Of books focus on one singular question. Who shot jfk . Of ahis part militaryindustrial complex because of initiatives that kennedy had taken . These issues are fascinating and they have inspired what is and remains and will remain a passionate debate among people on all different sides of this issue. Thats not what this book is about. I am not writing a book about who shot j. F. K. I have no new theories to offer about where the bullets came from or who shot j. F. K. This is actually a very different book. What im interested in is not who shot j. F. K. , im interested in the transfer of political power that takes place in the hours after the assassination, and i want to move the focus away from the tragedy thats unfolding in the president ial limousine and move it back about 60 feet to the car carrying Lyndon Johnson, follow Lyndon Johnson over the course of the day, as he goes to Parkland Hospital and then to air force one and back to washington, d. C. , to give people a sense of the texture of the decisions that he had to face and the choices he confronted. When you think about it, the kennedy assassination represented the most dramatic and sudden transfer of political power in u. S. History. Kennedy was the first chief executive to die instantly from his wounds. Even abraham lincoln, who was shot at pointblank range at the ford theater survived and lived until the following morning when he died. Kennedy died instantly, which confronted johnson with what i believe is an unprecedented crisis. What im interested in is the issues of Crisis Management and president ial leadership in the hours that followed the president ial assassination and i focus on the first 24 hours. You know, which is very different from other books that ive written and the books that other professional historians write, because normally what were trying to do is to connect the dots, to tell the story of change over a period of time, but what i try to do here instead is to focus on a single 24 hour period to give you a sense of the texture of the moment. You know, my students over the years have always complained that number one, i talk too fast, and number two, that history is boring. They say history is boring because we know the conclusion. We know the end of the story, so why do we need to learn about dates and names and times . And what i find fascinating about history is being able to go back in a moment in time and understand that the past has many different possible paths, that there are lots of possibilities, choices that were not taken and to put people back in that moment at that time, to understand the range of choices, in this case, that Lyndon Johnson faced and to realize how contingency and unintended consequences play in the historical process and produce a result which no one at the time could have anticipate. By focusing on 24 hours, by focusing on some of the details that oftentimes get air brushed out of history, i think were able to transport people back to that moment, so you not only can now, with the benefit of hindsight get a sense to re evaluate some of the decisions that Lyndon Johnson made, but you can also put yourself back in that moment, so youre at parkman hospital and someone comes to you and you have the same information in front of you that Lyndon Johnson had in front of him, you find out the president has been shot, that this is possibly the first shot in what could potentially be a confrontation with the soviet union. What do you do in that moment . What choices do you make . I know what i would do. I would hyperventilate and pass out. Thats why im a professor and not a president , but it allows the individual, the people reading this book to allow people to go back in that moment in time and experience it and experience the same type of situations and the same choices that Lyndon Johnson confronted and not only is the framework different, but in terms of the issues, there are new sources that are available, and i am very gradeful to the family of william manchester, who gave me access to all of the Research Materials that mr. Manchester used to write his controversial book. The death of a president was published in 1967 and these materials were opened up for the first time last year and these materials, almost all of these people, with a few exceptions, are now dead, but you go back and you look at the interviews, manchester interviewed all the Major Players in 1964 and 1965 when this material was still fresh and these people come alive and what comes alive are some of the Human Dimensions to the story, the Human Dimensions that have been left out of the Warren Commission, which for example is a legal brief, which is sort of clinical and very concise, but also it focused on solving a crime and its not focused on Lyndon Johnson or his actions after the assassination, and i also found that people just volunteered and gave manchester material, material that was not available to the Warren Commission, so there are for example, documents in the manchester papers, which he chose not to use, and parts of interviews which he chose not to use, which i think provide a fresh light, new perspective on the events that took place that day. I also and i sought out the manchester papers and i found them, theyre at Wesleyan University in a special collections archive at Wesleyan University. I also came across a very valuable and useful oral history that was conducted by the john f. Kennedy president ial library if 1978 with Brigadier General godfrey mchugh, he was kennedys air force aid, and this just falls into the category of pure dumb luck. I happened to be working at the Kennedy Library on the day 31 years after he conducted the interview that the interview was declassified, so within hours of it being open to the public, i was able to get access to it and use it for the first time and i will talk later on about some of the insights that this oral history provides us, but finally, because im asking different questions of the material, theres a lot of information thats been open to the public for a long time, that other people looking into this issue have not focused on. Theres at both, the Johnson Library and at the National Archives in washington, d. C. , for example, there is a report conducted by the secret service, where all the secret Service Agents involved in the president ial detail and the vicepresident ial detail gave very detailed reports of what they were doing on that day, what they saw and when they saw them. Most people, the few people who have used this report have been looking at it primarily to glean information about the assassinations, but if you look at it instead to try to get a sense of what Lyndon Johnson is doing, you get this great understanding of Lyndon Johnson and every step hes taking and whos in the room and who hes talking to and its really essential in trying to tell the story, so what do you end up . Whats new . So theres new questions youre asking, using a different format so what is it that im able to say about november 22, 1963, that no one has said before . Well, the first part of this story, i think, thats important is the events that take place in Parkland Hospital. The roughly 40 minutes that Lyndon Johnson is at Parkland Hospital from 12 40 until 1 30 p. M. When he leaves for air force one and the question that i asked of the material, which has not been asked before is why does he it take so long for Lyndon Johnson to find out that kennedy is dead . According to the Warren Commission, kennedy is shot at 12 30 p. M. , they arrive at Parkland Hospital at 12 40 p. M. , kennedy is pronounced dead at 1 00 p. M. Lyndon finds out that kennedy is dead at 1 20 p. M. I think that timeline is actually wrong. Heres what happens, Lyndon Johnson to set the stage for Parkland Hospital, Lyndon Johnson is two cars behind kennedy in the motorcade when they turn onto daley plaza. When the shot rings out, Lyndon Johnson said he didnt think anything about it, he thought it was back fire from a motorcycle. He wasnt the least bit alarmed. Rufus youngblood, the secret Service Agent in the front seat of the car hears the same sound, hes also not alarmed but what he sees that alarms him, hes looking out at the grassy knoll where the vicepresident ial car is making the turn and he sees people falling to the ground and he looks ahead and sees in front of him and sees what he describes as unusual movements in the president ial car, so youngblood leaps out of the front seat of the car, he jumps over the back seat and he grabs Lyndon Johnson and he throws him to the floor of the car and as johnson is being thrown to the floor of the car, you hear the second shot and the third shot and depending on what theories you believe, the fourth, fifth and sixth shot. But Lyndon Johnson is on the floor of the limousine. He hears these shots, but he doesnt see anything. He hasnt seen anything in the president ial motorcade. As soon as hes on the floor and rufus youngblood, all 180 pounds of rufus young blood are on top of him, the car picks up speed and they begin this frantic race to Parkland Hospital. Johnson doesnt know whats going on, he feels the car accelerate. This car is going 70 miles an hour, its an open limousine, the air is blowing through it. I the radio is at full blast. Johnson wanted to hear how the local radio stations were covering the motorcade, so he had the radio on the entire time, so theyre racing to Parkland Hospital and he keeps looking over to make sure lady bird is ok, but he hears chatter over the secret Service Channel but he doesnt know what is taking place and what is happening. Rufus youngblood, at one point, theres so much noise, in order to talk to johnson, he leans down and yells in his ear, were going to a hospital, its possible that theres been an incident in the president ial motorcade, when we get to the hospital, were going to take you to a secure location, do you understand and johnson says yes, partner. So they pull up to Parkland Hospital and i realize that johnsons car is just a few seconds behind president kennedys limousine. The limousine is parked a few yards away and the president is laying in the arms, in the lap of the first lady, but johnson doesnt see any of this. As soon as they screech to a halt, agents surround him, they rush him into Parkland Hospital, they close the blind, remove people, put a guard at the gate and put him in booth 13, so there you have Lyndon Johnson, lady bird, rufus young blood in a room with a sterile metal operating table, examination table and two plastic chairs, thats all at this point, Lyndon Johnson knows nothing. So the question then is, is why does it take so long for him to get information about whats happened to the president . Just about everybody else in the president ial motorcade has either saw the shots, or they saw kennedys body when they arrived at Parkland Hospital and they had an understanding of how serious this was. So johnson wants information, he doesnt know whether connelly has been shot, the first lady or that no one is hurt. He gets his first report from Emory Roberts, who was the shift supervisor of the secret service. Emory roberts, as soon as the cars pulled into Parkland Hospital, he opens up the back door and he wants to get a sense wall door and he wants to get a sense of how serious the president s wounds are and he lifts up the first ladys arm and looks at the president s head and he tells william manchester, in the interviewed he did with manchester, that at that moment he knew that kennedy was dead and Lyndon Johnson was president of the United States and he says my secret Service Manual tells me to protect the president of the United States, and that was johnson. So he goes into hes the first person to give a report to Lyndon Johnson. Now, roberts has already made up his mind that kennedy is dead and johnson is president , but when he sees johnson thats not what he says. What he says to johnson, he says, i have seen the president s wounds and i dont think he can survive. And johnson says, i need more information, i want to hear from Kenny Odonnell, who was his title was appointment secretary, he was in fact, sort of chief of staff for the Kennedy White house, and he wants to hear from roy kellerman, who was president kennedys secret Service Agent, so Emory Roberts leaves the room. He runs into lem johns, who is another secret Service Agent, who had arrived at the hospital late and says to roberts, have you seen whats the president s condition . And he says very matter of factually, the president is dead and later, roberts told william manchester, he said, johnson didnt know what i knew which is that kennedy is dead. The next person who comes in is roy kellerman. Roy kellerman was in the president ial limousine, he was one of the people who helped lift kennedys lifeless body from the car on to a stretcher and to bring him into Parkland Hospital. He says the president s condition is not good. Anyone who has seen the president s wounds, thats an understatement. The president s condition is more than not good. The president s condition is fatal. And then a few minutes later, Kenny Odonnell comes back and says the president was in a bad way. What im struck by is that all these people, Kenny Odonnell was riding in a car 15 feet behind kennedy when he sees the fatal third shot and he turns to abe powers and says hes dead. So what im struck by, the question im asking myself is why doesnt anyone state the obvious . Why doesnt anyone come to Lyndon Johnson and say mr. Is vicepresident , the president has suffered a major head wound, even if doctors are able through some miracle, to keep his heart beating, he clearly can no longer function as president. You need as of this moment to assume the powers of the presidency, but they never say that. And the question is why . Why are they reluctant to say that . In the book, i explore sort of all the different dimensions of this and i think theres lots of different reasons, obviously grief and confusion and chaos all play a role in it, but i think theres also the issue that most of the kennedy people simply cannot accept the idea that Lyndon Johnson is now president of the United States. This is a man who they detest. And its hard enough for them to accept that their leader, this man who they loved, john f. Kennedy, was now dead. But it was just too much for them to accept and to have to verbalize that Lyndon Johnson, a man who they ridiculed, who they never wanted to be vicepresident in the first place, was now going to occupy the chair that john f. Kennedy once occupied, so theyre not able to tell him that. They give him the right advice. They all tell him, get on the plane and fly back to washington, so they tell him what they should have told him, but they cant bring themselves to tell him that kennedy is dead, and that he needs now to assume the powers of the presidency. This is i think one of the sort of the issues that you have to deal with in talking about Parkland Hospital, but theres another dimension to it. While people like Kenny Odonnell cannot bring themselves to acknowledge that kennedy is dead and to tell Lyndon Johnson hes now president , they give him the right advice, but Lyndon Johnsons own insecurities are being played out at Parkland Hospital. Johnson clearly has enough information, he knows from Emory Roberts that kennedy is in very serious condition and may likely die. So why doesnt johnson seize power . Why doesnt johnson assume the powers of the presidency, having this general understanding of what kennedys condition is and the problem is that Lyndon Johnson is so paranoid about robert f. Kennedy and hes so afraid that if he appears to be overreaching, if he appears to be literally stepping over the body of a dead president in order to assume the powers of the presidency, that hell be perceived as being out of line, and that the kennedys will use this against him. He said in a taped phone conversation later on that he was afraid those first couple of days that Robert Kennedy was going to do everything he possibly could to deny him the presidency. So johnson, you have this stalemate. You have this standoff. In the minutes after the assassination. On the one hand, kennedy people him will not tell Lyndon Johnson that hes president and Lyndon Johnson refuses to assume the power, so what you have is a vacuum. In Parkland Hospital. You have an unacceptable period of time. You have 40 minutes when the United States is without a functioning commanderinchief, recognize, this is a year after the cuban missile crisis, this is the peak of the cold war. If anything, the imperative at that time should have been to maintain a chain of command. But for 40 minutes, we are without a functioning commanderinchief and i spent a lot of time in the book focusing on those 40 minutes in Parkland Hospital and trying to explain this dynamic and this dynamic is significant because it really sets the stage for the relationship between kennedy and johnson, the kennedy people and johnson, not only over the next 24 hours, but over the course of Lyndon Johnsons presidency, so lets move the story ahead to another critical moment i think is new and interesting, that we havent seen before, and this comes courtesy of Brigadier General godfrey mchugh. He was with the president ial party on november 22. And to set the stage again, what happens at Parkland Hospital, johnson when hes told kennedy is dead, he leaves, he goes to air force one, he waits for the first lady to show up with the body of the president to fly back to washington. The kennedy people put the body in the casket and theyre ready to leave a hospital, a justice of the peace and coroner say you cant take the body back, the assassination of a president is not a federal crime, its a local crime, which means the autopsy has to be done in texas. The kennedy people are not prepared to leave. Mrs. Kennedy makes clear shes not leaving without the body of the president , so they essentially kidnap the body of the president of the you state, they force their way past the local justice of the peace, they load the car on to hand ambulance, to a hearst, they bring it out to air force one, they quickly carry this heavy casket up the steps, put it in the back of the plane, strap it in. As soon as they do this, odonnell says get this plane in the air. Odonnell is afraid that the Dallas Police are coming behind him, the Dallas Police are in the cars, theyre going to surround the plane, board the plane, drag the body off, and perform an autopsy in dallas. So he wants to get this plane in in the air, so mchugh, who is the air force aid to the president and is responsible for maintaining the kennedy fleet, goes to the front of the plane, he says to the captain, get it get this plane in the air. The captain says, i cant, theres going to be a ceremony on board and were not really sure and eventually mchugh finds out that Lyndon Johnson is on the plane and the kennedy people dont know that. They think johnson has taken its other plane, the plane he was taken in on, which is air force two and is on his way back to washington. The story mchugh tells in his oral history, which was declassified for the first time last year, which was revealed in this book for the first time, this is what he says. Hes walking up and down the plane, hes looking for Lyndon Johnson, he cant find him. Lyndon johnson is 64, hes a tough guy to miss, so he realizes the only place he hasnt looked is the president ial bedroom. So he opens up the door and he looks in the president ial bedroom, no Lyndon Johnson. So the only place on the plane he hasnt looked is the bathroom. The bathroom in the president ial bedroom on air force one. So he walks into the bedroom, by his own accounts, this is his account, he walks into the bedroom and he opens up the bathroom door and you know what he finds . He finds Lyndon Johnson. He finds Lyndon Johnson, he says, crawled up in a ball, on the floor of the bathroom. His hands covering his face crying hysterically. Its a conspiracy, its a conspiracy. Theyre going to kill us all. Theyre going to kill us all. Now that, i wonder what he did next, like, excuse me, close the door, what do you do after you have seen this . This story of what mchugh claims to have seen aboard air force one runs against every other view of Lyndon Johnsons actions that date everybody who saw will be, observed Lyndon Johnson that day said he was cool, calm, collected, even the secret Service Agents and the secret Service Agents dont really like Lyndon Johnson. You write a book about Lyndon Johnson, you realize most people dont like Lyndon Johnson, but they all observe hes subdued this day, which is appropriate given the occasion. So mchughs account runs contrary to every other account we have that day. So the question i have to grapple with, is it true . How, 46 years later, can you him determine that encounter between two men, both of whom hey are now dead, ever took place . In the book, i lay out the reasons why think what mchugh says is true, and also the reasons why i am suspicious. And i leave it up to the reader to make up their own minds about how credible general mchughs accounts of Lyndon Johnsons behavior on air force one is, and finally, i think what this book it does something which fairly few books do which is paints a fairly positive portrait of Lyndon Johnson. When you look at the circumstances that Lyndon Johnson faced on november 22, 1963, he handled the crisis remarkably well. What johnson understood, you have to realize, when youre dealing with a situation like this, theres no manuals to read, theres no books to read about how to behave. Johnson doesnt have advisers around him who are giving him choices, or making recommendations, pick box a, b, or c. Lyndon johnson is governing with his gut. Its his instinct. This is leadership at its very basics. This is Lyndon Johnson deciding on his own, whats right, whats wrong, making decisions based on fragmentary evidence. And what Lyndon Johnson understands instinctively is the single he most Important Message he can send on this day is continuity. He needs to send a message to the American Public, our allies and our potential enemies that the government continues, he is in charge and he does that brilliantly. He does it most brilliantly, i think, in how he choreographs the picture of the swearing in on air force one. You have to realize the kennedy people did not want mrs. Kennedy in the photograph. Johnson understood the value of having mrs. Kennedy in the photograph. He understood that he needed to convey this image of continuity, so he asks mrs. Kennedy to participate. He asked Kenny Odonnell to go back and get mrs. Kennedy and mrs. Kennedy, who is just a model of grace and dignity and strength, says, its the least that i could do. And that picture is the plane takes off about three minutes after that picture is taken, the photographer goes to the a. P. In dallas, so while johnson is making his way back to washington, that picture of the swearing in is projected to the rest of the nation. So it sends exactly the image that Lyndon Johnson needed to send and it sent it as quickly as could possibly be done. Johnson, just so you know, also wanted to choreograph the exit from the plane at Andrews Air Force base when at they arrived in washington, but on that occasion, the Kennedy Group refused to cooperate and youve probably all seen these images of this small sort of cargo truck coming down with the casket and mrs. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, who boards from the front of the plane, walks to the back and the other kennedy aides, what i found in the House Select Committee on assassinations, their papers are in the National Archives in washington and i found an interview with one of the kennedy aides, which proves that what happened is someone went through and hand picked all the people who are going to leave with the body. Leaving behind some of the kennedy aides who actually were cooperating with johnson on the plane, so that scene of confusion, of the kennedy people getting off and leaving, is went against the carefully scripted image that Lyndon Johnson wanted to present that evening, but also you see johnson the next day. Johnson meets with the key members of kennedy Foreign Policy team. Dean russ, secretary of state, and Robert Mcnamara and they went to the Old Executive Office building, expecting to have a oneonone meeting with Lyndon Johnson, they walk in, theres Lyndon Johnson, but theres also a whole bank of photographers and reporters. Lyndon johnson wanted to get them to sit down and tell them in front of the National Media that they were going to remain and be a part of his administration. That was an Important Message for him to convey, and whats striking to me is a man who is so brilliant in using the media in these 24 hours, would later be so clumsy and in the way, in his relationship with the media and we also see its not just johnson, the tactician. That evening, november 22, 1963, johnson comes back to washington, later in the evening, he goes to his private residence, its called the elms in washington, d. C. , some friends are there. He finally goes to bed around 12 00 a. M. At night and johnson was never one to sleep a lot, he changed into his pajamas, he gets into his super sized king bed and he invites three of his aides to join him and there johnson, sitting in the bed, propped up with pillows, with lady bird tossing and turning next to him, laid out his vision of the Great Society, the Great Society was born within hours of the kennedy assassination. You get a sense of Lyndon Johnson as a visionary leader, someone who had a clear sense of where he wanted to take the nation, and this ingrained compassion for the poor, his desire to push along the stalled kennedy civil rights legislation, do things for senior citizens, so theres you see, i think, a visionary johnson, and also johnson who is a brilliant tactician. But you also see in these 24 hours, the fatal flaw, what would become the fatal flaw of the johnson presidency. Lyndon johnson was devious and manipulative. He was so concerned, so worried about the reaction of the kennedys that he made a member of the Kennedy Group somehow responsible for every major decision he made in that 24 hours. So he claimed that Kenny Odonnell told him to take air force 1, the kennedy plane, the plane that president kennedy had flown in on, when in reality the secret service had made that decision to take air force one. They did it because they thought there was Better Communications on that plane and later in the whole issue about the taking of the oath, Lyndon Johnson clearly wanted to take the oath of office, he wanted to take it in part, because he was afraid if he didnt take it and was stuck if a plane for three hours on his way back to washington that the kennedys would find some way to deny him the presidency. But he manipulates Robert Kennedy he calls the attorney general and he manipulates Robert Kennedy into agreeing that he should take the oath of office in dallas on air force one and then when everyone else from the Kennedy Group comes to the plane, he tells them that it was roberts idea so its so many times along the way, he tells so many lies when he doesnt have to tell lies. And i think that penchant for deceit and dishonesty and insecurity that would become what would later be known as the credibility gap. That would erode the moral authority of Lyndon Johnsons presidency. What im struck by is in the end, theres this irony, that the assassination of president kennedy made the johnson presidency possible. It also doomed it to failure. Because it was kennedys death, if kennedy had not been assassinated, very unlikely that Lyndon Johnson never would have become president. Kennedy and johnson would have won reelection in 1964 and by 1968, robert would have been the heir to the throne, not Lyndon Johnson, but the assassination also doomed him to failure, because it created a myth. It created this myth of the heroic j. F. K. It was a myth that neither Lyndon Johnson, certainly not Lyndon Johnson, but really no other political figure in america could have lived up to. So Lyndon Johnson expends the final days of his presidency and of his life living in the long shadow of the tragedy of november 22, 1963. Let me stop there. Before we get to questions, i have one announcement. That is i obviously want you to read the book. It is important that you read the book. I want to point out, the History Channel has done a wonderful two hour documentary that is based on the book which captures a lot of the issues and personalities involved. The producer of that documentary is over here. Anthony, standup . I keep tying anthony he needs to change his first name. If i was anthony, my first name would be Emmy Awardwinning producer and my middle name would be anthony. I think anthony has done a brilliant job in this documentary and it captures for me it was fascinating to watch how he took the word on the page and transformed them into this gripping visual representation on television. If you have not seen the documentary, i encourage you to watch it. Check your local listings or you can go to the History Channel website at history. Com and find the dvd. The microphone we have a question here . Even though you started out by saying that your book is clearly not dealing with conspiracies. The question is what is your favorite, since there are so many, the mob did it, what is your favorite . Steven im in the minority. The answer is none of them. I am one of those crazy people he liked me until just then. My personal feeling is that the Warren Commission that Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated president kennedy. For the purpose of this book my own view is irrelevant. I am looking at what Lyndon Johnson new in the 24 hours after the assassination. All Lyndon Johnson new, he hears the name Lee Harvey Oswald for the first time. The first time he hears it is in reference to the shooting of the officer. When looking at this issue of who shot jfk, what i was struck by is how worried Lyndon Johnson is. The information about oswald is coming out quickly and Lyndon Johnson finds out this man lived in the soviet union, he was connected with the cubans. What johnson is afraid of as he is speeding back to washington, about to try to assemble a government for the first time, is that he is going to be pressured into a war with the soviet union. Whether oswald acted alone or as part of a conspiracy, Lyndon Johnson is afraid there is going to be such a public backlash against a man who wants lived in the soviet union and pledged fidelity to fidel castro that he is going to be forced into a war. Johnson was around washington a long time, since the days of joseph mccarthy. He worried that whether Lee Harvey Oswald was part of a conspiracy or not, simple biography could produce the same result which is tremendous public outpouring and desire to go to war with cuba or with the soviet union. Over here . As far as the continuity of executive authority, wasnt Lyndon Johnson in the house of representatives in 1945 to have experienced the death of a president with the Second World War going on and the nazis and the japanese . Regarding that, four president s have been assassinated. Other than the immediate death of president kennedy, can you compare or contrast the other executive transfers . Steven that is a great question. Sounds like one of the questions i asked in my exam. Theres a couple different dimensions to your question. The issue you raised was a good issue, what happened when Franklin Roosevelt died. When roosevelt died, the people with roosevelt in warm springs, georgia, contact the white house and the first person they tell is Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor roosevelt is attending a concert when she gets a notice to come back to the white house. She comes back to the white house and all of this is playing out outside the public eye. Then harry truman, it is Eleanor Roosevelt who summons harry truman to the white house. It is the former first lady, who has no constitutional role or power who informs the Vice President that roosevelt is dead and harry truman is now president. Within a few hours, in the white house, harry truman takes the oath of office. What is different about this is this takes place in the full glare of the media. You cannot understand the assassination and understand the impact it has had on an entire generation, i look around and i see people my age and older, you remember where you were when kennedy was shot in a large part because of the media. This was the first event in Human History that the entire nation experienced an entire nation experienced in real time. The roosevelt assassination it played out on radio. People were watching this on television. Kennedy used television to build a bond with the public and the public felt a sense of loss when they saw him assassinated. Within a few minutes of the shooting, Walter Cronkite was on cbs announcing that there had been shots fired at the president ial motorcade. There were only three networks. Nbc, cbs, and abc stayed on the air through the entire weekend. This is playing out in public. When i was struck by i was writing this section about the oath of office right around the same time barack obama was taking the oath of office and john roberts forgot the constitution. I was struck that the next day, they administered the oath of office again in private. On air force one, johnson rides back on air force one, he is like do i have to take the oath . Am i president of the United States or am i not president until i take the oath of office . No one really knew the answer to that. Theres the press Conference Held at the hospital when it is announced to the public that kennedy is dead, around 1 36 or so. The first question he gets is where his Lyndon Johnson and has he taken the oath of office . This is all playing out in the full glare of the media. The other president s who were assassinated all lingered. When mckinley was shot in 1901, he lingered for days. There were reports he was getting better. He took a dramatic turn i think he lived for about seven or eight days. When garfield died, he lingered for a time. What was unique about the kennedy assassination was that he was the first president to died instantly and he died in full view of the public. I think that changed the entire dynamic, and the relationship between the public and the presidency and it also created an extraordinary expectation on Lyndon Johnson. When Lyndon Johnson gets off that plane at Andrews Air Force base at 6 12 in the evening of november 22, most of the public is hearing his voice for the first time. You know candid camera, the tv show, there was a skit about a month or so before november 22 where the joke was, do you know who Lyndon Johnson was . About 30 of people do not know who he was. Lyndon johnson is forced to assume the power of the presidency under the most horrible circumstances, he has to introduce himself under the full glare of the media. Those words he speaks at Andrews Air Force base are the first time americans had heard a southern accent from an american president since the days of Woodrow Wilson. This was new and shocking and it compounds the problems it is one of the reasons why i view Lyndon Johnson in a favorable light. This is an unprecedented crisis he faced. Despite his limitations and his penchant for deception, on the big issues he faced an unprecedented crisis and handled it remarkably well. Lets go here. What did Lyndon Johnson think of Robert Kennedy . They may have not known, but there is some clarity in the constitution to succession. Steven pure paranoia. The constitution made Lyndon Johnson president of the United States, not the kennedys or the attorney general. What i will point out is this this is before the 25th amendment which laid out a procedure for filling an office that is vacant and the Vice President taking over in case of the president being disabled. The first president and Vice President to have a formal agreement about when this would happen, about how they would proceed, was eisenhower and nixon. The agreement they made up said that if the president became incapacitated and was not aware he was incapacitated was the Vice President would have to consult and get the support of half the cabinet to assume the powers of the presidency. Lyndon johnson and john f. Kennedy came to a similar agreement there is one clause that had me running around in Lyndon Johnsons mind. Kennedy said he had to not only seek the support of half the cabinet, he had to consult with the attorney general the United States. The attorney general the United States was robert f kennedy. Lyndon johnsons archenemy in the white house. A lot of this is speculative. We do not know what is going on in peoples minds. Lyndon johnson, being the political creature he is, knew every word in that document and every punctuation point. What was he thinking . Was this going to be a Woodrow Wilson situation . In his paranoid mind, did he believe the kennedys were going to try to hide the fact that president kennedy was disabled . His question is if he leaves the hospital and kennedy lives, will the public believe he abandoned the president and abandoned the first lady . If he leaves and he is isolated on a plane for three hours, what is the attorney general doing behind his back . There was a separate military chain of command which goes through the secretary of defense, which was Robert Mcnamara. You have to think that johnson is playing out all these scenarios. When you boil it down, they are all paranoid fantasies. The American Public would accept Lyndon Johnson as president because the constitution makes him president. Robert kennedy opposed johnsons appointment to the ticket and there is that famous scene at the Biltmore Hotel in 1960 when president kennedy appears to ask Lyndon Johnson to be on the ticket and then robert goes down and tries to talk them out of it. There is a great story about when john f. Kennedy was thinking about running for president , he sent robert to Lyndon Johnson and said Lyndon Johnson is the big mover and shaker in washington and he goes to Lyndon Johnson to see if Lyndon Johnson is going to run against him, but if johnson is going to try to stop him by appointing humphreys. He goes to the lbj ranch. Rfk is a slightly built man. Johnson takes him deer hunting. I do not know much about rifles. Instead of giving him a regular rifle, he gives him a highpowered shotgun. Robert kennedy pulls the trigger and it knocks him down about three feet and he cuts his for head. Lyndon johnson make some comment about that is not the way a real man shoots a gun. Robert kennedy hated him from the beginning. Johnson was convinced the time he is Vice President that Robert Kennedy is trying to remove him from the ticket. Johnson is convinced that robert is conniving. Every scandal that comes out in the media is connected to johnson, johnson is convinced that it is Robert Kennedy. It is hard now for us to understand the hostility that existed between these two men and that sees johnsons paranoia it is paranoia, no basis in reason or rationality. Sometimes people are irrational. The point was this was about death, not about the president being incapacitated. When johnson does not know that, when they are on air force one, he does not know if you officially becomes president until he takes the oath of office. He thinks once he takes the oath there is nothing they can do. What did they do if he did not take the oath . Nothing. He needs that, he needs to know he is president. I shouldve prefaced this by telling you that i only take easy questions and complements. These are tough questions in the early part of your book you discuss the ways in which the kennedys and johnson tried to solicit writers to provide an account of that day that would support their view of what had happened and you talk about william manchesters influential narrative. Could you comment more on the way in which that influence of the narrative that manchester provided influence the publics view of johnson. It was probably the most important book published during the 60s. Steven during the 1960s, very good, thank you. There was a great article in vanity fair about william manchester. The Kennedy Family hired manchester to tell the official version. Mrs. Kennedy discouraged other people from writing about the assassination. Manchester is a brilliant storyteller and i admire his book. He gets most things right. He did a tremendous amount of research. If you look through his research notes, it is impressive the amount of work he did in such a short period of time. He gets most things right, he gets Lyndon Johnson almost completely wrong. There is correspondence where manchester says he did not like Lyndon Johnson. When the book was finally ready for publication and it was serialized, it led to a lawsuit with the Kennedy Family. Mrs. Kennedy was primarily concerned that manchester had violated her privacy, that she had sat down for a long interviews and shared many details about her feelings in the hours after the assassination and then a couple years later she regretted doing that and blocked manchester from using those notes. If you go to the Wesleyan University archives, all the interviews are there except the ones with mrs. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. Some of the other kennedy people are there but a lot of things are lacked out. That is part of the agreement manchester made with them. She wanted him to remove this material. She felt, and Robert Kennedy believed that it was too negative a portrait of Lyndon Johnson. Even the kennedy people objected to it. Robert kennedy was afraid people would see this as a political attack by the kennedys against a sitting president at a time when Robert Kennedy is now in the senate. The kennedys did not accept this view, no one accepted this very negative portrait that he paints of Lyndon Johnson. Manchester says, for example, that Lyndon Johnson was at the whim of the secret Service Agents when he was in Parkland Hospital. He refused to make any decisions on his own. The secret Service Agents were in his face and insisting he leave Parkland Hospital right away and he is saying no. He is clearly his own man. There are still other comments he makes about Lyndon Johnson that are unnecessary. That influential book has done more than any other to define our understanding of Lyndon Johnson. Manchester paints a portrait of a president who is insensitive to mrs. Kennedy and the Kennedy Family, who seems overeager to assume the powers of the presidency and is clumsy. Johnson has a tough role to play. He is trying to be sensitive to the grief, the profound grief of the Kennedy Family. At the same time, he needs to lead a nation. At one they were when they arrived at Andrews Air Force base, the kennedys did not want the entire world to see mrs. Kennedy. They did not want them to see the casket carrying kennedys body. Johnson insisted that the National Media be there. It is walking a fine line. The Kennedy Family and the people around them, it is hard to appreciate their grief and their sorrow and their sense of loss. There is a sense of entitlement that i found difficult to comprehend. Overall, Lyndon Johnson manages that well. Johnson does not cooperate with manchester. He refuses to sit down for an interview with manchester and he goes to the Johnson Library. You see all these notes where manchester is constantly writing, asking for access to the president. He keeps putting him off. Then comes along jim bishop. Jim bishop was a popular writer. When i write history books, ive a sense that stories need to be objective and fairminded. Jim bishop is sending love letters to Lyndon Johnson, you are such a wonderful leader, i cannot imagine writing a negative book about you. Johnson agrees to participate in a project that jim bishop is doing about a day in the life of Lyndon Johnson which is a fluff piece. What they are both trying to do, what Lyndon Johnson is trying to do, is tell his side of the story. Jim bishop comes out with a book a few years after manchester. By 1968 people were sick of Lyndon Johnson no one wanted to hear his side of the story. Bishop is closer to the truth than manchester. How many people know manchesters book . How many people of heard of jim bishops book . Ok, we have a smart crowd. Most people have not heard of the book. Manchester is too critical, i think bishop errs on the other side, he sees no fault with Lyndon Johnson. When i try to do is find the balance between the two. One more question. Bishop wrote a book on the day lincoln died. And the day christ died. When did that come out . That was earlier. He is using kennedy, which he witnessed himself. The book the day lincoln died was very successful. Steven we have time for one more question. Over here. Johnson was from texas, wasnt he . He knew about that place where kennedy was shot. He must have surely been paranoid there was a warning for kennedy not to go there. Steven what is interesting about the story is that johnson did not want kennedy to go to texas. Texas was his turf. There was debate going on between two factions of the democratic party. Johnson thought it was John Connolly, who was the governor of texas. Kennedy was trying to find common ground. Johnson wanted kennedy to leave texas to him. He thought he had a good idea of how to manage it. Kennedy, at one point, cut johnson out of discussions about the trip to texas and he planted on his own. Johnson finds out that John Connolly is in town and he finds out John Connolly had a meeting with president kennedy to talk about the trip. Johnson is not even involved in the trip. He is concerned about dallas he feels he knows dallas is a rightwing hotspot. He is opposed to the idea of an open motorcade. He wants kennedy to go to a couple locations and get out of texas. From the beginning, johnson was not in favor of kennedy going to texas. He opposed the trip, but kennedy wanted to raise money and he wanted to get a measure of what was going to take place in texas. Kennedy had already come out for a civil rights bill and the issue of civil rights was turning the democratic south into the republican south. You see the beginning of this with kennedy and kennedy is trying to get a sense of how to handle that. I want to thank all of you for coming out tonight. My thanks to cspan and barnes noble. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] american the story tv is on cspan3 every weekend featuring archival film and programs. Theres on the civil war and more. Here is from a recent program. Things made the stories difficult for me to take on most back there was a moral , but myof heard of it very much aware of. How does one ultimately financially profit from this this is something that this plague my grandfather. He knew that he needed to get rid of this. It were a sense of financial opportunity. Up incredibly poor in russia. Anyone can understand how hard it would of done to walk away in that moment. Felt wrong, like there was that was about it deeply unpalatable to him, contrary to his values. He struggled enormously over those days, trying to figure out what to do. Ultimately, what he did, i think, is that he walked the line. It tot, i mean hed sold life magazine for 150,000, but he made like promise to treat the phone with dignity and good taste, which was in the contract. You can stop and imagine for a moment a contract with a major and thatt wires require this to be in good taste. Thats the last time that happened. Way [laughter] they would defend the copyright, prevented from being widely distributed, and most of all, he decided to donate 45,000 to the money of the money to the officer shot in the texas theater. You can watch this and other American History programs on our website. Thats cspan. Org history. Up next, Pulitzer Prize winning Author Taylor Branch discusses the challenges of researching biographies. He chronicled Martin Luther king juniors life. The Graduate Center from the City University of new york hosted in this event. It is about one hour. Host tonight we are here to honor taylor branch. Taylor is best known for his trilogy on the civil rights movement. The first volume one the won the Pulitzer Prize in 1989. The two subsequent volumes still remain essential texts to understanding the role Martin Luther king junior played in transforming our nation. Along the way, taylor won the dayton peace prize, the national