Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Dean Rusk" in English language version.
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Elizabeth Farmer told me this evening that, at five this afternoon, it looked as if it would be Rusk in State, with Bowles and Bundy as Undersecretaries. (Ken, by the way, told me that Jack had called him on the 7th and talked seriously about Mac as Secretary.) I asked why Rusk had finally emerged. Elizabeth said, 'He was the lowest common denominator.' Apparently, Harris Wofford succeeded in stirring the Negroes and Jews up so effectively that the uproar killed Fulbright, who was apparently Jack's first choice.
President Kennedy was less satisfied with his secretary of state, Dean Rusk ... John F. Kennedy, more than any president since FDR, was his own secretary of state ... But it was not the White House staff that said the State Department was 'like a bowl of jelly', or that it 'never comes up with any new ideas'. Those were John F. Kennedy's words ... More than one White House tape revealed the president's impatience with Rusk ... nor did JFK or RFK believe that Rusk himself was as thoroughly prepared for emergency meetings and crises as he should have been.
It may be hard for readers today to understand what went through his mind. But it was very clear to me at the time: he believed that because he was a southerner, working for a southern president, such a marriage – if he did not resign or stop it – would bring down immense criticism on both him and the president. ... [T]he president reacted as I expected – with congratulations for the impending marriage. So far as I was aware, the marriage had absolutely no effect – political or personal – on Dean or the president.
