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Acknowledgments
Every book is the product of a collective effort: archivists, editors, and colleagues generous enough to take time from their own work to read the manuscript.
John Wright, my agent and friend for twenty years, suggested this project and offered wise counsel on the broad scope of the book as well as on its details. Tim Duggan, my editor at HarperCollins now for the third time, read three versions of the manuscript, each time pressing the case for revisions that have made a considerable difference in bringing Kennedy’s many advisers into sharper focus and enriching our understanding of Kennedy the man and policymaker.
Geri Dallek, as usual, was unrelenting in reminding me that readers want to know the people you are describing—not simply as men trying to find answers to impossible questions about war and peace, but also as flesh and blood characters struggling with their own inner demons and reach for historical influence. Like Tim Duggan, she deserves a special shout-out for offering wise counsel. None of this, however, is meant to suggest that either she or Tim should share responsibility for whatever defects remain in the organization and composition of the text.
Several others have helped bring the book to life, including Emily Cunningham, associate editor at HarperCollins, whose keen eye for the right phrase and more economical use of quotations have made this a much more readable book.
Matthew Dallek, with whom I had the pleasure of teaching some courses at the University of California in Washington, UCDC, offered compelling advice in several discussions about what I was trying to do in the book. I had the chance to try out some of my ideas in both his class and my own at Stanford University in Washington, SIW, where I have been teaching for five years under the guidance of Adrienne Jamieson, the Center’s superb director. Peter Kovler, who knows more about national politics than any of the so-called experts I have met over the years, has been another helpful sounding board on a book about presidential advisers.
I am also grateful to Tom Pitoniak for his excellent copyediting. He has saved me from numerous errors. Lydia Weaver, the production editor, applied her expertise to the publication of my third HarperCollins book. I am in her debt for making the process so relatively easy. She is a master of her craft.
Finally, I cannot resist saying thank you to President Barack Obama, who has graciously hosted four dinners for presidential historians, where I had a close-up look at what a president hoped he could learn from history. It provided a glimpse into how a president interacted with men and women trying to offer useful judgments on the not entirely different problems earlier presidents, including Kennedy, faced.
Index
The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.
Abbreviations: JFK stands for John F. Kennedy; RFK stands for Robert F. Kennedy; LBJ stands for Lyndon Baines Johnson
Acheson, Dean, 20, 84, 98, 118
on Bay of Pigs, 135
Berlin crisis and, 183, 184, 203–4, 221–22, 224, 228
on Bowles, 103, 271
Cuban missile crisis and, 315, 317–18, 332
on JFK’s appointments, 63–64
on JFK’s leadership, 204, 223
JFK’s opinion of, 204–5
Joe Kennedy, Sr. and, 205
nuclear war and, 223
Adams, John, 26
Adenauer, Konrad, 181, 182, 184, 202
Age of Roosevelt, The (Schlesinger), 27
Alford, Mimi Beardsley, 31–33, 330
Alliance for Progress, 105, 128, 130–31, 133, 139, 167, 216, 253, 254, 291
Alsop, Joseph, 116, 127, 202, 221, 223, 224, 237–38
Anderson, George, 316, 322, 331, 381
arms race, 23, 105–6, 93. See also nuclear war and weapons
“missile gap” and, 20, 67
nuclear test ban treaty, 209–13, 255–57, 356–60, 379–83
Soviet Union’s inferiority, 211, 225, 298
U.S. advantage in, 295, 298
Arnett, Peter, 338
As I Saw It (Rusk), 430
Attwood, William, 384–85, 387–88, 389
Auden, W. H., 422
Baker, Bobby, 57
Ball, George, 103–4, 155
Cuban missile crisis and, 297, 309–10, 314, 328
“green light” cable for Diem coup, 414–15
Vietnam and, 232, 240–41, 269, 277, 341, 391, 394, 396, 400–401, 413
Barnett, Ross, 282–83
Barrington, James, 280
Bartlett, Charlie, 127
Batista, Fulgencio, 387
Bay of Pigs, 133–56
advisers’ misjudgments and, 133–38, 140–41, 145–47
analysis of, 144–46
Bissell’s input, 134–35
Bowles memo against, 139
CIA and, 134, 134–36
critics of, 139–41
as Eisenhower’s plan, 138
failure of, 143–44, 146, 149
JFK accepts responsibility for, 148, 153, 188
JFK goes with plan, 135, 137, 143, 146
JFK’s determination not to use U.S. forces, 138–39, 144–45
JFK’s doubts about, 133, 143
JFK’s guilt about captives, 364
JFK’s hope for secrecy, 134, 136, 138, 143
JFK’s last-minute use of Navy pilots, 144
JFK’s motives, 137–38, 145–46, 147, 150
JFK’s payback for being misled, 152–54
JFK’s reliance on advisers as an error, 144, 149, 188
JFK’s use of moon shot to distract from failure of, 177–80
Khrushchev on JFK and, 190
military planners and, 137
Rusk and, 133, 139–40
Beardsley, Mimi. See Alford, Mimi Beardsley
Bell, David, 119
Berlin, 93, 103, 180–81, 225
Acheson on, 203–4
de Gaulle’s advice, 187
JFK’s address (1963), 391
JFK’s addresses on crisis (1961), 201, 222–25
JFK meets with Brandt, 182–83
JFK’s seeking counsel on, 201–5
Macmillan and, 200
Soviet threat, 147, 180–86, 199–201, 221–29, 224
Wall built, 225–26, 235
Berlin, Isaiah, 187–88, 307
Bigart, Homer, 276–77
Billings, Lem, 13, 30
Bissell, Richard, 134–35, 149–50
Bohlen, Charles, 183, 187, 191, 194, 307, 311–12
Bolshakov, Georgi, 254, 306
Boston
“cut glass set” or FIF’s of, 4
Democratic Party in, 4
Irish as political force in, 5
JFK elected to Congress, 37–38, 40
Joe Kennedy-Curley deal for congressional seat, 37
Kennedy family and politics, 4–6
Lodge family in, 5
Boston Post, 40, 42
Bowles, Chester, 101–3
Acheson’s view of, 103
demotion of, 155, 271
JFK’s response to, 103
leaking of dissent about Bay of Pigs, 149, 150–51, 153–55
memo against Bay of Pigs, 139
memos on Vietnam, 271, 272–73
positions of, 102
RFK and, 369
Rusk and, 273
Bradlee, Ben, 64
, 331
Brandt, Willy, 182–83, 226, 227
Briand, Aristide, 256
Browne, Malcolm, 338
Bruce, David, 183
Bryan, William Jennings, 93–94
Buckley, William F., Jr., 146
Bundy, McGeorge, 74, 89, 118, 281–82, 292–93, 408, 428
appointed national security adviser, 74, 89–92, 126, 149
Bay of Pigs and, 138, 146, 147, 149
Berlin crisis and, 226, 228
character of, 89–90, 91
on conflict among advisers, 369
Cuba, Castro, and, 215, 216, 254, 287, 365, 374, 384, 386, 388–89
Cuba hosting Soviet missiles disputed by, 290, 293
Cuban missile crisis and, 293–94, 297, 302, 304–5, 315, 317, 318, 328, 332
Harvard and, 89, 90–91, 93
JFK’s input on Berlin and, 201–2
JFK’s Khrushchev message and, 323
JFK’s lack of confidence in, 279
JFK’s speech to Cuban exiles and, 364
as JFK’s voice on Diem coup, 416–17
in LBJ’s administration, 427–28
nuclear test ban treaty and, 257
opinion of Lodge, 405
“peace speech” and, 360
recruitment of academics by, 93
Rostow and, 92–93
on Rusk, 100
Soviet nuclear testing and, 212, 213
as university professor, 428
Vietnam and, 232, 242–45, 277, 408, 409, 412, 414, 415, 428–29
Vietnam mistakes acknowledged, 404–5
Bundy, William, 236
Burdick, Eugene, 218
Bureau of the Budget, 118
Burke, Arleigh, 71–72, 75, 138, 213, 257
Cambodia, 159
Carter, Jimmy, ix, x
Carter, Marshall, 289, 297, 302
Castro, Fidel. See also Cuba
ABC reporter Howard’s interviews, 377
Attwood and overtures to the U.S., 384–85, 387
CIA and, 134, 135, 216–20, 253–54, 287–88, 365
Cuban missile crisis and, 303, 304
Daniel interview, 387, 390
Eisenhower and, 130, 131–32
on JFK, 390
JFK and rapprochement with, 374, 377, 383, 385–90
JFK’s policy on ousting, 138, 159, 213–21, 331, 383
Khrushchev and, 254