as liberal, 81
on Lovett, 84
on McNamara, 88, 294
“peace speech” and, 360
quashing of New Republic article and, 141
resignation from LBJ’s White House, 423–24
RFK and, 49
RFK’s anniversary party, 207
RFK’s presidential hopes, 336
on Rostow, 243
on Rusk, 100
Soviet build-up in Cuba disputed by, 288–89
Soviet nuclear testing and, 213
as speechwriter, 80, 279
State of the Union (1962), 251
Vietnam and, 345
Wilkins and, 402
writings on JFK’s presidency, 423, 424
Seaborg, Glenn T., 209, 212, 213, 255
Seigenthaler, John, 63
Shannon, William, 264
Sheehan, Neil, 275–76, 337–38, 345–46
Shepard, Alan, 179, 180
Shoup, David, 316
Shriver, Eunice Kennedy, 86, 129
Shriver, Sargent, 120, 129
JFK’s appointments and, 86, 119
JFK’s presidential campaign, 86
marriage to Eunice Kennedy, 86, 129
Peace Corps and, 129–30
Special Olympics and, 129
Sidey, Hugh, 75, 199
Smathers, George, 167, 379
Smith, Jean Kennedy, 143
Smith, Steve, 88
Sorensen, Theodore, x, 109
background, 76–78
Castro ousting and, 215
as civil rights activist, 76–77
Cuban missile crisis, 302, 318
JFK message to Khrushchev and, 323
JFK’s “alter ego,” 76
JFK’s health post-election, 3
JFK’s health problems and, 79
JFK’s inaugural speech and, 105
JFK’s memory preserved by, 422, 425–26
JFK’s presidential campaign, 80
JFK’s Senate years, 78–79, 80
LBJ and, 353
LBJ’s presidency and, 425
on LeMay, 74
memo on Vietnam, 165–66
“Ministry of Talent,” x
O’Donnell as hostile to, 81, 369
as “outsider,” 81
on the Peace Corps, 129
“peace speech” and, 359–60
Profiles in Courage and, 80
on RFK, 44–45, 51
space race and, 177
as special counsel to the president, 80, 126
as speechwriter, x, 3, 80, 279, 302, 425
writings on JFK’s presidency, 423, 425–26
Sorensen, Tom, 360
Southeast Asia Task Force, 231, 236
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), 236, 242, 243
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), 108
Soviet Union. See also Khrushchev, Nikita
arms race and, 67
atmospheric nuclear testing and, 208, 210–11
Bay of Pigs failure and, 146–47
Berlin and, 103, 180–86
Berlin Wall and, 225–26
Cuba, military build-up in, 288–91
Cuba and, 103, 106, 131, 366
Cuba as problem in U.S. relations, 372, 377
Cuban missile crisis, 292–329
East Germany, nuclear missiles in, 290
economic weakness, 178–79
JFK’s advisers wrong on, 290
JFK seen as weak, 146–47
Laos and, 159
menace to West of, 132–33, 203
“missile gap” and, 20, 67
nuclear war fears and, 40, 67–68
RFK and William O. Douglas in (1955), 46
Sino-Soviet split, 367
space race and, 177–79
test ban treaty and, 209–13
space race, 177–80
Stages of Economic Growth (Rostow), 91–92
Stahr, Elvis, 274
Stalin, Joseph, 186, 189, 195
steel industry, 259–60
Steeves, John, 231–32
Steinbeck, John, 248
Stevenson, Adlai, 43, 81, 288–89
on America’s lack of grand vision, 107
Ball and, 103–4
Bay of Pigs failure, 151
Berlin crisis and, 228
Bowles and, 101
calls RFK “Black Prince,” 59
campaign of 1956, 47–50
Cuba and, 386
Cuban missile crisis and, 301, 302, 308, 325
desire for Secretary of State job, 93–94
JFK campaigning for, 50
JFK desire for vice presidency and, 48–49
JFK’s administration and, 63
JFK’s ambassadorship offers, 94–95
Kennedy’s “Irish gutter talk” and, 104
Nixon’s attack on, 20
RFK campaigning for, 49–50
on Soviet nuclear testing, 211
third-time candidate hopes, 15–16, 51–52
Stilwell, Joseph W., 98
Strategy for Peace, The (JFK), 120
Strauss, Lewis, 209
Sullivan, William H., 411
Sully, François, 286
Sulzberger, Arthur, 414
Sylvester, Arthur, 71, 72
Symington, Stuart, 16, 57, 243
tax reform, 107, 108
Taylor, Maxwell, 72, 93
background, 157–58
Berlin crisis and, 228
Castro ousting and, 213, 216, 254
Cuba and, 360
Cuban missile crisis and, 297, 298, 303, 305, 315, 317, 318, 332
as Diem supporter, 231, 284, 398, 401, 407, 409, 416
as JFK adviser, 157–58
JFK’s diminished confidence in, 279
Joint Chiefs and, 330–31
resignation from LBJ’s White House, 431
Vietnam and, 232, 234, 235, 242, 341, 342, 346, 397, 406–8, 411–12
Vietnam fact-finding trips, 237, 238, 239, 282, 283, 409–11
Vietnam report to JFK, 284
Teller, Edward, 209
Tempelsman, Maurice, 423
Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis (R. Kennedy), 427
Thompson, Llewellyn “Tommy,” 182–83, 185, 192, 198
background, 313
on Cuba, 367–68
Cuban missile crisis and, 311, 312–13, 328, 333
nuclear test ban treaty and, 358
Thompson, Robert G. K., 347–48
Thornton, Charles, 86
Thousand Days, A (Schlesinger), 424–25
Thunder Out of China (White), 235
Time magazine, leaks to, 203
Travell, Janet, 308–9
Troutman, Robert, 174
Truman, Bess, 125
Truman, Harry, 17, 19, 25, 28, 42, 47, 53
Acheson and, 205
Bell and, 119
Bowles and, 101
“buck stops here,” 25, 147
China policy, 98, 164, 248
containment policy, 28
dislike of Nixon, 60
Eisenhower and, 22
firing of MacArthur, 75
Harriman and, 192
on JFK, 60
JFK and, 379
Korean War and, 247, 262, 273
Lovett in administration, 84
Neustadt serving under, 25
reputation as sob, 59
Symington and, 243
test ban treaty and, 379, 382
Tuchman, Barbara, 320
Turkey, U. S. missiles in, 326–27, 328–29
Twain, Mark, 13
Udall, Stewart, 255
Ugly American, The (Lederer and Burdick), 218
Uncertain Trumpet, The (Taylor), 72, 158
Unfinished Life, An (Dallek), ix, 12
Ung Van Kiem, 280
United Nations
Cuban missile crisis and, 323
Eleanor Roosevelt at, 95, 125
Fulbright support for, 96
Khrushchev address (1956), 195
Stevenson ambassadorship, 94–95
United States Information Agency (USIA), 264
University of Georgia, 176
University of Virginia, 40–41
Unruh, Jesse, 38
U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, 208, 209
U. S. Commission on Civil Rights, 120, 121, 258
U. S. Congress
House Appropriations Committee, 274
JFK’s low opinion of the House and congressmen, 13–14
JFK’s speech (1961), 176–77
JFK’s term in the House, 13, 38
JFK’s term in the Senate, 14, 96
O’Brien as JFK’s congressional point man, 113–14
Senate Armed Services Committee, 71, 242
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 96, 261, 268
Senate Labor Rackets Commission, 111
Senate Space Committee, 179
southern opposition to civil rights, 123, 173
test ban treaty and, 380, 382
Vietnam and, 242
U. S. Department of Defense. See also Joint Chiefs
anti-Castro forces and, 366
Cuba, Castro, and JFK’s policy toward, 366
Cuban missile crisis and, 318
disagreement with negotiated Vietnam outcome, 272
JFK criticism of, 257
nuclear war and, 294
task force on Vietnam, 274
Vietnam and, 236, 245, 268
U. S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division, 122, 174
Cuban missile crisis and, 301
RFK as attorney general, 62–65
White as deputy attorney general, 122
U. S. Department of State. See also Rusk, Dean
Ball replaces Bowles, 155
Bay of Pigs and, 133, 139–40, 150
Berlin and, 183, 185–86
Bowles as Undersecretary, 101–3, 139
Bowles ousted, 155–56
Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, 365
China White Paper, 98
Cuban missile crisis and, 302–3, 318
Cuba reconciliation opposed by, 388
Far Eastern affairs department, 98, 273
FDR’s exasperation with, 184
Intelligence Bureau, 355
JFK-Khrushchev summit and, 191
JFK’s attitude toward, 93, 103, 184, 270
JFK’s reforming of, 95–96
press censorship in Vietnam and, 263, 264–65
Rusk as Secretary, 93, 97–101, 103, 328
“shit list” of those to be fired, 95
on U. S. military intervention in Cuba, 134
Vietnam and, 236, 241, 346
Vietnam rationale, 286–87
Vietnam working group, 336, 348–49, 355
U. S. Department of the Treasury
Cuban missile crisis and, 318
Dillon as Secretary, 116–18
U. S. Intelligence Board, 290
U. S. News & World Report, “Curtain of Secrecy” story, 263
U Thant, 323, 325, 329
Vandiver, Ernest, 61
Vann, John Paul, 346
Varentsov, Sergei, 225
Vienna summit (1961), 186–200
Vietnam, xi, 162–72, 229–49, 260–78, 280–87, 336–52, 354–56, 390–419
Ap Bac, 339–40, 341, 345–46
assassination of Diem and Nhu, 417–18
British Advisory Group, 347–48
Buddhist repression and crisis, 349, 351–52, 355, 391, 392, 393, 394, 395–96, 397, 399
bureaucratic infighting and failing policy of, 345, 346
consensus on U. S. military support, 336–37
cost of war, 338
Counterinsurgency Plan, 162
Diem and (see Ngo Dinh Diem)
domino theory, 160–61, 431
Durbrow as ambassador, 162–63
Eisenhower’s policy, 160, 165
expanding U.S. role, 266, 267–68
fog of war and, 396
French advice to JFK, 234–35
French defeat, 160, 170, 241, 338
Galbraith advice on, 166, 232–33, 234, 269–71
GAO report on aid programs, 347
Geneva Accords, 160, 270–71
Gilpatric advice on, 166
Green Berets, 218
Harkins as commander in, 260, 265, 274, 275, 280–81, 337, 340, 343, 346
hawkish demands for military intervention, 233, 236–38
Hilsman and Forrestal trip and report (1963), 340–41
JFK administration failure to ask five basic questions before engagement in, 246–47
JFK and a negotiated settlement, 269–71, 272, 273–74, 280
JFK’s advisers divided on, 401, 405–9, 414–15
JFK’s advisers supporting Diem, 164, 168, 170–71, 230–31, 237, 414
JFK’s ambivalence on, 429
JFK’s commitment to, 246–47, 286–87, 343, 393, 405
JFK’s dilemma in, 350–51
JFK’s doubts about financing South Vietnamese forces, 171
JFK’s eight questions for advisers, 242
JFK’s final policy on, 418–19
JFK’s hiding U.S. involvement, 260–61, 262, 263–64, 269, 340
JFK’s intention to withdraw, 351
JFK’s lack of prioritizing, 342
JFK’s meeting of January, 1961, 161
JFK’s meeting of September 10, 1963, 406–8
JFK’s meetings of August 26– 28, 1963, 397–401
JFK’s meetings of October 29, 1963 on Diem coup, 415–16
JFK’s motivations for expanding U.S. commitments in, 247–48, 273, 350
JFK’s opposition to build-up of U.S. military in, 161–62, 229–30, 232–33, 237, 240, 241, 242, 261–62
JFK’s press conference (July 17, 1963), 393
JFK’s reluctance to back Diem coup, 354–55, 416–18
JFK’s skepticism about rescuing South Vietnam, 339–40
JFK’s task force on, 280–82
JFK’s TV interviews to put Diem on notice, 405–6
JFK turns over management of war to McNamara, U.S. military, and the Saigon embassy, 267, 283, 342
Joint Chiefs and, 166, 236–37, 240, 245, 260–61, 340, 341–42, 343, 395
Kattenburg’s warning, 404
Kennedy letter to Diem, 245–46
Kennedy letter to Khrushchev, 246
Khrushchev holds up as model for insurgencies, 166–67
Landsdale as CIA station head, 218
Lansdale report to JFK, 161, 163
LBJ report (1961), 168–70
LBJ’s Rolling Thunder campaign, 427–28
LBJ’s Vietnam policy, 429–30
LBJ trip to (1961), 167–68
Lodge as ambassador, 355–56, 391, 392, 396
Mansfield memo to JFK, 238–39
Mansfield report, 337–39, 343
as McNamara’s war, 267
McNamara-Taylor visit (1963) and report, 409–11, 412, 413
McNamara visit (1962), 274–76
misinformation on, 274, 275, 277–78, 280–82, 284, 345–46, 396
as a muddle without a solution, 405–7
NIE report on, 348
Nolting and Diem, 230–31, 266
Nolting as ambassador, 163, 243, 244, 265, 274, 275, 337, 340, 343, 344–45, 348
partition of, 163
Pentagon officer inspection trip (1963), 340
press and, 20, 265, 267, 276–77, 285, 286, 336, 337–38, 342, 344, 345, 392, 393–98, 412–13
press censorship, 286, 408, 409
press complaints, 263, 264–65
public dissent against war, 281
reporter Sheehan in, 275–76
Rostow and, 92, 229–30
Rusk memo opposing Taylor-Rostow report, 241–42
Sorensen memo on, 165–66
“A Strategic Concept for South Vietnam” (Hilsman), 262
Strategic Hamlets Program, 277, 282, 283, 336, 338, 347–48, 349, 392, 406
supporters of military victory in, 343, 347–48
supporters of political initiative, 344
Taylor-Rostow report, 239–40, 241, 242
U.S. casualties in, 404
U. S. critics of war, 346–47
U. S. debate over, 343–45
U. S. military advisers in, 171, 240, 245, 261–62, 338, 348, 349
U. S. Special Forces in, 165
as war against communism, 159, 166–67, 169, 245, 247, 261, 272, 276, 286–87, 343, 405
Wheeler report, 341–42
White House fact-finding trip (1961), 237–40
White House press release promising withdrawal of troops, 411–12
Volcker, Paul, 432
von Brentano, Heinrich, 184
Vu Van Mau, 280
Wahl, Nicholas, 189
Wallace, George, 352, 432
Washington, George, ix, x, 1, 108
Webster, Daniel, 14
Westmoreland, William, 431
“What We Are Doing in Southeast Asia” (Harriman), 277
Wheeler, Earle, 316, 340, 341–42, 343, 346
White, Byron, 122, 123
White, Lincoln, 324–25
White, Theodore, 235, 248, 422
White House Historical Association, 125
Why England Slept (JFK), 12
Wiesner, Jerome, 209, 356
Wilkie, Wendell, 218
Wilkins, Roy, 176, 251, 402
Wilson, Woodrow, 22, 25, 26, 93–94, 127, 380
Wofford, Harris, 119–20, 123
fate of Bowles and, 153
JFK’s presidential campaign, 120
as point man for JFK’s civil rights agenda, 60, 119–22, 175
World War II
Chamberlain’s appeasement, 8, 161
Eisenhower’s staff in, 68–69
firebombing of Tokyo, 86
Humphrey’s lack of service, 19
JFK as hero, 37
Joe Kennedy, Jr.’s death in, 9–10
Joe Kennedy, Sr. as ambassador to Great Britain, 7
Lovett in, 84
McNamara and, 85–86
O’Brien in, 112
Power in, 73
RFK in, 39
Rostow in OSS, 91
Rusk and, 97–98
Shriver in, 129
Taylor in, 157
Young, Kenneth T., 239
Photo Insert
Rose and Joe Kennedy: JFK said of his father, “He made it all possible.”
President Kennedy and brother Bobby, his closest confidant and most forceful advocate.
Ted Sorensen, the brilliant thirty-three-year-old wordsmith who crafted most of Kennedy’s best lines during their eleven-year association.
In March 1962, former president Dwight Eisenhower saw Kennedy as too young and inexperienced to master Cold War challenges.