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  • Contributor > O'Brien, Lawrence F. (Lawrence Francis), 1917-1990 (remove)

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Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 25 (XXV), 8/25/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • ://discoverlbj.org/exhibits/show/loh/oh O'Brien -- Interview XXV -- 17 Pat Brown expressed an interest in this area. Freeman says it is a problem of coordination and Hughes is assigned the task of getting Pat Brown into action. We talk about blitzing Nixon
  • Caucasian vote; how Humphrey compared to Richard Nixon and George Wallace on order and justice; campaign staff debate over whether Humphrey should release a clear Vietnam strategy and whether Humphrey should resign as vice president; concern that policy
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 29 (XXIX), 11/3/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • efforts; literally started a campaign for the post. I was able to persuade Pat Harris to accept the role of chairman if she were elected. She accepted with considerable reluctance. She recognized that this would be very controversial. She was not enamored
  • reforms; McGovern's 1972 campaign financing; O'Brien's efforts to attack Richard Nixon; the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT) scandal; how O'Brien became chairman of the 1972 Democratic National Convention; Daley's reaction to his
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 23 (XXIII), 7/21/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • organization leaders who are with us was stand pat, don't rock the boat and don't succumb to any Humphrey blandishments." Then I had a series of recommendations. The fact of the matter is that I was far from sanguine about what was going to happen in New York
  • Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) loss to Eugene McCarthy in the Oregon primary; support for RFK going into the New York primary; concerns going into the California primary and memories of 1960 California problems with Edmund "Pat" Brown; the RFK/McCarthy
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 8 (VIII), 4/8/1986, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • not going to be able to pull it off. I am concerned about that because I think the 1960 debates, for example, the Nixon-Kennedy debates, had a tremendous impact on the result of that very, very close election. Now, that fell into our lap. That wasn't
  • of congressional liaison staff in LBJ's 1964 presidential campaign; the 1960 JFK-Nixon debates; presidential debates since 1960, such as the Reagan-Mondale debates of 1984; campaign finance issues; the rise of political action committees (PACs) and lobbying
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 1 (I), 9/18/1985, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • be made for the future, favorite sons in some instances, like [Michael] DiSalle in Ohio, Pat Brown's activities in California and the rest. But the effort was to build up within the party a recognition that Kennedy could be a strong candidate for president
  • Virginia primary and what JFK learned from it; the JFK/Nixon debates; JFK's handling of the Bay of Pigs incident; O'Brien meeting with each cabinet member to review roles in the Kennedy Administration; JFK's and O'Brien's time spent learning their roles
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 21 (XXI), 6/18/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • by Nixon, who discussed this with me as a result of a detailed conversation with the President-Elect. The Nixon Administration ran with it. I was asked by the President to co-chair a citizens' committee to carry on this advocacy. I considered it totally non
  • continued advocacy work for postal reform as co-chair of a citizen's committee; legislation enacted under Richard Nixon to give the Post Office Department more independence and the ability to self-finance; lack of political interest in the Post Office
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 6 (VI), 2/11/1986, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • of garrulous fellow and Jack was sort of neat and tidy. (Laughter) Let's face it, we've seen more and more of it since the days of Kennedy and Johnson and the advent of television, going all the way back [to] the Nixon-Kennedy debates, and the realization
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 31 (XXXI), 12/10/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • know Colson. He comes from Massachusetts. He was on the staff of Senator Leverett Saltonstall at one time. You must know him." I repeated I didn't. He identified him then as a member of Nixon's White House staff, at which point I think I had some vague
  • Charles Colson; memos Richard Nixon's staff wrote and distributed attempting to hurt O'Brien's reputation, including one that suggested a conflict of interest between O'Brien as head of O'Brien Associates and Democratic National Committee (DNC
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 30 (XXX), 11/4/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • . To sum it up, they found that their membership generally was hell-bent to get to the polls and vote for Richard Nixon. G: Had Nixon's campaign encouraged this support? O: There were committees of labor for Nixon as there were John Connally Democrats
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 26 (XXVI), 8/26/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • contributing aspects to it. It was considered a plus. Some pundits and observers felt that it might have been an overt attempt on the part of Lyndon Johnson to help Hubert Humphrey. There might have been an element of that in it. G: Nixon certainly felt
  • to Vietnam; the Anna Chennault situation and suspicion that Richard Nixon might be influencing the South Vietnam government to delay peace negotiations; Humphrey's response to Nixon's behavior; requests that Humphrey use prepared statements and not speak off
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 28 (XXVIII), 9/24/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • for the party. I found during 1970 that Nixon had free reign. That was not unusual. A president has great advantages. I had seen that in my days on the other side. But what was disconcerting was that he seemed to be on television constantly. There didn't seem
  • elections; O'Brien's desired role as spokesman for the Democratic Party during Richard Nixon's presidency; Bob Strauss' efforts to raise money for DNC programs and to pay off debt; going to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and networks to try
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 24 (XXIV), 7/22/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • become an extremely key factor. It is more so today. But what awakened us to the role of television, the impact of television, were the Kennedy-Nixon debates. The turn of events immediately following the first debate was enough to convince you that from
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 32 (XXXII), 12/11/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • of size.But the ridiculous Dash-Lenzner theory of the break-in stated it was because of the White House concern regarding what knowledge I might have of a transaction between the Hughes people and Nixon with Bebe Rebozo the middle man. I was to learn
  • with documents regarding the relationship between O'Brien and Howard Hughes; the settlement in O'Brien's civil suit against the Committee for the Re-election of the President (CREEP); O'Brien's response to Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon; Maurice Stans
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 14 (XIV), 9/11/1986, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • it briefly in his farewell address.That brought it to Nixon embracing it when he became president and moving on partisanly to bring it about at least in part, ultimately. (Interruption) G: What did your colleagues from the Kennedy Administration think
  • and the attention the Post Office Department received at cabinet meetings; Richard Nixon's and postmaster general-designate Winton Blount's support for the blue-ribbon commission's proposal to make the Post Office Department an independent entity; O'Brien's work
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 27 (XXVII), 9/23/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • McDonnell and Company as its president.Either way, I would be coming to New York. So I joined the firm and came to New York to meet the top officers of the firm for the first time. I think it was literally on the day that Nixon was being inaugurated. I moved
  • The Humphreys' visit with the O'Briens the day before Richard Nixon's inauguration; O'Brien's decision to become president of McDonnell and Company as Murray McDonnell became chairman of the board; Ira Kapenstein and Phyllis Maddock moving
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 10 (X), 6/25/1986, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • or politics generally. In foreign policy you have the adviser and his staff right in your building.The secretary of state is in Foggy Bottom. Personalities have a lot to do with it. There's no question, for example, in the Nixon Administration that Henry
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 20 (XX), 4/23/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • had and that's when I tried to be a spokesman and go on the attack against the administration of Nixon. Now, that's an understandable role. You can dig your teeth into it and have some degree of effectiveness. But now you have a Democratic president
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 7 (VII), 2/12/1986, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • of the President's health and an arrangement whereby if he were disabled, either because of a heart attack or something, then McCormack would step in and take over the duties temporarily, I guess relating to an agreement that Nixon and Eisenhower had worked out. Carl
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 9 (IX), 4/9/1986, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • tendency in a campaign. Your own people are apt to react strongly to hard-hitting spots. We had that with [Spiro] Agnew and then Nixon at a later date, by the same Tony Schwartz. G: Oh, really? O: Yes. G: Which spots in particular? O: We had one
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 15 (XV), 11/20/1986, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 2 (II), 10/29/1985, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 19 (XIX), 4/22/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • , it was enacted in the Nixon Administration. That involvement obviously was time-consuming. Additionally, I had a legislative item on the agenda involving postal rates, which became a sticky situation. Pressure groups were in heavy action; it took a lot of doing