Dec. 12, the White House, 2145
The President looked outside the stained glass windows of the Oval Office at the blustery snowfall descending upon Washington, a metaphor for the end of his tumultuous two terms in the White House. With everyone else either gone home or in the Residence, the President took this time to think about his legacy and what had transpired in this very room a quarter-century earlier. In just five weeks he would be leaving office a happy and contented man, anxious to return to private life after having been on the political frontlines for nearly four decades. The election outcome had not been to his liking, but there was little to be done. Oh sure, the media carped that he had been largely invisible during the campaign, but to him, the only thing that mattered was that the candidates had been perfectly happy with his level of involvement. Nor did he much care for the media’s carping about the historicity of the 40th president-to-be s election- he had never been one for identity politics, given his personal conviction and of course own tangled history with the media on that very subject. This day had been spent on the phone with foreign leaders, having held a transition meeting yesterday. All were wishing him a fond farewell, ahead of his final Summit of the Americas next week and preparing to leave Washington after long decades spent in the nation’s capital. The phone call to London had been a long one, as had the ones to Moscow, Ottawa and Delhi. Such was the price of diplomacy, and one he was happy to pay. In front of the fireplace, he leaned back into the leather chair, closed his eyes and thought back to that fateful day, when he had decided to... detente was the wrong word, given later events. Not a compromise, because his feelings had never changed one iota. A truce, Yeah, that’s it.
“The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community. It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods.”
- President Lyndon B. Johnson’s commencement address at the University of Michigan, May 22, 1964
Q: “What made the President decide to retain NSAM 273?”
A: “I explained to him that President Kennedy had seen this as part of an evolutionary process- the initial withdrawals were part of a transition.”
Q: “A transition to what, precisely?”
A: “A transition to South Vietnam fighting the war on their own, which was the plan all along. We intended to send those arms and equipment to enable them to fight both the insurgency and the NVA, though in 1963 the former, not the latter, was our primary concern. Then as later, Johnson was determined to ensure continuity. From a political standpoint, he knew that diverging from Kennedy’s Vietnam policy would signal a break in the continuity that the country so desperately craved at the time, given the national tragedy that had just occurred.”
Q: “Did you have any doubts about continuing to serve President Johnson in the new administration?”
A: “No, because I saw my role as serving the United States and more specifically, its government. I was not and have never been a political individual in the partisan sense- I was a lifelong Republican serving in a Democratic president’s Cabinet, then and later. I didn’t know Jack Kennedy until December 1960. All of us felt a duty to stay on and ensure continuity for the country’s sake, regardless of our personal feelings about the president.”
Q: “Speaking of personal feelings about the president, at the time there was much speculation that Robert Kennedy would take the opportunity to leave given the immense tragedy he had just suffered. Were you involved in that decision- did the president asked you to mediate with him on this subject?”
A: “No, that was his decision alone- a few of his more liberal friends wanted him to leave, but he put the national interest first.”
Q: “Only for a few months, until he left to run for the Senate.”
A: “Precisely.”
Robert McNamara interviewed by Walter Cronkite, Dec. 7, 1983
Some have been asking me to leave- particularly AS & JKG + a few of the usual suspects who can’t stand LBJ. Neither can I but that’s irrelevant. Despite the immense tragedy of Jack’s death- something I will probably never fully get over- we have to carry on as he would have wished. I will stay on until the election & then bug out, either to the NY Senate or private life. The VP talk is an absurdity- but I am encouraging it to make the prick squirm as much as possible. After all, he’ll have to ask me, won’t he? The media won’t let it be otherwise- every damn press conference they’ll keep bringing it up & forced to give noncommittal answers. Then when the inevitable refusal comes they’ll make it look like he turned me down if I spin it right- which will deal another body blow & set things up properly for my launch. I am not doing this for personal reasons- though they do exist- so as to remind everyone that I am setting out on my own path in the party, independent of the WH & the assorted sycophants. Most of them are very nice people who go out of their way to be friendly to me, which is appreciated but I cannot stand sycophancy or sycophants. They are all afraid of him- just the other day George Reedy messed up on a minor point of staff work & got the short end of Johnson’s temper- banging the desk, yelling, getting in his face & terrorizing the living hell out of him. Ditto the other day- this time with Moyers or so the source tells me. These aren’t summer interns, but people who have worked for him for 10+ years. What a horrible human being if he can’t even treat these people with basic civility & decency. Heaven knows I’m no saint on temper either- but I don’t go that far with staff & if I did would apologize afterwards. I haven’t been sleeping since 11/22- at most 3-4 hours at night before I have to go out for a drive. Lost a few pounds as well- my appetite is much less than it usually is. After the last batch of work tomorrow I’m going to take a few days & try to clear my head a bit.
- RFK Diaries, Dec. 3, 1963
Many within & without the party have been urging me to run again this year, but Johnson is unbeatable- Jack is now a martyr & the economy is roaring instead of an unofficial recession as CBO initially projected. I also would not have run had Jack lived, for I have no interest in a rerun of ’60- in fact that was why I ran for governor. I couldn’t give a damn about the governorship- I did it to get the media off my back & to get some executive experience, no other reason. Johnson will win in a landslide, no doubt about it. Rocky’s child means that he will not get the nomination, though I cannot believe he would be so stupid so as to fatally compromise his national stature in such a manner. Barry’s a good man but he’ll lose badly to Johnson. The New Deal is well within recent memory- everyone over 40 remembers it & those under 30 have known nothing but the post-New Deal era which is now deeply ingrained in the nation’s collective psyche. A pity but such are the political realities under which we now operate. Some have suggested that LBJ will ask Bobby to be his VP- which is patently absurd given how much they despise each other. I also suspect he’s encouraging this to twist the knife in- he’s always been a mean little SOB, even if here I sympathize with him, not his target. Besides, he’s far too talented & young to be attending funerals & presiding over the Senate every couple of weeks- since LBJ would quarantine him in the NO & never let him see the light of day except Cabinet & NSC meetings. This year will be a wash for us but there is always ’66 & ’68 to look forward to down the road. I will make 2 predictions: that HHH will be VP & that the next NY Senator will be Bobby.
- Nixon Diaries, Jan. 2, 1964
The President looked outside the stained glass windows of the Oval Office at the blustery snowfall descending upon Washington, a metaphor for the end of his tumultuous two terms in the White House. With everyone else either gone home or in the Residence, the President took this time to think about his legacy and what had transpired in this very room a quarter-century earlier. In just five weeks he would be leaving office a happy and contented man, anxious to return to private life after having been on the political frontlines for nearly four decades. The election outcome had not been to his liking, but there was little to be done. Oh sure, the media carped that he had been largely invisible during the campaign, but to him, the only thing that mattered was that the candidates had been perfectly happy with his level of involvement. Nor did he much care for the media’s carping about the historicity of the 40th president-to-be s election- he had never been one for identity politics, given his personal conviction and of course own tangled history with the media on that very subject. This day had been spent on the phone with foreign leaders, having held a transition meeting yesterday. All were wishing him a fond farewell, ahead of his final Summit of the Americas next week and preparing to leave Washington after long decades spent in the nation’s capital. The phone call to London had been a long one, as had the ones to Moscow, Ottawa and Delhi. Such was the price of diplomacy, and one he was happy to pay. In front of the fireplace, he leaned back into the leather chair, closed his eyes and thought back to that fateful day, when he had decided to... detente was the wrong word, given later events. Not a compromise, because his feelings had never changed one iota. A truce, Yeah, that’s it.
“The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community. It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods.”
- President Lyndon B. Johnson’s commencement address at the University of Michigan, May 22, 1964
Q: “What made the President decide to retain NSAM 273?”
A: “I explained to him that President Kennedy had seen this as part of an evolutionary process- the initial withdrawals were part of a transition.”
Q: “A transition to what, precisely?”
A: “A transition to South Vietnam fighting the war on their own, which was the plan all along. We intended to send those arms and equipment to enable them to fight both the insurgency and the NVA, though in 1963 the former, not the latter, was our primary concern. Then as later, Johnson was determined to ensure continuity. From a political standpoint, he knew that diverging from Kennedy’s Vietnam policy would signal a break in the continuity that the country so desperately craved at the time, given the national tragedy that had just occurred.”
Q: “Did you have any doubts about continuing to serve President Johnson in the new administration?”
A: “No, because I saw my role as serving the United States and more specifically, its government. I was not and have never been a political individual in the partisan sense- I was a lifelong Republican serving in a Democratic president’s Cabinet, then and later. I didn’t know Jack Kennedy until December 1960. All of us felt a duty to stay on and ensure continuity for the country’s sake, regardless of our personal feelings about the president.”
Q: “Speaking of personal feelings about the president, at the time there was much speculation that Robert Kennedy would take the opportunity to leave given the immense tragedy he had just suffered. Were you involved in that decision- did the president asked you to mediate with him on this subject?”
A: “No, that was his decision alone- a few of his more liberal friends wanted him to leave, but he put the national interest first.”
Q: “Only for a few months, until he left to run for the Senate.”
A: “Precisely.”
Robert McNamara interviewed by Walter Cronkite, Dec. 7, 1983
Some have been asking me to leave- particularly AS & JKG + a few of the usual suspects who can’t stand LBJ. Neither can I but that’s irrelevant. Despite the immense tragedy of Jack’s death- something I will probably never fully get over- we have to carry on as he would have wished. I will stay on until the election & then bug out, either to the NY Senate or private life. The VP talk is an absurdity- but I am encouraging it to make the prick squirm as much as possible. After all, he’ll have to ask me, won’t he? The media won’t let it be otherwise- every damn press conference they’ll keep bringing it up & forced to give noncommittal answers. Then when the inevitable refusal comes they’ll make it look like he turned me down if I spin it right- which will deal another body blow & set things up properly for my launch. I am not doing this for personal reasons- though they do exist- so as to remind everyone that I am setting out on my own path in the party, independent of the WH & the assorted sycophants. Most of them are very nice people who go out of their way to be friendly to me, which is appreciated but I cannot stand sycophancy or sycophants. They are all afraid of him- just the other day George Reedy messed up on a minor point of staff work & got the short end of Johnson’s temper- banging the desk, yelling, getting in his face & terrorizing the living hell out of him. Ditto the other day- this time with Moyers or so the source tells me. These aren’t summer interns, but people who have worked for him for 10+ years. What a horrible human being if he can’t even treat these people with basic civility & decency. Heaven knows I’m no saint on temper either- but I don’t go that far with staff & if I did would apologize afterwards. I haven’t been sleeping since 11/22- at most 3-4 hours at night before I have to go out for a drive. Lost a few pounds as well- my appetite is much less than it usually is. After the last batch of work tomorrow I’m going to take a few days & try to clear my head a bit.
- RFK Diaries, Dec. 3, 1963
Many within & without the party have been urging me to run again this year, but Johnson is unbeatable- Jack is now a martyr & the economy is roaring instead of an unofficial recession as CBO initially projected. I also would not have run had Jack lived, for I have no interest in a rerun of ’60- in fact that was why I ran for governor. I couldn’t give a damn about the governorship- I did it to get the media off my back & to get some executive experience, no other reason. Johnson will win in a landslide, no doubt about it. Rocky’s child means that he will not get the nomination, though I cannot believe he would be so stupid so as to fatally compromise his national stature in such a manner. Barry’s a good man but he’ll lose badly to Johnson. The New Deal is well within recent memory- everyone over 40 remembers it & those under 30 have known nothing but the post-New Deal era which is now deeply ingrained in the nation’s collective psyche. A pity but such are the political realities under which we now operate. Some have suggested that LBJ will ask Bobby to be his VP- which is patently absurd given how much they despise each other. I also suspect he’s encouraging this to twist the knife in- he’s always been a mean little SOB, even if here I sympathize with him, not his target. Besides, he’s far too talented & young to be attending funerals & presiding over the Senate every couple of weeks- since LBJ would quarantine him in the NO & never let him see the light of day except Cabinet & NSC meetings. This year will be a wash for us but there is always ’66 & ’68 to look forward to down the road. I will make 2 predictions: that HHH will be VP & that the next NY Senator will be Bobby.
- Nixon Diaries, Jan. 2, 1964
