, according to several persons who heard it, including McCulloch, Rauh, and Zweben, and others recall Russell’s statement about putting “black heels on white necks,” for example, as being delivered in a hoarse, shouting tone. Two staff members: Zweben interview.
Raising of discrepancies: “Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary,” “U.S. Senate, 85th Cong., I Sess, on S. 83 …,” Feb. 16, pp. 210–20. Perhaps the most complete analysis of the Brownell-Young exchanges is by Senator Ervin in CR, 85/1, pp. 11333–35. Ervin sums up his view of them by saying: “The Attorney General did not want to be asked whether the President of the United States would be empowered to call out the Army, the Navy, and the militia, under section 1993 of title 42, to enforce the decrees the Attorney General was asking the Congress to authorize him to obtain without trials by jury, under section 1985 of title 42…. Mr. Young was merely asking the Attorney General a question of law…. But I [Ervin] was never able to get an answer to that question…. Attorney General Brownell, who was asked that question, but did not answer it, is the gentleman who asks for the vast power which would be conferred on him by the bill …”
“No intrigue”; “an accident”; “so many hands”: “A spokesman for the drafting group,” quoted in Krock, “The Part III Issue Made Clearer,” NYT, July 12. Rogers told the author the “spokesman” was actually Brownell, and Brownell, in an interview, repeated the gist of the contention Krock quotes. “Mysterious”; “on the surface”:Douglas,Fullness of Time, p. 288. Russell and Young: Young to Russell, June 17, Series III, A. Speech, Box 32, RBRL; CR, 85/1, pp. 10771–78; “Hearings,” pp. 214–15, 224–25.
“A landmark”: CR, 85/1, p. 10775. “CHAMPION”: NYT, July 3. “Subtle dramatist”: Watson, Lion in the Lobby, pp. 383–86. “Senators”: Woodward, “The Great Civil Rights Debate,” Commentary, Oct. 1957. “A violation”: Coffin, “How Lyndon Johnson Engineered Compromise on Civil Rights Bill,” The New Leader, Aug. 5.
Eisenhower’s press conference: Reston, NYT, July 4; USN & WR, July 12, Telephone conversation: Telephone conversation, July 3, AWNS, DDEL. “He said”: ACWD, Telephone Calls, July 3, Box 25, DDEL. Supporting Brownell’s contention are pp. 16–20 in Anderson, Eisenhower, which state that the first draft of the bill “said … explicitly” that Part III “could be used to initiate school desegregation suits” and that “the draftsmen wrote them as separate bills” and that it was at this point that “the Department’s lawyers began constructing the intricate chains of double and triple reference that were to give their final drafts an extraordinary technical complexity.” Support for Eisenhower’s contention that he had not understood the bill’s content is found, among other places, in his pre-press conference briefing of June 19. Summary notes state: “Civil Rights—President will say he is delighted it passed; very moderate bill, intended to persecute nobody. It was designed in the hope that all thinking Americans would see that it is the least that can be done” (DDEPP [1957], p. 357). Republican senators’ reaction: Harlow, Rogers interviews. “I think”: DDE to Swede Hazlett, July 22, AWNS, DDEL. “Had waged”: Ambrose, Eisenhower, p. 410.
“Why”: McCulloch interview. “So I could”: Shuman recalls Douglas saying he should have been told “so I could [have been] prepared when Senator Russell brought all this out” (Shuman interview). “When”: McCulloch interview. Not “going”: Mundt, quoted in Lincoln, “The Political Mill,” WS, July 25. Southern Caucus: Fite, Russell, p. 339; “The Rearguard Commander,” Time, Aug. 12; McConaughy to Williamson, July 31; “A Round for the South,” Newsweek, July 22; NYT, July 4. “Instead of: McConaughy to Williamson, July 31, SP.
“Given up”: Corcoran interview. Life on the ranch: Rather, Stehling interviews. “I hope”: “Lyndon Johnson, Civil Rights and 1960,” Rowe to Johnson, July 3, Box 32, LBJA SN. Only one guest: July 4–5 page, Appointment Book and Daily Memoranda, 1957, Box 2, Desk Diaries of LBJ. Corky in 1937: Caro, Path, pp. 428–30. Telephone call to Ava: Ava Johnson Cox interview.
“Proceed”: CR, 85/1, pp. 10983, 10988. “The price”; “did not”: Mann, p. 199. “Eisenhower’s invitation”: NYT, July 4. “Aware”: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 132. “Impassioned, emotional, poured out”; Eisenhower-Russell meeting: Ambrose, p. 408. “Poured out”: “Georgia Giant,” quoted in Goldsmith, Colleagues, p. 61.“Couldn’t say”: Russell, quoted in WS, July 10. “Indicated”: Robertson to Jones, July 11, Dr. 45, File 2, Legislative Files, AWRP, College of William and Mary. “Not at all”: ACWD, 7/10, DDEL.
Johnson’s visit: Harlow interview. “Become worried”: Brownell interview. “I had tried”; “Lyndon Johnson went”; He had the votes”: Brownell, Advising Ike, pp. 223–25; confirmed by Rogers interview. Brownell, in his memoir, goes so far as to concede that “Eisenhower may also have had some reservations (unexpressed to me) about granting power in such broad terms to the attorney general.” If, however, Brownell genuinely felt that the President’s reservations were “unexpressed,” he hadn’t been listening carefully to presidential statements such as the one of July 3 reported by Whitman above. Brownell says he “had tried to assure the President otherwise, but Senators Richard Russell and Lyndon Johnson undoubtedly pressed this point in their conversations with him during this period” (Advising Ike, p. 225). President made his position: Evans and Novak, p. 133. “Well, no”: DDEPP (1957), pp. 546–47, 555.
Could be flouted: For example, Time, July 29. And see Time, July 22; Harlow interview. “It was just”: Rauh interview. The day at Glen Welby: Graham, Personal History, p. 241; Rauh OH, Graham OH and her OH with Rauh, Rauh interview.
“To enable”: Knowland, in CR, 85/1, p. 10986. “Merely”: Douglas, CR, 85/1, p. 10988. “Will pass”: Nixon, in NYP, July 9. “We’ll win”: Adams, quoted in Mann, p. 198. “He expected”: Legislative Leaders Meeting, July 16, pp. 4–7, DDEPP. A cold calculation: Harlow, Rauh interviews. “Will not be”: NYT, July 9.
“The leader of”: For example, NYT, July 11, 14, 17, 25. Journalists applauded: For example, NYHT, July 18; Drummond, NYHT, July 15; Philadelphia Inquirer, July 16; W P, July 14;WS, July 14. “Is likely”: Evans in NYHT, July 9. “At least”: NYT, July 9. “Speculation”: NYT, July 11.
Knowland’s predictions: NYT, July 10. “Justified”: Russell, CR, 85/1, p. 10989. The CR does not show the second “We will resist,” but Albright (W P, July 9) quotes him as likening the South “to a chained bear being poked with a pole and ordered to dance” and saying: “we will resist—we will resist. We will explain and discuss the issues involved in this bill until each and every Senator fully understands them in all their implications …You may call it a filibuster if you wish.” “Became apparent”; “I don’t”: Reedy OH III. “Until the snow”: Russell, quoted in WS, July 10.
Johnson’s fears: Reedy, Rowe interviews; Reedy OH. Rising: CR, 85/1, pp. 10983, 10985; William White, NYT, July 9. Niagara Dam pending business: Johnson, CR, 85/1, pp. 10963, 10964. “I should like”: Johnson, CR, 85/1, p. 10983. Protest: Javits, Ives, and Kerr, CR, 85/1, pp. 10983–85, July 9, 10. “Folded his arms”: NYT, July 9.Declined:Tames interview.
The gulf: Stennis, McNamara, Javits, Knowland in CR, 85/1, pp. 11311–313. “Increasingly”: NYP, July 12. “A rape”: Ervin, in CR, 85/1, p. 11333. A “new gestapo”: Johnston, CR, 85/1, p. 11335. “Cunningly devised”: Eastland, CR, 85/1, pp. 11347–53. “Let us all”: Hill, CR, 85/1, p. 11365. Case: CR, 85/1, p. 11346. “No amendments”:Knowland, in NYP, July 12.
Noticed a figure, realized: Mann, p. 202; Anderson OH; Reedy interview. “I’m afraid”; “My principal”: Anderson with Viorst, Outsider in the Senate, p. 129. “Didn’t like”: Busby interview. Defeat as Agriculture Secretary: Howard E. Shuman, “Lyndon B. Johnson, The Senate’s Powerful Persuader,” in Baker and Davidson, eds., First Among Equals, pp. 211, 234; Shuman, Wood interviews. “I took it”: Anderson with Viorst, p. 129. It was going: Anderson OH. “I wouldn’t get”; “Knowland seemed”: Anderson with Viorst, pp. 147, 146. “Hopeless”; “Determined”; “Just sat”: Anderson OH. “Hints”; “They seemed”; “It seemed clear”: Anderson with Viorst, pp. 146, 147.“They were”; “I thought”: Anderson OH.
His tinkering: Anderson’s handwritten changes are on his copies of H.R. 6127 as it was printed and placed on his desk—National Archives Record Group 46, Sen. 54-A—C2, Bill Files, Calendar No. 485, H.R. 6127, NA. “Curious”: Anderson OH. “You do it”; “How can I?”: Evans and Novak, p. 131. Goldsmith, p. 62, says: “Anderson, as a supporter of the bill, was reluctant to take the lead.” “Get a Republican”: Anderson OH; Reedy, Steele, Wood interviews. Although some accounts, such as Mann, p. 202, say that “Anderson found two respected Republican moderates,” Aiken and Francis Case of South Dakota, in fact, Aiken was the key, as Anderson himself said (“I went to George Aiken, whom I admire greatly, and asked him if he would join in such a plan”) and Case came along later (Anderson and Viorst, Outsider in the Senate, p. 147); Anderson OH. The role of Case, not nearly as respected a figure in the Senate as Aiken, was not, in fact, particularly significant. When Anderson introduced his amendment, he said he was doing so jointly with Aiken; he never even mentioned Case’s name (CR, 85/1, p. 11826). Johnson meant: Evans and Novak, pp. 131–32. Anderson, in his memoir, says that he himself thought of going to Aiken, and only thereafter “went to see Lyndon Johnson” to tell him “my plan” (Anderson and Viorst, p. 147). But Anderson appears to be giving himself too much credit. His version is not accepted by others familiar with the sequence. And in his oral history, Anderson himself said, “He thought I should get a really good Republican to join with me.” Also see Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 471. “Well, I believe”: Aiken, quoted in Anderson and Viorst, p. 147.
Russell’s confidence: He called Anderson’s amendment “highly encouraging” because “Senator Anderson is an acknowledged leader of the civil rights forces” (Baltimore Sun, July 15). Johnson’s announcement: NYT, July 12. “I hope”: Evans, NYHT, July 12. Russell amenable: NYT, July 12.
Southerners agree to UCA: “‘We have endeavored and shall continue to endeavor to comport ourselves as responsible men,’ Mr. Russell told the Senate in accepting the” UCA, NYT, July 13. The southerners’ agreement “was a measure of the changed atmosphere in the Senate today,” NYHT, July 13. Johnson introduces UCA: NYT, July 13.
“I do this”: Anderson, CR, 85/1, p. 11826. “We who support”: Aiken, CR, 85/1, p. 11827. A “modern”: Byrd, NYT, July 17. “Gold Dust Twins”: Watson, p. 398, Rauh interview. 71 to 18: Kempton, NYP, July 17. “Not to be”: NYT, Baltimore Sun, July 17. Leaning across: Newsweek, July 29.
“Parliamentary”: CR, 85/1, p. 11838. Knowland outsmarted: Rauh, Riddick interviews. “At the last”: Time, Aug. 5. Roy Wilkins was to estimate that between 57 and 60 votes were available to support the amendment had they been needed. Wilkins to Morsell, July 23, NAACP III B-55, LC, quoted in Watson, p. 388. “Strange”: Baltimore Sun, July 25.
“I believe”: CR, 85/1, p. 12714, quoted in Mann, p. 204. “The adoption”: NYT, July 25. “This is not”: CR, 85/1, p. 12549. “He won; we didn’t”: Wilkins, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 209. Clarence Mitchell called the passage of the Anderson-Aiken Amendment “a direct hit amidships” (Watson, p. 389). “The filibuster”: Rauh interview.“Almost literally”: Siegel OH. “No single”: Kempton, NYP, July 17.
40. Yeas and Nays
All dates are 1957 unless otherwise noted.
Analysis of Part IV: Ambrose, Eisenhower, pp. 407–10; Dulles, Civil Rights Commission; Goldsmith, Colleagues, pp. 62–66; Lawson, Black Ballots, Chapter 7; Mann, Walls of Jericho, pp. 200–24; U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, “Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary,” Civil Rights, 1957: 85/1, Vol. 71, particularly pp. 55–67; Paul Douglas, “Politics and the Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957,” CR, 85/1, p. 100; Congressional Digest, April 1957; Eisenhower, Papers as President, LMS, 1957, Box 2; Press Conference Series, Box 6; Cabinet Series, Boxes 4, 9; Ann Whitman Diary Series, Box 9, DDEL; Carl Auerbach, “Jury Trials and Civil Rights,” The New Leader, April 29. “The only reason”: Ervin, CR, 85/1, p. 10995. “Southern senators”: Reedy interview. In his memoir, Lyndon B. Johnson, Reedy wrote (p. 118) that the southerners “could go home and say to their constituents: ‘They can’t brand you a criminal now without a trial before a jury of your fellow citizens.’” “Sacred”: See, for example, Ernest K. Lindley, “Another to Ponder,” Newsweek, July 29.
O’Mahoney in 1937: Alsop and Catledge, 168 Days, pp. 87, 192, 229–233. “Crowd-challenging”; “gravelly”; “spirit”: McPherson, Political Education, p. 48. His amendment: CR, 85/1, pp. 11005–06.
“Every white man”: “Trial by Jury,” New Republic, June 10. “It is”: Wilkins, in NYT, June 1. “Can only be”: Southern Conference Educational Fund, Inc., “An Open Letter to the U.S. Senate,” W P, July 30. “I fought”: Potter, in NYP, June 19. “To resist”: NYT, July 25. And Martin Luther King said that addition of a jury trial amendment would make the bill “almost meaningless” (NYP, July 28). “Mixed, really”: Humphrey OH I, pp. 27, 29.
“Practically”: NYT, June 4. “Anarchy”: NYT, June 6. “Full of admiration”: Reedy to Johnson, July 26, Box 418, JSP. “It is Nixon”: Allen, “Inside Washington,” NYP, July 25. “Been willing”: Lincoln, “The Political Mill,” WS, July 25. “An overwhelming”: Knowland, NYT, July 27. “Every so often”: Reston, “Trial by Jury vs. The Right to Vote,” NYT, July 14.
“At this point”; “he pleaded”: Reedy, LBJ, pp. 116, 117. “You know”: Corcoran, quoted by Reedy, in interview with author. Acheson put: Reedy, p. 118. “We drafted”: Horwitz OH. “Every effort”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 117. Knowland constantly announcing: For example, on July 8, he said, “I hope that within this week the Senate of the United States will be allowed to vote” (CR, 85/1, p. 10988). On July 13, he said, “I move that the Senate now proceed to consideration of the Civil Rights Bill” (NYT, July 14). On July 28, the WP said that “Knowland, predicting victory, said he was prepared.” And in a Legislative Leaders Meeting at the White House on July 30, he said, “As of now we can beat jury trial [amendment].” Minnich, LMS, Box 4, handwritten notes, DDEL.
“Get me Ben Cohen”: Jenkins interview.
Cohen’s career: Caro, Path, pp. 450–51. “You had”; “Everyone”: Katharine Graham interview with Siegel, Jan. 16, 1991. “Cohen’s the brains”: Caro, p. 450. “Working”: Cohen interview with author. Attention caught by Auerbach article: Cater, “How the Senate Passed the Civil-Rights Bill,” The Reporter, Sept. 5; Cohen, Jenkins, Siegel interviews. Not surprisingly, several other people try to claim credit for bringing the article to Johnson’s attention, including George Reedy, but Siegel and Jenkins interviews are conclusive. Richard Rovere was to write that the “vital and operative sections” of the proposed legislation “come largely from the hands of Benjamin V. Cohen and Dean Acheson…. Cohen and Acheson supplied the effective language of compromise” (Rovere, The New Yorker, Aug. 31). Auerbach’s article: Auerbach, The New Leader, April 29. Cohen’s reasoning: Interview with author. “Ben was simply”: Siegel told Katharine Graham, “I have never, never found a public servant who I thought was as important to this country as Ben Cohen—going way back to the Roosevelt times.” The new paragraph: CR, 85/1, p. 12819.
Adding new names: The shifting of votes during the negotiations over Part IV is based on articles in “general background” note for Chapter 36; on Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, pp. 133–39; Mann, pp. 206–17; Miller, Lyndon, pp. 209–10; on Cooper, Horwitz, Reedy, Rauh, Shuman, Siegel OHs; and on the author’s interviews with Carver, Fensterwald, Ward Hower, Jenkins, McCulloch, Rauh, Reedy, Schnibbe, Shuman, and Steele. Tally sheets: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 138.
“If I take”: Reedy interview.
Remedy an injustice: A good summary is Kefauver, CR, 85/1, p. 12820. Drafting: Horwitz, Siegel OHs. Johnson says: Reedy interview. “Is there”: Douglas, CR, 85/1, p. 12818.
“In any”: “PART V. AMENDMENT TO THE FEDERAL CRIMINAL CODE…. Sec. 391,” CR, 85/1, p. 12819.
As Emily Post: For example, Johnson said, “This issue will … require the careful analysis of thoughtful, reasoning men. Never before have I seen in the Senate a debate which has contributed so much to the understanding … the finest the Senate has ever had” (CR, 85/1, 12651). And see CR, 85/1, pp. 11623, 13165; and Drummond, NYHT, July 15;NYHT, July 14, 17, 18; NYT, July 13, 14, 23; W P, WS, July 14;Philadelphia Inquirer, July 16. And see Mann, p. 204.
“If we’re going to”; “Be ready”: McPherson, p. 145. “We have to”: “I’m on”: Parker, Capitol Hill, p. 81. “You always”; “my ass”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 92. “You can”: Reedy OH XI; Reedy interview. “We’ve got”: Baker, p. 145. “A religious leader”: Parker, p. 79. “If we don’t allow”: Siegel, quoted in Miller, Lyndon, p. 209; Reedy interview. “These Negroes”: Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 148. Playing on Wisconsin fears: Edelstein to Lehman, Aug. 28, Lehman Special File 727, Lehman Papers, HHLP, CU. “They’ll get us”: Bethine Church interview. “Look”: Siegel OH I V. “Jim East-land knows”: Pearson, W P, undated. “Yes, yes, Hubert”: Humphrey, quoted in Miller, p. 371.
“Let me”; “I remember”: Pearson, WP, July 19. “Goddamnit”: Schnibbe interview. “A grave mistake”: Schnibbe interview. “Look”: Siegel OH. “Out of both”; “he would tell”: McPherson OH. “He made them”: Yarborough interview. “You can’t”: Rauh OH; Rauh interview.
Tally sheet: Evans and Novak, p. 138. “Twice daily”: Fleeson, WS, Aug. 5. Johnson knew: Reston, NYT, Aug. 3.
Niagara bill: Miller, Lyndon, p. 206. “Without adequate,” etc.: CR, 85/1, pp. 10985, 10986. Also see pp. 12979–980.
Using his health: “Johnson has privately told at least two other senators that he will not run for re-election in 1960 because of his health. He becomes so tense and excited after a week of maneuvering that he is unable to sleep more than three or four hours a night. This, after his serious heart attack a year ago, has forced his decision.” Tris Coffin, “How Lyndon Johnson Engineered Compromise on Civil Rights Bill,” New Leader, Aug. 5. “Ah don’t”: Johnson’s wording on this page is recreated from recollections by people who heard him speak at the time, particularly Reedy, Schnibbe and Steele, and from the wording he used in conversations on the same subjects over the telephone during his presidency, as transcribed by Michael Beschloss in Taking Charge. “He made you”: Fensterwald interview. “I’ll have to”: John Sherman Cooper OH. “Well, you”: Ward Hower interview. “I can see him”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 145. “He would”: McPherson, p. 146. Holding Kefauver: Dixon, Aug. 1, Box 2042, JSP.
July 26 Southern Caucus; White House meeting: LMS, Box 2, DDEL; Time, July 29; Baltimore Sun, NYHT, NYP, WP, July 27. “To the end”; “he meant”: NYT, July 27. “A jury trial”: Knowland, NYT, July 27.
“Would prevent”: Carey to Johnson, Kefauver, O’Mahoney, July 27, CR, 85/1, pp. 12874–875. Reedy told; “Here is the situation”: Reedy to Johnson, July 29, Box 418, JSP. “Iron determination”: “Statement by the AFL-CIO Executive Committee on Civil Rights Legislation,” July 30, CR, 85/1, pp. 12998–999. Not “found a soul”:Humphrey, quoted in NYP, July 28.
“Might be difficult”: Evans, NYHT, July 28; in the NYT, July 28, John D. Morris wrote “Stiffening opposition to any jury-trial provision in the Administration’s civil rights bill threatened today to delay indefinitely [italics added] a decision on the provision. Earlier prospects of a vote Tuesday on that phase of the civil rights controversy appeared to have all but vanished.…” The Washington Star reported (July 29) that “The possibility of a filibuster was increased today.” “Haven’t got”: Humphrey, qouted in NYT, July 29. Knowland said: NYT, July 28. “Extraordinary”: Fleeson, WS, July 30. “I can’t say”: Russell, quoted in W P, July 28.
“I hope”: Clark, CR, 85/1, p. 13294. Javits: CR, 85/1, pp. 12892–899. Murray: CR, 85/1, p. 13298. “He taunted”: Mann, p. 211.
“Open Letter”: W P, July 30.
Tuskegee hearing: Described in NYP, WP, July 31. Effect of hearing on senators: WP, July 31; McCulloch interviews. Polk Manders: Russell, CR, 85/1, p. 12980. Javits, Douglas, Russell exchanges: CR, 85/1, pp. 12983–986. “Tore the mask”: Shannon, NYP, July 31. “The Senator … points”: Russell, CR, 85/1, p. 12986. Angry scene on Senate floor: CR, 85/1, pp. 12993–994. Described in three vivid columns: Fleeson, McGrory, WS; Shannon, NYP, all July 31.
Small Business Administration request: W P, NYT, July 31. “Suddenly”: Fleeson, “Senate Debate Back to Normal,” WS, July 31. “The prisoner”: Kempton, “Changing of the Guard,” NYP, July 30.
“Any labor guy”: Reedy to Johnson, July 29, Box 418, JSP; Mann, pp. 211–12; Evans and Novak, p. 137; Cater, “How the Senate Passed the Civil-Rights Bill,” The Reporter, Sept. 5; Reedy interview. Brotherhoods’ prejudice: Foner, Black Worker, p. 166; Ferguson to Fleete, Sept. 29, “Switchmen’s Union of North America Records, 1894–1971,” Collection No. 5034, Box 254, Kheel Center, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations; Cleveland News, Sept. 27; Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sept. 28. This does not apply, needless to say, to A. Philip Randolph’s Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Railroad lobbyists: Newsweek, Aug. 12. Johnson understood: Reedy interview; Mann, p. 212, notes that “The railroad lobbyists were particularly effective with midwestern Republicans.” Brotherhoods’ political power: Curtis, Hradko, Kennedy, Mahoney interviews; Catton and Link, American Epoch, p. 58; Seidman, Brotherhood, pp. 2–4. Telephoned Anderson: Pearson, W P, Aug. 8.
UMW bitterness: Mann, p. 212; WS, Aug. 1; Hopkins interview. Telephoned Hopkins: LBJ Desk Diary; Pearson, W P, Aug. 8; Hopkins interview. UMW telegram: CR, 85/1, p. 13015. “Had never”: CR, 85/1, p. 13015. Evans and Novak accepted Johnson’s contention, calling Lewis’ telegram “unsolicited” (p. 137). “Saw to it”: Reston, NYT, Aug. 3. And see Pearson, WP, Aug. 8. Neely’s change: Roy Wilkins to Elmer A. Carter (chairman, N.Y. State Commission Against Discrimination), Sept. 5, 1957, NAACPP III A 71, CR, LC. “Labor”: Fortune, June 1957.
Church and Johnson: Interviews with Bethine Church, and Church aides John A. Carver, Ward and Phyllis Hower.
“I understand”; “Senator Sunday School”: Ashby and Gramer, Fighting the Odds, p. 73. “Journalists in the press gallery made up a little ditty: ‘His name is Church, but if age was the rule, we’d call him Senator Sunday School.’” “Bursting”: Ashby and Gramer, p. 32. “Longest-running”: Wether-all, quoted by Ashby and Gramer, p. 101.
Bethine in Washington; “deep freeze”: Bethine Church interview. “It was”; “Long memory”: Carver interview. “Pariah”: Bethine Church, quoted in Ashby and Gramer, p.78. “For the next six months,” Church himself said, “he [Johnson] never spoke to me. He said nothing to me that was insulting. He just simply ignored me. When I was present with other senators, he talked to the other senators. It was clear to me that I was persona non grata with Lyndon Johnson” (Miller, p. 210).
“Only”: Ward Hower interview. “One night”: Bethine Church interview. Vote … but: Ashby and Gramer, p. 87. Church’s attitude on filibusters: Bethine Church, Phyllis Hower, Ward Hower interviews. “Looking”; “I don’t think”: Ward Hower interview, and quoted in Ashby and Gramer, p. 96. Whispering to O’Mahoney: CR, 85/1, p. 12819.“You’re a senator”: Bethine Church interview. Church’s idea: Mann, p. 213; Bethine Church interview.
Drafting, discarding, refining amendment: Bethine Church, Ward Hower, Siegel interviews; Horwitz, Siegel OHs. Appealed to northern liberals: Newsweek, Time, Aug. 12; Roy Wilkins to William Walker, Aug. 19; Wilkins to C. B. Powell of Amsterdam News, Aug. 20, NAACP III, Box A 73, NAACPP, LC; WP, Aug. 1, 2. “They didn’t”; “symbolic”: Carver, Ward Hower interviews.
Told him to wait: Church OH. “No chance”: Reedy interview; Newsweek, Time, Aug. 12. Knowland’s refusal: CR, 85/1, July 31, pp. 13111, 13112. Three agreements; Russell objecting: CR, 85/1, pp. 13128–132.
Anderson in Johnson’s office: Reedy interview. Embodied: “One of the most unusual aspects …,” Reedy to Johnson, Aug. 1, Box 420, JSP.
Retirement benefits; suddenly: Newsweek, Aug. 12; Shannon, NYP, Aug. 2. “The lines”: July 31, ACWD, Telephone Calls, Box 25, DDEL. “Dramatic switches”: WP, Aug. 2. Schoeppel’s judgeship: Cater, The Reporter, Sept. 5; Pearson, W P, Aug. 17. “Wobbly”: Evans and Novak, p. 137. Pastore swayed: Reston, NYT, Aug. 3.
The drama: Descriptions of it are in Mann, pp. 213–14;Time and Newsweek, Aug. 12; Stewart Alsop, “Who Really Won,” NYHT, Aug. 5; Shannon, NYP, Aug. 2. And in Frank Church, Horwitz OHs; and in interviews with Bethine Church, Rauh, Reedy, Rogers. It is in CR, 85/1, pp. 13137–53, 13234–96, 13306–56. A full house: Ashby and Gramer, p. 89. “Frank looked”: Bethine Church interview. “East Lynne?”: Neuberger, quoted in Newsweek, Aug. 12. “Like a wave”: Bethine Church interview. “What John Pastore”: Horwitz OH. “Feign”; “the impact”: Mann, p. 214. “All of this”: Horwitz OH. “Actually changed”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 119. Lewis’ telegram: CR, 85/1, p. 13015.“I’ve got them”: Hopkins OH.
“At least thirty-nine”: Knowland, quoted in Time, Aug. 12; Cater, The Reporter, Sept. 5. Nixon, who was still getting his information from Knowland, gave the same figures to Marquis Childs, and Childs reported that “Nixon is confident that 39 or 40 of the 47 Republicans will vote against the amendment” (SLP-D, Aug. 1). And see NYP, Aug. 2.
Knowland’s blindness: Cater was to write that Knowland told him later that he had been prepared later that week “to force a vote by moving to table the O’Mahoney amendment even though he knew he would lose a few votes by staging such a showdown. But the votes had already left him.” “I’m ready”: Pearson, W P, Aug. 7.
“I have conferred”; “I am encouraged”: Johnson, Knowland, CR, 85/1, pp. 13272–273. Nixon’s counting: Rogers interview. “Subtle persuasion”: Cater, The Reporter; Time, Aug. 12. “Yesterday”: Johnson, CR, 85/1, p. 13296. Liberal senators gathering: NYP, Aug. 2. “Is there objection”; “Right now”: CR, 85/1, p. 13296.
Persuading Payne: NYHT, WP, Aug. 2. Ike, Butler and Schoeppel: Telephone calls, July 31, 1957, DDE Diary Series, July 1957, Box 25, DDEL; ACW Diary Series, Aug. 1, Box 9, DDEL. “They stopped”: Rauh OH, interview with author; Katharine Graham interview with Rauh; Cater, “How the Senate,” The Reporter, Sept. 5. “Bullwhip”:Evans and Novak, pp. 138, 139. “Just wait”: Mann, p. 216; Fleeson, WS, Aug. 6. “There are times”: Stewart Alsop, NYHT, Aug. 5.
“Somehow”: Humphrey, CR, 85/1, p. 13330. “All that”: Douglas, CR, 85/1, pp. 13333–34. “I hope”: Clark, CR, 85/1, p. 13294. “Travesty”: Case, CR, 85/1, pp. 13321–22. “A vote”: Murray, CR, 85/1, p.13298. Church’s speech: CR, 85/1, pp. 13353–54. Bethine’s reaction: Bethine Church interview. Kennedy’s speech: CR, 85/1, pp. 13305–307.
Johnson on the floor: Descriptions of the final debate and vote in Alsop, NYHT, Aug. 5; NYP, Aug. 1, 2.
“There were”: Alsop, NYHT, Aug. 5. “This will be”: Knowland, CR, 85/1, p. 13354. “Support our President”: Knowland, quoted in NYT, Aug. 2. “I ask for the yeas and nays”: Lyndon B. Johnson, CR, 85/1, p. 13356. O’Mahoney hurrying: Bethine Church interview.
“One of the saddest”: Nixon, quoted in Cater, The Reporter, Sept. 5. Knowland crying: Watson, Lion in the Lobby, p. 394. “‘Your man’”: Church, Father and Son, p. 50; Bethine Church interview. “After my role”: Miller, p. 210. “Pick you up”; “A kind”: Ashby and Gramer, pp. 95, 96. McClellan Committee: Baker, Friend and Foe, p. 157. The senator is not identified in the book, but Prof. Baker identified him to me as Church. “After”: Ward Hower interview. “Maybe someday”: Marcy OH. Johnson’s note: A photocopy of the handwritten note was given to the author by Bethine Church.
41. Omens
All dates are 1957 unless otherwise noted.
“Boys”: Rauh interview. Slightly different wording in Wilkins, Standing Fast, p. 245; Rauh OH I, p. 25; Katharine Graham interview with Rauh, p. 29, and Cater, “How the Senate Passed the Civil Rights Bill,” The Reporter, Sept. 5. When he awoke: Ambrose, Eisenhower: The President, p. 411, describes the President as “furious.” “One of”:“Minutes of Cabinet Meeting,” Aug. 2, Cabinet Series, Box 9, DDEL. “Rarely”: “Statement by the President,” Aug. 2, Cabinet Series, Box 9, DDEL. “Blackest”: ACWD, Aug. 2. Box 9, DDEL.
Jackie Robinson and Randolph: Eisenhower, White House Years: Waging Peace, p. 160. “We all sat watching”: Payne, Chicago Defender, May 31, 1958, quoted in Watson, Lion in the Lobby, p. 397. “Can one”: Douglas, CR, 85/1, p. 13841. “Emotional”: Phyllis Hower interview. “I know”: Lehman to Douglas, Aug. 6, “General Personal Correspondence, Box 224B, Lehman Papers, HHLP, CU. “So mad”: Rauh OH, quoted in Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 220. “The sham”: Stokes, WS, Aug. 5. Had made Nixon look good: NYP, Aug. 7.
“Quite furious”: Evans, NYHT, Aug. 22. Conflict between two bills: Mann, p. 220; Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, pp. 139–40; HP, NYHT, NYP, NYT, WP, WS, Aug. 6–14;Bolling, Brownell, Rauh, Rogers interviews; Rauh OH. “Infinitely”: NYT, Aug. 14.
“Less than nothing”: Rauh interview. “This bad bill”: Reprint of Morse speech in NAACP III B-55, NAACPP, LC, quoted in Watson, p. 395. Mitchell’s call; “psychological”: Watson, p. 395; Rauh interview. “All of a sudden”: Bolling interview. That expression caught on: Roy Wilkins quotes Joe Rauh as saying, “Once Congress has lost its virginity on civil rights, it would go on to make up for what had been lost” (Standing Fast, p. 245).
“By the summer”: Graham, Personal History, p. 240. “I knew”: Graham interview. “So Phil”: Graham, p. 241. Sleeping on couch: Graham, Reedy interviews. “From the point”: Graham, p. 241. “You could see”: Reedy interview. Confirmed by Rauh interview.
“In those days”: Wilkins, pp. 243–44. “If”: Humphrey, quoted in Wilkins, p. 246. Leadership conference meeting: Wilkins, pp. 245–46. “Reedy’s note”: Reedy to Johnson, Aug. 7, Box 420, JSP. “All day long”: Rauh OH. “If I had”: Wilkins, p. 246. “Disappointing as: CR, 85/1, pp. 13852–853. See also “To: Executive Staff, From: Secretary,” Aug. 7, NAACP Papers, Box III, A 71, LC. “The 16”; “Give it a try”: WP, Aug. 8. Lyndon Johnson wrote Philip Graham on that date: “You stepped into the breach at the critical hour. That is something that I will never forget, and I wish there was some way of telling the country that your contribution to an effective, enforceable bill was decisive.”
“The strangest call”: Philip Graham, quoted by Rauh, OH and interview. “Joe understood”: “Katharine Graham—Joe Rauh memorial—September 27, 1992.” A few other sentences from that eulogy: “Joe never changed from the time Phil and I first knew him and Olie over fifty years ago, to the moment of his death…. Joe always lived his beliefs more than anyone in our whole generation, or anyone I know…. He never lost his faith in the ultimate victory of liberal values. He never gave up the fight.” Unless: NYHT, NYT, Aug. 11. “Infinitely better”: NYT, Aug. 14. “Asked how”: NYT, Aug. 13. “A monstrosity”: Minnich, “Supplementary Notes,” Aug. 6, LMS, Box 4, DDEL.“Spoke at length”; “The Vice President”: Minnich, “Supplementary Notes,” Aug. 13, LMS, Box 4, DDEL. Rayburn’s wishes; House compromise: Baltimore Sun, Aug. 10; NYT, Aug. 23; Bolling, Rogers interviews; Ambrose, pp. 412, 413.
More than a few: Byrd said, “I can’t conceive that the Senate would agree to that [compromise]. I stand on the principle that where there is a criminal action involved, the federal judge should not have the right to deny a jury trial” (WP, Aug. 23). Talmadge said, without a jury trial, “a judge would have to prejudge a case without evidence” (W P, Sept. 23). Olin Johnston said, “The cornerstone of human liberty is being shattered” by “the House measure” (HP, Aug. 29). Sam Ervin said, “The compromise leaves the question of whether a defendant shall have a jury trial dependent on ‘the discretion and caprice’ of man rather than on law” (HP, Aug. 29). Russell countering Thurmond:Cohodas, Strom Thurmond, p. 294. “I can assure”: Robertson to Davis, Aug. 28, Drawer 45, AWRP, College of William and Mary.
Thurmond’s filibuster: CR, 85/1, pp. 16263–456; Cohodas, pp. 294–97. “They felt”: White, NYT, Aug. 30. “Oh, God”: Reedy OH III, p. 20. “Rumblings”: Bates, “Political Notebook,” AC, Aug. 30, X. Civil Rights Material, Winder, RBRL. “Nothing to gain: AC, Aug. 31, quoted in Cohodas, p. 298. “Adamant”: Cohodas, p. 299.
“I’d like to come”; “this message”: Taylor to Johnson, with Mary Rather’s note to Taylor written on it, Aug. 27, Box 420, JSP.
Lyndon Johnson and Angel Macias: The photograph appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug. 28.
The little party: WP, Aug. 29.
The big party: Rowan, “Eyes of Texas Turn on Lyndon,” WP, Aug. 28; Walsh, “Majority Leader Has a Birthday,” WS, Aug. 28; HP, Aug. 29; Dale Miller interview. “The biggest birthday present”: HP, Aug. 29; Time, March 2; Jenkins interview. Neely’s weight on this day was less than ninety pounds.
“Well, the people”; Welcoming Proxmire: HP, NYT, WP, Aug. 29. “For the fine things”: Proxmire, CR, 85/1, p. 16684. Junket: WP, Aug. 31. “Good medicine”: McGrory, WS, Sept. 3.
“It seems”: Reedy interview. Reedy was given to frequently repeating some version of this phrase. In his The U.S. Senate (p. 13), for example, he wrote, “Obviously, we were proceeding on the ‘half a loaf’ theory at which many people scoff. But it seems to me that the scoffers must be men and women who have never been hungry.” A “crumb”:Humphrey, quoted in Wilkins, p. 246. “Presented”; “by allowing”: Ambrose, pp. 414, 419. As Brownell had contended: Brownell, Advising Ike, pp. 365–84. “When Johnson took”: Rauh, quoted in Miller, pp 208, 209; Rauh interview. “Lack of will”: Watson, p. 401; Burns, Crosswinds, p. 322; United States Commission on Civil Rights, With Liberty and Justice for All: An Abridgement of the Report of the United States Commission; Lawson, Black Ballots, pp. 231–32, 249. A flat zero: Dallek, Lone Star, p. 526.
“Just a beginning”: Johnson, quoted in McPherson, Political Education, p. 148. “Failed to recognize”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 120. “Crucial”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 179. “If he got one”: Reedy interview. “We’ve started”: Johnson, quoted in Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson, p. 152. “Impact”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 179. “Perhaps it is”: Kempton, “The Happiest Man in Town,” NYP, Aug. 8. “It was Congress”: Woodward, “The Great Civil Rights Debate,” Commentary, Oct. 1957.
Praise: NYT, WP, WS, Aug. 11; “Purists and Progress,” New Republic, Aug. 12. “Background” memo: “In analyzing the so-called ‘victories,’” Aug. 8, Box 420, JSP. Used them as edited; Cater asked; “Eye think”:
For example, Reedy wrote, supposedly for Cater’s “background” information: “From the beginning, it was realized that there could be no ‘compromise’ in the sense of an empty and evasive deal.” Cater wrote: “Johnson remarked to me recently, ‘It was realized that there could be no “compromise” in the sense of an empty and evasive deal.’” “George—Sen. Johnson said OK,” Mary Rather reported. Undated, but attached to Reedy to Johnson, Aug. 24, Box 420, JSP; Cater, “How the Senate Bill Was Passed,” The Reporter, Sept. 5. “Most remarkable”: AFL-CIO News, Aug. 12. “Sen. Bible was”: Taylor to Johnson, Aug. 12.
“A modern Henry Clay”: Tucker, Tucson (Ariz.) Daily Citizen, Aug. 9. “To certify”: Duke to Johnson, Sept. 4, “Legislative Files,” Box 291, JSP.
“Hoax and sham”: Morse, quoted in Drukman, Wayne Morse, p. 307. “Emerged”: Douglas, Fullness of Time, pp. 290, 291. “The Moderate Texas”: Detroit News, Aug. 5. Fritchey’s anger; “some of”: Carver, Bethine Church, quoted in Ashby and Gramer, Fighting the Odds, p. 91. “A soup”: Shuman OH.
“The Senate bill”: Cohen to Johnson, Aug. 13, Box 290, JSP. “I don’t think”: Acheson to Johnson, Aug. 13, Box 408, JSP; Rovere, “Letter from Washington,” The New Yorker, Aug. 31. “It took”: “Purists and Progress,” New Republic, Aug. 12. “It is one”: Eleanor Roosevelt, “My Day,” NYP, Aug. 6. “If you think”: Drummond, NYHT, Aug. 30
“Struggle”: Roger Wilkins, NYT, July 4, 1990. “So great”: King, quoted in NYT, Sec. IV, Jan. 17, 1988. “Led them into voting booths”: Caro, Means, p. xxi.
Johnson’s speech: CR, 85/1, pp. 13897, 13898. “When at last”: McPherson, Political Education, p. 147. Description of East Texas parade; McPherson’s reaction: McPherson, Political Education, pp. 154–55.
42 Three More Years
“Eager”: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 196. “You know”: Rowe to Johnson, Dec. 4, 1958, Box 32, LBJA SN.
Clark letter: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 494. McNamara demanded: NYT, April 9, 1949. Proxmire and Muskie attitude; “until”: Proxmire, Muskie interviews. A “chickenshit”: Baker, quoted in Steinberg, p. 495. “Might as well”: Ralph K. Huitt, “The Morse Committee Assignment Controversy: A Study on Senate Norms,” APSR, June 1957, pp. 313–29. “Like Wayne and Paul”: Ralph K. Huitt, “The Outsider in the Senate: An Alternative Role,” APSR, Sept. 1961, p. 569; Shuman interview. “Never been”: WS, Feb. 23; NYT, Feb. 24, 1959; Steinberg, p. 496. Proxmire’s attacks: NYT, WP, Feb. 24, March 1, 10, April 13, May 29, 30, 1959; Byrd, Senate, Vol. I, pp. 620–21.
“Fairy godmother”: Johnson, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 496. Delegated to Mansfield: Evans and Novak, p. 199.
Democratic caucuses: “Minutes of the Senate Democratic Conference, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 1958, Room 201, Senate Office Building,” Minutes of the U.S. Senate Democratic Conference, 1903–1964, ed. Donald A. Ritchie, Washington: GPO, 1998, pp. 505–72 (cited hereafter as “Conference Minutes”). “Determined”: Clark, Sapless Branch, p. 12.Clark resolution: Conference Minutes, p. 515. “The more senior”: Clark, p. 12. Would be happy: Conference Minutes, p. 518. “The end”: Clark, p. 12. 51 to 12 vote: Conference Minutes, p. 535. “Any”: Proxmire, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 497. “David and Goliath”: Public Affairs Institute, “Washington Window,” March 13, 1959. “Bravest bull”: Fite, Russell, p. 405.
“The success”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 178. “Seven-room spread”: Chicago Tribune, Dec. 21, 1958. Taj Mahal descriptions: Office of Senate Curator, Lyndon Baines Johnson Room, S. Pub. 105–60; “The Lyndon Baines Johnson Room, Remarks for the Secretary of the Senate,” Senate Historical Office; Miller, Lyndon, p. 217; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 505–06; Fleeson, WS, Jan. 7, 1959; Busby, Gonella, Reedy, Shuman, Sidey, Steele, Tames interviews. “Marbled city”: Hugh Sidey, “Eye on the Oval Office,” Time, Aug. 26, 1985. “On entering”: Shaffer, On and Off, p. 214. “That huge”; “monument”: Steele to Williamson, Jan. 30, 1959, SP. “Nimbus”: Dallek, Lone Star, p. 540. Elevators: Tames interview.
“Well”: Mansfield, quoted in Gonella interview. “His children”: Gonella interview. “You know”: Johnson, quoted in Steele to Williamson, Nov. 12, 1958, SP. “Needed”: Steele to Williamson-III, March 4, 1958, SP. “Alan”: Bernstein interview. Stennis: Evans and Novak, p. 102.
Instructing Reedy: Steele to Williamson-XIV, March 4, 1958, SP; Reedy interview. “Hoisted”; “Without rival”: “Sense and Sensitivity,” Time, March 17, 1958. Disability: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 483–84. “Who is”: Stewart Alsop, “Lyndon Johnson: How Does He Do It?” SEP, Jan. 24, 1959.
“Straining”; “uneasy”: Johnson, Vantage Point, p. 272. “This is”: Stennis to Russell, Oct. 17, 1957. Symington’s insistence: Symington to Russell, Oct. 5, 1957, J. General, Missile File, Box 403, RBRL. Russell calling Johnson; “so thorough”: Steele to Williamson, March 4, 1958, SP. “Has a lot”: “Nov. 5, 1957—LD conversation with Senator Bridges in Concord, New Hampshire,” Box 40, LBJA CF. “More or less”: Russell to Marcy, Jan. 9, 1958, J. General, Missile File, Box 9, RBRL.
“Kept alive”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 182. Weisl, Vance involvement: McGillicuddy, Edwin Weisl Jr., Vance interviews.
“All the right”: ACWD, Nov. 6, 1957, quoted in Ambrose, Eisenhower, p. 430. “No ‘guilty’”: Minutes of Preparedness Subcommittee meeting, Nov. 22, 1957, SP, Box 405, quoted in Divine, ed., Johnson Years, Vol. II, p. 222. “Very much”: “Oct. 21, 1957—LD conversation between Secy. Neil McElroy …and Sen. Johnson in Corpus Christi,” Box 433, JSP. “If he”: LBJ-Dulles telephone conversations, Oct. 31, Nov. 5, 1957, Dulles Papers, quoted in Dallek, p. 530. “Will serve”; “hit the extreme”: McConaughy to Williamson, Feb. 15, 1958, SP. “This may”: Reedy to Johnson, Oct. 17, 1957, Reedy: Memos, SP, Box 420, quoted in Divine, p. 219. Leaking: Busby, Reedy interviews. “To elevate”: Evans and Novak, p. 192. “Painted”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 183.
Reedy’s suggestion: Reedy to Johnson, Nov. 23, 1957, Box 421, JSP. Johnson’s rejection: Busby, Reedy interviews. And Busby, at Johnson’s suggestion, then used the Pearl Harbor comparison in Johnson’s speeches. “Comparable to Pearl Harbor”: Press releases, undated, Preparedness Subcommittee, SP, Box 355. “An even greater challenge”:“Inquiry into Satellite and Missile Programs,” Hearings Before the Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee of the Committee on the Armed Forces, U.S. Senate, 85 Cong, 1st and 2nd Session (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1958), pp. 1–3. “Our finest hour”; Alamo: Divine, pp. 223, 224.
“A sense”: Rowe to Johnson, Nov. 21, 1957, Box 421, JSP. “This was”; “light”; Medaris announcement: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 482; Time, Jan. 20, Feb. 17, 1958; Newsweek, Feb. 17, 1958; USN&WR, Jan. 17, 1958; Steele to Williamson, Jan. 10, Feb. 15, March 4-VIII; to Lunsden, Jan. 9, 1958, SP; BeLieu, McGillicuddy, Reedy, Steele interviews.
Eisenhower’s reassurances: Ambrose, pp. 427–35. Johnson’s statements: Johnson, pp. 273–75. “We have reached”: Johnson, p. 275. “Full mobilization”: Johnson, quoted in Steinberg, p. 480. “How long”; “Painted”: Johnson, quoted in Steinberg, pp. 481, 480. “Control”: “Johnson speech to Democratic caucus, Jan. 7, 1958,” Statements file, JSP. “In retrospect”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 184.
“In a week”: “Lyndon Johnson Has the Ball,” Life, Jan. 20, 1958.
“I believe”: Rowe to Johnson, Feb. 5, 1958, Box 32, LBJA SN. “Just plain”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 185; LBJ, p. 13; Reedy OH, interview. “Would actually”: Evans and Novak, p. 193. “Did not bother”: Reedy, LBJ, pp. 12, 13. “Some of the staff”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 186. “Worried”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 13.
NASA bills: Divine, pp. 226–28. “A textbook”: Evans and Novak, p. 191.
“Made it clear”; “in later”: Reedy, LBJ, p. 13. Little different: Divine (pp. 227–28) notes that “over the next three years, the Space Council met on only rare occasions…. Johnson could not force the president to use the Space Council to give central guidance to the nation’s space program.” Also BeLieu, Reedy interviews.
“Dreary”: Reedy, U.S. Senate, p. 187.
“Monstrosity”: Rauh, “The Truth About Congress and the Court,” The Progressive, Nov. 1958. “Well”: Johnson, quoted in Mann, p. 232. “Lyndon”; jumping to his feet: McPherson, p. 133. “Mr. President”; writing the names: Mann, p. 233. “You boys”: McPherson, quoted in Mann, p. 233. “If you want”: Johnson, quoted in Evans and Novak, p. 166. “I don’t know”; bringing Lewis, Reedy along: Evans and Novak, p. 166; Lewis, Reedy interviews. “In the course”: Lewis interview. “A display”: Lewis, quoted in Mann, p. 234. “Johnson always”; slapping his own cheeks: Lewis interview.
Tactics the next day: Evans and Novak, pp. 166–67; Mann, pp. 234–35; McPherson, p. 134. “Could truthfully”: Mann, p. 234. 1959 and 1960 civil rights bills: Clark, pp. 13–14;Douglas, pp. 291–92; Evans and Novak, pp. 22–222; Fite, pp. 374, 375; Mann, pp. 239–61; Watson, pp. 415–26. Rule 22 compromise: Mann, pp. 239–41.“Sugar-coated”: “News from NAACP,” Jan. 22, 1959, Box 408, JSP. “Gone was”: Mann, p. 258. Johnson working with Rogers: Rogers interview. “Crumbs”; “Here is”: Clark, Sap less Branch, p. 14.
43. The Last Caucus
“Power is”: Evans and Novak, LBJ: Exercise, p. 280.
“Probably hoping”; his plan: Humphrey, Education, p. 243. “Hang on to”; “The illusion”; “Would offend”; “He’s not”: Humphrey OH. “Asked if I”: Mansfield, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 547. Retaining the Taj: Evans and Novak, p. 306. Retaining Baker: “Mansfield put up no argument …when Johnson suggested he retain Bobby Baker as the secretary for the majority. Senators expected Bobby to carry out Lyndon’s orders in the next Congress, just as he had in the past (Steinberg, p. 547); Evans and Novak, p. 306.
“A buoyancy”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 133–34. “Apprehensions”; “Brooding”: Evans and Novak, p. 306. “Having watched”: Evans and Novak, pp. 308, 307. “Reserved”: Baker, p. 134.
Mansfield’s motion: “Minutes of the Democratic Conference,” Jan. 3, 1961, Minutes, 1903–1964, p. 578. “Can you imagine”: Byrd, Senate, Vol. 1, p. 624. “Mansfield”: Evans and Novak, p. 306. Description of caucus: Minutes, 1903–1964, pp. 577–81; Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, pp. 135–36; Byrd, p. 624; Evans and Novak, pp. 306–08; Goldsmith, Colleagues, pp. 83–84; Humphrey, p. 243; Miller, Lyndon, pp. 275–76; Steinberg, pp. 547–48. “Might as well”: Gore, quoted in Miller, p. 276. Other hands: “The depth of the revolt against Mansfield’s motion …was discernible only in the” opposition of Anderson, Robertson and Johnston, Evans and Novak write on p. 307.“Unbelievably”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 136. “Look ridiculous”: Evans and Novak, p. 307. “Ashen”; “no getting around”: Baker, p. 135. “We are creating”: Monroney, quoted in Steinberg, p. 547.
Mansfield in favor: Minutes, p. 578. Resignation threat; “under”: Baker, Wheeling and Dealing, p. 135. “Even though”: Gore, quoted in Steinberg, p. 548. “Wasn’t going to work”: Goldsmith, p. 84.
“I was one”: Humphrey OH. “It fell”: Humphrey, p. 243.
Not present at next three caucuses: “Minutes of the Democratic Conference,” Jan. 4, 5, 10, 1961, pp. 581–88. “The President has”: Mansfield, “Minutes,” February 27, p. 588. 1963 caucuses: “Minutes,” Jan. 9, Feb. 7, 1963; Muskie, Proxmire, Yarborough interviews.
Stepping down from dais: Muskie interview. Coming into cloakroom: McPherson, Political Education, p. 184; Muskie, Hynes interviews. “Those were”: Lady Bird Johnson interview.
Above: Webster Replying to Hayne, by George P. A. Healy. Vice President John C. Calhoun, at far left, presides in the old Senate Chamber, January, 1830.
Opposite: The United States Senate, A.D. 1850, engraved by Robert Whitechurch after a painting by Peter Rothermel. Henry Clay presents his compromise to the Senate, presided over by Vice President Millard Fillmore. Calhoun is to the right of Fillmore, and Daniel Webster is seated at left, head in hand.
Above: Senate as a Court of Impeachment for the Trial of Andrew Johnson, 1868, after Theodore Davis. Below: Keppler’s The Bosses of the Senate, Puck magazine, 1889
The Senate Four: left to right, Orville H. Platt, John C. Spooner, William B. Allison, and Nelson W. Aldrich, at Aldrich’s Newport, Rhode Island, estate, 1903
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, right, talks to newsmen during Senate debate over the Treaty of Versailles, 1919.
A Russell of the Russells of Georgia
Richard Brevard Russell Jr. being sworn in as Governor of Georgia by the Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, Richard Brevard Russell Sr., June 27, 1931
Russell and Johnson at a Washington Senators baseball game in 1955
The Orator of the Dawn: Hubert Humphrey, the fiery mayor of Minneapolis, fighting for a strong civil rights plank at the 1948 Democratic National Convention
Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas emerging from the voting booth
Below: The Texas delegation in Washington to attend Lyndon Johnson’s January, 1949, inauguration ceremony. At Johnson’s right are Justice Tom Clark and the senior Senator from Texas, Tom Connally.
New Senator Lyndon B. Johnson allows new Senator Robert Kerr to take center stage. Senator Clinton Anderson is at right.
Opposite: Johnson joins the Senate Armed Services Committee, January, 1949. From left, Democrats Lester C. Hunt, Estes Kefauver, Lyndon B. Johnson, Virgil Chapman, Richard B. Russell, Chairman Millard E. Tydings; Republicans Styles Bridges, Chan Gurney, Leverett Saltonstall, Wayne Morse, Raymond E. Baldwin, and William Knowland.
The Johnsons at home, August, 1948
Christmas photographs. Above, 1949: from left, Lucia, Rebekah Baines, Josefa, Rodney on Sam Houston’s lap, Becky Alexander, Rebekah Bobbitt, O. P. Bobbitt, and their son Phil. Below, 1955, at the Johnson Ranch: Aunt Jessie Hatcher, Lucy, Ramon, Sam Houston, Lyndon, Lynda, unidentified
Johnson with Walter Jenkins en route to the office. Congressman Homer Thornberry is in the middle.
Johnson and John Connally at the Austin airport
Christmas, 1950, photograph of staff for Collier’s magazine. From left, Warren Woodward, Mary Rather, Johnson, Dorothy Nichols, Horace Busby, Glynn Stegall.
At the ranch with his family, after his heart attack, August, 1955
The press conference, with Sam Rayburn (left) and Adlai Stevenson, September, 1955
“Lyndon Johnson Day” at his alma mater, Southwest Texas State Teachers College, November, 1955
On the ranch
Fording the river to get to the ranch