Books

It is difficult to imagine any recent attorney general of the United States writing a candid memoir, given the ethical and political battles surrounding the office. So the just-published memoir by Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, who served as attorney general during the administration of Lyndon Johnson, stands out for its relative candor and lack of a self-justifying patina.

CALVIN HANNAH/Tuscaloosa News/The Associated Press

Nicholas Katzenbach (right) confronts Alabama Gov. George Wallace in 1963.

Mr. Katzenbach, in his mid-80s today, entered the John F. Kennedy administration during 1961 as an eager, young, idealistic University of Chicago law professor. Although Mr. Katzenbach, like so much of the American citizenry, worried about the propriety of President Kennedy appointing his brother as attorney general, the high energy of the Justice Department under the direction of Bobby Kennedy masked reservations about job performance.

Serving as one of RFK's legal advisers on vital matters involving racial desegregation, government surveillance of citizens, prosecution of corrupt labor and corporate leaders and numerous other topics, Mr. Katzenbach felt himself at the center of policymaking that might change the ethos of a nation.

Because Bobby Kennedy despised Lyndon Johnson, JFK's vice president, Mr. Katzenbach internalized some of the same suspicions about the Texan. As a result, after JFK's assassination, Mr. Katzenbach felt uncertain about remaining in the Justice Department under LBJ. Then the despondent Bobby Kennedy left his attorney general post. Mr. Katzenbach, to his surprise, was offered the job as the most powerful lawyer in the nation.

Mr. Katzenbach covers the 1960s in mostly chronological order, highlighting various personalities and issues mostly from memory; not much research is offered to back his recollections. As a result, the memoir might cause problems for future historians who prefer precision in their accounts. The memoir is a success, however, in the way it illuminates issues still roiling the national conscience 40 years later.

Those issues include not only the persistence of racial prejudice, but also the selection process of federal judges, the use of prosecutorial discretion when deciding whom to charge with criminal action, whether to continue or end the death penalty and more.

Mr. Katzenbach sometimes leavens the passages about policy with anecdotes about famous individuals. Two especially stand out:

• JFK is hosting a session in the White House living quarters with academic historian Eric F. Goldman, charged with discussing what makes presidents great. Goldman cites Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, at which point Kennedy remarks, "It looks to me like you have to die in office to be classified as great by historians."

• Mr. Katzenbach is meeting with President Johnson when the Texas legend says: "You know, this is a lonely place when Lady Bird is off somewhere and I'm alone. You never get to meet real folks. It's all ceremony. Why don't you invite me to dinner some night with some of your friends so I can get to know you better?"

Surprised, Mr. Katzenbach and his wife grant LBJ's wish, planning a dinner party that includes three other couples. The hosts do not tell the couples that LBJ will attend.

"It was an interesting evening," Mr. Katzenbach recalls, "and I think the president enjoyed himself. He did most of the talking. Some of it was stories, often with a racial joke; he was oblivious of the black waiters ... There was not, to my recollection, any discussion of current politics, civil rights, or Vietnam. I doubt there was another dinner party in Washington that night about which the same could be said."

Steve Weinberg's newest book is "Taking on the Trust: The Epic Battle of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller."

Some of It Was Fun

Working With RFK and LBJ

Nicholas deB. Katzenbach

(Norton, $27.95)

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