Hello?

Hello?

Dick?

Mr. President.

I love you.

Congratulations, and God bless you, and good health. And you have all the wishes of the Daley family and their prayers.

Well, I’ve always had that, and I wouldn’t …

By God …

I wouldn’t—

I told you we’d get you 750[000 votes] in Chicago: it’ll be closer to 850[000] or 900,000. It looks as though you’ll win the state by a million. As I told you, you’ve saved the governor [Otto Kerner], and you’ve helped the entire ticket. He wins by about 200,000. But you conducted yourself masterfully, and fine, and decently. I know that all of the Americans join with you. We listened to you—

Well—

—this morning at home and your remarks last night and Lady Bird and your family. Mr. President, with the help of God, we know you’ll do [unclear].

Well, I think you’re the … you’re a wonderful friend to have, and …

[Unclear.]

I prize you first as a friend and as a confidant and a brother, but I think you’re the greatest political leader we’ve got in America. And you’ve just got to save yourself and try to think in national terms now because we’ve got to rebuild this party. And we’ve got to try to give them the kind of leadership in the nation that you give them in Chicago.

You’ve given them wonderful leadership—

Well, we’ve got to—

—and we’re very proud of you.

We’ve got to find some young people, though, that can take some of these places, and—

That’s right.

—I want your judgments, and I want you to throw away that modesty and pick up that phone and call me. And I count you among one of two or three that were there when the going was tough and things were wobbly.

[Unclear.] But you came through it again with great honor.

I’ll never forget how you treated me when I was running for vice president [Daley chuckles] , and I’ll never forget how good you were to Hubert.

Well, we—

You always take care of things ten years ahead of time, Dick! You’ve— [Daley laughs.]

Well, we try to, but God love you, and may the Lord shower his blessings upon you and your family. We’ll be there anytime, you know, at your side. And I [unclear] of course, still fighting out here, as we always do. I told you every time they printed those cartoons in the paper, we said to our fellows to go out and get them 100 more votes per precinct, and, by God, that’s what we did. We’ve got a wonderful group of men out here, and they did an outstanding job.

I told a story last night that old Tom … Tom O’Brien, I repeat.[note 1] Johnson had used this line about former Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and Chicago Congressman Tom O’Brien in Austin at a campaign rally. O’Brien had died in April 1964. “763. Remarks at the State Capitol in Austin, Texas,” 2 November 1964, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963–64 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1965), http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=26713. But I told about 50 of my faithful friends who had run Texas for me for 30 years. I said, Tom said Mr. [Sam] Rayburn used to mash—motion his finger. And I said, “Come on up here and get them fellows from Chicago in line, Tom.” And I said that’s what Mr. Rayburn … that was the relationship that was born between the greatest man we every produced and one of the greatest they produced. That’s the kind of relationship I’ve got with Dick Daley. [Daley acknowledges.] He called me up and said, “Now, Mr. President, you get things in line!” [Daley and Johnson laugh.] I call him up and say, “Get them fellows in line!”

Good, wonderful, Mr. President.

Tell me, what’s … what’s Otto’s majority up there?

Win by about 200,000, and we delivered the city for him by 450,000. And we delivered the city—remember when we were riding at O’Hare [Airport], I said we’d go 750[000]? Looks as though we’ll go to 850[000], 900,000 in the city for you.

What’ll I carry the state by?

By about a million.

Well, God, that’s awful. That’s … What did [John] Kennedy carry it by?

By 8,888.

Say Dick, you can help me one way. I want you to look over the country and see who we ought to have kind of get together once in a while. We want to get some young ones too. This fellow [Governor Harold] Hughes looks pretty good to me in Iowa.

Iowa. He’s a fine fellow.

He cleaned five of the six Republicans out yesterday in Congress.

Yes, he did; he did a terrific job.

We cleared our two Republicans out. Did you all pick up any seats?

[with Johnson acknowledging] We picked up one, and we’re still fighting for two others. We picked up one.

We’ve got to do that because they’ve got our program in the House—[House Minority Leader] Charlie Halleck does—and they make us compromise too much.

That’s right.

And we’ve just got to get to better organization and better discipline. I want—

I thought we’d do better in the South. [Unclear] to you?

Well … well, I was so thankful for Florida and Virginia, but …

[Unclear] were very good.

Dick, you don’t know how dirty these people were. It’s the worst I ever saw.

Well, they were pretty dirty up here.

They—

They tried to do everything, but our fellows just battled them in the precincts. And our fellows got the courage, and we stood behind them. And I went in a couple precincts myself where they were trying to interfere with my neighbors in voting.

They asked … The employers told them they had special jobs they had to do yesterday [that] they didn’t have time to vote. They put every Negro box where we’d have 30 percent Negroes. They put out that all your traffic tickets, all your violations, everything were going to be checked, and you’ll be prosecuted if you vote. [Daley acknowledges.] Just scared them to death! Made them all think they were going to penitentiary.

I think we should look into that—

All we—

—an eagle-eye. That’s just … Someone should take a real look at that.

It was the most fascist operation I’ve ever seen!

That’s right.

And they uncovered it in Houston the day before yesterday, and we’ve got copies of it. It says, “All your parking tickets, all your violations, all your birth certificates”—everything that would scare a Negro to death—

Yeah.

—they had it, and it was kind of a Klan operation. And it scared them out.

It was, yeah.

And they did a good deal of that in Georgia, and they … Louisiana’s got a bunch of crooks.

Yeah.

And Alabama and Mississippi are ignorant.

Yeah.

South Carolina’s got a wonderful governor, but just ignorant, and we’ve got to …

By God, we have to rebuild all them.

That’s right. But we—

You do it with patience and you do it with forgiveness, I suppose. And you do it with the kind of attitude that you display, your philosophy last night with binding up the wounds and getting everyone together in a unified country.

Did you like that statement?

Oh, I thought it was beautiful, just masterful. Then when you asked them for their prayers, and the quotation on Lincoln, I thought it was just wonderful. And [unclear] the sincerity coming out, over that, the sincerity and the [unclear]. But Mr. President, again, get some rest if you can, but good luck and good health—

I think you’re going to have a problem with [Senate Minority Leader and Illinois Senator Everett] Dirksen. He just talked to me, and it looks like he’s in pretty bad shape.[note 2] Dirksen had chronic problems with a bleeding ulcer. Johnson had spoken with him twice on this day in recorded calls, at 10:23 A.M. and 11:22 A.M. Conversation WH6411-03-6160 and WH6411-03-6164. He’s not—

Yes, I think he is. [The tape has a skip in it.]

Watch that, and …

We’re going to watch it pretty close.

Let’s get together, and you be doing some thinking for me, Dick.

Fine, Mr. President.

Give your wife my love, and your fine family.

[Unclear.] We really enjoyed you last Friday night at the affair.[note 3] Johnson had a campaign rally at Chicago Stadium on 30 October. [Both laugh.]

Well, it was the best. It was the best I ever saw. I said that you know how to do it.

Well, wonderful, Mr. President. Good-bye, now.

Bye.