UT Austin Has Obtained Archives That Insight into the 1960s


Goodwin’s archives include his public service as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, his work as a House subcommittee inspector on the fraudulent television game show “Twenty-One” (a story adapted from the 1994 film “Quiz Show”), as well as working for Kennedy and As notes and notes showing how he helped shape national and international politics during the Johnson administrations. Its archive sheds light on critical issues in 1960s US history, including Kennedy’s New Frontier, Johnson’s Great Society, the Civil Rights movement, the War on Poverty, the Vietnam War, and the anti-war movement.

From a historian’s point of view, Goodwin’s speech drafts from 1960 to 1968 are a revelation. His dominance of history and literature became the cornerstone of John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign speeches. It was Goodwin who coined the phrase Alliance for Progress to describe John F. Kennedy’s Latin American policy. A draft of a long-forgotten speech in Alaska ended with Goodwin’s line: “This is not what I promised to do, this is what I want you to join me in.” Years later, material featured in collectibles shows Jacqueline Kennedy wrote to Goodwin to tell her it was this wordplay that her husband recycled in his famous “Ask Note” keynote.

The documents reveal what a wide berth John F. Kennedy gave Goodwin. When the President realized that there was not a single Black recruit in the U.S. Coast Guard during the inaugural parade, he tasked Goodwin with investigating. The resulting memorandum, which was included in the collection, led to the Coast Guard’s racial integration in 1962.

After secretly meeting with Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Fidel Castro’s closest confidant in Uruguay, Goodwin prepared a lengthy psychological profile of the Marxist revolutionary for the president. “Behind the beard,” he begins, “his features are quite soft, almost feminine, and his demeanor is intense.” Among Goodwin’s memorabilia purchased by the University of Texas is a wooden cigar box from Guevara.

Goodwin’s diaries of the John F. Kennedy assassination are chock-full of details about the Dallas murder. He was among a small group in the White House when the president’s body arrived from Texas. His diary grapples with researching historical information about whether the coffin should be open or closed, where President Lincoln and the 35th president, who lie in the state in the East Room, should be buried. Working directly with Jacqueline Kennedy, Goodwin helped bring an eternal flame modeled after the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris to the tomb.

In January 1964, Goodwin traveled with the Peace Corps to East Africa, Iran and Afghanistan; He took extensive notes. Then, in March, he was called upon to remake a speech about poverty for Johnson. The five drafts, all part of the collection, made their way into the Special Message to Congress on March 19, where the phrase “War on Poverty” struck a sensitive chord. Goodwin now had a hand, and Johnson sought to bring him into the White House as home affairs speechwriter.

Goodwin consulted his friend Robert F. Kennedy about whether to take the job, and the attorney general offered his advice in a letter now housed at the Briscoe Center. “From a selfish point of view – you might think selfishly once in a while – I wish you didn’t, but I guess you have to,” Robert F. Kennedy told Goodwin. Johnson said, “Anything that makes him look bad makes Jack look better, I guess. But I think you should. If you do, you have to do the best you can, and faithfully, there’s no other way.”



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