Walter Jenkins
Walter Jenkins | |
---|---|
White House Chief of Staff | |
De facto | |
In office November 22, 1963 – October 14, 1964 | |
President | Lyndon B. Johnson |
Preceded by | Kenneth O'Donnell |
Succeeded by | Bill Moyers (de facto) |
Personal details | |
Born | Walter Wilson Jenkins March 23, 1918 Jolly, Texas, U.S. |
Died | November 23, 1985 Austin, Texas, U.S. | (aged 67)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse |
Helen Whitehill
(m. 1945–1985) |
Children | 6 |
Education | University of Texas, Austin |
Walter Wilson Jenkins (March 23, 1918 – November 23, 1985) was an American political figure and longtime top aide to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. Jenkins' career ended after he was arrested and charged with "disorderly conduct" with another man in a public restroom in Washington, D.C. The incident happened weeks before the 1964 presidential election, in an era in which homosexual behavior was widely condemned.
Personal life
Jenkins was born in
Jenkins and his wife had six children, four boys and two girls.[1] They separated in the early 1970s but never divorced.
Government career
Jenkins began working for Lyndon B. Johnson in 1939 when Johnson was serving in the U.S. House of Representatives as the member from Texas's 10th congressional district. For most of the next 25 years, Jenkins served as Johnson's top administrative assistant, following Johnson as he rose to become a Senator, Vice President under John F. Kennedy, and President.
From 1941 until 1945, Jenkins served in the
Johnson's former aides credit Jenkins for his ability and temperament. In 1975, journalist
By the 1960s, Jenkins was more Johnson's friend than employee, close to Lady Bird Johnson and involved in their family finances as well. The Johnsons celebrated Lady Bird's fifty-first birthday at a party at Jenkins' home in December 1963.[3]
Scandal and resignation
Arrest
A month before the 1964 presidential election, on October 7,
Perhaps the most amazing of all events of the campaign of 1964 is that the nation faced the fact fully—and shrugged its shoulders.
—Theodore H. White in The Making of the President 1964
Finally, on October 14, a
Anticipating the charge that Jenkins might have been blackmailed, Johnson immediately ordered an FBI investigation. He knew that J. Edgar Hoover would have to clear the administration of any security problem because the FBI itself would otherwise be at fault for failing to investigate Jenkins properly years before.[15] Hoover reported on October 22 that security had not been compromised.[16][17] Johnson later said: "I couldn't have been more shocked about Walter Jenkins if I'd heard that Lady Bird had tried to kill the Pope."[18] He also fed conspiracy theories that Jenkins had been framed. He claimed that before his arrest Jenkins had attended a cocktail party where the waiters came from the Republican National Committee, though the party was hosted by Newsweek to celebrate the opening of its new offices.[19] The Star printed the story and UPI transmitted its version on October 14. Jenkins resigned the same day. Johnson immediately ordered a poll to determine the public's reaction to the affair and learned the next day that its effect on the voters was negligible.[16][17][20]
The President announced that only he would contact the press about the incident, but his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, issued her own statement of support for Jenkins.[21]
Political reactions
The incident embarrassed the administration but had little impact on the campaign in which Johnson led his opponent by large margins. One columnist wrote on October 15, "Walter Jenkins has revived and dramatized all the harsh feelings about morals, and political cliques, and the Texas gang in Washington."
Johnson's Republican opponent in the 1964 presidential election, Barry Goldwater, knew Jenkins from the Senate and from serving as commanding officer of his Air Force Reserve unit, but initially denied knowing him.[24] He did not comment on the incident while campaigning. Although it fit well with the charges he had been making about the lack of morality in Johnson's administration, those referred to Bobby Baker and Billie Sol Estes.[25] Instead, since FBI agents had just questioned him about Jenkins, he publicly asked Hoover to explain why Jenkins had not undergone a rigorous security check before joining the White House staff.[26]
Goldwater's campaign offices distributed
Johnson mentioned the affair in general terms while campaigning. In Pittsburgh, on October 27, he told a crowd that in government "unfortunate things" happen and people "disappoint" you. Some "make mistakes" and need to resign and there need to be impartial investigations.[29]
Members of Congress called for an FBI investigation of the case, citing concerns that the FBI had been unaware of Jenkins' previous offense in the same Washington men's room in January 1959.[30]
Supportive reactions
On October 15,
On October 29, 1964, leading clergymen, including Dean
After the election, the American Mental Health Foundation wrote a letter to President Johnson protesting the "hysteria" surrounding the case:[35]
The private life and inclinations of a citizen, Government employee or not, does not necessarily have any bearing on his capacities, usefulness, and sense of responsibility in his occupation. The fact that an individual is homosexual, as has been strongly implied in the case of Mr. Jenkins, does not per se make him more unstable and more a security risk than any heterosexual person.
On November 17, Lady Bird visited Walter Jenkins and his wife Marjorie, who were preparing to move home to Texas. She reported in her diary that he had received "a barrage of mail" from acquaintances and the public that "seems so understanding."[36] Washington columnist Joseph Alsop, like Jenkins a closeted homosexual, wrote publicly in support of Jenkins and sent him a letter of support as well.[37]
Effect on Johnson administration
Johnson appointed Bill Moyers to succeed Walter Jenkins.[38]
Johnson's White House Press Secretary George Reedy told an interviewer: "A great deal of the president's difficulties can be traced to the fact that Walter had to leave. ... All of history might have been different if it hadn't been for that episode." Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark said that Jenkins' resignation "deprived the president of the single most effective and trusted aide that he had. The results would be enormous when the president came into his hard times. Walter's counsel on Vietnam might have been extremely helpful."[2]
Later years and legacy
Jenkins resigned from the Air Force Reserve in February 1965.[39]
After leaving Washington, Jenkins returned to Texas and lived the rest of his life in Austin, where he worked as a Certified Public Accountant and management consultant and ran a construction company. He died in 1985, at the age of 67, a few months after suffering a stroke.[40]
A made-for-television film, Vanished, loosely based on the Jenkins resignation, aired in 1971.[41]
The Tony-award winning play,
Canadian playwright Steven Elliott Jackson wrote a play that stages an imaginary meeting and one-night-stand between Jenkins and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin called The Seat Next to the King.[42] Directed by Tanisha Taitt and starring Conor Ling as Jenkins (along with Kwaku Okyere as Rustin), the play won the award for Best New Play at the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival.[43]
References
- ^ a b c New York Times: "Storm Center in Capital," October 16, 1964. Retrieved November 13, 2010
- ^ a b Al Weisel (December 1999). "LBJ's Gay Sex Scandal". Out Magazine. Archived from the original on 2009-07-11. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
- ^ New York Times: "Johnson Gives Wife, 51, Gift that Helped Him to Win Her," December 23, 1963. Retrieved November 13, 2010
- ^ White, 367; Time: "The Jenkins Report," October 30, 1964. Retrieved November 15, 2010
- ^ Laud Humphreys, Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1974), 19
- ^ Perlstein, 489
- ^ Dallek, 181
- ^ White, 367
- ^ Dallek, 179, 181. The FBI had reported the 1959 arrest in April 1961,
- ^ Perlstein, 490. The journalist was William White.
- ^ Edward P. Levine, "Studying the American Press: The Walter Jenkins Case." Journalism Quarterly 43.3 (1966): 493-496.
- ^ a b White, 368
- ^ Fortas later emphasized that at the time he did not know the validity of the morals charge against Jenkins. The New York Times: "Fortas Asserts Police Need Time to Question Suspects," August 6, 1965. Retrieved November 13, 2010
- ^ White 369
- ^ Perlstein, 491
- ^ a b Evans and Novak, 480
- ^ a b White, 369-70
- ^ Dallek, 180
- ^ White, 367. Dallek evaluates various claims that Jenkins was set up and dismisses them. Dallek, 180-1
- ^ Thomas W. Benham, "Polling for a Presidential Candidate: Some Observations on the 1964 Campaign," in Public Opinion Quartery, v. 29 (1965), 192
- ISBN 978-0-307-88771-9.
- ^ a b New York Times: James Reston, "Setback for Johnson," October 15, 1964. Retrieved November 13, 2010
- ^ Dallek, 181; White 371
- ^ "Goldwater Says Morality is Demanded by the Nation". The New York Times. October 15, 1964. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
- ^ Dallek, 178; White, 369
- ^ New York Times: E.W. Kenworthy, "Goldwater Asks F.B.I. to Explain Check on Jenkins," October 20, 1964. Retrieved January 24, 2011
- ^ Perlstein, 493
- ^ New York Times:James Reston, "Washington: Barry Goldwater Examples of Morality," October 23, 2010. Retrieved November 13, 2010
- ^ New York Times: Charles Mohr, "Johnson Refers to Jenkins Case," October 298, 1964. Retrieved November 13, 2010
- ^ New York Times: Gladwin Hill, "Miller Asks Data on Jenkins Case," October 16, 1964. Retrieved January 24, 2011; The New York Times: Wallace Turner, ""Miller Stresses the Jenkins Case," October 22, 1964. Retrieved January 24, 2011
- ^ Pearson, Drew (October 19, 1964). "Special Report From Washington". American University's Digital Research Archive: Drew Pearson's Washington Merry-Go-Round.
- ^ Michael Beschloss, Reaching for Glory (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 98
- ^ Johnson's San Diego comment is discussed briefly at Evans and Novak, 481
- ^ TIME: "Johnson & the Jenkins Case," November 6, 1964. Retrieved January 18, 2011
- ^ New York Times: "Jenkins Defended by Mental Group," October 22, 1964. Retrieved November 13, 2010
- ^ Lady Bird Johnson, A White House Diary (University of Texas Press, 1970), 204
- ^ C. David Heymann, The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club: Power, Passion, and Politics in the Nation's Capitol (NY: Atria Books, 2003) 47
- ^ "Public Disclosure of 'Jenkins Episode' Asked by GOP Official". Sapulpa Daily Herald. UPI. 15 October 1964. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
- ^ New York Times: "Air Force Reserve Accepts Walter Jenkins' Resignation," February 3, 1965. Retrieved November 13, 2010
- ^ Barnes, Bart (1985-11-26). "LBJ Aide Walter Jenkins Dies". The Washington Post. p. C4.
- ^ Internet Movie Database: [Vanished (TV 1971)"]. Retrieved November 13, 2010
- ^ "Theatre Review for The Seat Next to the King". NowToronto. 22 September 2017.
- ^ "Toronto Fringe Festival Awards and Contests". 11 May 2017.
Further reading
- Michael Beschloss, ed., Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964–1965 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001)
- Robert Dallek, Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998)
- Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power (New York: New American Library, 1966)
- Edward P. Levine, "Studying the American Press: The Walter Jenkins Case." Journalism Quarterly 43.3 (1966): 493-496.
- Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (New York: Hill & Wang, 2001)
- Theodore H. White, The Making of the President 1964 (New York: Atheneum, 1965)
- Mark K. Updegrove, Indomitable Will (New York: Random House, 2012)
Additional material
- Lyndon B. Johnson: The Presidential Recordings, 6 vols. (New York: Norton, 2005)
External links
- cnn.com "New tapes show LBJ struggled with aide's sex scandal"
- Weisel, Al (December 1999). "LBJ's Gay Sex Scandal". Out. Vol. 8, no. 6. New York. pp. 76–131. ISSN 1062-7928. Archived from the originalon July 11, 2009.