Yes, sir. I’ll be right with you.

Hello? [speaking louder] Hello?

Mr. [Edwin L. “Eddie”] Ed Weisl [Sr.], please.[note 1] Edwin L. “Eddie” Weisl Sr. was a longtime Democratic committee member for the State of New York; a prominent New York attorney; one of Lyndon Johnson’s closest friends and advisers from outside of Texas; chief counsel for the U.S. Senate Preparedness Investigating Committee from 1950 to 1953 and from 1957 to 1958; and counsel of the Committee on Space and Aeronautics from 1960 to 1961.

Who’s calling?

President Johnson.

Oh, will you hold it just a moment?

Thank you.

They’re trying to locate Mr. Weisl.

Thank you.

Be right back on, Operator.

Thank you.

Mr. Weisl will be right with you.

Thank you, ma’am.

Mr. Weisl.

Thank you. [Pause.] Hello, Mr. Weisl?

Hello, Operator.

Mr. Weisl—just a moment, sir. Mr. Weisl hasn’t come to the phone yet.

OK.

I’m on the phone.

Thank you, Operator. [to Weisl] Mr. Weisl?

Yes.

Just a moment, sir, for the President.

Thank you.

Hello?

[to Weisl] Just a moment, sir. [to McCammon] Mr. Weisl’s on the line.

Good. Thank you very much.

Hello?

Hello?

Eddie?

Hello, Mr. President.

I just wanted to tell you how much I loved you and what a great source of strength you’d been and how I couldn’t have made it without you.

Oh, Lyndon, I have never been so happy and proud of a man in my life.

Well, you’re awfully wonderful, and you were always there when you were needed and—

I hope I always will be.

Well, you always have been. We’ve never doubted each other, and we’ve been there every minute. So I [am] just getting ready to go out and meet Hubert [H. Humphrey Jr.] [DFL–Minnesota].[note 2] Hubert H. Humphrey Jr. was the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota, from July 1945 to November 1948; a U.S. senator [DFL–Minnesota] from January 1949 to December 1964 and January 1971 to January 1978; Senate Majority Whip from January 1961 to December 1964; vice president of the United States from January 1965 to January 1969; and the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1968. He’s going to land here in about two minutes and going to have a little barbecue with the press. And I thought things went about as good as we could expect.

Oh, it was the greatest victory in the history of the United States. Do you realize that on your coattails, we, for the first time in 30 years, carried the whole legislature?

Is that right?

Yeah, both houses.

Eddie, you got to do this, and you’re the only one can do it. And you’re the one that get things done like this Walter [W. Jenkins] report.[note 3] Walter W. Jenkins was Lyndon B. Johnson’s office manager, personnel chief, and administrative assistant from 1939 to 1963, and special assistant to the president from 1963 to 1964, making him Johnson’s longest-serving employee. In October 1964, Jenkins was arrested for disorderly conduct and implicated in a morals charge scandal that resulted in his resignation from the White House. President Johnson is referring to the political handling of the arrest of top White House aide Walter Jenkins for a sexual encounter with another man at a time when that was illegal. Since President Dwight D. Eisenhower had issued Executive Order 10450 on 27 April 1953, requiring the FBI to run background checks on employees in sensitive positions, the FBI had investigated homosexuality as a potential security risk. By way of explanation, Eisenhower later wrote that “many loyal Americans, by reason of instability, alcoholism, homosexuality, or previous tendencies to associate with Communist-front groups, are unintentional security risks. In some instances, because of moral lapses, they become subject to the threat of blackmail by enemy agents.” See Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mandate for Change, 1953–1956 (New York: Signet, 1963), 375–76. An FBI investigation uncovered no evidence that Jenkins ever did anything that undermined American national security. See “FBI Uncovers No Evidence That Jenkins Compromised U.S. Security or Interests,” Washington Post, 23 October 1964. The rest of them just talk about it. We don’t have any propaganda machine, and we don’t have anybody can get out our stuff. Now, [Raymond C.] Ray Moley started this story that they were just voting against [Barry M.] Goldwater [Sr.] [R–Arizona] and they didn’t like either one of us, and that Johnson didn’t have any rapport, and he didn’t have any style, and he was a buffoon, and he was full of corn.[note 4] Raymond C. “Ray” Moley was a professor of law at Columbia University from 1928 to 1954; a member of the Roosevelt administration’s Brain Trust; a conservative columnist for Newsweek from 1937 to 1968; and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1970. Barry M. Goldwater Sr. was a U.S. senator [R–Arizona] from January 1953 to January 1965 and January 1969 to January 1987, and the Republican U.S. presidential candidate in 1964. And everyplace I went in this campaign, and I went to 49 states with Lady Bird [Johnson] and [the] two girls [Lynda Bird Johnson and Luci Baines Johnson]—I was in 44 myself—I had the biggest crowds they’d ever had before.[note 5] Lady Bird Johnson (née Claudia Alta Taylor) was the wife of Lyndon B. Johnson since 1934; second lady of the United States from January 1961 to November 1963; and first lady of the United States from November 1963 to January 1969. Lynda Bird Johnson was the elder daughter of Lyndon B. and Lady Bird Johnson. Luci Baines Johnson was the younger daughter of Lyndon B. and Lady Bird Johnson. And I got the biggest vote anybody ever got before. And I had the greatest affection that ever been demonstrated before, and the greatest loyalty, and more big businessmen, and more labor men, and more Negroes, and more Jews, [Weisl acknowledges] and more ethnic groups, more everybody. But they say, “Oh, that doesn’t amount to anything.” That—so the [Robert F.] Bobby Kennedy group, they kind of put out this stuff and the little Kennedy folks around there [say], “Nobody loves Johnson.”[note 6] Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy was U.S. attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and a U.S. senator [D–New York] from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968. They’re going to have it built up by January that I didn’t get any mandate at all, that I was just the lesser of two evils, and people didn’t care, and so on, and so forth.

Now, I think that you’ve got to point out that [Richard J.] Dick Daley says that he figured we’d run 750,000 in Chicago.[note 7] Richard J. “Dick” Daley was the Democratic mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from April 1955 until his death on 20 December 1976. Now, we’re going to run 850[000] to 9[00,000], and we saved the governor. And we run over a million in the state. It’s the greatest candidate that he’s ever seen, the greatest political candidate. And I think you got to quote him, because that’s what he told me a dozen times. I think you got to quote a man like [David L. “Dave”] Lawrence as saying that, and you got to sell the fact that business and labor doesn’t have to hate each other.[note 8] David L. “Dave” Lawrence was chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party from June 1934 to May 1940; member of the Democratic National Committee from May 1940 until his death on 21 November 1966; mayor of Pittsburgh from January 1946 to January 1959; Democratic governor of Pennsylvania from January 1959 to January 1963; and special assistant to the president and chair of the President’s Committee on Equal Opportunity in Housing from February 1963 until his death in 1966.

Yes.

And that we have put together divergent viewpoints and united them in peace like we always unite in war.

Yes.

And somebody like [Richard E. “Dick”] Berlin has got to sit down with the staff.[note 9] Richard E. “Dick” Berlin was president of the publishing giant Hearst Corporation from 1942 to 1973. And somebody’s got to sit down with [Samuel Irving “S. I.”] Newhouse [Sr.].[note 10] Samuel Irving “S. I.” Newhouse Sr. was founder and co-owner of Advance Publications, and publisher of numerous newspapers across the country. And somebody’s got to try to get the [New York] Times to give us a little approach, because the first thing they’re going to do is going to try to make a Warren [G.] Harding out of us on account of [Robert G. “Bobby”] Baker and [Walter W.] Jenkins.[note 11] Warren G. Harding was a U.S. senator [R–Ohio] from March 1915 to January 1921, and president of the United States from March 1921 until his death on 2 August 1923. Robert G. “Bobby” Baker was a Lyndon B. Johnson protégé, and secretary to the U.S. Senate from 1955 to 1963. Baker resigned amid charges investigated by the Senate Rules Committee in 1964 that he had misused his office for personal financial gain. Walter W. Jenkins was Lyndon B. Johnson’s office manager, personnel chief, and administrative assistant from 1939 to 1963, and special assistant to the president from 1963 to 1964, making him Johnson’s longest-serving employee. In October 1964, Jenkins was arrested for disorderly conduct and implicated in a morals charge scandal that resulted in his resignation from the White House. [Weisl acknowledges.] Second thing they’re going to do is say there’s no mandate. Third thing they’re going to do is try to have the Southern Coalition—they’re already working at it—to combine with the Republicans and not let us get anything. And if we don’t show that even [Franklin D.] Roosevelt [Sr.] in ‘36 never captured the number of people and never had them jumping in the air and yelling and giving the loyalty that we did.[note 12] Franklin D. Roosevelt Sr. was assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy from March 1913 to August 1920; the Democratic governor of New York from January 1929 to December 1932; and president of the United States from March 1933 until his death on 12 April 1945.

Now, we’ve got to build that up. And you’re going to have to get that advertising agency that we got there in New York, and call them in, that Bill [D.] Moyers hired, find out who they are.[note 13] Bill D. Moyers was deputy director of the Peace Corps from 1961 to 1964; special assistant to the president from 1963 to 1967; White House press secretary from 1965 to 1967; and publisher of Newsday from 1967 to 1970.

All right.

And say, “Now, how in the hell do we create this image? Now, here’s Newhouse, and here’s Dick Berlin, and here’s Roy [W.] Howard, and here’s the Washington Post and [Washington] Star that are our friends.”[note 14] Roy W. Howard was president of United Press from 1912 to 1921; chair of Scripps-Howard Newspapers from 1921 to 1936; and president of Scripps-Howard Company from 1936 to 1952.

And we’ve got Life, and Look, and the Saturday Evening Post.

“We’ve got all of these folks. Now, damn it, let’s give this guy a chance, let’s give him a chance to try to hold the country together instead of dividing and face the world. He’s got problems with [Charles] de Gaulle and the alliance [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] right now.[note 15] Charles de Gaulle was president of France from January 1958 to April 1969. And he doesn’t want to be any hero. And he’s not going to revolutionize things. And he’s not going to send a program to Congress that’s going to pack the Court. He’s going to be a moderate, temperate man. But let’s say that the people want this, and that they saw him, and they liked him, and that he came, and he saw, and he conquered.” Now, I can’t do that, because—

I’ll do it.

—I can’t be that immodest. But you can just raise hell with them and call that agency in and then put the dozen telephone calls in to Dick [Berlin] and folks and tell them that Daley said this, and here’s what happened over the country. In Iowa, I beat five of the six Democratic congressmen.

Yeah.

I had twice the crowd [Dwight D.] Eisenhower ever had.[note 16] Dwight D. Eisenhower was a five-star general of the U.S. Army; governor of the American Zone of Occupied Germany from May 1945 to November 1945; chief of staff of the U.S. Army from November 1945 to February 1948; Supreme Allied Commander in Europe from April 1951 to May 1952; president of Columbia University from 1948 to 1953; and president of the United States from January 1953 to January 1961. Now, they wrote about Eisenhower for eight years, but they’ve never written one word about us. And they’ve got to say something about the auditorium at Austin, Texas, being filled at 2:30 in the morning just waiting to see me, the people that knew me best. And that they voted for me 6- and 8-to-1 in my home boxes that Miller was losing. And the love and the affection they had for 30 years. Now, all they write about’s not love and affection. They write, well, “The lesser of two evils, corn pone, southern, so on,” and so forth.

Well, it’s not quite as bad as that, but I agree with you that—and I will undertake to do it. I don’t—You don’t know who the advertising—

No, but call Bill Moyer[s], and ask him who it is, [Weisl acknowledges] Then call up the head of that agency and tell him to get over at your law office. And you want him to plan a campaign some way or other. And then you talk to Dick [Berlin] and say, “Now, goddamn it, these little old half-assed editorials that y’all wrote saying, ‘We’re for Johnson,’ but then treating them all equally in [the] news. And it looked like to me Goldwater got better news than we did.”

Yeah.

“That what we want you to do now is say, ‘Let’s hold this country together, and let’s don’t divide up, because if you do, the labor boys will take what you got.’”

I will get busy. I’m meeting Mr. Newhouse for dinner tonight.

Well, you just tell him that.

I’m going to go over and see Dick [Berlin] right away.

You just tell Newhouse that he never does need to send an editorial, but he needs to send on the ticker that I want y’all to say, “That this man’s loved, that this man has the affection of the country, that this man . . . won the hearts of the people, that there’s nothing like it ever happened. And let’s give him a chance, and let’s help him. And tell him, ‘By God, I’ll stand by his side in all of his ventures and help him.’”

I will do that. I’ll do everything I can. You know that. And I think we can do it.

I think you’ve got to—I think you’ve got to hang it on to a Daley and a Lawrence and others and just look at the votes. Now, what’d we carry New York by?

Two and a half million [votes], close to 2 and a half million.

All right. Now, Roosevelt, by a million and a half, was the biggest, wasn’t he?

Eisenhower, by a million, 6[00,000], was the biggest, yes.

All right, but here’s Roosevelt who lived there and governor and everybody loved him. Here’s Eisenhower. And we increased it by over a million.

That’s right. And you did the same in Illinois, and you did the same in . . . in every state!

Ohio we did the same. Pennsylvania we did—

New Jersey you won by almost a million.

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio—

Connecticut. Every county. In the state of New York, you carried every single county.

Is that right?

Every one, without exception.

I guess we elected Bobby, didn’t we?

Oh, sure. He ran a million, 700,000 votes behind you.

Hmm.

And still was elected.

Well, now, let’s get busy on this, Eddie, before they ruin us and make a [Warren G.] Harding out of us.[note 17] Warren G. Harding was a U.S. senator [R–Ohio] from March 1915 to January 1921, and president of the United States from March 1921 until his death on 2 August 1923.

I’ll do—I’ll get busy right away.

All right. And we’ve got to be thinking what we do about this Attorney General, now. We’ve got to get the ablest, strongest, finest, most respectable man that we can get, because they want to make a bunch of crooks out of us.

Yeah, and we have to get one that has all those qualities and is loyal.

All right. Well, now, you think about that.

I will.

[speaking over Weisl] Think hard about it, ‘cause you’re my daddy, and I’m depending on you. And don’t turn over all this money you get to Bobby up there, ‘cause we’re going to owe about 3 million dollars. And we’ve committed ourselves here for two 40-station broadcasts and everything, so you hold some of it in your box.

I have.

All right.

OK.

Bye.

Bye—

Tell [Robert O.] Bobbie Lehman that I wanted to call him and tell him I loved him and thank him.[note 18] Robert O. “Bobbie” Lehman Sr. was a partner of the investment banking firm Lehman Brothers from 1925 until his death in 1969. He was also a client of Edwin Weisl Sr., a major Johnson fundraiser, and one of the President’s main allies on Wall Street.

I will.

And if I get a chance, I’ll call him today myself, but you tell him.

All right. I will.

Now, do you think anybody else up there that I just got to call?

I can’t think of any.

All right. Give little [Edwin L.] Eddie [Weisl Jr.] my love and—[note 19] Edwin L. “Eddie” Weisl Jr. was assistant U.S. attorney general for the lands division from 1965 to 1967, and assistant U.S. attorney general for the civil division from 1967 to 1969.

Thank you.

—Alice [T. Weisl].[note 20] Alice T. Weisl was the wife of Edwin L. “Eddie” Weisl Sr. since 1928.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Bye.