He was the sixth greatest American mayor of the century, at least according to a poll of experts done by Melvin Holli, a history professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
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This year brought us no nearer to Daley’s records. But we did get more audiotapes secretly recorded by presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, both of whom dealt often with Daley. Here are some notable excerpts from the new Johnson and Nixon tapes, along with some conjecture about what we might see when the Daley archives are finally opened.
DIRTY TRICKS
VIETNAM WAR
DALEY: Much as Daley hated antiwar protesters, his archives will probably show him opposed to the war. According to Dan Rostenkowski, Daley privately told LBJ to get out of Vietnam. He also expressed antiwar feelings privately to Chicago attorney Newton Minow, though publicly he called only for diverting Pentagon money to cities.
African-Americans: “I know they’re not going to make it for 500 years.”
JOHNSON: To crony John Connally: “I’m afraid to go to church [from the LBJ ranch]. Every time I go they [reporters] say I was driving 100 miles an hour. I did have a paper cup full of beer, but they got it up to 100 miles speeding and cans of beer being thrown out and stuff.”
