KC Johnson

60yrs ago today, LBJ & Rep. George Shipley (D-IL)--a swing downstate district congressman & the 218th signature on the DC home rule bill discharge petition.
LBJ: "You're free, if you want to, to say that I called you...& thanked you for performing a noble public service."

60yrs ago today, LBJ & CT senator Abraham Ribicoff, on LBJ's commitment to the alliance with Israel.

LBJ: "I have really saved [Israeli PM Levi Eshkol] and gone to bat on his equipment and stuff. I've done it quietly--and, I think, quite effectively."

60yrs ago today, brief clip of Appropriations chair George Mahon (D-Texas) reporting in that House agreed to foreign aid appropriations measure, quelling opposition by cutting LBJ's request.
LBJ: "I think you're a good man and a great man and even in defeat I salute you."

60yrs ago today, LBJ congratulates Supreme Court nominee Abe Fortas for receiving a unanimous vote from the Judiciary Committee (which included Jim Eastland, John McClellan, & Strom Thurmond).
Fortas' confirmation ultimately would be a pyrrhic victory for 1960s liberals.

60yrs ago today: LBJ (cryptically) tells Abe Fortas (who had disclaimed interest) that he'd be named to the Supreme Court, replacing Arthur Goldberg.

The Goldberg-for-Fortas substitution would set into motion a chain of events that eventually helped cost liberals SCOTUS control.

60yrs ago today, LBJ & House Majority Leader Carl Albert, on liberal efforts to expand the Voting Rights Act to include a ban on poll taxes (a provision the AG beleved was unconstitutional).
LBJ: "I think, after being here for 35 years, that the Constitution varies with the justices a good deal."

60yrs ago today, LBJ & Everett Dirksen, on Latin American affairs & a US military intervention in the Dominican Republic.
LBJ complains about Senate liberals: "Now, it's true that the sob sisters--I see that some of the extreme liberals are thinking that we are throwing our weight around."

60yrs ago today, LBJ and TX congressman George Mahon, on Senate criticism of his Vietnam policy.
LBJ: "I honestly believe if we could go 90 days in this country without their [DRV] thinking we're going to throw in the towel, I think we could get some kind of a negotiated settlement in Vietnam."

60yrs ago today, LBJ & Appropriations Committee chairman George Mahon, on the President's $700M supplemental appropriations bill for Vietnam.
LBJ: already has mandate from Tonkin Gulf Resolution, but this a "master stroke" to tie Congress to administration.

60yrs ago today, amidst the crisis in the Dominican Republic, LBJ & John Bartlow Martin, on the possibility of a US intervention to promote the candidacy of Jose Rafael Molina.

(LBJ has a severe cold here...)

60yrs ago today, LBJ & Thomas Mann, on unrest in the Dominican Republic (to which the US shortly would send troops).
LBJ: "How much did we know about all of this, Tom?"

60yrs ago today, LBJ tells Dean Rusk he wants to name future HHS Secretary Patricia Harris ambassador to "some Scandinavian country or Luxembourg" (where she wound up).
LBJ: "I've been talking to these women--I want to move them up. Women and negroes."

60yrs ago today, Robert McNamara dampening LBJ's enthusiasm about Vietnam prospects.
McN: policy objective to show that DRV can't win in the South--"It won't be that the South Vietnamese could win...I wouldn't say very encouraged but it's a change from a sharp downward trend."

60yrs ago today, LBJ & Harry Truman--with LBJ complaining that Truman's DNC head (Frank McKinney) was complaining about the ambassadorship LBJ had offered (Jamaica).

LBJ ends the call (which isn't of the greatest quality) w/a slight at Senator William Fulbright.

60yrs ago today, LBJ & the Baltimore Sun's Phil Potter, with LBJ complaining about Foreign Relations chair William Fulbright.
LBJ: "Fulbright philosophizes, and...he's a great man...He just doesn't want to take anything that's real tough."

60yrs ago today, LBJ & Wilbur Cohen, on the Medicare bill (to be introduced in the House the following day).
LBJ approves of the deductible requirement: "That keeps your hypochondriacs out."

60yrs ago today, LBJ (partly worried about being dragged into Israeli internal debates & concerned as always with Golda Meir) overrules Dean Rusk & promises firm commitment for military aid to Israel rather than just an expression that the US would view a request sympathetically.

60yrs ago today, LBJ & Dean Rusk, minimizing claims of a US escalation in Vietnam.
LBJ: "That [Tonkin Gulf] resolution is our policy, and that is our authority...It's a pretty broad policy...I'd keep those 502 congressmen right chained to me all the time with that resolution."

60yrs ago today, LBJ urges Robert McNamara to cite the Tonkin Gulf Resolution if any member of the Senate expresses concerns about the VN escalation.
LBJ: "it so happens in this instance that Congress has expressed itself very definitely, and here's what it has said--period."

With US aid to Israel back in the news:
60yrs ago: LBJ & Abe Feinberg--LBJ's OK with more aid to Israel if coupled with some aid to Jordan & he isn't dragged into Israeli politics.
LBJ: "I can’t imagine [Golda Meir] getting off [the plane] with a suitcase without somebody saying, 'Why?'"

60yrs ago today, LBJ & Arkansas senator Willam Fulbright--LBJ trying to maintain the relationship admist press reports that Fulbright felt "snubbed" on Vietnam. Invites the FRC chair to the White House right away.

60yrs ago today, LBJ & Don Cook. discussing patronage job--but one that wouldn't require Senate confirmation--for son of NY Dem Committeeman Eddie Weisl.
LBJ: "I do not want to ask Bobby Kennedy to support this confirmation on something at this stage of the game."

60yrs ago today, LBJ asks GA senator Richard Russell for advice on whether to name his preferred choice (Abe Fortas) as AG.
Russell: "Mr. President, I don't know what the situation is going to be next year,...but right now, if I were in your shoes, I'd appoint the man I wanted."

60yrs ago today, LBJ phones Gerald Ford to congratulate his election as House Minority Leader.
LBJ claims to reject the idea that "it's the duty of the opposition to oppose"--and pushes for Republican support of his program.

60yrs ago today, LBJ asks MLK for assistance in building public support for the voting rghts bill.
LBJ: Find the worst abuses and "get it everyplace you can. Pretty soon the fella that didn't do anything but drive a tractor will say, 'That's not right, that's not fair.'"

60yrs ago today, LBJ & Walter Reuther, regardng tensions b/w Senators Proxmire & Nelson on a WI judicial vacancy.
LBJ: "A few of the little Kennedy cult like to make it appear that I'm a corn pone, a guy that doesn't recognize excellence. So I want my appointees to be the best quality I can get!"

60yrs ago today, LBJ & Robert McNamara, w/LBJ worried about dinner party gossip that he was trying to blame JFK for Vietnam.

LBJ presses McNamara to say on background, "I [McN] assume full responsibility for everything, and don't ask anybody else to take it, including President Kennedy."

60yrs ago today, Very entertaining LBJ clip, as LA senator Russell Long wants $$ for a post office in Shreveport.
LBJ: "I sure as hell ain't for that Shreveport crowd,...and you can't be, either. You just can't! You had a little touch of marijuana or something this morning."
cc: @robertmannbooks.com

60yrs ago today, LBJ & NYS party chair Eddie Weisl, on judicial nomination of Gustave Rosenberg--backed by NYC major Robert Wagner but opposed by RFK.
LBJ: "W/Democratic senators from a state--whatever state it is--I've got to listen to [Jim] Eastland in Mississippi. I haven't got any other choice."

60yrs ago today, LBJ & Ted Kennedy, w/LBJ on the political dangers of projected costs.
LBJ: "My health program yesterday runs $300million. But the fools had to go to projecting it down the road five or six years...We don't want to stir up any more hornets than we have to."