President Johnson: : Hello. Mr. Mitchell?
William Mitchell: : Yes, sir.
President Johnson: : This is Lyndon Johnson.
Mitchell: : Yes, sir, President Johnson!
President Johnson: : How are you doing?
Mitchell: : Fine, sir, and you, sir?
President Johnson: : Are you the Will Mitchell introduced me up there at Hot Springs?
Mitchell: : I am.
President Johnson: : Well, I got a very ugly job I want you to do for me.
Mitchell: : I�ll be delighted to if I can, sir.
President Johnson: : Well, you can do it, and you�ve got to serve your country. Were you in the service?
Mitchell: : Yes, sir.
President Johnson: : Well, what? Army, Navy, or Air Force?
Mitchell: : Army.
President Johnson: : Well, this is just another service job. I�m here talking to Wilbur Mills, and we�ve got to have a southerner, a man that�s got ability, and a man that�s got composure, and a man that�s got judgment. We�ve got to have Robert E. Lee to sit on our Civil Rights Commission and give our viewpoint. Tell them what�s right and what�s wrong.
President Johnson: : I�ve got Dean Erwin Griswold of Yale University sic, Harvard; I�ve got Dr. John Hannah of Michigan University; I�ve got Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, the president of Notre Dame; but I�ve got to have a southerner. I had John Battle from Virginia, and John Battle served his term out under President Eisenhower. Then we got another southerner, Dean Storey, the head of the law school at SMU Southern Methodist University at Dallas. He served his term out.
President Johnson: : And we cannot be unrepresented on that commission, but we can�t have a man that�s just wild and . . . that doesn�t reflect credit on us. I�ve looked over the whole South. I�ve gone to Atlanta. I�ve looked at some of my top lawyers in Texas. I�ve gone to Baton Rouge and New Orleans. I considered a couple from Alabama. But time comes when you got to enlist, and I�ve just got to have you.
Mitchell: : Mr. President, may I call you in the morning, sir?
President Johnson: : Now, if you think about it overnight, you won�t want to do it. Mitchell laughs. And I�ve just got to have you because I fell into this job, and I don�t ask you to endorse anything. All I ask you to do is follow your conscience and come to a meeting once every month or two. But . . . we�ve got to have our viewpoint presented and represented. And I�ve just got to have you, and I don�t want anybody else.
President Johnson: : And I never met you but once, but I heard you that night- that day when you introduced me, and that�s the best introduction I ever had in my life. I�ll go with you on this thing and help you any way I can. You don�t have to do anything that will embarrass you. You just have to follow your convictions. I don�t want any commitments. I don�t want any special pleas. I just want you to do what your good horse sense tells you. But I want somebody that I can depend on.
Mitchell: : Here is my problem. I want to help you, and I am highly flattered by this call, sir. I have partners in this law firm, and we have made an agreement that we would not take on any outside jobs without first telling the others�
President Johnson: : Well, you just tell them in the morning that you�ve got to do this because your President got his tail in a crack. Mitchell chuckles. Then you call me back in the morning.
Mitchell: : I�ll do that, sir.
President Johnson: : But . . . we�ve looked the whole South over, and this is the trouble spot, but there�ll be others that are good ones. I�ve got to have somebody that�s got the capacity, and you�ve got it because I sat there and listened to you. Here�s Wilbur, who wants to say a word to you.
Mitchell: : All right, sir.
Wilbur Mills: : How are you feeling, Will?
: laughing Well, how do you think I feel?
Mills: : Well, I know how you feel: You�re honored.
Mitchell: : Very much so.
Mills: : He�s got the same high opinion of you that I have and that everybody I know has, of you. I think you can do a good job on this. You�re not going on as a patsy. You�re going on there, the full intention is, to represent the viewpoint which you have, which is the viewpoint of all of us down there.
Mitchell: : Well, you know I�m highly honored, Wilbur. I would like to be able to say yes now, but our law firm just has a rule that we won�t take on work that�s going to take us out of the office without first touching base with the others.
Mills: : I understand that, and the President understands that, of course. But . . .
Mitchell: : Could you give me some idea of what time we�re talking about?
Mills: : Well . . . to the President What is the time, Mr. President, of this appointment? How long would it be?
Mitchell: : No, I�m not talking about that�I mean, out of the office.
Mills: : Oh, about once a month.
Mitchell: : I see.
Mills: : You�d just be up here for a meeting and back home.
Mitchell: : I see.
President Johnson: : in the background He needs to be here once every two or three months.
Mills: : Maybe once every two or three months.
Mitchell: : I see.
Mills: : I understand five or six meetings a year. It�s not going to take you away from your work if that�s what you�re concerned about.
Mitchell: : That�s what I�m concerned about.
Mills: : No. to Johnson Pardon?
Johnson is talking to Mills in the background, giving him the names of the commission members
Mills: : Well, you know Dean Griswold of Harvard and . . . Father Hesburgh of Notre Dame, John Hannah of Michigan State�they�re all outstanding men.
Mitchell: : Oh, I assure you I�m flattered to death. I will call first thing in the morning.
Mills: : Someone has�
Mitchell: : Who should I call?
Mills: : You call the President.
Mitchell: : Yes, sir.
Mills: : Right at the White House. And tell them who�s calling, and he�ll take your call.
Mitchell: : I�ll do that.
Mills: : And I�ll tell him that you must touch base with your partners because you have a commitment about accepting anything.
Mitchell: : Yes.
Mills: : Now, he wants to speak to you just a bit here further.
Mitchell: : Thank you, Wilbur.
Mills: : Fine. Yeah, the President wants to speak to you.
President Johnson: : Will?
Mitchell: : Yes, sir.
President Johnson: : These�I got Dean Griswold of Yale sic, Harvard, Dr. John Hannah of Michigan State. These are men that have served before. I�ve got this vacancy. But I want the vacancy to go to a southerner that understands southern life, that understands our viewpoint, that can say to people, �Here�s . . . I think you�re making a mistake. Here�s what you ought to do.� That dissent if they need to.
President Johnson: : But I want somebody that I can be proud of as my appointee, that just won�t be a plain damned idiot and want to eat a little Negro baby for breakfast, but, the same time, will understand how to approach this thing as best they can. Now, these are the top men of the nation, and I just don�t want the South to show up with a bastard child. That�s that simple.
Mitchell: : Well, I�
President Johnson: : And I know it�s not something that�s going to reward you, except the satisfaction of doing the duty that you did in the Army and serving your President, and maybe I can find something better as a result of it. But I want somebody that I can depend on, and I know what I think of you because I make my judgments of people.
President Johnson: : Now, I�ve already talked to Senator J. William Fulbright, already talked to Senator John McClellan. Wilbur Mills is sitting here talking to me. We�re talking about your introducing him down there at the dam, and I'm talking to him about your introducing me. I think that there�s not a man in Washington I�ve got more respect for than Wilbur, and I just decided that I ought to clear this out tonight, and I�ve just got to have you represent the South. Now, you just�
Mitchell: : Oh, that�s�
President Johnson: : You just get Robert E. Lee out; and he left West Point. He left West Point, you know, and said that he�d have to get out of the Federal Army and go home and look after his people. That�s what you�ve got to do because we�ve got this problem. We�ve got to have somebody that�s got judgment, got eloquence, got ability, and that can sit in a room with people and disagree with them and still without being too disagreeable. And that�s what I�m having to do every day.
Mitchell: : Well, I�m certainly 100 percent for you too, sir. You�re doing a wonderful job.
President Johnson: : Well, you just come help me, and you�ll never be sorry of it. I�ll guarantee you that. You just tell your partners in the morning that your President drafted you last night, and you had your agreement, but you call me tomorrow and tell me that you�re going to do this because�if you can�t come to some of the meetings, that�s all right, but when you�re here, I want somebody I can be proud of.
Mitchell: : Well, I certainly appreciate it, and I�ll call you first thing in the morning.
President Johnson: : Thank you.
Mitchell: : Thank you very much. Hangs up.
President Johnson: : Well, it may be Harvard. Well, that�s where it is. I thought it was Yale. to secretary Get me Congressman Mills on.