Means of Ascent (93 page)

“Now, Bill”
:
Johnson to Deason, undated, “Deason, Willard-KTBC,” Box 21, LBJA SN.

Relationship with staff:
Interviews with Benjamin, Clark, Joseph, Weedin, Hicks, Durrum Robinson, Gwyn, Jenkins, Dodd, Latimer.

No contract:
Mrs. Johnson to FCC, Apr. 4, 1946, Kohlmeier Papers.
“An oral one”
;
“station ownership”
:
Kellam to FCC, Nov. 15, 1949, Kohlmeier Papers.

Relationship with Kellam:
Latimer, Shelton, Clark, Gwyn interviews, For the revealing correspondence between the two men, see “Kellam, J. C.,” Box 22, LBJA SN.
Man on airplane:
Shelton interview.

SOURCES

Books, articles and documents:

Brinkley,
Washington Goes to War
, Burns,
Roosevelt: Soldier of Freedom;
Daniels,
Frontier on the Potomac
and
White House Witness;
Donovan,
Conflict and Crisis
and
Tumultuous Years;
Douglas,
A Full Life;
Dugger,
The Politician;
Goldman,
The Crucial Decade—And After;
Goulden,
The Best Years;
Hassett,
Off the Record with FDR;
Ickes,
Secret Diary
, Vols. II and
III; Sam Houston Johnson,
My Brother Lyndon;
Kearns,
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream;
Manchester,
The Glory and the Dream;
Mann,
La Guardia: A Fighter Against His Times;
McKay,
Texas and the Fair Deal, 1945–1952;
Miller,
Lyndon;
Montgomery,
Mrs. L.B.J.;
Mooney,
The Politicians;
O’Neill,
American High;
Phillips,
The Truman Presidency
and
The 1940s: Decade of Triumph and
Trouble;
Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
and
Sam Rayburn; Texas Almanac
, 1947–48; Truman,
Harry S. Truman
and
Bess W. Truman;
Tully,
My Boss FDR
.

Kai Bird and Max Holland, “The Tapping of ‘Tommy the Cork,’ ”
The Nation
, Feb. 8, 1946; Kenneth G. Crawford, “Everyman in the White House,”
American Mercury
, Feb., 1946; Walter Davenport, “The New White House Boys,”
Collier’s
, Nov. 17, 1945; Arthur Krock, “The President: A New Portrait,”
NYT
magazine, Apr. 7, 1946; Allan J. Lichtman, “Tommy the
Cork: The Secret World of Washington’s First Modern Lobbyist,”
The Washington Monthly
, Feb., 1987; Milton MacKaye, “Things Are Different in the White House,”
Saturday Evening Post
, Apr. 20, 1946; Cabell Phillips, “How the President Does His Job,”
NYT Magazine
, Jan. 4, 1948; Richard H. Rovere, “President Harry,”
Harper’s
, July, 1948.

CBS interview of LBJ by Walter Cronkite, “An Assessment of Harry S. Truman, the Man,” recorded May 7, 1971, LBJL.

Papers of Harry S. Truman (HSTL).

Papers of Tom C. Clark (HSTL).

Papers of Alvin J. Wirtz (LBJL).

Oral Histories:

Sherman Birdwell, Richard Bolling, Paul Bolton, George R. Brown, H. S. (“Hank”) Brown, Emanuel Celler, Oscar L. Chapman, Tom C. Clark, Clark Clifford, W. Sterling Cole, John B. Connally, Ernest Cuneo, Jonathan Daniels, Willard Deason, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Clifford Durr, Clifford and Virginia Durr, Virginia Wilke English, O. C. Fisher, Gordon Fulcher, Arthur (“Tex”) and Elizabeth Wickenden Goldschmidt,
Elizabeth Wickenden
Goldschmidt, D. B. Hardeman, Charles Herring, John Holton, Welly K. Hopkins, Welly K. and Alice Hopkins, W. Ervin (“Red”) James, Walter Jenkins, Sam Houston Johnson, Edward Joseph, Jesse Kellam, David E. Lilienthal, R. J. (“Bob”) Long, John E. Lyle, Jr., Warren Magnuson, George H. Mahon, Dale and Virginia Miller, Dorothy J. Nichols, Frank C. (“Posh”) Oltorf, Wright Patman, Edwin W. Pauley, J. J. (“Jake”) Pickle, W. Robert Poage,
Mary Rather, Ray Roberts, Elizabeth Rowe, James H. Rowe, Jr., Emmett Shelton, Polk and Nell Shelton, George Smathers, Stuart Symington, Grace Tully, Carl Vinson, Warren G. Woodward.

Interviews:

Alan Barth, Rebekah Johnson Bobbin, Richard Bolling, George R. Brown, Horace Busby, Emanuel Celler, Edward A. Clark, Benjamin V. Cohen, W. Sterling Cole, John B. Connally, Nellie Connally, Thomas G. Corcoran, Ava Johnson Cox, Willard Deason, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Lewis T. (“Tex”) Easley, O. C. Fisher, Sim Gideon, Arthur (“Tex”) Goldschmidt, Elizabeth Wickenden Goldschmidt, Ashton Gonella, Estelle Harbin, D. B. Hardeman, Bryce Harlow, Mary
Henderson, Charles Herring, Hardy Hollers, John W. Holton, Alice and Welly K. Hopkins, Edouard V. M. Izac, Eliot Janeway, Walter Jenkins, Lady Bird Johnson, Sam Houston Johnson, Edward Joseph, Eugene J. Keogh, Eugene Latimer, William J. Lawson, Wingate Lucas, Warren Magnuson, George H. Mahon, Margaret Mayer, W. D. McFarlane, Dale Miller, Frank C. (“Posh”) Oltorf, J. J. (“Jake”) Pickle, Mary Rather, Elizabeth and James H. Rowe, Lacey Sharp, Emmett Shelton,
E. Babe Smith, Margaret Truman, James Van Zandt, Tom Whitehead, Harold Young, Mary Louise Glass Young.

NOTES

“You had to ask”
:
Caro,
Path to Power
,
p
. 193.
Coming to realize:
Brown, Clark, Corcoran, Hopkins interviews.
Speculation over 1946 gubernatorial race:
Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
, pp. 226–27; Connally, Jenkins interviews.
“What do you want”
:
Connally interview.
“By
God
”
:
Hopkins interview.

“I was just looking up”
:
William S. White article in
NYT
, Apr. 13, 1945.
“From the Master”
:
Dugger, p. 255.
“Where’s everybody?”
:
Deschler, quoted in
Steinberg,
Sam Rayburn
, p. 226.
“Honey, we’ve got Truman”
:
Nichols OH II.

Truman-Rayburn relationship:
Steinberg,
Sam Rayburn
, pp. 227–35; Donovan,
Tumultuous Years
, pp. 19–20.

Mayflower Hotel luncheon:
CBS Johnson–Cronkite interview, p. 23.
Once a dinner guest:
“1945 Chronology,” Reference File, Jan. 22, 1945, LBJL.
“Those of us who”
:
Johnson to Truman, Apr. 16, 1945, PPF 723, HSTL.
Truman’s reply:
Truman to Johnson, May 5, 1945, PPF 723, HSTL.

FCC:
Houston Harte to Clark, Dec. 14, 1944, Jan. 23, 1945; Clark to Harte, Dec. 19, 1944, Jan. 24, Feb. 1, 1945, Box 4; Albert Jackson to Clark, Aug. 18, 1945, Box 47, Tom Clark Papers, HSTL.
Lobbyist for Safeway;
“tremendous and startling”
:
Quoted in
Current Biography, 1945
, p. 108. Testimony before the Texas Senate Committee showed that after
William McGraw, Clark’s partner in a Dallas law firm, became Attorney General in 1934, the earnings of the law practice, now carried on by Clark alone, increased from $12,000 in 1934
to
$60,000 in 1935 and to $70,000 in 1936, and, as the
Saturday Evening Post
put it, “that Clark had done some lobbying at Austin against a chain-store-tax on behalf of a chain-store system.” Clark was to respond that the Senate
investigation was an attempt by McGraw’s political enemies to smear the Attorney General by attacking his ex-partner (Jack Alexander, “The President’s New Lawyer,”
Saturday Evening Post
, Sept. 29, 1945).
Persuaded Safeway to advertise on KTBC:
Edward Clark to Johnson, Aug. 25, 1944, folder 2 of 4, Box 15, LBJA SN; Clark, Jenkins interviews. Because KTBC’s records have not been opened, the extent of Safeway’s
advertising has not been determined, but during two periods—one in 1945 and one in 1953—for which records are available, the chain sponsored the same fifteen-minute show five days a week (“Advertising schedules—KTBC,” Feb. 18-Mar. 3, 1945, Apr., 1953, RG 173, FCC Records, NA, Washington, D.C.).
Johnson lobbying for Clark:
Tom Clark to Johnson, Nov. 14, 1941, Rowe to Clark, Dec. 1, 1941, Box 9, Clark Papers, HSTL; Johnson to Rowe,
May 11, 1944, Box 32, LBJA SN. On June 16, 1945, Rowe wrote Johnson
about Clark’s appointment: “I think I detect your fine Italian hand in it” (Box 32, LBJA SN).
DT-H
, Feb. 28, Mar. 14, 1944; Corcoran, James Rowe, Harold Young interviews.

“It is a different town”
:
Johnson to Rowe, July 10, 1945, Box 32, LBJA SN. A far reach: Johnson to Matt Connelly, Nov. 6, 1945, PPF Box 150, File 66, “A-W,” HSTL.
“Because of your friendship”
:
Johnson to Truman, Dec. 15, 1945, PPF Box 67, “G to
J,” HSTL. Inscriptions: Connelly to Johnson, folder PPF 66-A(J), Box 1232, GF, HSTL.
Thanks:
Truman to Johnson, Dec. 19, 1945, PPF Box 67, File 9, HSTL.
In Oval Office only once:
Appointment index; Files of Matthew J. Connelly, Presidential Appointments, Box 7, 8; Social Office Card File, Card 8, HSTL; “Contacts with President Truman,” Box 8, WHFN, LBJL.

“You’ve got to have a reason”
:
Rowe interview. Roosevelt’s “spy”: Caro,
Path to Power
, pp. 571–74.

A
“professional son”
:
Caro,
Path to Power
, pp. 145, 150–51, 153, 271, 294, 445, 477, 486–88.
As a professional son with Rayburn:
Caro, pp. 33–34, 452–53, 757–62.
“But Truman had
watched
him”
:
Bolling
interview.
“A pretty sharp judge”
:
Symington interview.
“Never quite trusted him”
:
Margaret Truman interview.

Ickes’ resignation:
See, for example, Donovan,
Conflict
, pp. 181–84.
Truman tapping Corcoran’s telephone:
Bird and Holland, “The Tapping of ‘Tommy the Cork’ ”;
The Nation
, Feb. 8, 1946; Lichtman, “Tommy the Cork.” For a description of the changed atmosphere in Washington, see, for example, Phillips, “Where Are They Now?”
NYT
Magazine
, Sept. 26, 1946.

“First Mother of the Land”
:
Johnson to “Librarian, Grandview Public Library,” Aug. 2, 1947, PPF Box 276, HSTL.
“I regret”
:
Truman to Johnson, Aug. 6, 1947, PPF Box 276, HSTL.
“A
slowly developing”
:
Clifford OH.
Symington relationship:
Symington interview; Symington OH.

A
“farce and a sham”
:
AA-S
, May 23, 1948.
Johnson’s votes on Taft-Hartley Act:
“Complete House Voting Record of Congressman Lyndon Johnson, By Subject, from May 13, 1937 to December 31, 1948,” pp. 233–34, Box 75, LBJA SF.
“Gutted us”
:
Brown, quoted in Miller, p. 114.
Easley interview:
AA
, Apr. 23, 1947.
Starting to believe:
Clark interview.
“He was for the Niggers”:
Brown interview. And Dale Miller, Washington representative of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview: “He gave the impression of being much, much more liberal than he actually was—his manner personified the New Deal—he looked the part: he was
young, dynamic, outgoing. But … he gave a lot more impression of being with the New Deal than he actually was.”

On one cruise:
Guest Book,
USS Potomac
and
USS Williamsburg
, HSTL; CBS Johnson-Cronkite interview, p. 27.
Poker games:
CBS Johnson-Cronkite interview, p. 27. But Symington says, “Johnson was just never part of Truman’s inner circle at all.”
Busby noticed:
Busby interview.
“The first thing he
did”
:
Johnson to Truman, Mar. 20, 1948, Johnson to Truman, Apr. 5, 1948, GF, Box 124, HSTL; Truman to Johnson, Mar. 22, 1948, PSF, Box 288, HSTL;
Chicago Tribune
, Apr. 6, 1948; Busby interview.

Appointed to two new committees:
AA
, Mar. 30, 1944;
Georgetown Sun
, Mar. 31, 1944.
“An able young man”
:
Quoted in Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
, p. 231.

Johnson’s legislative record in House:
Caro,
Path to Power
, pp. 544–51, 658–59.

He and Magnuson had talked:
Magnuson interview; Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
, p. 140.
Resentment among other congressmen:
Van Zandt, Izac, Lucas, Mahon, Fisher, Keogh, McFarlane, Cole interviews. See also Ray Roberts, quoted in Miller, p. 76. For his standing on Capitol Hill over this period, including the time when he had been able to funnel contributions to other congressmen, interviews with the above congressmen and
with Douglas, Celler. Also Douglas, Magnuson, Poage OHs. Also congressional staff members, such as Lucas (later a congressman), Sharp, Jenkins, S. H. Johnson. Also persons who observed Congress, including Barth, Easley, Corcoran, Holton, Brown. The gratitude of other congressmen in 1940 is described in Caro,
Path to Power
, pp. 655–59.
Smathers not
“aware”
:
Quoted in
Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
, p. 235.
“Just could not
stand
it”
:
Harbin interview.
“He never spoke”
:
Douglas OH, interview.
Take me to the Johnson School:
Harlow, Jenkins interviews. For a different description of Harlow’s second run-in
with Johnson, see Evans and Novak, p. 20.
“Don’t wait”
:
Robert B.
Semple, Jr., “Nixon’s Inner Circle Meets,”
NYT
Magazine, Aug. 3, 1989.
“Respected to the point”
; “It takes courage”:
Lynne Cheney, “A Quality
of Judgment,”
Washingtonian
Magazine, Apr., 1985.
“Lyndon would maneuver”
:
Harlow interview.
“After Abe got”
:
Douglas interview.