A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination by Philip Shenon Page A

have,” he said. “The reason I ask you is because you have that same kind of temperament, and you can do anything for your country. And don’t go to givin’ me that kinda stuff about you can’t serve with anybody. You can do anything.
    “You never turned your country down,” Johnson continued. “You’re my man on that commission. And you gonna do it. And don’t tell me what you can do and what you can’t. I can’t arrest you. And I’m not gonna put the FBI on you. But you’re goddamned sure gonna serve. I’ll tell you that.”
    Russell: “Well, I know, but Mr. President, you oughta told me you were gonna name Warren.”
    Johnson then lied to Russell, just as he had lied to Warren a few hours earlier. “I told you,” the president said. “I told you today I was gonna name the chief justice, when I called you.”
    Russell knew it was a lie, as transcripts of Johnson’s phone calls would show. “No, you did not,” he said.
    Johnson: “I did.”
    Russell: “You talked about getting somebody on the Supreme Court. You didn’t tell me you was gonna name him .”
    Johnson: “I begged him as much as I’m begging you.”
    Russell: “You haven’t had to beg me. You’ve always told me, all right.”
    Johnson: “No, it’s already done. It’s been announced … hell.”
    Announced? Russell finally understood what Johnson had done: the press release with his name on it had already been given to the White House press corps.
    Russell: “You mean you’ve got out that…”
    Johnson: “Yes, sir, I mean I gave it.… It’s already in the papers, and you’re on it, and you’re gonna be my man on it.”
    Russell: “I think you’re sort of takin’ advantage of me, Mr. President.”
    Johnson: “I’m not takin’ advantage of you.”
    Johnson suddenly seemed to remember who he was talking to—his political mentor, a man who was closer to him than many members of his family. He pleaded with Russell to keep in mind how much he could do for Russell now that he was president: “I’m gonna take a helluva lot of advantage of you, my friend, ’cause you made me and I know it, and I don’t ever forget.… I’m a Russell protégé, and I don’t forget my friends.”
    Russell: “Hell, I just don’t like Warren.”
    Johnson: “Well, of course you don’t like Warren, but you’ll like him ’fore it’s over with.”
    Russell: “I haven’t got any confidence in him.”
    Johnson: “You can give him some confidence, goddamnit! Associate with him. Now.… Now by God, I wanna man on that commission. And I’ve got one.”
    Russell gave up the fight: “If it is for the good of the country, you know damned well I’ll do it, and I’ll do it for you. I hope to God you’ll be just a little bit more deliberate and considerate next time about it. But this time, of course, if you’ve done this, I’m gonna do it and go through with it and say I think it’s a wonderful idea.” He uttered those last few words—“it’s a wonderful idea”—in a tone heavy with sarcasm.
    Before hanging up, Russell admonished Johnson a last time. “I think you did wrong gettin’ Warren, and I know damn well you got it wrong getting me, but we’ll both do the best we can.”
    “I think that’s what you’ll do,” the president replied. “That’s the kind of Americans both of you are. Good night.”
    *
    At the Supreme Court the next week, Warren had to explain himself to his fellow justices—why he had agreed to lead the commission after insisting, for years, how wrong it was for members of the court to take outside assignments.
    He later told his friend Drew Pearson that the other justices reacted with outrage, with the exception of Justice Goldberg, the court’s newest arrival. “Every member of the court except Arthur Goldberg gave him hell,” Pearson wrote in his diaries. Justices William Brennan and John Marshall Harlan pointed out Warren’s hypocrisy, reminding him that he had long argued that “members of the