Customer Reviews

Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes 1963 1964

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

President Lyndon Johnson's tapes are exactly why modern presidents might want to leave the recorders off. We can read all kinds of conversations here- from his domestic problems with civil rights, to his election, to the war in Vietnam. We also can see how tender he was towards his wife, while still having affairs with other women. Michael Beschloss does us all a favor by providing transcripts of the tapes' key moments in the first two years of LBJ's presidency, with background material to explain all of their significance. Vietnam War researchers and U.S. history buffs will need to make this book a guaranteed spot on their shelves. Please note, too, that the auditapes are also available- but not all of the material in the book is found on the tapes.

I imagine folks' response to this book/tape will be dependent on their age, how well they remember the days depicted. I remember them well, found both the book and the less comprehensive tape to be excellent. This is The Good Lyndon at his best - when the 'threat' of the impending 1964 election kept him (relatively) honest. No taking it away from the man, he was one awesome character, one who *filled* the space he occupied. Vietnam moments in these conversations - esp. those in the tape version, which gives the feel of being a wiretapper on the president's private line - are heart-rending. It all mightn't have happened. Johnson foresaw the consequnces of escalating the war, and yet he proceeded. We'll have to await Beschloss's *next* book/tape to understand why. A great read and an even better listen. Pick up the tape version for drive-time.

Found this audio tape absolutely mesmerizing. To hear actual conversations related to hisorical events immediately following President Kennedy's assassnation was both fascinating and enlightening. Gave me an entirely new perspective of LBJ, his character and accomplishments. Also an excellent insight into what really goes on behind the scenes in our nation's capital. A strong reminder that what we read and hear via the news media is often 'less than accurate'. For me, this tape debunked many concepts I held related to LBJ and other political figures, especially Robert Kennedy. I was particularly surprised to hear the amount of respect and warm feelings that LBJ and Jackie Kennedy apparently held for each other. I reccomend this book and/or audio tape to anyone interested in better understanding the nature of our political system. A real eye opener for me. I will never accept the images that our news medial creates about our political leaders again.

Johnson's recorded conversations provide some important insight into this turbulent period in history. LBJ's selection of the Warren Commission to apparently chose individuals who would support the lone gunman theory so that the issue could be closed quickly and the crisis resolved. And he admits that he himself did not agree with some of the conclusions of the Commission's findings, like the idea that the same, single bullett that wounded Connally also killed Kennedy.

I am looking forward to more volumes on the LBJ tapes. This book covers less than one year of the president's time in office. The escalation of the war in Vietnam and what LBJ has to say about it on tape will be interesting to find out.

Author Michael Beschloss does a great job using footnotes to clarify exactly what is being talked about. This is a good read for those who like the "cut and dried" uncensored style of reading. You can't argue with actual spoken words!

The story is told that when Nixon took office, LBJ showed him around the White House and revealed a hidden taping system. He made the argument that everything a president said or did should be taped for posterity.

Johnson has fared a little better than Nixon viz. the results of such executive record keeping. In the case of excerpts chosen by Michael Beschluss for these tapes (and as the review title suggests, do by the audio version), there is no criminal activity uncovered. Instead, we hear things as diverse as conversations with Martin Luther King about the Civil Rights Act, arm-twisting of Southern Democrats to get that and other progressive laws passed, chilly exchanges between the President and Attorney General Robert Kennedy after President Kennedy's death, and a hilarious exchange with a flabbergasted New York tailor as Johnson asks the tailor to make trousers for him, describing exactly how they should fit around the Presidential....er, anatomy. Of course, there are heartfelt conversations with both Jacqueline and Rose Kennedy immediately after President Kennedy's death. In one very sweet exchange, Jackie refers to media criticism of his calling her "honey" as they flew with the president's body from Dallas to Washington. Kennedy insisted she felt positive about the term of endearment."Honey is loving word, a wonderful word," she tells him.

The 35th President comes across with a multifaceted personality: the dogged politician who won't take no for an answer (and won't forget a favor given); the Texas rancher who doesn't believe in coddling his dogs; the old fashioned Southern gentleman who addressed female officials with charm and not a little flirtation. Throughout the tapes, Johnson is shown trying to get his head around the little "police action" in Southeast Asia he inherited....what would be the downfall of an otherwise successful presidency. That won't happen until a further volume, however; this set of tapes covers only 1963 and 1964. Beschluss's comments (he reads his writing himself) tie the excerpts together chronologically and provide a little editorializing, but solid opinions based on knowledge of the time.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to these tapes; I felt as though I was hearing history. In addition, I learned more about one of the most colorful politicians of the twentieth century.

A marvel this book is. LBJ in his outsize character comes through, its flaws and brilliance both. The folksy and earthy Texan and the finetuned DC-powermachine exist next to one another, integrated in this incomparable person. You live with him through his trial and triumph after the assasination of JFK and through his madddening insecurity that would destroy his preseidency in the end.

This book's release is incredibly timely, eerily so. At a time when one southern president, charming and outgoing, becomes undone by taping of oval office events, here comes Michael Beschloss' razor sharp edited transcripts of Lyndon B. Johnson's White House conversations and meetings. Unlike Clinton, however, LBJ was not afraid to let it all hang out, both figuratively and literally. He said what was on his mind, political correctness be damned. Reading this book is absolutely fascinating... it is like hiding behind one of the curtains in the oval office. This book is also an antidote to the one-sided characterizations of Johnson in many biographies (Caro) as a madman. He certainly emerges as a multifaceted personality in these pages, and is a much more sympathetic character than you might believe.

I was 3 when Lyndon Johnson came to power, so my only memories of him were of his decision not to run in 1968 and his historical villification for Vietnam. This book puts an incredibly human face on a very complex, manipulative man. It has a couple of slow spots and does not offer anything earth shattering about Johnson; yet, it does keep your attention from start to finish as you literally watch a President operating from day to day in unedited mode. I highly recommend it.

I have general interest in the Presidency so I was interested in this book to see what the unedited / un-spun conversations in the Oval office are really like. I was not disappointed. We get the whole range of day to day items that are covered by LBJ, from arranging to get free haircuts for his family and inexpensive western clothing for his staff to setting up the Warren Commission and pushing his civil rights bills. The items that I found the most interesting were the conversations around the assassination of JFK and the Vietnam War. The calls with J. E. Hover in the days after the event are interesting to the point of gripping. You get true emotion from the conversations.

What made the book really work was the great editing and very helpful lead comments and footnotes by the author. I was somewhat concerned that I would get lost in the less then precise conversations between familiar people, but the footnotes add all the clarity one would need to understand who is speaking and about what. I also found it very interesting to see LBJ working the phones; he does everything from out right [bottom] kissing to demanding. All of it is surrounded by his down home Texas language that seams to bring the office of the President a little closer to home.

For the general political reader like myself there were a few slow spots in the book, talking about minor political scandals of the day was not interesting to me, but overall these are few and do not take away from the overall book. I would not suggest this to be your first book on LBJ or the politics around the Vietnam War, but if you are interested in the topics you will not be disappointed.

Interesting book for the voyeur in us all. LBJ was a fascinating man who showed with absolute clarity how a man with the best of intentions can yet so abysmally fail.