Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964 - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684804077 ISBN 13: 9780684804071

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1997

Synopsis

The only president to tape all of his meetings and phone conversations is revealed as a man who struggled to surpass JFK on civil rights, guided the country into Vietnam, and twisted the arms of friends and enemies alike. 100,000 first printing. Tour.

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.

From the Publisher:

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. Michael Beschloss has transcribed and annotated the secretly recorded tapes, providing historical commentary that allows us to understand fully the people, crises, and controversies that appear on them.

Taking Charge, the first volume of The Johnson White House Tapes, is filled with revelations about the fullblooded Texan behind the public image. We hear LBJ telling who he thinks really killed JFK, creating the Warren Commission, 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, and unveiling his private, tortured early doubts that we could ever win a war in Vietnam.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0684804077
• ISBN 13: 9780684804071
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 592
• Editor: Beschloss Michael R.