President Johnson: : I don't know... uh, I don't know how to get this message over, but this boy, our friend Hubert, is just destroying himself with his big mouth.
Jim Rowe: : Is he talking again?
President Johnson: : Yeah, all the time and never... He just can't stop it. He's just got hydrophobia, and every responsible person gets frightened when they see him. He hasn't missed any program, or he just... He's just like a wild man when he kind of sees this thing in the distance. And what he ought to do is be a very retiring, and very sober, and very judicious, and... uh... fellow.
Jim Rowe: : Yeah.
President Johnson: : Now, yesterday morning he went on the TV and looks like he's gotten by with it, but he said everybody in the Joint Chiefs of Staff and every person in town that's, uh, that's handling the war plans, it just scared them to death because he just blabbed everything that he had heard in a briefing, just like it was his personal knowledge.
Jim Rowe: : Wow.
President Johnson: : And almost- he wanted to claim credit for it. They said, for instance, "How would you account for these PT boat attacks on our destroyers when we are innocently out there in the gulf 60 miles from shore?"
And McNamara said that... that was a very difficult thing to explain the reasoning of these people. It may be that they wanted to try to scare us out of the area, but that he couldn't... he couldn't explain Communist thinking on a good many matters.
Rusk said substantially the same thing. Humphrey said, "Well, we have been carrying on some operations in that area, and we've been having some covert operations where we have been going in and knocking out roads and petroleum things, and so forth."
Jim Rowe: : Good Lord.
President Johnson: : And that is exactly what we have been doing. But the damned fool got it up, and now he's got Morse talking about it, who wasn't in on the briefing. And it's just... You just got to understand that you can't talk about war plans, you just can't talk about it. Now this morning-
Jim Rowe: : Got a whole carrier out there, unclear: the war.
President Johnson: : This morning, a fellow called me very upset- one of the highest officials in the government- and said, "Have you talked to Humphrey about a communication from Khrushchev?"
I said, "No, I haven't seen Humphrey. Haven't seen anybody around Humphrey. Haven't talked to my wife. Haven't talked to a human being!"
"Well, Humphrey has discussed the details of communications with Khrushchev that somebody must have let him know about, and with a correspondent for NBC!"
Jim Rowe: : Oh my.
President Johnson: : And, uh... it's the one thing that could make Khrushchev drop a bomb on us. And he just ought to keep his God damn big mouth shut on foreign affairs, at least until the election is over.
Jim Rowe: : It'll be done.
President Johnson: : And just say that this has got people running wild and they're running in every moment to me, and for him not to be speculating on why the Communists would be doing something.