Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years (No Series) (76 page)

142
Bobby said that…[Hoover] was…a “menace to democracy”: Quoted in Jack Newfield,
Somebody’s Gotta Tell It, A Journalist’s Life on the Lines
, 162.

143
“He’s rather a psycho”: Quoted in Summers,
J. Edgar Hoover
, 323.

143
we “thought we could control him”: Edwin O. Guthman and Jeffrey Shulman, editors,
Robert Kennedy In His Own Words
, 134.

143
the Kennedy brothers knew Hoover “wore funny clothes”: Author interview with Kenny O’Donnell Jr.

143
“I think you should know that [the Kennedys] are fags”: Quoted in Salinger oral history, JFK Library.

144
“something at the core of our society was beginning to rot”: Quoted in Sheridan, xxxi.

144
some studios were under the direct control of the Mafia: Ibid, xv.

144
One star…told the screenwriter he was afraid: Ibid.

145
He confronted the military man with…evidence of his treason: Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II,
Seven Days in May
, 313.

146
Knebel…got the idea…after interviewing…LeMay:
New York Times
, February 28, 1993.

147
“Stock, do you think I’ll be assassinated?”: Blair interview with Grant Stockdale’s widow, Blair papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming. Stockdale himself met a tragic end ten days after Kennedy’s assassination when he fell to his death from his thirteenth floor Miami office. He did not leave a suicide note but his friend, Senator George Smathers, said he was deeply depressed by JFK’s death. Some assassination researchers, however, have suggested that he was pushed out his office window because he knew too much about his friend’s murder. Before his death, Stockdale was caught up in a scandal with Washington lobbyist Bobby Baker, with whom he was partners in a vending machine company that had government contracts. The company was also tied to mobsters, including Sam Giancana. The day before he died, an anxious Stockdale spoke with his attorney, William Frates. “It didn’t make much sense. He said something about ‘those guys’ trying to get him. Then about the assassination.” 147 Knebel was sharply challenged by [Kennedy] on the facts: Knebel oral history, JFK Library.

148
“Kennedy wanted
Seven Days in May
to be made as a warning”: Author interview with Schlesinger.

148
“The Pentagon didn’t want it done”: Quoted in Schlesinger, 450.

149
JFK “was really interested in the facts of the project”: Sinatra interview, 1988 video release of
Manchurian Candidate
.

149
“The Secret Service was alarmed”:
Look
, November 19, 1963.

149
The studio yanked the ad:
Variety
, December 4, 1963.

150
“The world is on too short a fuse”: Quoted in
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
, March 5, 1964.

150
Quoting…Arleigh Burke to support his case:
Los Angeles Times
, February 6, 1964.

150
Melvin Laird…called for the movie to be clearly labeled fiction:
Variety
, May 13, 1964.

150
American democracy “as an excitingly perilous arena”:
New York Times
, September 14, 2003.

150
“Paranoia only exists if the circumstances are totally untrue”: HBO Web site interview with John Frankenheimer, http://www.hbo.com/films/pathtowar/artist_inter views.shtml.

151
Could a military coup really happen here?: Fay, 162.

151
“I haven’t had such an interesting time since the Bay of Pigs”: White House recording quoted in Jonathan Rosenberg and Zachary Karabell, editors,
Kennedy, Johnson and the Quest for Justice: The Civil Rights Tapes
, 66.

152
“Stay right by Meredith”: Ibid., 78.

153
“Guthman’s so scared”: Ibid., 71.

153
“Well, you know what happened to those guys”: Quoted in Guthman, 204.

154
“we could have a hell of a battle”: Rosenberg, 65.

154
“Damn army!”: Ibid., 73.

155
“we…didn’t have the foggiest idea where the town of Oxford was”: Unpublished Henry Gallagher memoir, courtesy of Gallagher.

155
“I would think they’d be on that fucking plane in about five minutes”: Rosenberg, 74.

155
“People are dying in Oxford!”: Quoted in Doyle, 233.

156
“We are very panicked by all this right now”: O’Donnell oral history, courtesy of Helen O’Donnell.

157
“I could not believe I was on the campus”: Quoted in Doyle, 237.

158
“There was no discussion of Walker’s rights”: Califano, 105.

158
“The president, angry and distraught, goes home”: O’Donnell oral history.

159
“The problem with you people”: Quoted in Rosenberg, 31.

159
“I’m afraid that the moral passion is missing”: Quoted in Wofford, 129.

159
“If Khrushchev was running against Kennedy”: Quoted in
New York Times
, August 4, 1963.

159
white Southerners would embrace “another Civil War”: Quoted in
New York Times
, October 7, 1962. Faulkner himself embodied the South’s deep psychological and moral divisions over race. He knew that the region’s racial apartheid was a stain that had to be removed, but he appealed for more time. “Let us sweat in our own fears for a little while,” he wrote in 1956. If he were forced to take a stand at that moment, declared Faulkner, he would “fight for Mississippi against the United States even if it meant going out into the streets and shooting Negroes.” But it is unlikely he would ever have taken up arms for the South’s dying order. A year later, following the federally enforced integration of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, Faulkner observed in a letter to the
New York Times
that “white people and Negroes do not like and trust each other and perhaps never can.” But, he added, “what is important and necessary and urgent…is that we federate together, show a common unified front, not for dull peace and amity, but for survival as a people and a nation.”

160
“Later I told the troop of my call”: Quoted in Doyle, 312.

160
primitively racist artifacts: Oxford leaflets and pamphlets, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy files, JFK Library.

161
“One preacher let me into his church”: Author interview with Symington.

162
“I was there as a soldier”: Quoted in Doyle, 295.

162
“I just hope the song could be heard”: Quoted in Perlstein, 169.

163
“I thought it was rather ridiculous”: General David Shoup oral history, JFK Library.

163
LeMay…had been advocating a preemptive nuclear strike on Russia: Thomas M. Coffey,
Iron Eagle: The Turbulent Life of General Curtis LeMay
, 331.

163
LeMay…recommended that the U.S. “fry it”: Dino A. Brugioni,
Eyeball to Eyeball: The Inside Story of the Cuban Missile Crisis
, 265.

164
“Can you imagine LeMay saying a thing like that?”: Quoted in O’Donnell and Powers, 318.

164
LeMay bluntly declared that “we don’t have any choice except direct military action”: White House recording, quoted in Ernest R. May and Philip D. Zelikow, editors,
The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis
, 113.

166
“what LeMay said is almost out of
Seven Days in May
: Author interview with Sorensen.

166
“you’re screwed”: May, 122.

166
pouring out in a torrent of “insubordination”: Author interview with Sorensen.

167
“I was sitting next to Bob McNamara in Havana”: Author interview with Schlesinger.

167
The Joint Chiefs…“were certain that no nuclear warheads were in Cuba”: Quoted in “On the Brink: The Cuban Missile Crisis,” JFK Library panel, October 20, 2002.

167
“There isn’t any learning period with nuclear weapons”: Quoted in
New York Times
, October 14, 2002.

168
“I don’t give a damn what John Paul Jones would have done”: Quoted in Max Frankel,
High Noon in the Cold War: Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Cuban Missile Crisis
, 127.

168
“Mr. Secretary, you go back to your office”: Admiral George Anderson oral history, Naval Institute.

169
the agency began leaking information about the missiles to friendly reporters like Hal Hendrix: Corn, 114.

169
“Of course, I was furious”:
Robert F. Kennedy In His Own Words
, 378.

169
“Harvey has destroyed himself today”: Quoted in Thomas,
The Very Best Men
, 291.

169
“McCone felt it would be appropriate to move Harvey”: FBI memo, October 30, 1962, NARA record number 124-90092-10010.

170
“Who was Brutus?”: Quoted in Trento, 253.

170
Harvey continued to stay in touch with his old Mafia comrade: Rappleye, 225.

170
Johnny Rosselli was a man of “integrity as far as I was concerned”: Harvey testimony, Church Committee, June 25, 1975.

170
“Thank God for Bobby”: Quoted in Dave Powers oral history, JFK Library.

170
“What…gives…any government the moral right”: Quoted in Schlesinger, 529.

171
Bobby Kennedy “was almost crying”: Nikita S. Khrushchev,
Khrushchev Remembers
, 551.

171
“JFK had a great capacity to resist pressures from the military”: Author interview with Schlesinger.

171
“we had felt there was a danger that the president would lose control of his military”: Khrushchev, 552.

172
“It’s the greatest defeat in our history!”: Quoted in Beschloss, 544.