LBJ vs. RFK: a case of mutual contempt - excerpt from book, 'Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade,' by Jeff Shesol

Washington Monthly, Oct, 1997 by Jeff Shesol

Taut with anger, John Kennedy whitened and composed himself. He protested stiffly that his offer had not been accepted. "Did it occur to you," he pointed out, "that if Lyndon becomes the vice president, I'll have Alike Mansfield as the leader in the Senate, somebody I can trust and depend on?" The argument won few converts other than Bobby Kennedy.

By late morning, word of an impending johnson nomination had reached the convention floor. "All hell broke loose! They were just up in arms," Hubert Humphrey said of his fellow liberals. The normally sanguine Arthur Schlesinger lit into Phil Graham with such ferocity that Grahams wife, Katharine, had to pull them apart. New Mexico Congressman Stewart Udell ran from delegation to delegation "putting out fires," promising his liberal friends that a Kennedy-Johnson ticket was the surest route to victory. It was a difficult pitch. Negro leaders cried "sell-out", the D.C. delegation, infuriated by rumors of Johnson's selection, threatened hollowly to tear the convention apart. As word of the spreading liberal revolt reached JFK's suite, Robert Kennedy in particular saw the choice of Johnson as a grave mistake.

Johnson had his own fires to quench. Few Texans had even considered that LBJ might take the vice presidency. Now, most felt deserted and sick at heart, just as bitter as the Kennedy supporters. "Who'd want to be vice president for that man?" Jake Jacobson demanded. Juanita Roberts, Johnson's secretary, was not the only one to characterize the ticket as upside down. In Johnson's suite, political leaders gathered to voice their support or outrage. Robert Kerr was so livid that upon confirmation of the bad news, he reportedly slapped Bobby Baker in the face. Get me my .38," Kerr yelled at Baker, LBJ, and Lady Bird. "I'm gonna kill every damn one of you. I can't believe that my three best friends would betray me" Eventually, either Rayburn or Baker converted Kerr, who apologized to the Johnsons for "los[ing] my head "

Meanwhile, the two Kennedy brothers sat alone inside Jack's suite in utter indecision. "Jack changed his mind back and forth, as I did ... at least six times," Bobby remembered. "The problem was, if it wasn't a good idea, how you'd get [Johnson] out of it. Secondly, if you did get him out of it, how bitter would he be?" Shortly after 1:00 p.m. they decided to talk Johnson off the ticket, to undo "the terrible mistake"

The Aftermath

The accounts of Robert Kennedy's subsequent visits to the Johnson suite -- three in all -- are jumbled and contradictory. What remains clear is that each trip generated a wider wake of confusion and disaffection, with Bobby at first going ostensibly simply to test Johnson's commitment to the ticket then later, as Bobby recalled of 4is final visit, "to see if I could get him to withdraw.' In between Bobby's visits, Johnson and his people were on the phone to JFK, who, even as his brother was attempting to ease Johnson off the ticket, called Graham and announced: "It's all set.... Tell Lyndon I want him"