The Johnson Presidency

Event Details

George Reedy, Special Assistant to Lyndon B. Johnson when he was Vice President and Press Secretary during his presidency, gives insight into LBJ as a president and as a person. Reedy claims there will never be an adequate biography of Johnson, whom he describes as a tormented man who embodied many different and opposing qualities, capable of being both an egomaniac and extremely modest at different times. Reedy also mentions that Johnson was able to handle himself well with the likes of Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle, and was, according to Roy Wilkinson, the only president who cared about African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. During the question and answer section, Mr. Reedy discusses Johnson?s ascension into the presidency and his desire to portray a continuation of the Kennedy administration, Vietnam, LBJ?s withdrawal from the 1968 election, his relationship with Vice President Hubert Humphreys, and his dislike towards Bobby Kennedy, among others.