The Testimony of John B. Connally
The CHAIRMAN. You may be seated, Governor. Mr. Specter will conduct the examination.
Mr. SPECTER. Will you state your full name for the record, please?
Governor CONNALLY. John Bowden Connally.
Mr. SPECTER. What is your official position with the State of Texas, sir?
Governor CONNALLY. I am now Governor of the State of Texas.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you have occasion to be in the automobile which carried President John F. Kennedy through Dallas, Tex., back on November 22, 1963.
Governor CONNALLY. Yes, sir; I did.
Mr. SPECTER. Will you outline briefly, please, the circumstances leading up to the President's planning a trip to Texas in November of last year?
Governor CONNALLY. You want to go back to–how far back do you want to……….
….. The CHAIRMAN. We hate to have you review all of this sordid thing again.
Senator COOPER. May I ask a rather general question? I would like to ask, in view of all the discussion which has been had, was there any official discussion of any kind before this trip of which you were aware that there might be some act of violence against the President?
Governor CONNALLY. No, sir.
Senator COOPER. Thank you.
Governor CONNALLY. No; let me say that there have been several news stories—-
Senator COOPER. Yes, I know.
Governor CONNALLY. That purportedly quoted me about not wanting the President to ride in a motorcade or caravan in Dallas. That is very true. But the implication was that I had some fear of his life, which is not true.
The reason I didn't want him to do it at the time it came up was simply we were running out of time, and that, I thought, we were working him much too hard. This again was before the change, moving San Antonio to Thursday instead of having it all on one day, and I was opposed to a motorcade because they do drain energy, and it takes time to do it, and I didn't think we had the time.
But once we got San Antonio moved from Friday to Thursday afternoon, where that was his initial stop in Texas, then we had the time, and I withdrew my objections to a motorcade.
The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Governor.
Governor CONNALLY. Thank you, sir.
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