Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years (No Series) (73 page)

50
the worst American defeat “since the war of 1812”: Quoted in Beschloss, 129.

50
“Mr. Kennedy…was a very bad president”: Burke oral history, U.S. Naval Institute. By August 1961, Burke would be eased out as Navy chief, the first of several Joint Chiefs and high-ranking officers whom Kennedy would force into retirement as he struggled to exert his authority as commander-in-chief. After retiring from the Navy, Burke became chairman of the new Center for Strategic Studies at Georgetown University. Out of uniform, Burke lobbied against Kennedy’s policies and continued to fume about the “amateurs” in the White House who were imperiling the nation. He made dark comments about the administration’s dictatorial tendencies, denouncing its drive to muzzle dissent within the government. He charged that his offices at Georgetown University had been broken into, suggesting the Kennedy administration was behind it.

51
“Those sons-of-bitches…just sat there nodding”: Quoted in Richard Reeves,
President Kennedy: Profile of Power
, 103.

51
Never again…would he be “overawed by professional military advice”: Quoted in Arthur Schlesinger Jr.,
A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House
, 290.

51
“Nobody is going to force me”: Quoted in Paul B. Fay Jr.,
The Pleasure of His Company
, 161.

51
“Kennedy had contempt for the Joint Chiefs”: Author interview with Schlesinger.

52
“The episode seared him”: Quoted in L. Fletcher Prouty,
JFK: The CIA, Vietnam and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy
, 155.

52
Bradlee had urged him to replace [Dulles]: Benjamin C. Bradlee,
Conversations with Kennedy
, 33.

52
JFK “came into government the successor to President Eisenhower”: Robert Kennedy, 246.

52
He asked Sorensen to start advising him on foreign affairs: Beschloss, 146.

53
where the Kennedy administration began becoming “a family affair”: Author interview with Peter Dale Scott.

53
“The two brothers often held these sessions”: Author interview with Fred Dutton.

53
There could be “no long-term living with Castro”: Quoted in Beschloss, 375.

53
“I am almost a ‘peace-at-any-price’ president”: Quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy and His Times
, 430.

54
JFK “brought…the knowledge of history”: Quoted in “Recollecting JFK with Theodore Sorensen and Robert McNamara,” JFK Library forum, October 22, 2003.

54
“This nation is without leadership”: Quoted in Reeves, 196.

54
Because we live in a free society: Quoted in A. M. Sperber,
Murrow: His Life and Times
, 628.

56
“I had no doubt he had come to talk to me”: Richard N. Goodwin,
Remembering America: A Voice from the Sixties
, 197.

56
“My experience in government”: Quoted in
New York Times
, June 29, 1961.

57
“Since I have no greeting card”: Quoted in Goodwin, 195.

57
“when the people of Cuba once more have regained their freedom”: Quoted in
New York Times
, August 17, 1961.

58
“We are the revolutionary generation”: Goodwin papers, JFK Library.

59
“You should have smoked the first one”: Quoted in Goodwin, 202.

59
His enthusiasm for Guevara’s peace feeler: Goodwin papers, JFK Library.

60
Don’t make Cuba a geopolitical obsession: Goodwin, 203.

60
“kid playing with fire”: Quoted in Goodwin, 205.

60
Goodwin’s appearance quickly turned into a “pleasant session”:
New York Times
September 1, 1961.

60
calling on President Kennedy to get rid of the men who had been “wrong from start to finish”: Quoted in
New York Times
, November 13, 1962.

61
“I felt put down”: Laura Knebel oral history, JFK Library. Knebel later reported Kennedy’s provocative comments back to Guevara himself. “I’m going to tell you something funny that President Kennedy said after my last visit here, when he asked me about you,” the journalist confided to Che—an intimate gesture which does indeed seem on the flirtatious side. But Guevara did not want to play along. “He was a dedicated revolutionary not given to personal chitchat,” Knebel later recounted, seeming a tad disappointed. “He had a wife to whom he was devoted, and such frivolities as Kennedy’s remark, I think, were beyond him.” In truth, the womanizing Che’s devotion to his wife was a flexible proposition.

61
“They had never met but were fascinated by each other”: Tad Szulc,
Fidel: A Critical Portrait
, 532.

62
democracy had an “unparalleled power”: Quoted in
New York Times
, December 18,1961.

62
“the most significant turn in U.S. hemispheric foreign policy.”:
New York Times
, July 22, 1962.

63
“Latins were astonished that this young Yankee”: Quoted in Goodwin, 194.

63
“There’s even one from that bastard Somoza”: Ibid, 146.

64
“then I got it from these old-line CIA guys”: Author interview with Goodwin.

64
“our public posture toward Cuba should be as quiet as possible”: Goodwin memo, U.S. State Department,
Foreign Relations of the United States, Vol. X, Cuba: 1961–1962
, 646.

64
“we did not control the Joint Chiefs of Staff”: Author interview with Schlesinger.

65
“something would go wrong in a
Dr. Strangelove
kind of way”: Quoted in
Boston Globe
, July 28, 1994.

66
“like the cockroaches they were”: Gen. Curtis LeMay oral history, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library.

66
The Air Force chief stunned the capital:
Washington Post
, July 19, 1961.

67
“LeMay’s view was very simple”: Author interview with Robert McNamara.

67
“I went out to SAC for a meeting with Tom Power”: Author interview with Carl Kaysen.

68
“A prick like LeMay”: Author interview with Charles Daly.

69
presented the doomsday plan “as though it were for a kindergarten class”: Schlesinger, 483.

69
“The Kennedys used intimidation”: Hanson Baldwin oral history, U.S. Naval Institute.

69
“Nuclear conflict was very much in the air”: James K. Galbraith,
American Prospect
, September 21, 1994.

70
the “little brother” whom Clay said he could “not abide”: Quoted in Beschloss, 333.

71
“tasks many officers pursued with gusto”: Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
Inside: A Public and Private Life
, 95.

71
“General Walker…thought Harvard was the bad place”:
Newsweek
, December 4, 1961.

72
“I feel the general is being crucified”: Quoted in the
New York Times
, September 21, 1961.

72
Walker’s indoctrination program had been endorsed by…General Lemnitzer: Richard Dudman,
Men of the Far Right
, 59.

72
they wondered if there was the…possibility of such a coup: Ibid, 36.

73
“a serious blow to the security of the United States”: Quoted in Fred J. Cook,
The Warfare State
, 266.

73
“If the military is infected with the virus of right-wing radicalism”: Ibid, 270.

74
“the intervention of the military in politics has had disastrous consequences”:
Washington Post
, September 13, 1961.

74
“certain Pentagon brass hats”:
Washington Post
, September 18, 1961.

74
“trapped McNamara”:
Newsweek
, September 18, 1961.

75
the Fourth U.S. Army sponsored a two-day propaganda show:
Washington Post
, September 28, 1961.

75
the Armed Services Committee announced it would subject the McNamara crackdown:
New York Times
, October 6, 1961.

75
suggested a coup was in order: Cook, 265.

75
“you are riding Caroline’s tricycle”: Ibid, 29. When an account of this hostile exchange was later leaked to Kennedy friend Charlie Bartlett, who promptly reported it in the
Chattanooga Times
, Dealey denied that JFK made the icy response. “Bartlett’s quotations are unfamiliar to me,” said Dealey. “I think the whole story was cooked up by the administration.”

76
The president took the “frenzy of the far right a lot less seriously than I”: Vidal, 361.

76
He dispatched Bobby to meet with the Reuther brothers: Rick Perlstein:
Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus
, 149.

77
“a scornful 21-gun presidential blast”:
Los Angeles Times
, November 19, 1961.

78
[JFK] would be forced to confront their passions in a surprising place:
Los Angeles Times
, November 20, 1961.

78
praising Welch as a “dedicated anticommunist”: Dudman, 77 79 “riding on the left wheel all the time”: Quoted in
New York Times
, November 19, 1961.

80
“You must read the University of Washington speech”: Author interview with Sorensen.

80
“General Eisenhower listened intently”:
New York Times
, November 19, 1961.

80
“I don’t think the United States needs super-patriots”: Quoted in
New York Times
November 24, 1961.

81
when he “saw a band of black baboons”: Quoted in Wofford, 371.