contemplativeKennedy woke Friday to front page articles reporting that Dallas had been flooded with handbills carrying his photograph and marked "Wanted for Treason and that protesters had heckled and attacked Adlai Stevenson when he delivered a speech at an event in the Dallas Municipal Auditorium celebrating United Nations Day - not that surprising a reaction in a state whose legislature had passed a law that made flying the United Nations flag a criminal offense.
Stevenson had celebrated the new spirit of detente in his speech, saying, "We may be moving into a new era," and calling the atmosphere in the United Nations the best since its founding. There were loud catcalls and boos, and fistfights between hecklers and supporters. "They fear to hope," he said of his opponents. "And if anything, this eighteenth anniversary of the United Nations is an occasion that offers hope." An angry crowd surrounded him as he was leaving. Two men spat in his face and the wife of an insurance executive smacked him over the head with a sign proclaiming "If You Seek Peace, Ask Jesus." "We are patriots," she explained. "I just can't understand all these liberals and their ideas." She later blamed "a group of Negroes" for pushing her towards Stevenson.
Kennedy asked [adviser Arthur] Schlesinger to call Stevenson and congratulate him for keeping his cool. Schlesinger was close to Stevenson, but the fact that Kennedy did not make the call himself was more evidence of their complicated relationship. Stevenson tried making light of the confrontation, but finally said, "You know, there was something very ugly and frightening about the atmosphere. Later I talked with some of the leading people out there. They wondered whether the President should go to Dallas, and so do I."Knowing Kennedy would dismiss any warning about physical danger, particularly one emanating from Stevenson, Schlesinger decided against relaying it...
The [Franklin D.] Roosevelt [Jr.]'s mentioned the attack on Stevenson in Dallas and urged Jackie to be careful. She said she wished she could take a pass on the trip, but Jack wanted her there. The next day she told Secret Service agent Clint Hill that the Roosevelts had tried to talk her out of going to Dallas, and asked his opinion. He thought she was fishing for an excuse to back out of the trip and joked that she wanted to avoid going to the Johnsons' ranch. "Well that is rather frightening in and of itself," she admitted before turning serious and asking, "Do you think the climate in Dallas is so hostile... so hostile to the President that the people could mistreat us like they did Adlai?" Hill said that there had been no more threats against her husband in Dallas than anywhere else in the South, a remark that was less reassuring than he meant it to be.