WH6406-19-3967

On the night of 19 June 1964, a plane carrying Senator Edward Kennedy crashed in Western Massachusetts in poor weather conditions. Pulled from the crash by fellow Senator, Birch Bayh [D-Indiana], Kennedy suffered severe injuries, including fractured vertebrae, a collapsed lung, and fractured ribs. The pilot and one of Kennedy’s aides, Ed Moss, died in the crash.

Kennedy was initially taken to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton and later moved to Boston's New England Baptist Hospital. Refusing, apparently at his father's urging, his doctors' recommendations to undergo complicated spinal surgery to fuse his lumbar vertabrae, Kennedy opted for the alternative: months of being confined to a specially designed bed so that his lumbar could fuse naturally.1 Despite being bed-ridden, Kennedy continued his campaign for reelection with aides setting up offices near Kennedy's hospital room and his wife Joan taking on many of the public speaking events.2 [photo]

Kennedy ultimately won reelection in November 1964 handily. He was discharged from hospital in  December that year and still needed to wear a back brace. 

President Johnson: Hello?

Edward Kennedy: Oh, Mr. President?

President Johnson: My friend, I’m sure glad to hear your voice.

Kennedy: Well, thank you so much. Listen, I wanted to call and tell you how much we appreciate it. Joan [Kennedy]^∇ appreciates everything you’ve done.3 And you’re [unclear]—

President Johnson: I haven’t done anything. I haven’t done anything, but I’m sure ready and willing.

Kennedy: Well, no. Well, you sent all those wonderful people up from the Army—[Deputy] Secretary [of Defense Cyrus] Vance did, and they made a great deal of difference. And everyone has been so kind down there. And they’ve taken great care of me. So, I’ve been really, really coming along now, making some progress.

President Johnson: Well, you got a bad break, but it’ll—my mother used to tell me that things like that develop character. It’ll make you stronger when you get older.

Kennedy: Well, I don’t know.

President Johnson: [Laughs.]

Kennedy: I don’t know. You know, you’re ready to trade a little of that for [unclear] right now, I should say. But, anyway, that’s what I keep reading in all that mail. They say “Well, you’ve got to . . . after all that, you get on that back a little, and think, and do a little suffering, you’ll be a better man.” So, I guess I’ll take my chances with that, anyway.

President Johnson: Well, you’re a great guy and you’ve got lots of guts. And stay in there in and pitch, and anything we can do, we’re ready.

Kennedy: Well, really appreciate it, Mr. President. And Joan wants to thank you for everything. [First Lady] Mrs. [Lady Bird] Johnson called, and you’ve been awfully kind during this. And we’re very much appreciative. And my parents are too.

President Johnson: You just tell them we’re ready to do anything and everything that you want done, and we’ll elect you by a bigger vote than you got before.

Kennedy: I know it. God, now we’re going to have to—you’re going to have to pull me through up here.

President Johnson: Well, tell them—just tell them that I’ll fill your speaking engagements.

Kennedy: [laughs] Well, I certainly shall. That was all so kind of you, but we’ll be looking forward to getting back down there.

President Johnson: Thank you. Give Joan a hug for me.

Kennedy: Certainly will, Mr. President.

President Johnson: Bye.

Kennedy: Thank you very much.

President Johnson: Bye. Thank you for calling.

• 1. Peter S. Canellos, ed., Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009), p.104.
• 2. Edward Kennedy's election in November 1962 was a special election to fill the seat vacated by his brother, John. The regular election cycle for that Senate seat was set for the 1964 election.
• 3. Joan B. Kennedy was Edward Kennedy’s wife.

WH6408-19-4908

Johnson ultimately got the JFK tribute moved to the final night of the Convention. When Robert Kennedy took the stage to introduce the specially prepared film to his brother's life and presidency, he was prevented from proceeding with his introduction by a standing ovation lasting 22 minutes.

• 1. Peter S. Canellos, Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009), p.104.
• 2. Edward Kennedy's election in November 1962 was a special election to fill the seat vacated by his brother, John. The regular election cycle for that Senate seat was set for the 1964 election.
• 3. Leonard Reinsch was president of the Cox Broadcasting Corporation and executive director of the 1964 Democratic National Convention, a position he had also held in the 1956 and 1960 conventions.
• 4. John Bailey was chair of the Democratic National Committee.
• 5. Kennedy is referring to congressional passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which President Johnson signed on 10 August 1964.

WH6411-02-6143

After polls closed on the evening of 3 November, it was clear that Senator Edward Kennedy had won his bid for reelection handily, beating the Republican challenger, Howard Whitmore, Jr., on the order of 74 percent to 25 percent of the vote.

Johnson had himself enjoyed an overwhelming victory of his own over Republican presidential candidate Senator Barry Goldwater^∇. Johnson was at the Driskill Hotel in downtown Austin preparing to make his victory statement about an hour and a half later. Kennedy was in a Boston hospital still recovering from his mid-June plane crash.1 Shortly after midnight in Austin (just after 3am in Boston), President Johnson called Kennedy to congratulate him; evidently Kennedy had tried to reach LBJ earlier in the evening.

President Johnson: . . . sorry I missed you Teddy. Your line was busy.

Edward Kennedy: Oh no, well, I got you while you were up in that helicopter. Well, I want to congratulate you. It’s many hours overdue, but it—

President Johnson: If you don’t mind, I’d like you to take all these other 49 states and bring them in like you do Massachusetts. If you can stay in the hospital—

Kennedy: Oh, that—

President Johnson: —and do them that way, why we’re all right.

Kennedy: Oh, that’s a great, great tribute to you and what you’ve done. It really is, and you certainly—certainly have won the support and the hearts, the loyalty, and the affection of all the people. And you must be very proud. It’s certainly well deserved. And I just join all those other millions of people that today are saluting your victory, and I want you to know that.

President Johnson: Mighty proud of you and Joan [Bennett Kennedy] and very happy for [Robert F.] Bobby [Kennedy].2 I talked—just talked to him—

Kennedy: Oh, fine.

President Johnson: —about ten minutes ago in New York. And I’m sorry for Pierre [Salinger] but—3

Kennedy: Yeah.

President Johnson: —maybe he can pull through.

Kennedy: Well, I guess that looks like he's out of luck out there now, I guess, but—

President Johnson: I don’t understand that, do you?

Kennedy: Yeah, I don’t. I just don’t. Of course, it's awfully difficult from this distance, but it really is a surprise.

President Johnson: What I am afraid of is—I’m afraid he got in that housing thing.

Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah. I guess that must have been it.

President Johnson: What's your Governor going to do?4

Kennedy: Well, it’s nip-and-tuck up here. The [Boston] Globe, which had sort of supported [John A.] Volpe, feels that [Francis X.] Bellotti is going to win it narrowly and the [Boston] Herald that has supported Bellotti says Volpe by about 125,000 votes. So, I think that right now it's—he carried the city. When Volpe won in 1960, by 125,000, he carried—he lost Boston by 60–40. That’s exactly the same percentage now when he—this is when Volpe carried the state by 125,000. He is running about that same percentage up in Holyoke [Massachusetts], but the smaller cities and towns, which are going to decide it, just haven’t indicated a trend yet. So it—

President Johnson: Doesn’t look too—

Kennedy: —could be up in the air.

President Johnson: Doesn’t look too good for him?

Kennedy: It—I don’t—I think it could go. It could swing in, but it’s going to be close no matter which way it goes. I think it's awfully—it’s still just too tough to tell right now, but—

President Johnson: Tell Joan we sure do appreciate—

Kennedy: I--yeah.

President Johnson: —all she did and we’re mighty proud of her.

Kennedy: Well, I certainly will, Mr. President.

President Johnson: And I want to work with you and help you any way in the world that I possibly can.

Kennedy: Well, that was very kind. Your words up here were very well received, and I appreciated them. And Joan enjoyed being with you and we’re all—we salute your victory tonight. It’s a great tribute, Mr. President.

President Johnson: Well, we didn’t think we needed it. We thought you had Boston in good shape. [with Kennedy laughing] We didn’t think we needed to come up there to find out how you stood, but I wanted them to know how I stood.

Kennedy: Oh, well, that was great. Well, you won a lot of friends.

President Johnson: Thank you, Ted.

Kennedy: Thanks, Mr. President.

President Johnson: Bye.

Kennedy: Bye.

• 1. On the night of 19 June 1964, a plane carrying Senator Edward Kennedy crashed in Western Massachusetts in poor weather conditions. Pulled from the crash by fellow Senator, Birch Bayh [D-Indiana], Kennedy suffered severe injuries, including fractured vertebrae, a collapsed lung, and fractured ribs. The pilot and one of Kennedy’s aides, Ed Moss, died in the crash. Months later, Kennedy remained bed-ridden. He had, nevertheless, continued his campaign for reelection with aides setting up offices near Kennedy's hospital room and his wife Joan taking on many of the public speaking events.
• 2. Robert F. Kennedy had just won the election for one of New York's Senate seats.
• 3. Former White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, a Kennedy loyalist, appeared to be losing in his race for one of California's Senate seats to Republican George Murphy. Salinger would ultimately lose the race.
• 4. President Johnson is referring to the closely contested Massachusetts’ gubernatorial race between former Republican Governor John A. Volpe and former Democratic Lieutenant Governor Francis X. Bellotti.

WH6412-01-6609

• 1. Situated across the street from the White House, at 1651 Pennsylvania Ave, Blair House serves as the official White House guest house for visiting dignitaries.
• 2. The Trumans had lived in Blair House during Truman's second term while the White House was undergoing major renovations.

WH6407-01-4118

Protectionist legislation had originated in the Senate and been substituted into an old House bill on the importation of wildlife. The proposed legislation would restrict by about one third imports of beef, veal, mutton, and lamb so as to protect American producers. The administration opposed the proposed measure on the grounds that it would unduly harm relations with several key allies and would undermine efforts to coax concessions from the Common Market on similar issues then being negotiated. Consumer groups argued that it would increase meat prices. On 18 August 1964 the House and Senate both passed a compromise bill that diluted somewhat the original proposal. The State Department backed the compromise bill but was criticized for interfering with the debate.1

The operator connects the call.

President Johnson: Hello? Hello?

Clinton Anderson: Hello.

President Johnson: Yes?

Anderson: I think the finance committee did something foolish yesterday, Mr. President. They reported out that Curtis Amendment to the meat bill. Now, Mike Mansfield^∇ had an amendment, which was endorsed by 26 other people, most of them Democrats. It included support from Gale McGee and Moss and those boys that are in trouble out there in the West. But instead of that, Curtis offered his amendment and all the Democrats except Paul Douglas and me voted for it. Mike's amendment should've carried. The Curtis amendment should've never carried. I wanted to know if you object if I go ahead and raise a little hell about this, and suggest they hold up until they find out what the wishes of the administration might be between the two amendments. Curtis' move is purely political, I think, Mr. President. He hopes you'd veto it; then he can go to these Western states and say, "Johnson's against the cattleman." With the other amendment, you at least might have a chance to sign it; I think you could sign it. I know the [State] Department's opposed to it, but I mean you could sign that one. I don't think it'd hurt too much. And that would help Moss. It would help McGee, and, I think, help you. And I've talked to Mike this morning and he's a little sensitive about bringing up his own amendment again, but he said he would do it if he thought there was some hope of getting help on it.

President Johnson: Clint, I don't know the difference between the two and I would be guided a good deal by your judgement on the matter. I know you know it. I'm--asked him to call you yesterday or last night about Albert Mitchell^∇, and I think the boy got sick and didn't get a chance to, but I'm going to name a couple of Republicans to this study group on prices, this investigaion we're making of producer- food chain store relationships. And I can't really name somebody from the chain store--from the...from the cattle industry, but he's retired and his boy's running it they tell me.

Anderson: Yeah.

President Johnson: And the Secretary of Agriculture will take him and--

Anderson: He's the . . . he's the Republican National Committee man, but he's your friend?

President Johnson: Well, what I want is a Republican--

Anderson: Yeah.

President Johnson: --that won't be . . . that'll try to help us find the real truth.

Anderson: He would.

President Johnson: And . . . so, that's what I'm going to do. Now, back to this amendment. I'm real interested in cattle and I've had the best people in our state in here; we [Texas] produce more than any state in the union. I've called in the Prime Minister of Australia and the Agriculture Minister of New Zealand. I've talked to the Ambassador from Ireland. And we realize that imports, this year and last year, were excessive. They're not the real problem, but their people believe they are so [unclear comment by Anderson], if they believe you are, why that's just as bad as being almost.

Anderson: [Unclear.]

President Johnson: [with Anderson acknowledging] But what--we jumped our supply from 92 million to 106 and until we eat up, why we just got that problem. But we got Australia. We took this amendment, told them that Mansfield was shoving it and it was very dangerous and very difficult for the President to, on all these cattle states. And we ship 24 billion dollars worth of stuff out of here every year, and we only bring in 18 billion. So, we can't raise too much hell about the people sending stuff in when we send it out ourselves and we got a 6 billion balance. So, we got them to agree voluntarily, Ireland and New Zealand and Australia, the principal importing groups, to reduce their imports [sic: exports]--Australia reduces hers 38 percent, New Zealand 23 percent--to where, by the end of this year, just what they're cutting back now from June until January, that we will import less this year than the five year average, which is what Mansfield's amendment covered. We would achieve the same result as Mansfield without being on record, right at the time when we're demanding to send agriculture products into Europe, of saying we won't accept them in our own country. And it just screws us up on our trade policies and our trade bill and anything else. So, we got them to voluntarily agree to it. Now--

Anderson: And it has worked?

President Johnson: [with Anderson acknowledging] And it's worked, and it's working now. And the price is up, and we're back, we're ahead yesterday. We got more for cattle than we did a year ago. So we moved it back, and it's going to get better all time. And furthermore, we are just getting ready to put on the damnedest exporting campaign you ever saw. Our first ship has already landed, and they're eating their meat like nobody's business. And we're going to--England and France, Germany are all short of beef--

Approximately 8 seconds excised by the National Archives and Records Administration as classified material.

So we're going to turn it around and instead of us importing here, we're going to export the hell out of it. And Australia and New Zealand are already diverting their shippers to the English market because it's--they get more for it there then they do here. And they could afford to voluntarily agree to it. Now, if we come along, and by legislation say, "we're going to cut out this," then they come along with legislation that says, "well, we'll cut off that much from America," and it just starts a damn gang war that we can achieve--we can get the same results without it. So that's what I hope. Now, they tell me Carl Albert, he's a big cattle man, got a cattle district down there on the Texas-Oklahoma border. He told me last night, said, "Now, I've held this thing up. I've done everything I can. They're trying to get an opponent for me. But I just see that it's suicidal for the United States to start legislating. We can't sell anything." He said, "hell, we won't be shipping it--they won't--people won't be buying a [unclear] or anything else." And he said, "what you've done is put that on as the amendment and I can't hold it over here. It's an amendment to a House bill."

Anderson: That's right.

President Johnson: And said, "Anyone could apply for a rule and Republicans will give them a rule. And when it votes, it'll be passed." And--

Anderson: That's why it shouldn't pass [unclear].

President Johnson: He said, "It's just as dangerous as it can be, and I wish you'd get a hold of him in the morning." So I thought I'd call him this morning to see what I could do about it, but I don't know--

Anderson: Well, he ought to hold it up in any event, shouldn't he?

President Johnson: I'd hold it up as long as I could, Clint.

Anderson: You authorize me to tell Mike [unclear] a while?

President Johnson: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Tell him that I just think it would be disastrous. Tell him you called me. Don't let him think I'm going around him.

Anderson: No, I did call you.

President Johnson: Tell him you called me and I said that we're achieving the same results. We can prove to him that we are. I'll send the Secretary of State and Secretary of Agriculture to show him, if they have any doubt about it. But if this hits the House, it'll just be a Republican move and they'll win the votes and it'll Gale McGee and hurt all of us.

Anderson: It'll hurt him bad, too.

President Johnson: And it'll hurt me, as a cow man, having to veto it.

Anderson: That's right.

President Johnson: And--

Anderson: All right, I'll tell him.

President Johnson: [Sam] Rayburn, one time, he didn't want--he wanted to vote for Taft-Hartley bill, but when [Harry] Truman told him he's going to veto it or [Franklin D.] Roosevelt, whoever it was, he said, as majority leader, he couldn't afford to be cross ways with his President. Now, that'd embarrass the hell out of me to veto something if my majority leader's for it, you see?

Anderson: Yeah. Well, I--

President Johnson: But I don't know what I'd do with the rest of the world.

Anderson: You'd have to veto the Curtis bill, Mr. President. You just couldn't do otherwise. It's got pressed meats and everything else in it that the Mansfield amendment didn't have. It has no growth factor. It cuts it below what you could expect otherwise. The way you worked it out now, the [unclear: Argentine and Brazilians] wouldn't be too much offended by the Mansfield amendment. They wouldn't like it, but--

President Johnson: They say it would break our agreement. They entered into an agreement.

Anderson: Oh, I think it would. I'll stand at the gun and fire this stuff as long as I can to stop it.

President Johnson: All right.

Anderson: But Paul [Douglas] and I cast the only two votes against it.

President Johnson: Well, get up there and just raise hell and tell them you're going to filibuster; you ain't going to let it pass.

Anderson: All right.

President Johnson: OK. Bye.

• 1. "Meat Import Bill Sent to Johnson, " New York Times, 19 August 196; "Meat Bill Set for Conference," New York Times, 6 August 1964; "Action by Congress on Beef-Import Problem This Session Is Growing Increasingly Likely," 6 August 1964; "Canada-US Rift on Trade Looms," New York Times, 10 August 1964; "Compromise on Meat Imports Will Be Attempted by Conferees," 12 August 1964.

WH6408-21-4952

President Johnson was meeting with George Reedy and Horace Busby at the time of this call. President Johnson was on speakerphone.

Operators connect the call. 

Dean Rusk^∇: Hello?

President Johnson: Mr. Secretary?

Rusk: Yes, sir.

President Johnson: How are you this morning?

Rusk: Well, I'm busy on the speech for the [Democratic Party] platform committee.

President Johnson: I thought it was pretty good. There are two or three suggestions Jack's [Valenti] got that I think I've heard in your oral speeches it might be good. But I've got this Australian Prime Minister's [Robert  Menzies] letter here.1

Rusk: Right.

President Johnson: I wonder if you don't think that would be good for you to get into the hands of [Mike] Mansfield and [Hubert] Humphrey [John] McCormack and [Carl] Albert and just say, "Now, we ought to keep you informed if this thing is really going to get rough."

Rusk: George Ball has already done it for some of them. Let me find out the particular ones. I think he's already called this to the attention of the committee that's working on it.

President Johnson: Right. Well, what I would do if I were you--it'll have more effect--they don't pay much attention to an Under Secretary or Assistant Secretary.

Rusk: Right.

President Johnson: I'd at least tell the Speaker, say, "Mr. Speaker, we think you and the Leader, the Majority Leader, ought to know that you're torpedoing the Kennedy Round."2

Rusk: Right. All right, sir. Let me--

President Johnson: That's pretty blunt. And I don't know who you ought to tell that in the papers, but the [Washington] Post or the [New York] Times, one ought to have something about this because it's not going to be a secret document; he's going to let it out in Australia.

Rusk: Right.

President Johnson: And we ought to let them know that this, what it's going to do to other agriculture and what it's going to do to the country in an attempt to get a few votes from a few cowmen.3

Rusk: Right, all right so let me see what I can do.

President Johnson: All right.

Rusk: Right.

President Johnson: Say, Dean? Dean?

Rusk: Yes, sir.

President Johnson: I'm going to' have a press conference. You got any idea on anything I can say?

Rusk: Do you have that . . . You have that little announcement about your policy on international organizations?

President Johnson: Yes, but that's the most unpopular thing in all the polls, and I'm afraid to say it. It just talks about how much money we're spending, a third of a billion [dollars], and it's got to be revamped from the standpoint that we are going to put in some better people or more efficient thing and cut out how much we're spending, and that would just defeat me, that type of stuff.

Rusk: I see.

President Johnson: We read it and that's just what [Barry] Goldwater^∇'s saying. And we've got to go to saying things that appeal to people.

Rusk: Right.

President Johnson: I talked to my fellow last night on meat, and he said, "Oh, my God, well I'll just have to leave the country if you veto the meat bill." I said, "Why?" Well, he said, "Goddammit, haven't you got enough sense to know that Australia's not voting in this country? The voters here are the 25 states that are raising these folks." And I said, "Well, but we've got a lot of consumers and so forth." I think we've got to kind of watch what we say. I told George Reedy to take it and rewrite it and show how we're going to improve our personnel and be efficient and something like that, instead of how much money we're spending on it.

Rusk: Right. Right.

President Johnson: I read the polls last night [from] about six states. The number one thing that they're against is foreign aid.

Rusk: Uh huh. Uh huh.

President Johnson: And we've sure got to get Averell [Harriman] in hand on the Congo and be sure that we watch that, because these announcements about how many big planes we're sending in that the military gave out over there in [John] Stennis' speech and [Richard] Russell's feeling, and they're getting ready to say we are starting a new Vietnam. And it's getting to be a political thing if we're not awfully careful with it.

Rusk: Right. Now--

President Johnson: So I think you and [Robert] McNamara^∇ and Averell probably ought to figure what we can do and do as much as we can as quietly as we can.

Rusk: Right.

President Johnson: And we certainly ought to brief the people we can at Armed Services and Foreign Relations. Say, "Now, we don't want to sit by and let the Congo fall like we let China fall. And we're trying to do what we can about it, and we'll try to make others do it, but if they don't do it well we may have to have a choice." Of course, Russell and Stennis and all them are getting ready entire speeches on the ground. And if they let us send a plane in and we oughtn't to be blowing it up how many big ones we sending in. But--

Rusk: Yeah that was--

President Johnson: If we send one man they going to denounce us, according to them.

Rusk: Yes, I said yesterday that these fellows are only to provide the--they're guards for the planes themselves, but I'm afraid that didn't get very far. But I think that was a slip that we made so much fuss about these planes.

President Johnson: It was a bad thing, just bad.

Rusk: Right.

President Johnson: OK.

Rusk: Thank you.

• 1. This letter was regarding the Mansfield Meat Imports Bill. From 1961-1963 the amount of beef imported from Australia and New Zealand increased by 106 percent, which had the effect of reducing demand for American-produced meat. Thomas W. Zeiler, American Trade and Power in the 1960's (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992), p. 106.
• 2. The State Department argued that the Meat Imports Bill was detrimental to the promotion of American trade interests at negotiations during the Kennedy Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Secretary Rusk's News Conference of 31 July, Department of State Bulletin, 17 August 1964.
• 3. The National Cattleman's Association lobbied heavily in favor of the Meat Imports Quota, which would limit the amount of frozen beef and mutton exported to the United States. At the time, Australia and New Zealand were the top exporters to the United States.

WH6408-28-5026

Secretary of State Dean Rusk^∇ was meeting with Deputy Secretary of State George Ball at the time of this call.

The conversation has already begun when the recording starts. President Johnson is on the speakerphone.

Dean Rusk: [Unclear] down there, including us, of course.

President Johnson: Who's your man for Congress now?

Rusk: Bob Lee is the, is heading up our office, for the a--taking [former Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs] Fred Dutton's place temporarily.

President Johnson: Well, they sure ought to get on this, because this is is uncalled for and oughtn't to have happened there. Larry [O'Brien^∇] wasn't paying any attention to it. He [unclear] the State Department. So it would be a lot harder now since they oppose and then we've got the--

Rusk: Yes.

President Johnson: I'd just make a rule over there: no piece of State Department legislation comes up until your man calls it and knows where it is.

Rusk: Right.

President Johnson: Anything's important, and it's better to always anticipate than hindsight it.

Rusk: All right, sir. Well, we'll check--we're meeting in the morning on all the other bits of legislation we have to be sure this doesn't happen to us again.

President Johnson: What can I say about Cyprus tonight? What's happened there?

Rusk: Let me just put George Ball on for a second. He's just come in from a talk with [Former Secretary of State] Dean Acheson.1.

George Ball: Yes, Mr. President?

President Johnson: Whats the story on Cyprus tonight?

Approximately 1 minute 10 seconds excised by the National Archives and Records Administration as classified information.

President Johnson: Right. Anything on meat today?2

Ball: No, well it--the bill passed the House, you know, with a good vote and its--went--was sent over to Senate this afternoon, and I guess the Senate won't get to it until tomorrow. But everyone seems to be quite pleased, and I think it's one of those things were we're going to come out really very well. The Australians and New Zealanders were tickled to death when I talked to them last night.3.

President Johnson: OK. Anything else I need to know about?

Ball: I don't think so, Mr. President.

President Johnson: What was the vote on the meat thing?

Ball: It was 232 to 149.

President Johnson: Who opposed it? Consumers?

Ball: Consumers, a lot of people actually that we had ourselves forgotten to do it. The internationally packing company, which is [unclear] & Company, which has the big packing operations in Argentina and also in Australia, and they kind of spear-headed the thing. And then we worked with the consumer groups and so on. So we had to call them off but we couldn't call them all off. So it--but it went through comfortably, and I think the general feeling on the Hill is that it, that this was an operation that came off pretty well.

President Johnson: OK, much obliged.

Ball: Thank you Mr. President.

• 1. Dean Acheson served as Presidential mediator for Cyprus from June-September 1964
• 2. Earlier in the month, protectionist legislation that had originated in the Senate and been substituted into an old House bill on the importation of wildlife had been drafted that would restrict by about one third imports of beef, veal, mutton, and lamb so as to protect American producers. The administration had opposed the proposed measure on the grounds that it would unduly harm relations with several key allies and would undermine efforts to coax concessions from the Common Market on similar issues then being negotiated. Consumer groups argued that it would increase meat prices. On 18 August 1964 the House and Senate both passed a compromise bill that diluted somewhat the original proposal. The State Department backed the compromise bill but had come under criticism for interfering with the debate. "Meat Import Bill Sent to Johnson, " New York Times, 19 August 196; "Meat Bill Set for Conference," New York Times, 6 August 1964; "Action by Congress on Beef-Import Problem This Session Is Growing Increasingly Likely," 6 August 1964; "Canada-US Rift on Trade Looms," New York Times, 10 August 1964; "Compromise on Meat Imports Will Be Attempted by Conferees," 12 August 1964.
• 3. A large percentage of the imported meats came from Australia and New Zealand. Both nations agreed to voluntary quotas on their meat exports. New York Times, "Compromise on Beef," 19 August 1964.

WH6408-42-5263

After a press office mix-up that resulted in a number of reporters turning up at the LBJ Ranch, George Reedy offers his resignation.

The operator connects the call.

President Johnson: Hello?

George Reedy: Mr. President.

President Johnson: Yeah?

Reedy: Can I give them the time of departure on Senator [Hubert] Humphrey?

President Johnson: I don't have it. I don't know. Why?

Reedy: So they can cover it when he leaves if he leaves, if he leaves [unclear].

President Johnson: Oh, he's going to leave here, from here.

Reedy: Is he going to leave from there?

President Johnson: Yeah.

Reedy: OK, sir. Will it be all right if one of the agents or somebody would give me the time when he actually leaves?

President Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they'll call and tell when he's left.

Reedy: OK, sir. I thought he was going to leave from Bergstrom [Air Force Base].

President Johnson: Well, he may stop at Bergstrom on his way in, but he's going to leave from here, I'm sure, by plane.

Reedy: Right. OK, sir.

President Johnson: And I'd get him away from that as quick as I could. I'd just tell them he's going leave from out here.

Reedy: OK, sir.

President Johnson: On one of the courier planes coming out.

Reedy: Right.

President Johnson: Any problems with them?

Reedy: Oh, yes sir. There are quite a few.

President Johnson: What are they?

Reedy: Well, I think the pictures started it this morning. And I think mostly that those who went out there and got all this material and those who stayed here waiting for my briefing missed completely. And that--

President Johnson: Well, then why in the hell don't they do one or the other?

Reedy: I don't know, sir. It puts me in a pretty bad spot.

President Johnson: Well, then, why do you send them out? Why don't you keep them in there for your briefing?

Reedy: I didn't send them out.

President Johnson: Well, they're here.

Reedy: They went out on their own hook, sir, because--

President Johnson: Well, then what am I supposed to do? Knock them down and not have anything to do with them?

Reedy: No, sir. The important thing is just that it's--I knew these things were going to happen and I could set them up right. They'd all get it at the same time, and they'd all leave, and that would be that.

President Johnson: Well, maybe we ought to have a new operation.

Reedy: It's all right with me, sir. I'm in a bad spot.

President Johnson: OK. Well, you come out. You want come and talk about it and we'll work out something else and maybe let Bill [Moyers] take them over or you can go back over in the EOB [Executive Office Building] and doing what you were doing. We'll bring him in here [and] put him on it or someone that can, because I can't--you've run 30 or 40 of them up here in on me and all I do is let them follow me. I can't arrest them and then the sons of bitches--I can't come into Austin for them and I can't--

Reedy: Sir, if you want me to submit my resignation that's perfectly all right with me.

President Johnson: All right--whatever you want to do about it is satisfactory.

Reedy: OK. I'll brief them and get rid of them and send you my resignation, sir.

President Johnson: All right. Bye.

WH6408-42-5270

The Houston Post and Oceanside Daily Blade-Tribune, a local California newspaper, had both published stories that Reedy had resigned after a disagreement with Johnson over whether the President should go to Atlantic City Wednesday night for the Democratic National Convention. Reedy had denied the reports, claiming to be "puzzled." The story in the Oceanside Daily Blade-Tribune had been written by its publisher, Thomas Braden, who had attended the Convention and claimed that it came from an "unimpeachable source."1

The operator connects the call.2

President Johnson: George?

George Reedy: Yes, sir?

President Johnson: I think that you and Willie Day [Taylor] ought to stay on right there. We're going on back tomorrow afternoon and talk to Albert Jackson in the morning about his [Dallas Times-Herald] editorial and so forth. Come on down on one of those flights and go back routinely with us when we go instead of going out tonight. I think that a night's sleep would do you some good and I think it won't attract a lot of attention and--

Reedy: I'm sorry, sir, I can just barely hear you.

President Johnson: I say that a night's sleep will do you some good, and I think that it won't attract a lot of attention, and I think it'd be better. We're going to back tomorrow afternoon anyway and you can just come on down. We'll leave there about sundown or--and you can catch whatever plane you can get out in the morning. And if there's not any plane out, well, Dale can pick you up.

Reedy: I'm in Dallas now, Mr. President.

President Johnson: Yeah, I know it.

Reedy: Then I'm--

President Johnson: I say talk to Albert Jackson there in the morning, if you can; stay all night. I don't guess there's any plane back tonight--instead of riding all night going to Washington. And then go up tomorrow afternoon in the regular plane when all the rest of us go. I don't--there's not much you can do up there except create a lot of discussion with them, and I think it'd be better for us to talk first.

Reedy: Well, I wasn't going to talk to anybody, sir. I've really been just shaky. I just wanted to go on home to my family.

President Johnson: Well, can't you do that as tomorrow afternoon as well as tonight, and then with all of us going back?

Reedy: Frankly, Mr. President, I don't trust myself.

President Johnson: Well, if you think this is better--

Reedy: What I want to do is just go home and get a day's rest.

President Johnson: Well, why don't you get a night's rest there in Dallas, come on down tomorrow and ride back with us and then take whatever--all the time off you want to? I think that going out this way, it'll take you two or three days that you won't get rest that you'll be explaining, which I think you can take off when you get back up there and you wouldn't have to [explain].

Reedy: Right.

President Johnson: I'd just go on down to the hotel and get me a room and go to sleep tonight. Take a sleeping pill and go to sleep. Get up tomorrow and come down in time to catch the plane back with us. Or if you want to Dale can pick up you up there in the morning and you can fly down here for this broadcast and just tell them you came out here. And then we'll go in tomorrow afternoon and go back on the plane tomorrow evening. I think that'll be better because my guess is they'll be calling you and they'll be wondering. They'll be inquiring. And they'll be calling out here and we'll have to be taking the calls. And I think that if you can get by another 18 hours . . . you can stay there tonight. They won't be bothering you or missing you. And in the morning you can come on down here and put this broadcast off the [unclear: plasters] and we'll go on in and take the plane back to Washington. Then you can take off whatever time you want to after you get up there.

Reedy: Well, I don't want to be causing any difficulty, sir.

President Johnson: Well, I think that's the best way to avoid it. I believe that if you go back early you will, in the light of the Houston Post story, I think you'll just create a lot of doubts. What I'd do is just go up to Dallas and talk to Albert Jackson about the [Dallas] Times-Herald editorial and ask him to thank them for it and tell him to go on and try to get us some more help during the campaign. And then I'd see if I could catch a plane back to Austin in the morning. If I couldn't I'd call me and I'll get Dale to come pick you up, bring you directly to the [LBJ] Ranch, and you can--we can put on this [unclear: plasters?] broadcast and we'll then all go in and go back to Washington.

Reedy: OK, sir. I don't want to--I'll [unclear].

President Johnson: What hotel will you go to?

Reedy: I don't know, sir--probably Adolphus or--

President Johnson: All right. Go to the Adolphus and I'll--see what time you can go down in the morning, and then give me a ring in the morning when you wake up.

Reedy: OK, sir.

President Johnson: OK. If there's a plane back tonight you might want to fly on back there, but I don't know whether there is one back, because I'm sure they'll be calling and talking. They're already raising questions. And I think it'd be a lot easier on you, on me, on the country if we just go on back normally and then work out whatever you want to.

Reedy: OK, sir.

President Johnson: All right. If you can come back, come back tonight. If you don't, why, come back in the morning. If you don't get a plane back in the morning call me and I'll have Dale pick you up.

Reedy: OK.

President Johnson: Bye.

In his first post-Convention public appearance, Johnson spoke later that evening at an informal campaign rally and barbecue at the Stonewall Rodeo Arena in Gillespie County, the country in which the LBJ Ranch was situated. The event was billed as a belated birthday party for Johnson, whose 56th birthday had been the previous week. His vice presidential running mate, Hubert Humphrey, also attended, as was Texas Senator Ralk Yarborough. Johnson's remarks were informal and focused on foreign policy, especially Vietnam. He told the crowd of about 4,000 that in ordering military action in retaliation for the attacks on U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin^∇ earlier in the month "I gave an order I didn't want to give" but that the action was necessary to bolster U.S. credibility and deter further attacks on U.S. forces.3 The event caused a minor controversy when photographs appeared that showed National Guard members serving barbecued steaks at the event.4

• 1. "Reedy Denies Resigning After Tiff With Johnson," New York Times, 29 August 1964, p.6.
• 2. Johnson called Reedy. As noted in the LBJ Library finding aid, the filing notes for this conversation are: ""RANCH"; DICTABELT PREVIOUSLY MISFILED; "DOROTHY, NOT TO BE TRANSCRIBED, F IN GER, PERSONNEL" WRITTEN ON ENVELOPE CONTAINING DICTABELT."
• 3. Fendall Yerxa, "Johnson Defends Policy on Saigon to Texas Crowd," New York Times, 30 August 1964, p.1.
• 4. "Captain Backs Use of Guard Waiters at Johnson's Rally," New York Times, 2 September 1964, p.27.

WH6409-08-5537

• 1. Bursitis is a painful inflammation often caused by excessive, repetitive use of ones arms or legs, as might be the case for a golfer or tennis player.
• 2. Johnson is referring to Clifton Daniel, managing editor of the New York Times.
• 3. James Webb had been Director of the Bureau of the Budget in the Truman administration.
• 4. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Roy Rogers was chairmn of the board of the Kansas City Star, having previously been the paper's managing editor, general manager, and editor. Rogers had also been the Star's Washington correspondent. Rogers and Truman had had a number of disagreements.
• 5. Johnson is referring to the Kansas City Star's endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee, and two-time U.S. president, Grover Cleveland, in the late 19th century.

WH6411-04-6166

This call took place the day after the 1964 presidential election. Johnson had defeated Republican Senator Barry Goldwater^∇ in a landslide.

President Johnson: Hello?

Harry Truman: Hello?

President Johnson: Hello?

Harry Truman: This is Harry Truman.

President Johnson: Mr. President, I love you as everybody in America does, and I’m just so honored that you would take the time to call me.

Harry Truman: Well, I called because I think you’ve set a record that’s never been equaled and never will be.

President Johnson: No. Aanybody got your record, never equal it. When you go to look in at the Truman Doctrine and NATO and Marshall Plan and everything else, it makes all of us look like pygmies, and I know it and—

Harry Truman: [Unclear.]

President Johnson: —that’s one good thing about me. I’ve got sense enough to know it, but I—

Harry Truman: Well, you’re all right in my book, and I just wanted to congratulate you. And I feel just as happy about it as you do.

President Johnson: I know. You feel happier because you always been more for your party and your other folks than you have been for yourself. And I just want you to know that as long as I’m in that office, you are in it, and there’s not a privilege of it, or a power of it, or a purpose of it that you can’t share. And your bedroom is up there waiting for you, and your plane is standing by your side. 

Harry Truman: Appreciate it.

President Johnson: And your doctors and anything else you want or need, why I got Uncle Sam—

Harry Truman: The first time I’m able to travel, get around, I'd like to come see you and just talk over old times.

President Johnson: You just tell—

Harry Truman: With nothing in view but to see Lyndon Johnson.

President Johnson: You just tell them that and you bring Margaret and your grandkids down, and we’ll have a plane pick both of you up, and we’ll just come there. And I want to get your advice and talk to you. And I think we’ve got a good chance, but we’re in trouble on foreign things.

Harry Truman: Well, you are all right now. And you won’t have any serious trouble at all. And if there is anything I can do to help you, you know I’m available.

President Johnson: Well you've done it. I came to you when I wanted to know how to run for Vice President, and I came to you when I wanted to know how to run for President. And I think that we gave them a good mauling just want you wanted to give them, didn’t we?

Harry Truman: Yes, just exactly what they ought to of had. And it’s the finest thing that’s happened in the history of the country.

President Johnson: They rubbed their nose in it.

Harry Truman: Well, that’s right.

President Johnson: They were dirty.

Harry Truman: That’s what they thought they had.

President Johnson: Oh, you don’t know how dirty they were. They put out mean—

Harry Truman: Oh, I do. I do too. I got so damn mad I could have killed somebody.

President Johnson: They put out these mean books and they questioned my integrity and my honesty and—

Harry Truman: [Unclear]. I know they did, but but you want to forget that because it’s gone and past. The vast majority of the American people never believed a word of it.

President Johnson: Well, I know you didn’t. And Clark Clifford^∇ told me, he said he read your radio speech and he said, “Well, only Harry Truman could do this. They come and go from [George] Washington to [Thomas] Jefferson to [Andrew] Jackson but there’s just one Harry Truman. I watched him all those years and when they—somebody else may bunt and get on base but when you want a clean-up hitter he comes along and parks it.”

Harry Truman: [laughs] Well you’re too kind to me, and so is he.

President Johnson: All your people been awful loyal. I think you ought to know that. I think that everybody, whether its Harry Vaughn or Charlie Murphy or Clark Clifford—

Harry Truman: There never was a finer bunch of fellows.

President Johnson: They work free and they—

Harry Truman: They’d do anything in the world that they thought would help me, and I want them to do the same thing for you.

President Johnson: Clark Clifford thinks that you are the greatest man that ever lived, and he worked free for me, against his own interest, against his own firm, just day after day when they were trying to smear me.

Harry Truman: I know that.

President Johnson: And Charlie Murphy and Donald [Alson?] and Harry Vaughn. And I think you ought to know that didn’t breed any of them that haven’t got the right blood lines.

Harry Truman: Well, I appreciate that. And the first chance and the first opportunity I have when I’m able to get around in good shape I’m going to come see you.

President Johnson: Will you promise me one thing?

Harry Truman: Yes.

President Johnson: Tell Mrs. Truman that we love her, but anything that you want or need—

Harry Truman: You tell her.

President Johnson: All right. You just—let me tell her.

Bess Truman: Hello?

President Johnson: Mrs.--

Bess Truman: Oh, Mr. President.

President Johnson: Mrs. Truman I was just—

Bess Truman: Oh, we’re so happy.

President Johnson: Oh, I know you are and you all is responsible as far as any two in the nation, that the wonderful work that you’ve done and the great help he’s been to me and—

Bess Truman: Well, now, that’s mighty wonderful of you would say that.

President Johnson: No, but that’s true. He never—he always had time for me, and he’s always—

Bess Truman: Well, of course he would have, naturally.

President Johnson: He’s always talked more of his party and his friends than he has for himself. And you make him watch himself, now because—

Bess Truman: Well, I'm trying to.

President Johnson: He’s no spring chicken.1

Bess Truman: [laughing] He certainly isn’t.

President Johnson: I want to tell you one thing, though—

Bess Truman: Yes?

President Johnson: And I want you to hear it. I’ve said this ever since I became President, but I want to reiterate it, and I don’t want to over do it. But anything that he wants or he needs or that somebody suspects would be good for him, from doctors to planes to coming to the White House for a few days, bringing his grandchildren, going anyplace, anybody that you want to consult with that we have, all you need to do is just [unclear comment by Bess Truman] drop me a postcard because the facilities that—every power and every purpose and every facility of this government is at his disposal as long as I’m around.

Bess Truman: Oh, well that’s just marvelous of you.

President Johnson: Now, he’s modest—

Bess Truman: [Unclear] you remember that.

President Johnson: He’s modest, and I’m going to depend on you now to say, “I want you to send out a couple of specialists out here quietly and put them in a plane. I want to have a plane out here; we want to go to New York. Or I want—”

Bess Truman: Oh, [unclear].

President Johnson: "—I want to do this or that.” And I’ve told him that four or five times, but he don’t pay any attention to me.

Bess Truman: [laughs] Well, it’s mighty good of you all to do that.

President Johnson: Well, I’ve already ordered it done.

Bess Truman: [Unclear.]

President Johnson: And if he need any more help of any kind that—out there, you just please know and it’ll be available.

Bess Truman: Well thank you a million.

President Johnson: And—

Bess Truman: And do give my love to Mrs. Johnson.

President Johnson: We love you both, and thank you for calling.

Bess Truman: Well, [unclear].

President Johnson: Bye.

Bess Truman: Bye.

• 1. At the time of this call, Truman was 80 years old.

WH6411-13-6298

President Johnson: Hello?

Albert Jackson: Hello? Hi, Mr. President.

President Johnson: Albert, how are you my friend?

Jackson: Oh, just wonderful.

President Johnson: I just want--

Jackson: I feel so much better since last Tuesday, too.1

President Johnson: Well, I just wanted to tell you and Ginny I loved you and I was thinking of you. And I called and you were on your way to Austin the other day.

Jackson: Well, that's fine.

President Johnson: And I missed you down there. And I just wanted to tell how much I appreciate all the hard work you've done. And I know old Bill Clark wished he'd been here to enjoy this. I talked to his boy the other day and--

Jackson: Well, that's fine. Bill--young Billy did a wonderful job.

President Johnson: Did he?

Jackson: Yes, he did.

President Johnson: Well, that's good.

Jackson: He did a wonderful job. Tom [unclear] did a wonderful job. Of course, Bob Cullum and John Stemmons.2 But the one who really kept--aside from some of the people down here--who kept the fire on was Jimmy Aston. When--he did more work on that businessmen deal and trying to really [unclear] them together and keep them together, and he got [unclear] interested in it. It was just a fantastic operation, and Billy was able to keep all the labor boys working in harmony and unison.

President Johnson: Well, that's wonderful. That's wonderful. I just wanted to call you and thank you and tell you I loved you.

Jackson: Well, I appreciate it.

President Johnson: I'll be hearing from you.

Jackson: How are you and [Lady] Bird doing? [Unclear.]

President Johnson: We're just trying to get a little rest. And we've got to go to church in a minute up here at Fredericksburg. And when I got back I went down to John's for a little bit and had supper, but I had a little--I got some new glasses and I got a tooth out that had decayed a little bit and one of the fillings had fallen out and I hadn't done anything about it, so I couldn't eat on one side for about two weeks. So I got it repaired, and I'm doing all right now.

Jackson: Well, that's good. Try to get some rest.

President Johnson: I will, and I'll see you soon.

Jackson: Because we're all mighty happy, and we're happy that for the first time in a long time that Dallas had a part in it, and far as you're concerned, and also getting rid of our good friend Mr. [Bruce] Algers.

President Johnson: OK, my friend. I'm happy, too.

Jackson: Well, thank you much. Bye. Bye.

• 1. Jackson was referring to the recent election.
• 2. Cullum and Stemmons were businessmen in Dallas, Texas.