At Canaan's Edge (151 page)

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Authors: Taylor Branch

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He carefully reprised his written critiques: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 533.

“Violence as a strategy for social change”: MLK, “Nonviolence: The Only Road to Freedom,”
Ebony,
Oct. 1966, cited in Washington, ed.,
Testament,
pp. 54–61.

“King Endorses Racial Statement”: NYT, Oct. 15, 1966, p. 14.

“a serious misstep”: Garrow,
Bearing,
p. 534.

Wiretapped phone lines buzzed: HQ LHM dated Oct. 17, 1966, FK-NR; NY LHM dated Oct. 17, 1966, FK-NR.

Rustin called Stanley Levison: Wiretap transcript, 2:40
P.M
., Oct. 15, 1966, FLNY9-1093a.

“Bayard did this to us”: Wiretap transcript of a telephone conversation between Andrew Young and Stanley Levison, 3:10
P.M
., Ibid.

“What bothers me”: Wiretap transcript of a telephone conversation between MLK and Stanley Levison, 4:14
P.M
., Ibid.

McNamara and Katzenbach: Sheehan,
Bright,
pp. 628–31. Sheehan notes that Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1971 would disclose the historic Pentagon Papers on Vietnam, was assigned to Katzenbach for this trip as a Defense Department staff adviser.

After only thirty-six hours home: McPherson,
Political,
pp. 303–16; NYT, Oct. 18, 1966, pp. 1, 16.

“I know that I can wave no wand”: LBJ departure statement, Dulles International Airport, Oct. 17, 1966, Department of State Bulletin, Nov. 6, 1966, p. 698.

“a little less pessimistic”: McNamara to LBJ, Oct. 14, 1966, in FRUS, Vol. 4, pp. 727–35; Gravel, ed.,
Pentagon Papers,
Vol. 4, pp. 348–54.

infiltration up threefold: Ibid.; also CIA intelligence memorandum to LBJ, Nov. 5, 1966, in FRUS, Vol. 4, pp. 801–4.

“has if anything gone backward”: McNamara,
In Retrospect,
pp. 262–63. Quoting this memo in his 1995 memoir, McNamara revised its description of “the important war,” pacification, from a quest “for the complicity of the people” in the 1966 original to one “for the [hearts and minds] of the people.” This tiny shift covered up a strange and perhaps telling choice of the term “complicity” rather than consent as the desired political stance for the Vietnamese.

“the unceasing, backbreaking toil”: Katzenbach to LBJ, Oct. 15, 1966, in FRUS, Vol. 4, pp. 746–52. The acronyms in Katzenbach's quotation stand for the following: MACV (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam), USAID (United States Agency for International Development), JUSPAO (Joint United States Public Affairs Office), GVN (Government of [South] Vietnam), ARVN (Army of the Republic of [South] Vietnam), PF (Popular Forces), RF (Regional Forces), PFF (Police Field Forces), CIDG (Civilian Irregular Defense Group), PAT (Political Action Team), RD (Revolutionary Development).

“non-group”: Katzenbach oral history by Paige Mulhollan, Nov. 23, 1968, pp. 19–21, LBJ.

neglected outlook of ordinary Vietnamese: More than three decades later, in his collection of Vietnamese and American war memories, author Christian Appy amplified Katzenbach's point about the gaping hole in public attention during the conflict: “No subject was more strikingly inaccessible than the experience of ordinary Vietnamese on all sides.” Appy,
Patriots,
p. 239.

“Charlie zapped a slick”: Radio interview by Dick Hubert, Nov. 21, 1966, in Fall,
Reflections,
pp. 27–28.

found Rev. Robert Spike bludgeoned: “Theologian, a Rights Advocate, Slain at Ohio State,” NYT, Oct. 18, 1966, p. 28.

the family received telegrams: Spike,
Photographs,
pp. 187–88, 215–220.

News stories reviewed: “Robert Spike: The Movement Loses a Voice,” SC, Oct. 29–30, 1966, p. 5.

“one of the best thinkers”: “Prof Was Famed Rights Leader/ Murder Shocks Colleagues Thruout U.S.,”
Chicago's American,
Oct. 18, 1966, File 940, RS, CHS.

“the last thing”: Int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991.

“This staggers my mother”: Spike,
Photographs,
pp. 223–25.

Mother and son fought an undertow: Ibid., pp. 135–37, 171–82.

church officials shut down inquiry: Int. Jack Pratt, March 25, 1991; int. James Hamilton, July 30, 1991.

Willful avoidance sealed Spike: Findlay,
Church People,
p. 176.

Andrew Young always feared: Young,
Burden,
pp. 472–73. Stokely Carmichael's posthumous memoir of 2003 lists Spike with King, Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy, and several other victims marked by lingering allegations of political conspiracy, in Carmichael,
Ready,
pp. 436–37.

with Spike's internecine rivals: In a haunted memoir about his father, Paul Spike records that Art Thomas of the Delta Ministry shared far-fetched suspicions even of Office of Economic Opportunity director Sargent Shriver, who in 1966, under pressure from Mississippi politicians, undercut a Mississippi movement poverty program that Robert Spike vigorously defended. Spike's trenchant criticisms of the Labor Department report on the Negro family also generated a feud with Daniel Moynihan, who tried to enlist the White House on his side. “Spike has been a leader of the effort to discredit me, which has been an organized effort,” Moynihan wrote Harry McPherson. “The people involved in this are precisely those persons who have been the most vicious about the President and Viet Nam.” Moynihan to McPherson, April 15, 1966, McPherson Papers, Box 21, LBJ; Spike,
Photographs,
pp. 199–204; [on the Mississippi poverty dispute] Greenberg,
Devil,
passim, especially pp. 601–25.

prosecutors considered him insane: NYT, Dec. 13, 1966, p. 15; Findlay,
Church People,
p. 176.

A harbinger series: Dick Hebert, “Atlanta's Lonely ‘Gay' World,” AC, Jan. 2–8, 1966.

“would cut off their left arms”: Ibid., Jan. 7, 1966, p. 1.

Richard Nixon captured: NYT, Oct. 24, 1966, p. 1.

“playing the backlash issue”: Transcript,
Meet the Press,
Vol. 10, No. 43, Oct. 23, 1966, courtesy of NBC News.

“as a fugitive”: Powers,
War,
pp. 208–9.

“that's what
they
do”: Tom Wolfe, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” in Library of America Anthology,
Reporting Vietnam,
pp. 198–207; Gitlin,
Sixties,
p. 209.

“turn on, tune in”: “Dr. Leary Starts New ‘Religion' with ‘Sacramental' Use of LSD,” NYT, Sept. 20, 1966, p. 33.

a Yellow Submarine prop: DeBenedetti,
Ordeal,
p. 161.

teach-in activist Jerry Rubin: Menashe and Radosh, eds.,
Teach-Ins,
pp. 28–32; Zaroulis and Sullivan,
Who Spoke Up?,
pp. 84–85.

“in the Marxist tradition”:
Rolling Stone Rock Almanac,
p. 126.

“a major cultural-political watershed”: Dallek,
Right Moment,
p. 223.

call to old-fashioned morality: Ibid., pp. 190–91.

repeal the state's fair housing law: NYT, Aug. 14, 1966, p. 43.

“Every day the jungle”: Dugger,
On Reagan,
p. 199.

“orgies so vile”: Cannon,
President Reagan,
p. 148.

recruit ex-CIA Director John McCone: “‘White Backlash' Becomes a Major Coast Issue/ It Helps Reagan Even When He Doesn't Mention It, His Supporters Say,” NYT, Sept. 28, 1966, p. 28.

“appeasement of campus malcontents”: Reagan speech of Sept. 9, 1966, cited in Seth Rosenfeld, “The Governor's Race,”
San Francisco Chronicle,
June 9, 2002.

“dresses like Tarzan”: Gitlin,
Sixties,
p. 217.

telegram to Stokely Carmichael: Edwards,
Reagan,
pp. 168–69.

“hell, no”: “Carmichael Asks Draft's Defiance/ Ridicules Johnson and Rusk at Rally in Berkeley,” NYT, Oct. 30, 1966, p. 63.

Lyndon Johnson landed: “Johnson Is Home, ‘More Confident' on Goals in Asia,” NYT, Nov. 3, 1966, p. 1.

longest presidential trip in history: Dallek,
Flawed,
p. 384.

two white kangaroos: NYT, Nov. 3, 1966, p. 14.

bath from a silver spigot: McPherson,
Political,
p. 310.

since FDR at Casablanca:
U.S. News & World Report,
Nov. 7, 1966, pp. 19–20.

favorable rating on Vietnam to 63 percent: Dallek,
Flawed,
p. 385.

“could last five years”: “Nixon Criticizes Manila Results,” NYT, Nov. 4, 1966, p. 1; Powers,
War,
p. 131.

“chronic campaigner”: “Johnson Derides Nixon's Criticism of Manila Stand,” NYT, Nov. 5, 1966, pp. 1, 10.

Johnson canceled plans: Transcript of news conference, Question 10, ibid.; Edwards,
Reagan,
p. 169; Shesol,
Contempt,
pp. 346–47.

“I was the song leader”: LBJ remarks, Nov. 7, 1966, PPP, 1966, pp. 1347–50; “Johnson Given Tests; Surgery Due Friday,” WP, Nov. 8, 1966, pp. 1, 4.

meticulous observance of state law: Cf. John Hulett letters of notice to Judge Harrell Hammonds and the Alabama secretary of state, August 30, 1966, and Judge Harrell Hammonds letter of acknowledgment dated September 2, 1966, Box 1, A/RM; legal presentation by lawyer Morton Stavis at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1965 Selma march, in Selma, March 3, 1990.

5,806 names: Carmichael,
Black Power,
p. 112.

“We have enough registered people”: Michael S. Lottman, “High Hopes in Lowndes,” SC, Nov. 5–6, 1966, p. 1.

“We have never tried”: Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” p. 127.

Carmichael no longer lived: J. M. McFadden, “Real Test Nears for Original ‘Black Panther,'” WP, Sept. 18, 1966, p. 3.

deferred to local citizens: Cf. Robert Analavage, “What They're Saying in Lowndes County,” SP, Oct. 1966, p. 3; Viola Bradford, “Freedom Candidates Campaign in Lowndes,” SC, Oct. 22–23, 1966, p. 1.

“The help they have given us”: SC, Nov. 5–6, 1966, p. 1.

observing a SNCC policy: Minutes of the central committee meeting, Knoxville, Oct. 22 and 23, 1966, p. 5, A/SN6.

arrested with Stuart House: “Selma Court Fines SNCC Worker $77,” SC, Nov. 26–27, 1966, p. 1.

“I saw some Negroes aroused”: “City of Selma vs. Carmichael: A Wild Day in Recorder's Court,” SC, Dec. 3–4, 1966, p. 1; “Carmichael Gets 60-Day Sentence,” NYT, Nov. 30, 1966, p. 23.

final mass meeting Monday night: Viola Bradford, “Lowndes,” SC, Nov. 12–13, 1966, p. 1; Carmichael,
Black Power,
pp. 114–15.

“PULL THE LEVER”: SC, Nov. 19–20, 1966, p. 1; int. Jennifer Lawson, Nov. 13, 2004.

“We have worked so hard”: John Benson, “Freedom Party Wins Legal Ballot Status in Lowndes County Vote,”
Militant,
Nov. 21, 1966.

His speech ranged: Terence Cannon, “Lowndes County,”
Movement,
Dec. 1966, pp. 1, 8, 9; Sellers,
River,
pp. 152–54; Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” pp. 129–33.

On election day in Lowndes: Ibid.; Carmichael,
Black Power,
pp. 116–17;
Militant,
Nov. 21, 1966.

Driver Andrew Jones: Robert Analavage, “Lowndes Party Girds for Future,” SP, Dec. 1966, p. 1; “Alabama Election Reports,” Nov. 16, 1966, Reel 16, SNCC; Viola Bradford, “Lowndes,” SC, Nov. 12–13, 1966, pp. 1, 4.

“cracked the hide on my head”: Int. Andrew Jones, April 11, 2003.

“the first shot”: Carmichael,
Ready,
pp. 474–75;
Movement,
Dec. 1966, p. 9.

Jennifer Lawson wielded: Int. Jennifer Lawson, Nov. 13, 2004.

Scott B. Smith wore military fatigues: Int. Scott B. Smith, April 11, 2003.

All seven nominees: SC, Nov. 12–13, 1966, p. 1; Jeffries, “Freedom Politics,” pp. 135–38.

“was reflecting on him”: SP, Dec. 1966, p. 1.

forfeited both paying jobs: Int. Andrew Jones, April 11, 2003.

Mark Comfort would lead:
Movement,
Dec. 1966, pp. 2, 9; Beth Wilcox, “Californians Bring Supplies to ‘Brothers, Sister' in Lowndes,” SC, Sept. 9–10, 1967, p. 7.

“Even though we lost”: SC, Nov. 19–20, 1966, p. 1.

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