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Ordinary Horrors

A Small Error in Robert Caro's The Passage of Power

5/18/2012

15 Comments

 
Picture
UPDATE below....

I found an error in Robert Caro’s The Passage of Power.

It’s in the section on JFK’s fatal trip to Texas in November, 1963. On page 300, Caro states, “The President was set to land at San Antonio’s Bergstrom Air Force Base at 1:30 on Thursday afternoon.” Then he says, “…the Johnsons left the ranch in their Beechcraft Bonanza for the short flight to Bergstrom, where they would greet the President….” The following paragraph says, “The President’s arrival at Bergstrom brought with it more trouble for Lyndon Johnson….” Then, on page 301, Caro describes Kennedy aide Ken O’Donnell being angry about John Connally and the Texas political situation and exiting Air Force One and “…[coming] down onto the Bergstrom tarmac….”

Okay. Bergstrom Air Force was in Austin, not San Antonio. (Bergstrom closed in 1993, was repurposed, and is now the site of Austin Bergstrom International Airport).

When I read this I thought Caro might have gotten the city wrong, that he might be saying that Kennedy landed at Bergstrom in Austin, then drove to San Antonio for his visit to the medical center and the motorcade, etc. Even though that would be totally impractical. But Caro says the motorcade to the hospital was 16 miles. Driving from Bergstrom would be 90 or so miles.

So I did a bit of poking around and found a map of the Kennedy visit to San Antonio on November 21, 1963.



Picture
Kennedy's San Antonio Motorcade (photo from Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library)
You can see that Kennedy arrives at San Antonio International, then drives to the medical center, then drives to Kelly Air Force Base, where he departs for Houston.

Caro’s placing the landing at Bergstrom is a small error—an error of fact-checking or research. Caro’s notes are unclear on his sourcing—he says the bit about O’Donnell’s “rage” toward Connally comes from his book, "Johnny We hardly Knew Ye": Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Maybe O’Donnell had the arrival details wrong, and Caro didn’t bother to check? Don’t know. I don’t think the errors imperil Caro’s argument about the character of Lyndon Johnson, or his narrative about the assassination of Kennedy, or his overall picture of life in mid-20th century America. But I can’t help but wonder if other errors snuck in somehow….

At any rate, I really love this brilliant series of books. I’m on the downhill side of The Passage of Power now, and I am going to be sorry when it’s over.



May 19.... UPDATE!

On page 503, the first page of Chapter 21:

“From Bergstrom Air Force Base, outside Austin, three big olive-green Army helicopters lifted off and wheeled west.”

Caro has the base in the correct city now. And, apparently, he’s using different sources: “Much of the description of these two weeks on the ranch comes from the many hours of newsreel footage, including outtakes, taken at these events” (683). For the description of the flight from Bergstrom to the LBJ Ranch, he is also using a book by Frank Cormier, LBJ: The Way He Was.

15 Comments
Forrest Preece
5/18/2012 05:52:11 am

Lowell-- yes, I think we are reading this book at the same rate. I wonder how many other central Texans caught this slip-up. What's more, I went through the same checklist. I could not imagine that they flew into Bergstrom and drove 90 miles to SA--in fact, I have lived here 65 years and I knew he didn't fly into Austin on Nov 21. So I did some Google work and found that he did indeed arrive at SA International.

Reply
Lowell
5/18/2012 06:17:23 am

I wish Caro's source notes were more complete (though maybe if they were more complete, the book would be 10,000 or so pages!).

Reply
Lamar Terry USAF/ret.
7/11/2012 08:54:33 am

Forrest, You need to do more research. On 11/21/63 JFK landed in AF1 at Kelly AFB, San Antonio, Texas, not SA international. See My entry below.

Reply
Eric
5/24/2012 03:23:19 am

I noticed another slight error. Caro has Bobby Baker visiting the LBJ ranch in October 1973, but the president had been dead for nine months at that point. On the one hand, the Bergstrom slip-ip and this are small errors, but it does make you wonder about how rigorously Caro fact checked the book.

Reply
Lowell
6/3/2012 10:17:21 am

Great catch--I read that section and went right past the date discrepancy. I was talking last week with a friend of mine who writes big biographies, and I told him of our finds--and he laughed at me. He said, "There are always a few errors...."

Reply
Brian
6/10/2012 11:29:37 am

I noticed another small error in the Bobby Baker "Protege" Chapter 10: The vending machine scandal began with Ralph Hill, a vending machine company president, suing Bobby Baker and the Serv-U Corporation. Later, when Delaware Senator John J. Williams begins his own investigation, Caro says he started by "inviting Serv-U's Ralph Hill to his office..." Hill wasn't with Serv-U; he headed the rival company that sued Serv-U.

Reply
Peter
9/27/2012 05:15:41 am

I just caught the Ralph Hill Serv-U error myself. Glad to see people are on the ball. I wonder if the publisher is going to print a list of errors in the next editions. I love the series, by the way. Brilliant.

LizK
12/9/2014 01:52:23 pm

You're right ... I just saw that too. Hill was head of the Capitol Vending Co.

That's the kind of error that could easily be made by a copy editor thinking Hill's identity needs clarification, rapidly paging back to where he was introduced, and getting it wrong (because Hill's company is not identified in that earlier sentence; only Serv-U is)

Another error (if the publisher is still paying attention): Culpeper, VA, has two p's, not three--the book misspells it as "Culpepper".

LAMAR TERRY Ret. USAF
7/11/2012 08:47:00 am

The correction above and the map is wrong. President John F. Kennedy landed in Air Force1 on Nov. 21 1963 at KELLY AIR FORCE BASE in San Antonio, Texas. I directed Air Force 1 to its parking place and then I was stationed at the bottom of the stairs as JFK deplaned. I was a member of the Kelly AFB Transit Alert Section.
I do not know for sure but I was told (11/21/1963) that LBJ landed at Burgstrom AFB. They were not allowed to fly in the same airplane in case of a crash.
The map may be dated wrong. JFK came to San Antonio in 1960.

Reply
LAMAR TERRY Ret. USAF
9/28/2012 05:32:51 am

Thanks for the article, but it is wrong. I was assigned to the aircraft transit section at Kelly AFB when AirForce 1 landed on 11/21/1963 at Kelly AFB. I was a member of the ground crew for arrival of Air Force 1. I drove the "Follow Me" truck. Then I stood close to the deplaning stairs when President John F. Kennedy and his wife deplaned. They returned the same day and left from Kelly AFB in AF1.
I do not know for sure but the US Air Force should have a record of JFK landing at Kelly AFB.
As I said above we (ground crew) were told that L B Johnson landed at Burgstrom AFB. We were also told that JFK had a High School named after him and he would return to dedicate it. I donot know if that is true or not.
I have nothing to gain to make these statements. I just hate to see the wrong information that has been put out about President John F. Kennedy

Reply
LAMAR TERRY Ret. USAF
9/28/2012 05:33:08 am

Thanks for the article, but it is wrong. I was assigned to the aircraft transit section at Kelly AFB when AirForce 1 landed on 11/21/1963 at Kelly AFB. I was a member of the ground crew for arrival of Air Force 1. I drove the "Follow Me" truck. Then I stood close to the deplaning stairs when President John F. Kennedy and his wife deplaned. They returned the same day and left from Kelly AFB in AF1.
I do not know for sure but the US Air Force should have a record of JFK landing at Kelly AFB.
As I said above we (ground crew) were told that L B Johnson landed at Burgstrom AFB. We were also told that JFK had a High School named after him and he would return to dedicate it. I donot know if that is true or not.
I have nothing to gain to make these statements. I just hate to see the wrong information that has been put out about President John F. Kennedy

Reply
LAMAR TERRY Ret. USAF
9/28/2012 05:37:20 am

Thanks for the article, but it is wrong. I was assigned to the aircraft transit section at Kelly AFB when AirForce 1 landed on 11/21/1963 at Kelly AFB. I was a member of the ground crew for arrival of Air Force 1. I drove the "Follow Me" truck. Then I stood close to the deplaning stairs when President John F. Kennedy and his wife deplaned. They returned the same day and left from Kelly AFB in AF1.
I do not know for sure but the US Air Force should have a record of JFK landing at Kelly AFB.
As I said above we (ground crew) were told that L B Johnson landed at Burgstrom AFB. We were also told that JFK had a High School named after him and he would return to dedicate it. I donot know if that is true or not.
I have nothing to gain to make these statements. I just hate to see the wrong information that has been put out about President John F. Kennedy

Reply
Andy
11/22/2012 11:56:02 pm

I also noticed another error on page 281 when discussing the Bobby Baker blowup. The book mentions that Baker went years without seeing Johnson, but went to his ranch in October 1973 to visit him. I'm certain they MUST have meant 1972, as Johnson passed away in January 1973.

Reply
Lamar Terry Ret. USAF
11/23/2012 11:33:33 am

The above route map JFK traveled on November 21, 1963 was printed on November 20, 1963 in the Express News according to DRT web site.
Quote from DRT (Daughters of the Republic of Texas)
"A map of President Kennedy's motorcade route through San Antonio, printed in the Express-News on November 20, 1963."

As I said above, JFK Deplained at Kelly AFB to start his visit in San Antonio, Texas.

Reply
Lamar Terry Ret. USAF
11/23/2012 11:34:36 am

The above route map JFK traveled on November 21, 1963 was printed on November 20, 1963 in the Express News according to DRT web site.
Quote from DRT (Daughters of the Republic of Texas)
"A map of President Kennedy's motorcade route through San Antonio, printed in the Express-News on November 20, 1963."

As I said above, JFK Deplained at Kelly AFB to start his visit in San Antonio, Texas.

Reply



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    Lowell Mick White

    Author of the novels Normal School and Burnt House and Professed and That Demon Life and the story collections  Long Time Ago Good and The Messes We Make of Our Lives.

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