114. Editorial Note
During a telephone conversation with Senator Fulbright that began at 5:30 p.m. on January 20, 1967, President Johnson raised the issue of a replacement for Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Lincoln Gordon, who had indicated he was going to resign. The President then stated: “I want to get a good man that can move forward and be progressive and I have nobody to reward, as you know, in the State Department, and never have had, and I’ve just looked at ’em, and I’m tellin’ you, the Foreign Service from a Latin American standpoint’s awfully weak. As matter of fact it’s weak everywhere, Bill. We’ve got to find some way to go into these universities. Some of these lectures you give, you ought to go out here—we ought to try to bring in some young people into this place. The ones we got are just, they’re just—I just pick ’em over just like eatin’ second day turkey.” (Johnson Library, Recordings and Transcripts, Recording of a Telephone Conversation between President Johnson and Senator Fulbright, Tape F67.03, Side A, PNO 1) The portion of the conversation printed here was prepared in the Office of the Historian specifically for this volume.