The Passage of Power (147 page)

In her notes (June 15, 1964), Mrs. Johnson says that at The Elms that night, “I think I remember Lyndon having Secret Service protection for Lynda and Lucy. I think I called Lynda when I got home. She had gone to stay with the Connally children. It may have been the next morning when I called” (“Mrs. Johnson’s Notes”).

Asked Youngblood to have them found:
“Kivett Statement,” p. 2.

Cliff Carter:
“Kivett Report,” p. 2.
“We didn’t know”
:
Thornberry OH; Brooks interview.

Asked Youngblood to send an agent:
Johns to Rowley,
“Statement regarding events in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 22, 1963 (hereafter identified as “Johns Report”), p. 2, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL.

“Mr. Johnson asked me”
:
Kellerman Statement, March 9, 1964, “Hearings,” Vol. II, Commission Exhibit 1024, pp. 725–27; “Kellerman Report,” pp. 2, 3.

“Lyndon and I didn’t speak”
:
“Through it all, Lyndon was remarkably calm and quiet” “Lady Bird Transcript,” p. 2.

“All through”
:
Thornberry OH.
“I did not think”
:
Emory Roberts to Rowley, Subject: Schedule of Events prior to and after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on Friday Nov. 22, 1963, p. 1, “Report of the U.S. Secret Service,” “Secret Service Reports,” Box 3, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL.
The Secret Service wanted:
Carter OH IV; “Youngblood Testimony,” p. 158; Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
pp. 116–17.

Johnson did not agree:
“Roberts Report,” p. 5; “Affidavit of Clifton G. Carter,” May 20, 1964, “Hearings,” Vol. III, p. 475.
“Well, we want”
:
Brooks OH I.
He wouldn’t leave:
“Youngblood Testimony,” pp. 152, 153; Emory Roberts Testimony, “Hearings,” Vol. XVIII, pp. 4, 5.

“Every face”
;
“Always there was Rufe”
:
“Lady Bird Transcript,” p. 2. She was to recall that later, on the plane, he said that “The Service had never lost a President,” and “I felt so sorry for the way they felt” (“Mrs. Johnson’s Notes, p. 2).

“Face of Kenny”
:
“Lady Bird Transcript,” p. 2.

Then, at 1:20;
“He’s gone”
:
“Statement of President Lyndon B. Johnson,” July 10, 1964, Vol. V, p. 563, “Hearings.” “It was Ken O’Donnell, who, at about 1:20 p.m., told us that the President had died,” Johnson said. In transcript, CBS News Special, “LBJ: Tragedy and Transition,” May 2, 1970, p. 5; when Cronkite asks, “Who brought that word [‘He’s gone’] to you?,” Johnson replies, “Kenneth O’Donnell.” Secret Service Agent Johns says he heard O’Donnell “inform Vice President Johnson that President Kennedy had died” (TO: Chief FROM ASAIC Thomas L. Johns, Vice Presidential Detail, SUBJECT “Statement regarding events in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963,” p. 3, “Secret Service Reports, Box 3, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL). Emory Roberts says he informed Johnson of Kennedy’s death at 1:13, “Roberts Report,” p. 5. And Carter Affidavit, “Hearings,” Vol. III, p. 475.

“That Kennedy had been shot”
:
Sackett interview.
One decision:
Lambert, Sackett interviews.
“I told him”
:
Lambert, Graves interviews.

No one thought to notify; secretary
“burst into”
; Reynolds said,
“You won’t need these”
:
Mollenhoff,
Despoilers of Democracy,
p. 299; Rowe,
Bobby Baker Story,
p. 86. In 2003, Van Kirk said that he had been called out of the hearing room while Reynolds was testifying “to be told that Jack Kennedy had been killed.… I knew that if I went back in and told Don Reynolds that Lyndon Johnson was the new President, he’d clam up, so I just went back in and said nothing and we continued the questioning for another two or three hours and I tried to get every bit of information out of him I could.” But that was forty years after the event, and Mollenhoff, who was working closely with him and with Senator Williams in November 1963, said in a book published in 1965 that no one in the room knew about the assassination until “shortly after 2:30 P.M., Washington time, “a woman secretary burst into the room, sobbing almost hysterically. As Reynolds and the interrogators looked at her in surprise, she cried: ‘President Kennedy has been killed!’ At first they thought it was a joke—a bad joke.” Curtis said that that was his understanding of what had occurred. Sy Hersh, after his interviews with Van Kirk, wrote that Reynolds was still being questioned at 2:30 P.M. when a secretary burst into the hearing room with the news from Dallas.” (He also quotes Van Kirk as telling him in an interview with Hersh, “There’s no doubt in my mind that Reynolds’ testimony would have gotten Johnson out of the vice presidency” [Hersh,
Dark Side,
p. 446]).

Baker releasing Fortas:
Baker,
Wheeling,
p. 160.

“And right then”
;
“very little passed”
:
Thornberry OH.
“Quiet”
:
Rather interview.

Change in demeanor:
Brooks interview, OH; Thornberry OH; “Transcript from Mrs. Johnson’s tapes relating to November 22, 1963,” Special Files, Assassination, LBJL (hereafter referred to as “Lady Bird Transcript”).
“Set”
:
Brooks interview.
“Almost a graven”
:
“Notes taken during interview with Mrs. Johnson,” June 15, 1964, p. 4, LBJL (hereafter cited as “Mrs. Johnson’s Notes”).

Still urging:
“To: Chief; From: SAIC Youngblood—Vice Presidential Detail; Subject: Statement of SAIC Rufus W. Youngblood, Vice Presidential Detail (office 1–22), concerning details of events occurring in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963,” Nov. 29, 1963 (hereafter referred to as Youngblood to Chief); “Emory Roberts to Rowley, Subject: Schedule of Events prior to and after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963,” p. 1, U.S. Treasury Department (hereafter referred to as “Roberts Report”), “Secret Service Reports,” both Box 3, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL; Carter OH IV; “Testimony of Rufus Wayne Youngblood, Special Agent, Secret Service,”
Hearings Before the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, Washington, 1964,
Vol. II (hereafter referred to as “Youngblood Testimony”), p.158; Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
pp. 116–17.
“We’ve got”
:
Manchester,
The Death of a President,
p. 233; Roberts Report, pp. 3, 4.

Was “disturbed”
:
Holland,
The Kennedy Assassination Tapes,
p. 14.

“Part of a far-ranging”
:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 123.
“A fear that”
:
Charles Roberts OH I.
“Sir, … we
must
”
:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 118.
“That in my opinion”
:
“Testimony of Kenneth P. O’Donnell,”
Hearings,
Vol. VII, p. 451.
“We’ve got”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 233.

Johnson reached:
Johnson,
The Vantage Point,
p. 9; Carter, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon,
p. 314; Brooks OH, interview.
Announced it as quickly:
“Emory and I were in complete agreement on this point, but Lyndon Johnson was shaking his head even before I finished speaking,” Youngblood recalls (Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
pp. 116–20). Brooks recalls him saying, “Well, we want to get the official report on that [Kennedy’s condition] rather than some individual” (Brooks interview).
When O’Donnell said:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 118.
“Adamant”
:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 117.

“mentioned … the attempt”
:
NYHT,
Dec. 24, 1963; Kilduff, in his OH, JFKL, says “Johnson’s reaction was going back to Lincoln, too.”

He and Youngblood agreed:
Youngblood Report, p. 5.

“Quick plans”
:
“Lady Bird Transcript,” p. 3.

“The most decisive”
:
“Mrs. Johnson’s Notes,” p. 4.

To ask Johnson’s permission;
“Mr. President”
;
“He reacted”
;
“No”
:
David Wise,
“Revealed—Johnson’s Delay of Death News,”
NYHT,
Dec. 24, 1963; “Awful Interval,”
Newsweek,
Jan. 6, 1964; Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 119; “Lady Bird Transcript,” p. 3; Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 221. Youngblood’s
Twenty Years
(p. 119) has “He was the first to address him by the title.”
Delay in announcement:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 119, and Kilduff account in
Newsweek,
Jan. 6, 1964.
“By now”
:
After Johnson left Parkland, Kilduff went to the press room and made the official announcement of Kennedy’s death. But when asked about Johnson’s whereabouts, he told the reporters that “out of ‘considerations of security,’ he couldn’t say” (
Newsweek,
Jan. 6, 1964).

Making his dispositions:
Brooks OH I; Jesse Curry OH; Valenti OH II.

“Homer, you go”
:
Brooks interview.

In a rush:
Stoughton interview; Richard B. Trask, “The Day Kennedy Was Shot,”
American Heritage,
Nov. 1988.
“Getting out”
:
“Lady Bird Transcript,” p. 3.
Pierpoint caught:
Newseum, with Trost and Bennett,
President Kennedy Has Been Shot,
p. 96.
“We weren’t thinking”
:
Charles Roberts OH.
Suspecting:
Stoughton interview.

Seating arrangements in car:
Thornberry OH; Youngblood to Chief, p. 5; “Youngblood Testimony,” p. 153; Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 122.
“Let’s don’t have”
:
Thornberry OH I.
“The swiftest”
:
“Lady Bird Transcript,” p. 3.
“Suddenly there before us”
:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 121.
“Practically ran up”
:
Youngblood to Chief, p. 6.

“I want this kept”
:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 123. Kivett says, “At first the Vice President was put in the bedroom; however he said this was in bad taste and he moved up to the sitting room.” “Statement by Jerry D. Kivett concerning the events of Nov. 22, 1963,”
Report of the U.S. Secret Service on the Assassination of President Kennedy,
U.S. Treasury Department, p. 3, Box 3, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL (hereafter referred to as “Kivett Statement”).
“Very real indeed”
:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 123.

Thornberry argued for Washington, Thomas and Brooks for Dallas:
Brooks interview, OH I; Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 269.
“Suppose”
:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 125.
“I took the oath”
:
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson,
p. 170.
“Very much in command”
;
“I agree”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 267.

He wanted privacy:
Fehmer OH, interview; Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 123. When Johnson, during his retirement, was giving direction to the ghostwriters of his memoir, he told them: “I was in the President’s bedroom. Hell, I was President.… I don’t see any difference in the bedroom and the sitting room. He wasn’t going to sleep in the bed and I was trying to talk to [Robert] Kennedy and take pills and locate the Judge and do all these things I had to do.… I don’t think I would be apologetic about it” (Johnson, “Reminiscences of Lyndon B. Johnson,” August 19, 1969, transcript of tape recording, pp. 4, 5, OH Collection, LBJL).

“For millions”
:
Johnson interview with Doris Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson,
p. 170; “Statement of President Lyndon B. Johnson,” July 10, 1964, Vol. V, p. 563,
Hearings
(hereafter referred to as “Johnson Statement”).

Hickory Hill scene:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy and His Times,
pp. 607–8; Manchester,
Death of a President,
pp. 256–59; Morgenthau interview.
Johnson-Bobby calls:
Youngblood to Chief, p. 6; “Youngblood Testimony,” p. 154. Fehmer, Katzenbach interviews.

“I wanted to say something”
:
“Johnson Statement,” p. 563. See also Johnson,
Vantage Point,
p. 13.
“In spite of his shock and sorrow”
:
Johnson,
Vantage Point,
p. 13. Johnson said Bobby was “very businesslike, although I guess he must have been suffering more than almost anyone except Mrs. Kennedy” (Johnson, recorded interview by Walter Cronkite, CBS News Special, May 6, 1970, quoted in Shesol,
Mutual Contempt,
p. 115).

Kennedy’s accounts;
“a lot of people”
:
O’Donnell, Powers, and McCarthy,
“Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,”
pp. 35–36.
“Do you have any objection”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 269.
“I was too surprised”
:
O’Donnell and Powers,
“Johnny, We Hardly,”
p. 37.
“I was sort of taken aback”
:
Quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy,
p. 609.
“They want”
;
“No, not necessary”
;
“anyone who can”
:
Katzenbach,
Some of It Was Fun,
p. 130.
“Absolutely stunned”
;
“He could have”
;
“he may have wanted”
;
“Calling Bobby”
:
Katzenbach interview.
“Frankly appalled”
:
Katzenbach,
Some of It,
p. 131.