Wednesday, January 8, 1964: State of the Union speech

President Johnson announced today a surprise budget cut to $97.9 billion, even below the current level. And he told Congress he will slash output of weapon-making uranium by 25 percent -- a move he challenged the Soviets to match.

and

President Johnson declared "unconditional war on poverty in America," and called on Congress today for enactment this month of a tax reduction designed to create new jobs and markets.

-- Associated Press; full stories: @

-- Photo from LBJ Library

* Text and audio (from American Rhetoric): @
* Video: @
* "Lyndon B. Johnson and the War on Poverty: Introduction to the Digital Edition" (Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia): @
* "Domestic Affairs" (from Miller Center): @
* LBJ for Kids! Poverty Module (from LBJ Library): @

* "Launching the War on Poverty: An Oral History" (Michael L. Gillette, 2010): @ 

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Friday, January 3, 1964: Barry Goldwater

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater, promising the Democrats a campaign "dogfight" and the voters "a choice, not an echo," yesterday plunged into the race for the GOP presidential nomination.

     -- Associated Press, January 4 (link to full story: @)

     -- Photo from Associated Press

* Text of remarks (from www.4president.org): @ 

* Video of remarks (from Associated Press Archive): @

* "Barry Goldwater: Where He Stands" (from Congressional Quarterly): @

* "Sen. Barry Goldwater's Stated Views on Issues" (from Associated Press): @
* "Barry Goldwater Speaks Out" (video from Goldwater for President Committee): @

* "The Conscience of a Conservative" (Goldwater, 1960): @

* "Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus" (Rick Perlstein, 2001): @ 

* "A Glorious Disaster: Barry Goldwater's Presidential Campaign and the Origins of the Conservative Movement" (J. William Middendorf II, 2008): @ 

* "Goldwater Remembered" (Washington Post, 1998): @
* Goldwater Collection (from Arizona Historical Foundation): @
* Goldwater Institute (Phoenix, Arizona): @

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Thursday, December 12, 1963: Kenya

     NAIROBI, Kenya -- Nearly 100,000 Africans whistled, sang and cheered today as Kenya became Africa's 35th independent nation.

     But even as the shouts of "Uhuru" -- freedom -- echoed through the streets of this formal British colonial capital, monumental problems confronted the new nations. It must conquer tribal warfare, tribal rivalries and economic difficulties.

     When the Union Jack was hauled down and Kenya's flag of black, red and green went up amid wild jubilation at Nairobi's Freedom Stadium, Britain relinquished its last colonial holding in East Africa.

     -- From Associated Press; full story: @

     -- Photo of Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta from May 1963 (from Corbis Images)

* "A Free Kenya" (The Windsor Star, December 11): @

* "Kenya Gains Independence" (from New York Times Learning Network): @

* 1963 Kenya Constitution: @

* Kenya Independence Act (from legislation.gov.uk): @

* Kenya profile (from CIA): @

* Kenya timeline (from BBC): @ 

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Saturday, December 7, 1963: 'The Johnson Treatment'

President Lyndon Johnson presses his plans for the enactment of civil rights legislation during a White House meeting with Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia. 

     Accounts of exactly what was said at the meeting vary across biographies and histories. The following is from Jack Valenti, special assistant to President Johnson, who was present at the meeting. (From a 1997 speech and "Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History"; links: @ and @)

     The president ... said in a soft, even voice, "Dick, I love you, and I owe you. If it had not been for you, I would not have been leader, or vice president or now president. But I wanted to tell you face to face, Dick, please don't get in my way on this civil rights bill. It's been locked up in the Senate too long. I'm going to pass this bill, Dick. I will not cavil. I will not hesitate. And if you get in my way, I'll run you down."

     Russell sat mutely for a moment, impassive, his face a mask. Then he spoke, in the rolling accents of his Georgia countryside. "Well, Mr. President, you may just do that. But I pledge you that if you do, it will not only cost you the election, it will cost you the South forever." ...

     (Johnson) spoke softly, almost tenderly: "Dick, my old friend, if that's the price I have to pay, then I will gladly pay it."

     -- Photo by Yoichi Okamoto, official presidential photographer, from LBJ Library

* Account from "Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65" (Taylor Branch, 1999): @

* Account from "Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President" (Robert Dallek, 2004): @

* Account from "Civil Rights Act Leaves Mark on the American Political Landscape" (Michael Oreskes, New York Times, 1989): @ 

* Johnson-Russell telephone converations, December 7 (from Miller Center): @

* Johnson news conference, December 7 (from The American Presidency Project): @

* "How Will Civil Rights Bill Do Under New President?" (United Press International, December 10): @

* "LBJ Champions the Civil Rights Act" (Prologue magazine, National Archives, 2004): @

More about "The Johnson Treatment"
* Description (from Marshall Frady, New York Review of Books, 2002): @
* Summary (from National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution): @
* "Remembering the Johnson Treatment" (Tom Wicker, New York Times, 2002): @

* With Sen. Theodore Green of Rhode Island, 1957 (photos, New York Times): @

* With President Kennedy and Sen. Henry Jackson of Washington, early 1960s (photo, University of Washington Libraries): @

* With Rep. Albert Thomas of Texas, 1963 (audio, Miller Center): @

* With Supreme Court nominee Abe Fortas, 1965 (photo, LBJ Library): @

* With Louis Martin, Democratic National Committee, 1966 (photo, LBJ Library): @
* With Whitney Young, National Urban League, 1966 (photo, LBJ Library): @ 

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December 1963: 'Uncertainty and the welfare economics of medical care'

The paper by Kenneth J. Arrow, professor of economics at Stanford University, appears in The American Economic Review.

"Arrow's paper, which endorses the view that 'the laissez-faire solution for medicine is intolerable,' is widely considered to have founded the field of health care economics ... Arrow's paper argues that the delivery of health care deviates in fundamental ways from a normal free market, and, therefore, that government intervention is necessary to correct for these deviations."
     -- Summary from the National Review; link to story: @
* PDF of study: @

* Interview with Arrow (The Atlantic, 2009): @

* "Liberals Are Wrong: Free Market Health Care is Possible" (Avik S.A. Roy, The Atlantic, March 2012): @

* "Why markets can't cure healthcare" (Paul Krugman, New York Times, July 2009): @

* "Is Health Care Special?" (Uwe E. Reinhardt, New York Times, 2010): @
* "Health Care, Uncertainty and Morality" (Reinhardt, 2010): @
* "Kenneth Arrow and the birth of health economics" (World Health Organization, 2004): @
* "Uncertain Times: Kenneth Arrow and the Changing Economics of Health Care" (edited by Peter J. Hammer et al., 2003): @

* "The Social Transformation of American Medicine" (Paul Starr, 1982): @

* Entry from Nobelprize.org (Arrow won the Nobel in economics in 1972): @
* Entry from the Library of Economics and Liberty: @
* "Collected Papers of Kenneth J. Arrow: Applied Economics, Volume 6" (Harvard University Press, 1985): @ 
* Council on Health Care Economics and Policy (Brandeis University): @

* Earlier post on Operation Coffeecup (1961): @ 

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Wednesday, November 27, 1963: President Johnson's address to Congress

President Johnson asked a somber Congress Wednesday to honor John F. Kennedy's memory with swift action on the slain President's legislative program, topped by civil rights and tax deduction.
     Speaking for the first time as chief executive to a body in which he served for many years, the tall, solemn-faced President called too for "an end to the teaching and preaching of hate and evil and violence" in the land.
     -- from The Associated Press; full story: @
* Transcript (from American Rhetoric): @

* Video (includes telephone calls before and after speech; from C-SPAN): @
* Entry from Voices of Democracy project: @

* "Let Us Continue" (film by U.S. Information Agency; from Texas Archive of the Moving Image): @

* "The First 100 Days: Lyndon Johnson Fulfilled Kennedy's Legacy" (U.S. News & World Report, 2009): @ 

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Saturday, November 23, 1963

Photo by The Associated Press. Original caption: Personal belongings such as these two rocking chairs of the slain President John F. Kennedy are removed from the offices of the White House in Washington, D.C., Nov 23, 1963. 

* President Johnson's remarks to the Cabinet: @ (draft) and @ (final)
* "Nov. 23, 1963: The day after the assassination" (Washington Post): @ 

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Friday, November 22, 1963

-- United Press International teletype (image from kennedy-photos.blogspot.com)
-- Explainer (from UPI history website): @

Video

* David Von Pein's JFK Channel (this has an extensive collection of footage, including the breaking news reports of the major broadcast networks): @

* "The JFK Assassination: As It Happened" (Von Pein website): @

* From ABC News: @
* JFK: 3 Shots That Changed America" (The History Channel, 2009): @ and @ 
* Speech in Fort Worth: @
* "President Assassinated" (newsreel): @

Audio
* Lyndon Johnson taking oath of office aboard Air Force One (from LBJ Library): @
* Air Force One recordings: @
* Radio coverage: @
* BBC programs: @

President Lyndon B. Johnson
* President's daily dairy (from LBJ Library): @ and @
* From LBJ Library: "November 22, 1963 and Beyond": @
* From LBJ Library: "Nov. 22, 1963: Tragedy and Transition": @
* Selections from Mrs. Johnson's diary: @ (text) and @ (audio)

Front pages

* Dallas Morning News: @

* Dallas Times Herald: @

* Fort Worth Star-Telegram: @ and @

* Boston Globe: @

* New York Times: @

* Washington Post: @
* Los Angeles Times: @
* The Guardian (UK) : @

* Daily Mirror (UK): @

* Daily Trojan (University of Southern California, November 26): @
* Other newspapers (from www.downhold.org): @

* Other newspapers (from rarenewspapers.com): @

Other resources

* Timeline (from Dallas Morning News): @
* "Remembering JFK" (Fort Worth Star-Telegram): @
* "The Death of a President" (The Associated Press): @
* The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection (National Archives): @

* The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza: @

* JFK Tribute website (Fort Worth, Texas): @

* The JFK Assassination (Mary Ferrell Foundation): @

* The Harold Weisberg Archive: @

* The Kennedy Assassination (John McAdams): @

* "November 22, 1963: Death of the President" (from JFK Library): @ 

* "Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy" (Warren Commission report, from National Archives, 1964): @

* "Marking JFK anniversary, GPO releases digital Warren Commission report" (Washington Post): @
* "Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations, U.S. House of Representatives" (from National Archives, 1979): @

* UPI reporter Merriman Smith's account of the day (November 23; Smith was the first to report the shooting, as shown in teletype above): @
* "Total Domination" (American Journalism Review, 1998): @

* "The Flight From Dallas" (Esquire, 2013): @
* "The Hours Before Dallas: A Recollection by President Kennedy's Fort Worth Advance Man" (Jeb Byrne, 2000): @
* Life magazine, November 29: @

* Life magazine, December 6: @

* Life magazine, December 13: @ 

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Sunday, November 10, 1963: 'Message to the Grass Roots'

Considered to be one of the top hundred American speeches of the 20th century, Malcolm X's address unified many of the strands of black nationalism, Pan-Africanism and third-world revolutionary thought that had been emerging in his ideas for years. ... He claimed that a revolution centered on nonviolent activism was not revolutionary at all: "Revolution is bloody, revolution is hostile, revolution knows no compromise." ... Ultimately, giving such a speech in Detroit, the center of labor activity and black working-class radicalism in the 1960s, opened Malcolm X to an entirely new audience from that of the Nation of Islam.

     --- From "The Portable Malcolm X Reader" (Manning Marable and Garrett Felber, 2013): @

     -- June 1963 photo from Corbis Images

* Transcript (from TeachingAmericanHistory.org): @

* Audio (from thespeechsite.com): @

* "Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements" (1965): @

* "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention" (Manning Marable, 2011): @ and @

* "The Cambridge Companion to Malcolm X" (Robert Terrill, 2010): @

* MalcolmX.com: @
* The Malcolm X Project at Columbia University: @
* "African American Political Thought: Confrontation vs. Compromise, from 1945 to the Present" (2003): @

* "Say It Loud! Great Speeches on Civil Rights and African American Identity" (2010): @

* "Faith in the City: Preaching Radical Social Change in Detroit" (Angela D. Dillard, 2007): @

* "Dancing in the Street: Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit" (Suzanne E. Smith, 2001): @ 

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Thursday, November 7, 1963: Deep Underground Command Center

To be built 3,500 feet below the Pentagon and connected to the White House by tunnels, this "logical, survivable node" would be built to withstand "multiple direct hits of 200 to 300 (megaton) weapons bursting at the surface or 100 MT weapons pentrating to depths of 70 to 100 feet." The DUCC was never built, with the Joint Chiefs of Staff concluding that it "would be too small, and its communications too uncertain, to serve as a military command center."
     -- From "Every Nuclear-Tipped Missile is an 'Accident Waiting to Happen' " (summary of "Command and Control," Eric Schlosser, 2013): @

* "Memorandum for the President" (Robert McNamara, November 7, 1963): @

* "Memorandum From the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Secretary of Defense McNamara" (January 10, 1964): @
* "Editorial Note" (summary, from "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968"): @
* Documents (from cryptome.org): @
* "The Worldwide Military Command and Control System: A Historical Perspective, 1960-1977" (Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1980): @
* "Command and Control": @
* "The Nation's Cockpit: The DUCC and Decision-Making Under Nuclear Attack" (from Atomic Skies blog): @ 

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Saturday-Monday, November 2-4, 1963: Freedom Vote in Mississippi

The "freedom vote" was a mock statewide general election to parallel the Mississippi gubernatorial election of 1963. It was organized by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a coalition of civil rights organizations. Aaron Henry, a black pharmacist from Clarksdale, was on the mock ballot for governor and the Rev. Edwin King, a white chaplain at Tougaloo College in Jackson (and a native of Vicksburg), was on the ballot for lieutenant governor. Ballot boxes were placed in churches, businesses and homes across the state, and voting took place over the weekend. Henry and King "won" the mock election in which more than 80,000 black Mississippians voted. This event showed the country that African Americans would vote if given the chance.
-- Text from Aaron Henry biography, Mississippi Historical Society: @

-- Image from Freedom Summer Digital Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society
* Summary from Civil Rights Movement Veterans: @

* Summary from SNCC Project Group: @

* Photos from rally for Aaron Henry (Hattiesburg, October 29; from Mississippi Department of Archives and History): @
* Election flier (from Amistad Research Center): @ and @

* Pamphlets: Freedom Ballot and Freedom Registration (from Wisconsin Historical Society): @ 

* Freedom Registration pamphlet (from Civil Rights Movement Veterans): @
* "No Small Thing: Visual Rhetoric and the 1963 Mississippi Freedom Vote" (William Lawson, 2008): @

* "Aaron Henry: The Fire Ever Burning" (Aaron Henry and Constance Curry, 2000): @
* Edwin King entry from Civil Rights Digital Library: @
* COFO summary (from Martin Luther King Research and Education Institute): @

* "The Washington Merry-Go-Round" (Drew Pearson, November 4): @

* "Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi" (John Dittmer, 1994; see Chapter 9, "Conflicting Strategies"): @ 

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Friday, October 11, 1963: 'Report of the President's Commission on the Status of Women'

President Kennedy was handed an 86-page report Friday crammed with statistics to argue that women still are not getting an equal break with men, despite laws saying they should.
     The 13 women and 11 men -- including five cabinet officers -- who worked 22 months as the Commission on the Status of Women said women especially are not getting a fair break with men in matters and jobs and equal pay.
     They attributed this to foot-dragging by federal and state governments and failure of women to plug hard enough for full equality -- and to vote.
     The president said the report represents a legacy of the late Eleanor Roosevelt, the commission's first chairman. This was the 79th anniversary of Mrs. Roosevelt's birth.
     Kennedy said something must be done to make it easier for working women to "use their powers and develop their talent" while maintaining a home and protecting the welfare of their children.
     The unanimous report contained 24 major recommendations and many minor ones, most of which were not new. Included was a recommendation that federal tax deductions for child-care expenses of working mothers be increased.
     Telling the women they are not blameless in the matter, the commission said they outnumber men in the U.S. by about 3,750,000. Yet their failure to vote makes them a political minority.
     -- The Associated Press
     -- Photo of Kennedy and Mrs. Roosevelt from February 12, 1962, during president's meeting with commission members (from JFK Library)
* Full text of report (from Hathi Trust Digital Library): @

* Summary from Encyclopedia Britannica: @
* "The President's Commission on the Status of Women" (from the book "On Account of Sex: The Politics of Women's Issues, 1945-1968," Cynthia Harrison, 1988): @
* Audio of Kennedy's remarks at presentation of final report (from JFK Library): @

* Kennedy-Roosevelt audio (April 18, 1962): @
* Related materials from JFK Library: @
* Executive order establishing the commission (December 14, 1961; from American Presidency Project): @

* "Equality for Women Urged in US Report" (Milwaukee Journal, October 11): @
* "Women to Work for Equal Break" (Milwaukee Sentinel, October 12 -- on World of Women page): @ 
* "Whatever Happened to Women's Rights" (The Atlantic magazine, March 1964): @ 

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