The Passage of Power (141 page)

As President Kennedy:
Bird,
The Color of Truth,
p. 227.
Shocked disbelief:
Robert Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 27.
In favor of quick action:
Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 31.
“You have any”
:
TPR—John F. Kennedy,
Vol. II, September–October 21, 1962, p. 415.

“The question”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. II, pp. 415–16.

Joint Chiefs advocated:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. II, p. 428; Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 36.

“I don’t think”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. II, p. 422.
“We had to be sure”
:
Sorensen, pp. 675, 676.

“Any premature disclosure”
:
Sorensen,
Kennedy,
p. 676.
He and the Vice President:
Sorensen,
Kennedy,
p. 686.
“I don’t think”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. II, p. 454.
“The first word”
:
Darden interview.
“A monumental sense”; Wayne Morse episode
:
Caro,
Master,
p. 199.

“I have a Grumman”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. II, p. 427.

“Blur” of “the crucial meetings”
:
Sorensen interview, Sorensen,
The Kennedy Legacy,
p. 109.

“I now know”
:
Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 31.
“Rather impassioned”
;
“a Pearl Harbor in reverse”
:
Sorensen,
Kennedy,
p. 684.
“I could not accept”
:
Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 37.
“For 175 years”
:
Leonard C. Meeker, memorandum of Oct. 19, 1962, meeting of [ExComm], quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 509.

“We spent more”
:
Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 39.
“very much surprised”
:
George Ball, quoted in Stein and Plimpton, eds.,
American Journey,
p. 135.
“with an intense and quiet”
:
Douglas Dillon, quoted in Stein and Plimpton, eds.,
American Journey,
p. 136.
“Decisive”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 510.
Dean Acheson felt;
“moved by”
:
Acheson, quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 508.

“Inhibited”
:
Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 33. “During these deliberations, we all spoke as equals,” he says (p. 46). “There was no rank, and, in fact, we did not even have a chairman.… As a result, the conversations were completely uninhibited and unrestricted. Everyone had an equal opportunity to express himself and to be heard directly. It was a tremendously advantageous procedure that does not frequently occur within the executive branch of government …”
“the most vivid”
:
Sorensen,
Legacy,
p. 686.
On Saturday; Bobby, sitting on pool edge:
Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 47.

“In considerable detail”
:
John McCone, “MEMORANDUM FOR THE FILE—Meeting with the Vice President on Oct. 21, 1962,” Oct. 22, 1962, quoted in
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III—Oct. 22–28, 1962, p. 7.

“I’ve been afraid”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III—Oct. 22–28, 1962, p. 467.

“That is one launch pad …”
:
Arthur Lundall (Assistant Director, Photographic Interpretation, Central Intelligence Agency) in
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, p. 187.

“It’s a very dangerous”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, p. 191.
“This was the moment”
;
“His hand went up”
:
Robert Kennedy’s handwritten notes, RFK Papers, quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 514. Schlesinger notes that a “somewhat rewritten and polished” version of this is in Robert Kennedy’s
Thirteen Days,
pp. 68–71.
“Inexplicably”
:
Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 70.
A messenger:
Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 71.

Reading Tuchman:
Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 62.
“Check first”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, p. 200.
And in fact:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, p. 191.

“There were”
;
“After further heated”
;
“We don’t want to push him”
:
Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 73–76.

A cable clattered;
“very personal”
;
“Mr. President, we and you”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, pp. 349–55.
“For the first time”
:
Kennedy,
Thirteen,
p. 91.

“Frequently”
:
Robert Kennedy memorandum, Nov. 16, 1962, quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 525.
“Mr. President”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, p. 72.
“I think”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, p. 86.
Every congressional leader; Lyndon Johnson had not said a word:
“5:30–6:30 P.M., Meeting with the Congressional Leadership on the Cuban Missile Crisis,”
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, pp. 58–91.
Kennedy was jolted;
“the most difficult”
:
“he was upset by the time the meeting ended,” his brother says. Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
pp. 53, 55.

“Our hopes”
;
“raising”
:
Sorensen,
Kennedy,
p. 712.

Since the Jupiters:
Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 94.
“Great injury to NATO”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 519.

“The most difficult”
:
Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 93.
There were indications; The Russian Ilyushin-28 bombers:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, p. 356. Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 94.
McNamara said:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, p. 357.
The Joint Chiefs delivered:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, p. 437. “Well, I’m surprised,” Robert Kennedy laughed when he heard the recommendation (p. 438).

The President kept postponing; ignoring the second letter:
Sorensen,
Kennedy,
pp. 714–16;
Counselor,
pp. 301–2; Sorensen interview; Schlesinger,
A Thousand Days
pp. 828–29; Schlesinger interview; Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
pp. 101–4.
He left Sorensen drafting:
Sorensen interview.

“A U-2”; from all along; “I think tomorrow”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, pp. 446–50.
“Immediate retaliation”
;
“The hawks, dreaming”
:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 520.
“almost unanimous”
;
“It isn’t”
:
Ken-nedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 98.
When he re-turned;
“Gentlemen”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, p. 452.

“Radio and TV reports”
; and the exchange with Robert Kennedy:
pp. 464–65.
“Since then”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, pp. 464–65.
“I don’t say it’s a lie”
:
p. 465.
“Did we get off”
:
p. 466. Johnson’s statements are on
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, pp. 469–77.
Interrupting Rusk:
For an example, see p. 466.
“I guess”
:
p. 476.
“Look, the weakness”
:
p. 470.
“He’s [Khrushchev] got to get a little blood”
:
p. 474.
“I think you’re”
:
p. 469.
“This ought to start”
:
p. 469. All from
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III.

“A very substantial”
:
p. 478.
“It would probably”
:
p. 480.
“They’ve upped”
:
p. 478.
“We can’t very well”
:
p. 481.
Johnson interrupting;
“It doesn’t mean just”
:
p. 481.
“Bite to eat”
:
p. 482. All from
TPR–JFK,
Vol. III.

A quiet word;
“Lyndon Johnson was not”
:
Sorensen interview.
He had his dinner downstairs:
Sorensen,
Kennedy,
p. 716.

“One part”
;
“The moment Rusk”
:
Bundy,
Danger and Survival,
p. 484.
The nine men … swore themselves:
Sorensen interview. “We agreed without hesitation that no one not in the room was to be informed of this additional message,” Bundy says (p. 484). President Kennedy’s decision to limit attendance implied to those of us present that it was a move about which the other members of ExComm did not need to know,” Sorensen writes (
Counselor,
p. 302). “Their deliberations would remain secret for the next twenty-five years, until McGeorge Bundy described them in his memoir … 
Danger and Survival,
” Evan Thomas writes (
Robert Kennedy,
p. 227).
“The potential”
:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 228.

“I said that”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, pp. 486–87. Also see Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 108, and Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 521–52.
“I thought it was my last meal”
:
O’Donnell, Powers, and McCarthy,
“Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,”
p. 394.

“Chilled”
:
Sorensen interview.
“The hawks were rising”
;
“ ‘All I know’ ”
:
Sorensen interview. He has a slightly different version of Johnson’s words in
Counselors,
p. 304, and in Shesol,
Mutual Contempt,
p. 97. Johnson’s words are not on the tape. Sorensen says that the tape recorder hadn’t been turned on because President Kennedy had not entered the room to turn it on. A gap in the tapes, before President Kennedy entered the room, is on
TPR–JFK,
p. 490, of Vol. III.

“Do anything about”
:
p. 490.
“If our planes”
:
p. 492.
“Let me say, I think”
:
p. 492.
“It’s just a question”
:
pp. 494–95.
“Yes, we can wait”
:
p. 497. All from
TPR–JFK,
Vol. III.
“Give them that last chance”
:
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, on p. 508 of
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III.
“But”
;
“With respect for you, Khrushchev”
:
TPR—JFK,
Vol. III, p. 517.
Everyone stood up:
Sorensen,
Kennedy,
p. 717. In a later book he said “everyone stood up and applauded,” but when the author took him through the events of that day, he said it as I have written it.
“A trace”
:
Sorensen,
Kennedy,
p. 717.

This was the night:
Kennedy,
Thirteen Days,
p. 110; Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 525.
“With what we were doing”
:
RFK, memorandum, Nov. 15, 1962, quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 525.
“He said after”
:
Bartlett OH, JFKL.

“You must know”
:
Jacqueline Kennedy to Sorensen, quoted in
Counselor,
pp. 248–49.

“Together with some”
:
“Memorandum for the Vice President, from the Attorney General,” undated.
When, however, on December 17th:
Winnie to Col. Burris, Dec. 17, 1962.
“The happy, joyful”
:
Robert Kennedy to Johnson, Jan. 16, 1963. All from “Kennedy, Robert F. and Family [1957–1964 and undated], Box 6, WHFN.

“After the”:
Lincoln,
Kennedy and Johnson,
p. 185.
“One saw”
;
“He seemed”
;
“appeared”
:
Schlesinger,
A Thousand Days,
pp. 1018–19.
“I hate”
:
Lincoln,
Kennedy and Johnson,
p. 188.
“The vice presidency is filled”
:
Johnson interview with Kearns,
Lyndon Johnson,
p. 164.
Finland trip:
Rowan,
Breaking Barriers,
pp. 227–29.
“Like a fool”
:
McPherson, in Smith,
Grace and Power,
p. 368–69.
“It would be a rich treasure”
:
Miami Herald,
March 17, 1963.
what ever happened:
Ward Just,
The Reporter,
Jan. 17, 1963.
“ ‘Power is’ ”
:
Time,
Feb. 1, 1963.
Candid Camera
:
James Presley, “What Is an LBJ?”
Texas Observer,
Oct. 18, 1963.

Never faded;
“Johnson projected”
:
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson,
p.200.
“He came”
:
Johnson, “Reminiscences of Lyndon B. Johnson,” Aug. 19, 1969, transcript of tape recording, OH Collection, LBJL.
“They literally”
:
Richard Goodwin, Walton interviews.
“Jack Kennedy’s”
:
Baker,
Wheeling and Dealing.
“He couldn’t be”
:
Gonella interview.
“the no. 2”
:
Paul O’Neill, “The No. 2 Man in Washington,”
Life,
Jan. 26, 1962; “Role of Robert Kennedy: No. 2 Man in Washington,
USN&WR,
July 10, 1961; and “What Makes Bobby Run,”
Time,
March 18, 1963.