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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