The Rest of the Story

I don't mean to steal any thunder from the late Paul Harvey, but it seems particularly apropos, given the things revealed in a news article today.

As many of us are aware, the Dallas Morning News is this year running a series of articles focusing on the Kennedy Assassination and its effects on Texas and Dallas. That sea change event made the year 1963 at least doubly important to us. While the News’s series is inevitably uneven in its ability to pique interest (like this blog, probably), today’s installment contains many items previously unknown to me, and perhaps others.

John F. Kennedy’s Presidency had a special meaning to us as Jesuit students. We were the cusp if the so-called Boomer generation, or the last of the prior one, depending on criteria used. And we (most of us anyway) were Catholics who grew up at a time when no Catholic had ever been President, and, until Kennedy’s victory in 1960, was still considered unlikely. While it was gratifying to most of us that a Catholic could be elected President, not all were JFK fans. Dallas, like most of Texas was then conservative in politics, and Dallas was a Republican bastion in the midst of a Democrat state. Kennedy’s perceived leftist political tendencies did not go over well here. Nevertheless, most respected the man and the office, and all were shocked and dismayed at his murder – in the midst of our city, no less.

Today’s feature focused on John Connally’s connection with President Kennedy. As the article reveals, that connection was much more than being the second victim of Lee Harvey Oswald’s rifle. Connally was the head of Lyndon Johnson’s 1960 campaign for the nomination, which one might have thought, would not have endeared him to the Kennedy camp. JFK, ever the pragmatist, selected Johnson as his running mate, and, thereby won Texas – barely – and thus the Presidency. When choosing his cabinet, Kennedy picked Robert McNamara as his Secretary of Defense and, probably to induce McNamara to accept, gave him free hand in choosing his subordinates. The Democrats at the time were grooming Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. as a potential 1968 Presidential candidate, and were hoping that Kennedy would appoint him Secretary of the Navy, which was FDR senior’s stepping stone to national politics. McNamara would not have it, and, probably at LBJ’s urging, selected Connally. Connally served for slightly less than a year, and then came home to run for Governor, which he won handily.

So handily that it impressed Kennedy, who knew he had to carry Texas to gain re-election. Given the closeness of the 1960 vote here, the help of a popular governor would be invaluable for the 1964 election. Thus, throughout 1963, the Kennedy camp focused on a Presidential tour of major Texas cities featuring Governor Connally visage at every stop. They ultimately agreed on a five city visit in November of that year, and the rest, as we say, is history.

Connally survived his wounds and served three terms as governor through 1968 (they were two year terms until 1974). He developed a relationship with Richard Nixon and, still a Democrat, became Nixon’s Treasury Secretary. Connally switched to the GOP after Nixon’s re-election and became number one the short list for Vice-President to succeed Spiro Agnew, who resigned in disgrace in 1973. Believing that Connally could not be confirmed as VP by the Democratic Senate, who viewed him as a turncoat, and that numbers two and three, Nelson Rockefeller and Ronald Reagan, would be too formidable as GOP candidates in 1976 (this was before Watergate hit heavily), Nixon nominated his fourth choice Gerald Ford. Again, the rest . . ..