The Secret White House Recordings That Changed History | White House Tapes | Real History

[Music] thank you June 1968 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 his 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 Mrs Kennedy 2191 Mr President 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 listen so I didn't know 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 kidding 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 spring you know what I want to say to you about that matter I know how rare a letter is in a president's handwriting do you know that I've got more in your handwriting than I do in Jacks now and 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 thank you 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 to handle it that way now I would say that if I didn't want to line that and I I don't need to say it and I just to say much oblige and thank you if I didn't want it I sincerely want it and genuinely wanted it they're never going to separate us as far as I'm concerned thank you 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 it's worse in those early days was that Johnson didn't 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 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 hello I don't like these 10 o'clock night light still burning over here and in these early morning breakfast appointments my whole life he 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 that it just had tear around it I'll start it 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 you know 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 man you you know so 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 thanks I'll call you sometime and come back thank you 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 but when after three months hard work the House of Representatives approved the Bill Johnson was generous in his prayers you got this break hello hello Mr President oh what meeting all day today and with Senator Dirksen on the Civil Rights bill good uh Pia that we have an agreement with him 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. I sent to Humphrey did a fine job Senator Mr terrific you might just uh should have called him yes thank you Bobby but Robert Kennedy was Finding life at the justice department at trial his problem was J Edgar Hoover head of 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're my brother and personal friends and you have been for 25 30 years I got more confidence no judgment anybody in town man I certainly appreciate your confidence thank you thank you again keep in mind that Zedge Hoover was 29 years old when he became the uh 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 fire him 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 car 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 thank you 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 the Attorney General the president yes hello 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 uh been uh I suppose we can again not my I have no dealings with the FBI anymore but why don't I call them and say but anyway 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 or numbers you know it's very difficult situation I think for everybody here now for 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 from about me and about the Department of Justice well I just understand that that he's about to leave planning and plotting things but he hadn't he hadn't sent me a report on you or on the department anytime but Kennedy disbelieving Johnson persisted well I had understood that he had that he had had some reports over about me the overthrow of the government by force and violence [Applause] that's a that's an error he never asked said that or indicated or given any we'll all get through foreign 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 he'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 J Edgar who would have feed you 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 as a rival 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 well no not too bad gosh that's very uh encouraging that's very exciting well you know it just makes you feel so good about them you know and 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 how uh 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 have 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 a bit 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 uh 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 uh 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 here 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 the one thing Lyndon Johnson wanted me as vice president and so we sort of 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 difficult it would be for you personally I'm just talking now Lyndon Johnson didn't have any influence but Lyndon Johnson didn't isn't you yeah it influenced the people of the United States clearly Kennedy was tempted and his friends were urging him on why I've as a historian who should have known better did not more strongly counsel Robert Kennedy against such as 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 president his brother the president was as a gentleman and a human being this man is that 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 in his behavior he could be he never was with me but I've seen him 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 dead 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 no 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 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] Jefferson'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 go ahead sir Joe Hager he made me some weight slacks I need about six pairs for some aware I want them half inch larger in the waist than they were before except on two or three inches of stuff left back in there so I can take them up about 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 crunch 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 this is 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 it an edge from the where 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 Al 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 if you want to talk a couple of your girlfriend sure would did you have a good day yeah I have 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 rest I got a bit of sunburn and I'll probably be blistered now you'll look privacy well I I hope so I hope you're doing all right yes I'm fine Mr President how are the children okay thank you it's yours good Defenders with us Lucy's in Washington having dates 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 reckoned it oh yeah I arranged it what do you read I hate to think adult you it's sure good to hear your voice and I hope that you're feeling all right yeah it's nice to talk to you and give my love to ladies how long to see you okay thank you thank you Lyndon Johnson and Jackie Kennedy liked one another we know but Johnson always quick to find an ulterior motive on Robert Kennedy's part sought out his secretary Mary FEMA 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 downslide 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] 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 and 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 there's no assuming that passion is something that's just alien to my whole makeup it's uh 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 I 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 left 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 for him he messed up the whole Kennedy image and 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 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 and 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 abroad 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 uh 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 to spy on his own attorney general Roe rang the president from a call box yes they're meeting this weekend at hyannisport right now uh the Kennedy people I can check it out and try to get some more I think we'll 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 not 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 uh 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 Gilbert less reasonably Johnson persuaded himself at Robert Kennedy as pulling strings behind the scenes he's trying to get me in it every way he can and I think this is not his 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 had 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 calling by man pretty bad by a 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 Andy 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 the nine months I've carried on as effectively as I could her country faces very dangerous these dangers must be faced and met by United people under a leader they do not doubt after 33 years in political life most men acquire enemies as ships accumulate Barnacles the times require leadership about which there is no doubt and a voice that men of all parties in sections in color can follow I've learned after trying very hard and I'm not that voice or that leader therefore that no consideration to be given to them 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 are not going to vote for very gold water organized labor wasn't going to vote for very gold water 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 that's all right I don't care I have a desire you and I people and uh the south is against me and they know it's against me against me you know if you got any thoughts or in a 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 good as it can be made sir okay come on 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 [Music] he told really 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 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 burdens you talked of so I know it's only your choice I love you always Birds [Music] and not people [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 okay 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 States Freedom Party has got to the seats of the regular Mississippi delegates and they're coming in taking them just but I put security men around the Mississippi delegation is put a bunch of them not let anybody come in and see but you better do it now cause you got a ride on right there right quick so somebody better get [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 with 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 we're 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 [Applause] 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 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 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 path 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 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 we'll 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 [Music] this is a propaganda film purporting to show a U.S naval Destroyer defending itself against an unprovoked attack by communist torpedo Boats off the coast of North Vietnam it's a reconstruction of what became known as the Tomkin Gulf Institute resident Johnson's justification for his momentous decision in 1964 to bomb North Vietnam for the first time but the film was never released because the story it told was untrue the true story of that decision is different a story of deliberate deception of the Congress and the People by the Johnson Administration we were heading to to war and you better level with uh with Congress when you're going to war and I with the thought that Congress would have insisted that people level with the you with the United States people oh certainly I think it's a terrible mistake at the heart of the story are recordings of telephone calls made at the time by President Johnson himself and now released after more than 30 years we have recreated many of the scenes that followed but the words you'll hear are real this boy our friend Hubert is just destroying himself with his big mouth we just got to understand that she can't talk about war plans and he just ought to keep his goddamn big mouth shut on Foreign Affairs at least until the election's over foreign [Music] [Applause] of 1964 South Vietnam was on the verge of collapse one political call followed another and the streets of Saigon had been reduced to Anarchy the conflict then was between South Vietnam and the Communist North America provided the South with military aid but not fighting men the CIA warned the president that the South could fall to the Communists within months Johnson had always had serious misgivings about America's involvement but he was a man who liked to win at everything he touched he called his secretary of defense Robert McNamara and told him to go to Saigon and do something constructive president I I saw a little glimmer of hope on Vietnam in some paper today where we'd routed some and killed a few and run them out or something that you haven't you getting any good cables on them at all well I read that article Mr President the official battle report wasn't as good as the newspaper report for once and we got anybody in that's got a military mind that can give us some military plans so but we went in that war let's get some more or something my friend because I'm going to have a heart attack if you don't get me something what I want is somebody that can lay out some plans to trap these guys and what the hell out of them kill some of them that's what I want to do I'll try and bring something back and we'll meet that objective after reviewing the situation in Vietnam McNamara recommended that to avert certain defeated assault America must become directly involved in the war starting with covert operations against North Vietnam Johnson agreed he approved the top secret program codenamed opplan34a the Commando raids on the North Vietnamese Coast they will be planned directed by the Chiefs of Staff in Washington and the commanders themselves all indo-chinese would be trained by U.S Navy Special Forces the planning for those Commando rates for the teams that attacked those Coastal targets was done by us by Americans we briefly Vietnamese teams conducted the Intensive training in the kinds of explosives that might be used on those particular raids and right before the operation put the the team into isolation and briefed them on the particular targets that they were going to attack a second separate covert operation involved U.S Navy destroyers especially fitted out to gather electronic intelligence codenamed DeSoto patrols they would operate in the same general area in the Gulf of Tonkin off the north London East Coast on July the 31st for assaultcraft left the Upland base at Danang flying the Stars and Stripes once in North Vietnamese waters the flags were stowed away the Commandos attacked radar stations on two offshore islands in the Gulf of Tonkin within us the U.S Destroyer Medics fitted out for a DeSoto Patrol arrived in the Gulf heading north towards the islands the Commandos had just attacked it's quite possible it seems to me that being on the receiving end of recoila's rifle fire on an island in the Tonkin Gulf and then seeing a destroyer approaching that island that one would think that the Destroyer was coming in to give a repeat of the medicine that had been dosed out the night before so would you say that it was in fact a pretty provocative operation yes it was now the morning of August the 2nd the Medics on a course that would have taken ABS the island that had just been attacked saw several North Vietnamese gunders approaching the crew went to battle stations we were up there with on the disorder Patrol doing our electronic surveillance and we picked up these contacts sometime in the afternoon three high-speed contacts that were coming after us we fired a warning shout over their bouts and they just kept coming the U.S aircraft carrier Ticonderoga on station 100 miles to the South now sent aircraft to help the Destroyer which had come under torpedo attack these things were probably running somewhere around maybe four or five feet below the surface and you could clearly see them coming through the water I would say they probably came within about a 200 yards of us but you could clearly see them the Maddox headed out to sea firing at the pursuing North Vietnamese gun bullets concussions were so bad and so loud we didn't have time to get earplugs I can remember the commanding officer I had blood running out of both his ears and I had blood running out of one ear the battle lasted less than 30 minutes Maddox hit by one small piece of shrapnel suffered no captions it reported two enemy crafts destroyed back in Washington McNamara advised the president not to retaliate explaining how the attack on the Destroyer had virtually coincided with the Commando raids we had four TP boats from Vietnam manned by Vietnamese or other Nationals attacked two islands and we expanded uh oh a thousand rounds of ammunition one kind or another against them like we probably shot up a radar station a few other miscellaneous buildings and following 24 hours after that with this destroyer in that same area undoubtedly LED them to connect the two of them I wish that uh to give me some guidance on what we ought to say I want to leave an impression that we're going to be firm as hell without saying something is dangerous the people are calling me up they all they will Navy responded wonderfully and that's good but they want to be damn sure I don't pull them out and run and they want to be damn sure that we're fine we sure ought to always leave the impression that if he shooted us he's going to get hit meeting his military commanders Johnson ordered further Commander raids on North Vietnam another was scheduled for the following night Monday August the 3rd although the attack on the Destroyer was reported publicly nothing was said of the Reds but in a lunchtime call to a friend Johnson ineffected Mitty dip as the raids that had provoked North Vietnam's attack what happened was we've been playing around with her they came out give us a warning and we now tell Adam we are within their 12 mile limit there have been some covert operations in that area that we've been carrying on blowing up some bridges and things of that car so I imagine they wanted to put a stop to it they come out there and fire and we respond immediately we [ __ ] them up and then we go right back where we were with that destroyer and with another End plus of plenty of planes and we just we hadn't pulled out we pulled up the officer commanding the DeSoto Patrol recommended pulling out the answer was no instead a second Destroyer the turn of Joy joined the Medics and a second carrier the constellation was sent to reinforce the Ticonderoga in the next few hours the gap between what actually happened at Sea and what was alleged to have happened began to win the two destroyers were ordered to sail on a course that took them within 11 miles of the North Vietnamese coast and within four miles of North Vietnam's offshore Islands there was no attempt of concealment the operation would take place in full daylight officers aboard the Medics thought their orders dangerously provocative question in my mind is why why would you send us back up in there asked after what had happened what was the purpose most of us felt like we were sitting ducks I as a Communications obviously it was ordered to burn all my superseded classified documents as well as only maintain three days worth of codes and to destroy everything else beyond that reaction was that we wouldn't take these actions unless someone felt an attack was eminent that we were being sent up there to be attacked again basic assumption a lot of us made at the Pentagon McNamara had spent the morning preparing plans for retaliation against any attack on the Destroyers at lunchtime he called the president to tell him they were ready okay McNamara and I know I'm surprised Mike we have prepared and just completed very detailed target analyzes of the targets of North Vietnam as a matter of fact in 10 minutes I'm going over with the Chiefs the final work on this we have pictures analyzes numbers of sorties bomb loadings everything prepared for all the target systems of North Vietnam furthermore we've prepared detailed movement studies of any contingency forces required air squadrons Etc okay a few hours later an American listening post overlooking the commanded base at dunnell picked up a signal apparently indicating that the flotilla of North Vietnamese torpedo boats had put to Sea The Intercept was relayed to Pacific Fleet headquarters in Honolulu to the Destroyers on patrol and the Pentagon everybody assumed an attack would come within hours McNamara called the president to recommend prop retaliation secretary McNamara is calling you again sir I I personally would recommend to you after a second attack on our ships that we do retaliate against the coast of North Vietnam some way or other and we'll be but I was thinking weakness of our position is that we respond only to an action and we don't have any of our own but when they when they move on us and they shoot at us I think we not only ought to shoot it down but almost simultaneously uh uh put one of these things that you've you've been doing I know one of their Bridges or something exactly I I quite agree with you Mr President I I wish we could have something that we've already picked out and uh and just hit about three of them damn quick or whatever we will have that and be prepared to recommend to you a response a retaliation move against North Vietnam in the event this attack takes place within the next six to nine hours I want to keep this as close as I can so let's just try to keep it to the truth or be prepared to do so with lunch all right okay thank you that night the two men were building up an Unstoppable momentum for war [Music] out in the tank in Gulf it was a dirty night on the two destroyers all hands were on edge as we headed out at the golf at a high speed through this this heavy sea State and a storm we started to pick up numerous and I radar contacts reported at various speeds different bearings there were numerous ones I can't remember exactly how many there were but there were numerous contacts the data was calling at us so quickly that it became almost impossible to interpret at the point at that point what was happening at his desk at the Pentagon McNamara was getting ready to retaliate before a single shot had been fired secretary they're calling line oh yeah evalier should you wish to do so 70 of the petroleum supply of North Vietnam we believe is concentrated in three dumps and we can bomb those bomb or strafe those uh dumps destroy the petroleum system in addition there are certain Prestige targets that we've been working on the last several months and we have Target folders prepared on those for example there is a bridge that is the Key Bridge on the rail line South out of uh out of Hanoi and we could destroy that and there are other Prestige targets of that kind just before 11 o'clock night time in the gulf and morning in Washington McNamara received news from the front had a report from the commander that task force out there that they have cited two unidentified vessels and three unidentified prop aircraft and therefore the carrier launched eight aircraft to uh examine what's in the vicinity of the Destroyers and to protect the Destroyers it was a dark night it was no moon we were flying three flights three aircraft in our flight we were flying without any lights of course we we did not want to be seen or detected as we approached the target we heard all this commotion on the frequencies of the Destroyers it was sort of high pitch calling out this calling out that excited voices Panic set in you have people shouting we've got a PT Port bearing you know two three zero zero nine zero and then the next thing you you start to hear is Torpedoes in the water we fired numerous rounds we had these PT boats that were being reported to us zigzagging to try and avoid the torpedoes and after a while we had so many Torpedoes in the water it became unbelievable that we could have that many Torpedoes in the water but it was a frightening time you're dealing with a with a crow a little sleep TIG tired and now this and in the middle of the night so it was a time when people were panicking hello secretary McNamara and I know we just had word by telephone from Admiral sharp that the Destroyer is under torpedo attack are these Torpedoes coming from well we don't know presumably from these unidentified craft that I mentioned to you a moment ago and we thought that the unidentified craft might include one one PT Boat which has torpedo capability and two SWAT top boats which we don't credit with torpedo capability although they may have it aboard the Destroyers the combination of atrocious weather untrained Crews and lack of sleep had brought chaos in the confusion the Maddox came within seconds of sinking the Turner Joy with the Salvo from its five-inch guns one of our Fire Control was in fact locked on but basically refused to fire their guns as ordered and it later was when they asked the Turner joy to turn on its lights they turned on and turn a joy did turn on her running lights they were targeting the turn of joy messages in code flashed back and forth between the Destroyers in the Gulf Admiral shop in Honolulu and Pentagon and the commander-in-chief in the Oval Office everyone was at Battle Stations the report is that they have observed and we don't know by what means whether this is radar or otherwise I suspect it's radar to unidentified vessels and three unidentified prop aircraft in the vicinity of the Destroyers we don't have any uh word from from sharp on that the planes would be in the area at the present time all all eight of them okay but McNamara 12 000 miles from the supposed action was guessing the fact was that neither Destroyer had actually cited an enemy overhead aircraft from both carriers search the sea from his fight Obama Lieutenant Alvarez dropped a semi-circle of flares Illuminating a wide stretch of water below I heard over the year the radio was beautiful right on and actually what it did is it basically lit up the sky right almost right over the two Destroyers I could see the the Maddox that Turner Joy they were bobbing around in the sea and it was one was like heading in this direction another one was like in this direction and I could see them very plainly and I immediately looked to see if I could see anything out here in this area I could see are two destroyers but I saw nothing else the pilots returned for a debriefing on the aircraft carrier the Admiral was there he wanted to know what we what we saw and I said I did not see anything he got a little irritated he says what what are you guys all not me but all of us do you think that they're making up stories that were lying about this making up stories uh none of you saw anything out there and we said hey we're just telling you what we saw and and we didn't see anything and he finally said okay okay boys thank you and that was it not only the Airmen were puzzled in Saigon American officers running that night's Coastal Commander raid had been monitoring enemy radio traffic for any signs of an attack on their assault craft Colonel Russell and I were in our little communications center at sag headquarters honoring 34 Alpha and uh we were watching events unfold and watch again the primary source of information was the communications intelligence as far as allegedly what happened of North America action against uh are the stars out there we saw nothing that we didn't even indicate that there were any North Vietnamese boats out they're all in Port and after this thing closed uh Colonel Russell made the comment he says the Navy shooting at Wales that was his way of saying there were north of he's out there puts out there this was uh a non-event as far as the Northbound music are concerned when Dawn broke in the Gulf officers on the Medics held an impromptu inquest after it was over I walked into the wood room with several other officers and sat down with commander ozer who was at that time our commanding officer and I can remember his words to the effect that uh I don't think this happened we started question ourselves to the point that as I recall the Commodore sent a message up through sync Fleet to to question his own messages that he had sent several hours earlier as to whether or not this really was a valid attack the test Coast Commander was Captain John Herrick the signal he now sent to Honolulu relayed to the Pentagon was to abbreviate his career it read review of action makes many reported contacts and Torpedoes fired appeared doubtful freak weather effects on radar and over eager sonar men may have accounted for many reports no actual visual sightings by Maddox suggests complete evaluation before any further action taken the question is who saw Captain herrick's message Admiral shop CNC Pacific discussed it with Mac lamara who demanded more information but among the many recorded telephone calls there are none suggesting the president was told but the story was running out of control first reports of the supposed engagement had reached journalists yes it seems to me State and win and George Reedy are agree now in a statement that could be made by one of the Departments I presume the Pentagon the statement that we would make I would propose and simply say that during the night hours that the two destroyers were attacked by uh Patrol boats the attack was driven off no casualties or damage to the Destroyers we believe uh several of the patrol votes were sunk details won't be available until daylight that's okay all right I just won't put that out all right take care the leak had come from one of the Congressional leaders Johnson had summoned to the White House for a private briefing Johnson was Furious afraid of that and you can wait he was telling that they had a report in the Pentagon the two destroyers been sung so it's not both think about the next hour hello yes Mr President uh do we always get out these meetings King we have a meeting with the conga Congress without them announcing it oh my God somebody's announced yes they all announced it they were all told it was off the Record Mr President isn't always that it was off the record and then consequently they were to come in the back door so it's not to be seen oh my God who announced this doesn't say just says that the Congressional sources said leaders of both parties been called at 6 45 White House leadership conference presumably call to breathe lawmakers on the ladies PT Boat attack they were all told it was off the Record so okay much fun dang it right this was the moment when the administration took the faithful step of ignoring evidence that the Destroyers had not been attacked Johnson had already decided to go on Prime Time television to announce his decision to bomb North Vietnam and then to ask Congress for authority to take further action he telephoned a congressman from Texas we're going to retaliate and we'll make an announcement a little later in the evening the next hour or so and we'll probably ask Congress for resolution tomorrow next day uh to support us well yes well as you know you'll get whatever you want but I don't know I hope so if you don't react when they shoot at your ships on the high seas 60 miles from Shore you can't appear to be a weak guard a piecing on a thing when the issue is so clearly drawn they attacked us yesterday and they attacked us again today yeah you're on the right track and thanks so much for calling thank you because I spent hours say from roughly nine in the morning to such as six in the evening a probing was sharp and the commander of the Madison Turner joy to determine whether it was probable the second attack had occurred and we concluded Psy Vance and I and the chairman of Joint Chiefs and the Chiefs about I think it was 6 p.m that night we concluded it was probably had occurred and because there were many who thought we should have responded to the first attack it was clear we should respond to the probable second and we did what clinched the murder for McNamara was a call from Admiral shop to say they'd intercepted a coded signal from North Vietnam's Navy headquarters in haifung describing a battle at sea for many years McNamara called it irrefutable evidence from an unimpeachable Source the truth is that in the rush to retaliate and get the president on television nobody noticed it was describing the earlier action against the Medics alone the custodian at The Intercept is the National Security Agency unaccountably the original has disappeared but in 1970 two members of the staff for the Senate were shown a copy my reading of it was something quite different from the interpretation put up on it by McNamara my reading of it was it was clearly a message which related to the August 2nd incident and after Action Battle report if you will that it didn't relate to the August 4th incident at all at the time only a CIA director John McCone remained skeptical about a second attack after the first real Attack were coded argued that Hanoi was reacting to the proximity in time and place of the Destroyer patrols and the Commando raids suspecting that the second attack was imaginary McCone sent for the Medics is radon dogs had ordered his own staff expert the cia's head of radar analysis to examine these are the handwritten Originals it was a description of times and events uh targets detected reported by a radar operator a sonar operator whatever it was very migrant data it seemed fragmentary and I said if you get me the rest of the story I can give you a good solid answer of whether those whether there were torpedo boats out there or not it's that simple within about one hour my boss returned with the same papers and now there was a sense of urgency about him he didn't move fast that often but this morning he did and he said Gene no other information will be forthcoming you've got to do the best job you can with the information you've got and then he added as quickly as possible petite has never found out who blocked his request for more data if he had been given what he needed could Macon have offered the president a definite answer had the destroyer's radar detected hostile craft or was nothing there if I had the answers to my questions by say one or two o'clock in the afternoon quick Communications which I think were possible then the answer is yes you could have come up with a definitive decision absolutely it happened or did not happen absolutely meanwhile out on the carriers crewman was struggling to re-arm their planes for an attack on North Vietnam the president was desperate to announce the bombing before the television audience was fast asleep and the final editions of next day's papers had been put to bed yeah I just talked to Admiral sharp again he's been in contact with the carriers they have not been able to launch yet they won't launch for another about 45 minutes they should launch at 10 p.m and what's delayed itself just the limitations of time Mr President we ask an awful lot of them they said initially they could do it but uh it's proven now they couldn't they had to brief the crews and load the aircraft with specific types of weapons for these particular targets and it took more time than they anticipated and how they would you be willing to hold if they just uh I guess we could hold it till 11 o'clock news okay thank you Johnson had been on the telephone since nine o'clock in the morning and now it was 9 pm his 51st recorded phone call of the day came from upstairs uh I just wanted to see you whenever you all alone [Music] [Music] I'll bring anybody who's a bachelor who wants to eat or who would otherwise be doing without supper until real mate with you will you okay bye the TV networks were admitted to the White House soon after 10. to avoid warning Hanoi of the attack that was coming Johnson had agreed to delay his broadcast until American planes were over their targets at 11 25 he put on his jacket leaving McGeorge Bundy's National Security adviser to take the long-awaited call from McNamara at the Pentagon 16 McNamara they launched 40 minutes ago oh that's good definite affirmative confirmed confirmed yes Hey Kevin we're going in about 10 minutes all right that's sure that's excellent uh you're certain you're going in 10 minutes in about 10 that's all right from your point of view sure I just want to plan it here and I definitely confirmed launch 40 minutes ago thank you Bob okay thanks it was after 11 30 before the president went on air even so planes from the second carrier the constellation still were not ready that renewed hostile actions against United States ships on the high seas and the Gulf of parking after today required me to order the military forces of the United States to take action in reply and with that after one more call the president went to bed I'm telling anything at all happens call me here I know that situation I'll do that all time tonight I don't give a damn I want to keep just as close to it as if I was in The Situation Room all right okay [Music] this was the moment when America took over the war from the two carriers 64 aircraft took off for North Vietnam their targets included torpedo boat bases petroleum Supply dumps and anti-aircraft batteries from the constellation Lieutenant Alvarez his single engine fighter bomber had been loaded with rockets and bombs [Music] it was our very very first Venture into the north of Vietnam and Frankly Speaking the general mood of the pilots was you know we've been taking enough crap for quite a while it's about time we're doing something let's go do it was a nice clear day as we approached the coast we flipped on our switches and arm and switches and everything was set as we got close I could look right over and on holy smokes and there they were ships lined up we came in and I could see that the fort three or four the torpedo Boats were in flames in making that exit that's when I got hit my plane just basically you know went out of control I had no control over it it was on fire there was an explosion on my left side I could feel that it must have my wing must have started to come off because it just started to roll over and I knew there was no way I could control it I had to get out and get out quick if I was going to live that was the beginning of my new life you might say he was North Vietnam's first ever American prisoner of war you then spent eight years in North Vietnamese prison camps uh well I spent eight and a half years six months makes a difference [Music] after midnight while the air attacks were still underway a buoyant McNamara briefed reporters at the Pentagon describing the attacks on the Destroyers is entirely unprovoked he claimed that throughout their patrol the two ships had remained at a distance of at least 30 miles from North Vietnam's Coast he emitted to mention that only that morning he told the president their limit was 11 miles the course of of our destroyers operating 30 40 to 60 miles off the coast of North Vietnam international waters moving Southward it was a confident performance until a reporter strayed into Dangerous Waters can you give us the basic reasons for the uh Gulf of Tonkin Patrol it's a routine patrol of the type We Carry Out in international waters all over the world does it have anything to do with the movements of uh junks or whatever it is no there has no special relationship to to uh uh any uh operations in that area and we we're carrying routine patrols of this kind on all over the world all the time you have any idea why the North Vietnamese may have none next morning the president was due to make a speech at Syracuse University he kept the engagement but his speech had to be Rewritten overnight his subject had been discernment the attacks were delivered the attacks were unprovoked the attacks have been answered [Applause] the world remembers the world must never forget that aggression unchallenged his aggression Unleashed back at the Pentagon McNamara was announcing details of the ample forces he promised the president even before the second supposed attack last night I announced that Moose Run Away to reinforce our forces in the Pacific area an attack carrier group has been transferred from the First Fleet on the Pacific coast to the Western Pacific secondly Interceptor and fighter bomber aircraft have been moved into South Vietnam thirdly fighter bomber aircraft have been moved into Thailand fourthly Interceptor and fighter bomber squadrons have been transferred from the United States into advanced bases in the Pacific fifthly an Anna submarine task force group has been moved into the South China Sea and finally selected Army and Marine forces have been alerted and readied for movement as the Juggernaut rolled into action truth was the first casualty Johnson wanted the ascent of congress with a minimum of debate or qualification he was beside himself when the loquacious Senator Hubert Humphrey the man he planned to make his running mate in the coming presidential election talked about the Commando raids in public Johnson determined to protect the authorized version of events called a mutual friend how you doing pretty good I don't know I don't know how to get this message over but uh this boy our friend Hubert is just destroying himself with his big mouth he went on the TV and every person in town that's handling War plans it just scared them to death because he just blabbed everything that he had heard in a briefing just like it was his personal knowledge they said for instance how would you account for these uh PT about attacked on our destroyers when we innocently out there and the gulf 60 miles from Shore Humphrey said well we have been carrying on some operations in that area and we've been having some covert operations where we have been going in and knocking out roads and petroleum things and so forth and that's exactly what we have been doing but the damn fool got it up and now he's got Morris talking about it because he wasn't in on the briefing and it's just uh he just got to understand that you can't talk about war plans you just can't talk about and he just ought to keep his goddamn big mouth shut on Foreign Affairs at least until the election's over on the morning of the sixth McNamara drove to Capitol Hill to persuade Congress to cede its War making powers to the president a closed Committee hearing on what became the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was cursory with only one Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon asking awkward questions about covert operations coinciding with the tax on Destroyers answer was this our Navy played absolutely no part in was not associated with was not aware of South Vietnamese actions if there were any insisted that our people that our destroyers were there to back up he said it on television last night he said that he said we were launching our PP both from the Destroyer yeah well I I just absolutely denied and I insisted the record being made clear this when I just got back from the house very well but on the whole I think the hearings are very satisfactory it was just a near unanimous support for not only for everything you've done in which you have support for that but near unanimous support for everything you may do in the future and generally a blank check authorization for further action it seems to be there was that from the outset a deliberate attempt to mislead the Congress now the administration okay okay in every document and every transcript I have looked at I have seen the raids that occurred at the same time as those Destroyer patrols described as South Vietnamese raids every time you go before the Congressional leaders you insist this is a South Vietnamese operation you insist that the U.S Navy was not aware of it now everybody knows that those South Vietnamese were the people the bodies everything else was American why could you not have come clean with the American leadership in executive session I think you're totally wrong I just like you're totally no no no all right no no no no no no no no no no no on the contrary read read the testimony that Rusk and I gave to the Congress we told the Congress of the what are known as 34A raids these were were actually pin Pricks but nothing let me finish now these were pinpricks uh by by uh Patrol boats or aircraft launched from South Vietnam and as you suggested uh done with the knowledge and assistance of the U.S controlled by the U.S planned by the U.S I stated that my testimony before the Congress is very clear in that on August 3rd I told the committee of the 34A the so-called covert operations and and that it was uh carried out by South Vietnamese Personnel under with U.S assistance with the full knowledge and planning of sync pack and general krulak who was part of the joint staff in the Pentagon and that this was fully disclosed now you implied we deceived him I don't think we did to see them I think the whole discussion of deception and whether I deceived the Congress is totally uh unreasonable the fact I'm reading from the record deal with this I'm going to go on with the interview we're going to handle it this way oh well I apologize I'm just not going to do it I just soon stopped the interview right now because you can I mean you have a right to but I mean there is no record of what McNamara told Congressional leaders informally on August the 3rd but we have obtained the full transcript of his testimony to the Senate following Relations Committee on August the 6th four times he declared that the Commando raids were South Vietnamese operations there was no disclosure to the committee or any member of it he said nothing about this he kept it can there was not a single word mentioned about these about these operations or American involvement or crew lock or whoever it may be and frankly it would have been totally inconsistent with administration's view of how to address the Congress the the strategy was to keep it simple keep it brief with no ambiguity this would have introduced ambiguity from the very start it makes no sense and it wasn't true as a lieutenant cathol Flynn had trained the Commandos on the beach at danan he retired from Special Forces as an admiral I was surprised that the denial was so categorical you think they should have come clean tell the truth well at least to the leaders of Congress and executive session possibly oh yes oh yes I mean we were heading to to war and you'd better level with uh with Congress when you're going to war and I would have thought that Congress would have insisted that people level with the you know with the United States people oh certainly I think is a terrible mistake in the event the cover-up succeeded the debates in Congress were a formality only two senators voted against the Tonkin Gulf resolution by now the only threat to the official story could come from inquisitive reporters as McNamara warned the present do you think that if you have a press conference Vietnamese to their strike on the second against the Maddox was retaliation for U.S participation in the strike of July 3031 against those islands I called Mac this morning and asked him to write a specific question and a specific answer to this this is a very delicate subject and he and I agreed on such an answer he said he would get it to him it is that the Jews State categorically that U.S forces did not participate in were not associated with any alleged incident of that kind they weren't even in the area at that point it didn't enter the area two days later so now the growth of a lot of conversation here within Washington and in the Press on this subject and I think it's one that you have to disassociate yourself from and and uh and certainly not admit that any such incident took place but neither should you get in a position of denying it and it would be very unfortunate if they developed proof that in effect in this state of the case it would take another four years and another Senate Hearing in 1968 before the cover-up began to come apart by then the president's credibility was in shreds nevertheless the government's version of events as pushed by the newsreels at the time has never been withdrawn Swift Swift and sure has been U.S retaliation for communist PT vote attacks on the high seas this is the Medics one of the two destroyers that were attacked while patrolling international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin near North Vietnam war planes from two carriers the Ticonderoga and the constellation Avenge the unwarranted red assault with 64 assorties to North Vietnam PT basins 25 votes more than half the fleet were destroyed and North Vietnam oil reserves badly depleted it is estimated 10 percent went up in Flames after direct hits the Pentagon said two pilots were lost one was reported to be a prisoner of the Reds the U.S Ortiz were launched for one purpose as a warning to the Communists that unprovoked attacks will bring prompt response as always political differences faded in the United States and leaders of both parties united behind the president to Grant him all powers necessary to carry out our commitments to defend World Peace Judson had signed the Tonkin Gulf resolution on August the 10th just a week after the so-called incident a blank check his administration was later to call the functional equivalent of a declaration of war and I pledge to all Americans to use those Powers with all the wisdom and the judgment that God grants to me standing behind the president with Senator William Fulbright he had steered the resolution through Congress acting in the belief he said later than in its dealings with Congress the government told the truth you gotta remember the senator Fulbright was a politician of the old school he was a gentleman and he just did not believe that his president his secretary of state in the secretary's defense would deceive him and try to pull the wool over his eyes and and asking for his support for a matter of this nature he was deceived and he felt very very badly about his the worst incident he said that ever happened to him in his career foreign not a single American died or was wounded in the Tonkin Gulf incident but that trivial encounter at Sea became the pretext for an American takeover of an Asian War the War cost Lyndon Johnson his presidency and it ended 11 years later in the sheet far worse it cost over 58 000 American and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese lives we shall probably never know whether any of the evidence casting doubt on a second attack was ever shown to President Johnson or whether his closest advisors ever said Mr President let us wait until we are 100 sure [Music] in the basement of Washington's Masonic temple is a shrine that is closed to the public it's a memorial to one of America's most powerful men J Edgar Hoover head of the FBI and a close friend of President Lyndon Johnson and but I didn't want this opportunity to go by without telling you again how proud I am how glad I am that Uncle Sam's got you working for us and uh if you just think that you're going to get off the payroll because you're getting a little older you're crazy as hell I don't retire the FBI this is the story of how Hoover tried in secret to prevent equal rights for blacks legislation Johnson wanted more than any other law looks like about time to stop talking I just thinking we're going to have them out in the streets again if we don't don't make some little progress the mountain Johnson needed as an ally was Martin Luther King the very band Hoover wanted to destroy Hoover's plot took place in a Twilight world away from the cameras so we have used actors to illustrate many of the scenes in this film but what was recorded at the time were telephone calls between President Johnson and key players in the drama these are the calls you will hear in the film [Music] thank you foreign go back to August 1963 three months before Linda Johnson succeeded the dead President Kennedy two hundred thousand people gathered in Washington for the biggest demonstration for civil rights in their country's history [Music] [Applause] [Music] after a summer of direct non-violent action in America's Deep South black leaders decided to lift their campaign to a national level with a March on Washington it was this event that raised a 34 year old black preacher from Georgia to the leadership of the Civil Rights Movement my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character I have a dream today became one of the seminal speeches of the century but it also divided the country at large the Congress and in the government when we allow Freedom Ring we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children black men and white men Jews and Gentiles Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual free at last free at last thank God Almighty we are free of man [Applause] that was a uh wonderfully moving and eloquent speech that had an enormously positive effect in the country at large but also in the white house with the president candidate with the attorney general they thought it was a magnificent speech where King's Speech did not go down well it was in J Edgar Hoover's office a mile down Pennsylvania Avenue this was the FBI's analysis drafted for Hoover that night Negros constitute the greatest single racial Target of the Communist Party USA I believe in the light of King's powerful demagogic speech that he stands Head and Shoulders above all negro leaders put together when it comes to influencing great masses of negroes we must Mark him now as the most dangerous negro in this country three months later John Kennedy was dead and Lyndon Johnson was president the succession pleased Hoover the Kennedys had disliked him and he saw Johnson as a southerner with an ambiguous record on civil rights as well as a personal friend one of Johnson's first telephone calls from the Oval Office was Jehovah 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 and I got more confident no judgment anybody in town thank you what Hoover could not have known was that as President Johnson would make the enactment of a new and radical Civil Rights bill his overriding priority introduced by John Kennedy the bill had been struck in the Congress for months on his third day at the White House Johnson telephone Martin Luther King who'd spoken well of the new president in public a good many people told me that they heard about your statement I guess on TV on it yes that's right I've been locked up in this office and I haven't seen it but I won't tell you how grateful I am and how how worthy I'm going to try to be of all your hopes thank you very much I'm so happy to hear that and I knew that you had just that great spirit and you know you have our support and backing well we know what a difficult period this is buying one of the great uh tributes that we can pay a memory of President Kennedy is to try to enact some of the great uh Progressive policies that he sought to initiate but I'm going to support them all and you can count on that and I'm going to do my best to get other men to do likewise and I'll have to have y'all's help I never needed more than I do now well you know you have it and just feel free to call on us for anything thank you so much Martin all right thank you as a political operator Johnson was used to dealing with allies and opponents right across the political Spectrum Martin Luther King as leader of all this Vivid and persuasive demonstrations in the South and helped create the climate in which Middle America would accept a radical Civil Rights bill it was low up to Johnson to use his legendary political skills to overcome opposition in the Congress among Republicans and in the powerful block of conservative Southerners in his own Democratic Party the president of the United States Johnson telephone his principal Ally on Capitol Hill the liberal Senator Hubert Humphrey how do you think you got this civil rights in decent shape yes sir Mr President he got a much better Bill than anybody even agreed possibly we haven't we did this bill one damn bit my God we're going so far in this bill that it'll be the greatest advance in a hundred years of course I don't know what you've got to do is tell these leadership people is this one thing the thing that we are more afraid of than anything else as we'll have real revolution in this country and this bill goes into effect and unless we have the Republicans joining us we'll have meeting in this goddamn country that's right that's right well you're doing a wonderful job though and not thanks stay on this one though yes sir all right divorce the Civil Rights bill through the Senate where opposition was strongest Johnson helped to build a cross-party coalition of moderates he had to be willing to break with some of his closest personal Trends in politics especially the leader of the Deep South Democrats Senator Richard Russell of Georgia [Music] Senator Russell and the president sat knee to knee on the second floor of the White House and I remember Lyndon Johnson saying he says dick I love you and I owe you but I got to tell you dick don't get in my way on this Civil Rights bill because if you do I'm going to run you down and Dick Russell in that soft rolling Southern tone says well Mr President you very well may be right but if you are you will lose the South forever and then I remember president saying to him in another soft voice leaning toward us and he says dick if that's the price I've got to pay then I'll gladly pay it Johnson's other intimate friend Edgar Hoover also stood for the opposite of what Johnson was trying to achieve Hoover was a white supremacist at the head of a white FBI to him black civil rights leaders were left-wing agitators probably in the pair of the Kremlin in the eyes of our Soviet comrades [Music] enslavement own description a valuable arm of the international conspiracy against God and freedom and the sooner every American faces this fact the stronger opposition will be we must set our complacency and aggressively meet this challenge under Hoover the FBI had become a political police force using bugging telephone tapping burglary and forgery all in the name of internal security in August 1963 Hoover had set up a special unit to watch Martin Luther King it reported that the American Communist Party had planted two senior and secret members in Dr King's Entourage where they had become close advisors one was a Jewish lawyer named Stanley Levinson the other was a former young socialist Clarence Jones was I ever in fact a member a card-carrying member of the Communist Party the answer is no it's not as if Martin King could be led by the nose by a Stanley Levinson or by Clarence Jones that's absolutely nonsense Martin King to Hoover was a negro that he couldn't control he was in the classic case the uppity arrogant [ __ ] without providing any evidence of communist infiltration Hoover had persuaded the Attorney General Robert Kennedy to authorize telephone Taps on Dr King and the two subversives he was supposed to be consorting with Kennedy agreed to a trial period of one month's secret surveillance [Music] by the time Robert Kennedy's authorization ran out Johnson was president Hoover quietly kept the TAPS in place the watch on King was codenamed Operation Zorro an assistant director William Sullivan was put in charge of Hoover's special Unit A 9R meeting produced an expanded action plan it ranged from the use of hidden microphones in hotel rooms used by King to the planting of prostitutes in his offices as secretaries there was no discussion of contacts with Communists a field of inquiry the FBI had quickly abandoned as unrewarding instead they decided to focus on King's prided life in the hope and this is a quote from the record of exposing King as an immoral opportunist Arthur motek then a field agent in the FBI's Atlanta office was a member of the team Hoover wanted it done I don't think there was any justification of it at all there wasn't anything we had no information that uh King was in any way on American or in violation of the law the bureau was interested in destroying them because Hoover wanted them destroyed the FBI's operation now moved from Washington to Atlanta there King's organization the southern Christian leadership conference was placed under 24-hour surveillance in December 1963 FBI agents set up shop in an unoccupied building on the opposite side of the street everyone entering and leaving was photographed including King who was to be followed wherever he went in America the agents involved all knew the objective to gather evidence Hoover could use to destroy a king as a civil rights leader they started off hating him because he was black he was a I hate to use the phrase but he was a [ __ ] the agents that I was working with on this particular Squad had been brought up to believe that uh all black people were dangerous that they were uh dishonest that they lack character that they were sexual perverts all kinds of hatred Botox says it was the most extensive surveillance operation ever undertaken by the FBI inside the bureau's Atlanta headquarters 10 agents assigned to the case were given their own segregated area in one room agents recorded all telephone calls to and from King's offices and his home on nearby Johnson Street in another room again according to murtagh Hoover's G-Men visit themselves by dreaming up imaginative schemes for the entrapment of the Reverend King whether the new president knew what his friend Hoover was up to we do not know what is clear is that while Hoover was trying to sabotage progress on civil rights Johnson was doing everything he could to promote it he telephoned Mrs K Graham publisher of the Washington Post has that I'm married and I can't ever get to see you I just hear that sweet voice and that's always on telephone and I'd like to break out of here and be like one of these young animals down on my Ranch jump a fence so that's going to set me up in the mud then he got serious the president wanted the post to attack Republicans who were blocking his Bill's progress by refusing to assign a petition that would allow it to be debated now every person that doesn't sign that petition has got to be even fairly irregarded as being and had his civil rights but I don't think any American can say anyone let them have a hearing that is worse than Hitler did so we've got to get ready for that and we got to get ready every day front page in and out individuals why are you against a hearing and point them up and have their pictures and have editorials and have everything else that is in a dignified way are a hearing on the floor it was now Christmas time and after four exhilarating weeks in par the president was spending the holiday at his Texas ranch with Lady Bird and the girls Linda Verde and Lucy Burns with his civil rightsville uppermost in mind Johnson now hit on the novel idea of inviting half a dozen black leaders and their wives to the ranch from the Raj she called his civil rights advisor at the White House Lee White believe uh this little risky but I want to get your judgment on it I thought we might invite Roy Wilkins and farmer and Luther King come down here and talk to me about my state of the union message just bring them deep into hard Texas and have them at my home and have have lunch with me if you want to bring one of the women they bring one of those naked women I think it'd be a pretty dramatic thing for the nation to just have them in my home and have them talking to me about State of the Union message thank you Lee sadly a winter storm intervened the Excursion was canceled instead king and the others were invited to meet the president at the White House after the holiday from New York Clarence Jones booked a suite for King at the Willard Hotel in Washington the FBI intercepted the call on the afternoon of January the 5th special agent lwp chandorff led a three-man team on an illegal break-in at the Willard operation Zorro now took a significant turn for the first time the agents deployed hidden microphones seven altogether not to gather evidence of subversive contacts but to find out what king might do in the privacy of his hotel room I had to assume that they would be tapping him and watching him and under surveillance so you should be careful all right I don't think he had any idea I certainly didn't of the magnitude or the detail of the surveillance I think if he had I think he would have been petrified early next morning King left his Atlanta office for Washington FBI Atlanta passed his arrival time to FBI Washington 10 24 am King was observed at the National Airport after checking in at the Willard Hotel King left for the White House where he joined three other black leaders I think the president is doing a very good job in civil rights he has made it clear publicly and privately that he's committed to civil rights in general and to the Civil Rights bill in particular and from all indications he plans to take a forthright stand on decision a very consistent one so as it stands now we feel that the president is doing a good job James felmer was one of the three black Leaders with King and come right in Mr farmer sit down in that big chair that's a texas-sized chair and as he was jerking my arm out of the socket his phone rang and he answered it it was some senator calling returning his call and he was twisting this caller's arm trying to get him to commit himself to vote for the Civil Rights bill are you the first civil rights or you're not you're either the party of Lincoln or you ain't and that's that God put up or shut up and we've been talking about this for 100 years looks like about time we've stopped talking but I just thinking we're going to have him out in the streets again if we don't don't make some little progress he was doing all that he could and all the while he was throwing a glance at me to make sure that I was uh listening so here was the liberal Lyndon Johnson leading America into a social Revolution and there was the head of his federal police force going all out to frustrate him [Music] friends of Martin Luther King have told us that on his travels in the South King never felt physically safe but at the Willard Hotel in Washington king thought he could relax with his friends King didn't know about the listening post the FBI had set up in the next door Suite for 17 hours agents recorded conversations between King and several colleagues and visitors two of whom were women Clarence Jones who was there does not deny that King had sex during his stay he blames King for falling into an FBI trap putting aside the morality of the issue is the question of the politics of the issue the politics of the issue was that it was it was politically irresponsible it was politically dangerous because it was feeding right into the hands of the FBI giving them grits that they would you know to use against him that they otherwise would not have had let me just say this whatever occurred during that 17-hour period in that hotel suite that a concerned Hoover that was between Martin King and his family and Martin King and his God William Sullivan and Edgar Hoover went through the tapes together the bugging team was told it had Unearthed enough to destroy Dr King Hoover ordered a full transcript to be made at a summary to be hand carried to the White House an internal memo suggests it was shown to Walter Jenkins the white house chief of staff and the president I find it shocking that the bureau would do that that the bureau would not only do that but would go to the seat of government as a White House and feel free to sort of boast about it I find it shocking that that the White House would have gone along the White House or President Johnson neither in the LBJ telephone tapes nor in any other available records is there any evidence pointing to Johnson's involvement if he did read the Willard Hotel bedroom transcripts he would not have wanted them to be leaked Clarence Jones explains why if that kind of information had come out it would have been used to discredit Martin King would have been used to discredit the Civil Rights Movement would have been used as a very and probably effectively used as a smoke screen to say you see the kind of people who really want these civil rights you see the kind of people they really are you're not dealing with people who are who are who are legitimately oppressed not dealing with people who were people of character or good morality and all this and all this moral plea to the Consciousness look at the kind of people they are that people who are communists they're people who engage in the in a in the so-called immoral activities I think it would have been devastating the success of the Willard Hotel steam stimulated Hoover's appetite more than a dozen FBI field offices would draw into operation Zorro as King traveled across America from Hawaii to New York an FBI records show or claim that he was caught out in at least two more sexual encounters on March the 9th the president and the FBI Chief spent four hours together in the Oval Office Hoover after four decades at the head of the FBI was nearly 65 and facing mandatory retirement only special legislation could keep him in office if Johnson had wanted to get rid of Hoover this was the time to do it but Johnson had never failed Hoover and he didn't fail him now J Edgar Homer celebrates his 40th year as head of the FBI the FBI Chief will reach retirement age this year but President Johnson has signed a bill permitting him to stay on it's a happy anniversary for Mr Hoover very proud to join in this tribute to our service J Edgar Hoover we are especially fortunate to have Mr Hoover's strong personal dedication to maintaining the high standards of protection for civil liberties of the individual under our system of law [Music] in June the Civil Rights bill was still bottled up in the Senate as Johnson had feared the Deep South was infermit with thousands of black and white students from the north flooding into States like Mississippi to force the pace of radical reform foreign [Music] establishment it was an invasion of left-wing radicals the hardcore of this group are you beat me type people long beards ringlets of hay on their back of the neck down almost to the shoulder blades are strictly non-conformists uh some of them that you would call weirdos in Jackson his state capital the governor had recruited a hundred extra men for road control and had bought them an armored car 200 shotguns and gas masks we are going to see to it that Law and Order is maintained and maintained Mississippi style the president got on the phone again to his friend from Georgia Richard Russell now the governor messed up he wants to come up here and see me and I think that'll just cause a lot of talk about my selling out I think you'd have to see any government of any State of the Union at Sea I told him I'd do that but they tell me that every family down there is buying a gun and every [ __ ] family's got a gun and if they're going to be the damn this shootings you ever saw and they're sending them in by buses and hundreds from all over the country to help them register and they're going to try to get them all registered mess up here and they're going to be a bunch of killing Dr King meanwhile together with four close AIDs that moved his personal campaign to America's oldest City Saint Augustine in Florida the tunnel was a stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan many of its members had been sworn in at special deputies by the sheriff an outspoken segregationist the king that made it a perfect place from which to keep the struggle on the nation's television screens and Ratchet up the pressure on Washington Martin King as a leader as a person was Fearless to say that he was Fearless is not to say that he was unafraid the Martin King that I knew and observed had a a fear that any day any time he could be killed and I sometimes as I thought back over the years how does one live like that how does one live like that unknown to King a squad of FBI men had followed him from Atlanta on arrival they telexed Washington for permission to plant the usual devices in a cottage King had rented in the white segregated part of the town [Music] [Applause] when King demanded the desegregation of beaches and swimming pools hotels and lunch counters local whites denounced him as an outsider [ __ ] and communist when he received death threats he went to a local church and announced that he would stay in the town [Applause] we have gone too far now to turn back and we will not be content until the sagging walls of segregation have been crushed all over this community by the battering rams of the forces of Justice King intended his presence in Saint Augustine to attract the media National as well as local cameras were there to catch local whites beating black kids tried to swim from the beaches the networks were there when Picketts tried to anticipate the passage of the new Civil Rights bill by attempting to integrate a local restaurant foreign the media reported that somebody had opened fire on King's rented Cottage he was away for a day the president was forced to take notice he called the Florida Senator George Smathers about Saint Augustine they're giving me Uncharted hell on that and his Saint Augustine pretty bad place no no Saint Augustine it's a it's a typically rural place they say they're shooting in the king's white man's house down there he's demanding we go in my own judgment is and this is a damn plant King is actually he loves the headline and the facts show that when he was there there's nothing was it all shot at in the night that he and now it's publicly is going to leave it was then shot in two and the next night he was back there and nobody's bothered him at all King was not a man to pass up a chance to prod President Johnson messages demanding Federal intervention poured into Washington Johnson watching news agency reports called Lee White bear [Music] he will ask President Johnson send Federal Marshals in the city to preserve Law and Order King said he would urge in a telegram to Johnson not only protection but also personal intervention by the president to open communication between the white and negro community what we do have is a telegram from Wyatt Walker one of his uh aides saying that the justice department is not uh taken proper precautionary measures to save throughout the life of Dr King [Music] all right I will as king well knew Direct Federal intervention was not as Steph Johnson would likely take and as Johnson knew King was being deliberately provocative treat me like a human being with reporters in attendance King now led a group of activists to an all-white would tell the Monson motor notch fighting broke out when five young blacks and two whites dived into the segregated swimming pool the manager counter-attacked with plastic jugs of an acid cleaner he's not broke the spirit of this community we just getting right here right now so you can tell the people that altogether 34 demonstrators were arrested including Dr King he was charged with violating Florida's unwelcome guest laws it is fed three days in jail on the fourth day he left Regale University to receive an honorary degree [Music] next day June the 19th was another bad day for Hoover but a Triumph for Johnson and also for King in the Senate after six months of obstruction the southern conservative block had been voted down it was the last obstacle blocking a new Civil Rights Act Johnson called Roy Wilkins a prominent civil rights leader I haven't got the official news yet I've been at a 73-20 to 73-27 . hey man you deserve all the credit and I sure do solution I might be proud of it then our trouble just beginning I guess you know that I won't take some leadership but I'm just afraid of what's going to happen this summer like I saw yesterday it was at Augustine what Johnson have been watching on television was the white backlash in St Augustine all of the forces of hail all of the black moths King and his black revolutionaries the entire communist conspiracy is concentrating on Saint Augustine [Applause] I don't think that the Civil Rights bill settles anything all at the Civil Rights bill does is to start a race war in the United States [Applause] [Music] on July the 2nd the 1964 Civil Rights bill outlawing institutionalized segregation was approved by the Congress and signed into law in the East Rob at the White House Martin Luther King now the Undisputed leader of black Americans was placed close to the president's Church also there but on the sidelines was Edgar Hoover President Johnson greeted him warmly indisputably the law of the land was now on the side of Martin Luther King but the nation's chief law enforcement officer did not call off his Vendetta a written FBI directive said this we must intensify our coverage of King this moral degenerate the main goal is to neutralize or completely discredit the effectiveness of King as a negro leader on the 15th of July Hoover's agents went to the Bell company's Atlanta switching Center and doubled the number of Taps on the telephone lines at King's headquarters FBI men monitoring calls between Coretta king and her absent husband noticed that his frequent travels were straining their marriage Telex to Hoover said this there is increased evidence of marital Discord in The King Family the current situation could conceivably result in a breach between the principles or better still a divorce you got to remember if you've got 10 guys in in Atlanta and a crew at the bureau and all the money you need and they're going to destroy one man they can come up with all kinds of things to do to try to destroy him and they did armed with a permit called a trash recovery order and signed by the chief himself the agents now delved into dustbins outside King's Atlanta headquarters they were looking for a sample of the handwriting of Andrew Young the movement's personable office manager then the forgers went to work they took the handwriting duplicated it wrote all kinds of messages to Mrs King they're trying to make it appear that people who were very close in his own personal Circle were involved sexually with his wife trying to get Warfare going between the players in the in the king camp King was spending a fortnight at home in Atlanta working on a book one evening FBI men monitoring his phone calls learned he was to visit a woman friend well there were some indication that King was going to see this particular woman for illicit sex they had an elaborate scheme I was in the office that night I remember and they made the call to the fire department from the office and told them that there was a fire in this house they raided the house uh King came out got in his car and went home psychological warfare to try to destroy the man any way you could compared with what was to Come Those were merely dirty tricks the crisis in the White House was known to put the president in debt to Hoover allowing the FBI to try to get King to kill himself [Music] in the Autumn of 1964 Lyndon Johnson was unassailable his record of legislative achievement outshone even Franklin Roosevelt's his election by a landslide was a certainty then a month before polling day a political lightning boat struck the White House and forced the president to appeal for help to King's Tormentor J Edgar Hoover on the evening of October the 7th the white house chief of staff Walter Jenkins left his office at the end of an 18-hour day and walked to the nearby YMCA there he was caught in a lavatory with another man and arrested on a moral's charge 30 years ago it didn't do to be gay certainly not in high places Jenkins was not only one of the few who'd seen the FBI files on Dr King for years he'd been the keeper of Johnson's personal secrets as well as weighty matters of state and he could have been open to Blackmail Lyndon Johnson was always inclined to panic at election time promptly he accepted Jenkins resignation but to Ladybird Johnson a compassionate woman who was campaigning on her own in the midwest they were abandoning a close family friend darling uh win question and I will be questioned I'm going to say that this is incredible for a man that I've known all these years it can only be a nervous breakdown all right I think if we don't express some support to him I think that we will lose the entire love and devotion of all the people who have been with us all right she told me this morning honey uh she is so hysterical and so better she feels that her life is ruined that their life is ruined and it's all been laid on the altar of uh of working for us yes my poor dog and my heart breaks for you too my love my love I pray for you along with Walter goodbye over in California the president's Republican opponent Senator Barry Goldwater saw the opening Johnson Field he accused the president and knowingly employing a homosexual in one of the most sensitive posts in Washington ladies and gentlemen ordinarily a man with Mr Jenkins background would have been seriously considered as ineligible for clearance to deal with the most vital secrets of our nation we Republicans did not create the issue the man who now occupies the White House raised this issue all by himself by lowering the standards of the highest office in the land and when other Republicans floated the story that a second homosexual was hiding in Johnson's cabinet the president rang America's chief law enforcement officer to ask him how to spot closet homosexuals I guess you're gonna have to teach me something about Krista I swear I can't recognize him I don't know anything about it the thing that you just can't tell and there are some people who walk kind of funny and don't walk and you might kind of think of a little bit of author may be queer but there was no indication of that objectives I I thought of all the cabinet officers that we have but none of them that raise any suspicion in my mind none in mind but to be on the safe side the president asked Hoover to check on the administration's most senior men for signs of sexual deviation uh if we if this thing comes out on Tuesday you might give some thought to what we ought to do with all secretaries and under secretaries and assistant secretaries and I'd rather thank you to all to protect everybody from me right on down all right thank you these were busy times for Hoover the news now broke that Martin Luther King had won the world's most prestigious honor the Nobel Peace Prize that drove Hoover into a frenzy the FBI's domestic Intelligence Division now prepared a book entitled Martin Luther King Jr his personal conduct a copy was sent to Bill Moyers the president's Deputy Chief of Staff with a letter asking permission to send the book to members of the cabinet Moyers agreed copies were sent to the Secretary of State Dean Rusk to Robert McNamara at the Pentagon and to John McCone the director of the CIA but Hoover wanted to share his files on King with the public he ordered his stuff to use their contacts in the press to get the story out one such contact was the chief Washington correspondent at the Los Angeles Times David creslow he told me that Dr King was a notorious womanizer and that he'd had a number of sexual escapades and that they the bureau had proof of this and he says well let me read you a portion of one one of these uh tapes and he began to read from a transcript the raunchiness is beyond description what shocked me was I knew that he was high enough up in the hierarchy of the bureau that this could not have been done without Hoover's blessing it was Despicable it's none of that business no reporter would touch the story by now the countdown the polling day had begun and the Jenkins Affair was robbing the president of sleep filled with worry and self-pity he telephoned his spiritual advisor Billy Graham [Music] hello Billy how are you my friend well God bless you last night I couldn't sleep and I got on my knees and prayed for you that the Lord would just give you strength I told my sweet wife last night we got mental telepathy I said if I didn't think I'd embarrassed him I'd say please the dear Lord I need you more and every day of my life you know when Jesus dealt with people with moral problems like dear Walter had and I wanted to send my love to him thank you he always dealt tender always always this was the way he handled come down here Saturday evening and have dinner with us and and let's have a quiet visit and and maybe have a little service Sunday morning in the White House itself well I'll be very happy today we're just we'll just have a good visit and I'll feel stronger next week well God bless you thank you so much bye Johnson felt a great deal stronger when Edgar Hoover instead of offering prayers delivered the goods an FBI report cleared the president of any suspicion of carelessness and was duly leaked to the Press Mr Hoover on p383 hello Edgar yes but I thought that you did a very thorough verifying job I I'm very grateful for uh for your day to thoroughness and your your patriotism and the way you've handled it is I am everything else you've ever done of course I realized the spot that you have been in has been terrible other person you've had and it's off to have this thing happen but I think we well we had a little bit a passion and I think the man is a desperately ill man unless you're a compassionate man an understanding man the camera about throwing the first stone unless you have seen yourself you know Billy Graham called me and said Just remember this always be compassionate but do your duty can you just you just remember my friend I'm prouder of you now than I've ever been before but I've known for 30 years that there's nobody like you and as long as I'm around here you got to stay pretty close that's okay my friend fine thank you foreign position strengthened by his helpful role in the Jenkins crisis Hoover now returned to his attack on Dr King [Music] he invited two women reporters to his office for background chat he talked about the need for moral Purity in public life and then stressing that his next remark was on the record he called Dr King the most notorious liar in the country the remark appeared in print when the news magazines picked up the story of at least one civil rights leader called for Hoover's resignation King himself mildly protested that the FBI Chief must be suffering from overwork but on the telephone to a friend King called Hoover senile and when the FBI monitors put that in their logs Hoover went public again in a barely coded speech in Chicago one man places himself Above the Law he AIDS the Communists Relentless effort to destroy the ideals of our civilization the man who has no objective values by which he judges his actions to allow us passions to run wild unchecked by a moral standard of what is right that man is surely risking the loss of his Immortal soul what Hoover's agents did next verged on the criminal assistant director Sullivan took his favorite tapes to the FBI's audio Labs where senior technician John Mata transferred the most incriminating parts to a single reel a third agent Liz Whitson flew with the tape to Miami Beach and posted it from there to The King Family Home in Atlanta together with an anonymous letter FBI agents in Atlanta listened in to make sure the package had arrived safely Martin called and said uh better come over I want you to hear something that Mr Hoover has sent us and so I went over the next day and we sat down and listened to the tape and and we never listened to all of it because it became boring but about 90 percent of it was inaudible it was clear evidence of the extreme desperation of Mr Hoover to destroy Martin and Martin didn't tell me over the phone that there was a note of company that suggested he ought to take his own life years later a handwritten copy of that note was found in William Sullivan's desk at the FBI here is part of it King look into your heart you are no clergyman and you know it like all frauds your end is approaching lend your ear to the enclosure to your hideous abnormalities there is only one thing left for you to do and you know what it is you have just 34 days in which to do it you better take it before your filthy abnormal fraudulent self is Bared to the nation when we read that we were Furious or Mr Hoover we had prayer and then we we we laughed at him how ignorant how uh unaware they were of the depth of our commitment to the struggle to think that that that that that kind of gossip and slander would drive Dr King to take his own life it seems highly unlikely that whoever ever told the president about this last-ditch effort to dispose of Dr King in any case nothing as outrageous was ever tried again but the bugging continued all through the Johnson years until the day King was murdered in 1968. the FBI at the time was an institution was out of control it was a lawless institution from its own point of view even and it was directed by a man who I think was truly demanded the existence of the king's surveillance tapes became public knowledge three years after Hoover's death in 1972 a Court ruled their content to be sealed until the year 2027. the existence of the Lyndon Johnson tapes was a well-kept secret until five years ago then the first batch of altogether 600 hours of calls were released uncensored by his heirs Johnson seems not to have cared with a publication would add luster to his reputation or damage it but with only a quarter of the tapes in the public domain so far it is clear that this will be the most complete record ever of an American presidency and very probably the last of its kind [Music] [Music]

Channel: Real History

Views: 283,821

Keywords: American Presidents, Classified Recordings, Cold War Tensions, Documentary Films, Government Operations, Government Transparency, Historical Secrets, JFK Administration, Phone Recordings, Political History, Political Intrigue, Political Scandals, Presidential Audio Files, Secret Conversations, Telephonic Records, Televised Conversations, US Government Secrets, Vietnam War Tapes, White House Archives, White House Tapes

Id: hw7524pmn6I

Length: 151min 13sec (9073 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 29 2023