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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling "behind the scenes" read but author is too busy playing armchair shrink, November 25, 2009
This review is from: The Kennedy Assassination--24 Hours After: Lyndon B. Johnson's Pivotal First Day as President (Hardcover)
I was 6 months old when Kennedy was assassinated and my parents were Republicans so I never really felt like November 22, 1963 was a big day in my life. However, as I have grown older and started to embrace my inner lefty, I became more interested in the Kennedy clan, and the Democratic establishment of the 60s.
I will admit that I have not done a great deal of reading on the Kennedy assassination -- most of what I know has been based on documentaries from TV. When a previous reviewer recommended this as a good first overview, I decided to start here.
The book is pretty interesting to read. You feel like you really get to "peek behind the curtains" of what was going on that chaotic day. Reading (or seeing if you happened to see the TV version of the book) the "step-by-step" details that went on to effect a "smooth" transfer of power and understanding all the little details that made that process relatively "seamless" to the rest of the world is what really kept me going in the book. The book itself is a pretty easy and quick read so if you aren't interested in heavy academic histories, you are definitely spared that with this book.
Overall, I would say that the author goes out of his way to be very "neutral" -- it quickly becomes clear that there is considerable animosity between the Kennedy camp and the LBJ loyalists and the author tries very hard (and generally succeeds) in not taking sides.
However, I believe that the author spends too much time trying to ascribe psychological motives -- particularly to LBJ's actions -- which I'm not sure is appropriate. For example, when LBJ goes out of his way to get "buy in" from the Kennedy camp for taking the oath of office in Dallas, that is perceived and interpreted as being "weak" and "overly-sensitive" and "paranoid". However, given the microscope that LBJ was under at the time along with the clear distrust by the Kennedy camp, it seems more politically shrewd and motivated to project the image of a PEACEFUL transfer of power and to avoid public airing of dirty laundry which could be seized upon as weakness at the highest level of our government. LBJ seems to have been in a no-win situation: if he "seized the bull by the horns" and went for a unilateral approach, that would have been interpreted as taking advantage of the situation and opportunistic (not to mention casting some level of suspicion on LBJ himself for the "plot" since it happened on his home turf). However, by at least trying to create the illusion of consensus and bilateral support, he is perceived as being "weak" and not "accepting responsibility".
Further, while the author seems to grant the Kennedy camp license for emotional reactions (and realistically -- who wouldn't be emotional under the circumstances), any hint of emotional response on the part of LBJ is portrayed as a negative trait rather than a normal response to the traumatic events of the day. Regardless of the personal relationship between Kennedy and LBJ, not even the most hard-hearted individual could go through that day without feeling some level of ambivalence, fear, and sadness. I just really disagreed with how many times the author related actions of LBJ and then concluded that whatever was done was because of LBJ's "fragile self-concept" (my words... not the authors').
Other than that, I still found the book to be a very useful read and it has inspired me to want to read more.
One note about the Kindle Edition (which is the version I read) -- it was terrible in terms of the number of typos and grammatical errors. This was very annoying and I just wish they would provide the same level of proofing for the electronic version as they hopefully give to the hard copy.
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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fresh new Perspective on a tragic Day, November 4, 2009
This review is from: The Kennedy Assassination--24 Hours After: Lyndon B. Johnson's Pivotal First Day as President (Hardcover)
I picked this book up with some worries: Do we really need ANOTHER book about the assassination? I was very pleasantly surprised, however. This is not a rehash of the shooting. There is no mention of "magic bullets" or gunmen on the grassy knoll. The author does not debate whether the Warren Commission got it right, and he presents no new theories about who shot JFK. People looking for another "who shot JFK" book will probably be disappointed.
This is really a book about Lyndon Johnson, not JFK, and its about how Johnson handles events after the shooting. I have read most of the books about the assassination, but I found lots of fresh new information here. The author managed to get access to some new documents, including William Manchester's research notes, which he uses extensively. The chapters about LBJ at Parkland Hospital in the hour after the shooting are amazing. I had no idea about the secret arrangement between LBJ and JFK in the event Kennedy was incapicated. The author tries to get into the heads of the major players, especially LBJ, Robert F. Kennedy, and Kenneth O'Donnell. Its fascinating stuff. I was convinced by the authors reworking of the chronology of events -- he calims that JFK was dead earlier than previously reported and LBJ learned he was President sooner than the Warren Commission said he did. There is also a great scene on Air Force One where general Godfrey McHugh claims to have found LBJ in the bathroom crying hysterically. Despite that interesting detail, the author overall seems to like LBJ and beleive that he handled the crisis exceptionally well. The last chapter tries to place the day in some context by suggesting that Johnson revealed qualities on those first 24 hours that foreshadowed his presidency.
Overall, this is a great read. It reads more like a novel than a history book. Unlike most of the books on this subject, the author doesn't seem to have an axe to grind or a new theory to support. He is fair to all of the players. He is sympathetic to the Kennedy people, but willing to point out poorly they treated LBJ in those hours. I'm not a big LBJ fan but I came away with renewed respect for the job he did that day.
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25 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A GOOD ENTRY-LEVEL ASSASSINATION READ, October 4, 2009
This review is from: The Kennedy Assassination--24 Hours After: Lyndon B. Johnson's Pivotal First Day as President (Hardcover)
If this is the first book you've read on the JFK assassination, it's as good a place as any to begin learning about how Lyndon Johnson dealt with having the presidency thrust upon him under the ugliest circumstances imaginable. If you're well-versed on those long-ago events in Dallas, however, you won't find anything new here that hasn't already been thoroughly covered in William Manchester's "Death of a President," Jim Bishop's "The Day Kennedy Was Shot," and Vince Bugliosi's "Four Days in November." But what distinguishes this book from the others is that Stephen Gillon had access to the actual transcripts of the Manchester interviews from 1964-1966--and the quotes from the key players, which were either paraphrased or abbreviated in "Death of a President," are seen here for the first time in their full, unabridged contexts.
That being said, the "controversies" exposed and examined here are more along the lines of small curiosities that have no bearing on the larger impact of those four days. The conflicting accounts of who informed Lyndon Johnson that JFK had died--a Secret Service agent or a member of the president's staff--are indeed somewhat noteworthy, but hardly deserving of such close scrutiny. The same holds true for the revelation that the president was likely pronounced dead at 12:50 p.m. instead of 1:00 p.m., as announced officially. (Gillon offers an intriguing and compassionate speculation here: It's possible that the surgeons at Parkland Hospital were willing to fudge the time of death by ten minutes so that Jacqueline Kennedy would believe that her husband's soul was still in his body when he received the last sacrament of the Catholic church just before 1:00 p.m.)
One flat-out criticism that can't be overlooked is the sloppy nature of the fact-checking that went into this book. Luci Baines Johnson, LBJ's daughter, has her first name consistently misspelled throughout; Governor Connally's last name, similarly, is spelled two different ways; and, most unforgivably, one of the central figures in the assassination, patrolman J.D. Tippit--murdered by Oswald shortly after the president was shot--is referred to as "Officer Tibbet." It's errors like these that call into question the credibility of the entire enterprise.
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