October 31, 1964. Today LBJ’s campaign goes through Dover, Wilmington, and Farmingdale, Long Island. The President ends the day of campaigning with a rally at Madison Square Gardens with Luci, Lynda, Mrs. Johnson, and Mrs. and Mrs. Robert Kennedy. RFK is running for Senate.
Follow the campaign route here.
LBJ Library photos 435-95-WH64, 435-131-WH64, and 433-105-WH64; images are in the public domain.
October 22, 1964. President Johnson attends the memorial services for President Hoover, who passed away on October 20, 1964. The Daily Diary for the day notes that Former Vice-President Richard Nixon and Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater were seated approximately three rows behind President and Mrs. Johnson.
After the services President Johnson met with Robert Kennedy, who was running for Senate. During their meeting the President gave Robert Kennedy several LBJ pins for his children to wear to school… and he advised RFK that he should smile more.
It’s over. The President is just not going to do anything more. That’s it. He’s through with domestic problems, with the cities… He’s not going to do anything. And he’s the only man who can.
March 1, 1967. 3:04 PM. An irritated LBJ complains to Sen. Richard Russell about a speech by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s in which he proposed a bombing halt in Vietnam. Referring to the Tet bombing pause of last month, LBJ says:
“Now we just finished doing that.. I don’t know where in the hell he was.”
November 3, 1966. 6:33 PM. LBJ speaks with House Minority Leader Gerald Ford (after Ford waits on hold for 2 minutes) to tell him about the results of the Manila conference on Vietnam. Ford interrupts him to express concern about LBJ’s upcoming surgery, which the President explains in detail. LBJ then relays the positions of the leaders he met from the seven represented countries, summarizing, “Those closest to the danger feared the aggression the most.” (at about 7:15)
One interesting side note about his trip (at about 15:30) is LBJ complaining about the 60 Communists “ordered from New York” who carried signs supporting Senator Robert Kennedy for President in 1968. There were also protests of about 1,000 people in the Phillipines and several hundred in Sydney–“but it wasn’t near as bad as Berkeley."
LBJ Presidential Library Photo #A2602-35.
August 29, 1966. President Johnson talks with friend and Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas–and others, including Lady Bird and Bill Moyers–about the missal that was used for his swearing-in on Air Force One after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. These conversations concern a passage in William Manchester's upcoming book about the assassination, which was authorized by the Kennedys. In addition to Manchester’s book publication, portions of his text are scheduled to be published in a serialization in Look magazine beginning in January 1967.
The recording of the conversation runs nearly an hour: part 2, part 3, and part 4 are also available.
March 1966. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, D-NY, travels to Delano, California, to attend hearings about a strike by migratory grape workers, led by Cesar Chavez. Kennedy is a member of the Migratory Labor Subcommittee of the Senate Labor Committee, and he had been asked to attend the subcommittee’s hearings in California by prominent national labor leaders. Kennedy is quickly won over to the side of Chavez and his organization, the National Farmworkers Association, and he becomes a staunch ally.
The document above is from 1968, although it is misdated as 1967. The first paragraph reflects on their initial meeting in 1966 and the progress made in the intervening years.
National Archives and Records Administration, ARC id 194027.
February 20, 1966. Back from Honolulu, LBJ speaks with Dean Rusk about Robert Kennedy’s “tragic” (in LBJ’s opinion) statement that suggested that the Viet Cong could be included in the South Vietnamese government. LBJ also laments the criticism coming from The New York Times and members of Congress, and dismisses the idea of asking for a second resolution on Vietnam.
Nov. 5, 1964. LBJ calls Martin Luther King, Jr. to thank him for his support and that of the African American community.
Photo from Library of Congress via Flickr.
Nov. 4, 1964. After having spoken earlier in the night to a victorious Robert Kennedy, LBJ now talks with Edward Kennedy—to congratulate him on election to his first full term as Senator from Massachusetts. Kennedy’s first speech in the Senate was in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, last summer.
October 26, 1964. RFK calls LBJ to talk about the coming election. Despite his own and Lady Bird’s intense campaigning in the south, LBJ is worried about carrying the southern states, largely due to civil rights: tensions have built around issues like desegregation and the seating of the MFDP at the Democratic Convention. He discusses his recent trip to South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida with RFK, and Kennedy asks the President to bring his motorcade through Long Island on his upcoming visit to New York.
Photo: Sit-in at Woolworth’s lunch counter: Tallahassee, Florida, 3/13/60. State Library and Archives of Florida via Flickr Commons.
October 15, 1964. LBJ campaigns with RFK across New York. The former Attorney General is campaigning to be elected Senator from New York against Kenneth Keating.
According to his memoir The Vantage Point, LBJ encouraged and assisted Kennedy both out of loyalty to JFK and because he though Bobby would make a good Senator. Adlai Stevenson had also decided to try for the nomination, but when LBJ threw his weight behind RFK, Stevenson dropped out.
LBJ Library photos 415-181-WH64 and 415-139-WH64. Public domain.
August 7, 1964, 1:47PM. Assistant Lee White calls LBJ to report the recommendation of the Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, that the President call Louisiana Governor John McKeithen about enforcement of school desegregation in St. Helena Parish. Several hours later, LBJ does so.
July 29, 1964. 2:30 p.m. LBJ talks to his National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy and describes the meeting he had with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy—where he told RFK that he would not be LBJ’s choice for Vice Presidential nominee in the 1964 election.
July 23, 1964, 5:31 p.m. LBJ talks to Texas Governor, and old friend, John Connally. They discuss the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party—which will soon become a major thorn in LBJ’s side—Robert Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, Barry Goldwater, and lots of other issues around the upcoming Democratic National Convention.