Featured Content / Listening to the Presidency

Listening to the Presidency

Candid, unscripted glimpses of American presidents

Explore audio recordings along with contextual materials from several presidential administrations. Miller Center scholars have selected and edited each recording to help visitors gain insights into the presidency.  

 

You can filter Listening to the Presidency conversations by president, topic, and keyword.  
Richard Nixon campaigning
Secret White House tapes

Hear conversations from the secret White House tapes. The Presidential Recordings Program lets users listen in on presidents and their advisers at critical historical moments.
Madeline Albright portrait
Oral histories

Review key excerpts from the Presidential Oral History Program as senior decision-makers reflect on their time in the White House.
LBJ at his desk
Sample conversation

President Johnson asks his mentor, Senator Richard B. “Dick” Russell Jr. [D–Georgia], for advice on the Vietnam War. “It’s the damned worst mess I ever saw,” Russell declares. 
Conversation Topics
President
Lady Bird and Lyndon Johnson stand next to each other in the doorway
Lyndon B. Johnson
'Just Merely to Tell You I Loved You'
Lyndon B. Johnson | Lady Bird Johnson
Historical marker near Philadelphia, Mississippi
Lyndon B. Johnson
'The FBI Has Found Three Bodies'
Lyndon B. Johnson | Cartha D. 'Deke' DeLoach
Recovery scene of the three bodies
Lyndon B. Johnson
'Call the Families'
Lyndon B. Johnson | Lee C. White
The Johnsons and the Humphreys
Lyndon B. Johnson
'You Can’t Talk About War Plans'
Lyndon B. Johnson | James H. 'Jim' Rowe Jr.
Larry O'Brien and LBJ sit around a desk in the Oval Office
Lyndon B. Johnson
'Keep the Boys That Should Be Sober, Sober'
Lyndon B. Johnson | Lawrence F. 'Larry' O'Brien Jr.
LBJ in classroom with adult students
Lyndon B. Johnson
'I’d a Whole Lot Rather Dick Daley Do It'
Lyndon B. Johnson | Bill Moyers
LBJ wearing cowboy boots, sitting on a fence
Lyndon B. Johnson
LBJ Orders Some New Haggar Pants
Lyndon B. Johnson | Joseph M. “Joe” Haggar Jr.
President Lyndon Johnson walking outside with Robert Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
'A Very, Very Ambitious Young Man'
Lyndon B. Johnson | Dean Rusk
LBJ looking concerned
Lyndon B. Johnson
'I Do Not Believe I Can'
Lyndon B. Johnson | Walter W. Jenkins
Reverend Jim Nance registers voters
Lyndon B. Johnson
'That’s What the Democratic Party’s For'
Lyndon B. Johnson | Hubert H. Humphrey Jr. | Walter P. Reuther
President Johnson on stage with a group at a campaign rally
Lyndon B. Johnson
'They Can’t Argue with Themselves'
Lyndon B. Johnson | Bill Wirtz
LBJ in a car, waving to a crowd, surrounded by Secret Service officers
Lyndon B. Johnson
'They’re More Likely to Get Me Killed'
Lyndon B. Johnson | Michael J. 'Mike' Mansfield
LBJ campaigning in a crowd of people
Lyndon B. Johnson
'That Wasn’t What Killed Kennedy'
Lyndon B. Johnson | Hubert H. Humphrey Jr.
Lady Bird Express train campaigning 1964
Lyndon B. Johnson
'We’re Going to Carry the South'
Lyndon B. Johnson | Lady Bird Johnson | Lynda Bird Johnson Robb
LBJ sitting at a desk with White House aide Walter W. Jenkins standing behind him
Lyndon B. Johnson
'I Think He Ought to Be Institutionalized'
Lyndon B. Johnson | J. Edgar Hoover
Walter W. Heller wearing glasses, Kermit Gordon has hand to chin, Luther Hodges looking at them both, all seated in blk chairs with papers in hand.
Lyndon B. Johnson
'A Better Way to Do It'
Lyndon B. Johnson | Kermit Gordon