BOOKWORM

Barnett: Oh, I should say I am concerned about it, Mr. President. It's a horrible situation. 

JFK: Well now, here's my problem, Governor . . . Listen, I didn't put him in the university, but on the other hand, under the Constitution, I have to carry out the orders of the, carry that order out, and I don't want to do it in any way that causes difficulty to you or anyone else. But I've got to do it. Now, I'd like to get your help in doing that.

Barnett: You know what I am up against, Mr. President. I took an oath, you know, to abide by the laws of this state. And we have a statute that was enacted a couple of weeks ago stating that no one who had been convicted of a crime, or whether the criminal action pending against them, would not be eligible for any of the institutions of higher learning.

JFK: What I want, would like to do is to try to work this out in an amicable way. We don't want a lot of people down there getting hurt . . . we don't want to have a lot of people getting hurt or killed down there.

-- President John F. Kennedy, as he tried to negotiate with Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett, on a peaceful solution over the admittance of University of Mississippi's first black student James Meredith. The President did end up having to send the army down to the school to quell the ensuing riots.

The book, Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy, by Tim Widmer and Caroline Kennedy, is one I can't wait to get  my hands on.