Six Crises (79 page)

*
Senator Kennedy was briefed on Cuba by CIA representatives on July 23, 1960, at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Press accounts at the time characterized this briefing as a “nothing withheld rundown” on the “two hotspots, Cuba and the Congo.” The New York
Times
on July 24, reported “ . . . Such secret information as was added to the Senator's fund of knowledge about world affairs will remain secret. But it provides guidance for his campaign utterances dealing with foreign policy and defense and it puts him on the same footing as the administration's candidate, presumably Vice President Nixon.”

However, after the publication of the first edition of this book, the White House issued a statement on March 20, 1962, denying that the two and one-fourth hours briefing covered any United States operation relating to Cuba.

On March 21, I made the following statement: “Because the Cuban issue was such an important one in the campaign, I personally researched the facts relating to it. The statements in my book,
Six Crises,
were based not only on the public press accounts of the briefings President Kennedy received during the campaign in 1960, but on personal conversations with responsible individuals who had knowledge of the facts.

“President Eisenhower has authorized me to state that following the practice he had established in 1956 he had given instructions that in regard to U.S. intelligence activities abroad, Senator Kennedy was to be as fully briefed on our foreign problems as I was.

“Beyond this I have no further comment. My book speaks for itself.”

6
This speech was prepared with the assistance of Jim Shepley, the head of my research group, who rates as an expert on the subject of atomic development.

7
One of the American Bar Association's
Canons of Professional Ethics,
which govern the conduct of attorneys, provides that “a lawyer should not communicate or argue privately with the Judge as to the merits of a pending cause, and he deserves rebuke and denunciation for any device or attempt to gain from a Judge special personal consideration or favor.”

8
One of our major financial contributors, W. Alton (Pete) Jones, expressed the same thought to me this way a few weeks later. “This was just like a horse race. When you bet on a horse and he loses by a nose after being bumped in the stretch, you are disappointed. But you figure you've had a good run for your money.”

9
Months later, as I was writing this book, she was to tell me, “That was the saddest day of my life.”

10
The difference in the personalities of our two girls, who are in many ways, of course, very much alike, was illustrated by their reactions to the motion picture,
King of Kings.
Julie exclaimed, “It was wonderful! I cried so much.” Tricia said, “I didn't cry when Christ died—He had suffered so much. I cried during the Sermon on the Mount because it was so beautiful.”

11
“The Ambassador,” of course, was Mr. Hoover's way of referring to Joseph P. Kennedy, the President-elect's father and one-time Ambassador to Great Britain.

12
Tricia's reaction was similar. When I was in Washington briefly in May, right after the Cuban disaster, Kennedy asked me to come to the White House to discuss the situation. I first learned that he wanted to see me when I came back to the house after a visit to the Capitol and found a message for me by the telephone. It was in Tricia's handwriting and read: “JFK called. I knew it! It wouldn't be long before he would get into trouble and have to call on you for help.”

13
The answer, of course, to Edwards' charge, assuming it has some validity, is that the fault was mine for failing to get across my views more effectively to the press. As far as “fairness” of coverage is concerned, my attitude is summed up by a statement Governor Munoz-Marin made when we visited Puerto Rico in 1955. Mrs. Munoz-Marin, at dinner, had complained bitterly about what she thought was a particularly unfair attack on her husband in one of the San Juan papers. She turned to Pat and said, “Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get up in the morning and not have to read such unfair attacks on our husbands?” Munoz-Marin responded quickly, “No, it wouldn't. Above everything else, a free press is the greatest guarantee of our freedom. And if the press is to be truly free, those who write have a right to be unfair. Because who is to judge what is fair or unfair? Only the readers have that right.”

14
Cardinal Cushing and I have enjoyed a personal friendship which goes back several years. When I called on him in Boston in 1955, after my first trip to Latin America, he greeted me with the Spanish word
“tocayo”
which means, in effect, “your name is the same as mine.” His first name, of course, is Richard.

15
It was Tom Dewey who had urged me to delay any decisions with respect to the future for at least sixty days after the election. “This is one area where I can speak as an expert,” he said. “A candidate who has lost an election for the presidency, after all he has gone through in the campaign, is literally in a state of shock for at least a month after the election. He should make no decisions of importance until after that period has passed.”

16
An interesting sidelight is that Earl Adams, senior partner in the firm with which I am now associated—Adams, Duque & Hazeltine of Los Angeles—had offered me a position in that firm fifteen years before. At that time I was running for Congress and the prospects were not bright. He was one of my earliest supporters and he told me one day that he wanted me to have the assurance in the back of my mind, should my candidacy fail, that a position in his firm would be available for me. It was an extremely thoughtful gesture on his part at that time and my association with his firm now, therefore, became a very natural and pleasant one.

Abt, John,
3
,
39

Achilles, Theodore,
195
,
197
–98

Adams, Earl,
424
n
.

Adams, Sir Grantley,
187

Adams, Sherman,
155
,
158
,
163
,
232
;

   and “fund,”
87
,
89
,
92
,
100
;

   and heart attack,
145
,
147
,
148
;

   and stroke,
170
–71,
173

Adelson, Bill,
295
n.

Adenauer, Konrad,
239
Akalovsky (interpreter),
253
,
256
,
276
–77

Albania,
265
,
266

Albright, Robert,
342

Alcorn, Meade,
351

Allen, George E.,
136

Alsop, Joe,
344
,
359

Ampex Company,
253

Anderson, Dillon,
148

Andrews, Bert,
20
,
23
,
41
,
48
–49,
64
,
69
,
86
,
122
;

   on Democratic reporters,
91

Annenberg, Walter,
231

Appell, Donald,
15

Arbuthnot, Ray,
393

Argentina, Nixon's trip to,
183
,
188
–91

Arias Espinosa, Ricardo Manuel,
168
–69

Arnold, Henry,
397

Atomic test ban,
269
–70,
361

Ball, Don,
192

Barcella, Ernie,
258
,
262

Barkley, Alben,
417

Barmine, Alexander,
242

Bassett, Jim,
78
,
81
,
85
,
92
–94,
101
,
107
–8,
118
–19,
125
;

   in 1960 campaign,
329
,
330
,
337

Baughman, U. E.,
210

Benson, Ezra Taft,
141
,
333
–34

Bentley, Elizabeth,
2

Berle, Adolf A., Jr.,
4

Bernbaum, Maurice,
195
,
197
,
207
–8

Bernstein, Leonard,
209

Berry, Frank M.,
210

Betancourt, Romulo,
223

Bewley, Tom,
98

Blaik, Earl,
417

Blair, William,
150

Bliss, Ray,
322

Bobst, Elmer,
418

Bolivia, Nixon's trip to,
192

Bowles, Chester,
348
,
408

Brashear, Ernest,
74

Bricker, John,
233
,
318

Bridges, Styles,
149

Brinkley, Dave,
382
,
384
,
391

Brown, Edmund (Pat),
383

Brownell, Herbert,
75
,
89
,
177
;

   and Nixon's visit with Rockefeller,
314

Buchanan, Frank,
298

Bullitt, William C.,
53

Bunche, Ralph,
350

Burma, Nixon's trip to,
201
n
.

Burns, Arthur E.,
309
–10

Burroughs, Charles R.,
212

Bykov, Colonel,
57
–58

Byrnes, James F.,
369
,
415

Campbell, Alex,
47
,
60

Captive Nations Resolution,
247
,
250
–52,
253

Carpenters Union,
337

Carroll, Peter,
142
Castro, Fidel,
see
Cuba

Catholic University (Peru),
197
,
203

Catledge, Turner,
238

Central Intelligence Agency,
210
;

   and Cuba,
352
,
354
;

   Nixon's evaluation of,
408
;
see also
Dulles, Allen

Chambers, David Whittaker,
2
–63;

   attempts suicide,
56
;

   confronts Hiss,
31
–37,
41
–44;

   dies,
61
;

   documents produced by,
47
–56;

   his last letter to Nixon,
425
;

   Hiss denies charges by,
5
–9,
23
–29;

   indictment threatened,
58
–59;

   on “Meet the Press,”
44
;

   visited by Nixon,
21
–23,
46
–47;

   as witness,
2
–5,
8
,
15
–18,
57
–58

Chambers, Mrs. David Whittaker,
28
,
50

Chancellor, John,
380
–82

Checkers (Nixon's dog),
103
,
115
,
125

China, Khrushchev on,
265
;

   Nixon-Kennedy debates on,
345
–48;

   recognition of Red China,
408

Chotiner, Murray,
78
–80,
82
,
84
–87,
90
,
92
–96,
99
,
109
–12,
121
,
123

Civil rights,
325
,
362
–63;
see also
Negroes

Clay, Lucius,
89
;

   wants Eisenhower to run for re-election,
162
–63

Cole, Sterling,
48

Collingwood, Charles,
382
–83

Collins, Henry,
4
,
39

Colombia, Nixon's trip to,
185
,
208
–9

Communism: in Argentina,
189
–90;

   Communist methods should not be used to fight Communism,
65
–66;

   exposed by Hiss case,
61
–69;

   “liberalists” and,
67
;

   Nixon's general evaluation of,
281
–83,
287
–91;

   in Peru,
193
–206,
209
,
231
n
.;

   public attitude toward after World War II,
13
;

   on responsibility of foreign service to fight Communism,
207
;

   in Uruguay,
187
–88;

   in Venezuela,
209
–27,
213
–32;
see also
Chambers, David Whittaker; China; Khrushchev, Nikita; U.S.S.R.

Congress: function of investigative committees,
14
;

   Kennedy's opinion on,
409

Considine, Bob,
238
,
254

Cook County, Illinois: alleged election frauds in,
391
,
412
,
419

Cox, Dorothy,
56

Cronkite, Walter,
380
,
383

Crosley, George,
see
Chambers, David Whittaker

Cuba, invasion of,
352
,
354
,
406
n.;

   Nixon-Kennedy debate on,
351
–57

Cushing, Richard Cardinal,
421

Cushman, Robert E., Jr.,
194
,
195
,
197
,
207
,
375
,
414

Daly, John,
390

Dannenhauer, Jane,
367

Dannenhauer, Rita,
367
,
375

Dawes, Charles G.,
131

De Gaulle, Charles,
426

Del Sesto, Christopher,
234

De Toledano, Ralph,
393

Dewey, Thomas E.,
316
,
381
;