Lyndon B. Johnson, the Kennedy assassination and the U.S. presidency

[Music] Lyndon Johnson's first public words as president a few hours after his swearing-in that is all he'd wanted this job all his adult life but the moment he got it he knew the day would forever be remembered as marking the end of another man's presidency not the beginning of his own [Music] this is the story of the man in the other Lincoln convertible lighting faithfully toward Dealey Plaza November 22nd 1963 the story of a life truly changed in an instant it was a very unusual thing for the vice president and the President of the United States to be traveling together in the same motorcade but there Johnson was sitting exactly where I'm sitting in a car that's almost exactly like the one that he was in on that day the car that carried Vice President Lyndon Johnson through the streets of Dallas was one of a million reminders that he who had once been among the most powerful men in the country was now in his own opinion a nobody washed up the car was a Lincoln like the presidents but Johnson's Lincoln was a rental and it didn't get any better as he looked up the road and all he could see were the throngs that had turned out bigger crowds than anyone had expected but crowds that were turning out to see John F Kennedy Johnson's political rival the man he believes had taken away not just the nomination for the presidency in 1964 perhaps his last best chance ever to become the president of the United States and my colleagues including senator Kennedy and Senator Symington and 62 other Democrats had selected me as their leader Johnson had underestimated Kennedy in 1960 underestimated the appeal of his youth his charm his grace his political savvy but most of all the power of his dad's money Johnson had thought the Democratic nomination would fall to him naturally because of his stature as the most powerful Senate Majority Leader in history he was wrong Kennedy won it on the first power before the convention ended though Johnson had made the most important decision of his life he'd accepted Kennedy's offer to be the vice presidential candidate he'd made a carefully considered calculation he'd asked his staff to research how often a vice president becomes president as they appeared to a received elite president Jeffrey angle is a presidential scholar at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas he studied Johnson's rise and fall as president about one in five of American presidents did not complete their term but they died during office and so he very candidly says to friends you know this is not these are not great odds but these might be the best odds I'm ever going to get when Bobby Kennedy finds out that Johnson will be on the ticket with his brother he's horrified and he tries to stop it Johnson knows this and their mutual hatred becomes the enduring blood feud of their lives and Bobby Kennedy embodied everything that Johnson was not and Johnson despised he was rich he was good-looking he was full of intellectual fervor Kennedy wins the White House in one of the narrowest elections in history and almost 2/3 of his winning margin comes from Lyndon Johnson's Texas but the vice presidency is a miserable experience Johnson quickly learns that he has no power except what the president gives him and that is almost nothing worse he is a thing of ridicule in Kennedy's glamorous and sophisticated Washington they call him names Rufus cornpone they call him not yes not listen people call each other names all the time but that one I think is particularly important because that they are essentially dividing where he comes from he is not a sophisticated gentleman in their view he's not to the men are born as they had been Johnson follows Kennedy's car into TV plaza he has reason to believe his political career is over there are rumors that Kennedy will drop him from the ticket in the next election and some reporters in congressmen back in Washington are investigating a scandal that could tie Johnson to a kickback and bribery scheme just about the time that johnson's cars going past the Texas Book Depository the first shot rings out no one knows exactly what it is yet but the Secret Service agent sitting in the front of the car Rufus Youngblood yells out get down get down then he grabs Johnson by the shoulder like this and pulls him down onto the floor of the car remember there are three people back here so it's really really tight but Johnson isn't moving even though he's got a heavy Secret Service agent on his back he is very calm lying on the floor listening to the sound of the police radio talk about what's going on up ahead and he hears he's been hit he's been hit that's about the president so Wow it was indeed a tragic day it was precisely for a day like this that Johnson decided to seek the vice presidency in the first place Johnston is rushed into Parkland Hospital and taken to a room with his wife they wait together barely speaking soon Johnson's told that Kennedy is dead and he's now president he died of a gunshot wound in the brain by the time of that official announcement Johnson has already secretly left the hospital and is on his way to Air Force One the only place in Dallas he now feels is safe nobody knows if it's one shooter or if it's a dozen nobody knows if there are perhaps bands too around town who are affecting a broader coup in which case Johnson of course would be a target constitutionally he's automatically the president but Johnson wants to be sworn in before the plane leaves for Washington he arranges this photo making sure Jackie Kennedy is there as a signal of continuity back in Washington continuity becomes the priority the congressman and reporters who'd been investigating Johnson for corruption drop out of fear of losing another president in a crisis Johnson invites all of Kennedy's cabinet to stay in their jobs including Bobby Kennedy and why not they were highly competent the best and the brightest it was said but he also enjoyed that the tables had turned on his tour mentors we should not forget that he enjoyed immensely the people who had ridiculed him before now having to call him mr. president stand when he walked in the room and follow his orders yes they're good people for the job yes they know what they're doing yes continuity is important all those reasons I think are 99% of it but there's an inner smirk I think for Johnson from time to time Johnson's been called the greatest genius in the use of political power in the second half of the 20th century he uses all of it to accomplish in a few short weeks what had stymied Kennedy for more than a year he lays the groundwork for passing most of the Kennedy agenda a budget tax cuts and most important the civil rights bill he's finally embraced by his party in the country in the November election he wins 61% of the popular vote something never done by a presidential candidate before or since 64 was an extraordinary year for for the Democrats and Johnson took that as an extraordinary friend Amon himself which he won but almost immediately it all begins to slip away sinking into the quicksand of Vietnam he's expanded the war enormous ly tens of thousands of young men are drafted and lose their lives in the jungles of a small foreign country trying to win what turns out to be by 1968 Johnson's worst nightmare is becoming real his archenemy Bobby Kennedy a man he loves has sensed his vulnerability and announced he's running for president to replace Johnson [Music] Johnson who's always feared humiliation and failure decides not to fight and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president the job he'd wanted his whole adult life has turned him into a tragic figure the faculty simultaneously had to deal with Vietnam as I think the real tragedy that as he described it I'm losing the the lady I love because of that bitch of a war Dallas had given Johnson the lady he loved he'd used the presidency to lay the foundations of a great society transforming American education healthcare civil rights and more but just as the end of the Kennedy presidency overshadowed the beginning of his own so too would Kennedy's few accomplishments be more celebrated than Johnson's many Keith Polk CBC News Dallas

Channel: CBC News: The National

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Keywords: jfk, lbj, kennedy, johnson, lyndon, assassination, dallas, president, presidency, white house, robert kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson (US President), Assassination Of John F. Kennedy (Crime), John F. Kennedy (US President)

Id: J1sUXp9VHzk

Length: 10min 7sec (607 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 25 2013