The Presidential Recordings: Lyndon B. Johnson: The Kennedy Assassination and the Transfer of Power: November 1963-January 1964 - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393060012 ISBN 13: 9780393060010

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005

Synopsis

This is presidential power in its rawest form, revealed alongside the private vulnerabilities of the world's most public man.

Lyndon B. Johnson secretly recorded 700 hours of telephone conversations as president. With these three volumes, slipcased with audio DVD, the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs begins a groundbreaking series that will ultimately include annotated transcripts of all of Johnson's White House conversations.

Covering the dramatic months of November 1963 through January 1964, these volumes depict a man coming to grips with the awesome responsibilities of the presidency while simultaneously trying to lead a nation and a government in mourning. Captured on tape are Johnson's efforts to conciliate the Kennedy family while putting his own imprint on the office. Abroad, he is consumed by a coup in Vietnam, a bloody anti-American riot in Panama, a near civil war in Cyprus, and persistent leaks from within his own administration. Domestically, he pushes forward the civil rights revolution and leads a single-minded drive to reduce the size of the federal budget to gain political room for his war on poverty.

Texts with audio DVD

About this title

About the Author

Philip D. Zelikow was executive director of the 9/11 Commission. He is the White Burkett Miller Professor of History at the University of Virginia.

Ernest May is Charles Warren Professor of American History at Harvard University.

Timothy Naftali, a frequent contributor to Slate and NPR, is director of the federal Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

From Booklist

These transcripts, which cover the period from the Kennedy assassination in November 1963 to January 1964, are part of a larger effort to transcribe all of Johnson's White House conversations. The Johnson recordings are preceded by the garbled but still chilling record of communications between the White House and the plane carrying Kennedy cabinet members over the Pacific as the death of the president becomes clear. Once Johnson assumes command, the record, like the man himself, assumes larger-than-life proportions. As he attempts to console Kennedy loyalists, Johnson displays genuine compassion, but occasionally he seems overbearing. Although in public he spoke confidently of prevailing in Vietnam, the tapes clearly reveal his doubts about the viability of the South Vietamese government. His increasing frustration in trying to control the federal bureaucracy is evident, and his evolving commitment to both civil rights legislation and a war on poverty is both moving and, with hindsight, rather melancholy. This is a riveting and very important contribution to the historical record of the consequential 1960s. Jay Freeman
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About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0393060012
• ISBN 13: 9780393060010
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 1184
• Editor: Holland Max, Johnson Robert David, Shreve David, Germany Kent B.