Landslide (62 page)
Authors: Jonathan Darman
76
“Even a Reagan in the clothing of a right-winger”
Ibid.
77
“I was unable to reach you by telephone”
Richard Nixon, letter to Ronald Reagan, June 9, 1966, Box C29, 1966 Campaign: Gov. Personal Correspondence with Nixon, Richard M., Ronald Reagan Library.
78
“I won’t try to write much of a letter”
Ronald Reagan, letter to Richard Nixon, June 14, 1966, Box C29, 1966 Campaign: Gov. Personal Correspondence with Nixon, Richard M., Ronald Reagan Library.
79
“It has taken me all of my life”
Ted Lewis, “Ronald Reagan Another Wendell Willkie,”
New York Daily News
, June 17, 1966.
80
“The Great Society grows greater every day”
David S. Broder, “Reagan Attacks the Great Society,”
New York Times
, June 17, 1966.
1
“While this period constitutes a thousand days”
Robert Kintner, letter to Lyndon Johnson, August 18, 1966, Box 16, Confidential Files, LBJL.
2
gilded thousand days
Kennedy’s own thousand days actually numbered 1,037. LBJ reached one thousand days on August 17, 1966, and matched Kennedy’s 1,037 on September 23, 1966. See Thomas Bailey,
Essays Diplomatic and Undiplomatic of Thomas Bailey
, 237.
3
“the Great Congress”
“The Congress: The Late Great,”
Time
, October 21, 1966.
4
The “B plus Congress”
“The B+ Congress: Key Votes in the 89th,”
New Republic
, October 22, 1966; “The Road Ahead,”
The Progressive
, December 1, 1966.
5
“We prefer to call it the foot in the door Congress”
Ibid.
6
“Historians in future decades”
Thomas A. Bailey, “Johnson and Kennedy: The Two Thousand Days,”
New York Times Magazine
, November 6, 1966.
7
That way Kennedy would live on forever
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, 178.
8
“Disunity, frustration, suspicion”
“Election 1966,”
Saturday Evening Post
, November 15, 1966.
9
“You have a home, but what about interest rates?”
“On Election Day,”
New Republic
, November 5, 1966.
10
“we shall not rest until that war is won”
Lyndon B. Johnson, “Address on the State of the Union” (speech, Washington, DC, January 8, 1964),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1963-4, Vol. I, 114.
11
Late that summer of 1966
“Nation: The Madman in the Tower,”
Time
, August 12, 1966.
12
“Now we come here with mobs in the streets”
“The Congress: New Game,”
Time
, August 5, 1966.
13
“had never won anything”
“The White Backlash,”
Newsweek
, October 10, 1966.
14
Wallace was backing his wife, Lurleen
Ibid.
15
“They’re just out here for no other purpose”
Telephone conversation between Richard Daley and LBJ, August 16, 1966, Citation #10614.
16
“There is a matter”
“The Economy: A Call for Action,”
Time
, September 9, 1966.
17
“From Vietnam … flows a river of woe”
“Johnson and Kennedy: The Two Thousand Days.”
18
“Don’t pay any attention”
Clifford,
Counsel to the President
, 417.
19
“should go all out, short of nuclear attack”
Bill Moyers, Memorandum to Lyndon Johnson, June 9, 1966, WHCF, Box 82, PR 16, LBJL.
20
“Bomb the devil out of Haiphong Harbor!”
“The Choice We Face,”
The Progressive
, November 1966.
21
“For the first time now”
Perlstein,
Nixonland
, 128; “Nixon, in Saigon, Bids US Bare Goals,”
New York Times
, August 6, 1966.
22
“do not understand how a country”
Bill Moyers, Memorandum to Lyndon Johnson, June 9, 1966, WHCF, Box 82, PR 16, LBJL.
23
It was followed by a White House reception
“The White House: Three Ring Wedding,”
Time
, August 5, 1966.
24
“semimonarchical event”
Ibid.
25
“as proud as a man can be”
“The Presidency: An Unusual Ceremony,”
Time
, August 12, 1966.
26
“The wedding day will be something beautiful”
“Three Ring Wedding.”
27
“What do you think about the elections?”
Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Richard B. Russell, June 2, 1966, Citation #10205.
28
“This is the off-year”
“An Off Year Election with a Difference,”
Life
, November 4, 1966.
29
“John Gardner has talked to Bill Moyers”
Douglass Cater, Memorandum to Lyndon Johnson, EX/FG1, August 4, 1966.
30
“My proposed theme”
Walt Rostow, Memorandum to Lyndon Johnson, June 6, 1966, WHCF, Box 82, PR 16, LBJL.
31
“This stubborn, yearning man”
Tom Wicker, “Long Distance Runner,”
Atlantic
, April 1966.
32
“a dropout from the electoral college”
Jules Witcover,
Reporter
, August 11, 1966.
33
“to lead this great country”
Ibid.
34
RFK MINUS LBJ IN 1972 … KENNEDY FOR PRESIDENT ANYTIME
“The Bobby Phenomenon,”
Newsweek
, October 24, 1966, 30-35.
35
“We need help wherever we can get it”
Ibid., 30.
36
“there is no Kennedy who does not feel”
“Kennedy Chemistry,”
Newsweek
, October 3, 1966.
37
By mid 1966, the Harris and Gallup polls both showed Bobby leading the president
“Bobby Phenomenon,” 30.
38
“This … is what every officeholder should do”
“LBJ Reaches Out to Rally His Consensus,”
Life
, September 2, 1966. (emphasis added)
39
“Instead of fifty states,”
“Across the River to Bathos,”
Time
, October 14, 1966.
40
ALL HAIL TO JOHNSON
“The Word From Washington,”
Progressive
, December 1966.
41
“conferring with his proconsuls”
Ibid.
42
“I’m glad you’re not standing for Prime Minister”
“The Presidency: On Top Down Under,”
Time
, October 28, 1966.
43
“I have said so often”
Lyndon Johnson, “Remarks at the Art Gallery of New South Wales” (speech, Sydney, Australia, October 22, 1966),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1966, Vol. II, 1251.
44
“He went in … prepared to dislike Reagan”
Memo from Robert Kintner to Lyndon Johnson, June 21, 1966, CF/FG1, LBJL.
45
In October, his face was featured on the cover of
Time
“California: Ronald for Real,”
Time
, October 7, 1966.
46
He mocked the notion of a citizen-politician
Cannon,
Governor Reagan
, 151.
47
“The governor’s office … is not a movie set”
“Governor’s Office,” Brown Ad Transcripts, Box C32, Ronald Reagan Library.
48
“I’m running against an actor”
Cannon,
Ronald Reagan: The Presidential Portfolio
, Vol. I, 40.
49
“Who was it”
“California: Ronald for Real.”
50
“Reagan is anti-labor”
“Reagan for President,”
New Republic
, July 2, 1966.
51
“I had always thought”
Nancy Reagan,
My Turn
, 78.
52
Orange County
McGirr,
Suburban Warriors
, 209.
53
It had been a great night for Republicans
Walter Dean Burnham, “Death of the New Deal,”
Commonwealth
, December 9, 1966.
54
“I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO WORKING WITH YOU”
Telegram from Spiro T. Agnew to Ronald Reagan, November 9, 1966, Box C26, Personal Correspondence, Ronald Reagan Library.
55
“In these circumstances”
“Republican Resurgence,”
New York Times
, November 13, 1966.
56
“CONGRATULATIONS ON THAT GREAT VICTORY”
Nelson Rockefeller, telegram
to Ronald Reagan, November 11, 1966, Box C29, 1966 Campaign: Gov. Personal Correspondence, Letters of Congratulations 2, Ronald Reagan Library.
57
“I thought you would be interested”
Richard Nixon, letter to Ronald Reagan, November 28, 1966, Box C29, 1966 Campaign: Gov. Personal Correspondence, Letters of Congratulations 2, Ronald Reagan Library.
58
“I think more than any other governor”
Ronald Reagan, letter to James A. Rhodes, November 21, 1966, Box C29, 1966 Campaign: Gov. Personal Correspondence, Letters of Congratulations, Ronald Reagan Library.
59
“a distinguished physicist”
White,
Making of the President
, 35.
60
“I’ve been a little disappointed”
Ronald Reagan, letter to Carl T. Curtis, November 28, 1966, Box C29, 1966 Campaign: Gov. Personal Correspondence, Letters of Congratulations 2, Ronald Reagan Library.
61
“I think we can claim a mandate”
Ronald Reagan, letter to Edward J. Drewinski, December 8, 1966, Box C29, 1966 Campaign: Gov. Personal Correspondence, Letters of Congratulations 1, Ronald Reagan Library.
62
“Some way”
Telephone Conversation between Richard Daley and LBJ, December 17, 1966, Citation #11145.
63
“The mimeograph machines”
“Impact on Johnson; He May Have to Trim His Program,”
New York Times
, November 13, 1966.
64
“There was no question”
“Republican Resurgence.”
65
“In the space of a single Autumn day”
“GOP 66: Back on the Map,”
Newsweek
, November 21, 1966.
66
“The election results”
Walter Lippmann, “War and the Election,”
Newsweek
, December 5, 1966.
67
“The feeling is widespread”
“The Choice We Face,”
The Progressive
, November 1966.
68
“a fantastic mood”
Michael Harrington, “New Shape of American Politics,”
Dissent
, January 1967.
69
“If the Dixiecrat-Republican coalition”
Ibid.
70
“young conservative”
William F. Buckley, “Election, What Did It Mean?”
National Review
, November 29, 1966.
71
“I don’t know”
Warren Weaver, “Governors Link Loss to Johnson,”
New York Times
, December 16, 1966.
72
“The Great Society is tarnished”
Telephone conversation between Richard Daley and LBJ, December 1966, Citation #11145.
73
Look
magazine planned to publish an excerpt
“Jackie Kennedy: Plaintiff,”
Newsweek
, December 26, 1966.
74
My dear Mrs. Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson, Letter to Jackie Kennedy, December 16, 1966, Special File on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, Box 1, Manchester Files, LBJL.
75
“a fraud”
Beschloss,
Taking Charge
, 16.
76
“vicious, mean, dirty, low-down stuff
Ibid., 16.
77
for one brief shining moment
Theodore White, “Epilogue,”
Life
, December 3, 1963.
78
“They’re going to write history as they want it written”
Beschloss,
Taking Charge
, 16.
79
she had met with the landscape architect
Sharon Francis OH I.
80
“I have so little time”
James Reston, “Washington: LBJ—I Have So Little Time,”
New York Times
, November 27, 1966.
1
“Governor Rockefeller of New York”
Press Conference, National Governors Conference, 1967.
2
“Most South Carolinians”
Ronald Reagan,
Reagan Talks to America
, 48.
3
His office maintained a thick file of index cards
Box C39, Johnson Administration, Ronald Reagan Gubernatorial Campaign Files 1966, Ronald Reagan Library.
4
Facing a projected 1968 budget deficit
William Conrad Gibbons,
Government and the Vietnam War
, 755.
5
“it is increasingly clear to this reporter”
Walter Cronkite, “We Are Mired in Stalemate,” CBS News, February 27, 1968.
6
“matchless boondoggle”
Reagan,
Reagan Talks to America
, 52.
7
“leadership gap”
Cannon,
Governor Reagan
, 260-1.
8
“There is a question abroad in the land”
Reagan,
Reagan Talks to America
, 61.
9
Throughout 1967 and early 1968
For a detailed account of Johnson’s deliberations on the 1968 campaign, see Dallek,
Flawed Giant
, 524-9.
10
Lyndon’s “face was sagging”
Johnson,
White House Diary
, 642.
11
“Remember … pacing and drama”
Ibid., 645.
12
“With American sons in the field far away”
Lyndon Johnson, “President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Address to the Nation Announcing Steps To Limit the War in Vietnam and Reporting His Decision Not To Seek Reelection” (speech, Washington, DC, March 31, 1968), LBJL,
http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches.hom/680331.asp
.
13
“those who love him must have loved him more”
Johnson,
White House Diary
, 645.
14
“For those of you who are black”
Robert F. Kennedy, “Statement on the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (speech, Indianapolis, April 4, 1968), JFK Library,
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/RFK-Speeches/Statement-on-the-Assassination-of-Martin-Luther-King.aspx
.
15
“Too horrible for words”
Califano,
Triumph and Tragedy
, 297.
16
“Is he dead yet?”
Ibid.
17
“I called her name and put out my hand”
Johnson,
White House Diary
, 684.
18
“I hope … it may be said, a hundred years from now”
Lyndon Johnson, “Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union” (speech, Washington, DC, January 14, 1969),
http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches.hom/690114.asp
.
19
“I seek to celebrate my glad release”
Johnson, White House Diary, 783.
20
“The Southerners … had had enough of gallant lost causes”
White,
Making of the President 1968
, 241.
21
men with lunch pails
Reeves,
President Kennedy
, 656-7.
22
“We have a group of elitists in Washington”
Drew,
Portrait of an Election
, 116-117.
23
“I believe in states’ rights”
Ronald Reagan, “Speech at Neshoba County Fair”
(speech, Mississippi, August 3, 1980); Bob Herbert, “Righting Reagan’s Wrongs,”
New York Times
, November 13, 2007.
24
“For those who have abandoned hope”
Ronald Reagan, “Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican National Convention in Detroit” (speech, Detroit, July 17, 1980),
Public Papers of the Presidents
,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25970
.
25
In this present crisis
Ronald Reagan, “Inaugural Address” (speech, Washington, DC, January 20, 1981),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1981, 1.
26
Reagan would add more debt to the nation’s ledgers
Richard Darman,
Who’s in Control
, 73.
27
“The simple truth”
Ronald Reagan, “Remarks at a Fundraising Dinner Honoring Former Representative John M. Ashbrook” (speech, Ashland, OH, May 9, 1983), 1983, Vol. I, 670.
28
“I’ve raised you girls”
Michael Beschloss, “In His Final Days, LBJ Agonized Over His Legacy,”
Rundown
, December 4, 2012,
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/12/lbjs-last-interview.html
29
“I’m talking to Tom Johnson”
Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News, January 22, 1973,
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/walter-cronkite-announces-the-death-of-lbj/
.
30
“Well … we expected it.”
Dallek,
Portrait of a President
, 372.
31
most likely in the fashion of Johnson men, before he turned sixty-five
Beschloss,
Reaching for Glory
, 394.
32
“Walter was a good friend and a capable person”
Marjorie Hunter, “Walter Wilson Jenkins, Aide to Lyndon Johnson,”
New York Times
, November 26, 1985.
33
“I remember one story”
Ronald Reagan, “Remarks on Presenting the Congressional Gold Medal to Lady Bird Johnson” (speech, Washington, DC, April 28, 1988),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1988, Vol. I, 528.
34
“There will be some things of course that we will miss”
Skinner,
Life in Letters
, 126.
35
“We’ll preserve for our children this”
Ronald Reagan, “A Time for Choosing” (speech, October 27, 1964),
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/reference/timechoosing.html
.
