All the Presidents' Bankers (89 page)

5
. Kingsford Capital Management,
Kingsford Capital: The First 100 Years
(San Francisco, CA: Bentrovato Books, 2011), 54–64.

6
. February 10, 1966, White House Confidential File, Box 152, Folder: Wall, LBJ Library.

7
. “John F. Kennedy: January 3, 1960,”
Meet the President with Tim Russert
(NBC News).

8
. Ibid.

9
. “Gross Domestic Product,” US Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis, at
www.bea.gov/index.htm
.

10
. Donald Gibson,
Battling Wall Street: The Kennedy Presidency
(New York, NY: Sheridan Square Publications, 1994), 5.

11
. David Rockefeller,
Memoirs
(New York, NY: Random House, 2002), 230. According to Rockefeller, after McCloy worked his way through college (Amherst) and law school (Harvard) by tutoring, he traveled to Maine in 1912 in the hopes of securing a job on Mount Desert Island by contacting the wealthiest families, including the Rockefellers. “Jack always imparted the story at great length,” wrote Rockefeller, “walking the quarter-mile from the main road up to the Eyrie, knocking on the massive door, and explaining to the butler why he was there, only to be turned away with the explanation that a tutor had already been hired for the Rockefeller children.”

12
. Rockefeller,
Memoirs,
179.

13
. Author’s note: My first job on Wall Street was as a programmer analyst at One Chase Plaza, in a cubicle on the twenty-fifth floor.

14
. “John J. McCloy Papers, 1897–1989,” Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, at
www.amherst.edu/media/view/393545/original/McCloy%20Papers.pdf
.

15
. Bird,
The Chairman,
491.

16
. Ibid., 498.

17
. McCloy Papers. Later, McCloy was appointed chairman of the Coordinating Committee of the United States on the Cuban Missile Crisis.

18
. “McCloy Cool to Soviet Disarm Plan,” Associated Press, February 26, 1961.

19
. Copy of letter to JFK, including the attached “Disarmament Document Series. No. 35: United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency,” October 6, 1961, Post Presidential Files, Box 97, Folder: McCloy, John J., Truman Library.

20
. Jack Raymond, “President Meets His Top Advisors on Berlin Crisis,”
New York Times,
June 30, 1961.

21
. Ascension Image KN-C18923, President John F. Kennedy Meets with Disarmament Advisors, September 24, 1961, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, at
www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHP-KN-C18923.aspx
.

22
. HR 9118: Public Law 87-297. See also John F. Kennedy, “Remarks in New York City upon Signing Bill Establishing the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency,” September 26, 1961, American Presidency Project, at
www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=8353
.

23
. John McCloy, “Balance Sheet on Disarmament,”
Foreign Affairs,
April 1962.

24
. Ibid.

25
. “President John F. Kennedy: On the Alliance for Progress, 1961,” Modern History Sourcebook (Fordham University), at
www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1961kennedy-afp1.html
.

26
. “David Rockefeller,” The Rockefeller Archive Center, at
www.rockarch.org/bio/david.php
.

27
. “Kennedy: On the Alliance for Progress, 1961.”

28
. Sampson,
The Money Lenders
, 115.

29
. “David Rockefeller,” The Rockefeller Archive Center.

30
. Rockefeller,
Memoirs,
199.

31
. Ibid., 198.

32
. Roger Lane, “U.S. Steel’s Roger Blough No Stranger to ‘Trouble,’”
Schenectady Gazette,
April 13, 1962.

33
. James Hoopes, “When a Leader Overreaches: JFK’s Pyrrhic Victory over U.S. Steel,” Babson College, at
www.babson.edu/executive-education/thought-leadership/babson-insight/Articles/Pages/When-a-Leader-Overreaches.aspx
.

34
. “Businessmen,” 2, April 25, 1962, JFK Library, at
www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPOF-096–008.aspx
.

35
. Gibson,
Battling Wall Street.

36
. The other members of the council were Roger Blough and Leonard McCollum.

37
. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,
Robert Kennedy and His Times
(New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin, First Mariner Books edition, 2002), 225.

38
. Burton Crane, “Record Decline in Dollar Value,”
New York Times,
June 3, 1962.

39
. “The Day of the Bear,”
Time,
June 8, 1962.

40
. “Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), May 1962: 1–5,” JFK Library, at
www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPOF-074–005.aspx
.

41
. Ibid.

42
. Ibid., 16–31.

43
. “Dow Jones Industrial Average (1960–1980 Daily),” stock charts, at
http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/historical/djia19601980.html
.

44
. Richard E. Mooney, “Kennedy Studies Economic Policy,”
New York Times,
June 30, 1961.

45
. “A Businessman’s Letter,”
Life
, July 6, 1962.

46
. John F. Kennedy, “Letter to David Rockefeller on the Balance of Payments Question,” July 6, 1962, posted online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, American Presidency Project, at
www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=8759
.

47
. Financial Policy Meeting, JFK Appointment Index, July 13, 1962, JFK Library.

48
. “Businessmen,” 4–5, JFK Library, at
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPOF-096–008.aspx
.

49
. “Thomas Lamont, Banker, 68, Dead,”
New York Times,
April 11, 1967.

50
. “The Man at the Top,”
Time,
September 7, 1962.

51
. National Security Archive, “The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962: The 40th Anniversary,” George Washington University, at
www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/photos.htm
.

52
. Telephone Recordings: Dictation Belt 30, October 22, 1962, JFK Library, at
www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPOF-TPH-30.aspx
.

53
. Letter from Chairman Khrushchev, October 28, 1962, JFK Library, at
http://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/oct28/doc1.html
.

54
. Ibid.

55
. Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas,
The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made
(New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1986), 730.

56
. RFK had congratulated McCloy on February 17, 1961, for joining his brother’s administration and promised “to extend [McCloy] the services of the Department of Justice, especially the Office of Legal Counsel, should the need for such services arise.”

57
. Bird,
The Chairman,
541.

58
. Several months later, McCloy was informed he would receive a Medal of Freedom from JFK at a ceremony scheduled for December 6, 1963. But on November 22, 1963, shortly after McCloy finished having breakfast with Eisenhower, JFK was shot. McCloy immediately sent his condolences to LBJ, who ultimately presented him with the medal.

59
. John F. Kennedy, “Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union,” January 14, 1963, posted online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, American Presidency Project, at
www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=9138
.

60
. “Question and Answer Period at the American Bankers Association Symposium on Economic Growth, February 25, 1963,” JFK Library, at
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHA-165–006.aspx
.

61
. “David Rockefeller Offers a Plan of Business Advice on Latin America,”
New York Times,
April 24, 1963.

62
. Sampson,
The Money Lenders,
139.

63
. Recorded Conversation 25A.1: Kennedy and C. Douglas Dillon, July 31, 1963, JFK Library, at
www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPOF-TPH-25A.aspx
.

64
. Zweig,
Wriston,
157.

65
. Ibid., 57.

66
. Ibid., 87.

67
. Office of the White House Press Secretary, President Johnson’s Archives, John Macy Files, Folder: Wriston, Walter B., October 2, 1963, LBJ Library.

68
. When the interest equalization tax finally took effect on September 2, 1964, President Johnson had watered it down considerably as per the bankers’ demands.

69
. “David Rockefeller Joins Protest on Cut by House in Latin Aid,”
New York Times,
October 12, 1963.

70
. “Remarks at Amherst College upon Receiving an Honorary Degree,” October 26, 1963, JFK Library.

71
. “Statement of the Honorable Douglas Dillon, Secretary of the Treasury, Before the Joint Economic Committee,” July 8, 1963, in US National Economy, 1916–1981: Unpublished Documentary Collections from the Treasury Department, Part 4: Kennedy-Johnson Administration (1961–1969), microfilm (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America), Item 0525.

72
. Zweig,
Wriston,
159.

73
. Walter Wriston, “No Turning Back,”
The Twilight of Sovereignty and the Information Standard
, Tufts Digital Library, at
http://dl.tufts.edu/view_text.jsp?urn=tufts:central:dca:UA069:UA069.005.DO.00243&chapter=c1s2
.

74
. Sam Dawson, “Experts Confident Drastic Action Unlikely in Threat to Reserves,” Associated Press, October 3, 1963.

75
. November 22, 1963, Treasury Department Folder, LBJ Library.

76
. December 20, 1963, White House Confidential Files, Thomas S. Gates File, LBJ Library.

77
. John M. Lee, “National and Commodities Markets Shaken; Federal Reserve Acts to Avert Panic,”
New York Times,
November 23, 1963.

78
. “Congressional Probe Asked in Presidential Assassination,” Associated Press, November 25, 1963.

79
. “Joseph Kennedy Watches Son’s Funeral at Home, Hyannisport, Massachusetts,” UPI, November 26, 1963.

80
. Drew Pearson, “Kennedy . . . Man of Destiny,”
Sarasota Journal,
November 26, 1963.

81
. Edward Cowan, “Young Banker in Foreign-Service: Wriston Is at Helm of National City Units Abroad,”
New York Times,
November 24, 1963.

82
. Ibid.

83
. Daily Diary Collection, C. Douglas Dillon, LBJ Library.

84
. Letter from David Rockefeller, November 29, 1963, White House Confidential Files, Name File: David Rockefeller, LBJ Library.

85
. Letter to David Rockefeller, December 11, 1963, LBJ Library.

86
. David Rockefeller memo to President Johnson, December 11, 1963, White House Confidential Files, Name File: David Rockefeller, LBJ Library.

Chapter 12. The Mid- to Late 1960s: Progressive Policies and Bankers’ Economy

1
. “Blue Chips Lead Dow Average to All-Time High,” Associated Press, December 5, 1963.

2
. “Market Makes Big Comeback,” Associated Press, November 27, 1963.

3
. “State of Business: Banish Your Fears,”
Time
, December 13, 1963.

4
. First National City Bank, Monthly Economic Letter, January 1964, White House Central Files (WHCF), Box 104: First National City Bank, LBJ Library.

5
. “Business: A Surprisingly Good Year,”
Time,
December 27, 1963.

6
. “The 1920s Economy: A Statistical Portrait,” San Francisco State University College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.

7
. “Debt Growth by Sector,” Federal Reserve Board, at
www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/19960912/z1r-2.pdf
.

8
. “President Johnson’s Address Before Congress,” November 27, 1963, LBJ Presidential Library, at
www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/kennedy/Joint%20Congress%20Speech/speech.htm
.

9
. “A Surprisingly Good Year,”
Time.

10
. Dillon had also served in government for nearly a decade even before Kennedy appointed him, including in the Eisenhower administration as ambassador to France, undersecretary of state for economic affairs, and undersecretary of state.

11
. Transcript, C. Douglas Dillon Oral History Interview (I) with Paige Mulholland, June 29, 1969, LBJ Library.

12
. Ibid.

13
. Ibid.

14
. Memorandum for the President from Robert E. Kintner, August 11, 1966, LBJ Library.

15
. Letter from John McCone, January 9, 1964, White House Confidential Files, Name File: John J. McCloy, LBJ Library.