The Presidency / Featured Content

Speaking with Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey Jr., President Johnson explained his philosophy on the Great Society, how he believed it would help the administration politically, and Humphrey’s role in it. 

On 7 August 1964, after passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, White House legislative liaison Lawrence F. “Larry” O’Brien Jr. summarized the situation on Capitol Hill ahead of a vote on the economic opportunity bill. O’Brien told President Johnson that “if we can just keep the boys that should be sober, sober, and the ones that should be drinking, drinking, that’s our job for the afternoon.” 

As part of an extraordinarily complex legislative strategy, President Johnson needed key Democratic votes in the Senate Finance Committee for parts of the tax cut bill. With an eye on the November election, he applied the legendary “Johnson Treatment” to Sen. R. Vance Hartke [D–Indiana] and Sen. Abraham A. “Abe” Ribicoff [D–Connecticut] in back-to-back conversations. 

In the first of several calls that day to Peace Corps director R. Sargent Shriver, President Johnson implored Shriver to accept a second role as head of the War on Poverty. Shriver repeatedly begged off the assignment, but Johnson persisted. By the end of the day, the President had worn down Shriver and secured his acquiescence. 

On 25 March 1965, after the march from Selma to Montgomery, a group of Ku Klux Klan members murdered civil rights activists Viola Liuzzo and Leroy Moton in their car as the pair traveled along US Highway 80. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director J. Edgar Hoover reported to President Johnson on the progress of the investigation and revealed the involvement of an FBI informant. 

President Johnson discussed the administration's Medicare bill with House Ways and Means Committee chair Wilbur D. Mills [D–Arkansas]. Later that month, Mills implemented parliamentary maneuvers to block Medicare for the year, but this conversation foreshadowed Mills's strategy for a 1965 compromise bill that included both Medicaid and coverage of physicians' bills.

Speaking with Sen. Russell B. Long [D–Louisiana] the day after Hurricane Betsy slammed into New Orleans, President Johnson heard about the Category 4 storm’s damage to the region. Long implored Johnson to tour the affected areas—a visit, the senator assured him, that would pay significant political dividends. 

As the presidential transition from the incumbent Johnson administration to the incoming Nixon administration began to take shape, President Johnson sought to ensure a smooth transfer of power while still retaining all the prerogatives of the office—including the sole authority for policymaking in foreign affairs. Speaking with Nixon assistant Bryce N. Harlow on 14 November 1968, and again the next day, Johnson conveyed the message that the country had only one president at a time. 

President Johnson and House Minority Leader (and future president) Gerald R. "Jerry" Ford Jr. [R–Michigan] discussed highway funding. Johnson noted that it was "a governmental policy that I don't think is partisan," even though it had been criticized by a Republican House member. The President then asked that Ford reach out to him more often, as other Republican leaders often did.

Three weeks before President John F. Kennedy's assassination, the president of South Vietnam, Ngô Đinh Diệm, was assassinated in a coup d'état along with his brother and top adviser, Ngô Đình Nhu. Speaking to Kennedy's brother-in-law, R. Sargent Shriver, President Johnson recalled his opposition to the Diệm coup when it was debated at the highest levels of the Kennedy administration. 

In response to incidents in the Tonkin Gulf, President Johnson launched the first US bombing attacks on North Vietnam. Two days later, he asked political adviser James H. “Jim” Rowe Jr. to speak with Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey Jr. [DFL–Minnesota] regarding comments the senator had made about these events. Johnson feared that Humphrey had been too chatty in his remarks—and too accurate.

As part of his effort to keep the presidential candidates apprised of key developments involving US national security, President Johnson briefed Republican nominee Richard M. “Dick” Nixon about the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

During a summer of civil unrest in American cities and just over three months before the Election of 1964, President Johnson spoke with House Appropriations Committee chair George H. Mahon [D–Texas] about passing the Economic Opportunity Act—the enabling legislation for Johnson's War on Poverty. The President explained that his approach would turn "tax-eaters" into "taxpayers." 

Shortly after the Ways and Means Committee reported the Medicare bill to the House, Under Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare [HEW] Wilbur J. Cohen explained to President Johnson the changes in the bill. In this excerpt, Cohen focused on the section covering physician costs, which had been adapted at the last minute from a Republican alternative bill.