this man named don kendall told me a story he was the head of pepsi cola when nixon first came into office he needed to have somebody talk to johnson about some sensitive mat sore he sends kendall down there as his friend. johnson s working on his memoirs and hating it and says i don t remember anything that happened in these days and these days. the only chapter are any good at all is went wh i had a tape machine, pressed a button, verbatim conversations. you go back and tell your good friend nixon as he starts his presidency there s nothing more important than a taping system so that johnson could torpedo nixon in the end. john meacham, to follow up on something we ve talked about before, i had no idea until i read this book how harry truman used herbert hoover to do some of the most important things hoover did in his entire life. his post presidency. he saved my god, he saved countless millions of europeans
conversations and you tell your good friend nixon as he starts his presidency, there s nothing more important than a taping system. johnson could torpedo nixon in the end. jon meacham to follow up on something about, i had no idea until i read this book, how harry truman used herbert hoover to do some of the most important things hoover did in his entire life. post-presidency. he saved my god, he saved countless millions of europeans from starvation and then he completely reorganized the federal government. yeah. nancy and mike have written a terrific book from beginning to end, but i found that to be the most compelling and newest material. i didn t know it. i knew hoover had lived forever with downstairs from douglas mcarthur in the waldorf and had
calls. once he got through clinton realized how valuable he was and rare his perspective was. after nixon died, there were times when i want to pick up the phone and call him and i remember i can t. also an example of how it s easier for presidents of different parties to get along than one in the same party. reagan and bush could not give nixon the real-time public redemption that ironically a younger generation pretty liberal democrat could and did. it was a little nixon going to china moment for clinton. yeah. this is such a moving idea for a book. i can t believe nobody has done it before. such a brilliant idea. and lbj, of course, worked eisenhower and worked truman and worked all of the ex-presidents just like you d expect him to do. i mean the bizarre thing is on the one hand i think each president feels jealous, particularly of the one who comes right after him, so there s a natural human desire, even if it s your own party, to
in the last days johnson discovers that nixon was secretly sabotaging the vietnam peace talks in order to avoid a break-through that would have tipped the election to humphrey. johnson has to decide whether he s going to call him out on this, and it s 1968, the country s been in flames for most of the year. he decides not to. but, of course, that means nixon comes into office knowing that johnson has incredible dirt on him and really needs to keep johnson happy. don t let him go off the reservation, don t get him talking about what he knew. well, my favorite thing is that this man named don kendall told me a story, he was the head of pepsi-cola and when nixon cage into office he needed to have somebody talk to johnson about some sensitive matter. he sends kendall down as his friend. johnson is working on his memoirs and hating it, says i don t remember anything that happened in these days, the only chapters that are good at all where i had a tape machine in the oval office and i pres
going after richard nixon, their lives were defined by bringing down and destroying what they consider to be a corrupt presidency and yet bill clinton said that the passing of richard nixon was like the passing of his own mother. he grew to love and depend on richard nixon s advice more than anybody else. they became late night phone pals and it, you know, he would call him and sometimes it was as other presidents had to talk to nixon about china and russia and the leadership and their motives but sometimes it was just to talk about how to organize his day. clinton would run through his day with nixon, when i m waking up, i m exercising, is this how you did it. who else can you talk to about that? what did that mean to nixon to be wanted that badly. he loved it. it took him a little while after clinton was elected nixon was practically standing outside the white house jumping up and down saying you have to return my