AManchester's Foreword to 'The Death of a President'

.";." Following is the foreword by had known and in whom he major surgery and minor sur- of the interviews were easy. had expressed confidence. gery areas, Bethesda's base- I could not dilute my questions ' Manchester to his book, My first calls were upon ment morgue, the pavements and still be faithful to my -..,1"7'he Death of a President," Bill Moyers at the White of Washington, the pews of 'echeduled to be published in House. and Chief Justice Earl St. Mathews. task, and over half the sub- .,1967 by Harper & Row, Pub- Warren. It was essential that I was led back and forth jects experienced moments of the new President know what 4 0ishers, Inc.: through the Presidential air- emotional difficulty. Often, +40i I proposed to do. It was craft. I crawled over the roof I found that a principal figure On February 5, 1964, Mrs. equally imperative that the of the Texas School Book De- i,foh.n F. Kennedy suggested commission which the Chief had thrust his memories, into pository and sat in Oswald's a remote corner of his mind. that I write an account of the Justice headed understand the sixth-floor perch. I rode his agic and historic events in exact nature of my.inquiry. bus, watch in hand. Bringing them out was agon- He was unfailingly polite and Taxi driver Bill Whaley pick- izing, almost unendurable. exas and Washington ten recognized that while the President Johnson is an ex- Feeks earlier. Neither Mrs. ed me up at the spot where lines of the two investigations he had picked up Oswald, ample. Twice, in May, 1964, lennedy nor anyone else is in might occasionally intersect, drove me over the same route and April, 1965, the President ry way answerable fOr my they certainly did not run in the same taxi at the same agreed to receive me and go pubsequent research of this parallel. The commission was speed, and dropped me off at through everything. Then he conducting a criminal probe. the same curb. found he could not do it. We p.rrative. My relationships I was exploring the full sweep I stood where Officer J. D. ultimately solved the dilemma ksith all the principal figures of events during what were, by written questions and ere entirely professional. I in some respects, the most Tippit died. I darted over the last lap of Oswald's flight to written answers. ceived no financial assist- extraordinary hours in the Thanking everyone who ce from the Kennedy history of our country. the Texas Theater. In Dallas police headquarters, I sat helped me during two years amity. I was on no Govern- Because I have been at this of investigation is impossible. ent payroll. No one tried to task longer than anyone, I whkre the assassin' had sat, and took notes on the under- Nevertheless, I must ac- ad me. I believe every have not only felt entitled to knowledge my great debt to ....reader,re including those who record my opinions, I have an ground garage while standing where he was shot. several of those without '.„-; were closest to the late Presi- inescapable obligation to do whom I should never have tient, will find here much so. Withholding them would With a Secret Service come to the end of this long tvhich is new and some per- be shirking a grave duty, and agent and Dallas eyewitness- journey. They are Mrs. John s aPs, which is disturbing. among other judgments, you I went over the stretch of F. Kennedy; Robert F. Ken- that Is my responsibility. will find my assessment of the Elm Street where the Presi- nedy; Mrs. Lyndon B. John- Mrs. Kennedy asked but Warren Report. I shall not dent laid down his life. I even son; Eunice Shriver; Richard bne question, before our first publish my files. It would. be had the damaged Dallas-to- Cardinal Cushing; Theodore raping session. She said, "Are a formidable undertaking. Bethesda coffin uncrated for C. Sorensen; •Arthur M. you just going to put down (Mrs. Kennedy's answers to inspection, and I have visited Schlesinger, Jr.; Richard N. the facts, who ate what A' .0 411 the corrunission's questions the hillside below Custis Lee Goodwin; McGeorge Bundy; .44s,alor breakfast and all that, or occupy two and a half pages; mansion in every season. Maj. Gen. Chester V. Clifton tsre you going to put yourself my tapes with her run , ten Research, of course, is no USA (set); Edwin 0. Guth- Iart the book, too . I replied hours.) substitute for wisdom. Never- man; ; Eve- t I didn't see how I could In my inquiry, I approached theless, all these trips were lyn Lincoln; and Evan ery well keep myself out of every person who might shed necessary. I had to immerse Thomas, who edited Profiles %-lt. "Good," she said emphat- light upon this complex of myself in this subject until In Courage and now this •pally. events. I retraced President I knew more about it than book. •The had not Kennedy's last journey from anyone else and could recon- been eager to have any book Andrews Air Force Base to struct the past with confi- ssa !written about the president's San Antonio, Houston, Fort dence. :lea,th, Understandably, they Copyright 1966 by WilElarn Manchester, Worth, Love Field at Dallas, We had not recovered from tram "The death ar a President," to be peeded time to heal. But , Parkland Hos- the castastrophe of Novem- .published fn 1967, by Harper L Row. _shortly after the burial in pital, back to Love and back ber, 1963. I cannot pretend Larlingtore it became apparent to Andrews, over the ambu- to be aloof, though I have 'that volumes would appear in lance route to Bethesda Naval certainly tried to be objec- , pite of their wishes. Under Hospital • and then to the these circumstances, Jacque- tive. Nor do I offer this study line Kennedy resolved that White House, the great ro- as a definitive work. In time, • tunda, St. Matthews and Ar- I myself shall merely become ,t• there should be one complete, accurate account. lington. I went over every a source for future historians I had not been among those motorcade route, searching as yet unborn. Yet it was im- ;iwho approached her. At that for men and women who had perative that this chronicle been spectators. Every scene be laid 2aefore the generation r , time I had not even met her. •& However, her husband had described was visited: the of Americans who suffered told her about me, and she rooms in the Executive Man- through those days. I believe •— "a had read a book I published sion, the Presidental hotel President Kennedy would have about him the year before his suites in Houston and Fort avanted them to know pre- death. Other members of the Worth, the Houston Coliseum, cisely what happened. f,arnily agfeed with Mrs. Ken- the Fort Worth parking lot I should like to pay tribute nedy that it would be wise and ballroom, Marguerite Os- to the host of people who re- to have a book written by an wald's house, Oswald's tiny lived the most dreadful hours th or whom the President room In Dallas, Parkland's of their lives with me. None e .