JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President (47 page)

After being presented with the official White House Thanksgiving turkey, Kennedy decided to spare the beast, saying in a mock-serious tone of voice, “It would be a shame, a terrible shame to interrupt a great line like Tom’s. We’ll just keep him.”

(Photograph by Cecil Stoughton, White House/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston)

Jackie sits between her husband and Vice President Lyndon Johnson at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast in Fort Worth on the morning of November 22.

(Photograph by Cecil Stoughton, White House/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston)

Jack and Jackie arrive at Love Field in Dallas on November 22.

(Photograph by Cecil Stoughton, White House/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston)

I found the extensive oral history collections at the Kennedy Library in Boston, and the Johnson Library in Austin, to be crucial resources, not least because many of those who knew Kennedy best have recently died, and their oral history interviews offer particularly detailed and poignant memories of their last encounters and conversations with Kennedy. I was also granted access to two lengthy oral histories that had been previously closed to researchers, those of Kennedy’s close friends Paul Fay and Lem Billings (the Fay oral history has since been opened to the public). I would like to thank Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for giving me access to the Billings history, and to Paul Fay’s son for allowing me to read his father’s oral history. In September 2011, the Kennedy Library released Jackie Kennedy’s oral history, and in 2012, it released the last of Kennedy’s Oval Office tapes. Both made it much easier to reconstruct his thoughts and conversations during his last hundred days. Arthur Schlesinger’s extensive journals, published in 2007, were also an important resource. His published journals, however, represented only about 15 percent of the whole, and his other entries, available in the manuscript room of the New York Public Library, proved to be invaluable.

Several authors—most notably Sally Bedell Smith, Richard Reeves, Barbara Leaming, and Robert Dallek—interviewed many key Kennedy figures in the final years of their lives, and the material in their books that is based on their interviews is an oral history in its own right, and I am sure I will not be the last author to be in their debt. Ralph Martin’s
A Hero for Our Times
(1983) and
Seeds of Destruction
(1995), both based on extensive interviews with people who knew Kennedy intimately and have since died, are also cited often in my chapter notes. Two former Secret Service agents, Clint Hill and Gerald Blaine, have recently written memoirs, both with the author Lisa McCubbin, that were important sources for my accounts of Kennedy’s trips to Tampa and Texas. John Logsdon’s
John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon
provided important insights into JFK’s proposal for a joint lunar mission. Dallek’s and Giglio’s books contain groundbreaking analysis of Kennedy’s health, as does Susan Schwartz’s informative biography of Dr. Hans Kraus. I am also grateful to Dr. Heidi Kimberly for reviewing JFK’s medical records with me, and explaining in detail his various illnesses and complaints. For Kennedy’s Vietnam policy I relied on the FRUS material, and books by Rust, Newman, Jones, and Porter, as well as the primary material and analysis found in
Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived
by Blight, Lang, and Welch. I found Porter’s argument that Kennedy was using the optimistic Pentagon reports and the 1963 Taylor-McNamara mission to justify withdrawing U.S. advisers convincing and supported by the cables and anecdotal evidence.
The Kennedys: America’s Emerald Kings
by Thomas Maier was particularly perceptive about the importance of JFK’s Irish heritage, and Maier was the first author to reveal the poignant conversations between Jackie and Father McSorley in 1964. In instances where Kennedy’s inaugural address influenced his decisions and approach to an issue, I relied on material from my previous book about the speech,
Ask Not
.

At the Kennedy Library, Stephen Plotkin and Sharon Kelly were, as usual, wonderfully accommodating and helpful, as was Laurie Austin in the audiovisual department. I consulted the Laura Bergquist Papers at Boston University and the Margaret Coit Papers at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and would like to thank the librarians at both institutions. I am also grateful to Sally Bedell Smith for suggesting that I consult William Manchester’s papers (cited in the notes as “Death of a President”), and to the librarians at the Wesleyan Library manuscript collection for making them available.

Four interviews in particular were especially illuminating, and I would like to thank Ben Bradlee, Harris Wofford, Marie Ridder, and Lee White. For my earlier book about JFK’s inaugural address,
Ask Not,
I also spoke with Ted Sorensen, Hugh Sidey, Arthur Schlesinger, Paul Fay, Oleg Cassini, Deirdre Henderson, and Charlie Bartlett, among many others, and I have used some material from those interviews in this book as well. Nancy Dutton has provided me with invaluable counsel and encouragement during the writing of this book and my previous one about Robert Kennedy’s 1968 campaign.

I am grateful to Thad and Sarah Beal, and Harry Spence and Robin Ely, for their hospitality and friendship during my frequent trips to Boston. Every winter, Sandy, Stephanie, Lily, and Isobel Carden have welcomed me into their family and home in Florida, and some of my best work has been done while sitting on their pleasant terrace. I am also indebted to George Whitney for hosting me in Florida and Massachusetts, and reminding me that not everyone shares my fascination with JFK. My wife, Antonia, again came to my rescue with some fast word processing and eagle-eyed editing, and my daughters, Phoebe, Edwina, and Sophie, gracefully endured three more years of hearing about the Kennedys. Ben Weir tracked down a copy of Irene Galitzine’s book while spending a junior-year semester in Italy and translated it. He also gave my manuscript a careful and insightful read, proving himself to be a much better editor than any twenty-two-year-old has a right to be. I was sorry to lose Nick Trautwein when he moved from Penguin Press to
The
New Yorker,
but fortunate to be handed over to Ginny Smith, who has been everything an author could want in an editor: sure-footed, enthusiastic, and nurturing. Her able assistant Kaitlyn Flynn has flawlessly handled the many tasks involved in turning my manuscript into a book. I am also grateful to Stefan McGrath and Josephine Greywoode at Allen Lane, my British publisher, for their encouragement and perceptive comments. While this book was being written, the Robbins Office was staffed by a talented and skillful group of professionals that included Karen Close, Katie Hutt, Ian King, Arielle Asher, Rachelle Bergstein, Micah Hauser, and Louise Quayle. I have dedicated the book to my agents Kathy Robbins and David Halpern, with gratitude for their wisdom and enthusiasm over the years.

ABBREVIATIONS

ES
:
Washington Evening Star

FRUS: Foreign Relations of the United States

JFKL: John F. Kennedy Library

JFKLOH: John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Collection

JFKPP: John F. Kennedy Personal Papers

JFKPOF: John F. Kennedy Presidential Office Files

LBJLOH: Lyndon B. Johnson Library Oral History Collection

LOC: Library of Congress

NYPL: New York Public Library

NYT
:
New York Times

WP: Washington Post

DECEMBER 31, 1962

“What makes journalism so fascinating”
: Bradlee (
Conversations
), p.12.

“a stunning resemblance”
:
“Shining a Light on the Other de Kooning,”
NYT,
November 21, 1993.

“gray, sculptural”
:
Slivka, p. 201.

watching as he nervously riffled through papers
:
Ibid.

Caroline . . . with her own easel
:
Lincoln Papers, Box 6, January 3, 1963 Diary entry, JFKL.

“Is this pose all right?”
:
Munro, p. 256.

She was intrigued
:
Slivka, p. 202.

She told friends
:
Hall, p. 230.

He was larger than life and smaller
:
Ibid., p. 229.

After running out of space
:
Bledsoe, p. 33.

“heavily forested interior”
:
Persico, p. 96. Sherwood admitted, “I could never really understand what was going on in Roosevelt’s heavily forested interior.”

“a shrinking from ostentation or display”
:
Gullion, JFKLOH.

Laura Bergquist of
Look
:
Bergquist (Knebel), JFKLOH.

“different parts of his life”
:
Sorensen (
Counselor
), p. 102.

“the remote and private air”
:
Norman Mailer, “Superman Comes to the Supermarket,”
Esquire,
November 1960.

“No one ever knew John Kennedy”
:
Reeves, p. 19.

“very introverted man”
:
Strober, p. 51.

“a simple man”
:
Rose Kennedy Papers, Box 82, JFKL.

“a romantic”
:
Ibid.

“to reveal yourself is difficult”
:
Ibid.

He took French lessons
:
Hirsh, JFKLOH.

He sent a friend abroad
:
Hersh, pp. 431–33.

asked a neighbor
:
Martin (
Hero
), p. 499.

“that of the man who is always making”
:
“President Kennedy and Other Intellectuals,”
The American Scholar,
Fall 1961.

“Can’t you get it into your head”
:
Von Post, p. 103.

Mailer wondered
:
“Superman Comes to the Supermarket,”
Esquire,
November 1960.

Bergquist detected a vulnerability
:
Martin (
Seeds
), p. 371.

While attempting to seduce
:
Coit, JFKLOH.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7–SATURDAY, AUGUST 10

“It was involuntary”
:
Adler, p. 53.

when he looked up from his papers
:
“John F. Kennedy and PT 109,” JFKL Web site.

“In ’forty-three, they went to sea”
:
Anthony (
Kennedy White House
), p. 239.

All of which may explain why
:
Bradlee, author interview.

He called Travell before flying
:
Travell, p. 421.

“the happiest time of his administration”
:
Guthman and Shulman, p. 384.

“We’ll never have another day”
:
Beschloss (
Crisis Years
), p. 608.

the three happiest days
:
Turbidy, JFKLOH.

“the greatest weekend”
:
Powers Papers, box 9 (interview with Vanocur), JFKL.

“bursting with vigor”
:
Travell, p. 442.

“All we are getting here still”
:
Maier, p. 442.

“I don’t understand how you can get such a big kick”
:
Fay, p. 58.

“It’s time for Father and Son”
:
Ibid., p. 232.

“John, aren’t you lucky”
:
Ibid., p. 243.

“Soon you’ll have three”
:
Lincoln (
My Twelve
), p. 282.

When Kennedy failed to appear for an excursion
:
Fay, JFKLOH; Sally Bedell Smith, p. 390.

“I’d known a lot of attractive women”
:
Fay, p. 183.

After returning to Washington
:
Powers Papers, Box 9 (Vanocur interview), JFKL.

“could not bear to be alone”
:
Ibid.

During the summer of 1963 they often sat together
:
O’Donnell and Powers, p. 375; Powers Papers, Box 9 (Vanocur interview), JFKL.

“a remarkably intensive but productive period”
:
Sorensen (
Counselor
), p. 328.

“many President Kennedys”
:
Taylor, JFKLOH.

“If they think they’re going to get me”
:
Fay, JFKLOH.

He told his best friend
:
Billings, JFKLOH.

“Why would anyone write a book”
:
Abel, JFKLOH.

“an extremely hesitant person”
:
NYT,
October 31, 1993.

“no enemies to the right”
:
Kraft, p. 6.

“he finally realized that the decision”
:
Martin (
Hero
), p. 446.

“You mean there might be radioactive”
:
Ibid.,
p. 443.

commencement address at American University
:
JFKL Web site.

“one of the greatest state papers”
:
Sorensen (
Kennedy
), p. 733.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev praised it
:
Manchester (
Remembering
), p. 206

“strongest civil rights speech made by any president”
:
Farmer, JFKLOH.

June 11, 1963, civil rights speech
:
JFKL Web site.

“Can you believe that white man”
:
Sorensen (
Counselor
), p. 282.

“eloquent, passionate”
:
King, JFKLOH.

“sailed with the wind”
:
John F. Kennedy (
Profiles
), p. 19. Sorensen made substantial contributions to the book. Kennedy was most involved in writing the introductory and concluding chapters, and this sentence, with its nautical reference, sounds more like him than like Sorensen.

After the test ban treaty was initialed
: Sorensen (
Kennedy
), p. 745.

After a Gallup poll reported
:
Sorensen (
Counselor
), p. 284.

“Great historical events”
:
Ibid.;
NYT,
November 22, 1988.

“There comes a time”
:
Hodges, JFKLOH.

“I may lose the next election”
:
Taylor Branch, p. 839.

“a new spirit of hopefulness”
:
Cousins, p. 9.

“Nothing is more powerful than an individual”
:
Norman Cousins, “The Improbable Triumvirate,”
Saturday Review,
October 30, 1970.

“Kennedy could bring bravery”
:
Burns, p. 281.

Frost had presented him with a signed
:
Parini, p. 415; Clarke, p. 215 (afterword in revised edition, 2011).

“Be more Irish than Harvard”
:
Clarke, p. 215 (afterword in revised edition, 2011).

1961 speech at University of Washington
:
JFKL Web site.

During the Cuban missile crisis
:
Ibid.

He sat silently during the flight
:
Tuckerman and Turnure, JFKLOH.

Another passenger remembered
:
Ibid.

“I’m never there when she needs me”
:
O’Donnell and Powers, p. 233.

While he was cruising
:
Martin (
Hero
), p. 106.

“You’d better haul”
:
Ibid.

But when she gave birth to Caroline
:
Doris Kearns Goodwin, p. 793.

He boasted of her being
:
Billings, JFKLOH.

Before flying to Otis
:
Martin (
Hero
),
pp. 464–65.

Hospital personnel described him
:
Newsweek,
August 19, 1963;
Boston Globe,
August 8, 1963.

He pulled aside
:
Portland Press Herald
(Maine), November 21, 2003.

“Nothing must happen to Patrick”
:
Auchincloss, JFKLOH.

A jubilant crowd
:
Boston Globe,
August 8, 1963.

Before returning to Children’s Hospital
:
Sorensen (
Kennedy
), p. 367.

She was so encouraged
:
Gallagher, p. 288.

“This is the kind of thing”
:
Auchincloss, JFKLOH.

Her mother believed
:
Ibid.

Upon returning to the Ritz
:
Lincoln (
My Twelve
), p. 295.

After a full minute of silence he wrote
:
Boston Traveler,
August 13, 1963.

Weeks later, an accountant
:
Lincoln (
My Twelve
), p. 295.

His father attended Mass
:
Doris Kearns Goodwin, p. 312.

While serving in the Pacific
:
Story related by Kathleen McCarthy, a great-niece of Joe and Rose Kennedy, to the
St. Petersburg Times,
November 11, 1999.

While staying with Paul Fay
:
Joan (Fay) Bernstein, author interview.

While rushing to grab a quick lunch
:
Baldrige (Hollensteiner), JFKLOH.

He studied photographs
:
Tuckerman, JFKLOH.

One brutally cold
:
Halle, JFKLOH.

“deeply concerned with other people’s feelings”
:
George W. Ball, “Kennedy Up Close,”
New York Review of Books,
February 3, 1994.

David Ormsby-Gore, who made his acquaintance
:
Lord Harlech (Ormsby-Gore), JFKLOH.

These attributes had helped him win
:
Halle, JFKLOH.

“someone who understands what courage is”
:
Wofford, p. 31.

Sorensen described Kennedy
:
Sorensen (
Counselor
), p. 109.

A friend who knew the truth
:
Martin (
Seeds
), p 321.

Powers lay down
:
O’Donnell and Powers, p. 376.

Neither could recall him ever retiring
:
Billings, JFKLOH.

He never raised the subject with Sorensen
:
Sorensen (
Counselor
),
p. 164.