Master of the Senate (239 page)

Validity difficult:
Reedy, in his books,
Lyndon B. Johnson: A Memoir
and
The U.S. Senate
, in his oral histories and in his interviews with the author, sometimes seems to
feel that a filibuster could be beaten, and, at other times, that it couldn’t. On p. 144 of
LBJ
, for example, he writes: “There was sufficient Southern strength in the Senate to kill this measure by filibuster. Legislative victory for civil rights was possible only if they were persuaded that the cost of successful obstruction would be too high.” In his OH III, p. 15, he says, “I don’t think a filibuster could have been broken because the southerners all by themselves couldn’t sustain one, but they would have enough allies in the western states to have kept it going indefinitely.” On June 2, 1982, he wrote an eleven-page letter to Michael L. Gillette, then Chief of Acquisitions and Oral History Programs at the LBJ Library, to clarify his views. In it (p. 4) he states that the senators “from the former Confederate states … unquestionably had the power to defeat—through any fillibuster—any or all Civil Rights proposals and there was no prospect whatsoever of shutting off their fillibuster through a cloture move.” And Reedy was also to write (in
Lyndon B. Johnson
, p. 84) that “His capacity to exaggerate liberal strength in talking to conservatives and conservative strength in talking to liberals was little short of outrageous.”

No need to filibuster:
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, p. 149.
“We’re up against”:
Dent interview.
“Felt”:
Zagoria interview.
“Down deep”:
Zweben interview.

“In private conversations”; “some leeway”; “he deliberately”:
Reedy OH V, pp. 10, 11. And during one interview with the author, Reedy said, “He now [by 1957] had the southerners under sufficient control that they understood that he had to do something on civil rights if he was ever going to become President. And if they had gone this far, they might as well go the rest of the way.” In his oral history interviews with the Johnson Library, Reedy said, “I
know
that he was deliberately using the fact that he might be President as one of the ways of buying elbow room from the southern Democrats. That I know. Because I wrote too many memos that he used and too many speeches and everything else based on that assumption” (OH V, p. 13—italics in original). “He used this feeling; he played on it; this was a deliberate tactic of his,” Reedy said.

“He was running”; “he made them think”:
Yarborough interview.
“Johnson would be”:
Talmadge, quoted in
AC
, Feb. 20, 1959.
“Strom really”:
Barr interview.
“I think”:
Thurmond OH.

“Johnson felt”:
McPherson,
A Political Education
, p. 153.
“Johnson argued”:
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, p. 148.
“We’re talking”:
Dent interview.
“Johnson deplored”:
Mooney,
LBJ
, pp. 49, 50.
“You have”:
East-land to Johnson, Aug. 11, 1956, Box 43, LBJA CF.
Actively:
“Sen. Eastland …yesterday put Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson at the top of his list for the Democratic presidential nomination”:
WS
, July 10, 1959.
Supported for presidency:
Wilkinson, p. 250.
Stennis:
Face the Nation
, transcript, Jan. 6, 1959.
Robertson:
Robertson to Johnson, Aug. 29, 1958, Box 53, LBJA CF.

“At first”:
Talmadge interview. In his memoir,
Talmadge: A Political Legacy
,
A Politician’s Life
, Talmadge wrote (pp. 192, 193) that when Johnson became President, “It came as quite a surprise to me that he would become a crusader for civil rights.” Although Johnson “shifted his loyalties from the Southern bloc to the national party” after he became Majority Leader, “still, Lyndon seemed more of a follower than a leader on this issue….
We thought that in his heart Lyndon was still one of us”
(italics added).

“LBJ’s whole gambit”:
Dent interview.
“I think”; “these guys”:
Goldsmith interview.
“Have been debated”:
Goldsmith,
Colleagues
, p. 65.
“We’ll do”:
Byrd, quoted in McConaughy to Williamson, July 31, SP.
Anderson telling:
Evans and Novak, p. 24.
R
EPORT
B
EING
:
NYP
, Jan. 12.
“The Senate’s”:
NYHT
, Jan. 12.
Even stranger:
Newsweek
, Jan. 21; Douglass Cater, “How the Senate Passed,”
The Reporter
, Sept. 5; “Washington,”
Atlantic Monthly
, March 1957.
“Floor debate”:
Newsweek
, Jan. 21.

“This story”:
Russell’s handwritten note on White’s article in
NYT
, March 25, “Winder Materials 10, Civil Rights,” RBRL.
“Dream bill”:
Rauh, in interview conducted by Katharine Graham, p. 26.
Most hurtful:
Rauh interview with author; McCulloch interview.
“In the course”:
Miller,
Lyndon
, p. 208.
“Frustration”:
Reedy,
LBJ
, p. 111.

“Was hailed”:
NYT
, Jan. 5.
“We got”:
Shuman OH.
“In 1953”:
Shuman interview.
“We made”:
Douglas, quoted in
NYT
, Jan. 6.
“Raised”:
Time
, Jan. 21.
“Generation-old”; “As they”:
Newsweek
, Jan. 21, Jan. 14.
“There should”:
Time
, Jan. 21.

“Civil Rights”:
LLM, Box 2, Jan. 8, DDEL.
“No trouble”:
Minnich, LMS, Box 4 (handwritten notes), Jan. 8, DDEL.
“No question”; “Unequivocably”:
CR
, Jan. 9, p. 312;
Congressional Quarterly
, Jan. 11, p. 61; Watson, p. 361.
Couldn’t stop it:
Congressional Quarterly
, March 1.

Hennings and Judiciary:
Javits with Steinberg,
Javits
, pp. 324–26; Howard E. Shuman, “Senate Rules and the Civil Rights Bill: A Case Study,”
APSR
, Dec. 1957, pp. 955–75,
particularly pp. 961–65;
CR
, 85/1, pp. 6191–94; Mitchell to Wilkins, Jan. 22; Jackson, M. D., “Telephoned messages from Clarence Mitchell—Apr. 29,” NAACP III A73 (Civil Rights Legislation), NAACPP, LC; McCulloch, Reedy, Shuman interviews;
WP
, Jan. 23.
“Have hearings”:
Knowland, in Minnich, LMS, Box 4 (handwritten notes), Jan. 8, DDEL.
Eastland now:
NYT, WP
, Jan. 23;
WS
, Jan. 22, 24.
“Very”:
W P
, Jan. 31.
“The soft-spoken”:
Wicker,
W-SJ
, March 15.
“I will not”:
WS
, Jan. 13.

Length of sessions:
Joint Committee on Printing,
Congressional Directory
, 106th Cong., S. Pub. 106–21, Washington, GPO, pp. 530–31.
“If you wait”:
Reedy OH VII, p. 16.
“They’d come back”:
Johnson, in Beschloss,
Taking Charge
, p. 85.

Senate would not:
Johnson, quoted in
NYT
, May 1.
“Therefore”:
Reedy OH VII, pp. 15, 16.
Administration’s list:
NYT, NYHT
, July 14.
“I am waiting”: “Why can’t?”:
Morse, Chavez, quoted in
Time
, March 11.
“The 85th”:
NYHT
, Feb. 14.

Tone changing:
Minutes, “Supplementary Notes,” and Minnich’s handwritten notes of Legislative Leadership Meetings, Jan. 23, 29, Feb. 5, March 5, 12, 26, April 2, Bi-Partisan Legislative Meeting, Feb. 20, “Pre-Press Conference Notes,” March 7, Box 5, DDEL. And see
W P
, Feb. 15,
NYT, WP
, Feb. 19,
NYT
, Feb. 22, 27, 28.

Eastland’s generosity:
Best is Wicker,
W-SJ
, April 2, April 16; Pearson in
WP
, April 28.
“Sen. Knowland again”:
Minnich, LMS, Box 4, April 9, DDEL.
“It is always”:
NYT
, April 11. See also
NYT
, April 23.
“In serious”:
WP
, April 28.
“Quite right”:
Drummond, in
NYHT
, April 29.
“There is need”:
WP
, May 5.
“Everything”:
Cotton in
WP
, April 28.

Johnson losing hope:
Corcoran, Reedy, Rowe interviews.
“There was”:
Reedy OH, interview.

“It is expected”:
“Legislative Leadership Meetings,” May 1, 14, 21.
Hennings raised:
WP
, May 5; Wicker,
W-SJ
, May 14.
Eisenhower’s leadership:
NYT
, May 23.
“Senate leaders”:
WP
, May 22.
“Still in control”:
Wiley in
NYHT
, May 14.
May 13th exchange:
CR
, 85/1, pp. 6782–84;
NYT
, May 14.
“Far from”:
Williams, “The Legend of Lyndon Johnson,”
The Progressive
, April.
Arvey interview:
For example, in
FWS-T
, May 26.
“Impossibility”:
Reedy interview.
“More remote”:
Reedy,
LBJ
, p. 109.

“A change”:
Bolling interview.
“Something changed”:
Siegel interview.

Lyndon Johnson’s need to believe in arguments he was making was explained to the author by, among many others, George R. Brown, Edward A. Clark, John Connally, Thomas G. Corcoran, Ava Johnson Cox, Sam Houston Johnson, Joe Kilgore, Frank C. (Posh) Oltorf, and James H. Rowe Jr.

“He was”:
SHJ.
“What convinces”:
Johnson interview with Doris Kearns Goodwin, quoted in Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, p. 124.
“Would quickly”:
Talking about Johnson’s “credibility problem” as President, Joseph Califano writes that it “was exacerbated because LBJ became the most gullible victim of his own revisionist claims.” Citing an example of Johnson’s coming “to believe” a certain story even though “what he was saying …was clearly not true,” Califano writes that he “had witnessed the authentic increase in the President’s conviction each time he recited it” (
Triumph
, pp. 174–75, and see pp. 99–100).
“I believe”:
Reedy,
LBJ
, pp. 2, 3.
“He was an emotional man”:
Clark interview.

“‘The problem’”:
Kilgore interview.
“I remember”:
Bethine Church interview.

A new story:
There are many versions of Johnson telling it. This one is the version Johnson himself gave in his memoir,
Vantage Point
, pp. 154–55, 160. Eugene Williams, in his oral history interview, recalls Johnson demanding, “Gene, I want an answer.”
Probably about 1951:
In his OH, p. 7, Williams says, “Then in ’51, I would make the drive twice a year…. At this time, he asked me to take Beagle with us.” But, Williams makes clear, although he explained to Johnson why he was reluctant to do so, and was excused from taking the dog, they still had to make the drive twice a year: “From here to [Texas] and back twice a year…. I would go from here [Washington] to the ranch and from the ranch back here…. I remember one night …I won’t forget. I believe Zephyr was with us. We got into Knoxville, Tennessee, I guess, around ten o’clock. I guess it was one o’clock that night before we could find a place to sleep. You know, things like that. So that’s most of the experience I had, from here to Texas and back on those kind of deals.” Saying that Johnson’s three black employees began making the drive to Texas “about 1950 or ’51, I guess,” Jenkins said that after they expressed reluctance to take Beagle, they no longer had to do so, but that they continued to drive the Johnsons’ car back and forth each year. Asked how long they did so, he said he couldn’t recall exactly but that they did so “all
through the Senate period, so far as I can recall. And thereafter.”
“I just wouldn’t go”:
Wright OH, p. 7. She says, “I wouldn’t go to Texas for ten years; I just wouldn’t go.” It is impossible to date her refusal exactly, but Jenkins says it came “quite early on, as I remember.”
McPherson’s description:
McPherson OH.
“Made him angry”:
Califano, p. 53.

A civil rights:
Coffin, “How Lyndon Johnson Engineered Compromise on Civil Rights Bills,”
The New Leader
, Aug. 5, 1957.
“Tirelessly”:
Mooney,
LBJ
, p. 99.
“Quietly”:
Mooney,
The Politicians
, pp. 268–69.

“Areas”; “They
were”
:
Reedy,
Lyndon B. Johnson
, pp. 112–14;Reedy interviews.
“A basic”:
Byrd, quoted in Miller,
Lyndon
, p. 434.
Lyndon Johnson realized:
This description of Johnson’s feelings is from interviews with Connally, Corcoran, Reedy, Rowe, and from Cater, “How the Senate,”
The Reporter
, Sept. 5, 1957.

“Just give”:
Johnson, quoted in Reston,
Deadline
, p. 307. “Kissing their ass”: Johnson, quoted in Humphrey OH. “You felt this”: Rowe interview.
“Break the virginity”:
Rauh interview.