Clayton Fritchey Interviewer: Sheldon Stern Date of Interview: October 25, 1978 Place of Interview: Washington, D.C
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Clayton Fritchey Oral History Interview –JFK#1, 10/25/1978 Administrative Information Creator: Clayton Fritchey Interviewer: Sheldon Stern Date of Interview: October 25, 1978 Place of Interview: Washington, D.C. Length: 34 pages Biographical Note Fritchey, Washington Post Columnist; Special Assistant to the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, 1961 – 1965, discusses appointment to position at the United Nations and the relationship between John F. Kennedy and Adlai E. Stevenson, among other issues. Access Open Usage Restrictions According to the deed of gift signed March 1, 2000, copyright of these materials has been assigned to the United States Government. Users of these materials are advised to determine the copyright status of any document from which they wish to publish. Copyright The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excesses of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law. The copyright law extends its protection to unpublished works from the moment of creation in a tangible form. Direct your questions concerning copyright to the reference staff. Transcript of Oral History Interview These electronic documents were created from transcripts available in the research room of the John F. Kennedy Library. The transcripts were scanned using optical character recognition and the resulting text files were proofread against the original transcripts. Some formatting changes were made. Page numbers are noted where they would have occurred at the bottoms of the pages of the original transcripts. If researchers have any concerns about accuracy, they are encouraged to visit the Library and consult the transcripts and the interview recordings. Suggested Citation Clayton Fritchey, recorded interview by Sheldon Stern, October 25, 1978, (page number), John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program. Clayton Fritchey – JFK #1 Table of Contents Page Topic 1 Appointment as Director of Public Affairs for the United States Mission to the United Nations 3 Adlai E. Stevenson and John F. Kennedy’s [JFK] relationship during the 1960 campaign 4 Stevenson’s appointment as ambassador to the United Nations 6 The Bay of Pigs and how various people were informed 9 Disclosure regarding the Bay of Pigs 13 Stevenson and JFK’s relationship 16 Stevenson and JFK’s opinions of foreign policy, including the People’s Republic of China, Bay of Pigs, Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna, and the Berlin Wall. 18 Article about the Cuban Missile Crisis and its effect on Stevenson 20 JFK making amends after article was published 21 JFK’s knowledge of the content and illustrations of the article 22, 24 Stevenson’s relationship with Lyndon B. Johnson [LBJ] 23 Fritchey’s personal association with LBJ 25 Stevenson’s relationship with LBJ versus JFK 26 Stevenson’s role in the Democratic Party defeat as the Democratic nominee 27, 30 Stevenson and LBJ’s differing opinions of the situation in Vietnam 29 Fritchey writing articles about Vietnam 31 Stevenson meeting with liberals from New York to discuss Vietnam Oral History Interview With CLAYTON FRITCHEY October 25, 1978 Washington, D.C. By Sheldon Stern For the John F. Kennedy Library STERN: Why don’t we begin with the background of your appointment to the position at the UN [United Nations]. Just how that came about…. FRITCHEY: Well, I had been with Stevenson [Adlai E. Stevenson] before in a number of capacities over the years, beginning with the 1952 presidential campaign when I was one of the campaign managers along with Wilson Wyatt [Wilson W. Wyatt] who was the chief campaign manager. Then I was down at the White House and President Truman [Harry S. Truman] gave me a leave of absence. And Dave Bell [David E. Bell] who was then the budget manager and I were shanghaied out of the White House one afternoon when Truman had Stevenson for lunch about a week or so after the convention. And Stevenson said in effect, “Now look, you got me into this. You got to get me out.” And the President said, [-1-] “Well, what do you want?” And he said, “Well, I want to rob your staff. I mean, I’ve been out there in Illinois as governor for four years and have been devoting myself to more or less provincial matters.” So he asked for Dave Bell and me. We got on the airplane that afternoon for Springfield to stay there during the rest of that campaign. And then, after the election, Stevenson and Truman felt there had to be a voice for the Democratic Party because of the extent of the one-party press at that time. And so they reorganized the Democratic National Committee and made me vice-chairman. And I started the Democratic Digest to provide some voice for the party outside of Texas congressmen. [Laughter] Lyndon Johnson [Lyndon B. Johnson] and Sam Rayburn were awfully good fellows but there were a number of democrats that did not do away with the idea of Wall Street, the liberal movement of our party. Then in 1956 he asked me to take a leave of absence and be his press secretary which I did. And so, and then I went back into the newspaper business and became publisher of the Northern Virginia Sun. But we kept in touch all during those years and, as you know, there was a Stevenson presidential flare-up in 1960. And I don’t think it’s any secret that he had [-2-] aspired to be secretary of state and no doubt would have been if he had chosen to make the nominating speech for John F. Kennedy at Los Angeles. STERN: Do you believe that was the determining factor? That he didn’t come out for Kennedy before the nomination? FRITCHEY: Well, I can assure you that in the last couple of days out there before the voting began they would have given almost anything to have had Stevenson be the principal spokesman for Kennedy. Because, after all, Stevenson was the only then Democrat that had a great public following of his own. Perhaps not big enough to get the nomination but, as everyone knew, he had a special attraction for the California delegation. All kinds of political candidates later on, after they were nominated, would think, well, our fear was excessive. But the only threat to them whatsoever was the potential threat of Stevenson. Especially when he got that huge ovation out there. So we’re dealing in subjective considerations here. It was my opinion that if he had responded to several overtures he undoubtedly would have been secretary of state, because, as you now know, at that point Kennedy had not made up his mind who he wanted for secretary of state. This would have been no real problem. [-3-] I think on the whole he would prefer to have had someone more like Rusk [Dean Rusk] who was not a figure in his own right. STERN: Sure. An activist president. FRITCHEY: Just like Woodrow Wilson found William Jennings Bryan somewhat of a trial. But he couldn’t have got the nomination without Bryan. Bryan was a considerable pain in the neck to him thereafter, as you know. And so I think we can safely conclude that Stevenson was not overjoyed at being offered the ambassadorship to the United Nations but took it. STERN: Did he ask your opinion about taking it? FRITCHEY: Oh, in a round about way, sure. And we, all of us realized by that time that it was either that or reserve for himself a private role. And, oddly enough, Stevenson did not relish that. And so he took it… STERN: Apparently he set some fairly strict conditions at the beginning. He gave Kennedy a list of about ten points in terms of appointing his own staff, and being consulted, and sitting in the cabinet, and all those kinds of things. FRITCHEY: He got practically carte blanche. STERN: He did. And he got his own staff pretty much as he had intended. FRITCHEY: Now, listen…. Where would Plimpton [Francis Taylor Pearson Plimpton] [-4-] come from? I don’t think Kennedy even knew him. [Laughter] STERN: Sure. FRITCHEY: Jack Bingham [Jonathon Brewster Bingham], Marietta Tree [Marietta Endicott Peabody Tree], Jane Dick. STERN: All Stevenson people. FRITCHEY: Me. All of us. Totally. One hundred percent. STERN: That’s the one subject.... FRITCHEY: He inherited Dick Pedersen [Richard Foote Pedersen] who was kind of a, who was not in a prominent position at the mission at that time. He’d come up…he had never been in the State Department. He had been a UN man, a US mission man from the beginning but had gradually made himself invaluable because he was… he had written – it has never been published to the best of my knowledge – but I discovered shortly after I got there that he had done a book on parliamentary diplomacy as exercised at the UN. I considered it then and still do as probably the most authoritative examination of that peculiar kind of diplomacy. I don’t think Stevenson ever read it but I recited an awful lot of it to him.