CAPITAL STUFF

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400230040-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 1, 1999
• Sequence Number: 40
• Publication Date: January 1, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

FOIAb3b
Approved For Release 2000/04/14: CIA-RDP
by TED LEWIS.
\Vl-shington, Dec. 2-President Johnson's pKesentation
of the, 450,000 Fermi Award today to Dr. J. Robert Op
penheimer has political significance. It serves to show one
of LBJ's -rent advantages in the upcoming election.
The President cannot be criticized for participating in the cere-
moray honoring the nuclear physicist who was held to.be Ti security
risk ;pine years ago.R That is because today's White House preeenta
President was obligated to fol-
low t}:rough.
she fact is that Johnson can-
not be r. prime target of partisan
controversy because of what hap-
pened while lie was Vice Presi-
dent, both. in the Oppenheimer
incident and in other decision-
Making, of far greater im-
;porta nce.
Republican Party leaders are
j'N ell aware: of that and realize
that in 1964 they must develop
issues out of what the new Presi-
dent doers in his own-right in the
11 months before the November
election.
This is a distinct political
advantage for the President, al-
though it was certainly never
P,~plallllod that way. As Vice Presi-
the big decisions of his precleces-
:sot. Yet, because his role was
never emphasized by the White
House-even sometimes" myste- Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
ricusly deemphasized-he is now He could clear up the raystery
peculiarly not vulnerable on this -
count.
It doesn't take the Republican National Committee eser,rchere,r One explanation for Johnson's sideline role is interesting nml.
has a certain merit. He is going to be needed in 1964 to keep ' e
to find this out. The record is an open one, and scarcely ever doc rebellious Democratic South from a-'wholesale switch of its ele cr:a
Johnson s Heine crop up as a key one in any of the momentous any vote to the GOP, and his usefulness to that end would be nullified if
controversial decisions. the troop decisions had a Kennedy-Johnson tag on then."
In the April, 1961, Bay of rigs fiasco, the targets of criticism On this general subject, however, President Johnson hag 1 cep
!,Were many, but they did not include the then Vice President., The -most sensitive in the past. He has insisted that he was in on iar
joint chiefs of staff were assailed, as were CIA officials, including, more hush-hush decision-making talks at the White House than
teen chief Allen Dulles. President Kennedy himself shouldered full ever came to light. There is no reason to doubt this. The point is
esponsibility at that time. that his name never leaked out as one of those whose views led to
When Nikita Khrushchev put tip the Berlin Wall in Auga t,. a specific -Presidential decision.
961, and the U.S. hesitated in its response, partisan criticism was Th re is no argument, however, that as' Vice Presh3ent
armed at Kennedy and Secretary of State Dean' Rusk. Johnson's loyalty to every Presidential action?.was superb. Ncr is
Johnson's Role Was Never Emphasized as Significanf decis onsy argument that today he would defend all of Kennedy's
The steel price crisis in April, -1962, was almost wholly a But R.epubilcas know It will be 'difficult, if not impossible, to
Kennedy operation-by the President and his brother, the Attorney launch any kind of bold attack on him on the issue'of Cuba, the
Genera.. Johnson agahl was outside-the area of partisan criticism. Berlin Wall or the handling of the race troubles in Birmingham
When racial violence erupted in Oxford, Miss.,' in September, and Oxford. And, while they cannot make Johnson the target for
1902, this was another crisis handled totally, it appeared,-by JFK' that happened before he became President, they still have to accept
and his brother. At the time the Vice President was at the LBJ public image of him as the strong right hand of the man he
che.t to 'E,;- cc
ranch in Texas.,\.one of the' 61111s for that crisis atts
d
d t
_.
ht --- .
r
ee
c
o t
H
Approved For Release 2000/04/14: CIA-RDP75-00149R000400230040-2
in the-October, 1962, Cuban missile he was never listed
n;ong the key figures in that crucial decision. malting.
Similarly, in the Bay of Pigs prisoner exchange negoiiaf;ons
;lid the more recent Viet Nam crisis, Johnson's role was never
h
i
d
i
s
mp
as
ze
a
s
gnificant.
It is to be hoped that Arthur Schlesin
J
hi
th
t
ger
r
e
orian Mho
s
.,- ;has been in the White House as, a Presidential adviser since 1^Cl,
will at some. time help clear up mystery concerning the extent of
Johnson's participation in the decision-making.
At times it appeared that it was carefully planned to have the
Vice President's name kept in the background. Last May, we reca;l,
when the Kennedy Administration ordered 3,000 troops to rer.ciincss
posts near riot-torn Birmingham, Johnson was at a lawn party he: e.
None of the prominent Democrats present had been informed In ad-
vance of the action.
The Need of Avoiding a Kennedy-Johnson Tag