Washington Merry-Go-Round: The Drew Pearson Diaries, 1960-1969
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Washington Merry-Go-Round: The Drew Pearson Diaries, 1960-1969
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781612347424 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Potomac Books |
| Publication date: | 09/15/2015 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 760 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
About the Author
Drew Pearson (1897–1969) was an active journalist for nearly fifty years. At the time of his death, his column Washington Merry-Go-Round was carried by 650 newspapers. He was well known for his extensive use of investigative journalism.
Peter Hannaford (1932–2015) had a long career in public affairs consulting, centered in Washington DC. He is the author of eleven books, including Reagan’s Roots: The People and Places That Shaped His Character and Presidential Retreats: Where the Presidents Went and Why They Went There.
Read an Excerpt
Washington Merry-Go-Round
The Drew Pearson Diaries, 1960â"1969
By Drew Pearson, Peter Hannaford
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS
Copyright © 2015 Estate of Drew PearsonAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61234-742-4
CHAPTER 1
1960
Annals
John F. Kennedy was elected president over Richard Nixon. Both wanted to be the first of their generation to lead postwar America.
Kennedy captured the imagination of the media with his humor, charm, and attractive wife. Nixon, always appearing serious, had gained many enemies among American liberals after his allegations that the State Department's Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy (corroborated years later by Soviet documents made public). Liberals also resented what they considered unfair campaign tactics in his earlier House and Senate victories.
A central question in the Kennedy-Nixon campaign was could a Catholic be elected president? The contest ultimately turned on four televised presidential debates. This was the first election in which television became the primary resource for political news. (From 1950 to 1960 the number of households with televisions increased from 11 to 88 percent.)
The first debate was seen by more than seventy million viewers. The majority of radio listeners polled felt Nixon had won, but television viewers said it was Kennedy. Kennedy won the election by just over one hundred thousand votes — one of the closest in U.S. history. Nixon voters charged that there had been vote fraud in the Chicago area, but Nixon decided against making a formal complaint.
Fifteen American scientists were honored as Time magazine's Person of the Year. The United States was the primary beneficiary of a surge of European scientists arriving just before and during World War II. They and their students propelled the United States to the center of scientific innovation. From 1901 to 1939 the United States had won only thirteen Nobel Prizes in chemistry, physics, and medicine. From 1940 to 1960 it won forty-one.
In February, British prime minister Harold Macmillan said in a speech about Africa: "The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact." Half of the thirty-two African nations that gained independence during the decade did so in 1960.
Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela founded the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Baghdad. At that time most of the world's oil supply was controlled by the "Seven Sisters," Western oil companies, five of them American, that were instrumental in building the industry in much of the Middle East. As soon as these countries felt capable of running their own affairs, they nationalized their petroleum fields.
The summit meeting between President Eisenhower and Soviet leader Khrushchev collapsed over the u-2 spy plane incident. (In May an American u-2 was shot down over the Soviet Union while on a reconnaissance mission. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, survived the crash and was captured.)
Later in the year Khrushchev banged his shoe on the table at the United Nations while denouncing Western colonialism. His speech was in response to the Philippine delegation's condemnation of Soviet domination in Central and Eastern Europe.
— Ed.
The Diary
Sunday, January 3 | Late this afternoon associate Jack Anderson called with a tip that the steel strike was about to be settled. It came indirectly from Pat Hillings, who flew back with [Vice President Richard] Nixon from California this afternoon. There's a meeting at the Carlton Hotel between the steel industry and the workers. I tried all evening to get Arthur Goldberg or Dave McDonald on the phone. They were elusive. It's obvious, however, that the strike is being settled and that Nixon has had a lot to do with it.
Monday, January 4 | I started the New Year journalistically by calling on the chairman of the District of Columbia Commission, Bob McLaughlin. I wanted to worm out of him the inside story of Dewey's talk with Eisenhower regarding the 1964 World's Fair, which was suddenly switched to New York from Washington. My information was that Dewey, who represents some of the important New York businessmen who will make about half a billion dollars out of the fair, came to see Ike and persuaded him to make the switch. Eisenhower during that talk is reported to have told Dewey that he wanted Rockefeller out of the race to give a clear field for Nixon. It was not so much that Ike loves Nixon but hates Rockefeller. This, of course, press secretary Jim Hagerty has denied.
Friday, January 8 | The Yugoslav ambassador came to lunch. He is a young former university professor in Belgrade who has a sympathetic understanding of American-Yugoslav relations and some fears about Russia. He thinks the Soviets are reconciled to letting Yugoslavia alone but that some of the satellites are worried over the example Yugoslavia has shown as an independent Communist state.
Wednesday, January 13 | Appointment with Lyndon Johnson. To keep him from monopolizing the conversation, I took a memorandum with me on confidential strategy to defeat Nixon. I started [by] telling him what was in the memo. I then urged that he read it.
If the Democrats want to win in November, I argued, they've got to do their main battling in the spring. When tempers get hot in the fall, people discount the charges. On the other hand, some quiet investigations into certain Republican operations without ballyhooing them as political investigations could strike some paydirt regarding Nixon.
Thursday, January 14 | To the Turkish embassy for dinner. Sat beside Mrs. Imbrie, whose husband, then vice consul, was killed by a Persian mob near Teheran some years ago, causing quite an incident. She has not improved with age.
Friday, January 15 | NEW YORK — Lunched with Bob Kintner at NBC. He tells me Frank Stanton is so close to Lyndon that Stanton issued his statement on TV not from New Orleans, as publicly stated, but from Lyndon's ranch. Stanton expects to be secretary of defense in a Johnson administration. Returned on the midnight train to Washington.
Saturday, January 16 | Bill Benton came in immediately following a breakfast with Adlai Stevenson and Wayne Morse. Morse had told Adlai that he, Morse, had to get into the Oregon primary and some of the other primaries, but it would be a stopgap operation, and his delegates would be turned over to Adlai in the end. Wayne has been causing a lot of trouble among the liberals.
Benton is having a luncheon today for Adlai and a group of senators. I urged Benton to make a pitch to Magnuson to get some money for the investigation of the networks. He said he would. I called up Kefauver, Gruening, Neuberger, and [Eugene] McCarthy to try to get them to help out.
Sunday, January 17 | I telephoned Tom Hennings and told him that if he could filibuster for a day on his southern primaries amendment, I could probably pick up twenty-five votes for him. He said he would try to put off the amendment for a vote till Tuesday.
I then called [Senators] Neuberger, Joe Clark, and McNamara of Michigan (through his assistant) and urged them to do a little extra talking on Monday to tide the southern primary vote over until Tuesday.
Monday, January 18 | Lunched with the Czech ambassador at the Mayflower Hotel. This is almost revolutionary. A few years ago I called upon the then Czech ambassador at his embassy. He was secretive and unpleasant. This was during the Stalinist era. I asked whether we could send toys to the children of Czechoslovakia with the Tide of Toys Train. He did not like the idea.
Last year I lunched with the immediate predecessor of the present ambassador at a little restaurant on G Street. This time the Czechs invited me to the Mayflower ... [They] want me to go to Czechoslovakia this summer. I would like to go. I couldn't very well tell him this, but I would much rather go to Russia. There's a certain amount of jealousy between the satellite countries and Russia — which is healthy from our point of view.
Tuesday, January 26 | Took California governor Pat Brown to lunch at the Russian embassy. En route he told me of his water troubles and the fact that the northern part of California is reneging on his program for supplying water to Southern California. He attended a White House conference yesterday with Eisenhower and Rockefeller and remarked that Rockefeller was critical of Eisenhower's do-nothing program regarding fallout and bomb shelters. Pat was also critical. "This administration just seems to be drifting," he told me. "There's no leadership. I hate to be critical because Eisenhower is such a nice fellow. He's so nice that you don't feel like leaving the White House and blasting him."
Pat told the ambassador he planned to go to Russia in April. The ambassador said he would arrange for his visit. I said that I would probably go at that time, too, and made another bid to interview Khrushchev.
[Ambassador] Menshikov complained that he couldn't go to San Francisco without special permission from the State Department. The governor countered that the Russians wouldn't allow American ambassadors to travel in Russia either. He told Menshikov he was trying to put across a water project in California to keep up with the great Siberian hydroelectric projects. He also discussed the fact that he is a Catholic and that many Catholics were against the USSR. He said that when he had welcomed Khrushchev in San Francisco, he received a letter from a Catholic bishop berating him for shaking the bloody hand of a dictator.
Brown left early to testify on the Hill. I then suggested to the ambassador the idea of a trailer caravan to Russia. He was noncommittal and suggested a Friendship Train instead. He didn't say so, but I gathered the roads in Russia would not be conducive to a friendship caravan. He also suggested that the idea would have to be reciprocal.
Tom Hennings called. The southern primary amendment passed. He reminded me that I promised to get twenty-five votes for him if he held the amendment over one day, and he said, "You got the twenty-five votes."
Wednesday, January 27 | I saw Magnuson about getting some money for the Yarborough investigation. I outlined the same strategy I had given to Lyndon regarding investigations of Nixon — not aimed at him but which would culminate in some headlines. He liked the idea. He also volunteered that the money was coming up for Yarborough and he believed in starting at $50,000 and increasing the pot afterward. Maggie is a shrewd strategist.
Friday, January 29 | Hubert Humphrey called to complain about my item last Sunday reporting how he had helped rescue Lyndon at the Democratic caucus from an immediate vote on whether members of the Policy Committee should be elected or not. Hubert was plaintive and said that this had hurt him in Wisconsin. Actually, I thought the column would help him because it showed he wasn't as much in the liberal corner as some people reported. He needs a little moderate and conservative strength. But Lyndon's name just doesn't set well in Wisconsin.
Dined at Tinnie Ansberry's. Joe Clark was there, together with Gale McGee and Styles Bridges. Bridges seemed surprised when I told him that I had no sympathy for Castro and thought Batista had done a pretty good job. Bridges had come from a closed-door session with Adm. Arleigh Burke over the danger of losing Guantánamo. He says that what Castro wants most is to get American intervention. Then he can scream about the imperialist USA cracking down on poor little Cuba.
Sunday, January 31 | DETROIT — (After a speaking engagement.) Drove Gov. David Lawrence of Pennsylvania and Matt McCloskey, treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, to the airport.
Lawrence doesn't agree with the Marquis Childs column that Mayor Dilworth and Representative Green are going to swing Pennsylvania for Kennedy. Lawrence is for Symington. He thought Stuart made the best speech last night, with Lyndon Johnson's the poorest. Lawrence is sensitive about the difficulties of a Catholic running for high office. He pointed out that the newspapers, during his campaign, referred to the fact he would be the first Catholic governor in history, and he feels this lost him possibly 200,000 votes. Some Protestant rural counties were carried by Leader despite the fact that Leader ran far behind in the total vote.
I remarked to Lawrence that the Republicans were forging ahead partly because there was no scandal in this administration now. In '58, when he was running, there was the Sherman-Adams-Goldfine vicuna coat scandal. "The best campaign ammunition in the world is corruption," said the governor. "You can talk about everything under the sun, but there is one thing the voters understand — namely, when you point your finger at a man and call him a thief."
WASHINGTON DC — Went to a cocktail party in honor of Earle Clements. Quite a few of his old friends and Senate colleagues were there, including Lyndon. Lady Bird looked very pretty. Al Friendly remarked, "When Lyndon Johnson comes here for a cocktail party, you can be sure it's an election year."
Tuesday, February 1 | Had a long talk with Kefauver, who faces a reelection fight from Tip Taylor, former candidate for governor and an arch-segregationist. The big money in Tennessee is backing Taylor, also the big newspapers. They are trying to keep ex-governor Frank Clement out to divide opposition to Kefauver.
Estes received a phone call while I was there from someone in Tennessee wanting him to confirm the Republican nominee for U.S. marshal in Memphis. He declined to do so until he got a telegram of approval from the editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, who has been cutting his heart out editorially on the Negro issue. The editor was raised in Wisconsin but, like many Scripps-Howard papers, figures that "whipping the nigger" is a good circulation builder. The U.S. marshal is planning to appoint a Negro as his assistant, and Estes doesn't want to get murdered by the Commercial Appeal for approving the marshal's confirmation.
I talked to him about the proposed investigation of Justice and the Treasury regarding the Eisenhower scandals. I reported that Lyndon told me he had only two senators who could handle such a probe: Tom Hennings, who has trouble with sobriety; and Estes, who fumbles around but always comes up with the headlines and the heart of an investigation. Estes seemed surprised and pleased.
Matt McCloskey came up from Florida and is talking to some of the Gettysburg farm builders in Philadelphia to see what the facts are regarding the reportedly "free" construction of Ike's home. Tompkins, the builder, is one of the few people whose funeral Ike attended.
Friday, March 18 | Sen. Tom Hennings of Missouri had been absent almost a month during the civil rights debate on another of his benders and looked the worse for wear. I considered telling him that almost every senator had cursed him under his breath for his absence during the quorum calls and the filibuster — but I didn't.
I reminded Tom that about a year ago he told me that only three Democratic candidates for president had any courage: Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, and Stevenson. I asked him whether he thought Kennedy had any courage now. The answer was a qualified affirmative. "Jack hadn't had too much experience in the past, but he's had a lot more now, and with experience you acquire confidence and courage. Jack now takes a position on some of the things you and I do which he ducked before."
I told Tom I had been in Lyndon's office when Lyndon telephoned him to tell him he wanted some important investigations made. Tom remembered the call and said he had never quite figured out what Lyndon wanted him to investigate. I told him I had been trying to get Lyndon to stage a real investigation of Republican finagling in the Justice Department and the Treasury and that Lyndon said he only had two good investigators, Kefauver and Hennings. I told Tom this election would be won not in October but right now, depending upon how the Democrats conducted themselves and especially how the Democrats bore in on Republican shenanigans.
We talked over some of his subcommittees of the Judiciary Committee to see which could handle an investigation. I said I thought he could get by Eastland with a proposal to investigate Adam Clayton Powell's operations with the Justice Department and cloak a complete investigation behind this entering wedge.
Wednesday, April 13 | Called on Senator Magnuson regarding the long-delayed investigation of the television networks regarding freedom of news. Before seeing him, I met with Sen. Mike Monroney, who said he would go along. This made eight votes. Mike was enthusiastic and pointed out that the networks were bombarding him and other members because he had introduced the "Adlai Stevenson Bill," requiring the network to set aside two periods each week during the election campaign for the two candidates to debate each other.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Washington Merry-Go-Round by Drew Pearson, Peter Hannaford. Copyright © 2015 Estate of Drew Pearson. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS.
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Table of Contents
Contents
List of Illustrations,Foreword by Richard Norton Smith,
Acknowledgments,
Editor's Note,
Introduction,
1960,
1961,
1962,
1963,
1964,
1965,
1966,
1967,
1968,
1969,
Pearson Family Tree,
Glossary of Names,
Index,