indeed, I thought I went out of my way

 

Vietnam War Protests at the White House

______________________________________________

Hall & Oates song for today!

"Kiss On My List"

(play it on You Tube)  ♫♫

When they insist on knowing my bliss

I tell them this

When they want to know what the reason is

I only smile when I lie, then I tell them why

(Because your kiss) your kiss is on my list...

-----------------------------------------

[excerpt - Moynihan letters]

Moynihan grew increasingly concerned about not offending the Johnson White House, though his disenchantment was clearly growing, as he indicates to Harry McPherson and Bill Moyers.

AUGUST 8, 1967

Dear Harry,

        I called Bill Moyers this afternoon and learned in passing that you and Joe Califano felt there was a suggestion in my Newsday article that if President Kennedy were alive we would not be in our present difficulty.

        Several interpretations of this occur to me.  One is that you are all more than normally sensitive on this point--in a way that I would not be--and that you really are disturbed.  If this is so, let me ask that you accept my apologies, and perhaps also that you tender them to the President, as I certainly intended nothing of the sort.  

Nor do I think anything of the sort.  Indeed, I thought I went out of my way to cite the failure of the 1962 Welfare Amendments as an example of our refusing to confront reality.

        Best,

Note for Bill Moyers:

        I hope you won't mind my sending this note.  It is in the family.  If an apology is in order, I feel I ought to offer one.

        I may have misled you in my remark about Edinburgh.  I recall that you studied there, but do not recollect that the doctrine of the forgiveness of sin was ever very prominent in that branch of Celtic theology!

________________________

{Daniel Patrick Moynihan:  A Portrait In Letters Of An American Visionary.  Edited by Steven R. Weisman.  PUBLIC AFFAIRS.  New York.  2010.}

The East Room - White House Historical Association

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