The Passage of Power (156 page)

“The whole idea”
:
Wickenden interview.

“Under the budget”
:
“Texts of Johnson’s State of the Union Message and His Earlier Press Briefing,”
NYT,
Jan. 9, 1964.
Johnson had added”
:
“For the President … 3,007 words,” Box 92, Statements of Lyndon Baines Johnson, LBJL.

“The tumultous [
sic
]”
:
Marquis Childs, “Johnson’s Program,”
NYP,
Jan. 9, 1964.
“persistent reports”
:
NYT,
Jan. 9, 1964.
“Almost”
;
“promises”
:
NYT,
Jan. 9, 1964.
“Republicans”
:
WP,
Jan. 9, 1964.
“remarkable”
:
Krock column,
NYT.
“President Johnson’s first”
:
NYT, Time.
“Reinforced”
:
NYP,
Jan. 9, 1964.

“The stunner”
:
“A Bold Gamble by the President,”
Newsweek,
Jan. 20, 1964.
“a near miraculous”
:
WP,
Jan. 9, 1964.

“No one”
:
NYT,
Jan. 9, 1964.
“At least one”
:
Cater, “Politics of Poverty.”
“In launching”
:
Walter Lippmann, “Today and Tomorrow,”
WP,
Jan. 9, 1964.
“Once before”
:
“A Bold Gamble by the President,”
Newsweek,
Jan. 20, 1964.
Where, as a small boy:
Caro,
Path,
p. 69.

“Searching for Harry Byrd”
:
Johnson, Lady Bird,
A White House Diary,
p. 35.

“Locked up”
:
Transcript, “8:21 P.M. to Kermit Gordon,” Jan. 6, 1964,
TPR,
Vol. III, pp. 208–09.
“I’ve got a surprise”
:
Heinemann,
Harry Byrd of Virginia,
p. 400.
“I congratulate”
:
Statesville Record & Landmark,
Jan. 9, 1964.
“I appreciate”
;
“that was”
:
Transcript, “3:25 P.M. to Harry Byrd,” Jan. 8, 1964,
TPR,
Vol. III, p. 292.
“Speed–up”
:
NYT,
Jan. 10, 1964.
“High gear”
:
WP
, Jan. 15, 1964.
“footrace”
:
WP, Jan. 17, 1964.

“Harry started”
:
MacNeil interview.

“Secret ally”
:
Evans and Novak,
Lyndon B. Johnson,
p. 375.
“Stunned”
:
TPR,
Vol. III, p. 728.
“In a panicky”
:
Transcript, “12:34 P.M. from George Smathers,” Jan. 23, 1964,
TPR,
pp. 737–41.
His solution would require; Anderson, Ribicoff, Hartke telephone calls:
Transcripts, “1:05 P.M. to Clinton Anderson,” “1:11 P.M. to Vance Hartke,” “1:14 P.M. to Abraham Ribicoff,” all Jan. 23,
TPR,
Vol. III, pp. 741–47. The call to Anderson lasted 33 seconds, the call to Hartke, one minute and 47 seconds, the call to Ribicoff, three minutes and 31 seconds, a total of five minutes and 51 seconds (Online Finding Aid for Description of Recordings and Transcripts of Johnson Telephone Conversations,
http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/dictabelt.hom/dictahist.asp
).
“I hope”
;
“Well, I want to tell you”
;
“That Harry Byrd”
;
“You make them”
:
Transcripts, “1:17 P.M. to Harry Byrd,” “Late afternoon from Harry Byrd to White House operator,” “5:40 P.M. to Harry Byrd,”
TPR,
Vol. III, pp. 748–50, 768–70.

“The clock is ticking”
:
WP,
Jan. 10, 1964.
“Startled officials”
:
Evans and Novak,
LBJ,
p. 375.
“Record time”
:
WP,
Jan. 29, 1964.
Passed:
NYHT, NYT, WP,
Feb. 8, 1964.

The reductions … were a key:
This will be analyzed in volume V of this work.

“The undercurrent”; But Celler
:
UPI in
Redlands
(Calif.)
Daily Facts.
Smith slowing down the hearings;
“going over”
:
NYT,
Jan. 23, 1964. “Under the leadership of … Smith … and Colmer the Rules Committee is now cross-examining members of the Judiciary Committee, obviously for the purpose of deciding for itself whether it likes this measure,” the
Times
had editorialized on Jan. 18th.
“after seven days”
:
NYT,
Jan. 23, 1964.

Johnson told; Only 178:
Transcript, “11:50 A.M., to Larry O’Brien,” Jan. 18, 1964,
TPR,
Vol. III, p. 618.

Republican leaders;
“reluctant to take it away”
:
NYT,
Jan. 23, 1964.
“I said, ‘If I were you, Charlie’ ”
:
Transcript, “Time Unknown—Office Conversation,” Jan. 25, 1964,
TPR,
Vol. III, p. 879.
“He wants to know”
:
Transcript, “12:55 P.M. to James Webb,” Jan. 18, 1964,
TPR,
Vol. III, pp. 622–23.
“I showed him”
:
Transcript, “3:30 P.M. from James Webb,” Jan. 21, 1964,
TPR,
Vol. III, p. 694.

The following day;
“All during”
:
NYT,
Jan. 23, 24, 1964.
“I have been here”
:
NYT,
Jan. 24, 1964.
“Very happy”
:
NYT,
Jan. 26, 1964.
“Congress … is moving”
:
Childs,
WP,
Feb. 10, 1964.

“They can filibuster”
:
Dallek,
Flawed Giant,
p. 169.
McCullough had;
“we … not give away”
:
Katzenbach,
Some of It Was Fun,
p. 139.
One tenet:
Katzenbach,
Some of It,
p. 120.
Robert Kennedy had:
Katzenbach,
Some of It,
pp. 121, 122; Katzenbach interview.
Dirksen had promised;
“he obviously”
;
“expected President Johnson”
:
Katzenbach,
Some of It,
pp. 129, 141, 143; Katzenbach interview.
“This bill will”
:
Katzenbach OH II, JFKL. In an interview, Katzenbach said that in 1964, “I’m sure that Everett Dirksen” agreed to go along with the bill “because he was sure that Johnson was going to give things up [agree to amendments and compromises that would weaken the bill]—after all, he knew what Johnson had done in the past. Well [this time] Johnson wasn’t going to give anything up. And Dirksen got himself committed on that bill before he realized Johnson wasn’t going to give anything up.” And Katzenbach also said, “Dirksen did the job. He had to do it. He had come out so publicly for civil rights. Because he thought Johnson would water it down” (Katzenbach interview).
And now
“he obviously wanted”
:
“Civil Rights: Debate in the Senate,”
Time,
April 10, 1964; “The Congress: A Falling-Off among Friends,”
Time,
April 17, 1964; “Civil Rights: At Last, a Vote,”
Time,
May 15, 1964; MacNeil,
Dirksen,
pp. 233–34; Solberg,
Hubert Humphrey: A Biography,
pp. 223, 225; MacNeil interview; Katzenbach,
Some of It,
p. 131.
“under [President] Kennedy”
:
Evans and Novak,
Lyndon B. Johnson,
p. 378.
Dirksen was confident;
“expected President Johnson”
:
See Katzenbach interview above.

Compromises had always been a key element:
See Caro,
Master of the Senate,
passim.
“We knew”
:
Talmadge, quoted in Mann,
The Walls of Jericho,
p. 400; Talmadge, Dent interviews.
“I am in favor”
:
Solberg,
Hubert Humphrey,
p. 223.
“No wheels”
:
Dallek,
Flawed Giant,
p. 117.
“I knew”
:
Johnson interview with Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson,
p. 191.
“No compromises”
:
Goodwin,
Remembering America,
pp. 257–58.

“I’ll do”
:
Guthman and Shulman, eds.,
Robert Kennedy: In His Own Words,
pp. 211–12; Katzenbach interview.
Counting:
For example, Manatos to O’Brien, Feb. 27; April 13, Office Files of Mike Manatos, JFKL.

“You have this great opportunity now”
:
Humphrey, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon,
p. 368.
“I would have been”
:
Humphrey,
The Education of a Public Man,
p. 274.
Russell
“knew
all
”
:
Humphrey,
Education,
p. 274.
“Sized me”
:
Humphrey OH III, LBJL.
Now, however (he learned the rules):
“Cracking the Whip for Civil Rights,”
Newsweek,
April 13, 1964; Mann,
Walls of Jericho,
pp. 396–98.

A series of Russell maneuvers:
Territo to Jenkins, Feb. 26, 1964, LE / HU 2, Nov. 22, 1963–June 18, 1964, Box 65, “EX LE/HU,” LBJL.
Quorum calls had always:
Caro,
Master,
passim; Watson,
Lion in the Lobby,
p. 608; Mann,
Walls of Jericho,
p. 397.
Only once:
Humphrey,
Education,
p. 279.
“a veritable”
:
Humphrey,
Education,
pp. 275, 279.
“Now you know”
:
Humphrey OH III.
“He had a sense”
:
Humphrey,
Education,
p. 276.
“He is a man”
:
Humphrey on
Meet the Press,
March 8, 1964, quoted in Mann,
Walls of Jericho,
p. 395; Humphrey OH III.

“Of the greatest importance”
:
Humphrey,
Education,
p. 273.

Protection:
Calvin Trillin, “Letter from Jackson,”
The New Yorker,
Aug. 29, 1964.
A Cleveland rabbi:
Friedman, ed.,
The Civil Rights Reader,
p. 203.
“The officers forced me”
:
Bessie Turner, quoted in Friedman, ed.,
Civil Rights Reader,
p. 200.
“A mob might form”
:
Trillin, “Letter from Jackson.”

“You couldn’t”
;
“This was”
;
“Just wait”
;
“I hope”
:
All from Mann,
Walls of Jericho,
pp. 412–13.
He went in:
Mann,
Walls of Jericho,
p. 417. O’Brien had reported to the President that Humphrey felt Katzenbach and Humphrey, among others, have been negotiating over the language of amendments that Dirksen has proposed, and that “Dirksen feels that that [his meeting with Johnson] would present him an opportunity to discuss this directly with you” (Transcript, “5:50 P.M. to Larry O’Brien,” April 28, 1964,
TPR,
Vol. VI, pp. 281–82). But Johnson, shortly before Dirksen arrives, tells Mansfield, “I’m going to tell him [Dirksen] that I support a strong civil rights bill.… I’m going to say, ’Now, these details can’t be decided down here in the White House …” (Transcript, “11:32 A.M. to Mike Mansfield,” April 29, 1964,
TPR,
Vol. VI, pp. 325–26).
“You say”
; Dirksen going in:
NYHT,
April 29, 30, 1964. Mann,
Walls of Jericho,
p. 417.
To reporters’ questions:
Mann,
Walls of Jericho,
p. 417. As the Whalens put it (
The Longest Debate,
p. 173), “Having learned … that the President was not going to make any deals, Dirksen decided it was time to talk with Humphrey and company.” “He made it clear to everybody that … he wouldn’t substitute anything for it; that if they filibustered, they could filibuster, but he didn’t want
any other
bill” (Rauh, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon,
p. 369). The
NYT
reported that Johnson and Dirksen did discuss the civil rights bill.
“All I know”
:
Whalen and Whalen,
Longest Debate,
p. 169.
In reality:
Mann,
Walls of Jericho,
p. 431.
“Battlefield briefings”
:
Whalen and Whalen,
Longest Debate,
p. 170.

Johnson took:
Explaining that passing a civil rights bill in the Senate required, as Watson puts it, “a force the Senate would respect,” NAACP Lobbyist Clarence Mitchell said, “The President supplied that force” (Watson,
Lion in the Lobby,
p. 596). “Humphrey was Mitchell’s liaison with the President,” Watson writes. “But Johnson still maintained regular contact with Mitchell by calling him at his home … to … issue marching orders” (Watson,
Lion in the Lobby,
p. 600). Watson reports that Russell was to say that Johnson “put so much pressure on everybody there wasn’t any doubt about this bill getting through” (Watson,
Lion in the Lobby,
p. 626).

“I couldn’t argue”
; Exceptions began:
Whalen and Whalen,
Longest Debate,
pp. 178, 202.
Johnson and Hayden:
Udall to Johnson, May 7, 1964, “LE/HU 2—Interior,” LBJL. And see all “LE/NR 7–1, Central Arizona Project.” “The Historic Vote: 71 to 29,”
Newsweek,
June 22, 1964; Mann,
Walls of Jericho,
p. 427.