The Intense Feud Between Lyndon B. Johnson & Robert F. Kennedy | White House Tapes | Timeline

foreign [Music] 1968 [Music] for the second time in five years president Lyndon Johnson found himself at the funeral of a Kennedy brother Robert Robert Kennedy shot at the height of his campaign to replace Johnson as president foreign but Johnson was leading the nation in mourning for a man he disliked and mistrusted [Music] I believe that Bobby is having his Governor's jump on man he's had his Mayors and he's having his necklace and he's had these Catholics and he's having them just systematically one after the other each day all of it makes Bobby look like a Great Hero and makes me look like a son of a [ __ ] and 95 of it is completely fabricated Johnson's overpowering nature had deep personal insecurities and his dislike of Robert Kennedy was obsessive this is the story of a rivalry that engulfed two great men Bobby was at the center of the whatever paranoia there was clearly he was the one who was the ringleader of the opposition trying to bring Johnson down in his first hours as president Lyndon Johnson had put a recording machine across the telephone lines into the Oval Office tapes of hundreds of phone calls were stored away for 30 years now in the open they reveal how two men's clashing Ambitions led to tragedy we have recreated many of the scenes you will see but the words of the original voices [Music] five years earlier Johnson had presided over the funeral of Robert's older brother John no transition from one president to another is paintless but Kennedy's assassination had catapulted Johnson into the presidency replacing a leader who was literally loved by his aides we were in their space this was their home their White House they had worked to get it elected there we did not belong there and they had lost their best friend they hurt right field for disagreement Johnson shared those misgivings taking the idea of being regarded as a usurper he went out of his way to be considerate to the Kennedy family he was especially concerned about Jackie Kennedy insisting that she continued to live in the White House for a fortnight after the funeral history hit is an award-winning streaming platform built by history fans for history fans our goal is to bring you award-winning documentaries that cover the events and figures that have shaped our world all in one place travel with us to the fascinating world of prehistoric Scotland or uncover the lives of the people who called Pompeii home we also aim to bring you the stories and legends that shaped our world through our award-winning podcast Network sign up now for a free trial and timeline fans get 50 of their first three months just be sure to use the code timeline at checkout I just wanted you to know you were loved and by so many ends so much I'm one of them tried I didn't dare bother you again first thing you gotta learn you got some things to learn one of them isn't you don't bother me you give me strength but I wasn't gonna send you in one more letter and I was just scared don't send me anything you just come over and put your arm around me that's all you do when you haven't got anything else to do let's take a walk let's walk around the backyard and just let me let me tell you how much you mean to all of us and how we can carry on if you give us a little strength you know what I want to say to you about that letter I know how rare a letter is in a president's handwriting you know that I've got more and your handwriting than I do in Jacks now it's good for you to write it at this time and then to send me that thing today of I want you to just know that you got some president relying on you and this is not the first thing you had so so they're not many women you know run around with a good many presents so you just uh you just bear that in mind you got the biggest job of your life you ran around with two presidents that's what they say about me okay anytime thank you for calling Mr President goodbye you'll come back I will to give the country a sense of continuity Johnson needed John Kennedy's team above all Johnson needed Robert Kennedy the Dead Man's brother closest companion and attorney general Kennedy had to be persuaded you put yourself in everything that you've ever been doing you're wanted and needed and we care and we must have all the capacity we have and all the experience he needed more than he were so uh just and handle it that way now I wouldn't say that if I didn't mean that and I don't need to say it and I just to say much glad you thank you if I didn't want it I sincerely want it and genuinely wanted they're never going to separate us as far as I'm concerned thank you the truth was they were old enemies Robert Kennedy had opposed his brother's decision to pick Johnson as his vice president and Johnson had never forgiven him have you ever seen two dogs walk into a room and all of a sudden there's a low growl from one and a low growl from the other and you have two dogs that are ready to jump at each other's throats that was Johnson and Bobby Kennedy there was something about the personality of Bobby that irritated the devil out of Johnson and something about Johnson's personality but obviously irritated Bobby ladies was the Johnson did seem to understand the full impact on Robert Kennedy of his brother's death after the assassination Robert Kennedy went into a period best described as a deep black hole he was uh not only an emotional pain for a period of weeks and months but he was in it was physical pain for many weeks Robert Kennedy avoided the White House rarely attending cabinet meetings Johnson still desperate for the Kennedy family's public endorsement of his presidency wanted Jackie Kennedy to be seen to be giving him her blessing yeah I don't like these 10 o'clock night light still burning over here and in these early morning breakfast appointments will you please start to take a nap after lunch it changed that his whole life and was always sick and when we got to the White House he did it every day even if you can't sleep and you know Churchill did not just had tear around it I started today you come down here to see me if you don't I'm going to come out there and see you and I'll just have all those motorcycle cops around your house and it'll cause you all kinds of trouble down there I wanted to tell you I've really gotten hold of myself I'd do anything to you I'll talk to you on the phone I'm so scared I'll start to cry again oh you never cried honey I never saw anyone as Brave as you but I mean it's you know ours great you know how you know how great we think you are well you you know I'll talk to you I'll do anything I can do but don't make me come down there well I got to see you for a long time all right thanks I'll call you sometime and come back thank you bye in public Johnson was a different man self-confident and totally focused on the job his first priority was to force Congress to adopt John Kennedy's Civil Rights bill Robert Kennedy had drafted it Johnson had strengthened it and when after three months hard work the House of Representatives approved the Bill Johnson was generous in his praise you got to spray hello oh Mr President oh we had a meeting all day today and uh with Senator Dirksen on the Civil Rights bill and uh here that we have an agreement with him and with Senator Aitkin and congratulations are you in pretty good shape with the the folks that are interested in the Bell well we're supposed to meet with them at 4 30. send to Humphrey did a fine job Senator Mr terrific you might just uh should I call him yes I think it'd be nice thank you Bobby but Robert Kennedy was Finding life at the justice department at trial his problem was J Edgar Hoover here at the FBI the Kennedys had kept Hoover in his place subordinate to the attorney general Johnson changed that he gave Hoover direct access to the Oval Office allowing him to bypass Robert Kennedy you're more than the head of the federal bureau as far as I'm concerned you my brother and personal friends and you have been for 25 30 years I got more confidence no judgment anybody in town and I certainly appreciate your confidence thank you thank you again keep in mind that J Edgar Hoover was 29 years old when he became the head of the FBI and he died at age 73 still the head of the FBI no president ever fired him no president ever dared firing indeed John Kennedy kept him on and Johnson was one time asked why didn't you get rid of Hoover and he said I'd rather have Hoover inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in from the security of Johnson's tent Hoover started cutting Kennedy out of the action an atrocity in Philadelphia Mississippi where three young civil rights volunteers were kidnapped and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan gave Hoover his chance it was he not Kennedy who called the president with news and as the call was burning has been found and that agents are endeavoring now to get inside the car what I find now on the last word I just got was that the inside of the car from the intense heat has molded and burned everything into ashes now we've got to therefore apply the doors open which we're doing and getting into the inside to examine to see whether there's any human bones inside the car I can't even keep me informed now the first thing you hear you call me yes I will as the murder hunt progressed it became clear that in the struggle for power between Kennedy and Hoover the president was on Hoover's side yeah the Attorney General the president yes hello president Kennedy was aware that the Civil Rights leader Dr Martin Luther King was to visit Mississippi he complained to the president that he couldn't protect King because the FBI was no longer under his control can we have FBI people there and have them uh keeping their eyes and ears open well it's difficult then I suppose we can again my I haven't no dealings with the FBI anymore but I why don't I call them and say but anyway I kept trying I've never had the slightest indication that he didn't want to cooperate with you and he's never indicated anything like it to me and I don't know where well I think it's just I mean there are numbers you know it's a very difficult situation I think for everybody here now or whether it's Nick or me or anybody that has to deal with them but I mean as I say we'll all get through a little while Kennedy added the personal growth for 40 years Hoover had been assembling an explosive collection of personal files Robert Kennedy knew it included reports on his dead brother's private life and now he suspected the president of using Hoover to spy on him but I understand that you know he sends all kinds of reports over to you about me and about the Department of Justice well I just understand that but he's about me planning and plotting things but he hadn't he had sent me a report on you are on the department anytime but Kennedy disbelieving Johnson persisted [Applause] that's an error he never asked said that or indicated or given any indication walk it through okay yeah I'll talk to you then bye not even Johnson can have imagined Robert Kennedy planning a coup but the Johnson was using the FBI to report on Kennedy and other real or supposed opponents was true he did have a back Channel he read them I think to make him feel a little more comfortable with what he thought were his enemies we'll have a little more information on his enemies they would be hand carried to a male assistant and the president would read them in the presence of that man and hand them back to that man they were they were handled very carefully if you have someone like Jay Edgar Hoover to feed your raw meat and you know I mean Hoover we now know was constantly telling London that Bobby Kennedy was out to sing the administration and was disloyal to the administration and that Kennedy people were maneuvering against inside the government against him Johnson's perception of Kennedy's arrival was reinforced in the spring of 1964 when Kennedy traveled as a private citizen to Europe he drew adoring crowds in communist Poland and he got a lot of media attention at home but if that troubled the president he managed to disguise it on Kennedy's return [Music] Mr President you've worn out well no not too bad gosh that's very uh encouraging that's been exciting well you know it just makes you feel so good about them you know when you when we talk about all our problems here in the United States and foreign aid and all that and it's not doing any good however you know when you go to a country like Poland's been hearing bad things for the people for 20 years about the United States and and half that people is enthusiastic about our country as they are you know you know I just think it's just a damn inspiring thing for the United States good well I'm sure glad you're back anybody needs a little invigoration or to leave Washington though what a difference but underneath the pleasantries their relationship had broken down the presidential election of 1964 the first true test of Johnson's popularity was only six months away what excited the Press was Kennedy's political future did he want to be vice president alongside Johnson and did Johnson want him as he watched others give their loyalty to to London and still remember his brother and loved him I think I I think he felt he could do the same and beyond that I think he did not understand the depth with which Lyndon Johnson had come to to dislike him in those in those in those months after the after the assassination he wanted to go on and serve the country clearly he hoped to be president of the United States and I think he felt that coming from where he did he he came and with the background that he had in government and with his knowledge of politics that he could serve as vice president wouldn't be the most pleasant service in the world a newly released oral history tape recorded that year by Kennedy shows that while he thought he might use the vice presidency as a stepping stone to the top job a partnership with Johnson in the meantime would be unworkable because the one thing Lyndon Johnson doesn't want to be the vice president and so he's so concerned about whether he's going to be forced into that so I think he's hysterical about how he's going to try to avoid having me or having to ask me yeah that's what he spent most of his time on I've seen though in the last what he can do and what he's done in the last three months yeah and and the fact that he's able to eat people up and even people who are considered rather strong figured and I think as vice president I'm not going to have any influence he's not going to have to pay any attention to me whatsoever I think he is I don't think he could afford to break with him now I don't think he could afford to break with you while he's president either not sure that it's possible really to have an influence or to get it yeah I think it's possible to be vice president you do well then I think you should I know how unpleasant it would be for you and difficulty for you personally I'm just talking now Linda Johnson didn't have any influence but Lyndon Johnson didn't isn't you you're gonna have influenced the people of the United States Glenny Kennedy was tempted and his friends were urging him on why I've as a historian who should have known better did not were strongly counsel Robert Kennedy against such a Temptation Heaven alone knows I suppose what it was in his mind was that a vice presidency might serve as a kind of rallying point for the Kennedy people in the administration that he might be able to bring pressure to bear on in keeping the Johnson Administration on course but it was a it was a not a sound idea no indeed secretly Johnson called Kennedy an ambitious little runt and Kennedy thought Johnson an animal compared to our present his brother the president was as a gentleman and a human being this man has said not yeah he's mean bitter vicious animals in many ways I think he's got this other side of him in his relationship with human beings would you make it very difficult unless you want to kiss his behind all the time but a lot of what he says there is not an inaccurate picture of Johnson and I say that as one who thinks Johnson was a very very good president animal in his behavior he could be he never was with me but I've seen him uh with his AIDS really uh it had been very very unpleasant I would not use the words that Bobby Kennedy used about Lyndon Johnson he was not an animal he was not a brute he was not that at all nobody who cared as much as he did for the poor and the old and the sick and the black can be garmented in words such as Bobby used but uh he was a difficult man but he was also a great man when Johnson became president he had needed Robert Kennedy now six months later he was trying to get rid of him [Music] for the public holiday on the 4th of July the Johnsons and the Kennedys went their separate ways to follow their separate Pursuits the bostonians went North to the Kennedy Compound to near Cape Cod it was their first family reunion since John Kennedy's assassination it was a time for sale to get the wind in their hair to try to cheer up and to make home movies John John JFK's three-year-old son countless small Kennedy cousins and Caroline the dead president's daughter charlton-packed weekend for Robert Kennedy now the head of the family at only 38. two thousand miles and half a world away the new president was back in cattle country deep in the Heart of Texas where folks know when you're sick and care when you die [Music] Johnson's guests on the banks of the Pedernales River were expected to conform to local customers for his aides he ordered Texan outfits at a special price of 25 ahead and for himself he placed a call to his tailor Joe Hager I made me some real lightweight slacks I need about six pairs for summer wear I need to I want them half inch larger in the waist than they were before except I want two or three inches of stuff left back in there so I can take them up out very 10 to 15 pounds a month the pockets when you sit out in the chair the knife and your money comes out so I needed at least another inch in the pockets now another thing that Crites down where your nuts hang is always a little too tight so when you make them up give me a inch that I can let out there uh because they cut me they just like riding a wire fence so leave me uh you never do have much margin there let's see if you can't leave me about a grenades from the for the zippering ends uh around under my back of my bunghole all right so I can let it out there if I need to if you get those to me I would sure be grateful two families socially and politically incompatible and yet from time to time each foot out feelers to the other later that day an unexpected call from Robert Kennedy in Hyannis Port hi General how are you fine did you have a good day how's Texas pretty hot we had a good day good well I'm sure glad to hear it and I hope you have a good fourth and I'll see you Monday you want to talk a couple of your girlfriend sure would thank you my dear did you have a good day your rest now yes I just came off the lake I've been out in a boat all afternoon oh I'm so glad so you get some bread I got a bit of sunburn and I'll probably be blistered now you'll look privacy well I hope so I hope you're doing all right yes I'm fine Mr President how are the children good friend is with us Lucy's in Washington having dates all right I noticed he didn't come I thought it was something sinister like that you know she came in and said that she wanted a very special birthday present on July the second and we asked her what it was and she said she just wanted to go one whole day without an agent what do you reckon oh yeah I arranged it what do you reckon it's sure good to hear your voice and I hope that you're feeling all right yeah it was nice to talk to you and give my love to ladies how long to see you okay thank you Matt Linda Johnson and Jackie Kennedy liked one another we know but Johnson always quick to find an ulterior motive on Robert Kennedy's part sort out his secretary Mary Fama I remember afterward the the look of bemusement on his face and I can only say that he thought a lot less of Robert Kennedy after that call than he did before he took it he felt that it took a very ambitious and callous man to use a grieving Widow is Leverage Johnson's Target for the November election was a massive Landslide with an approval rating of 75 percent he didn't need Robert Kennedy indeed the poll showed that Kennedy might cause Southern Democrats to defect Johnson called Governor Connolly of Texas [Music] [Music] and I don't think there's any question he would be delighted to see you defeated returning to Washington Johnson consulted a Cabinet member he knew disliked Kennedy as much as he did this is very very ambitious young man and you just it's unbelievable huh well uh Mr President I uh I just can't wrap my mind around that kind of ambition I don't know how to understand it I don't either because I'm assuming the passion is something that's just Amen to my whole makeup there's a ruthlessness about it that just scares the hell out of me what it is to me too the question then was no longer whether to cut out Kennedy but how at the end of July Johnson invited Kennedy to the White House they left differing versions of their meeting but they agree that Johnson told Kennedy he didn't want him as his running mate Johnson called McGeorge Bundy his chief aide I said I want to know that I have been concerned about a matter that's of interest to you and to me how concluded you should hear it from me direct first I've reached the decision that would be inadvisable for you to be a candidate for the number two spot this year he said you decide who it's going to be and I said no I've decided several that I don't think I fit in and I haven't decided the ultimate the one he said got up walked to the door and let the door turn around said look you'd asked my opinion I would have told you that could have been a hell of a lot of help to you Johnson was afraid that Kennedy might fight back and split the party I think it'd be very bad for me first very bad for his brother's memory and everything disasters for him if he did nothing else very messed up the whole Kennedy image in the whole Kennedy picture to be trying to have a dynasty this quick and move right in and take over what infuriated Kennedy was that Johnson gave selected reporters a highly colored account of their meeting Johnson called a few of us here and he talked to in this graphic detail about seeing uh Bobby Kennedy's little Adam's Apple go up and down when he told him this and how he gulped and all of this and shuffled his hands and Johnson was was terrible when he was cutting up people and he was cutting up Bobby it was very funny it was very amusing it was fascinating Johnson wanted Kennedy to announce that he wasn't interested in being Vice President Kennedy refused telling reporters he had nothing to say one man he did talk to was his friend John siegenthaler Bob complained bitterly to to I think everyone who's close to him about it it was the harsh abrupt cold nature character of the no the loud immediate slamming of the door that I think he found difficult to understand [Music] having disposed of Kennedy Johnson Now set about picking up running mate he knew would be obedient he chose Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota the favorite of party managers Johnson asked a mutual friend Jim Rowe to silent Humphrey out I want you to have a good set to with this this man from Minnesota uh he better make up his mind now that he's ready to go with me all the way on my platform on my views on my policies now I'm willing to always listen to him and always willing to consider what he's got to say but when I make up my mind I don't have to kiss her ass with a vice president that's right I've got to see it he's loyal I've got to be serious for me within the Earth Humphrey was on the phone in a broader yes Senator Humphrey calling for him 9-0 uh you got this thing now yeah Mr President yes sir I have a friend of yours in my office here by the name of Jim roll he uh he brought me over a little message that you sent along yeah and I want to come right to the point with you uh if uh if your judgment leads you to select me I can assure you unqualifiedly personally and with all the sincerity in my heart complete loyalty yeah I know that I just want you to know it and that goes for everything all the way the way you want it [Applause] right to the end of the line even so Johnson's still worried that Kennedy might somehow worm his way into the vice presidency he now said Road johannesport despite his own attorney general Roe rang the president from a call box yes they're meeting this weekend at hyannisport [Music] Kennedy people I can check it out and try to get some more yeah I think we ought to watch that just like Hawks every damn thing they do so do I because uh they got a bunch of planted wires coming in now from three or four states I think he's acting very very ugly and very mean newspaper gossip about the Kennedy Contra attack fueled the president's paranoia he read extracts to his AIDS fuming down the phone uh I'm getting uh the barrage of unnecessary uh heckling and harassing today from Hyannis Port attorney general Kennedy received a barrage of telephone calls and messages from supporters angered at the Manor in the at the manner in which president eliminated him as a Democratic candidate and then Fallen sources said the callers backers attorney general and the late President Kennedy ask the attorney general what their next move should be that's Hyannis Sports Dateline yes [ __ ] my God and ain't nobody knows about the Bellagio calls without his knowing that I'll have to agree there if they just keep on I'm going to shock him right in the first and I don't want to do that Johnson's persecution complex was alarming his own people who worried that his obsession with Kennedy was verging on mental instability two of them Bill Moyers and Richard Goodwin decided that their Chief was having delusions inventing enemies Bobby was at the center of the whatever paranoia there was clearly he was the one he was the ringleader of the opposition trying to bring Johnson down and I began to discuss it with Bill Moyers and he agreed with me and we began to worry about Johnson's sanity Goodwin was keeping a diary at midnight Warriors called me to talk about Johnson he said he was extremely worried he went down to look at Medical textbooks on paranoia everything pointed that way it doesn't seem to be much doubt about it that much but that Johnson was ill [Music] President Johnson wanted a carefully stage managed convention no dramas no violence already that summer there had been riots in several Northern City ghettos but a turbulent convention might touch off more arriving in Atlantic City from Mississippi was a group of civil rights activists calling themselves the Mississippi Freedom Party to Johnson's dismay they were trying to unseat the elected all-white regular delegation from that state and replace it with 68 delegates of Their Own if the freedom Democratic party is not seated now I question America is this America the land of the free and the home of the brave where we have to sleep with our telephones off of the hook because our lives be threatened daily because we want to live as decent human beings in America not without reason Johnson was afraid that if the regular Mississippi delegation was successfully dislodged conservative Democrats from other Deep South States would defect to his Republican Challenger Senator Goldwater less reasonably Johnson persuaded himself at Robert Kennedy was pulling strings behind the scenes he's trying to get me in it every way he can and I think this is Bobby's trap no but I think he likes him he caused all the damn trouble he can and maybe like if he told me when he left me with a snare on his face I think I would have been able to help you a lot and I think he wants to prove that Johnson now turned to his FBI liaison officer dick deloache yeah the big DeLoach Mr Billows we can get you Mr Pelosi well get him right quick you can't yes sir DeLoach arranged with his chief Edgar Hoover to send a platoon of Agents some posing as journalists to spy on the Freedom Party delegates at a total of 17 agents the agents who knew the organization to be involved One agent who would handle the report writing record-keeping another agent would handle electronics and also certain informers from various other places who would keep us advised if any upheaval would plan at the convention the FBI agents in Atlantic City sent reports back to the White House that Communists had infiltrated the Mississippi Freedom Party it was precisely the kind of rumor to raise the presidential temperature [Music] are questionable people you are looking to report to fdi's got on the individual right it's just shocking to you call them by man pretty bad bad bunch of customers Tuesday August the 25th was the second day of what Johnson had planned as a coronation but press reports through Atlantic City told him it was becoming a shambles at 9 15 that morning arriving at the Oval Office Johnson told Marie Famer not to put through any telephone calls this was unusual there were no people going in and out and he had the door closed between our office and his that door when he didn't have appointments was usually open and I remembered that today because I went to the peephole two or three times to look through the people to see if he was all right [Music] for the next 90 minutes Johnson was alone apparently working on his acceptance speech at the convention just before 11 he called his press secretary George Reedy here's what I think I'm going to say to him on that faithful November Day last year I accept the responsibility asking God's guidance and the help of all of our people in line Montauk carried on as effectively as I could our country face is very dangerous these dangers must be faced and met by United people under a leader they do not doubt 33 years in political life most men acquire enemies as ships accumulate Barnacles the times require leadership about which there is no doubt and the voice that men of all parties and sections in color can follow I've learned after trying very hard that I'm not that voice or that leader therefore that no consideration to be given to uh to me but I'm absolutely unavailable there was a equality to his voice and my immediate reaction is my God he's uh must be having a brain hemorrhage or something you know the reasons that he was advancing were absolutely asinine blacks were not going to vote for very gold water Jews were not going to vote for barigold water organized labor wasn't going to vote for Barry Goldwater this was absolutely ridiculous and at that particular Point nobody could have defeated Lyndon Johnson I think he could have run God Almighty in the Republican ticket and Johnson would have won that year but Johnson insisted that nine months in par was more than enough and I don't want this power of the bomb and I just don't want these decisions I've been required to make and I don't want the conniving that's required I don't want the disloyal it's around I don't want the bubbling and the inefficiencies let's throw the nation quite another person yeah I think so I think it's too late certainly I know it's your decision you could hear the mailing you have to bear the front right now I think this just gives 600 feet of gold water that's all right I don't care but I have a desire to unite people and uh the south is gets me and they know it's against me the neglers against me you know if you got any thoughts or any way that you can prove this I'm not going to make it very long I'm just about ready to sign it off I'll be glad to have them I think your statement is because it can be made sir okay Johnson had always hated conflict in the past few days blacks had questioned his commitment to civil rights while white said attacked him as a traitor to the South not for the first time or indeed the last Johnson was thinking of running away foreign to warn reporters to expect a presidential statement at 3 pm and then he sent what he'd written to the residential quarters for his wife to read Lady Bird Johnson was familiar with her husband's occasional fits of depression she wrote him a letter beloved boys brave a man as Harry Truman our FDR or Lincoln you can go on to find some peace some achievement amidst all the pain you have been strong patient determined to be on any words of mine to express I honor you for it so does most of the country to step out now would be wrong for your country and I can see nothing but a lonely Wasteland for your future in the final analysis I can't carry any of the virgins you talked of so I know it's only your choice I love you always Birds [Music] late that afternoon a crowd of 3 000 people gathered on the Atlantic City Boardwalk under pictures of the three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi inside the hall the black mississippians were battling with stewards Johnson watching television in the Oval Office tried to restore order by remote control [Music] and we wanted to sit in our own state Freedom Party has got to the states of the regular Mississippi delegates and they're coming in taking them just but I put security men around the Mississippi delegation they just put a bunch of them not let anybody come in and see well you better do it now because you got a ride on right there right quick so somebody better get yes sir [Music] White House Records show that Johnson left his office that evening at 10 15. he was looking for his press secretary to take him for a walk in the White House grounds we got out in the lawn and then he again reiterated his determination to quit except this time he was using some very shall I say earthy language language that I wouldn't want to repeat in TV in fact certainly the language I would not use in the presence of a lady and my God this time he really frightened me because he was so firm on it so definite so clear he was going to tell him to take that blankety blankety blank job and place it in a very improbable place and the and by the time it was over I went home that night in a state of Terror because I thought he meant it we don't know what the president and ladybird said to one another that night but in her diary she remarked that she couldn't remember hours she ever found harder next day August the 26th was the day of Johnson's formal nomination George Reedy still had no idea what his chief was going to do I get up early the next morning went down to the White House and to my surprise he was just acting as though or in normal day he didn't tell me he's going to go up there and accept the nomination but he acted like a man that was I came to the conclusion that he was probably a manic depressing that he would alternate moods of extremulation with moods of extreme depression and sometimes four or five times in one day [Music] we flew up to Atlantic City me still not knowing but but again with a feeling my God he couldn't act like this if he's really going to resign but I didn't know [Music] not a whisper about Johnson's overnight crisis had reached Atlantic City chairman McCormick my fellow Americans LBJ had risen from the dead I accept your nomination [Applause] and with that the stage was clear for Johnson's announcement of his choice of Vice President Robert Kennedy was not in the hole my course my long time my trusted colleague Senator Gilbert Umphrey on Minnesota [Music] but still it was not the exclusive adulation Johnson had longed for the convention program included a tribute to John Kennedy and his brother Robert twister reader eulogy on Johnson's orders the tribute had been postponed until after Hunter's nomination in case it should touch off a floor demonstration in favor of Kennedy for vice president for many it was the one truly spontaneous Unforgettable moment of the convention Robert Kennedy came on and and there was a kind of absolute release of of emotion from the crowd was one of the most emotional moments of my life I walked up just behind him onto the platform and the minute his face became visible to the audience it was almost a guttural roar people were crying and it went on for 27 minutes to say hello a long time we dedicate ourselves he frequently did to all of you when he spoke when he quoted from Robert Frost and said that with the woods are lovely dark and deep but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before I sleep in line with protocol the president was not in the Hall during Robert Kennedy's speech it was an impossible act to follow and by Common consent the president's speech was not one of his best [Music] they have only helped to unite us [Applause] let us tomorrow turn to our new task let us be on our way [Applause] [Music] [Applause] this is not a story with a happy ending although Johnson helped Kennedy win election to the Senate and although Kennedy came to admire Johnson's Progressive social achievements they never did rise above their intense Mutual dislike for Kennedy the breaking point came with Vietnam when he challenged Johnson for the presidency over his escalation of the war Johnson backed off rather than go through the ordeal of fighting an election against Robert Kennedy but by that time he'd done many good things for America things that have endured from the time of the assassination until it got everything was paralyzed by the war in Vietnam he's a great president he accomplished probably more for civil rights than any president since Abraham Lincoln it was only when it came to the war that the basic that the personality problems or the psychiatric problem began to have a deleterious effect as things didn't work out and it was clearly getting I was out of his control then he became even more uh erratic and thinking that everyone would be supporting everyone for the Communists if it weren't for Bobby Kennedy if it weren't for riots that were being stimulated by his enemies the cities and uh the thing really began to deteriorate a lot Vietnam in different ways destroyed them both [Music] next week in the White House tapes will explore Johnson's fateful decision to make war on North Vietnam story of misjudgments and deception that would lead to the death of 58 000 Americans and many times that number of Vietnamese foreign [Music] foreign

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Published: Sat Jul 01 2023