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That empty sleeve

From an August 29, 1968, phone conversation between President Lyndon B. Johnson and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey. Then the Democratic nominee for president, Humphrey was in the process of choosing a running mate. Three days earlier, Senator Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, a Japanese American who lost his right arm while serving in World War II, delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. The recording was released last December by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library.

lyndon b. johnson: If you’re not going to the South, I would really look over the West awfully good, because I’m telling you the people got fed up with the East. And you can do New York and Pennsylvania with what we gonna do with the Jews and what we gonna do with the Italians by being friendly. Now this would be a natural if it would work, and nobody ever mentioned it to me, but I never heard as many compliments on anybody as I did on Inouye. He answers Vietnam with that empty sleeve. He answers your problems with Nixon with that empty sleeve. He has that brown face. He answers everything in civil rights, and he draws a contrast without ever even opening his mouth. I’ve never known him to make a mistake. He’s got cold, clear courage. He’s as loyal as a dog, as you must have observed. He’d never undercut you. He ought to appeal to the West. He ought to appeal to the world. It would be fresh and different. He’s young and new. And I think your secretary could call him and say, Would you please go to Utah, South Carolina, San Francisco? And I believe he could go to all of them and never lay an egg. Lady Bird said, watching him on television, This is the best man I know of except Hubert. He’s asked nothing, he’s done nothing, but he wouldn’t be miserable in the place. Now another fellow will be, and be lazy and other things. The Southern boys—I wouldn’t irritate ’em more than I had to—they all love Inouye. I don’t know why. I think one thing is that they just look at him and they can’t fuss at him and say he doesn’t love peace. In other words, the South can’t get mad at him because he’s colored, and he would appeal to every other minority because he is one. I think you have to be satisfied, and I don’t want you to think you have to satisfy me. Inouye doesn’t appeal to you?

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SEE ALSO: Career as U.S. president; Career in politics; Inouye, Daniel K.; Humphrey, Hubert H. (Hubert Horatio); Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines); 1963-1969; 1968; Nominations for office; Vice-Presidential candidates

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