On Sept, 16, 1965, President Johnson leaves a message with Senator Paul Douglas's [D-Illinois] administrative assistant about plans to proceed with opening a new VA hospital facility in Hines, Illinois to be run in cooperation with Loyola University Medical School. This announcement came in the wake of congressional opposition to the administration's decision to close several small, outdated VA facilities across the country and redirect budgetary resources into new, larger facilities instead.
Recording starts after conversation has begun.
President Johnson: -this--he's [Paul Douglas] interested in a VA [Veterans Affairs]-
Unidentified Woman: Hello?
President Johnson: --allocation for some hospital beds in Illinois.
Howard Schuman: Yes.
President Johnson: [with Schuman acknowledging throughout] And he was the only one that really stood up and supported us, fought for us in closing those others. And I told Harry McPherson to hold up on Chicago and Los Angeles, too, a month or so ago, but he's gone over it with me, and we're opening up today and telling him to go ahead and proceed in Illinois full steam ahead--
Schuman: Oh, marvelous!
President Johnson: --because I'm a Douglas man.
Schuman: [Laughs.] He's a Johnson man--
President Johnson: Well--
Schuman: -too, Mr. President. He really-
President Johnson: Well, he's got a lot of courage, and he's got public interest at heart. So just tell him--I don't want to bother him--I just got his note in night reading last night. And they tell me that Loyola is waiting on our action--
Schuman: That would be fine. That's marvelous.
President Johnson: [with Schuman acknowledging throughout] And so the VA has completed their plans for a new and larger hospital at Hines, and it's going to have some 1,220 beds. And the Loyola Medical School's going to operate in connection. That's what we want. That's--these are the kind of things we ought to have instead of these old broken down ones.
Schuman: Absolutely.
President Johnson: And--but Paul's about the only one that sees it that way, and tell him that we're not going to penalize him. We're going full steam ahead.
Schuman: I will.
President Johnson: Bye. Bye. Bye.
Schuman: Thanks very much. Bye, Mr.--
This is a draft and not a fully edited transcript.