Oral history transcript, Edwin L. Weisl, Jr., interview 2 (II), 5/23/1969 by Joe B. Frantz

[For interviews 1 and 2] Family relationship with LBJ; visits of LBJ to Weisl home; Preparedness Subcommittee after Sputnik launch; role as special counsel; Department of Defense bureaucracy; Eisenhower Administration; cabinet secretary; George Humphrey; Charles Wilson; Neil McElroy; acceleration of ballistic missile program; Missile Gap controversy; operating procedure of Senate Subcommittee on Preparedness; Eisenhower as a President; importance of LBJ as Majority Leader; role of Weisl in 1960 and 1964 campaigns; New Yorkers’ feelings about LBJ; Jack English; RFK’s Senatorial campaign in New York; effect of William Miller on Republican ticket; duties as Lands and Natural Resources Division of the Justice Department; proposals for Indian problems; problems with Interior Department; shift to Civil Division; Pure and Union Oil; critical of Ramsey Clark as Attorney General; LBJ’s difficulties with Establishment press; missile/satellite program investigation; LBJ’s neglect of functions as leader of the Democratic Party; Young Citizens for LBJ in 1964; Birch Bayh; ran Associates Division of President’s Club; McSurley case; 5th Amendment; Bill Moyers; importance of Jack Valenti; reason Katzenbach moved to State; comparison of Katzenbach and Clark; Task Force on Environmental Pollution; opinion of LBJ’s commitment to pollution control; use of wire tapping; no intervention by the President in Department of Justice activities or decisions