Telegram to Senator Saltonstall Following His Announcement That He Would Not Seek Reelection.
[Released December 31, 1965. Dated December 30, 1965] I KNOW you are doing what you feel you must do from your personal standpoint, but I am compelled to say that you will be missed in the councils of Washington where your high purpose and great personal integrity have counted so much in the years you were here. I have been privileged to know you well and to serve with you in the Senate. Your friendship is one of the treasures I shall always value most devotedly.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
[The Honorable Leverett Saltonstall, Smith Street, Dover, Massachusetts]
Note: The telegram was read by Joseph Laitin, an assistant press secretary, at his news conference at 10:25 a.m. on Friday, December 31, 1965, at Austin, Tex. It was not made public in the form of a White House press release.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Telegram to Senator Saltonstall Following His Announcement That He Would Not Seek Reelection. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238701