James H. Blundell Interviewer: William Hartigan Date of Interview: February 18, 1976 Location: Washington, D.C
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James H. Blundell, Oral History Interview – 2/18/1976 Administrative Information Creator: James H. Blundell Interviewer: William Hartigan Date of Interview: February 18, 1976 Location: Washington, D.C. Length: 25 pages Biographical Note Blundell, a Texas political figure, friend of Lyndon B. Johnson, and member of the Democratic National Committee in 1960, discusses Johnson’s 1960 presidential primary campaign and vice-presidential campaign, as well as the relationship between Johnson and John F. Kennedy, among other issues. Access Open. Usage Restrictions Copyright of these materials have passed to the United States Government upon the death of the interviewee. 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 The copyright law extends its protection to unpublished works from the moment of creation in a tangible form.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 James H. Blundell, recorded interview by William Hartigan, February 18, 1976, (page number), John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program. Oral History Interview Of James H. Blundell Although a legal agreement was not signed during the lifetime of James H. Blundell, upon his death, ownership of the recording and transcript of his interview for the Oral History Program passed to the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library. The following terms and conditions apply: 1. The transcript is available for use by researchers. 2. The tape recording shall be made available to those researchers who have access to the transcript. 3; Copyright to the interview transcript and tape is assigned to the United States Government. 4. Copies of the transcript and the tape recording may be provided by the Library to researchers upon request for a fee. 5. Copies of the transcript and tape recording may be deposited in or loaned to institutions other than the John F. Kennedy Library. James H. Blundell Table of Contents Page Topic 1 Blundell’s political background and friendship with Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) 2, 8 LBJ’s 1960 presidential campaign 4 John F. Kennedy’s (JFK) selection of LBJ as vice president 10 Blundell’s work on the Democratic National Committee in 1960 12 Relationship between JFK and LBJ 14, 16 LBJ’s 1960 whistle-stop tour from Washington to New Orleans 15 LBJ’s scruples about campaign contributions 17 Relationship between JFK and LBJ 20 Blundell’s temporary position in the U.S. Postal Service 22 JFK’s assassination 23 Blundell’s reflections on politics Oral History Interview with James H. Blundell February 18, 1976 Washington, DC By William Hartigan For the John F. Kennedy Library HARTIGAN: Mr. Blundell is a public relations man and a business associate of Richard C. Maguire [Richard Maguire], former treasurer of the Democratic National Committee. Mr. Blundell is originally from Texas and a lifelong friend of former President Lyndon B. Johnson [Lyndon Baines Johnson]. Jim, would you care to tell us when and where you first met President Kennedy [John F. Kennedy]? BLUNDELL: Bill, I think I ought to give you a little background leading up to my first association with the Kennedy campaign and the people. HARTIGAN: I think that would be very interesting, Jim. Proceed. BLUNDELL: I came by my political interest naturally. My father was always interested in public affairs although he had no direct participation in politics. But he was very interested in government, Texas politics, and I remember as a child, a young boy, he would take me to political rallies. I remember hearing Jim Furguson, Pat Neff [Patrick Morris Neff], some of the older Texas politicians. When I was in Baylor University I got actively involved in a campaign for the first time for Governor Jimmy Allred [James V. Allred], and [-1-] that led up to my eventual almost constant participation in politics. In 1938 after I had been on a campaign during which I met John Connally [John B. Connally, Jr.], who at that time was President of the student body of the University of Texas. John and I had been in a campaign for General Ernest Thompson [Ernest O. Thompson] who was Chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission and ran for governor against Pappy O'Daniel [Wilbert Lee O'Daniel], which as I might add, was quite a disastrous campaign. But through my friendship with John, he asked me to help him and then-Congressman Johnson in his first race for the Senate against Pappy O'Daniel. We went through that campaign. It was the first statewide campaign that Congressman Johnson had made. He wasn't known very well outside of his district which was the tenth district involving Austin and central Texas. That was my first acquaintance with Lyndon Johnson. We made a very effective campaign and lost by only 1,100 votes to O'Daniel. That was the first time that Mr. Johnson had run for state office. After the campaign, Congressman Johnson asked me if I would join his staff in Washington, which appealed to me very much but, I couldn't because I had a young.… I was just married and had a young child. My mother and father were elderly, I didn't feel I could leave them. But, from then on I was helpful to the congressman in different ways—more or less running errands and making contacts for him. In 1960 he called me from Washington one day and asked me to meet him at Love Field in Dallas, and drive him downtown. I had no idea what he had in mind but I knew that he didn't call me just to get a ride to town. On the way to town he told me that Sam Rayburn [Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn] and Sid Richardson [Sid Williams Richardson] and some of his very strong supporters and advisors were urging him to get into the presidential primary campaign. He didn't want to do it, he said, because he had too much responsibility in the Senate as majority leader. He didn't think that he.... I got the impression that he didn't feel that he had a chance to win. In fact, he said if Jack Kennedy won the primary in West Virginia that the show was over. He felt that if Kennedy won the West Virginia primary that he would go on to win the nomination. But he said they were putting so much pressure on him to get into the primaries and get into the presidential campaign that he had to make some kind of effort to, as he put it, to get them off his back. So he asked me if I'd go over to Fort Worth and talk to John, John Connally, see if we would... [Telephone Interruption] HARTIGAN: I'm sorry about that interruption, Jim. Maybe you can continue—you were on your way to Fort Worth at that point to see John Connally. Would you.... BLUNDELL: Yes. I told Senator Johnson that I would go over and talk with John and see what we might work out. I talked to John, and John was a little reluctant, but he felt the same way that Senator Johnson did, that he should make some effort. And probably with the hope that it might turn [-2-] out more successfully than the senator anticipated. The result was that John and I came to Washington. Eventually opened an office in the Ambassador Hotel. Mr. Cafritz [Calvin Cafritz] gave us the space there, in fact, the whole mezzanine floor. The.... As I recall, the first meeting we had consisted of Walter Jenkins [Walter W. Jenkins], John Connally, one or two others, I don't recall right now, but it was a very small group. HARTIGAN: Was the Speaker of the House at that first meeting? BLUNDELL: No, no sir. It was what you might call a second level of staff. But we did begin to get some other people in from Texas, such as Marvin Washington, and at that time Bill Moyers [William D. Moyers] was working for Senator Johnson on the hill. And he participated with us in our discussions. But primarily the initial effort consisted of a staff of about four or five people, including secretaries. John brought George Bellow up from Fort Worth. George was an advertising man. And we began to try to make an effort. The.... I might to say to begin with that Senator Johnson got an awful lot of encouragement from many of his Senate colleagues, such as Clinton Anderson [Clinton P.