dents agree that Kennedy resisted a military solution but that Johnson was 1 "suckered" by the Pentagon. Kennedy's top assistant, Ted Sorensen, recalls that the military brass "repeatedly urged him to send troops in" but that "his answer was always 'no.' " Explains Sor- ensen: "Kennedy was a highly rational Jolm F. Kook human being. He knew what was work- ing, what was not working." Other aides remember, in contrast, that Johnson was impressed with the Would the World Be Different military brass and was easily persuaded by their advice. Recalls Myer Feldman, White House legal counsel under both If Lee Harvey Oswald men: "I was shocked when the Joint piris decided and Lyndon Jorrisc.ir went along with sending 550,000 Had Missed? troops into Vietnam. It was inconsistent with the discussions we had." Rusk unsure on Vietnam by jack Anderson The only uncertainty comes from WASHINGTON, D.C. brighter. For, in their opinion, more the military don't know what they are Kennedy's , Secretary of State, Dean t was all over in six seconds. Three than a President was killed in Dallas; a doing. They will tell you things that will Rusk. "During much of 1963," he says, shots in rapid succession cut down promise for the future died with him. snarl you in things, because they like "we were optimistic about the way President John F. Kennedy, shattered I have questioned them in depth about war. That's the way they have of get- things were going in Vietnam. [Ken- ICamelot and changed history. Four- what might have been. Their answers ting ahead, of getting promotions." nedy] had made no decisions as to teen years. have now passed since that are revealing. Concludes Smathers: "I, think be- whether the U.S. should withdraw." dreadful day in Dallas. One news shock cause of his bad experience in Cuba, Rusk contends that "nobody can possi- military has followed another from Vietnam to Skeptical of Kennedy was not being persuaded by bly know" what Kennedy would have Watergate. These depressing events • Would Kennedy have kept us out of them. He was beginning ,to get sick of done about Vietnam. But Sorensen is have raised a tantalizing question: .the Vietnam War? Kennedy had lost the war. He said to me that this thing emphatic: -We would not have sent in Would the world be any different today confidence, his associates agree, in the wasn't going well. He said Eisenhower, combat' forces. We would not have :•-: if the presumed assassin, Lee Harvey military advisers who later promised whom he didn't think very bright, was bombed North Vietnam. The Marines : Oswald, had missed his target? Lyndon Johnson victory in Vietnam. The right when he said we shouldn't get in- would never have landed." • Had Kennedy lived, he would have Bay of Pigs fiasco left him skeptical and volved in a land war in Asia. Kennedy It is possible, however, that Kennedy >3 been 60 years old now. Those who suspicious of the military. His close told me: "Old Eisenhower had more would have kept the special forces in i knew him best, the aides and advisers friend, ex-Sen. George Smathers (D., sense than these people. They didn't get Vietnam. He once told me that conven- • who were familiar with his plans, be- Fla.), remembers hearing Kenrrdy de- him suckered in.' " tional warfare was the wrong way to lieve the world would have been clare,angrily: "Those dumb bastards in Aides who worked for both Presi- defend South Vietnam. It required a ..< 8 at Dallas airport Nov. 22,1963. Within hours, he fell victim to an assassin's bullet. President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy received warm welcome a professional association, one of mu- crack counter-insurgency force, he said, tual respect." to cope with the Communist guerrillas. He formed the special forces to train Papa Joe admired LB) the South Vietnamese how to combat - Ted. Kennedy notes that their father guerrilla warfare, he added. was "a strong admirer of Lyndon John-. Associates agree this was the Ken- son." The implication was that old Joe nedy concept; he felt the Joint Chiefs Kennedy would have influenced his were pushing the wrong strategy. son to keep Johnson on the ticket. Smathers recalls this Kennedy com- • Who would have taken over the ment: "It isn't that kind of war. Hell, how can you fight a war 'when every- White House in 1968? A retiring Presi- body looks exactly alike?" dent usually has the power to deter- • • Would Kennedy have been reelec- mine who shall replace, him on the ted? The political pros generally agree ticket. The likely contenders in 1968 he would have •won a second term would have been Vice President Lyndon easily. "He looked in good shape," re- Johnson and Attorney General Robert calls his political manager, Larry Kennedy, most insiders agree. O'Brien. "We were confident about It's no secret that the two men de- 1964." • spised one another. They did not have Bay of Pigs boner a close relationship," concedes Larry ' His biggest boner, the Bay of Pigs O'Brien. "You might term it mutual disaster, did him no political damage. suspicion. Lyndon would wonder what He faced up. to it at once. "I'm going to was motivating 'Bobby. Bobby felt the the American people and tell them I've same way about Lyndon. The situation goofed and pledge that I'll do better in grew in intensity." the future," his aides remember him President Kennedy was sensitive saying. Recounts O'Brien: "We were about establishing a Kennedy dynasty, amazed at that kind of candor. But the but he could hardly have favored John- polls reflected an upswing. We thought son over his own brother. The men it would be a disaiter, but it turned out around JFK believe he would have had to be otherwise.." no choice.. Smathers puts it bluntly: The late President's brother, Sen. Ted Kennedy. (D., Mass.), says JFK used to speculate about the ticket the Republi- cans would put up against him. "He thought their dream ticket would be a combination of Nelson Rockefeller and Barry Goldwater," the Senator says. As O'Brien remembers the speculation, they thought Rockefeller would be "a worthy opponent" but that Goldwater should be "easy to defeat." • Would Kennedy have dumped Lyn- don Johnson? Johnson went through a political menopause. during his Vice Presidency, and it began to get on Kennedy's nerves. As George Smathers tells it, "Johnson was pouting, moping all over the place. Kennedy called and asked me what the hell to do. I said send him on a trip." Sniathers recalls Kennedy's response: "That's a damn good idea. How far away can I send him?" Not long afterward, Johnson was Scenes like this, with the Marines in action outside Da Nang, might not have dispatched on a goodwill mission to occurred if JFK had lived, say his aides. Ted Sorensen, for one, says, "We the far ends of the Far East. would not have bombed North Vietnam. The Marines would never have landed." Feldman remembers "some mention of dumping Johnson in 1964" but doubts that Kennedy would have aban- doned his Vice President. Most White House aides recall that Kennedy treated Johnson with respect and insisted they do likewise. "They didn't socialize," recalls O'Brien. "Their relationship was "Bobby would have pushed; his mother and sisters would have pushed; the White House staff would have pushed." Most Kennedy intimates agree that brother Robert would have inherited Camelot. "Assuming that the Camelot aura continued," adds former press sec- retary Pierre Salinger, "then Bobby would surely have beaten Richard Nixon" in 1968.. • Could Kennedy have kept his Ad- ministration scandal-free? Several Ken- nedy aides have mentioned that he believed in playing by the rules, whether it was sports or politics. They. insist, therefore, the White House never fixed government contracts or cases for the political manipulators. Swears Feldman:. "Under Kennedy the attempted ITT fix would never have occurred. Kennedy resisted the pres- sures. Bobby was the same way." Ted Kennedy • recalls that Nixon tried to Bobby Kennedy campaigning in California for the Presidency in June 1968. An justify his own ITT shenanigans by im- a!sassin later gunned him down. Kennedy intimates feel JFK would have chosen plicating the Kennedys in similar prac- Bobby as a successor over Lyndpn Johnson because of strong family pressure. tices. "The Nixon Administration turned the Justice Department upside down during the ITT investigation to find some evidence that the Kennedy 4(i, ministration had also tried to fix cases," says the Senator. "They came up with- the FBI? President Kennedy's first move out a scintilla of evidence that anyone after his inauguration was to reappOi& in the Kennedy White House had ever J. Edgar Hoover as FBI director. But Ted made a single telephone call." Kennedy now claims both his brothers became disturbed over the FBI's opera- 'A different atmosphere' tions. .• • Would the Watergate scandal have Hoover to get boot been averted? Ted Sorensen answers this way: "If Kennedy had lived, there But .Hoover was too formidable a public figure even for Presidents to • would have been a different atmo- sphere in the country. The passions of challenge. President Kennedy intended to wait until after the 1964: election, the late '60's would never have built. therefore, to deal with Hoover. There i's" There would have been no unrest over Vietnam. The black people felt he un- question, Senator Kennedy main- tains, that his brother would have re- derstood them; they would not have moved Hoover after the election.