Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes 1963 1964

Beschloss, Michael R.

ISBN 10: 0671577468 ISBN 13: 9780671577469

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio, 1997

Synopsis

Taking Charge, edited by Michael R. Beschloss, whom Newsweek has called "America's leading presidential historian," brings you into the room with an American political legend, still hated and revered a quarter century after his death. We hear Lyndon Johnson as he schemes and blusters, rewards and punishes, tells tales of Washington, D.C., and Texas, and reveals a bedrock core of unshakable political beliefs.

The only President to record his private conversations from his first day in office, LBJ ordered the tapes to be locked in a vault until at least the year 2023. But now they have been unsealed, providing a close-up look at a President taking power such as we have never had before -- from John F. Kennedy's murder in November 1963 to Johnson's campaign for a landslide victory.

Taking Charge is filled with revelations about the full-blooded Texan behind the public image. You will hear LBJ:

• revealing his self-doubts and personal anguish over the responsibilities of the presidency
• receiving the frank criticism of his wife, Lady Bird Johnson
• staking his presidency on a revolutionary civil rights bill
• scuttling Robert Kennedy's drive to be his Vice President
• using the Tonkin Gulf attack to expand the American beachhead in Southeast Asia
• unveiling his private, tortured early doubts that we could ever win a war in Vietnam

An extraordinary audiobook, Taking Charge gives us an uprecidented look into a crucial presidency that continues to shape our lives today. In LBJ's own words, it is history "with the bark off."

About this title

Review

By the time he suddenly succeeded to the presidency in November 1963, following John Kennedy's assassination, Lyndon Johnson had been secretly recording his private conversations for years--first by having an eavesdropping aide take shorthand notes on telephone calls, and then, as recording technology advanced, by committing conversations to tape. Even on his first night as president, he remembered to make sure that the tape recorder was working. His motives were apparently practical--a kind of hands-free note-taking, and a way to document the commitments he and others had made.

Whatever his reasons (and despite Johnson's desire that the documentation remain sealed until at least 2023), the tapes are a boon to students of politics and history. Masterfully edited and annotated by presidential historian Michael Beschloss, they reveal a quintessential political animal at work. It's fascinating to listen in as Johnson works the levers--cajoling, trading favors, calling in chits, twisting arms, and occasionally playing rough--often in a pungent, earthy Texas patois. The book covers the period from November 1963 through the Democratic convention in August 1964, when Johnson was nominated for reelection. Its biggest single revelation is that Johnson believed Fidel Castro was behind Kennedy's assassination; another, less sensational, is that his reservations about the deepening war in Vietnam were greater than previously known. Most importantly, though, these tapes provide an invaluable, uncensored look into a complex presidency--and president.

About the Author

Michael R. Beschloss is a historian and the author of three previous books -- The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Krushchev, 1960-1963; Mayday: Eisenhower, Krushchev and the U-2 Affair; and Kennedy and Roosevelt: The Uneasy Alliance. He is a regular commentator on PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and lives in Washington, D.C.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0671577468
• ISBN 13: 9780671577469
• Binding: Audio Cassette
• Number of pages: 6