Authors: Taylor Branch
“We are not persuaded”: “Supreme Court Upholds Bond,” AC, Dec. 6, 1966, pp. 1, 9.
“Fight in Congress to Bar Powell”: NYT, Dec. 1, 1966, p. 1.
“Powell's Just Too Blatant”: WP, Jan. 8, 1967.
third such case recently discovered: Cf.
Black v. United States
(385 U.S. 26), at 26; “Baker Aide Sues U.S. for Bugging by FBI,” NYT, Feb. 25, 1967, p. 12; “FBI Ordered to Release Bugged Data on Tax Case,” NYT, Feb. 24, 1968, p. 15.
“U.S. Reviews Cases”: NYT, Dec. 1, 1966, p. 1.
“an issue of great emotion”: Nicholas Katzenbach oral history by Paige E. Mulhollan, Nov. 12, 1968, p. 36, LBJ.
“As you know, this is a damn important matter for me”: RFK to Katzenbach, handwritten, July 13, 1966, RFK Senate Papers, Box 5, Corr: Personal File 64-68, JFK; Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 817â18.
managed to trace and shut down: Garrow,
FBI and King,
pp. 178â79; Dallek,
Flawed,
pp. 408â9; Nicholas Katzenbach oral history by Paige E. Mulhollan, Nov. 12, 1968, p. 45, LBJ.
“You got that little situation prohibited?”: LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach, 9:15
P.M
., July 15, 1966, Cit. 10410-11, Audiotape WH6607.02, LBJ.
frayed beyond civil respect: Int. Nicholas Katzenbach, June 14, 1991; Kalman,
Abe Fortas,
p. 316.
“We do not obtain authorization”: Sullivan to DeLoach, July 19, 1966, Section 36, FHOC. Hoover's handwritten instruction appears at the end of the memo: “No more such techniques must be used.”
“I note that requests”: Hoover to Tolson and DeLoach, Jan. 6, 1967, Section 36, FHOC.
to ask Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa: Garrow,
FBI and King,
p. 179; “Informative Note,” Nov. 3, 1966, FSC-1628; SAC, New York, to Director, Nov. 3, 1966, FSC-1626; NYT, Nov. 8, 1966, p. 23.
Hoover authorized Deke DeLoach: Baumgardner to Sullivan, Oct. 28, 1966, FK-2779.
Katzenbach had left in place: LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach, 9:15
P.M.
, July 15, 1966, Cit. 10410-11, Audiotape WH6607.02, LBJ.
“Yike, does it really say that?”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Clarence Jones, Nov. 8, 1966, FLNY-9-1117a.
an embarrassed Hoffa: LHM dated Nov. 14, 1966, FK-2775; DSS to Tolson, Nov. 14, 1966, FK-2780.
“our counterintelligence aim to thwart”: Wick to DeLoach, Nov. 9, 1966, FK-2771.
harness satellite communications technology: Friendly,
Circumstances,
pp. 302, 308â25; Kabaservice,
Guardians,
pp. 276â77; Dallek,
Flawed,
p. 296; McGeorge Bundy, “The President's Review,” Ford Foundation Annual Report 1966, pp. iâxi.
“full equality for all American Negroes”: NYT, Aug. 3, 1966, p. 19; Kabaservice,
Guardians,
pp. 167â68, 277.
Bundy quietly hired two of their contacts: Int. Clarence Jones, Oct. 25, 2004. The Ford Foundation contacts were Douglas Pugh and Michael Miller.
grant negotiations progressed: Cf. wiretap transcripts of telephone conversations among Stanley Levison, Clarence Jones, Andrew Young, and Martin Luther King dated July 21, 1966 (FLNY-9-1007), Oct. 1, 1966 (FLNY-9-1079), Oct. 11, 1966 (FLNY-9-1089), Oct. 18, 1966 (FLNY-9-1096).
virtually to join the SCLC staff: Cf. wiretap transcript of Stanley Levison's telephone conversations with Mike Miller of the Ford Foundation, Nov. 23, 1966 (FLNY-9-1132a), MLK, Dec. 6, 1966 (FLNY-9-1145), Joan Daves, Dec. 6, 1966 (FLNY-9-1145), Clarence Jones, Dec. 11, 1966 (FLNY-9-1149a), MLK, Dec. 12, 1966 (FLNY-9-1151).
rescue the movement's financial base: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Martin Luther King, July 12, 1966, FLNY-9-998a; Robert L. Green to MLK, July 16, 1966, A/SC47f10;
Jet,
Jan. 19, 1967, p. 46.
“I don't want five million dollars”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Andrew Young, Oct. 15, 1966, FLNY-9-1093a.
DeLoach recruited an intermediary: Sullivan to Baumgardner, Oct. 24, 1966, reprinted in Hearings, House Select Committee on Assassinations, Vol. 6, pp. 279â80.
“I personally feel that Bundy”: DeLoach to Tolson, Oct. 26, 1966, FSC-NR.
“We would get nowhere”: Handwritten notation on ibid.
confidential mission with DeLoach: Int. Cartha A. DeLoach, June 1, 1984.
H. R. Gross to sign: Gross to Hoover, Dec. 5, 1966, Pearson file, Box G273, LBJ. DeLoach said his office drafted Gross's letter to Hoover as well as Hoover's reply, both for Hoover's advance approval.
Hoover's ad hominem reply: Hoover to H. R. Gross, Dec. 7, 1966, Pearson file, Box G273, LBJ.
“Hoover Asserts Robert Kennedy”: NYT, Dec. 11, 1966, p. 1.
Kennedy offered a statement of rebuttal: Ibid., p. 84.
counterattack at precisely 2:25
P.M
.: Wick to DeLoach, Dec. 12, 1966, FRFK-1893.
“absolutely inconceivable”: FBI news release, Dec. 11, 1966, FRFK-1801; NYT, Dec. 12, 1966, p. 1.
“for the use and assistance”: Director SAC letter marked “Personal Attention,” Dec. 15, 1966, FRFK-1896.
gave way to sensational headlines: Hoover to the Acting Attorney General (Ramsey Clark), Dec. 23, 1966, FRFK-1894; WSJ, Dec. 22, 1966; “Who Knew About âBugging'â¦RFK's Storyâand the FBI's,”
U.S. News & World Report,
Dec. 26, 1966, pp. 32â35.
“a town which relishes”: Robert Cahn, “Wiretap Dispute Flares,”
Christian Science Monitor,
Dec. 13, 1966.
“President Aloof in Bugging Feud”: Max Frankel, NYT, Dec. 13, 1966; Miller,
Lyndon,
pp. 568â69.
bombarded with FBI allegations: Hoover to White House aide Marvin Watson, Dec. 29, 1966, FRFK-1897; Hoover to the Acting Attorney General (Ramsey Clark), Dec. 19, 1966, FRFK-1892.
DeLoach brief Justice Fortas: Kalman,
Abe Fortas,
pp. 315â16.
“forty or fifty of them”: LBJ phone call with Ramsey Clark, 11:39
P.M.
, July 13, 1966, Cit. 10407-08, Audiotape WH6607.01, LBJ.
“nobody in Washington could be sure”: James Reston, “Washington: The Kennedy-Hoover Controversy,” NYT, Dec. 14, 1966, p. 14.
Senate hearings on poverty, in which King cited: Garrow,
Bearing,
pp. 539â40.
“The error alone”: MLK testimony in “Federal Role in Urban Affairs,” hearings before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Executive Reorganization, Committee on Government Operations, Dec. 15, 1966, pp. 2967â99.
dialogue about why nonviolence: Ibid., pp. 2990â95.
“Dr. King âAssumes' Phone Is Tapped”: NYT, Dec. 15, 1966, p. 64.
Stanley Levison said: SAC, New York, to Director, Dec. 16, FK-2804; wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Chauncey Eskridge, Dec. 16, 1966, FLNY-9-1155; Branch,
Parting,
pp. 833â41.
“When you have a guy”: Wiretap transcript of telephone conversation between Stanley Levison and Harry Wachtel, Dec. 22, 1966, FLNY-9-1161a.
“the biggest publishing story”: Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 330â32; “Widow Dismayed by Kennedy Book,” NYT, Dec. 11, 1966, p. 1; “Mrs. Kennedy Will Seek an Injunction,” NYT, Dec. 15, 1966, p. 1.
forthcoming book on the Kennedy assassination: Manchester,
Death;
Dallek,
Flawed,
pp. 520â22; Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 817â22.
remove his opening chapter: Manchester moved an abbreviated hunting story to page 118.
“to suppress my bias”: Shesol,
Contempt,
p. 355.
Gossip oozed into the press: Cf. “Growing Rift of LBJ and Kennedys,”
U.S. News & World Report,
Jan. 2, 1967, pp. 22â27; “Manchester Recounts Battle,” WP, Jan. 23, 1967.
President Johnson fulminated to Fortas: Shesol,
Contempt,
pp. 355â59.
“I don't think I called Mrs. Kennedy”: LBJ phone call with Bill Moyers, 10:17
A.M
., Dec. 26, 1966, Audiotape K66.02, LBJ.
Moyers had just resigned: NYT, Dec. 15, 1966, p. 1.
push Moyers closer to Robert Kennedy: Miller,
Lyndon,
p. 556; Johnson,
Diary,
p. 469; “T.R.B. from Washington,”
New Republic,
Dec. 24, 1966.
Harrison Salisbury: Salisbury,
Behind;
FRUS, Vol. 4, pp. 973â74.
“The cathedral tower looks out”: Harrison E. Salisbury, “U.S. Raids Batter 2 Towns; Supply Route Is Little Hurt,” NYT, Dec. 27, 1966, pp. 1, 3.
denounced the reports and then conceded: Neil Sheehan, “Washington Concedes Bombs Hit Civilian Areas in North Vietnam,” NYT, Dec. 27, 1966, p. 1; Powers,
War,
pp. 171â72.
Washington Post
impugned: “Hanoi Dispatches to Times Criticized,” NYT, Jan. 1, 1967, p. 3; “Harrison Salisbury's Dastardly War Crime,”
I. F. Stone's Weekly,
Jan. 6, 1967, pp. 1, 4; Karnow,
Vietnam,
pp. 503â4.
Jack Ruby: Manchester,
Glory,
p. 1272; Manchester,
Death,
p. 634.
first conspiracy indictment: Max Holland, “The Demon in Jim Garrison,”
Wilson Quarterly,
Spring 2001, pp. 10â17.
Operation Cedar Falls: “Allies Press Attack,” NYT, Jan. 13, 1967, p. 6; Schell,
Village, passim;
Karnow,
Vietnam,
pp. 454, 477â78; Appy,
Patriots,
pp. 202â9.
weekly record at 1,194: NYT, Jan. 20, 1967, p. 1.
“North Vietnam Spirit Found High”: NYT, Jan. 15, 1967, pp. 1, 42.
drive to bar Adam Clayton Powell: “Democrats Vote to Oust Powell As House Committee's Chairman/ He May Be Kept from Seat Today,” NYT, Jan. 10, 1967, p. 1; “Powell Denied House Seat Pending Five-Week Inquiry/ Vote Is 364â64,” NYT, Jan. 11, 1967, p. 1; Jacobs,
Powell,
pp. 6â7.
“documents proving Bobby was lying”: Jones to Wick, Jan. 10, 1967, FACP-NR.
“None
of this misinformation”: Hoover statement, “FBI Use of Electronic Listening Devices,” Jan. 10, 1967, before the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure, Committee of the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, Section 129, FHOC (emphasis in original).
Robert Kennedy had signed: Ibid., p. 27.
He conflated wiretaps with bugs: Ibid., pp. 9, 30.
He argued at length that Kennedy: Ibid., pp. 15â35.
small portion of his private lodestar: Ibid., p. 10.
“It is quite clear that in the
Irvine
case: Brownell to Hoover, May 20, 1954, reprinted in Macy and Kaplan,
Documents,
pp. 41â43. See also Belmont to Boardman, May 21, 1954 (Section 114, FHOC), which announces the FBI's practical interpretation of the memo: “the Attorney General is giving us the go ahead on microphones whether or not there is trespass at the same time suggesting that discretion be used in certain areas.”
William Manchester scarcely mentioned: Manchester,
Death,
p. 631.
“The Director told Manchester”: DeLoach to Mohr, June 4, 1964, FRFK-1536.
straw polls from a 53â47 percent Kennedy lead: Shesol,
Contempt,
pp. 363â64.
Walter Lippmann asked whether Kennedy: Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
pp. 354â55.
“a man of compassion”: “Kennedy Defends Johnson on Poor,” NYT, Dec. 13, 1966, p. 1.
“grave reservations”: Shesol,
Contempt,
p. 363; “Kennedy Charms Oxford Students,” NYT, Jan. 29, 1967, p. 6; “Aide Terms White House Puzzled by Kennedy Remark on the War,” NYT, Jan. 31, 1967, p. 3.
he coldly advised Kennedy not to ruin: Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 824; int. William vanden Heuvel, Dec. 15, 2004.
“affectionate, admiring”: Alsop to “Bobby,” Feb. 1, 1967, RFK/Senate Correspondence, Personal File, Box 1, JFK. Alsop's letter summarized: “All this is merely intended to lead up to the observation that, for practical reasons, you really must give more weight to the support of what people call the âestablishment' than I think you do.”
turn military victory: Joe Alsop, “The Biggest News,” WP, Feb. 1, 1967, and “An End in Sight,” WP, Feb. 3, 1967, columns attached to ibid.