Nation: The Senior Staff Man

See Cover His head bowed, his face lined with weariness and worry, the President of the U.S. sat glumly on the dais in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria. To his right and to his left, white-tied politicians traded good-natured gibes in the spirit of the Al Smith memorial dinner that Francis Cardinal Spellman stages each year. But the guest of honor smiled wanly or not at all. When his time came to speak, he cut his talk in half, delivered it in a hoarse monotone. Lyndon Johnson looked for all the world as...