President Kennedy and Bobby with Vice President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of State Dean Rusk. The Kennedys lacked confidence in their judgments and consigned them to the fringes of the administration.
Historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. was a leading liberal voice in the White House and the person best prepared to recount its accomplishments after Kennedy’s death.
McGeorge Bundy, former Harvard dean and White House national security adviser, reflected Kennedy’s affinity for the most brilliant men he could find to staff his administration.
Kennedy discusses the Alliance for Progress with Latin American representatives. The Alliance reflected Kennedy’s hopes of winning “hearts and minds” in the contest with communism in the developing world.
Kennedy with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who enjoyed Kennedy’s high regard after their successful collaboration in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and General Maxwell Taylor, Kennedy’s choice as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Taylor was the only one of the military chiefs he fully trusted.
Sorensen in a later meeting with Fidel Castro, who outlasted all administration efforts to bring him down.
President Kennedy with Allen Dulles and John McCone, the former and new head of the CIA. Kennedy had grave doubts about their advice, but kept them on to mute conservative political opposition.
President Kennedy with Adlai Stevenson and United Nations representatives. Kennedy’s failure to consult Stevenson about the Bay of Pigs invasion embarrassed and angered him.
President Kennedy and the Joint Chiefs. Conflict more than collaboration marked their exchanges over Cuba, Berlin, Vietnam, and nuclear weapons.
President Kennedy and Charles de Gaulle during their Paris meeting. It improved Kennedy’s international standing after the Bay of Pigs debacle.
President Kennedy, Jackie, and the Khrushchevs at the Vienna summit, which Kennedy described as the worst experience of his life.
President Kennedy, Jackie, Lyndon Johnson, and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. watching Alan Shepard’s return from space—a prelude to Kennedy’s promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
President Kennedy and the Executive Committee during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the most dangerous moment in the Cold War.
President Kennedy with Averell Harriman, who negotiated a nuclear test ban agreement with Khrushchev in July 1963.
President Kennedy and advisers discussing nuclear arms control, a Kennedy priority, in November 1961.
The Vietnamese leaders Ngo Dinh Diem, Ngo Dinh Nhu, and Madame Nhu. Their resistance to reforms persuaded Kennedy to oust them in November 1963.
President Johnson, Bobby Kennedy, and Jackie leaving the White House for Kennedy’s funeral two days after he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
About the Author
ROBERT DALLEK is the author of An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963 and Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power, among other books. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Vanity Fair. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Society of American Historians, for which he served as president in 2004–2005. He lives in Washington, D.C.
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Also by Robert Dallek
The Lost Peace: Leadership in a Time of Horror and Hope
Harry S. Truman
Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power
Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President
An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963
Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973
Hail to the Chief: The Making and Unmaking of American Presidents
Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908–1960
Ronald Reagan: The Politics of Symbolism
The American Style of Foreign Policy:
Cultural Politics and Foreign Affairs
Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945
Democrat and Diplomat: The Life of William E. Dodd
Credits
Cover design by Amanda Kain
Cover photograph © Arnold Newman Collection / Getty Images
All photos courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Copyright
CAMELOT’S COURT. Copyright © 2013 by Robert Dallek. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dallek, Robert.
Camelot’s court : inside the Kennedy White House / Robert Dallek.—First edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-06-206584-1
1. Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917–1963. 2. Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917–1963—Friends and associates. 3. United States—Politics and government—1961–1963. 4. Cabinet officers—United States—History—20th century. 5. Political consultants—United States—History—20th century. 6. Political leadership—United States—History—20th century. I. Title.
E842.D269 2013
973.922092—dc23
2013012864
EPUB Edition OCTOBER 2013 ISBN 9780062065865
13 14 15 16 17 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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