Kati Marton (64 page)

Jackie diverted attention away … Michael R. Beschloss,
The Crisis Years, Kennedy and Khrushchev 1960–1963
(New York: HarperCollins, 1992), pp. 182–210.

“Few people stayed immune …” author’s interview with former White House aide Gwendolyn King.

“You know she had a marvelous facility for …” author’s interview with Lady Bird Johnson.

“You always come to the rescue …” author’s interview with Clark Clifford. See also
Counsel to the President
by Clark Clifford with Richard Holbrooke (New York: Doubleday, 1991), p. 363.

“Jackie donned what Arthur Schleslinger, Jr., called …” see William Walton and John Carl Warnecke Oral Histories, JFK Library.

“We were always trying to get her to do …” August Heckscher Oral History.

The first lady’s willfulness … author’s interview with Robin Duke.

“I think the best thing I could do …”
Good Housekeeping,
September 1962.

Jacqueline’s social ease … author’s interview with Ben Bradlee.

“You must think of him as this little boy …” Theodore White Papers, JFK Library.

“I watched him walk …” Dr. Janet Travell Oral History, JFK Library.

Three days later … Beschloss,
The Crisis Years,
p. 477.

“This is the first day of the world crisis …” Horne,
Harold Macmillan,
p.364.

“At night after long hours …” Hugh Sidey Oral History, JFK Library.

The new closeness did not translate … author’s interview with Richard Reeves.

“A journalist came into my office …” Pierre Salinger to author.

“During the time he was a senator …” Clark Clifford to Richard Holbrooke.

“He never wanted them all crowded …” Sferrzza,
As We Remember Her,
p. 193.

“There’s only one thing I could not bear now …” C. David Heymann,
A Woman Named Jackie
(New York: Birch Lane Press Book, 1989), p. 386.

Jackie had seen him sick … Oral History of Janet Lee Bouvier Auchincloss, JFK Library.

He wanted her to get better … author’s interview with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

“I miss you very much …” letter of JBK to JFK, JFK Library.

“Dear Mr. Chairman President …” JFK Library.

“One week later …” Theodore White Papers, JFK Library.

Other books used as background for this chapter:

Bradlee, Benjamin C.
Conversations with Kennedy.
New York: Norton, 1975.

Caroli, Betty Boyd.
First Ladies.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Collier, Peter, and David Horowitz.
The Kennedys: An American Drama.
New York: Summit Books, 1984.

Dickerson, Nancy.
Among Those Present: A Reporter’s View of Twenty-five Years in Washington.
New York: Random House, 1976.

Halberstam, David.
The Best and the Brightest.
New York: Random House, 1969.

Isaacson, Walter, and Evan Thomas.
The Wise Men: Six Friends and the
World They Made: Acheson, Bohlen, Harriman, Kennan, Lovett, McCloy.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986.

Johnson, Lady Bird.
A White House Diary.
New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970.

MacPherson, Myra.
The Power Lovers: An Intimate Look at Politics and Marriage.
New York: Putnam, 1975.

Manchester, William.
The Death of a President: November 20–November 25, 1963.
New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

O’Donnell, Kenneth P., and David F. Powers, with Joe McCarthy.
“Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye.
” Boston: Little, Brown, 1970.

Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr.
The Cycles of American History.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986.

———.
A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965.

Sorensen, Theodore C.
Kennedy.
New York: Harper & Row, 1965.

Sulzberger, C. L.
The Last of the Giants.
New York: Macmillan, 1970.

Thomas, Helen.
Dateline: White House.
New York: Macmillan, 1975.

Travell, Janet.
Office Hours, Day and Night: The Autobiography of Janet Travell, M.D.
New York: World, 1968.

White, Theodore H.
In Search of History: A Personal Adventure.
New York: Warner Books, 1978.

Much of this chapter is based on an extensive interview with Mrs. Johnson. I am also indebted to Michael Beschloss, Professor Alan Brinkley, Robert Caro, Liz Carpenter, Clark Clifford, Liz Smith, Jack Valenti, Harry McPherson, Lynda Bird Johnson, Horace Busby, Katharine Graham, Hal Wingo, Barbara Howar, Charles Guggenheim and Barbara Walters for sharing their impressions and memories of President and Mrs. Johnson. At the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas, Harry Middleton and Betty Tilson gave indispensable and patient assistance. I am grateful to them all, especially Liz Smith, who was tireless in getting me the most important interview—Mrs. Johnson.

There are a number of first-rate studies of both Johnsons that I relied on for background information for this chapter. Among them: Robert Caro’s
The Path to Power
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982) and
Means of Ascent
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990); Doris Kearns Goodwin’s
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream
(New York: Harper & Row, 1976); Michael Beschloss’s
Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963–1964
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997); Robert Dallek’s
Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973
(New York:
Oxford University Press, 1998);
Lyndon, An Oral Biography,
by Merle Miller (New York: Ballantine Books, 1980); and Jan Jarboe Russell’s
Lady Bird
(New York: Scribner’s, 1999). The Johnsons’ own memoirs: Lady Bird’s
A White House Diary
(New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970), and Lyndon’s
The Vantage Point: Perspectives on the Presidency, 1963–1969
(New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971) are, of course, essential.

Perhaps nothing so clearly … based on LBJ’s White House tape recordings, provided to the author by the LBJ Library.

As Clark Clifford later noted … author’s interview with Clifford.

Lady Bird’s sharpest memory … author’s interview with Mrs. Johnson. See also Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary,
p. 6.

“I always felt sorry …” Lady Bird Johnson to author.

“The best day’s work …” Oral History, LBJ Library.

“This morning …” this and all other correspondence quoted in this chapter is from the LBJ Library.

Lyndon took Lady Bird … based on author’s interviews with Horace Busby.

She was a thirties wife … drawn from
Texas Monthly,
August 1999: “Lyndon and Lady Bird, Scenes from a Marriage”; also Caro’s
Path to Power,
chapter 25.

“It gave me a … sort of reassurance …” Miller,
Lyndon: An Oral Biography,
p. 120.

In truth, Jackie admired … Ibid., p. 353.

“About five of us reporters …” author’s interview with Hal Wingo.

He ordered director of White House … from the White House tapes, LBJ Library.

“One thing you’ve got to remember …” Betty Furness Oral History, LBJ Library.

In the White House … author’s interview with Horace Busby.

“She was very vigilant …” author’s interview with Barbara Howar.

“It wasn’t very romantic …”
Among Those Present
by Nancy Dickerson (New York: Random House, 1976), p. 139.

“You want to listen for about one minute …” White House tapes, LBJ Library, and reprinted in Beschloss’s
Taking Charge,
p. 272.

“I would stand back and watch Lyndon …” unpublished interview of Clark Clifford by Richard Holbrooke.

“I recognized it …” Lady Bird Johnson to author.

“Anybody like you who would …” “White House tapes, LBJ Library.

“Johnson drew no boundaries …” author’s interview with Rex Scouten.

On most mornings … author’s interview with Jack Valenti.

So hungry was Johnson for affection … Mary Lasker Oral History, LBJ Library.

“One evening in the upstairs residence …” author’s interview with Clark Clifford.

“If you don’t want me running around the White House …” White House tapes, LBJ Library.

Texas congressman Ralph Yarborough … author’s interview with Harry McPherson.

When his wife was away … author’s interview with Homer Busby.

“Unlike most of his predecessors …” author’s interview with Lady Bird Johnson.

Lady Bird’s letter to her husband is in the LBJ Library and analyzed by her in
White House Diary,
pp. 137–40 and by Lyndon in his
Vantage Point,
pp. 93–94.

The self-pity and the plea for love … Beschloss,
Taking Charge,
pp. 527–37.

“Beloved …” August 25, 1964, LBJ Library, and Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary,
p. 192.

“In a few words …” Lyndon Johnson,
The Vantage Point,
p. 98.

Richard Nixon was startled …
The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
(New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1978), p. 272.

Katharine Graham of the
Washington Post …
Miller,
Lyndon: An Oral Biography,
p. 508.

“You read this …” White House tapes, LBJ Library, reprinted in
Taking Charge,
p. 251.

During the 1964… author’s interview with Harry McPherson.

In Columbia … author’s interview with Barbara Howar; also William S. White Oral History, LBJ Library; see also Eric F. Goldman,
The Tragedy of LBJ
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969), pp. 357–61.

As always, Lady Bird … Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary,
pp. 247–48.

“Sometimes it makes me almost angry …”
White House Diary,
p. 261.

Johnson’s aides remember … Dallek,
Flawed Giant,
p. 282.

He continued to get important legislation passed … author’s interview with Mrs. Johnson; also Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary,
pp. 349.

“I had coffee with Lyndon …” Ibid., p. 369.

Laurence Rockefeller … Oral History, LBJ Library.

“To see Mrs. Johnson …” Shana Alexander, “The Best First Lady,”
Life,
December 13, 1968.

Stewart Udall … Oral History, LBJ Library.

“One thing I am sorry about …” author’s interview with Mrs. Johnson; see also
Austin Statesman,
January 22, 1967, p. 7.

“The best thing I can do …”
New York Times,
September 10, 1967.

“I knew we were going to get into this …” White House tapes, LBJ Library.

“When five of the most …” author’s interview with Mrs. Johnson.

“I turned off the TV …” Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary,
p. 521.

Eartha Kitt incident described in Ibid., pp. 622–24.

“I simply did not want …” Ibid., p. 567.

“Last night …” Ibid., p. 570.

“Remember …pacing …” Ibid., p. 645.

As for herself … author’s interview with Mrs. Johnson.

Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Edward Cox, Henry Kissinger, Peter G. Peterson, David Gergen, Richard Reeves, Professor Henry F. Graff, Nixon White House aides Susan Porter Rose, Patricia Mattson, Diane Sawyer, Gwen King, Penny Adams and Chief Usher Rex Scouten all contributed their time and their memories of Richard and Pat Nixon to this chapter. Several journalists who covered the Nixons were also very helpful, among them: Richard Cohen, Barbara Walters, Helen Thomas, Donnie Radcliffe and Barrie Dunsmore.

There are a great many studies of the Nixon presidency that were essential in providing background for this chapter, including: Nixon’s own
Memoirs
(New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1978);
Richard Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician
by Roger Morris (New York: Henry Holt, 1990);
Pat Nixon: The Untold Story
by Julie Nixon Eisenhower (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986);
The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House
by H. R. Haldeman (New York: Putnam, 1994);
The White House Years
by Henry Kissinger (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979);
Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 1913–1962
by Stephen E. Ambrose (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987);
The Lonely Lady of San Clemente: The Story of Pat Nixon
by Lester David (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1978);
Richard Nixon: A Political and Personal Portrait
by Earl Mazo (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959);
One of Us
by Tom Wicker (New York: Random House, 1991).

Pat asked for cottage cheese … J. B. West,
Upstairs at the White House
(New York: Coward, McCann & Geohegan, 1973), p. 356.

For a description of the Caracas spitting incident, see Ambrose,
Nixon: The Education of a Politician,
p. 473.

“Despite your refusal to let me …” This and other correspondence between Richard and Pat Nixon and the account of their courtship is from Julie Nixon Eisenhower’s memoir of her mother.

He once revealed that his mother … Televised interview of Richard Nixon by Frank Gannon, Richard Nixon Library.

“If your anger is deep enough …” Ken Clawson, “A Loyalist’s Memoirs,”
Washington Post,
Outlook Section, August 9, 1979.

“I can’t let my hair down …” Stewart Alsop,
Nixon and Rockfeller: A Double Portrait
(New York: Doubleday, 1960), p. 200.

“There was no talk of politics …” Mazo,
Richard Nixon,
p. 34.

“Once I make a decision …” Frank Gannon television interview, Richard Nixon Library.

“It was the last carefree vacation …” Julie Nixon Eisenhower to author.

“Dick was sitting in a huge …” Wicker,
One of Us,
p. 89.

When Pat’s old friend … Eisenhower,
Pat Nixon,
pp. 171–72.

“We don’t have as many …” Ambrose,
Nixon,
p. 350.

“You don’t know …” Michael Beschloss,
Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev and the U-2 Affair
(New York: Harper & Row, 1986), p. 180.