Lyndon Johnson wanted Jackie Kennedy to ride with him in the motorcades in Texas. Source: JFK's friend Sen. George Smathers

 Lyndon Johnson wanted Jackie to ride in his car in the Texas motorcades. Source George Smathers who conversed with JFK on Air Force One on the flight back from Florida on Monday, Nov. 18, 1963

 

          QUOTE 

          On Monday, Kennedy returned to Washington on Air Force One. His back hurt. Lying on his stateroom bed, he summoned George Smathers from the front of the plane: “God, I wish you could think of some way of getting me out of going to Texas…. Look how screwed up it’s going to be. You’ve got Lyndon, who is insisting that Jackie ride with him. You’ve got Ralph Yarborough, who hates Lyndon, and Johnson doesn’t want Yarborough with him. Connally is the Governor.

          “They are all prima donnas of the biggest order, and they’re all insisting that they either ride with me or Jackie. The law says the Vice President can’t ride with the President. I’ve got to start off my speech saying what a fine guy Johnson is, what a fine guy Connally is, and then Yarborough, and they all don’t like each other. I just wish to hell I didn’t have to go. Can’t you think of some emergency we could have?” 

          UNQUOTE

           [Michael Beschloss, The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev 1960-1963, pp. 665-666]

 Michael Beschloss on LBJ: “intense, tightly-wired, driven and suspicious”

 

Dec. 9,, 2022 Tweet:

 

https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/1601281027338534912