Nervous about Humphrey’s now open advocacy of the Hughes protest, Johnson took charge. He scuttled the Hughes-Humphrey plan by himself appointing a panel to investigate the bomb tests. But instead of Humphrey’s half-dozen doves, Johnson picked a group of scientists more likely to call down tactical strikes on the Las Vegas Strip.
Still, Humphrey had forced the first official probe of nuclear hazards. And when the presidential panel made its report, its findings came as quite a shock. Hughes was right. The big blasts were dangerous. A blue-ribbon panel of conservative scientists hand-picked by the AEC, led by its own former research director and two top White House advisers, declared Hughes’s fears well founded, warned that the megaton explosions could trigger major earthquakes, and called for a halt to the Nevada tests.
Humphrey had come through. Too late, however, to do either himself or his hidden benefactor any good. By the time the scientists convened in November, Humphrey had already lost the election. He was never even allowed to see their report, which first Johnson and then Nixon entirely ignored and completely suppressed. Despite the warnings of real and present danger, the bombing continued unabated.
Back at the penthouse, Hughes, always dubious about Humphrey’s indirect approach, anticipated just such a debacle.
He had checked with his own scientists at the Hughes Aircraft Company, who warned that the government would simply reject any adverse findings: “They said, ‘If you could bring Einstein back from the grave and let him make the study, it would not make one damned bit of difference.’ They said, ‘You are playing with a stacked deck, and surely you have been in Las Vegas long enough to know what a stacked deck is!’”
Indeed, Hughes knew precisely what a stacked deck was. He was using one, stacked in his favor, in the high-stakes game he was playing with candidate Humphrey.
As the AEC battle raged through the summer and into the fall of 1968, Hughes found new tasks for the vice-president. Still fighting the Justice Department on the antitrust front, and certain he was the victim of some unknown conspiracy, he expected his candidate to discover who was behind the vendetta.
“Here is what I dont understand,” complained Hughes, speaking of Humphrey as if he were just another employee. “If we have notified H.H.H. of our responsiveness to his prior requests, then why dont we simply tell him we want to know who has instructed the Attorney General to threaten action against us in the S/dust matter. It is unrealistic to assume that Humphries does not know or cannot find out the real source of our trouble.”
When Hughes was also hit with an antitrust threat regarding his attempt to seize control of ABC, he was no longer content to rely on Humphrey alone.
“The Justice Dept. is driving us crazy,” he fumed.
“Bob, I think it is imperative that we make an alliance with Humphries, the White House, Nixon, or McCarthy and agree to supply all-out unlimited support in return for taking this Justice Dept. off my back but now!”
It was not the vice-president’s willingness Hughes doubted so much as his ability. A bought man who could not deliver was hardly better than a man who could not be bought.
There was, of course, among the Democrats, no viable alternative to Humphrey, whatever his failings. And after June 6, 1968, there was no alternative at all.
Bobby Kennedy was dead. His assassination dramatically altered the presidential campaign, left the nation shaken, and even caused Howard Hughes to reassess his position. The political marketplace was in flux. It was no time to make a hasty purchase. He would wait a couple of days.
“Re. the next 48 hrs.,” wrote Hughes, “I think we must decide whom we want to see nominated by each party, and then not wait for it to happen, but go out and do something about it.
“The last person I want to see nominated is Edward Kennedy. He would receive too much support from others. I want to see a candidate who needs us and wants our help. I still favor Humphries. But I urge against any further support until we feel his pulse. Only a couple of days—but I dont feel we should increase our investment in him in the meantime. Only until you get some kind of an indication of his attitude and his capabilities.”
There was no need to rush to the bank. Humphrey would be waiting—still a candidate who needed and wanted Hughes’s help—whenever the billionaire was ready.
Meanwhile, Maheu felt Humphrey’s pulse and reported back to the penthouse. “We are continuing to move on all fronts on the AEC matter,” he wrote. “The Vice President has been most cooperative in every instance and we continually, through him, are feeding most important data to the White House, the proper sources at the U.N., and even more importantly to those involved in very high level conferences with the Russians.”
“I received a telephone call this morning from Bob Humphrey, the Vice President’s son,” Maheu told his boss in another of a steady stream of memos. “He informed me that his father was sending one of his top men to discuss with me the strategy for delaying any megaton tests until after the elections and then, hopefully, forever.”
There was only one catch. Maheu intended to hold the big strategy talks out on his yacht. He was about to weigh anchor when Hughes got the message. As desperate as he was to stop the bombing, as anxious as he was to seduce Humphrey, he could not bear to let Maheu escape.
“Now, Bob, I dont have to remind you that I am just as disturbed about the AEC as you are,” he wrote, catching the yacht just in time. “I am also just as aware of Humphries’ importance. But I cannot believe that there is no way to service the VP properly except at the expense of punishing me.
“I will appreciate it very much, Bob, if you will delay your departure to Catalina until I communicate with you about several very important matters.”
Neither Maheu nor the vice-president’s aide ever left shore. Hughes kept his first mate on dry land all day, sending him an endless series of memos, all of course requiring his immediate attention. Still, Maheu managed to check Humphrey’s pulse.
“Today we talked to Washington twice,” Maheu reported from the Balboa Bay Yacht Club, “and I now believe that we will be instrumental in naming the next scientific advisor to the White House.”
Next Maheu got word from Humphrey himself, who also wanted Hughes to help pick his running mate.
“Humphrey is going to be in L.A. Monday,” Maheu wrote, “and, among other things, he wants to discuss with me the Vice Presidential candidate. He has asked if I would meet with him.”
Humphrey’s attitude was perfect. As for his capabilities, they would improve if he became president. And, with Kennedy dead, there was little doubt that Humphrey would soon be the Democratic nominee.
It was time to make the promised payoff.
On July 29, 1968, Robert Maheu checked into the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, carrying with him a manila envelope stuffed with $25,000 in hundred-dollar bills. He took a suite of rooms on the seventeenth floor and waited there for a courier to arrive from Las Vegas with an additional $25,000 in a black briefcase. Then he went downstairs to meet the candidate.
Humphrey had come to town a few days earlier and was winding up his campaign swing with a five-thousand-dollar-a-plate dinner for thirty select contributors in a conference room at the same hotel. Maheu greeted the vice-president at a cocktail reception, and toward the end of the evening arranged a private meeting through their mutual friend Lloyd Hand, former U.S. chief of protocol. Invited to accompany the candidate on a drive to the airport, Maheu left the dinner, went up to his suite, and returned with the black briefcase.
Humphrey’s limousine was waiting. Satchel in hand, Maheu joined the vice-president in the rear compartment. They sat facing each other, Maheu on a jump seat, and chatted a few minutes about Hughes and the bomb tests. Then Maheu placed the cash-laden briefcase, now stuffed with the entire $50,000, at Humphrey’s feet. The motorcade came to an unscheduled halt after traveling just five hundred yards, and Maheu, mission completed, stepped out.