LBJ on the South and the 1968 Election
Johnson makes clear his disdain for Hubert Humphrey’s performance in the South. And, in a revelation of the different climate of government ethics that existed before Watergate, notes how Sanford could personally profit from the position.
In the event, Sanford elected to become president of Duke University; the post went to Oklahoma senator Fred Harris.
The clip is below; full transcript below the fold.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: Terry?
TERRY SANFORD: Hey, how you doing?
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: Pretty good.
Can I talk to you just between me and you and God?
SANFORD: Yes, sir.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: I want to go home and rest, and I don’t want to have a lot of problems. But I don’t want a bunch of wildmen that can’t carry a single state taking over my party that I worked so hard for. And I was very unhappy at a lot of the things that they said and they did, from Arthur Schlesinger on down.
Now, the Vice President’s a sweet, good man. But he’s not much of a—he’s not very tough, and not very hard, and not much of a director.
SANFORD: That’s right.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: He just laughs off all of these things; the last man that talks to him, he agrees with everybody he sees.
Now, I talked to him last night, and he’s talking about [Michigan congressman] Jim O’Hara [for DNC chairman], and a few guys like that. In the course of the conversation, your name came up, and he said he’d be willing to have you as national chairman. And I said, “Well, by God, he is the national chairman. Let’s just agree on that here and now.”
He said all right, that he was for it, that he was going to talk to you. I talked to him today and asked him if he talked to you. No, he said, he was going to do it a little later, that he was going to do it.
I said, “Now, Hubert, I don’t want to fight you, but I’m not going to go out here and let one of these damn screwballs, or let one of these Schlesinger groups take control of this party machinery. You promised me, to begin with, what you’d do, and then you didn’t do it. The Kennedys got in there, and a lot of them got it over.”
“I want a Democrat that has some little knowledge of our section, that has been elected. We lost more states than we ought to have lost there, and we lost it because we just don’t know how they feel, and how to handle it. I want a liberal man. This fellow [Sanford] can give some time to it, and can practice law, and we can get him all the help we want to. And I will do what he tells me to do to help, and Lady Bird will, and all of our appointees will, and all of our employees will. But we’re not going to give that cooperation to anybody else.”
He said, “I’m going to get him and he’s going to do it.”
[Break.]
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: Now, he’s going to call you, or I’m going to give him hell. When he calls you, I’d just say, “Well, now, I don’t want to do it unless I’m the only man that can bridge the thing, and if the President wants me, and you want me, and the rest of you want me, I’ll do it.”
Then you can go get you some good clients that are discrete. Because we’re not in power, and you haven’t got any influence with Nixon. Nobody can charge you with running his outfit, but you can damn sure have a lot with some of our friends. You can have a reasonable case, and they’ll give you a good situation, and we’ll all get out here and help you.
I’m not going to be active, and I’m not going to—if I did, I’d run for President. But I’m not going to see them take this thing, and throw it away, and just neglect it, and let another Democratic Advisory Group come in here and just be a bunch of hell-raisers like [Eugene] McCarthy did. He’s thinking he’s going back and run for mayor or senator from Minnesota, or something. I don’t know what he’s getting ready to do.
But the party can do this. And he’s going to call you, in my judgment, if he keeps his commitment to me. And if he does, I want to prepare you for it. I don’t want you to tell another human I talked to you; I don’t want any credit for anything.
SANFORD: I won’t tell—
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: I just want you to do it.
SANFORD: Now, I won’t tell Humphrey if you don’t want me to.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: No, no! I don’t want you to tell anybody.
SANFORD: Well, I understood that.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: I said me and you and God. I don’t want you to even tell your wife. I love her, but I don’t want her to know it. I just . . .
[Break.]
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: And I said, “Now, Hubert, we’ve just got to build on these young people. We don’t need to lose Florida, we don’t need to lose North Carolina, and by God, we wouldn’t if we had somebody in charge that knew how to handle it.” I didn’t lose either one of them.
SANFORD: That’s right.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: And I’m supposed to be older than you are.
SANFORD: [Unclear interjection.]
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: I’m supposed to be older than you are; I’m supposed to have bungled everything, and so forth. But let’s get a manager in here that’s been elected to something, and that’s run something, and that’s been an executive, that the people respect. And I said I’ll respect him and carry out his orders. And I said, “If you do the same thing, we’ll go somewhere.” It’s the greatest assignment in this country when we’re not in power.