The Presidential Recordings (3 vols.)

Lyndon B. Johnson: The Kennedy Assassination and the Transfer of Power, November 1963--January 1964

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Edited by The Miller Center, Robert David Johnson and Kent Germany

W. W. Norton and Co.

Due/Published May 2005, 2560 pages, cloth

ISBN 0393060012

Lyndon B. Johnson secretly recorded 700 hours of telephone conversations as president. With these three volumes, the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs begins a groundbreaking series that will ultimately include annotated transcripts of all of Johnson's White House conversations. Covering the dramatic months of November 1963 through January 1964, these volumes depict a man coming to grips with the awesome responsibilities of the presidency while simultaneously trying to lead a nation and a government in mourning. Captured on tape are Johnson's efforts to conciliate the Kennedy family while putting his own imprint on the office. Abroad, he is consumed by a coup in Vietnam, a bloody anti-American riot in Panama, a near civil war in Cyprus, and president leaks from within his own administration. Domestically, he pushes forward the civil rights revolution and leads a single-minded drive to reduce the size of the federal budget to gain political room for his war on poverty.